Exhale Health and Lifestyle Magazine -Summer 2011

Exhale Lifestyle Magazine Summer 2011

Summer 2011

The ladies of Chive Sustainable Event Design & Catering

Published by Banner Publications Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright 2011.

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SIMMONS SIMMONS COLLEGE • BOSTON • MASSACHUSETTS

TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING

Learning for life’s work.

Executives, ambassadors, entrepreneurs, educators, health care professionals, policy makers, and archivists — just a handful of the amazing roles that Simmons graduates enjoy.

Our faculty are highly respected practitioners in their respective fields. Our students participate in work with their professors, or in internships

• Graduate Studies in Education, Behavior Analysis & Liberal Arts

Cut and Color by Melanie Rokes

Our many academic paths and offerings include:

• Master of Social Work/ Urban Leadership School of Nursing and Health Sciences • Nursing • Nutrition • Physical Therapy

Graduate School of Library and Information Science • Archives Management

840 Summer Street South Boston, MA 617-268-2500 shagboston.com

For over 100 years, Simmons has helped students distinguish themselves in all walks of life. Maximize the return on your educational investment at Simmons College.

School of Social Work • Master of Social Work

College of Arts and Sciences • Undergraduate Studies

www.simmons.edu/events

and field placements at some of Boston’s most prestigious companies and organizations.

•

617.521.2000

School of Management • MBA • Entrepreneurship • Health Care Administration • Communications

H ealth M atters Run for Congo Women 13 Heart disease

14

No stranger to adversity 18 Cancer & fertility in women 20

38

The Ming Tsai story

61

From cover girl to fashion scholar, Katiti Kironde has left a mark on the industry

52

Skin cancer 22 Inquiry of yoga 24

R ecipes

American Heart recipes 30

F ashion

64 The Fashion Doctors 68 Is color a fashion trend?

Room to Grow

After giving up a coveted job at Christieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to become a social worker, Julie Burns devised a unique model for helping families in need

T ravel

Massachusetts summer 70

I n T his i ssue Thinking of buying artwork?

Events Calendar 76

48

Resource Directory 81

No monkey business

Tech Networks founder Susan Labandibar finds joy in giving back

56

The Color of Film

Collaborative spirit and strong family ties energize Lisa Simmons in her quest to bring recognition to artists of color

26

Healthy Waltham inspires a community to live a healthier lifestyle

59

Emma Graham Designs

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Tips for planting and growing an edible garden

66

42 O

n our front cover

The ladies of

Chive Sustainable Event Design & Catering Left to right: Lindsey Wishart, Julia Frost and Jennifer Frost

Sandra Casagrand Publisher Howard Manly Executive Editor Walter Waller Executive Creative Director Christine McCall Managing Editor Joshua Falkenburg Graphic Design Assistant

Photograph by Ian Justice: www.ianjustice.com, wonderfulmachine.com Hair and make up by Kathleen Schiffmann: Team Artist Representative

Special thanks to: Jewelry: The Ruby Door by Tracey Weiss in Boston and can be purchased at MPG Home Design.

Furniture: MPG Home Design — Vintage Mashups by Mindi Poston Gay in Newburyport, Mass.

Shoot Location: First Light Farm in Hamilton, Mass. Property of Peter Britton and farmed by Mike Raymond.

Contributing Writers Joanne M. Choi Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil Sandra Larson Brian Wright O’Connor Shelly Runyon Gina M. Shaw Sarah Trachtenberg Photographers Ian Justice Copy Editors Rachel Edwards Alexandra Hakim Exhale Lifestyle Magazine is a quarterly magazine distributed throughout the Greater Boston region.

For detailed information visit our website www.exhalelifestyle.com.

To subscribe

Annual subscription cost is $25. Mail check to: Banner Publications, Inc. 23 Drydock Avenue Boston, MA 02210 If paying by credit card please contact Rachel Edwards at (617) 261-4600 ext. 119.

For advertising opportunities

Please contact Sandra Casagrand at (617) 261-4600 ext. 111 or visit our website to download the media kit – www.exhalelifestyle.com Send letters to the publisher to sandra@exhalelifestyle.com.

11

A picture of perfection

Doctors and fashion celebrities join forces to combat eating disorders at MGH’s Harris Center

23 Drydock Avenue, Boston, MA 02210

Exhale is published by Banner Publications, Inc. All rights reserved – Copyright 2011.

Volume 3 • Number 3 • Summer 2011

Publisher’s Note

A special tribute

We would like to dedicate this issue of Exhale to our special friend, Kim Kennedy.

He passed away on May 20, 2011 after battling cancer for over a year. Kim was an incredibly talented photographer who embraced life with a positive and giving spirit. He is going to be missed dearly by those who had the good fortune to know him.

As a photographer, Kim was at the top of his field and shot for highly reputable national and international magazines. Yet, he took the time to help establish our magazine and treated Exhale as enthusiastically as if it were Vogue.

Kim did more than talk. On one Saturday, for instance, he spent the morning in New York during that city’s Fashion Week, then flew back to Boston in time to shoot our cover. For another cover, he fit in several hours between his chemotherapy sessions — and had more energy than the rest of us! We were truly blessed to have a Kim Kennedy photograph on the cover of Exhale’s premiere issue.

Yes, Kim was a special human being and was committed to Exhale. He took an active interest in the magazine and gave me an invaluable suggestion — hire Walter Waller, a very talented creative director. We hired Walter and Kim was right. Walter has taken Exhale’s overall design to the next level.

Kim leaves behind a legacy of some of the most beautiful photographs in the world, some of which we share with you in this spread. But his legacy goes beyond the images. It is carried out in the hearts of the many people whose lives he touched.

Sandra Casagrand

Kim Kennedy

Birds Of A

Feather

Limited edition series of hand toned fiber based silver gelatin prints.

Prints may be ordered at www.ksquaredstudios.com All proceeds from the original art you purchase will go directly to the estate that supports his loved ones

ourContributors Skin Care Jeffrey S. Dover, M.D., FRCPC Dr. Jeffrey S. Dover graduated as the silver medalist, magna cum laude from the University of Ottawa. He received dermatology training at the University of Toronto followed by research fellowships at St. John’s Hospital for Diseases of the Skin at the University of London in London, England, and a two-year photomedicine fellowship at Harvard Medical School. Dover is a former associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School, was chief of dermatology at the New England Deaconess Hospital for more than 10 years and also associate chairman of dermatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is an associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine and adjunct professor of medicine (dermatology) at Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. Dover is a director of SkinCare Physicians in Chestnut Hill, Mass. He is the author of more than 300 scientific publications and he has co-authored and edited 37 textbooks. He is founding editor of Journal Watch for Dermatology. Dover has received many honors including repeated nominations for “teacher of the year” at Harvard Medical School. He received the prestigious Leon Goldman Award as well as the Ellet Drake Award of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery and was honored for his work in laser surgery by the Sturge Weber Foundation at its 20th Annual Gala. He is married to Dr. Tania Phillips and has two daughters, Sophie and Isabel.

Skin Care Dr. Jeremy B. Green Dr. Jeremy B. Green graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. He completed his medical education at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine where he graduated with Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) honors. He trained at the University of Miami Department of Dermatology & Cutaneous Surgery where he served as its chief resident. Green completed advanced fellowship training in laser and cosmetic surgery at SkinCare Physicians in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

The Fashion Doctors Dr. Ruby Natale Andrew (left) Dr. Ruby Natale Andrew has a master’s in biomedical science and a dual doctorate degree in clinical psychology. Andrew is a licensed clinical psychologist. She has been a practicing clinician for 10 years and has focused her work on helping people feel comfortable with who they are, promoting self-esteem and reducing obesity. Given her background in psychology, she is well versed in helping people find their inner beauty, as well as ways to make them shine on the outside. By knowing your true self, you are better able to dress in ways that match your personality. Andrew will assist clients in ways to make fashion a part of who they are.

Dr. Marianna Toroyan (right) Dr. Marianna Toroyan has been involved in many arenas of the fashion industry for more than 10 years. While she was earning her doctorate degree, she developed a curriculum to improve self-esteem and realized that fashion was a factor in increasing self-image. She continued her passion for style by earning a degree from Parsons New School for Design. Toroyan is excited to be utilizing a combination of her doctoral and fashion degrees to style and produce shows for corporations, as well as work with clients in improving and shaping their self-image.

Photography Ian Justice A native of picturesque Melton Mowbury in England, Ian Justice has wrought his sense of style and impeccable work ethics into a photography career that approaches the two-decade mark. Justice not only makes beautiful images for print and web-based advertising, but realizes worlds in which products tell a story. His skill with the camera and profound knowledge of the equipment and its possibilities make each project sparkle with creative freedom and originality. A unique education at The College of Wooster in Ohio, with a major in studio arts/photography and a minor in psychology, have given Justice work a distinguished style that carries through all his projects.

Justice’s studio location in the Metro Boston area is the launching base to assignments that have taken him to places like Iceland, Italy, France, Brazil, Hawaii and all over the United States. His experience in the world of fashion and photography, combined with a driven and easygoing personality, makes Justice the ideal creative companion for any project.

Hair and Make Up (cover) Kathleen Schiffmann Kathleen Schiffmann a Boston-based hair and make up artist represented by Team Artist (www. teamartistrep.com).

Fashion Contributor Emily Banis Stoehrer A Massachusetts native, Emily Banis Stoehrer is an assistant professor and the program director for fashion design and merchandising at Fisher College in Boston’s Back Bay. A trained fashion and textile historian, she has a master’s degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology and previously worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where she compiled fashion, textile and jewelry research for related exhibitions and publications. She is currently finishing her first book, “Fashion Design, Referenced,” which will be available from Rockport Publishers in February.

Exhale Lifestyle Magazine is printed by Cummings Printing 4 Peter Brook Drive, P.O. Box 16495 Hooksett, N.H. 03106-6495 603-625-6901 • cummingsprinting.com

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Exhale • Summer 2011

Health Matters

From left: Dr. David B. Herzog, supermodel Natalia Vodianova, Michael Kors and Anna Wintour at the 13th Annual Harris Center Public Forum.

(Roger Farrington photo)

A picture of

perfection

Doctors and fashion celebrities join forces to combat eating disorders at MGH’s Harris Center

By Sarah Trachtenberg

It isn’t often that researchers and clinicians work with celebrities, and in the case of eating disorders, the Harris Center for Education and Advocacy in Eating Disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital is the only research center of its kind to do so. Other diseases and conditions may have celebrities bringing attention to their cause, but in the Harris Center’s case, fashion celebrities actually make the fight against eating disorders part of their jobs.

The Harris Center began in 1994 with the purpose of forming educational and training programs, conducting research, advocating for mental health parity and cultivating the next generation of researchers in the field. Dr. David B. Herzog, internationally known in the field of eating disorders, and his colleagues created the Harris Center as an alliance between the academics in the field and the community. “We strive to share that knowledge with the community at large,” says Herzog.^p12

From left: Miss Am erica 2008 Kirsten Haglund, Dr. David berg and Miss Am B. Herzog, Diane vo erica 2011 Teresa n FurstenScanlan attended the Public Forum March 14th Annual Harris 9, 2011. (Roger Farri Center ngton photo)

exhalelifestyle.com

11

Health Matters

A picture of perfection

H

erzog has authored more than 250 peerreviewed publications and three books. He is a psychiatrist, researcher, Harvard professor of psychology and advocate who has won numerous awards. In 2005, he won the Eating Disorders Coalition Award for Excellence in Visionary Leadership as well as the Academy of Eating Disorders Award for Excellence in Advocacy.

He became interested in eating disorders during his medical residency in pediatrics in the 1970s. Herzog and his colleagues disagreed on who should treat the anorexic patients and how. “I was curious about the inner thoughts and feelings of these adolescents — about why they were depriving themselves of food.”

The eating disorders anorexia nervosa (not eating nearly enough to survive due to psychological reasons) and bulimia nervosa (binging and purging) have become more common and talked about problems in the past 50 years. These disorders mostly affect girls and young women, but increasingly, boys and young men are developing them. While eating disorders usually appear when a patient is a child or adolescent, they can develop at any age.

Treatment and prevention of eating disorders is a serious matter. The problem is significant because it is so prevalent and the deadliest of psychiatric disorders.

On top of that, eating disorders are more likely to happen to our most gifted and promising kids with otherwise bright futures.

According to Herzog, eating disorders affect 10 million Americans. The incidence of eating disorders has increased every decade since the 1950s. Even worse, “From 1999-2006, hospitalizations for eating disorders increased most sharply — 119 percent — for children younger than 12 years old.”

Since eating disorders are perceived as a “female problem,” males who suffer from them are less likely to seek help due to fear of ridicule. However, the stigma associated with eating disorders is a powerful deterrent from seeking help no matter the sex of the patient. A recent study in the journal “Pediatrics” says that rates of eating disorders are increasing among males and minority groups.

Herzog estimates that 10 percent of people with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa and about 40 percent of those with binge eating disorders are male.

The causes of eating disorders are complicated, but contrary to popular belief, media images of very thin women as the ideal of beauty are only one factor and our culture’s admiration of such bodies isn’t the whole story. Causes are a combination of genetics, culture, neurochemistry and interpersonal relationships.

While super-skinny supermodels may not be the only factor contributing to eating disorders, curbing these images would certainly help decrease the incidence of these problems. Even a casual peruser of fashion magazines can’t help but notice that the models are very thin girls and women, often to the point of looking unhealthy.

Many people who work in the fashion industry claim that they need very skinny models to showcase the clothes, but some fashion moguls are making an effort to ensure that models are healthy.

Since the very thin model ideal is so entrenched in their industry, it may be difficult to make this change popular, but Herzog says it is a good start.

The Harris Center has worked with fashion stars such as Vogue editor Anna Wintour, designer Diane von Furstenberg, supermodel Natalia Vodianova and designer Michael Kors.

Other “display profession” women working with the Harris Center include beauty pageant winners and actress Natalie Portman. Ms. von Furstenberg, better known as “DVF” to her fans, was the keynote speaker at the Harris Center’s 14th Annual Public Forum at the Harvard Business School in March.

DVF is the president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). CFDA’s Health Initiative aims to prevent eating disorders from within the industry. To that end, the CFDA established guidelines in 2007 to protect the health of models and, in turn, promote healthier body image for the public.

Herzog and Ms. von Furstenberg co-wrote an article for the CFDA about their partnership to make changes in the fashion industry to promote health. Herzog says, “We call upon everyone in the fashion industry — designers, casting directors, agents, fashion magazine editors, show producers — to join forces in support of the Health Initiative’s efforts. This is a challenge, and change will take time.”

Since eating disorders usually appear at childhood, parents can protect their children by de-emphasizing physical appearance. Parents can praise their children for their skills and inner strength. Children do better when parents set good examples by engaging in healthy habits such as exercising and eating right. In addition, parents should encourage their kids, especially their daughters, to look at the media’s images of women with skepticism. “Moms and dads can teach their children about media literacy and can inquire about eating disorder prevention programs in their communities,” says Herzog.

At-risk kids can get involved with the Harris Center Teen Mentorship Program. All these measures may one day crush the epidemic of eating disorders.=

From 1999-2006, hospitalizations for eating disorders increased most sharply — 119 percent — for children younger than 12 years old.

12

Exhale • Summer 2011

Tufts Health Plan 10K for Women will be held October 10 at noon on the Boston Common. Whether you run or walk, you will enjoy the scenic course at Boston’s premiere women’s race and raise funds to benefit Women for Women International’s programs in the Congo,“The worst place in the world to be a woman.” Since 1993 Women for Women International has helped thousands of female survivors of war, civil strife and other conflicts and help them to rebuild their lives and gain their sense of self.

Erin Mullen ran in last year’s Tufts Health Plan 10K for Women. (Pam Steel photo)

To register for the Tufts 10K race, visit www.tuftshealthplan.com/tufts10K. For more information on Women for Women International, visit www.womenforwomen.org.

To start fundraising visit www.runforcongowomen.org.

Advertisement

At Partners HealthCare, the journey never ends.

Some of our many community benefits.

Partners HealthCare is committed to improving the health of our community. Last year, we provided more than $185 million to support community health centers, fund innovative health and prevention partnerships, and provide unreimbursed care to uninsured patients. Much of what we do benefits young people.

• More than 75,000 children and adults served in our community health centers in Charlestown, Chelsea, Revere, the North End and Jamaica Plain.

• Support for our affiliated health centers in Dorchester, East Boston, Jamaica Plain, Lynn, Mattapan, Roxbury, Salem, the South End and South Boston in their efforts to improve community health and access to care.

• Care for more than 120,000 children and adults who are uninsured or covered by Medicaid.

• Comprehensive advocacy services for 17,000 domestic violence survivors at six of our hospitals.

• Active involvement in Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s commitment to have Boston lead in ending the national problem of racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care.

• Case management services for more than 800 low-income pregnant women in Boston.

• Three school-based health centers — at Chelsea High, Revere High and English High in Jamaica Plain — help teens stay mentally and physically healthy.

• Partnerships with Boston Public Schools which help middle and high school students from Boston neighborhoods excel in science, attend college through scholarships, and prepare for careers in health care. Last year, Mass General and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals provided summer jobs for more than 300 Boston teens.

• Helping hundreds of low-income Boston residents enter or advance in health careers in our hospitals.

• Partnering with Bank of America, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Mass. League of Community Health Centers to provide medical school loan repayment for 115 primary care providers and enabling more than 200,000 newly insured patients to have access to care.

• Youth substance abuse prevention coalitions with Charlestown and Revere residents that are showing real, measurable success.

Health Matters

Quick Guide:

What Every Woman Should Know About Heart Disease

By JoAnne Foody, M.D. and Caitlin Johnson, Cardiovascular Wellness Service, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

As a woman, it’s easy to let your own health take a back seat to all of the many responsibilities that you juggle. If you don’t take care of your cardiovascular health, you are not only harming yourself, but your family and friends as well. Get the facts on heart disease, learn if you’re at risk and discover simple ways that you can take control in improving your heart health.

1Women often experience different heart attack symptoms from men.

These include:

• Discomfort or pressure in the chest • Pain in one or both arms, upper back, neck, jaw or stomach • Nausea or vomiting • Trouble breathing • Breaking out in a cold sweat • Dizziness or lightheadedness • Inability to sleep • Unusual fatigue • Paleness or clammy skin

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in women nationwide, killing more women than all types of cancers combined.

2Every minute counts!

4 High blood pressure causes two-thirds of strokes in women.

3 Heart disease is up to 90 percent preventable.

5 Being a smoker doubles your risk for heart disease.

On average, women wait up to two hours after experiencing heart attack symptoms to seek help. Women tend to have more serious heart attacks than men, resulting in death. Call 911 at the first signs of heart attack — it can save your life.

Making small changes in your diet, exercise and lifestyle can have an enormous impact on your cardiovascular health. In fact, losing just 10 pounds can significantly improve your blood pressure and health. So don’t put off improving your health — it can pay off at all ages.

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Exhale • Summer 2011

Fortunately, you can significantly reduce your risk for stroke by controlling your blood pressure through making smart choices about food, exercise and medication.

The good news is, it’s never too late to quit. Your health risks start decreasing as soon as a few hours after you stop smoking, and they continue to drop over time. Within a few years, your stroke and heart disease risk can equal that of a non-smoker’s and your risk for cancer will be dramatically reduced as well. ^p16

Brad’s lifesaving heart transplant required a team of specialists that included his wife, father, sister-in-law, and niece.

Since birth, young Brad had struggled mightily with serious and progressive heart problems.Then, in 2007, his condition became urgent. A transplant was his only option and his lifelong doctors recommended Brigham and Women’s.“His situation was dire,”says Brad’s wife Mandy.

For months, Brad and Mandy waited anxiously for a donor heart—“living” at Brigham and Women’s, Brad too sick to go home.There were dramatic ups and downs. Then, a donor heart became available and doctors were ready. So skilled they could take this desperately ill patient into complex surgery, and later overcome major complications.

Remarkably, Brad is back to work and volunteering as a firefighter due in large part to his exceptional family. A family we welcomed, included and honored, as we do every patient’s. A family of specialists in their own right— providing care, sharing love, and summoning hope.

Mandy reflects,“Not many people our age come face-to-face with possibly having to say goodbye. But we’ve been given an incredible gift— a whole new life for Brad.”

To see more of Brad’s remarkable story, or to make an appointment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, visit everythingpossible.com.

Health Matters

Heart Disease

Am I at risk for heart disease?

Take the personal risk assessment below to determine if you’re at risk for heart disease.

Do you have: o o o o o o

High blood pressure High cholesterol Diabetes or pre-diabetes High stress levels A poor diet Little or no daily physical activity

How can I reduce my risks and improve my heart health?

Are you: o o o o

Overweight A smoker Over 50 years old Post-menopausal

If you checked off any of the boxes above, you are at risk for heart disease. For a more comprehensive, free health risk assessment, visit www.bwhcvwellnessonline.com.

Easy changes can go a long way in reducing your risk for heart disease.

First, know your numbers — this means knowing biometrics such as blood pressure, cholesterol and weight, which are strong indicators of heart disease risk. If you do not know your numbers, make an appointment with your primary care provider for a checkup today. If you need help finding a cardiologist, call 1-800-BWH-9999.

Once you know your risk, take action to address the factors that you can change to improve your heart health. If you have any cardiovascular conditions, make an appointment with a specialist. If you need a referral, call 1-800-BWH9999. However, most ways that you can improve heart health begin with you.

Make the lifestyle changes necessary to reduce your risk, such as improving your diet, increasing daily activity and addressing high stress levels.

Here are some quick tips to help get you started:

• Set measurable goals that you think you can keep. You can always build on them as you get stronger.

• Keep an activity journal. Having a written record will help you recognize your successes and motivate you to keep progressing.

• Choose activities you enjoy. If you don’t like an activity, you won’t want to do it regularly.

For instance, why force yourself to walk on a treadmill when you’d rather walk outside?

• Look for ways to add activity to everyday life. Take the stairs rather than the escalator or elevator, park far from the door at the mall, play tag with your kids.

• Try to avoid stressful situations. Stress can cause a temporary spike in blood pressure.

Managing your stress levels can also make a long-term difference in lowering your blood pressure if you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure.

• And lastly — don’t give up! Maintaining cardiovascular health is a lifelong journey. If you have a bad day or bad week, try to make better choices tomorrow. Your heart will thank you.

For more information on heart health, visit the following websites: Brigham and Women’s Hospital www.brighamandwomens.org/cvwellness Sister to Sister Organization www.sistertosister.org American Heart Association www.heart.org

16

Exhale • Summer 2011

ROXCOMP Breast Health Services

Encouraging

Healthy Lifestyles Early Detection Saves Lives • Free physicals, clinical breast exams and mammograms • Instruction in breast self awareness • Case management services • Consultation & referals to specialized providers • Information and education

Age 20

Age 40

Start having a clinical breast exam at least once every three years and report any breast changes to a doctor right away.

In addition to annual clinical breast exams, begin getting annual mammograms.

For more information on our Breast Health Program contact: Evelyn Rodriguez (617) 442-7400 ext. 2401 erodriguez@roxcomp.com Hours: Monday-Thursday 9AM-7PM

Roxbury Comprehensive Community Heath Center 435 Warren Street, Roxbury, MA 02119 www.roxcomp.org

Health Matters

No stranger to adversity

Patti Keenan remembers the telephone call. It happened about eight years ago, just as she and her family were sitting down for dinner. Her doctor was on the line and the news was not good — she had a rare form of cancer.

U

tmost in her mind, she recalls, was how she would tell her three children. On the very next day, Patti and her husband Matt even consulted with a social worker from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute about how to break the news. Later that afternoon, as her children arrived home from school, she and Matt gathered everyone in the living room.

The children all had different reactions.

Lexa, then 14, sat very still, almost emotionless, as one tear ran down the side of her cheek. Walker, 11 at the time, became hysterical and broke down. It was the

18

Exhale • Summer 2011

youngest to ask what was on everyone’s minds.

“So, are you going to die?” asked Xavier, 5. “Is there going to be a lot of blood?”

Patti was 42 years old and readily admits that she too was frightened by the diagnosis at first. But her doctors assured her that her cancer was treatable with surgery and the prognosis was positive. To ease her mind further, Patti gathered as much information as she could on the disease.

The official name is dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans, but it’s commonly called DFSP. It is a rare, slow-growing, cancerous tumor that, according to the Academy of Dermatology,

develops in only five to eight people per million. About 1,000 new cases of DFSP in America are reported every year, says The Liddy Shriver Sarcoma Initiative.

Like most, Keenan had never heard of DFSP. She only knew that her scar tissue from a childhood injury had changed in shape. In fact, it was growing and raised like that of an eraser at the top of a pencil.

At first, her doctor was dismissive.

Unsatisfied with that response, Patti went for a second opinion. A subsequent biopsy confirmed DFSP. Found initially in skin tissue, DFSP can invade fat, muscle and bone. But it is uncommon for it to spread to other parts of the body and, as a result, there is a high survival rate. The Academy of Dermatology reports that the five-year survival rate is 99.2 percent and the 15-year survival rate is 97.2 percent.

Though the cause of DFSP is unclear, it is known to develop in people of all races, typically between the ages of 30-50. Those who have had skin trauma also tend to be at greater risk.

Patti knows a thing or two about skin trauma. It was a childhood accident in 1965 that sent the then 5-year-old to the hospital to get a few stitches. While there, Patti’s parents had doctors check a strange spot they had noticed near Patti’s chest and shoulder area.

That spot turned out to be a cancerous tumor and was diagnosed as neurofibrosarcoma.

For most children at that time, Patti says, the disease was fatal. Neurofibrosarcoma, also known as peripheral nerve sheath tumor, is a cancerous tumor that is commonly found in the arms and legs. But Patti was one of the lucky ones — despite removal of her right pectoral muscle as part of her treatment.

Four years later, in 1969, the cancer returned and Patti underwent multiple treatments and procedures. At the age of 12, she finished treatment. After surviving pediatric cancer, Patti says she was cancer-free

up until the night she received the telephone call at the dinner table.

In the three-month span between that phone call and her surgery, Patti was quite busy. As she made preparations for her surgery, she compiled lists of questions on Excel sheets to bring to her medical appointments in order to ensure she had as much information as possible.

In June of 2003, Patti had extensive surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to remove the tumor. After the surgery, she remained in the hospital for a week and she says that Matt never left her side.

“We were lucky this was caught when it was caught,” Matt says.

During Patti’s stay at the hospital, longtime friend Cynthia Colas stayed at the Keenan’s home, helping to care for the three children.

“I was more than happy to stay with the children for a few days,” Colas says. “The point being was to try to keep them in their routines as much as possible while their mom was away.”

Patti had shared her worries with Colas before her surgery.

“What I noticed most,” Colas says, “was how she applied her innate organization and planning skills to her own situation while she was getting ready for surgery. Precision is one of her fascinating traits. She is incredibly specific about dates, numbers, times and nuances, which to me reveals how organized and efficient she is.

Using this orientation toward details, I believe she prepared for every single day of her absence and recuperation.”

Though frail while recovering from surgery, it was important for Patti that she still feel included in the day-to-day activities of her children and husband.

“Having had cancer as a child definitely left a mark on her, but she has always been up front and forthright about it,” Matt says. “She was in a way prepared for it. I think she came to understand it and made sure everyone went on with life as normal as possible.”

To that end, Matt rearranged the bedroom furniture to resemble a lounge area. He also brought a plastic tablecloth and frequently placed it over the comforter on the bed to enable the family to chat and enjoy meals together.

“It brought our whole family together,” Matt says.

He credits the three children for being extremely helpful in their own way during this period.

Throughout her recovery, Matt describes his wife as being optimistic, energetic and honest. Not only was her immediate family supportive, but other family members, friends and acquaintances rallied around her. In the beginning, people brought meals for the Keenan family and Patti recalls receiving letters in the mail every day. “I was so moved by it,” she says.

Four months after surgery, Patti returned to work part time. At six months, Patti had resumed work full time in the nonprofit sector, and since then has never looked back, refusing to let cancer dictate how she lives her life. In recent years, she has climbed Mt. Washington and participated in the 20-mile Walk for Hunger. “My life is normal,” she says with confidence. “You just have to live.”

Patti says she has had checkups once a year for the past seven years and has been given a clean bill of health. “My health is excellent,” she says. “I just don’t push myself the way I once did. If I’m tired I rest.”

As for advice she would give to others dealing with cancer or any other major illness, she puts it simply: “Live your life as fully as you can” and “be good to people around you.”=

Top: Patti Keenan in the sixth-grade just as she had finished chemotherapy treatment.

Middle: Patti and her husband Matt are pictured with their three children (from left to right) Xavier, Lexa and Walker.

Bottom: Three generations of strong women. Patti is seen here with her daughter Lexa and mother Catherine M. Daniel.

(Photos courtesy of the Keenan family)

exhalelifestyle.com

19

Health Matters

I celebrated my 37th birthday in an unexpected way: by downing an IV cocktail of bright orange chemotherapy drugs to treat a highly malignant breast cancer. Still a newlywed — my first wedding anniversary was two weeks away — I had expected that my husband and I would spend these romantic months trying to conceive our first child. But instead of being our Year of Having a Baby, 2004 became our Cancer Year.

cancer & fertility in women

By Gina M. Shaw

A

s I slogged my way through chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, I kept my sanity by focusing on what we would do as soon as all this was over: have a baby. In one sense, I was lucky. Unlike many women and men who don’t hear about their fertility options before they start cancer treatment, my oncologist had told me that the aggressive chemotherapy regimen might well damage my fertility.

They’d given me the option to have embryos frozen prior to starting treatment. But utterly overwhelmed at the prospect of even more medical assaults on my body, I said no. My husband was heartbroken at the prospect of not being able to have biological children, but ultimately he understood how I felt. So we spent most of 2004 researching adoption, focusing on that as much as we could instead of the question neither of us didn’t want to think about: “Am I going to die?”

I got lucky again. My disease responded well 20

Exhale • Summer 2011

to treatment, and less than a year after I was first diagnosed, we filed our application with an adoption agency. Less than a year after that, we became the delighted parents of a beautiful baby girl. The story of how she came to be our daughter, and how we were later able to have two more biological children, is part of why I decided to write “Having Children After Cancer: How to Make Informed Choices Before and After Treatment and Build the Family of Your Dreams.”

Author Toni Morrison says that you must write the book that you wanted to read, and so I did. “Having Children After Cancer” brings together experts from the worlds of oncology, fertility (and the relatively new and exciting subspecialty of “oncofertility”), assisted reproduction, adoption and foster care, along with dozens of cancer survivors who have become parents after battling their disease.

It’s a guide to all of your options — a friendly voice to accompany you on the journey.

Preserving Your Fertility

Both men and women can have their fertility affected by cancer treatment. But if you’re a woman, preserving your fertility is a lot more complicated and usually more invasive. You can’t just walk into an “egg banking” facility and stroll out an hour later with a dozen eggs happily stored for posterity.

Still, you do have a number of options to consider — some of them well tested and proven successful and others still experimental.

To some extent, your choices will depend on the type of cancer you have and how urgent the need to begin treatment. But ultimately, what type of fertility preservation you choose — or if you choose none at all, as many women do — will depend primarily on you.

How do you see yourself becoming a parent?

Do you have a partner? What are your religious beliefs? How would you feel about having frozen embryos that you ended up not using?

Embryo Freezing

If your oncologist talks to you about fertility preservation, probably the first option you’ll hear about is embryo freezing.

That’s because it has the longest and best track record of success. If you want a “takehome baby,” embryo freezing gives you the best odds. Success rates range from 19 to 30 percent — which actually compares pretty well to the odds the average couple has of conceiving spontaneously in any given month.

Hundreds of thousands of babies have been born around the world using this technique.

Your personal odds of success may vary from the averages, of course. Like everything else with a woman’s fertility, the most important factor in the success of embryo freezing is how old you are when you retrieve the eggs.

If you’re 35 or younger when you retrieve eggs, fertilize them and freeze the embryos, your overall chances of at least one successful pregnancy — no matter how old you are when you come back and implant them — are about 40 percent, according to Karine Chung, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility of the University of Southern California.

That’s because the uterus doesn’t age the way that eggs do; your “biological clock” ticks loudest in your ovaries, not your uterus.

If you’re between 35 and 40 when you retrieve eggs and freeze embryos, your odds of eventual pregnancy are lower — about 30 percent, says Dr. Chung. That’s because older eggs mean fewer viable embryos.

Egg Freezing

Freezing eggs, not embryos, is becoming more common for women diagnosed with cancer. You might consider egg freezing instead of embryo freezing if you don’t have a partner right now and aren’t comfortable with the idea of using donor sperm, or if you have religious or ethical concerns about freezing and storing embryos.

Egg freezing is a newer technique than embryo freezing, and it’s still considered experimental. As of 2009, about 900 babies had been born via egg freezing, most within the last few years.

Eggs are a lot harder to freeze than embryos — they’re large cells that contain a lot of water, so ice crystals can form during the freezing process. “Eggs also have all these very fragile components that need to be functional to produce a chromosomally normal embryo,” says Dr. Chung. “Ice crystals forming in a frozen egg can cause irreparable

chromosomal damage.”

Within the last several years, there have been some significant advances in egg freezing. There are two main approaches: fast freezing (vitrification) and slow freezing (controlled-rate freezing). Some researchers think vitrification is better, but Dr. Chung believes that the important element in either technique is how you use cryoprotectants — a fancy word for anti-freeze.

“We need cryoprotectants, but they’re also thought to be potentially toxic, and you want to reduce exposure,” she says. “By playing around with the way we employ cryoprotectants, it’s helped us to freeze eggs better.”

Egg freezing technology was so new that USC didn’t think it was responsible to offer to patients until about five years ago. “Since then, we’ve started seeing more patients and offering it as an alternative, with the understanding that it’s investigational,” Dr. Chung says. “We’ve had a number of women here for cancer treatment come in and freeze eggs, but no one has come back to use them yet. Ultimately, though, I think that egg freezing will work as well as embryo freezing.

For young girls who don’t want to commit genetically to a sperm donor, egg freezing is a viable option for them.”

Eggs or Embryos — or Both?

Embryo freezing and egg freezing are, at least for the moment, the two most common ways that young women with cancer choose to preserve their fertility. So how do you choose whether or not to freeze eggs or embryos?

A lot of the decision depends on whether or not you’re married or in a very serious relationship.

Most women who are in a committed relationship choose to freeze embryos since they know the man they want to have children with and embryo freezing is a more tested technology.

Women who are single, or in less committed relationships, are more likely to choose egg freezing. They can’t imagine marrying the man of their dreams someday and saying, “Guess what? If I’m going to have biological kids, they’re going to be fathered by someone else.”

Some religious faiths may also have very specific concerns about IVF techniques, and that may play into your decision. Do you have trouble reconciling the idea of freezing embryos — some of which you may never be able to use — with your religious beliefs?

If so, freezing unfertilized eggs that you can fertilize only when you know you’re

ready to try to conceive may be a better choice for you.

Ovarian Suppression

Isn’t there a simpler way to preserve fertility during chemotherapy? Couldn’t you do something to protect your ovaries from the toxic effects of chemo without yanking them out of your body altogether? That would be ideal, but science isn’t there yet.

For quite a few years, some doctors have advised women who want to protect their fertility to take the drug Lupron (leuprolide) during chemotherapy. Lupron shuts down ovarian function, and the theory has been that chemo drugs won’t have as toxic an effect on cells at rest as they do on those that are rapidly dividing.

However, Lupron is falling out of favor among specialists in cancer and fertility, and the quest is on for a better drug to prevent egg loss.

Difficult Decisions

It’s hard enough to deal with cancer at any age. But when you’re a younger person who’s also faced with worries about when and if you might ever have a child, or more children, you have even more to worry about. Among the things “Having Children After Cancer” will demystify for you include: • What cancer and cancer treatment do to your fertility • All the ways you can work to preserve your fertility before and during treatment • Becoming pregnant (or getting your partner pregnant) once treatment ends • Assisted reproduction options like surrogacy and embryo donation/adoption • How cancer survivors can adopt domestically and internationally, including from foster care • Having a healthy pregnancy after cancer • Dealing with worries and fears about parenting after cancer If there’s one message I hope everyone will take from the book, it’s this: If you have love to give to a child, there is a path to parenthood for you after cancer. You can find a way, or make one. And as hard as it may be, when you hold your child in your arms, it will all be worth it.= Adapted with permission from “Having Children After Cancer: How to Make Informed Choices Before and After Treatment and Build the Family of Your Dreams.” Copyright © 2011 by Gina M. Shaw, Celestial Arts, an imprint of Ten Speed Press, a division of the Crown Publishing Group, Berkeley, Calif.

exhalelifestyle.com

21

Health Matters

four questions to help you better understand

Summer

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Drs. Jeffrey S. Dover and Jeremy B. Green are leading dermatologists with SkinCare Physicians in Chestnut Hill, Mass.

22

Exhale â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 2011

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Spring 2011

1. There are three major types of skin cancer: basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma. What are their causes and who is at risk?

Each year in the United States there is more skin cancer diagnosed than breast, prostate, lung and colon cancers combined. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) collectively are referred to as nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSC) and represent the most common cancers, affecting more than a million Americans a year.

Risk factors for NMSC include increasing age, cumulative sun exposure and fair skin. Others at risk include smokers, people who use tanning beds and those with reduced immune systems. These cancers are lethal in less than 1 percent of the cases, but they spread locally and cause unnecessary suffering. More than 2,000 Americans die annually from NMSC, mostly due to SCC that has spread to surrounding lymph nodes.

Melanoma represents uncontrolled growth of pigment cells in the skin. The incidence of melanoma is rising. It most frequently occurs in light eyed, fair skinned, light haired people, but can occur in darker skinned people as well. It is seen most commonly with intermittent bursts of sun exposure in childhood (think blistering sunburns).

Others at increased risk include those with a family history of melanoma and individuals with multiple moles and unusual moles. If diagnosed early, more than 99 percent of melanomas can be cured. If left untreated, it can spread, and once this happens treatment is difficult and outlook is poor.

Unlike NMSC which typically affects older individuals, melanoma is the most common cancer in young adults aged 25-29, and is the second most common cancer in women age 39 and under after breast cancer.

2. How can we reduce our risks for skin cancer? Does genetics play a role or is it all from the sun? Does diet play a role?

Sun protection and avoidance are crucial to reduce the risk of skin cancer.

We tell our patients to enjoy the nice weather, but be smart. Avoid sun exposure during its peak intensity between 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. While SPF 30 sunscreen is recommended, wearing wide brim hats, lightweight cotton long-sleeved shirts and seeking shade if possible is far more important.

Genetics does play a role in skin cancer development, especially regarding melanoma. If you have had a first-degree relative with skin cancer it is a good idea to visit your dermatologist for a skin check. Although sun and genes clearly play a role in skin cancer, to date there is no scientific evidence of a link between skin cancer and diet in humans.

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3. Skin self-examinations are recommended. What are we looking for to determine if it’s cancer?

NMSC usually presents as a pink, smooth, rough or scaly spot that may bleed and can be tender. When examining your own moles, think ABCDE. • Asymmetry: If you were to draw a line down the middle of the mole and the two halves are not mirror images of each other, it’s asymmetrical.

• Border irregularity: The edge of the mole is notched or blurred.

• Color variegation: There are two or more colors in the mole.

• Diameter: Greater than 6mm or larger than a pencil eraser.

• Evolving: Any change in the mole, including development of symptoms like itching or bleeding, could be significant.

It is important to note that the ABCDE criteria are helpful as guidelines, but does not definitively mean it’s a cancer. If any of these spots on your body meet the above criteria, visit your dermatologist. A diagnosis of skin cancer requires a biopsy.

4. If diagnosed with skin cancer, what are the treatment options and outlook?

Treatment depends on the skin cancer type and location. For NMSC, we usually recommend either an anti-cancer cream or surgical removal. In melanoma early detection is key. If an unusual mole is found, surgical removal leads to cure with no further treatment in most cases. Treatment of melanoma is dictated by the thickness of the cancer. If the melanoma is thick or has spread survival is much lower and chemotherapy is often required.=

Order a one year subscription for $25 and receive a complimentary Exhale Tote bag. Plus special discounts to Exhale events 23 exhalelifestyle.com

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Health Matters

T

he former Jesuit chapel is filled with natural sunlight and music. People partnered into small groups are moving and dancing around the carpeted room to the upbeat sounds of Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida” in this unexpectedly fun and heart pumping YogaDance class.

Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health sits on 300 acres in the bucolic Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. Formerly the Novitiate of St. Stanislaus, the Center is now a community of 399 employees, 60 volunteers and scores of guests, many of whom are repeat visitors.

Vandita Kate Marchesiello joined Kripalu in 2000 and has more than 30 years experience as a yoga instructor under her belt. She is now the director of Kripalu Professional Associations.

“The essence of Kripalu yoga is really a lifestyle,” Vandita says in a rapid-fire of thoughts. “… how to cultivate consciousness throughout your day … to eat mindfully … to discover yoga that is right for your body from the inside out … not forcing your body into a position not appropriate for your level or flexibility.

Vandita then explained an oft-repeated phrase in a Kripalu class: “being in the inquiry of Yoga.”

Says Vandita: “When we are in the ‘inquiry of yoga,’ that means we slow down, we tune inwardly and we check in with our back and shoulders to see what it going on.”

Nodding at her words, she continues, “When the instructor offers suggestions for poses, you

Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Mass.

24

Exhale • Summer 2011

ultimately are your best teacher, you have the wisdom of your own body, not to force but to use your breath to take you deeper into the yoga stretch itself, so being in the inquiry of yoga.”

In Vandita’s opinion, “In other styles … there isn’t any teaching around the consciousness of listening to your body. [Practitioners] may end up pulling a hamstring or working beyond their level.”

The benefits of yoga are now being touted for those suffering from chronic debilitating diseases.

The center recently held its first “Skillful Living with Diabetes” program. It aims to help small groups of diabetics integrate yoga, healthy eating and other lifestyles choices into their lives.

Dr. William C. Hsu of the Asian American Diabetes Initiative (AADI) at the Joslin Diabetes Center says, “In general, exercise is encouraged for overall health in individuals with diabetes … [and] yoga is a form of exercise that many people use to reduce stress.”

Regularly scheduled classes are a way to keep yoga in one’s routine. The Sports Club/LA-Boston Mind Body Studios opened in 2006 and has an extensive and diverse class schedule.

If you are a member of a local gym, check to see if they offer any yoga classes. For those who don’t have a gym membership, some affordable options are available at Back Bay Yoga. Seven days a week, they offer $5 community classes that are 90 minutes long.

Recognizing that the majority of people neither can spend months in an ashram in India like Elizabeth Gilbert of “Eat, Pray, Love” fame nor be

Photos courtesy of Sports Club/LA-Boston

at a place like Kripalu for days on end, it is about realistic goals that can be met that are in line with a person’s schedule and budget.

Jess Lopez, yoga instructor at the Sports Club/LA-Boston, said it is very important to recognize that yoga can be incorporated in your day to day life and does not require that you always have to dedicate a full hour or 90 minutes. There are several quick and easy yoga sequences that can be done in front of your computer or in an empty conference room.

Once the decision is made to practice yoga, there will be some tweaking to find the style that suits your body and lifestyle.

Ask yourself: Can you give your body 5-10 minutes a day to

practice a yoga pose? “The Seated Spinal Twist,” the Standing Forward Bend,” “Lunge,” “Thread the Needle” and the “Standing Side Bend” — all are a great ways to start when time doesn’t allow for more than that.

It might be that the most difficult part about yoga is just starting.

Tal Ben-Shahar discusses rituals in his book “Happier.” “Initiating a ritual is often difficult, but maintaining it is relatively easy,” he writes.

“The most creative individuals — whether artists, businesspeople, or parents — have rituals that they follow. Paradoxically, the routine frees them up to be creative and spontaneous.” =

exhalelifestyle.com

25

Community gardening

26

Exhale â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 2011

o you know where your fruits and vegetables are coming from? More importantly, are you getting the recommended five servings per day?

The Waltham community is certainly more aware of healthier diets in part due to an organization called Healthy Waltham. Founded in 2003, the group is committed to mobilizing the Waltham community around the idea of

living a healthier lifestyle.

As part of its mission, Healthy Waltham is working to support obesity prevention by encouraging children and adults to increase their fruit and vegetable consumption.

It’s more than just words with Healthy Waltham. The organization hosts various in-school and after-school programs, teaching children about healthy food preparation, proper sanitation and basic cooking skills.

One of its successful programs saw the planting of several community gardens to introduce healthy foods to children in hands-on ways.

There are now five gardens located around the city at Northeast Elementary School, William F. Stanley Elementary School, McDevitt Middle School, the Waltham Boys and Girls Club and Chesterbrook Learning Center, one of Waltham’s affordable housing complexes.

Judy Fallows, the former science teacher who is the director of Healthy Waltham, joined the group in 2006 and doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty as well. “My personal passion is gardening with kids,” she says.

The organic gardens range in size and scope, and include cherry tomatoes, greens, squash, pumpkins, raspberries, radishes and a variety of herbs.

Leslie Glynn, a chef consultant and project coordinator for Healthy Waltham, has been teaching children about food since 2007 when she started a healthy cooking class called Kitchen, etc. in the Waltham Public Schools after-school program for middle school students.

“Healthy Waltham promotes wellness and I knew I had to incorporate the farm-to-table experience for the children,” Glynn writes in a recent e-mail. “When children realize that someone planted and harvested the food, especially grown right here in Waltham, it gives the children a connection. It was so nice to bring the students outside and pick some vegetables, then wash them and cook them. They had a vested interest in the process so when it came time to eat, they had a sense of pride.”

Healthy Waltham also works with the Waltham Food Service to create a Vegetable of the Month program. A specific vegetable is featured every month and then incorporated into the schools’ lunch menus. The vegetable is promoted on Healthy Waltham’s website as well as at the local Hannaford through an in-store display, recipe demonstrations and taste tests.

Most recently, Healthy Waltham has become involved in first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to end childhood obesity in the United States. Healthy Waltham is now working with Mayor Jeanette A. McCarthy to create Waltham’s own version of the federal model.

Maria DiMaggio, a project coordinator for Healthy Waltham since the

fall of 2008 and parent of two says, “Healthy Waltham makes things like exercise and eating right fun.”

DiMaggio’s children, ages 9 and 11, attend Northeast Elementary School and have participated in a number of Healthy Waltham activities including a transplanting project at the school, the Vegetable of the Month program and taste tests in the school cafeteria.

As a result, DiMaggio says that her children have developed a greater interest in eating healthy and selecting fresh produce at the market and at Waltham Fields Community Farm, one of Healthy Waltham’s collaborators.

“We have tried many of the Healthy Waltham recipes — they discovered their favorite way to eat vegetables is oven-roasted with a little oil and garlic — much better than boiling, and my husband likes vegetables prepared that way too!” DiMaggio says.

And those words are music to the ears of Healthy Waltham’s director.

Fallows says involving children in the gardening process is a powerful learning tool. She hopes that children will now reach for water instead of a blue sugary beverage and choose to order a salad instead of a cheeseburger.

According to Fallows, there are plans in the works to add more gardens throughout the community. By the end of the summer, there will be six gardens.

Fallows readily acknowledges that Healthy Waltham’s partnerships and collaborations with other community and state organizations have been essential. The American Heart Association (AHA), for instance, has played a part in helping to fund Kitchen Gardens of Waltham, contributing $7,500 for 2010-2011.

Patti McKenna, senior vice president of the American Heart Association’s Greater Boston Division, couldn’t be happier. “Kitchen Gardens of Waltham is a great grant recipient as they develop children’s healthy eating habits, while educating the students where their food comes from,” she says.

According to Fallows, the AHA grant, as well as contributions from other entities, has enabled Healthy Waltham to expand and keep youth-learning gardens in the community. “It has greatly enhanced our ability to promote fruit and vegetable consumption,” Fallows says, “… and we feel we are making a difference with the children and their parents.”

Healthy Waltham has also received funding from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Massachusetts General Hospital and Mount Auburn Hospital, among others.

Healthy Waltham’s efforts are not in vain. “We’re trying to do sustainability planning,” Fallows says. “I’m hoping that the way of the future is to have more public support.”

Fallows and Glynn have heard positive feedback from parents and students. Parents have told Fallows that their children come home from school asking to start gardens in their own backyards. Glynn says students in her cooking classes will often say, “I’m going to tell my mother we have to eat more vegetables.”

Fallows says she is hopeful that the message is getting out there “one kid at a time, one class at a time, one vegetable at a time.”= To learn more about Healthy Waltham, visit healthy-waltham.org. exhalelifestyle.com

27

Garden Girl

The growing season is in full swing and now is a great time to start an edible garden. You don’t need a lot of space, so even if you only have a patio or window box you too can grow your own delicious organic edibles.

Things to consider when you’re starting an edible garden:

1

Sunlight: Pick a sunny spot that gets at least 6-8 hours of sunlight a day. Most vegetables and fruits need sunlight to thrive and bear fruit. For people with yard space, make sure you take into account any trees that are nearby and what kind of shade they create when they grow in every year. For people with patios, postage stamps and balconies, you’ll get the best sunlight if it is facing south. Apartment dwellers can be challenged with shadows from other buildings even when facing south, so know your sunlight.

Soil: Nutrient rich, well drained soil works for most vegetables. One way to know if your soil is in good shape is the presence of worms. If you see worms in your soil, you’re in good shape. Just amend the soil with a generous amount of organic compost to ensure your plants will have all of the nutrients to thrive.

For clay soils or sandy soils amend the top 12 inches of the soil with at least a 1:3 ratio of organic compost or humus by mixing it thoroughly. Adding a pound or two of worms will also help. For container gardeners, use an organic potting soil. Organic potting soils are formulated with more nutrients and ingredients which help keep moisture. It also feeds the plants and helps aerate the soil, in addition to helping with drainage. Regular garden soils are harder and full of chunks of organic matter that are supposed to break down in your garden and not intended for containers.

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Exhale • Summer 2011

3

Water: An easily accessible water supply is essential. A great way to conserve water is by installing drip irrigation. Drip irrigation is the best way to water because the water goes straight into the soil where the roots are and not on the leaves which can cause diseases or sun damage. You’ll also save time on watering because you can use a timer that will go on and off whenever you want for however long you want. Depending on the climate, you won’t need to water more than three times a week except in periods of drought. Mulching your garden will also help conserve water by preventing evaporation of the moisture in the soil and keep the weeds down which deplete the nutrients and moisture in the soil. For containers, watering and fertilizing will occur much more frequently. Water regularly, but allow the surface of the soil to dry out between waterings. Fertilize weekly with an organic fertilizer like compost tea or worm juice when you water.

Add edibles to your landscape • Incorporate edible plantings in your landscape with fruit trees and berry bushes.

• Instead of your typical ivy ground cover, plant strawberries as your ground cover.

• Plant native edible varieties for a low maintenance landscape.

• Save money by starting from seed.

Organic vegetable seedlings can be $5 each or more. Seed packets average around $3 for 25 seeds to 700 seeds depending on the variety. Seeds are still viable for 2-5 years from purchase if stored correctly.

• Plant perennial vegetables like asparagus, artichoke and perennial culinary herbs like chives, oregano or mint.

Benefits of an edible garden • Restores the ecosystem by creating a more natural landscape.

• Provides seasonal food for your family.

• Adds value to your home.

• Attracts wildlife like bumblebees and honeybees, birds and beneficial insects like ladybugs and butterflies.

• Helps purify the air.

For more information and 200 “how to garden” videos, please visit www. gardengirltv.com.

Patti Moreno is the host of www. gardengirltv.com and contributor to Organic Gardening, Fine Gardening, the Huffington Post and the Farmers Almanac and co-host of the Public Television Show, “Growing A Greener World” and a garden expert for HGTV.com. She lives in Roxbury, Mass. on her three-quarter acre urban farm with her husband, Robert Patton Spruill, her daughter, Alejandra and her grandmother-in-law, Muriel.

Heirloom Tomato Salad Makes 4-6 servings 4-6 medium tomatoes 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar Basil, 20 leaves Salt and pepper to taste

Cut up tomatoes into bite sized pieces and place in bowl. Then add basil leaves, torn by hand. Drizzle the extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mix thoroughly and serve.

Photos courtesy of Patti Moreno

Mint Pesto Marinade

Serving Size: Half-cup. Servings: 4 1 cup packed mint leaves 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves 1/2 cup chives, minced 2 medium garlic cloves 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest Juice of half a lemon or lime 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Salt and pepper to taste

In a food processor, combine ingredients and pulse until chopped.

Then with the processor on low, add the olive oil in a slow stream and pulse until the pesto is a paste-like consistency.

Season pesto with salt and pepper to taste. Save time and make it the night before and store pesto in an air tight container in the refrigerator. Toss with goat cheese and pasta to make a pasta salad or use as a seasoning on lamb or burgers after grilling. exhalelifestyle.com

29

Healthy Recipes

from American Heart Association

Serves 4; 3 ounces chicken and half-cup salsa per serving

Grilled pineapple, fresh mint and strawberries combine with tangy lemon and a bit of hot red pepper flakes to make an interesting salsa for grilled chicken.

1 teaspoon canola or corn oil

Salsa

2 slices fresh pineapple, each ½ inch thick, patted dry 1 cup whole strawberries (about 5 ounces), diced ¼ cup finely chopped red onion 3-4 tablespoons chopped fresh mint leaves 1-2 teaspoons sugar ⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1 medium lemon

Grilled Chicken and Strawberry and Pineapple Salsa

Chicken

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (about 4 ounces each), all visible fat discarded 2 teaspoons salt-free steak seasoning blend ¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat the grill on medium high. Brush a grill pan or grill rack with the oil. Heat the grill pan or rack on the grill for about 2 minutes, or until hot. Grill the pineapple for 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to a cutting board and let cool slightly, about 2 minutes, before chopping.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together the remaining salsa ingredients except the lemon. Grate 1 teaspoon lemon zest, reserving the lemon. Stir the zest and chopped pineapple into the strawberry mixture. Set aside.

Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with the seasoning blend and salt. Grill for 5 minutes on each side, or until no longer pink in the center. Transfer to plates. Squeeze the reserved lemon over the chicken. Serve with the salsa on the side.

This recipe is brought to you by the American Heart Association’s Face the Fats campaign. Recipe copyright © 2009 by the American Heart Association. Look for other delicious recipes in American Heart Association cookbooks, available from booksellers everywhere, and at deliciousdecisions.org.

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NUTRITION ANALYSIs (per serving) Calories 191; Total Fat 3.0 g; Saturated Fat 0.5 g; Trans Fat 0.0 g; Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g; Monounsaturated Fat 1.0 g; Cholesterol 66 mg; Sodium 223 mg; Carbohydrates 14 g; Fiber 2 g ; Sugars 10 g; Protein 27 g. Dietary Exchanges: 1 fruit, 3 very lean meat

Oven-Fried Okra Makes 6 half-cup servings Canola oil cooking spray 1 20-ounce bag frozen sliced okra, thawed ½ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon pepper 2 cups yellow corn meal (only a ½-cup actually adheres to the okra)

Preheat oven to 475°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray the foil generously with cooking spray. Set aside. Spray the inside of a gallonsized food storage bag with cooking spray. Add the okra, a half-teaspoon of salt, and the pepper. Close the bag and shake to blend everything well. Let the okra rest for 10 minutes to extract juice from the okra. Add the cornmeal to the bag and shake vigorously to coat the okra. Let the bag sit for 10 minutes; then, shake it up again. Using a wide mesh strainer or a colander over a large bowl, remove the okra in batches and shake off excess cornmeal into the bowl, discarding the leftover meal.

Place the coated okra on the sheet pan and continue the process until all the okra is on the pan and the pieces are not touching each other. Spray the okra well with cooking spray. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and stir the okra, trying to turn over as many pieces as possible. Lightly spray them again.

Return to the oven for another 20 minutes. Remove from oven and lightly spray the pieces again.

NUTRITION ANALYSIS (per serving) Calories 70; Total Fat 0.5 g; Saturated Fat 0.0 g; Trans Fat 0.0 g; Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g; Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g; Cholesterol 0 mg; Sodium 197 mg; Carbohydrates 16 g; Fiber 3 g ; Sugars 3 g; Protein 3 g .

Dietary Exchanges: ½ starch, 1 vegetable

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Healthy Recipes from American Heart Association

Braised Beef Steaks with Zesty Sauce

Serves 4; 3 ounces cooked steak and 2 tablespoons sauce per serving Perfect for holiday meals, these eye-of-round steaks are seasoned with a salt-free blend of garlic and herbs, braised until tender, and topped with an easy-mix sauce enhanced with toasted almonds.

4 boneless eye-of-round steaks (4 ounces each), all visible fat discarded 1 teaspoon salt-free garlic and herb seasoning blend Vegetable oil spray 1 cup fat-free, no-salt-added beef broth ¼ cup whole almonds 1 tablespoon sliced almonds ¼ cup whole-berry cranberry sauce or ⅓ cup fat-free sour cream 1 tablespoon prepared white horseradish ½ teaspoon salt-free garlic and herb seasoning blend

Season both sides of the steaks evenly with 1 teaspoon garlic and herb seasoning blend. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Cook the steaks for 2 minutes on each side, or until browned. Add the broth and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 30-40 minutes, or until tender. If needed, add water 1¼ cup at a time to keep the steaks from sticking. If desired, reserve ½-⅔ cup cooking liquid to spoon over the steaks before serving.

Meanwhile, in a medium skillet, dry-roast the whole almonds over medium heat for 6-8 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.

Transfer to the work bowl of a food processor and let cool for 5 minutes. In the same skillet, dry-roast the sliced almonds for 3-4 minutes, or until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a small plate and set aside.

Process the whole almonds for 1-2 minutes, or until finely ground. Transfer to a medium bowl. Stir in the cranberry sauce or sour cream, horseradish and ½ teaspoon garlic and herb

seasoning blend until well combined.

To serve, spoon the reserved pan liquid over each steak. Top each with about 2 tablespoons sauce. Garnish with the almond slices.

NUTRITION ANALYSIS (per serving) With cranberry sauce Calories 228; Total Fat 9.0 g; Saturated Fat 1.5 g; Trans Fat 0.0 g; Polyunsaturated Fat 1.5 g; Monounsaturated Fat 5.0 g; Cholesterol 47 mg; Sodium 65 mg; Carbohydrates 9 g; Fiber 2 g; Sugars 5 g; Protein 28 g.

Dietary Exchanges: ½ carbohydrate, 3½ lean meat With sour cream sauce Calories 223; Total Fat 9.0 g; Saturated Fat 1.5 g; Trans Fat 0.0 g; Polyunsaturated Fat 1.5 g; Monounsaturated Fat 5.0 g; Cholesterol 50 mg; Sodium 78 mg; Carbohydrates 6 g; Fiber 1 g; Sugars 2 g; Protein 29 g.

Dietary Exchanges: ½ carbohydrate, 3½ lean meat

This recipe is brought to you by the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement. Recipe copyright © 2006 by the American Heart Association.

Look for other delicious recipes in American Heart Association cookbooks, available from booksellers everywhere or online at americanheart.org/cookbooks.

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Trout with SkilletRoasted Peppers Serves 4; 3 ounces fish and ¹⁄3 cup pepper mixture per serving

No need to slow-roast poblano peppers to get deep flavor. All it takes is quickly cooking them in a hot skillet and letting them steep a bit.

1 tablespoon olive oil, divided use 2 medium poblano peppers, ribs and seeds discarded, thinly sliced 5 ounces grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, halved (about 1 cup) 1 medium garlic clove, minced 1-2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar ½ teaspoon salt, divided use ¼ teaspoon pepper Paprika to taste 4 trout fillets or any other thin mild fish fillets (about 4 ounces each), rinsed and patted dry 1 medium lime, cut into 8 wedges

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

Add 1 teaspoon oil, swirling to coat the bottom. Cook the peppers for 4-6 minutes, or until beginning to richly brown on the edges, stirring frequently.

Gently stir in the tomatoes. Cook for 2 minutes, or until soft, stirring gently and frequently. Remove from the heat.

Gently stir in the garlic, vinegar, and ¼ teaspoon salt.

Transfer to a small bowl. Cover to keep warm.

In the same skillet, heat the remaining 2 teaspoons oil over medium-high heat, swirling to coat the bottom.

Sprinkle the pepper, paprika and remaining ¼ teaspoon salt over both sides of the fish. Cook for 3 minutes on each side, or until the fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Transfer to a platter.

To serve, squeeze 4 lime wedges over the fish. Spoon the poblano mixture on top. Serve with the remaining lime wedges to squeeze over the poblano mixture if desired.

Cook’s Tip: Squeezing lime wedges over both the fish and the topping “lifts” and defines the flavors of the various ingredients. If you aren’t a true lime lover, though, you may want to skip the second spritzing.

NUTRITION ANALYSIS (per serving) Calories 189; Total Fat 7.5 g; Saturated Fat 1.5 g; Trans Fat 0.0 g; Polyunsaturated Fat 2.0 g; Monounsaturated Fat 4.0 g; Cholesterol 67 mg; Sodium 332 mg; Carbohydrates 6 g; Fiber 1 g; Sugars 3 g; Protein 24 g.

Dietary Exchanges: 1 vegetable, 3 lean meat exhalelifestyle.com

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Healthy Recipes from American Heart Association

Salmon with Cilantro Pesto

Serves 4; 3 ounces fish and 1 tablespoon pesto per serving Vibrant orange salmon fillets get a double dose of crunchy almonds, one in the pesto and one in the topping. The lovely green pesto is easy to make and gets a delightful flavor boost — without salt — from the garlic-herb seasoning blend. For a quick and pretty dish, scatter the almonds over the surface, as instructed. If you prefer a fancier presentation, after spreading the pesto over the salmon, slightly overlap the almonds on the fillets to resemble fish scales, then bake as directed.

Cooking spray (optional) ½ cup loosely packed fresh cilantro 3 tablespoons fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth 2 tablespoons sliced almonds 2 tablespoons shredded or grated Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon salt-free garlic-herb seasoning blend 4 salmon fillets (about 4 ounces each), rinsed and patted dry ¼ cup sliced almonds

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil or lightly spray with cooking spray.

In a food processor or blender, process the pesto ingredients for 15-20 seconds, or until slightly chunky.

Place the fillets about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Spread the pesto evenly over the top of the fillets. Sprinkle with ¼ cup almonds.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.

This recipe is brought to you by the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement. Recipe copyright © 2005 by the American Heart Association. Look for other delicious recipes in American Heart Association cookbooks, available from booksellers everywhere or online at americanheart.org/cookbooks.

NUTRITION ANALYSIS (per serving) Calories 206; Total Fat 9.5 g; Saturated Fat 1.5 g; Trans Fat 0.0 g; Polyunsaturated Fat 3.0 g; Monounsaturated Fat 4.0 g; Cholesterol 166 mg; Sodium 129 mg; Carbohydrates 2 g; Fiber 1 g; Sugars 0 g; Protein 28 g. Dietary Exchanges: 3 ½ lean meat 34

Exhale • Summer 2011

Modern TunaPasta Casserole

Serves 4; 1½ cups per serving

This casserole, brimming with veggies and whole grains, is so tasty and easy to put together that it’s likely to become a weekly tradition.

4 ounces dried whole-wheat rotini (about 1½ cups) Cooking spray 1 16-ounce bag frozen mixed vegetables, such as a carrot, broccoli, and cauliflower blend, thawed 2 5.5-ounce cans low-sodium chunk light tuna, packed in water, flaked 1 10.75-ounce can low-fat condensed cream of chicken soup (lowest sodium available) ½ cup chopped bottled roasted red bell peppers, rinsed before chopping ½ cup fat-free half-and-half 1 teaspoon all-purpose seasoning blend ¾ cup lightly crushed (about ¼-inch pieces) low-sodium whole-grain crackers (about 34 squares) ¼ cup shredded or grated Parmesan cheese

Prepare the pasta using the package directions, omitting the salt and oil. Drain well in a colander. Transfer to a large bowl.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a 2-quart glass casserole dish with cooking spray.

Stir the mixed vegetables, tuna, soup, roasted peppers, half-and-half, and seasoning blend into the pasta until combined. Transfer to the casserole dish.

Sprinkle with the crackers and Parmesan.

Bake, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes, or until the casserole is warmed through and the topping is golden brown.

Cook’s Tip: With the variety

of frozen mixed vegetable blends available to choose from, you can easily incorporate new tastes into this casserole.

You can also change the flavor of the sauce by substituting low-fat condensed cream of mushroom or celery soup for the chicken soup, always choosing the lowest-sodium product available.

NUTRITION ANALYSIS (per serving) Calories 400; Total Fat 7.0 g; Saturated Fat 2.5 g; Trans Fat 0.0 g; Polyunsaturated Fat 2.0 g; Monounsaturated Fat 2.0 g; Cholesterol 130 mg; Sodium 537 mg; Carbohydrates 52 g; Fiber 8 g; Sugars 7 g; Protein 32 g.

Dietary Exchanges: 3 starch, 1 ½ vegetable, 3 lean meat

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Join Exhale magazine and the top chefs of Boston for a sustainable culinary event celebrating local food and healthy eating.

Top chefs such as Joanne Chang of Flour and Myers & Chang, Brooke Vosika of Four Seasons and Jodi Adams of Rialto will be demonstrating their culinary talent as they create recipes that are both delicious and healthy!

EvEnt HostE d by

Friday, october 14 Artists For Humanity 100 West 2nd street boston, MA 6 p.m. vIP Hour 7-10 p.m. General Admission For more event details and ticket information visit : topdishboston.com.

become our friend on Facebook and follow us on twitter for a chance to win tickets to this delicious event! exhalelifestyle.com

Supported by: Proceeds from event to benefit

Featured Chef and Recipes

M

ing Tsai was raised in Dayton, Ohio, where he spent hours cooking alongside his mother and father at their family-owned restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen. His love of cooking (and eating!) great food was forged in these early years, while also gaining valuable experience in front and back of the house. Ming headed east to attend school at Phillips Academy Andover. From there, he continued to Yale University, earning a degree in mechanical engineering. During this time, Ming spent his junior summer at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. After graduating from Yale, Ming worked in kitchens around the globe.

He trained under renowned Pastry Chef Pierre Herme in Paris and in Osaka with Sushi Master Kobayashi. Upon his return to the United States, Ming enrolled in graduate school at Cornell University, earning a master’s degree in hotel administration and hospitality marketing. Ming continued to learn varied styles of cuisine, holding positions in both front and back of the house at establishments in Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco and Santa Fe. In 1998, Ming opened Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Mass. and immediately impressed diners from Boston and beyond with the restaurant’s innovative East-West cuisine. In its first year, Blue Ginger received three stars from the Boston Globe, was named “Best New Restaurant” by Boston Magazine, was nominated by the James Beard Foundation as “Best New Restaurant 1998” and Esquire Magazine honored Ming as “Chef of the Year 1998.” The James Beard Foundation crowned Ming “2002 Best Chef Northeast” and, since 2002, the Zagat Restaurant Guide has rated Blue Ginger the “2nd Most Popular Boston Restaurant.” In 2007, Blue Ginger received the Ivy Award from Restaurants & Institutions for its achievement of the highest standards in food, hospitality and service, and in 2009, Ming and Blue Ginger won IFMA’s Silver Plate Award in the Independent Restaurant category recognizing overall excellence in the country.

In 2008, Blue Ginger expanded with a feng shui-inspired addition doubling its size, creating three private dining rooms and the casual-chic

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Blue Ginger Lounge, serving an Asian Tapas menu featuring Ming’s Bings, Ming’s take on the classic Asian street food xiar bing, a cross between a dumpling and a slider.

Ming is a national spokesperson for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN). He developed the Food Allergy Reference Book, first used at Blue Ginger, a pioneering system that creates safeguards to help food-allergic people dine safely. For four years, Ming worked with Massachusetts Legislature to help write Bill S. 2701, which was signed into law. This groundbreaking legislation, the first of its kind in the U.S., requires local restaurants to comply with simple food allergy awareness guidelines.

Ming is the host and executive producer of the

public television cooking show, “SIMPLY MING,” currently in its eighth season. In 2009, “SIMPLY MING” received two Emmy nominations in the categories of “Outstanding Culinary Program” and “Outstanding Culinary Host,” and received two Bronze Telly Awards for “Lighting” and “Art Direction.” His “SIMPLY MING” video podcasts feature tutorials on everything from filleting fish to food allergy basics (available on ming.com and iTunes). Ming began cooking for television audiences on the Food Network, where he was the 1998 Emmy Award-Winning host of “East Meets West with Ming Tsai.” “Ming’s Quest,” his popular cooking adventure series, also aired on Food Network. In the summer of 2008, Ming traveled to the Beijing Olympics with NBC’s “Today Show”

to provide viewers with insight into food customs and traditions that define his Chinese heritage. In addition to television, Ming is the author of four cookbooks: “Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai,” “Simply Ming,” “Ming’s Master Recipes” and “Simply Ming One-Pot Meals,” released in the fall of 2010.

In addition to restaurant, TV and print endeavors, Ming is also a prolific designer and product developer.

His Blue Ginger® Multi-Grain Brown Rice Chips are a

Wild

mushroom polenta with Thai basil salad

hugely popular item in club stores across the nation.

For the past decade, Ming has used Kyocera Advanced Ceramic cutting tools. Ming is a proud member of Common Threads, the Harvard School of Public Health’s Nutrition Round Table, Big Brothers Big Sisters, The Cam Neely Foundation and Squashbusters.

For more information on Ming, visit www.ming.com, his information-based site focusing on East-West living, recipes, culinary gadgets and more.

Serves 4

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon minced garlic 4 cups wild mushrooms, such as oyster, chanterelles, or lobster, or shiitakes, individually or in combination, torn apart or sliced thin, depending on size and shape Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 medium onion, minced 2 cups milk 4 cups fresh chicken stock or low-sodium canned chicken broth 1½ cups instant polenta ½ cup shaved or grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese ½ cup lightly packed Thai basil leaves, or regular basil Zest of 1 lemon and juice of ½ lemon 1 teaspoon pink peppercorns, finger-crushed

1. Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat.

Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and swirl to coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and sauté, stirring, until soft, about 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and sauté until lightly cooked, 3-4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the mixture to a plate and set aside.

2. Add 1 tablespoon of the butter and the remaining tablespoon of oil to the pan. When the butter has melted, add the onions and sauté, stirring, until softened, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the milk and stock and bring to a simmer. Whisking the liquid, add the polenta in a fine steady stream, reduce the heat to low and cook, whisking from time to time, until creamy and smooth, 3-4 minutes. Adjust the seasoning, if necessary. Just before serving, whisk in the remaining tablespoon of butter, the cheese and the mushrooms.

3. In a small bowl, combine the basil and the lemon zest and juice. Season with salt and pepper and toss lightly. Transfer the polenta to four individual bowls, top with the basil salad, sprinkle with the pink peppercorns and serve.

Photographer Antonis Achilleos

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Featured Chef and Recipes

Black Bean Orecchiette with Spicy Pork and Broccoli Photographer Antonis Achilleos

Serves 4

1 large broccoli head Kosher salt 8 ounces orecchiette 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling 1 tablespoon of minced garlic 2 tablespoons fermented black beans 1 medium red onion, cut into ¼-inch dice 1 cup dry white wine 1 pound ground pork Freshly ground black pepper 1 teaspoon Korean chile pepper, flakes or red pepper flakes, for garnish

Separate the broccoli into florets.

Cut off their stems and, using a chef ’s knife, square the stems so they resemble elongated blocks.

Alternatively, peel the stems. Cut the stems into ¼-inch pieces.

Fill a large bowl with water and add ice cubes. Bring salted water to a boil in a stockpot or other tall wide pot. Add the broccoli and blanch for 30 seconds, retrieve the broccoli with a large strainer and transfer it in the strainer to the ice water. When the broccoli is cold, lift the strainer and drain the broccoli. Transfer broccoli to a plate.

Return the water in the pot to a boil. Add more ice cubes to the bowl, if needed. Add the pasta to the pot and cook until al dente, about 10 minutes. Retrieve the pasta with the strainer and transfer the pasta to the bowl. Reserve ½ cup of the cooking liquid. When the pasta is cold, lift the strainer and drain the pasta Dry the pot and heat over medium heat. Add the olive oil to the pot and swirl to coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, add the garlic, black beans, ginger and onions and sauté, stirring, until the onions are soft, about 2 minutes. Add the wine, deglaze the pan and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half, about 2 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper. Add the pork and sauté, breaking up the meat, until just cooked through, 6-8 minutes.

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Add the pasta and broccoli to the black-bean mixture and toss well.

If the mixture seems dry, add the reserved cooking liquid. Season again with salt and pepper. Transfer to a large serving bowl or platter, garnish with the chile pepper flakes, drizzle with olive oil and serve. ©2010 Ming Tsai — Taken from Simply Ming One-Pot Meals used with permission from Kyle Books

Black-Pepper Sake Mussels with Granny Smith Apples

Serves 4

2 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil 1 tablespoon minced garlic 3 large shallots, sliced thin 1 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper 2 pounds mussels, preferably Prince Edward Island, cleaned and beards removed Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper ½ cup TY KU Black Sake 2 Granny Smith apples, unpeeled cored and cut into fine strips 4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter Pinches of togarashi or other hot pepper, for garnish

1. Heat a wok over high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat the pan. When the oil is hot, add the garlic, shallots and coarse black pepper and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add the mussels, and season with salt and pepper. Add the sake, deglaze and cover the wok. When the mussels have begun to open, after about 3 minutes, add the apples and butter. Discard any mussels that haven’t opened.

2. Continue to cook until the flavors have combined, about 2 minutes. Adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

Transfer to a large serving bowl, sprinkle with thetogarashi and serve.

Photographer Antonis Achilleos

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Profile

By Caitlin Yoshiko Kandil he simple square plates look completely ordinary — thin, papery, brown, earthy. But holding the disposable dinnerware, Jennifer Frost tells another story, the tale of the plate’s long journey from India to her kitchen in Beverly, Mass.

She describes her VerTerra plates with the depth and precision of a scholar: the materials used to make the dishes; the environmental benefits of those materials; who manufactures them; how those workers are paid; the amount of fuel required to ship the dinnerware to New York; why they are square-shaped, not circles; and why these are better than local alternatives.

Incredibly, she knows this much about every product in her homey kitchen on the North Shore; it is a knowledge that extends far beyond the trendy “go green” labels that are so common on products today. And she should.

Alongside her sister, Julia Frost, and best friend, Lindsey Wishart, Jennifer runs Chive, a cutting-edge catering and event design company devoted to sustainability and “consciousness” in food. The trio’s goal, as Jennifer explains, is “looking at every item and every aspect of our business in a sustainable light.”

Jennifer, Julia and Lindsey insist their commitment is not just surfacedeep. “It’s not green-washing, it’s not a trend,” Julia explains. “It’s something that’s making a positive impact not just on our environment, but our local economy and our local community.”

Each product used in the business is meticulously examined to determine if it meets Chive’s high standards. And even after an item is selected, the women continue to evaluate it to ensure it is the best possible option available — if something better comes up, they will switch and use it. “We want to be the front leaders in sustainability and that means not getting too comfortable in anything,” Jennifer explains. ^p44

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Photograph by Ian Justice • www.ianjustice.com, wonderfulmachine.com Hair and make up by Kathleen Schiffmann • Team Artist Representative Bike:The Urbane Cyclist in Salem, Mass.

Sustainable Event Design & Catering

Sustainability is so much more than your daily practices, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s your whole life.

exhalelifestyle.com

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The ladies of Chive

We want to be the front leaders in sustainability and that means not getting too comfortable in anything.

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Exhale â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 2011

he women of Chive also have a close relationship with each of the farmers and producers they source food from. This, they explain, avoids the tremendous amount of waste so characteristic of the food industry.

“Half the time Lindsey or myself are in the fields with them [the farmers] picking the things before the events,” Jennifer says. “And that helps with the whole waste thing,” Lindsey chimes in. “I don’t have to order a case of each thing ... I don’t end up with 25 pounds of carrots if I don’t need 25 pounds of carrots. I can go to the farm and get exactly what I need.” Whatever is left gets composted.

Like their plates, Chive is painstakingly careful with its produce.

Their menus are not only tailored for each growing season, but for the specific day of harvest. “Last week I picked up all these beautiful spinaches,” Lindsey explains, “and I was harvesting them, and I was thinking, ‘this is supposed to go in this egg and cheese tart, but I don’t even want to cook them!’ ” Because the leafy greens looked too good to cook, she adjusted the dish so the fresh spinach would go on top of the baked tart. “I just want to make sure I’m doing justice to the people that grew the food,” she says.

Their use of local food also supports the local economy, they say.

Not only do their dollars stay in Beverly, but they also “promote the heck” out of the small businesses they partner with, which helps “send people their way.”

In addition to their commitment to sustainability, Chive puts another twist on catering — event design. More than just food, the company provides an environment for events by beautifying the food they serve and the space they serve it in. “We’re three women, we like pretty things!” Jennifer exclaims.

The concept for Chive originated several years ago when Jennifer and Lindsey were undergraduate students at Endicott College in Beverly. The two friends would hang out at Atomic Coffee — a place they deemed the only “honest” food source in town.

“We found that there was never a place we could go to get served a beautiful meal that tasted good and was cooked with real whole ingredients that we knew where the food was coming from,” Jennifer says.

Their complaints led to talk about changing the food landscape in Beverly. Maybe even opening a restaurant, they thought, or a bistro.

For the duo, “knowing it, knowing where it’s from, feeding your soul, feeding your friends, feeding your family, sitting around a table and being able to enjoy good food” is what eating was all about.

How to get there was another story.

Born in Germany to an army family, Jennifer, 27, grew up in Colorado and Shirley, Mass., where her love of food began at an early age. While in her teens, Jennifer started working in catering, hospitality and event planning. Along the way, she taught herself to cook.

But the amount of waste Jennifer saw in the food industry troubled her. In college, she switched gears to study interior design — but again, found herself dissatisfied, this time, because of the slow turnaround time on projects.

Meanwhile, Lindsey, also 27, hails from Pennsylvania, saying of her childhood, “I came from a health food family — I was that freak in school who brought weird things to lunch and smelled like bulgur.”

When she moved to Beverly for college, she immediately fell in love, and knew the relocation would be permanent. “When my mom dropped me off she was like, ‘Uh oh, you’re staying here forever, aren’t you?’ ” Lindsey laughs. “And I was like, ‘Yep, I’m a North Shore

girl now, Mom.’ ” Lindsey studied fine arts at Endicott, but with a strong interest in growing food, later moved to California to work at an organic food co-op. But Lindsey’s cross-country move didn’t mean abandoning her ideas and dreams with Jennifer — it was in her absence that they started coming to life.

Working at a company on Beacon Hill at the time, Jennifer’s younger sister, Julia, was charged with planning an event to promote global business travel courses at Suffolk University. Julia called on her sister for help, shucking the school’s standard Sodexho fare in favor of Jennifer’s homemade cooking and handmade decorations.

The event was a hit.

Unlike Jennifer and Lindsey, Julia, 25, is the more business-minded one in the trio, and only recently became interested in food and sustainable living. “I’m probably one of the best examples, I think, of what Chive is trying to educate people about,” she says, citing her previous bad eating habits and inability to cook.

Along with her sister, she grew up in Colorado and Shirley, Mass., and went to business school at the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University, where her jam-packed life included a full course load, a part-time job and a work-study job — and heading her school’s women in business organization.

Soon after Jennifer and Julia’s successful event at Suffolk, the sisters got calls from the mayor’s Office of Environmental and Energy Services, the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Allandale Farm in Brookline — all requesting their services in catering and event planning.

“From that first event, without a name, without knowing or recognizing that that’s what Chive would become — that was the start of it,” Jennifer says. With no kitchen, no staff and no business plan, Jennifer and Julia accepted the offers.

Coincidentally, Lindsey returned from California just as the requests started rolling in, and Jennifer immediately recruited her.

“I called her and we had coffee at our place, and I said, ‘Lindsey, you know that thing we’ve been talking about? Well, I need you next weekend because we have 200 people coming to Allandale Farm!’ ” Jennifer recalls.

The event at Allandale was another success, and with that, Chive was born. “That was the ‘this is what we’re going to be doing with the rest of our lives’ event,” Lindsey explains. And the chive, they realized, perfectly symbolizes their vision.

The purple blossom of the plant represents the design portion of the company, creating food that not only tastes good, but looks beautiful — as well as an attractive environment for events. The thin green stem represents the menus that are specifically prepared for each season; and the roots represent the promise of sustainability that anchors the entire company.

With Jennifer’s background in interior design, Lindsey’s experience in food, Julia’s knowledge of the business world and their common commitment to sustainability, the three women found an effortless harmony for their talents.

Now, their list of clients includes higher education institutions, nonprofit organizations, fellow sustainable businesses, with some weddings and corporate events mixed in.

But in catering they also found a vehicle for their values — one they had never considered before. “When we talked about food, that was not what came up,” Jennifer says. “But the cool thing we found about catering is the number of people we can reach. ...It actually has become a very excellent vehicle for food in our community, one that I wouldn’t ever have imagined.”^p46 exhalelifestyle.com

45

The ladies of Chive n addition to practicing sustainability in their own kitchen, Chive uses its events as an educational platform to bring others into the fold. The women explain to guests where all the food came from, who they partnered with, and of course, how to compost and recycle after a meal to eliminate trash.

But for Jennifer, Julia and Lindsey, their distinctive vision of sustainability goes far beyond the food they eat and the products they use — for them, it’s a way of life.

“Sustainability is so much more than your daily practices, it’s your whole life,” Lindsey explains.

“If I’m not happy at home — if I’m too busy selling events and I’m not spending time with my family, then my business is no longer sustainable.”

The family and friendship that brought them together to create Chive is also what sustains the women — and they hope never to

46

Exhale • Summer 2011

forget that. “We’re three women who think that family and friends are at the very top of our list,” Jennifer says. “Helping them and ourselves live a good lifestyle goes with that. And our business is third.”

Like their commitment to sustainability, their commitment to each other is more than surface-deep. Their mutual affection is clear — they laugh when reminiscing, jump in to each other’s stories and finish each other’s sentences.

Mixing family and friends with business is commonly warned against, but in keeping each other first, Jennifer, Julia and Lindsey seem to have avoided this frequent pitfall.

“We’re doing this because we love it and we love each other,” Lindsey says.

“Trusting, understanding and supporting one another just as much as we support our business, just as much as we support our

families, just as much as we support our eating habits,” is what has allowed them to be a sustainable business, Jennifer continues.

Halfway into their third year, the women are optimistic and excitedly talk about the future, but are cautious to keep their egos in check.

“Our business plan is this,” Jennifer explains, “support one another on a daily basis, remind each other what sustainability means to this business ... and don’t get too big for your britches.”

Although they are a profitable business, their growth has been slow and steady — something the women see as an advantage.

Many businesses “grow too fast” and “lose sight of ” their original mission, and “start to cut corners” in order to save money, Jennifer says. “But that’s not something we ever care to do. We want to figure out how to do it right ... in order to hold true to our beliefs.”=

Julia Frost, Lindsey Wishart and Jennifer Frost, also known as the ladies of Chive, are joined by Mike Raymond of First Light Farm in Hamilton, Mass.

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Profile

No monkey

business

Tech Networks founder Susan Labandibar finds joy in giving back Shelly Runyon The barren white office walls and dull furniture at Tech Networks of Boston (TNB) starkly reflect the priorities of Susan Labandibar. The kitchen is void of paper and plastic products and guests are given glasses of water instead of bottles.

She recently sold her battery-powered Toyota Prius to even lower her carbon footprint. To get around, she now relies solely on public transportation.

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Exhale â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 2011

Photos courtesy of Susan Labandibar

I didn’t start Tech Networks with a social purpose. But after my dad died, I started to realize that I had the strength and courage to try to address real problems in this world.

On a typical day she begins work at 8 a.m. Labandibar started TNB 15 years ago and it now has 30 employees and two locations: a storefront and office building on the east and northwest sides of the Andrew MBTA Station.

By 5 p.m. she starts working behind her computer on behalf of several nonprofits, including a group, the Hutan Project, that is fighting to preserve rainforests in Borneo, Indonesia as well as Sustainable Business Networks (SBN), a Boston-based group that is helping entrepreneurs develop sustainable business models and practices.

By 8 p.m., some 12 hours after her day began, she is off to attend a meeting of one of several nonprofits to which she has committed her time, resources and expertise. “I’m an extreme socialist playing a capitalist,” Labandibar says.

To say the least. She is one of the most unlikely capitalists. It was the early 1990s when Labandibar was a recent Harvard graduate figuring out what to do with her life, that her computer broke down and she didn’t know where she could afford to have it fixed.

“I’m really an accidental entrepreneur,” she explains over a cup of coffee in her TNB boardroom, her rescue pug Otis snoring under the table.

She says that she couldn’t find a place to buy used computers that serviced students or small businesses, and though she wasn’t very technical at the time, she recognized a market need.

She began working out of her parent’s house, buying used computers, fixing them up and selling them to college students.

And the business took off. “I had this little miniature Lane Hope Chest that my mother had given me. I used to put all of my money in there. And one day I opened it and I couldn’t fit any more money in it and I thought, ‘Oh! This must be working!’ ” And then tragedy struck.

In 2000, Labandibar’s father was diagnosed with an aggressive form of skin cancer. Though melanoma accounts for only about 3 percent of all skin cancer cases, it causes the majority of skin cancer deaths. For two years she and her family tried to find a cure. ^p50 exhalelifestyle.com

49

No monkey business

abandibar poured through listings of clinical trials, wrote doctors all over the country and fought with insurance companies. The family opted into as many clinical trials as possible. She created a website to track his progress, and fought as hard as he did for what she knew was a futile attempt to save his life.

“Even though melanoma did kill my father,” she says, “what he endured to try to be there for his family was a shining act of bravery that will resonate forever for everyone that knew him.”

Labandibar’s life would never be the same. “The truth is,” she says, “I didn’t start Tech Networks with a social purpose. But after my dad died, I started to realize that I had the strength and courage to try to address real problems in this world.”

Dan Monti, a professor of public policy at Saint Louis University was developing a program at Boston University called “InnerCity Entrepreneurs” when he first met Labandibar in 2004 during one of his classes. They have remained friends ever since.

“She’s a wonderful combination of a person who tries to keep her business life and civic life in really good working harmony with each other,” says Monti, “and she’s done a splendid job of doing that.”

Labandibar credits Monti with showing her a purpose for her business. TNB was thriving and while she was already giving away a large portion of her profits to charity, she didn’t know how to utilize the business leader platform on which she now stood.

“Some of what I talked about in terms of the larger responsibility that entrepreneurs have historically taken on in American community life really resonated with Susan,” says Monti. “She already was thinking and doing things like this, and if I did anything, I helped crystallize for her the ideas that she was already acting on without appreciating the historical roots that her work was building on.”

Monti inspired her to take up the causes that were important in her personal life and apply them to her business life. One of the applications was her attempt to make TNB a leader in energy efficiency.

She developed the EarthComputer — a low energy computer that she marketed to social conscious businesses — a product that landed her on the front page of the Boston Globe, but failed to deliver sustainable energy savings.

It was right about this time when Labandibar showed up at a meeting of Sustainable Business Networks (SBN) and met Laury Hammel, founder and CEO of SBN. “When I first met Laury, it didn’t occur to me that he would become one of my heroes,” she wrote in May 2008 in the Boston Techie — The TNB Blog. “I thought he talked too much at our Sustainable Business Network board meetings. But, I was wrong. Laury did not talk enough. … He believes in people, he cares about people, and he puts his heart on the line every day.”

The respect is mutual. “I was the person who invited her to join the board,” says Hammel.

He says that her devotion to their programming was invaluable to the organization. Rather than just agreeing with people’s ideas, he explains, she devoted her time, money and business to SBN. “The work that she did and who she was spoke volumes and it was pretty much a unanimous request, will you be president?”

As president she’s stood behind SBN’s growing commitment to

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Exhale • Summer 2011

sustainable business practices in Boston. She and Hammel developed a Sustainable Business Leadership Program where business owners work through a six-step program. They secured funding through the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the Air Pollution Control Commission and have enrolled more than 100 Greater Boston businesses in the program.

Labandibar has a reputation for being what Hammel describes as a “doer.”

“If she has a fault,” says Hammel, “and I’m always hammering on this — it’s that she’s always thinking she’s not doing enough, and I’m saying, ‘Susan you need to sleep. That counts!’ She’s so committed to making these things happen; she sees so many ways to help; she has such passion for it, she’s always looking to do more; because of that she does some magical stuff.”

Monthly CEO roundtables were another idea that she and Hammel

If we could clone Susan, at least four or five more times, the world would be a lot better place. worked on creating, and once they decided they were going to make this a SBN initiative, Landibar showed up with a group of about a dozen entrepreneurs from her extended circle of peers.

Bing Broderick of the Haley House was one of them. He joined the roundtable to swap ideas and notes with other community leaders and Labandibar quickly had the Haley House enrolled and certified in the Sustainable Business Leadership Program.

“Her level of commitment is really admirable,” says Broderick. “Her commitment to causes; her commitment to her work and her business; and her commitment to the SBN between working on the Local Food Festival, and all of the events,” he says, “she’s committed to supporting the little guy and supporting them so that they can thrive.”

He says it was hard to share a story that demonstrated the immense impact that she has on the Boston community.

“She’s someone who works in subtle ways,” says Broderick, “She’s very much a behind the scenes person, connecting people, making things happen but not really taking the glory for it.”

Hammel says she has other traits that he jokingly explained should be cloned. “I would just say that if we could clone Susan, at least four or five more times, the world would be a lot better place,” says Hammel. “I think we could definitely use a lot more Susan Labandibars.”=

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Profile

After giving up a coveted job at Christieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s to become a social worker, Julie Burns devised a unique model for helping families in need Photos courtesy of Room to Grow

52

Exhale â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 2011

By Sandra Larson ulie Burns was working as a therapist in the child and adolescent division of the Karen Horney Clinic in New York when she sensed she could do more to help troubled families. “I wanted to reach families before the problems emerged,” she explains, speaking over the noise of a bustling cafe in New York’s Soho district.

She could see that the behavioral, emotional and cognitive issues she was treating had their roots far earlier in life. So she wondered, what was out there to help new mothers, especially those facing the myriad of obstacles that accompany poverty? She thought there must be a preventative strategy, a way to strengthen parent-child bonds at the beginning, “rather than addressing these ills when the child was already 5, 6, 7 and up.”

This was in 1996, not long after she had completed her master’s degree in social work at New York University. She was surprised to find few social services available for low-income families with children 0 to 3 years old, a critical age range that researchers say is key to a child’s later development.

A seed was planted. An entrepreneurial side she hadn’t known she possessed began to emerge.

“I saw that I could really fill a niche,” she recalls.

At the same time she saw another, very practical form of aid she could offer to low-income families. She had grown up in Manhattan in an affluent family. She had attended private schools, studied art history in college and even spent five years in the rarified world of Christie’s fine art auction house before making an about-face to pursue social work. Though her new career was devoted to helping the needy, she still knew people who had plenty.

“I was in my early 30s, and all of my friends were having children,” she says. “You could see this abundance of clothing and books and toys, all of the things children need in those years. And I thought, what would they do with these items when their children had outgrown them? They were in pristine condition.”

The seed began to germinate. “It seemed like a perfect opportunity to provide material items and all of the parenting support as well,” says Burns.

She set to work. In 1998 she opened Room to Grow, an organization providing early support to families of babies born into poverty, in a donated East Harlem storefront space.

Within a year she was serving 100 clients, by herself.

Starting an organization on her own wasn’t something she had planned on.

“But it tapped something new in me,” she says. “I found I thrived on developing everything from concept to nuts and bolts.”

The model Burns devised for Room to Grow was a three-year program, engaging with women from their final trimester of pregnancy all the way to their child’s third birthday. Between 1998 and today, her initial idea has remained virtually intact.

Women are referred by their prenatal care practitioners. They must commit to coming into Room to Grow every three months for three years. At each visit, they talk with their social worker and receive needed items such as bottles, clothes, toys and books.

Today, her organization serves about 700 clients at its sites in New York and Boston. All live at or below the poverty line. Most are single mothers, though a small number of fathers participate. ^p54

exhalelifestyle.com

53

Room to Grow

O

n this particular day, Burns is battling a cold. She is short on sleep from navigating her 6-month-old baby Willa’s uneven sleep cycle while caring for her other daughter, Olivia, 6, who is off school for spring break. The cafe is unexpectedly noisy so it’s an effort to talk and hear. She is dressed casually — a peasant blouse over slim black pants, and ballet-style flats; her hair is pulled back into a simple ponytail; she wears no makeup.

With a hint of alarm, she declines to have her picture taken.

But her passion for her subject prevails. She has gamely launched in even before the waiter comes to take her order of hard-boiled eggs, whole grain toast and a big bowl of decaf latte.

The combination of counseling and material goods, Burns continues, is a unique way to foster both child development and parenting skills.

The “things” serve as prompts for the long-term guidance.

“W

e’re not just providing books,” she explains, “we’re teaching parents how to sit down and read with their children. We’re not only providing bottles, but teaching about healthy nutrition, and talking about what it means to sit down with your child at mealtime and make that a positive experience.”

One of the first supporters of Room to Grow was actress Uma Thurman, Burns’ neighbor, who happened to be pregnant with her first child at the time.

Thurman’s involvement lent a bit of star power, though Burns says she wasn’t seeking out celebrity support. “Uma was genuinely and enthusiastically interested in providing support,” she says. “She’s chaired a number of our events, and that has helped. But she’s also very much hands-on in less expected ways. Her children hold collection drives at their schools. She’s been a good friend to me and to the organization.”

As for the hectic early days in the East Harlem space, she says, “I was functioning as executive director, social worker and chief volunteer.”

In time, she hired another social worker, and in 2001 moved into the current location on W. 21st Street in the Flatiron District.

She mentions some of the early and invaluable support she received: 54

Exhale • Summer 2011

the free space, the pro bono legal assistance that sped up the process of organizing as a nonprofit, and financial support from the portrait company The Picture People that enabled her to plan and open Room to Grow’s Boston site in 2005.

Like the Flatiron site, the Boston space, at 142 Berkeley St., was designed to convey comfort and dignity to the low-income parents Room to Grow serves.

Inside, floor-to-ceiling maple shelves and drawers hold stacks of meticulously folded infant clothing and blankets in pastel colors. Saskia Epstein, the Boston site’s executive director, gives a tour. “Here we have some of the necessities: clothing, swaddling blankets, safety supplies,” she says. “But we also want to strengthen families in other ways. So over here, you also see beautiful dresses for spring Easter parties. We want families to have the pride and dignity that can come from access to these tangible resources.”

Illuminated by large windows, the cheery space could be a posh children’s boutique, except that these top-quality nearly new items are donated by individuals or collected in donation drives and sorted and arranged by volunteers. (About 2,000 volunteers help out each year, Epstein says.) Some items such as bottles and teething items must be brand-new, Epstein says, and those are often stocked through corporate donations.

Former client Jocelyn Peña, 29, recalls her first impression of the Boston site. “It was amazing,” she says. “When I walked in, and everything was there — the clothes and toys and books,” she recalls, “I was amazed. I thought, I can just come here? Wow. That was awesome.”

Peña “graduated” from the program last fall when her son, Alex, turned three. She was staying in a shelter when she came to Room to Grow, low on hope and full of fear about having a baby without the father’s help. Now, in large part because of Room to Grow’s help, her life has stabilized. “I have an apartment, I have a job and I understand my son,” she says. “I’m helping him through what he’s learning, at the same time having patience and at the same time paying my bills.”

By the end of the three-year program, families have received 130 books, about 10 per visit. Peña says she has arranged her son’s room with

Social worker Rebecca Freedman (left) of Room to Grow’s Boston office with client Taneisha Henry at the annual Mother’s Day fundraiser at the Liberty Hotel in Boston.

(Sandra Larson photo)

Julie Burns and husband Ken Burns are seen here at a Room to Grow event.

Room to Grow has made a huge difference in my life. I have become a very calm parent. I’m no longer confused. I have lots of confidence. his clothes on one side and his books on the other. It resembles Room to Grow, she says — so much so that Alex walks into it calling, “Rebecca, Re-becca,” as if he expects to see social worker Rebecca Freedman emerge from a hiding place somewhere.

At a recent Mother’s Day fundraiser in Boston, another Room to Grow client, Taneisha Henry, 24, stepped to the podium.

“Room to Grow has made a huge difference in my life,” Henry tells the audience of staff, donors and volunteers. “I have become a very calm parent. I’m no longer confused. I have lots of confidence.”

With that confidence, Henry was able to enroll in cosmetology school. She is slated to finish this year and hopes to start pursuing a career in hair styling.

Back at her table, she sums up the impact of her first year with Room to Grow.

“The material things help,” she says, “but overall, having somebody to speak to is more valuable than anything. It’s so helpful to have someone on my corner.”

R

oom to Grow was already well established when its founder met her future husband, filmmaker Ken Burns. They married in 2003, and Julie stepped into motherhood in 2005 with

the birth of Olivia. Her second daughter, Willa, was born last fall.

Burns works from home now rather than coming into the office every day. She splits her time between their Soho apartment and their home in Walpole, N.H., where Ken has lived for the past 30 years and where Olivia now attends school.

As CEO, she oversees the high-level operation and planning for Room to Grow while her executive directors and social workers handle the day-to-day site activities. She is now working with a consultant to explore how she might expand the organization to more cities.

Ken Burns, already father to two grown daughters when Olivia was born, gave his wife some wisdom on how motherhood would alter her perspective.

“He said it would be the difference between knowledge and understanding,” she explains. “And it’s true. As a social worker I had a lot of knowledge coming in. But once I had my own child I really understood on a much more visceral level what it takes to be a good parent. It helped deepen my appreciation for the extraordinary strength our clients have.

“As a mom who has had, just by good fortune, opportunities and resources, it’s still one of the hardest jobs out there. But to do it with limited resources and the challenges these families face, it’s extraordinary. I am in awe.”

Burns is grateful to have grown up with parents who were in her corner. She hopes, through Room to Grow, to pass on that gift to future generations.

When she was making school and career decisions, she says, “I had a fundamental sense that whoever I was, whatever I wanted to embark on, there would be a level of support. And I think that mirrors what we’re trying to help teach the families that come into Room to Grow: As much of a struggle as it may feel to raise your children in the confines of poverty, to enable the children to grow up with a sense of confidence and a strong identity is so vital to a constructive future.”= exhalelifestyle.com

55

Profile

Collaborative spirit and strong family ties energize Lisa Simmons in her quest to bring recognition to artists of color

L

isa Simmons, founder and president of The businesslike. At the reception, she sips wine, Color of Film Collaborative (TCOF), steps chats with guests and grabs her cell phone from to the microphone at Boston’s Stuart Street her purse to take pictures of Parr, a charismatic Playhouse to introduce radio personality and celebrity. She pauses to reply to a text message film director Russ Parr. Parr is in from Los Angeles on this from her 17-year-old son, Nick, who’s wondering rainy April evening for a one-night screening of his film, “35 what’s in the house for dinner. She alerts him to & Ticking.” hot dogs in the freezer. A small crisis resolved.

Simmons’ organization produces the Roxbury The predominantly African American crowd, International Film Festival (RIFF), an annual festival 30- and 40-somethings of both sexes, is clearly Lisa Simmons proudly stands showcasing films by and about people of color. She tells pleased to be able to mingle with Parr and view by the mantel lined with family photos in her mother’s home. the audience tonight’s event is part of a plan to expand film his work. On the phone the next day, Simmons (Sandra Larson photo) screenings beyond the four-day, late-July festival. More estimates more than 150 people attended. She is important, it is to draw attention to a problem: Many films encouraged by their excitement. “It just confirms by black directors or about black people simply aren’t seen. what we know — we need to keep bringing these films to Boston,” she says.

She says Parr’s film, about four middle-class black friends approaching 40, It’s a busy life she leads. She got home around 12:30 a.m. after taking will not be distributed in Massachusetts when it is released in May. It will go to Parr and his L.A. entourage out to dinner. Then she was up early, to drive theaters in Atlanta, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. only.

Nick to school — a chore she does daily just to have time with him — and “And this is the issue,” she says. “It’s what we are working on. We bring you to start the workday at her full-time job, director of communications for the films that wouldn’t normally come into Boston because they don’t think there are Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism. black people in Boston who want to watch these films.”

The crowd boos in protest. “Right. We need to change the perception,” she says. ith a degree in sociology, Simmons considered law “And we’re doing that, one film at a time.” school at one time, but she fell in love with acting.

Wearing a silver-gray shell and sweater over black pants, with stylish She was an actress in plays and commercials when she eyeglasses and a short, neat haircut, Simmons appears both elegant and formed The Color of Film Collaborative.

W

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Exhale • Summer 2011

Lisa Simmons and her mother Sylvia Simmons attended The Links Carnaval Masquerade Ball March 4, 2011 at the Artists for Humanity Epicenter in South Boston. (Photographer Bill Brett)

“I would go to these auditions and see people I’d never seen before. I wondered why I didn’t know all these other people of color trying out for these same roles,” she recalls. “I thought, we need to have some sort of collective.” So she formed TCOF as a communication hub to connect people: a cinematographer with a director, for instance, or a scriptwriter with a producer.

This was in 1998. Soon after, TCOF was invited to produce a film festival with ACT Roxbury, an arts development program of Madison Park Development Corporation. The 1999 Dudley Film Festival screened 14 films by people of color. From there, the screenings grew into the Roxbury Film Festival, renamed the Roxbury International Film Festival (RIFF) in 2010 to reflect the addition of films from around the world.

Simmons pulled out of the acting world (though she doesn’t rule it out for the future) and shifted her energies to filmmaking and other pursuits in arts organizing and promotion.

In 2011, the festival ( July 28-31) will include 50 features and short films, Simmons says, as well as panel discussions, workshops for filmmakers and Q & A sessions with directors. Speaking in May, she says activity is ramping up quickly; she and her team are evaluating 130 film submissions, about one in five from other countries.

S

immons grew up in Wayland, Mass., but her family has deep Boston roots, and except for attending Rutgers University and living in New York briefly when her former husband was a medical resident, she has spent most of her adult life in Boston. She lives with her son in an apartment near the Prudential Center in downtown Boston.

The place Simmons calls “home,” though, is her mother’s three-floor, six-bedroom Victorian house on Clifford Street in Roxbury, once her paternal grandparents’ home. Her parents moved there after Simmons and her siblings were grown and her father was ill. Then Simmons and her son moved in after her divorce, when Nick was 2. They lived there, along with Simmons’ parents, her sister Alison and Alison’s husband

and their twin sons until Simmons moved downtown two years ago with Nick, then 15.

“So my son is an only child, but he grew up with his cousins in an extended family,” says Simmons. “I always joke that he had five parents.”

This is nothing new in her close-knit family. Virtually an only child herself after her brother went away to college and her sister to boarding school, Simmons says she was raised by a village of sorts: grandparents, aunts and uncles, as well as the many women friends her mother met through board memberships and clubs.

Her father died last summer and her brother lives in California, but Lisa, Alison and their mother, Sylvia, talk daily (“six or seven times, some days”) and see each other every week.

On a spring Sunday afternoon at the Clifford Street house, where family photographs line every fireplace mantel and shelf, Simmons chats with her mother in the living room. Dr. Sylvia Q. Simmons, retired from her career in higher education, is now a Museum of Fine Arts trustee and educator. On this day, she has already led a morning tour at the MFA. Lisa is throwing ideas out about the upcoming RIFF. Last year, the big news was the global focus. But Simmons wants to continue to distinguish this festival from other festivals. So what will be the big idea for 2011?

“A call to action,” she ventures. Documentary submissions are pouring in, she says, on topics including marriage equality, Palestinian-Israeli relations, and atrocities in Sierra Leone. “‘You may laugh, you may cry — but you’ll want to take action,’” she says, testing the sound of it.

“What do you think?” she asks.

Her mother nods a doubtful assent. “It’s settling in,” she says.

“Who are we?” continues Lisa, brow furrowing. “Yes, we’re the largest festival in New England celebrating people of color. We’re innovative.

We have a history of social justice films ...”

“You’re socially responsible,” Sylvia offers.

Lisa considers this briefly. She lets out a loud, hearty laugh. “Now no one’s going to come!” ^p58 exhalelifestyle.com

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The Color of Film wo weeks after the Russ Parr event, Simmons leads a post-film discussion at “Dinner and a Movie,” a TCOF event presented jointly with the Haley House Café in Roxbury. The evening’s film, “Waiting for Superman,” inspires passionate conversation about what can be done to fix the crisis in public education.

Her whirl of a life is made somewhat easier by the fact that most of her pursuits — not counting the fulltime job of mom — share a common thread. Even her full-time job at the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism now includes publicizing film projects, as MOTT recently absorbed the state’s Film Office.

She is active in The Links, a national organization engaging women of color in service, where she co-chairs the local arts committee. And she recently co-founded the Boston Black Theater Collective (BBTC) with Dr. Barbara Lewis, director of UMass Boston’s William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black History and Culture. The BBTC aims to support local black theater companies by sponsoring play readings and providing technical assistance.

For Simmons, words like “collective” and “collaborative” are not just names for organizations — they pepper her speech constantly as she describes her work.

“One of the things about all the work I do, is there’s always a collaborative part. You have to work on trust, and have that collaborative spirit,” she says. “I think anytime you’re dreaming up new things you have to think, who could we partner with on this?”

And people seem to appreciate working with her.

“One of the most important things about Lisa is she respects your creative contribution,” says Terri Brown, TCOF program director. Brown also credits Simmons’ leadership with keeping the festival running even when funding is scarce. “We’ve often operated on a shoestring budget,” she says. “We’ve been faced with not having the festival — but that’s never been an option for Lisa. And I think that’s very important.”

Longtime Boston arts writer Kay Bourne works with Simmons on TCOF’s arts newsletter, the Kay Bourne Arts Report. The two became acquainted through their mutual interest in the history of black theater. Simmons has been working over the years on a documentary film about the 1930s WPA-funded Negro Theater Project in Boston. Some of the Negro Theater players were Simmons’ relatives, including her uncle, Frank Silvera. Bourne had interviewed Silvera prior to his death in 1970, so Simmons contacted her seeking information pertinent to her documentary.

Since then, they have collaborated on other black history projects, including an exploration of Boston’s black arts community during the time of the Harlem Renaissance in New York. Simmons produces high-quality work and is fun to work with, says Bourne.

“She’s very enthusiastic about this history,” she says, “though she doesn’t have time for it. She’s excited, and that helps keep you excited.”

w

hile each project she takes on is a labor of love, Simmons sometimes worries she’ll spread herself too thin. Now in her 40s, she finds anxiety creeping in about what her legacy will be. “Have I done anything?” she wonders.

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Lisa Simmons is joined by Queen Latifah at the Boston Women’s Fund 25th Anniversary “Take A Stand” Gala in May of 2010 at the Mandarin Oriental in Boston.

(Colette Greenstein photo)

Here she poses with film director Russ Parr at the Boston screening of his film, “35 & Ticking,” hosted

by The Color of Film Collaborative.

(Sandra Larson photo)

Simmons and nationally renowned artist Paul Goodnight are seen here at the Open House at Hibernian Hall in Roxbury on March 2, 2011.

(Colette Greenstein photo)

Filmmaker Thato Mwosa, for one, would say she has. For Mwosa, the Roxbury Film Festival — and Lisa Simmons — made a world of difference.

Her first film, “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me,” was shown at the 2005 festival, and she won that year’s Emerging Local Filmmaker award.

“The award gave me credibility and momentum,” Mwosa recalls in a phone interview. “To me, it was like, ‘I heard you, and your voice was strong.’ So that really propelled me to do bigger and more challenging projects.”

Simmons arranged subsequent screenings of Mwosa’s film, and in the process, connected Mwosa with people and organizations invaluable to the younger woman’s future as a filmmaker.

“I was naïve, I didn’t know how to connect with organizations,” Mwosa says. “But after that, word got out and I started getting contacted by organizations about the film. Being paid to screen a film and speak, that was incredible. I realized, ‘I am a filmmaker.’ It was huge for me.”

Now, besides being a full-time filmmaker, Mwosa, 30, is nurturing the next generation at Madison Park Vocational Technical High School.

Her students have just completed film projects, and she will help them submit their work for consideration in RIFF’s youth film section.

“Everyone I know who’s a filmmaker in Boston knows Lisa, and they go to her for help,” Mwosa says. “For filmmakers of color, there is no support anywhere else in Boston. Films that touch on minority issues ... there isn’t a platform for them. The Roxbury festival gives us a platform. It gives us a voice.”=

Profile

Emma Graham Designs Photos courtesy of Emma Graham Designs

clothing with a classic twist

Jackie Graham and Emma Mahon grew up together in the leafy Boston suburb of Winchester.

Though they attended colleges in different states, they remained close friends. So close that they decided to forego the conventional job search after their graduations and chose to start their own fashion company â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Emma Graham Designs. ^p60

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Emma Graham Designs clothing with a classic twist

T

wo years later, amid the Great Recession, the risk has appeared to pay off for Graham, a graduate of Babson College, and Mahon, a graduate of University of South Carolina.

Mahon describes their clothing line, aimed at young women, as being “good quality, classic, but with a twist.”

It began simply enough. What was only an idea quickly evolved into a start-up company after Mahon started sewing dresses for her friends in college and realized she could make a career out of it. Graham’s business sense was a perfect complement to Mahon’s fashion sense.

With a pot of about $12,000 from savings and college graduation gifts, Graham and Mahon set out in August 2009 to begin marketing their clothing line. With clothing samples in tow, they traveled up and down the East Coast for eight straight weeks, hosting trunk shows at about 30 colleges and selling merchandise out of their car.

Graham admits that it was those trips that gave her and Mahon the validation they needed that there was a significant market for their merchandise. Since then, the 24 year olds have not looked back.

“Both of us love what we’re doing,” Mahon says. “We manage to make it fun and figure it out. It’s long hours, but it’s cool to see what you’ve singlehandedly done.”

Graham and Mahon moved from Boston to New York City in October of 2010 in hopes of growing the business — and learning the ropes — in one of the world’s most fashioned-obsessed cities.

Their 2011 spring/summer fashion collection made its debut last February and consists mainly of brightly colored dresses and skirts with a touch of added detail in the form of big bows, colored zippers and beading. The pieces are made from such fabrics as Italian silk charmeuse, chiffon and silk shantung.

Though the spring/summer line has been in boutiques for about five months, the work has not stopped for Graham and Mahon. They plan to add a few more summer pieces before launching their fall 2011 Campus Collection.

Created with thoughts of college homecomings, the dresses and skirts are expected to meet the demand for chic, game-day apparel — all in school colors.

Emma Graham Designs are popular among college women and has become a recognizable brand. Lauren Semsar, a junior at Clemson University in South Carolina, is one of the company’s 35 design consultants. As such, she promotes the brand around campus and hosts trunk shows showcasing the most recent designs.

Initially, Semsar heard about Emma Graham Designs through her sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. “I was attracted to [the] brand because it allows customers to custom order dresses and skirts,” she says.

Semsar says she is busiest during football season and in the spring for formals. “[Emma Graham] gives students the chance to express themselves in a dress with a color combination that they have put together,” she says.

That’s music to Emma Graham’s ears. “When customers are happy with the final product, that’s the time I’m probably the most happy,” Graham says.

Both readily admit that navigating the fashion industry has had its ups and downs. Of all the lessons they have learned in creating and running a start-up business, Mahon says that one of the most important is having the patience to allow extra time for “everything,” from the initial sewing of the sample size to the production and distribution details.

As it is now, Emma Graham Designs can be found in 60 select boutiques, primarily along the East Coast, including Mint Julep in Brookline and Cambridge, First Date Boutique in Andover and Island Outfitters in Edgartown. Eventually, they hope to expand westward and have a strong presence on more college 60

Exhale • Summer 2011

campuses and boutiques. “As our market expands, we hope to continue to grow with them,” Graham adds.

Graham and Mahon have proven that it is possible to have an impact in the world of fashion. “You just have to go for it,” Mahon says. “Otherwise, you’ll have regrets.” = For more information, visit emmagrahamdesigns.com.

SPRING/SUMMER

LOOKS

Profile

Glamour Photo courtesy of

The issue not only made history — it made money, selling more than two million copies worldwide.

K

atiti Kironde’s first splash in the fashion world was historic. The August 1968 college issue of Glamour magazine, featuring Kironde’s high cheekbones and bright smile, marked the first appearance of a black woman on the cover of a major fashion magazine.

The issue not only made history — it made money, selling more than two million copies worldwide. The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) selected the issue as one of the top covers in the last 40 years, sharing billing with such iconic images as a black-clad Yoko Ono enfolded in John Lennon’s naked embrace on a 1981 Rolling Stone cover.

“Both the choice of a cover and the execution of a cover are crucial for any magazine,” said ASME President Mark Whitaker when the winners were announced. “Every editor wants their cover to stand out.” Glamour’s certainly did, serving as a barometer for grudging acceptance of African Americans into the social, economic and fashion mainstream at the tail-end of the civil rights movement.

Leaping off the magazine racks at 50 cents a copy, Kironde’s issue appeared with the teaser “The 10 Best-Dressed College Girls” next to the fashion ingenue’s swept-up hair, pearl earrings and paisley scarf. Kironde, the daughter of a Ugandan diplomat, made the cover after being encouraged by a family friend who was editor-in-chief of Mademoiselle magazine to enter a Glamour contest to select America’s most fashionable coeds.

Three months after Kironde’s groundbreaking achievement, Naomi Sims landed on the front page of the Ladies’ Home Journal — the first black professional model to crack the barrier. Beverly Johnson and others would follow but it was a fashion unknown — an 18-year-old African aristocrat — who first broke through the glossy ceiling after a chance encounter at a diplomatic reception.

While putting her in the spotlight, it also prompted hate-mail in a nation roiling with the transition from civil rights to black power and still recovering from the widespread riots following the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. “I received a few nasty notes,” she says. ^p62

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From cover girl to fashion scholar

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Exhale • Summer 2011

At the retail level, Kironde’s crisply designed shirts immediately struck Annette Duclos, owner of Looks Clothing in Cambridge, when she first saw a sample. “When you look at her white shirts,” you think ‘white shirt,’ and then the details of the small collar and beautiful cuffs and a tuck there and a pleat here become apparent,” she says. “And soon you realize this is not just any white shirt but one that you may just want to wear every day.”

Kironde makes an impression consonant with her designs — the attributes of accent, attitude and altitude combining in an impressive whole. “When you meet this tall, beautiful, smart and engaging woman,” adds Duclos, “you wonder about her immediately and then she starts talking and asking you all kinds of questions and you realize that what you are seeing is a person fully engaged in the world and aware of her presence and her ability to make things happen.”

Photo graph er Mic hael D iskin

t the time of the fashion spread, Kironde was applying to Harvard after attending a British boarding school and spending a college year in St. John’s, Newfoundland. In spite of many offers, she declined a full-time plunge into the modeling world, passing up the blandishments of dieting and dollars to pursue an education at Harvard. She has lived in Cambridge ever since.

While doing a few runway and photo gigs in college, she never made much money and what was quickly earned was just as quickly spent. “I was always interested in the world behind the world — what really made the industry work,” says Kironde.

Working part time after marriage to a Harvard doctor and raising three children in the melting pot neighborhoods around Harvard Square, Kironde designed children’s clothes and started a full-time fashion career — this time in the design and management end of the business — when her youngest entered school.

A 30-year global career in design and production with some of the biggest names in the industry, including the House of Bianchi, Laura Ashley and the Marmaxx Group, owners of the T.J. Maxx blockbuster chain, led to the launch last fall of her own line.

“Starting my own label grew out of my own experience as both consumer and designer,” says Kironde during an interview over grilled tenderloin and roasted asparagus at her elegantly appointed Cambridge home. “The first step was what every woman needs — ‘the essential white shirt.’ Every season, everyone wants a great white shirt, one that is special, that is crisp, that’s got style, that’s got fashion.”

Kironde’s hand waves dismissively, her British-inflected voice tinkling like the family crystal atop the linen tablecloth. “A lot of designers glom on a bunch of frills, but I wanted to take a shirt and give it fashion without simply putting ruffles on it.” The details of thread count, stitching, swatches, tear-sheets, factory selection, distribution and marketing for knitwear, bridal gowns, tops and blouses roll off her tongue with military precision. She’s a quartermaster of style, versed in production from design inception to the retail racks of high-end boutiques.

“Katiti is an exceptionally confident modern woman of firsts,” says Yolita Nugent, president of the fashion line No-Contact LLC and a former colleague of Kironde’s from T.J. Maxx. “People notice her wherever she goes. She has taken the symbol of the classic white tailored shirt for women and breathed her vibrant essence into it.”

Lest anyone think Kironde’s plunge into the entrepreneurial waters came at tough time in the industry, the apparel industry last year was the nation’s fastest-growing — for the first time in history — adding a higher percentage of jobs than any other. Despite the troubled economy, U.S. retail sales at clothing and accessory stores increased 4.7 percent to $218.33 billion in 2010, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

So far, her roll of the dice is paying off. The first phase — distributing the shirts in boutiques — has attracted press attention as well as interest from department stores. Challenges remain, however, to obtain financing to expand the line and achieve a wider distribution.

Katiti Kironde with daughter, granddaughter and Vanity Fair photographer Annie Leibovitz at a California reception. (Photo courtesy of Katiti Kironde)

It runs in the family. Her great-grandfather, Sir Apollo Kaggwa, the first African knighted by the British court, played a crucial role in shepherding Uganda from a hereditary kingdom to a semi-constitutional monarchy during the era of British colonialism. As chief minister to the king, he deftly juggled economic, political and ethnic rivalries in an environment in which disagreements with colonial authorities were usually settled by the sharp retort of Enfield rifles.

Both the son and grandson of Sir Apollo devoted their careers to preserving the East African territory’s autonomy under British rule, serving in high office to the Kabaka, or monarch of the Buganda kingdom, before and after World War II and into the post-colonial period. Kironde’s father,

Apollo Kironde, the first African admitted to the bar and the first to serve as a minister in the colonial government, played a crucial role in winning the return of the Kabaka from exile in the 1950s and in 1961 was appointed Uganda’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York.

“I was very aware of politics growing up, both in Uganda and in Europe,” says Kironde. “I was very proud of my family and all they tried to accomplish under very difficult conditions.” Since its independence, Uganda has gone through several periods of instability — first under Milton Obote, then Idi Amin — but Kironde has remained devoted to her homeland, launching the Kironde Education and Health Fund to provide electricity, clean water and education to villagers living in the rural community of Kigalama.

She and her second husband, William Winder, an architect and her business partner, traveled to Uganda last year to launch their first project. She hopes to return soon with her grandchildren.

“I try to encourage them as much as possible to see the world, to learn what’s going on around them,” says Kironde. “I was tremendously lucky to attend school in five countries — Uganda, Switzerland, the U.K., Canada and the U.S. Those experiences contributed enormously to who I am and what I’ve done.”

Kironde’s global awareness, facility with languages, love of travel and acute political instincts have led to the salons and runways of Paris, Milan and Florence as well as the textile and assembly factories of the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. She has designed new lines, sourced raw materials, selected dyes, overseen production lines, performed quality control and organized showings for buyers and reviewers.

Kironde draws on that expertise in teaching a design course at Fisher College in Boston as well as a seminar at her alma mater.

“Introduction to Fashion” has proved wildly popular among Harvard undergraduates. Covering the history, technology and business of the industry, the course follows the trajectory of Kironde’s own career.

“It’s not just about looking at pretty clothes,” she says. “I mean the course is to be both informative and inspiring. There’s much more to fashion than meets the eye. It’s history, culture, a slice of life itself — one that I’ve been very fortunate to be a part of.”=

“The first step was what every woman needs — ‘the essential white shirt.’ Every season, everyone wants a great white shirt, one that is special, that is crisp, that’s got style, that’s got fashion.”

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Fashion

is color a

fashion

trend?

By Emily Banis Stoehrer

By Emily Banis Stoehrer

ver since the economic downturn in 2007 and the Madoff scandal that followed, fashion magazines have been boasting neutral colors and investment pieces.

However, with the spring/summer 2011 collections came a trend that made my head turn. Color. Trend forecasters were not referring to any particular color that would be popular this season, rather just color in general.

Can color be a trend? Isn’t wearing color always fashionable?

It usually takes time for these trends to trickle down to the general public and even longer before they are embraced by Bostonians, but that is not the case this season. Consider brands that are known for their neutral (black, white, tan and gray) color palate.

For example, Akris, Burberry, and even the minimalist brand Jil Sander, now led by Raf Simons, rarely use color in their collections.

However, this season their shops are filled with bright (in some cases even neon) colors. Forecasters are calling them hyper-colors.

What is this about?

It seems to me that shoppers are tired of the humdrum neutrals they have been buying for the last few years and ready for a more optimistic aesthetic. This is a welcome change, particularly in New England where long and dismal winter weather leaves us tired of gray and ready for something more uplifting. Fear not, this summer is all about green, orange and blue!

What is it about color that impacts our mood? Red is probably the color that first comes to mind. When you have an important meeting and need to feel powerful and in control, you may choose red to help boost your confidence.

Bill Blass was known to have quipped, “When in doubt, wear red!” Color associations have a long history and in some cases strict sumptuary laws dictated who was allowed to wear certain colors.

Consider the color purple. Reflected in such long-forgotten phrases as being “born in the purple,” and “tyrian purple,” once only the wealthiest were allowed access to this rare and expensive dyestuff. While you are on the beach this summer, be on the lookout for mollusk shells. To make this historically important color, hundreds of thousands of these shellfish were collected from

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Exhale • Summer 2011

the Mediterranean region just to dye a single robe a deep purple.

No wonder the color was reserved for the royals! The penalty for wearing such forbidden color could be death (and you thought that the Running of the Brides was dangerous.)

White was also seen on the catwalks this season. In opposition to the typical black, it looks fresh when paired with the season’s bright colors. Even black lovers like Rick Owens are turning to white this season.

While many shy away from the color, reserved for the classic white shirt, wedding dress and other rites of passage, this season you should give it a try.

It has a classicism associated with it going back to the togas of ancient Greece and Rome, and the pristine canvas has an angelic quality that looks great on all skin tones. First ladies Jacqueline Kennedy and Michelle Obama both chose to wear the color to the Inaugural Ball of their husbands.

It stands out against the more subdued colors typically worn to such lavish affairs. Even Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, best known for her ubiquitous little black dress, went though a period

in the 1930s when she was known for her frothy white evening gowns.

Easier said than done? On the catwalk, designers and stylists paired bright tops with equally vibrant bottoms. Translate this in your own wardrobe by adding pops of color to your existing wardrobe. Style.com reminds readers that “brights look great with black,” so choose an orange cardigan over your usual black one or blue sandals instead of beige. While you may not be ready to embrace an all white wardrobe, choose white accessories or replace black basics with this equally classic color.

As you transition into your fall wardrobe, maintain your new relationship with brights. The shade of color may darken as we move toward October, but you will be amazed how color can change your outlook.

This season find solace in knowing you can get away with wearing any color under the sun. You’ll want memories of these bright colors next February when you are dressed head to toe in Gortex and shoveling your driveway.=

Brooke Peterso

n photos

s photo

Prada spring/summer 2011. Getty Image

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65

Thinking about

buying some

artwork?

Suzanne Schultz, owner/CEO of Canvas Fine Arts, shares

Things

you should

know

Lisa Beane photo

Advertisement

Now Open Art of the Americas Wing

Cesar Paternosto, Staccato (detail), 1965. Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Leigh and Stephen Braude Fund for Latin American Art. © CP.

Museum of Fine Arts Boston mfa.org

1. Art is not a luxury.

Art fulfills our needs for expression and contemplation, something that evokes thought and feeling. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but to hang an original work on your wall adds substance to your home, and in this world of mass production it’s something that belongs just to you.

3. The gallery is a great place to get an education. Take time to visit galleries in your city. Get to know the staff and learn about the artists they represent.

2. Trust your taste. You know what you like; don’t be afraid to trust yourself.

4. The gallery is not the only place to find art. Visit open studios and meet the artists. Check your event listing guide and you will find many artists showing in hotels, restaurants and furniture stores, which allows the opportunity to see art hung in a homelike setting. Also, local charities often have art auctions which allow you to purchase a work and support a cause.

5. Have fun! My collection started many years ago and even though my tastes have changed throughout the years, I still love every piece and it tells a story of who I was then and who I am becoming.

Advertisement 24x24 ea. acrylic on canvas

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By Margo Ouellette “Margo Ouellette is a local artist from Boston whose art is influenced by her architectural background, her passion for color and her Native American heritage.

Her art is displayed from Boston to Miami in prominent galleries, high end retail stores, and is in the Presidential Art Collection.”

Margo’s art is currently on display at L’attitude Gallery, 211 Newbury Street, Boston, MA.

Represented by Canvas Fine Arts. Contact suzanne@canvasfinearts.com or www.margoart.com

Fashion and style makeovers are popular in today’s society and there are many TV shows dedicated to changing people’s lives by giving them makeovers. However, a makeover should be more than changing one’s outer appearance. It must also include evaluating one’s inner self-image.

We have enlisted the help of Marianna Toroyan and Ruby Natale Andrew, also known as The Fashion Doctors, who run a fashion and self-image consulting team.

We will chronicle one woman’s goals and the process she goes through to achieve them during a three-month period.

Andrew Swaine Photog raphy

By Dr. Ruby Natale Anderson and Dr. Marianna Toroyan

What makes a person feel totally confident and self-assured?

The answer to this question is endless. For some, it may be physical appearance. For others, it is your inner-self that shines through.

Ariel Fusaro, a 22-year-old recent college graduate of Bay State College, believes that her success is being hindered by her lack of self-esteem. When Ariel was asked what she thought would help her become more confident, she said that there were three things that she would like to change about herself.

1 2 3

She would like to conquer her challenges that she has had with her skin condition.

tologist.

Jeffrey Dover derma Ariel meeting with Dr.

ow Foll gress on ge pro ook pa s ’ l e Ari s Faceb le.com esty ale’ Exh xhalelif or e 68

Exhale • Summer 2011

She would like to find her own personal style.

She would like to be able to speak with confidence while interviewing for her dream job as a visual merchandiser.

After hearing all of Ariel’s concerns, The Fashion Doctors decided to enlist the help of Dr. Jeffrey S. Dover, a Boston-based dermatologist and Terri Mahn, a freelance wardrobe consultant and owner of the Stylist Closet, to join them on their journey to transform Ariel into a self-confident fashion professional.

Over the next few months, Ariel will be meeting with The Fashion Doctors on a weekly basis and blogging about her successes and challenges. Pick up the fall issue to see the results of Ariel’s makeover.

Open up a wOrld Of fun with the click Of a buttOn.

“

like” us on facebook and you’ll be the first to know about exclusive specials, discounts and promotions because you’ll get them right in your facebook feed. now it’s even easier to have fun in Massachusetts.

TO GET INSTANT ACCESS TO DAILY DEALS, ”LIKE” US AT FACEBOOK.COM/VISITMASSACHUSETTS

photo credit: kindra clineff/MOtt

Travel

North Shore to Cape Cod’s beaches; the farms of central Massachusetts to the Berkshires, it’s all here. With an abundance of museums to explore, culinary delights to try and fun places to stay, Massachusetts offers something for everyone in the family.

From the coast line of the

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Exhale • Summer 2011

In Boston, grab a bird’s eye view of Boston and beyond at the Top of the Hub Skywalk Observatory that offers a 360-degree view of the entire city. On a clear day you can see 100 miles into the distance. Head back down the 52 floors and find your way to Faneuil Hall Marketplace, where you can feast and shop. Just across the way is the New England Aquarium, not far from the North End and walking distance to the Boston Children’s Museum. From here you can check out the Institute of Contemporary Art that sits right on Boston Harbor. If you are interested in getting out of the city for a day or two grab the ferry to Spectacle Island where you can snack at the clam shack and enjoy the beach. Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo offers the chance to observe wildlife from all over the world. For sports lovers, Fenway Park is one of Massachusetts’ most prized possessions — be sure to grab some tickets or go on a tour.

Cambridge, just over the bridge from Boston is home to world renowned institutions, MIT and Harvard University, that both sit on the banks of the Charles River.

Just north and northwest of Boston there are wonderful attractions to take advantage of from Walden Pond in Concord to the Salem Witch Museum with life-size figures and spine chilling narration where families are brought back to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. For family adventure and excitement visit the CoCo Key Hotel and Water Resort in Danvers. This wet and wild getaway is one of the largest indoor water parks in the country. For an amazing culinary experience, travel north of Boston and

embark on the Seafood Trail where you will be delighted by an array of seafood offerings from more than 53 restaurants.

Experience the beauty of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island where you will find beautiful beaches, world class resorts and golf courses, as well as a rich history of Massachusetts. Check out the African American Meeting House on Nantucket and spend time exploring the quaint shops and beaches. Martha’s Vineyard offers many activities to make your vacation memorable from the gingerbread houses to the clay cliffs of Aquinnah. Cape Cod, from Bourne to Provincetown, is rich with history and attractions from the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum to the oyster farms in Dennis and Wellfleet.

Central Massachusetts is a great place to experience a farm-to-table culinary experience at one of the many farms, wineries and breweries in the area as well as to take a journey through time at Old Sturbridge Village where families are taken back to the 17th century. In addition, the Worcester Art Museum offers rich history and is a place where you can marvel at the magnificent floor mosaics. Looking for a relaxing, exciting afternoon? Then head over to the Fruitlands Museum in the town of Harvard where you will discover the heritage of Native Americans, as well as an extensive art exhibits and the natural habitat. The EcoTarium provides a great deal of fun for families as they journey through the galaxy at the Asden Digital Planetarium and explore nature trails and observe wildlife.

South of Boston is home to Plimouth Plantation, a living history museum where you can walk amongst the Wampanoag Indian Tribe and the colonial community of the 1600s. This region is also home to the historic city of New Bedford where you can explore the history of whaling at the New Bedford Whaling Museum and see aquatic life at the Ocean Explorium.

Perhaps you want to watch the Brockton Rox, a minor league professional baseball team, at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton. If you are into old naval destroyers, take a trip to Fall River where you can climb on board Battleship Cove and experience life in a submarine.

In Western Massachusetts where the hills and mountains are as abundant as the arts and culture, you can hike up Mount Greylock, zipline across a dense canopy and whitewater raft down the Deerfield River. You can also enjoy a Boston Symphony Orchestra concert on the lawn at Tanglewood and browse through the many antique stores that pepper these bucolic towns.

For family fun, visit Six Flags New England, which was recently voted to have the Best Steel Rollercoaster in the country, Dr. Seuss’ birthplace or the Dr. Seuss National memorial Sculpture Garden at the Springfield Museums. Also in Springfield, stop by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame or The Zoo in Forest Park. Don’t miss touring around the college towns of Amherst and Northampton.= Content provided by Mass. Office of Travel and Tourism.

For a complete online listing of events, accommodations and things to do by region this summer, click on www.massvacation.com.

Be sure to look for specials like “50 Great Things To Do Under $50” and the Mass Insider discount program. exhalelifestyle.com

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Evelyn Lauder, Nancy and Rick Kelleher and Myra Biblowit Ted and Simone Winston, co-chairs of the Boston Heart Ball, pose with Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck and his wife Corinne.

More than 200 business executives, entrepreneurs and professionals mingled May 24 at Get Konnected!, Boston’s premier bi-monthly urban professionals and business networking event. The evening’s event sponsored by Eastern Bank and The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, celebrated National Small Business Month.

Featured guests included State Treasurer Steve Grossman; Robert Rivers, president of Eastern Bank; and Carole Cornelison, the newly appointed commissioner of the Division of Capital Asset Management for the Commonwealth. (Dimonika Photography)

The Boston Heart Ball took on April 30 at the Westin Copley Place. The American Heart Association raised $1 million dollars for research and education through the event auction and sponsorship.

Highlights included performances by NBC’s “The Sing Off” contestants and Berklee College a cappella group, “Pitch Slapped” and Open Your Heart Appeal by Carleton Smith, who suffered cardiac arrest at the 25th mile of the Boston Marathon. The event theme “I Heart” was presented by Rafanelli events and décor by Winston Flowers. (Howie Hecht and Jim Conviser photo)

Channel 5 continued its annual “Kelley for Ellie” event at the Boston Harbor Hotel on June 6 to fight breast cancer. “Kelley for Ellie” is an annual fashion show which benefits the Ellie Fund, a Needham-based nonprofit organization that provides transportation to medical appointments, childcare, housekeeping, groceries and meals free of charge to more than 500 breast cancer patients in Massachusetts each year. The “Kelley” is the much loved Kelley Tuthill, reporter for Channel 5 who was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2006. She has turned her personal fight into a campaign to help other women battling cancer.

(Michael Blanchard photos)

Voices and Visions 2011 More than 1,000 people were at the Seaport World Trade Center May 25 to celebrate the creative artwork and writing of children served by The Home’s residential programs. In addition to the exhibit, the evening included a silent auction, dinner and program. As part of the celebration, honored were Rick Loughlin, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage New England and Stephen Pemberton, divisional vice president and chief diversity officer of Walgreens. (Michael Blanchard photos)

Steve Pemberton, recipient of the Sabin

o Marinella Award

e-Benjamin and The Home’s President and CEO Joan Wallac .

WCVB-TV’s Liz Brunner sing with the Voices

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Russell Jackson with son of

honoree Steve Pemberton

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s Sixth Annual Boston Hot Pink Party, held at the Museum of Fine Arts May 17, was a huge success raising more than $1.14 million for breast cancer research in the New England community. Evelyn Lauder, founder and chairman, presented the 2011 Humanitarian Award to Nancy and Rick Kelleher for their active philanthropic work supporting numerous charitable causes throughout the New England community.

Saran Kaba Jones (center) and friends

(Michael Blanchard photos)

FACE Africa Executive Director and 2011 Voss Foundation Women Helping Women honoree, Saran Kaba Jones, VOSS Water CEO Jack Belsitoand Voss Foundation Executive Director Kara Gerson

Event Vice-Chairs: Sandy Krakoff, Judie Schlager and Dr. Carolyn Kaelin

Event Co-Chairs: Linda Waintrup, Elisha Daniels, Donna Stearns and Andrea Brooks

Event chair Amy Canepa Donahue of VOSS Water (left) with friends

Susan Wornick and NE Patriot Wes Welker Shayna Seymour

Fashion Designer Nara Paz showcased some of her luxurious designs at the 29th Annual Newbury Street League Gala/Auction 2011. Newbury Street League was founded in 1972 as a nonprofit business association dedicated to improving, beautifying, marketing and promoting Newbury Street.

Left to right: Matsu Boutique owner Aya Muramatsu; Dava Muramatsu; lead model for Nara Paz, Morga n Furber; Nara Paz; and Vicky VieBrooks

On June 9, the Voss Foundation held its first Women Helping Women event in Boston at Woodward at Ames to raise funds to provide access to clean water to Sub-Saharan African communities. The event honored FACE Africa Executive Director Saran Kaba Jones as Voss Foundation’s Women Helping Women 2011 honoree. Guests enjoyed wine donated by Greenvale Vineyards, champagne from Moet-Chandon, and VOSS Artesian Water from Norway. Founded by VOSS Water in 2008 as an independent 501c3 public charity, the Voss Foundation has helped to change the lives of over 100,000 people in Kenya, Mali, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Through its new partnership with FACE Africa, the Voss Foundation extends its clean water efforts to Liberia.

(Braden Summer photos)

Matsu Boutique, at 264 Newbury St., hosted a trunk show in April featuring fashion designer Nara Paz. Paz, a Brazilian native, is a high-end designer known for her unusual textiles, luxurious fabrics and attention to detail. She has dressed many fabulous women in Boston including Sen. Scott Brown’s wife, Gayle Huff, for the White House Christmas Ball and an E! Entertainment hostess for the Academy Awards this year.

Sakia Bergmans, Nara Paz and Emily Banis Stoehrer, a private client and book author

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Les 7 Doigts De La Main (The 7 Fingers) Performing PSY

(David Poulin photo) PSY is a French-Canadian merging of acrobatics of the body with acrobatics of the mind. It is an astonishingly physical and energetic work that delves into the murky world of the subconscious, depicting a rich psychological dreamscape through the often surreal, incomparable language of the circus arts.

Cutler Majestic Theatre 219 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02116 Reserved tickets start at $25. For more information, visit artsemerson.org.

July 12-24

Tarzan — Disney’s High Flying Musical Spectacular

July 15

Bastille Day Street Party

This year’s Bastille Day celebration features two incredible francophone acts: Caravan Palace, with its irresistible gypsy jazz and electro-swing rhythms, and Yoro Ndiaye and his Afro-pop band, with its dazzling new take on Senegal’s popular mbalax dance music. Back Bay’s beautiful Marlborough Street will be blocked off to accommodate 2,000 revelers, celebrating freedom, community, cultural diversity and the friendship between nations. French food and drinks will also be available for sale from area restaurants, making this the only street party of its kind in Boston. Bastille Day is presented by the French Cultural Center.

Marlborough Street between Berkeley and Clarendon streets Boston, MA 02116 Tickets are $28. For more information, visit www.worldmusic.org.

July 28

Alison Krauss & Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas

Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theater 270 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02116 Tickets are $39.50-$69.50. For more information, visit www.citicenter.org/ paperairplane or call 866-348-9738.

July 28-31

The 13th Annual Roxbury International Film Festival

(Lisa Gossels photos)

Cultural Calendar

July 12-24

July 25

Oumou Sangare

Audiences of all ages will marvel as the jungle comes to life when North Shore Music Theatre presents “Tarzan,” the musical based on the popular 1999 Disney film and beloved story by Edgar Rice Burroughs. “Tarzan” features the songs from Disney’s film as well as many new songs written specifically for the Broadway production. The show’s Grammy Award-winning musical score, written by singer/songwriter Phil Collins, sets the jungle beat for this high flying musical.

North Shore Music Theatre 62 Dunham Road #1 Beverly, MA 01915 For more information, call 978-232-7200 or e-mail bosales@nsmt.org.

Exhale • Summer 2011

One of Mali’s most beloved singers, Oumou Sangare returns to Boston for the first time in over a decade. She has a gift for elevating traditional music to subtle, nuanced, contemporary pop. She is recognized as the “songbird of Wassoulou,” the region of southern Mali known for its bluesy rhythms and melodies. With a gloriously clear alto voice, Sangare is more than just a powerful, expressive singer. Her forceful polyrhythmic grooves and call-and-response songs pack a powerful message asking for change and speaking out against the struggles of women and children in Africa today.

The Paradise Rock Club 967 Commonwealth Ave Boston, MA 02215 Tickets are $25 in advance and $28 on the day of the show. For more information, visit www.worldmusic.org.

The Roxbury International Film Festival (RIFF), New England’s largest film festival, is dedicated to celebrating people of color. Presented by The Color of Film Collaborative, RIFF will screen more than 50 films including features, shorts, documentaries and youth-produced works over the course of four days. Some of the highlights at this year’s festival include the documentaries: Rudy Hypolite’s “Push: Madison Versus Madison,” Lisa Gossels’ “My So-Called Enemy” and “Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and The Fight for Fairness.” The screenings will be held at various venues in and around the Roxbury community including: Museum of Fine Arts, Northeastern University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Roxbury Center for Arts at Hibernian Hall, The Annex Auditorium at Wentworth College and The Haley House Bakery Café.

To purchase tickets, festival passes and for more information on special guests and other festival events, visit www.roxburyfilmfestival.org.

This three-hour excursion will take place aboard the Spirit of Boston. Guests will be treated to a special dinner and live jazz by some of Boston’s world class recording artists.

The Seaport World Trade Center 200 Seaport Boulevard Boston, MA 02210 Tickets are $150-$200. For more information, call 617-615-6361.

August 3-7

2011 Festival of Contemporary Music

August 20

Film Night at Tanglewood

Directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning Charles Wuorinen, the six-program festival will feature two world premiere performances including Mr. Wuorinen’s “It Happens Like This,” a dramatic, semi-staged 35-minute cantata for four singers and 12 instrumentalists set to six selections from James Tate’s “Return to the City of White Donkeys” (2004), which will open the festival on Aug. 3, and will be conducted by James Levine.

297 West Street Lenox, MA 01240 For more information about the 2011 Tanglewood season, visit www.tanglewood. org or call SymphonyCharge at 888-2661200. Tanglewood continues to offer free lawn tickets to young people age 17 and under and a 50 percent discount on lawn tickets to college and graduate students.

August 16-28 Footloose!

Inspired by the wildly popular 1984 movie, “Footloose!” thrilled Broadway audiences for nearly two years and the stage show has entertained millions around the world over the past decade. It’s a story of American spirit — a carefree city kid transplanted to a conservative rural town where rock ‘n’ roll and dancing are forbidden. “Footloose” features all of the charttopping music from the film and also features material written specifically for the stage. Stars George Dvorsky as Rev. Shaw Moore.

North Shore Music Theatre 62 Dunham Road #1 Beverly, MA 01915 For more information, call the Box Office at 978-232-7200 or e-mail bosales@nsmt.org.

One of the season’s most enduring and popular traditions, the annual Film Night concert celebrates the music of the movies. This summer, John Williams is joined by frequent collaborator Gil Shaham in a program featuring film music arranged for violin and orchestra. Also on the program will be Williams’ nostalgic evocation of early 20th century America, “The Reivers,” with special guest narrator, Morgan Freeman.

Tanglewood Shed 297 West Street Lenox, MA 01240 For more information about the 2011 Tanglewood season, visit www.tanglewood.org or call SymphonyCharge at 888-266-1200. Tanglewood continues to offer free lawn tickets to young people age 17 and under and a 50 percent discount on lawn tickets to college and graduate students.

August 21

August 25

Boston Carnival 2011 Kiddies Carnival

Brad Mehldau

This carnival is a day of fun for children and their families. There is room for 10,000 people in White Stadium. While there, enjoy the other entertainment such as the sounds of the steel band, face painting and the Caribbean cuisine.

White Stadium Pierpont Road Roxbury, MA 02119

August 25

Boston Carnival 2011 King & Queen Show

The King & Queen Show features large costumes which are part of each band’s presentation for the season. This is the only opportunity for the audience to experience a close-up view of the costumes. Many in the audience wonder if the individuals parading the costumes can really maneuver them as easily as they do. Entertainment is provided by steel bands, local artists and an assortment of international Soca artists.

Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center 1350 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02120

One of the most lyrical and intimate voices of contemporary jazz piano, Brad Mehldau has forged a unique path, which embodies the essence of jazz exploration, classical romanticism and pop allure. From critical acclaim as a bandleader to major international exposure in collaborations with Pat Metheny, Renée Fleming and Joshua Redman, Mehldau continues to garner numerous awards and admiration from both jazz purists and music enthusiasts alike.

Ozawa Hall 297 West Street Lenox, MA 01240 For more information about the 2011 Tanglewood season, visit www.tanglewood. org or call SymphonyCharge at 888-2661200. Tanglewood continues to offer free lawn tickets to young people age 17 and under and a 50 percent discount on lawn tickets to college and graduate students.

August 27

Boston Carnival 2011 Parade of Bands

(Shelly Runyon photo)

The parade starts at 1 p.m. and moves along Blue Hill Avenue and culminates in front of Franklin Park Zoo for a distance of about 1.5 miles. The masqueraders begin to gather about 3-4 hours prior to the start of the parade on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Roxbury. There is a food court located in front of the Zoo, which features many different Caribbean and American cuisines. You will also find arts and crafts and music.

September

Boston Jazz Fest Cruise

August

July 29

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Cultural Calendar

September 24 AnDa Union

September 10 - October 16, 2011 Candide

Featuring Leonard Bernstein’s soaring score and lyrics from some of the wittiest writers of all time, this outrageous musical satire tells the story of the naïve Candide. Banished for romancing the Baron’s daughter, Candide is plagued by a series of absurd hardships that challenge his optimistic outlook on life and love. An enchanting new production directed by the Tony Awardwinning Mary Zimmerman.

Boston University Theatre 264 Huntington Avenue Boston, MA 02115 Tickets are $25-$89 and will be available beginning in August at www.huntingtontheatre.org and 617-266-0800.

September 16 - October 15

September 23

A 2010 Tony nominee for Best Play, “Next Fall” takes a witty and provocative look at faith, commitment and unconditional love. Luke, a devout Christian, and Adam, a non-believer, have been together for four years; yet spiritual differences continue to spark trouble in their relationship. A sudden twist of fate, however, changes everything in this compelling new play that looks at what it means to “believe” and what it might cost us not to.

Roberts Studio Theatre 539 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02116 Subscription packages are now on sale.

Single tickets will go on sale in late summer.

For more information, visit www.speakeasystage.com.

Celtic Thunder is hitting the road again and embarking on a North American tour to promote their new album “Heritage.”

“Heritage” is the all-new Celtic Thunder release that focuses entirely on their Celtic and Irish roots. The performance features traditional standards such as “Whiskey in the Jar,” “Black is the Color,” “Skye Boat Song” and “Red, Red Rose” as well as a few beautiful love songs such as “The Dutchman,” “Noreen” and “Just a Song at Twilight.”

Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theater 270 Tremont Street Boston, MA 02116 Tickets are $48-$98. For more information, visit www.citicenter.org/heritage or call 866-348-9738.

Next Fall

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Celtic Thunder

September 23 James Farm

Featuring saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Aaron Parks, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland, James Farm infuses traditional acoustic jazz quartet instrumentation with a progressive attitude and modern sound, creating music that is rhythmically and technically complex while also harmonically rich, melodically satisfying and emotionally compelling. Redman, Parks, Penman and Harland exhibit a total commitment to group improvisation combined with a song-based approach to jazz that incorporates the members’ myriad of influences.

Berklee Performance Center 136 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02115 Tickets are $42, $37, $30 and include Berklee $1 restoration fee.

For more information, visit www.worldmusic.org.

Exhale • Summer 2011

From the Xilingol Grassland area of Inner Mongolia, a semi-autonomous region of China, AnDa Union combines different traditions and styles of music from all over Inner and Outer Mongolia to create an innovative new sound. Finding inspiration in old and forgotten songs, the 10-member ensemble blends traditional Mongolian throat singing or khoomii with traditional instruments such as the horse-head fiddle or morin huur, a three-holed flute called tsuur or maodun chaoer and Mongolian versions of the dulcimer, zither, lute and mouth harp.

Somerville Theatre 55 Davis Square Somerville, MA 02144 Tickets are $28 and include Somerville Theatre $1 restoration fee. For more information, visit www.worldmusic.org.

September 24

An Evening with Buddy Valastro — The Cake Boss

Buddy’s live show is an evening of cakes, stories and fun. In this rare live, interactive event, TLC’s Cake Boss will share the stories behind his hit series and his colorful Italian family, answer audience questions and give a live demonstration of the techniques that have made him one of the most successful and renowned cake artists in the nation! Buddy will even invite a few audience members on stage to join in. Don’t miss this chance to see The Cake Boss live and in-person.

This is an all-ages show.

The Hanover Theatre 2 Southbridge Street Worcester, MA 01608 Tickets are $25.75, $35.75 and $45.75, depending on seating location. Discounts available for members, groups of 20 or more, corporate partners, kids, students and WOO card holders. For more information, call 877-571-7469 or visit www.thehanovertheatre.org.

September 25

Elvis on Tour — The Kings & the Killer: A Tribute to Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis

Don’t miss the chance to see Elvis on Tour — The Kings & The Killer: A Tribute to Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Join Leo Days, Doug Church and Lance Lipinsky as they pay tribute to two of the greatest music legends in the world!

The Hanover Theatre 2 Southbridge Street Worcester, MA 01608 Tickets are $22.50, $27.50 and $37.50, depending on seating location. Discounts available for members, corporate partners, kids, students, WOO card holders, groups of 10 or more, seniors (65+) and AAA members.

For more information, call 877-571-7469 or visit www.thehanovertheatre.org.

September 27 - October 9 The King & I

East versus West makes for a dramatic, richly textured and ultimately uplifting tale of enormous fascination. It is 1862 in Siam when an English widow and her young son arrive at the Royal Palace in Bangkok, having been summoned by the King to serve as tutor to his many children and wives.

The King is largely considered to be a barbarian by those in the West, and he seeks Anna’s assistance in changing his image, if not his ways. With both keeping a firm grip on their respective traditions and values, Anna and the King grow to understand and, eventually, respect one another.

North Shore Music Theatre 62 Dunham Road #1 Beverly, MA 01915 For more information, call or e-mail the Box Office at: 978-232-7200 or bosales@nsmt.org.

September 30 - October 2 Young Frankenstein

The classic Mel Brooks movie is ALIVE ... and it’s headed here! This wickedly inspired re-imagining of the Frankenstein legend follows bright young Dr. Frankenstein (that’s Fronkensteen) as he attempts to create a monster — but not without scary and hilarious complications. The brain behind the laughter is mad genius and three-time Tony® winner Mel Brooks himself. He wrote the music and lyrics and andco-wrote co-wrotethe thebook book— —along alongwith withhis hisrecordrecordbreaking team from The Producers: five-time Tony Tonywinning winningdirector directorand andchoreographer, choreographer,Susan Susan Stroman and three-time Tony winning writer, Thomas Meehan.

The Hanover Theatre 2 Southbridge Street Worcester, MA 01608 Tickets Ticketsare are$32, $32,$42, $42,$52 $52and and$62, $62,depending depending on seating location. Discounts available for members, groups of 20 or more and WOO card cardholders. holders.For Formore moreinformation, information,call call877877571-7469 or visit www.thehanovertheatre.org.

Join Exhale magazine and the top chefs of Boston for a sustainable culinary event celebrating local food and healthy eating.

Top chefs such as Joanne Chang of Flour and Myers & Chang, Brooke Vosika of Four Seasons and Jodi Adams of Rialto will be demonstrating their culinary talent as they create recipes that are both delicious and healthy!

t EvEn d HostE

Follow us on

Friday, october 14 Artists For Humanity 100 West 2nd street Boston, MA 6 p.m. vIP Hour 7-10 p.m.

General Admission For more event details and ticket information visit :

topdishboston.com.

exhalelifestyle.com exhalelifestyle.com September 30

Staff Benda Bilili

With the irresistible pulse of Congolese rumba, Cuban swing and James Browninspired funk, Staff Benda Bilili’s inspirational concerts and extraordinary story have caused a sensation across the globe. A group of paraplegic street musicians who live in and around the Kinshasa Zoo, the band consists of four seasoned singer/guitarists perched on spectacular customized tricycles, backed by a young acoustic rhythm section and a teenage prodigy who plays infectious guitar-like solos on a one-string electric lute he designed and built out of a tin can. A critically acclaimed feature film about the group is due to open in cinemas across the United States this fall.

Somerville Theatre 55 Davis Square Somerville, MA 02144 Reserved seating Ticket are $40 and include Somerville Theatre $1 restoration fee.

For more information, visit www.worldmusic.org.

Become our friend on Facebook and follow us on twitter for a chance to win tickets to this delicious event! exhalelifestyle.com

Supported by:

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Exhale â&#x20AC;˘ Summer 2011

Advertising Women of New York

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation

AWNY was founded in 1912 as the first women’s association in the communications industry. Now consisting of more than 1,300 employees, this organization hosts 35 events per year. Their goals are to enhance career skills and to focus on current industry trends and strategies. www.awny.org

The mission of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation® is to achieve prevention and a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime by providing critical funding for innovative clinical and translational research at leading medical centers worldwide, and increasing public awareness about good breast health. Currently, more than 90 cents of every dollar donated is directed to breast cancer research and awareness programs. www.bcrfcure.org

American Women in Radio and Television American Women in Radio and Television is the national nonprofit organization that extends membership to professionals in the electronic media and partnering fields. They strive to advance the impact of women in this field by educating, advocating and acting as a resource to their members and surrounding community. www.awrt.org

Association of Women in Communications The Association of Women in Communications is an organization that enables women in communications the ability to network with others in their profession. By positioning its members at the forefront of the ever-evolving communications field, they are opening up access to smart career moves and important contacts. www.womcom.org

Biennial Conference for Women The longest-running women’s conference in the country, this gathering is designed to inspire women in all stages of life. For the past 24 years, women have gathered to renew their spirit as well as their resolve in whatever role they play in life. theconferenceforwomen.com

The Boston Club The Boston Club is an organization of top women executives and professional women committed to developing, promoting and recognizing women leaders. www.thebostonclub.com

Boston Women in Finance Formerly known as The Financial Women’s Association of Boston, Boston Women in Finance was started by a group of eight Wall Street women. They encourage women to seek career opportunities in finance and business while representing women from across the business spectrum, including retail and investment banks, brokerage houses, biotech, high-tech, mutual fund and insurance companies, accounting and consulting firms and academic institutions. www.bostonwomeninfinance.org

Business and Professional Women The mission of BPW is to achieve equality for all women in the workplace through education, advocacy and information. The BPW monitors federal legislation affecting working women and educates its members on how to get involved in all levels of government. www.bpwusa.org

Business Women’s Network The Business Women’s Network serves as an umbrella organization to unite, network and promote 1,200 women’s businesses and professional organizations, representing nearly 8 million women. www.bwni.com

The Center for Women’s Leadership, Babson College The Center for Women’s Leadership’s mission is to distinguish the best practices for women’s entrepreneurial leadership. They target women at all professional levels, stressing educational excellence, innovative professional development, outreach and research. www.babson.edu/cwl

The Commonwealth Institute The Commonwealth Institute’s mission is to support women CEOs, entrepreneurs and senior corporate executives by helping them grow their businesses and careers. They strive toward this goal by focusing on peer mentoring and support. www.commonwealthinstitute.org

Downtown Women’s Club Why should getting ahead in business be anything but fun and exciting?

Since 1998, the Downtown Women’s Club has been bringing together talented and dynamic women who connect, share ideas and propel each other toward success. Their mission is to empower women through access to information and opportunities for collaboration. www.downtownwomensclub.com

eWomenNetwork EWomenNetwork is the No. 1 resource for promoting and connecting women worldwide. www.eWomenNetwork.com

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FertilityAuthority FertilityAuthority is the only web portal dedicated to fertility. It encourages women and men to be proactive regarding their fertility and provides the tools and information to do so: best-of-breed content, a robust interactive community of bloggers, columnists and message boards, a growing video library of patient testimonials, breaking fertility news and a database connecting you to fertility specialists. Our founding females are media professionals who are experienced and driven and, what makes us more even more qualified than our MBAs, is the fact that many of us are or have been infertility patients. We are a passionate team and we understand the need for one, comprehensive source of fertility information. www.fertilityauthority.com

Forté Foundation The Forté Foundation is a powerful coalition of major corporations, top business schools and influential nonprofit organizations that works to substantially increase the number of women business leaders. Through education programs, information forums and financial support of MBA students, Forté motivates professional women to prepare for and enhance their careers with impact. www.fortefoundation.org

Foundation for Women’s Resources Emerging and established women leaders work together toward a common goal through the Foundation for Women’s Resources — to advance the personal, economic and professional status of women. This organization is headquartered in Dallas at the Women’s Museum: An Institute for the Future. www.womensresources.org

Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place. Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts serves more than 45,000 girls ages 5-17 and 17,000 adult volunteers in the 178 communities we serve in Eastern Massachusetts. www.hergirlscouts.org or call 888-9-Girl Scout.

Healthworks Foundation The Healthworks Foundation is dedicated to providing high-quality fitness opportunities for women and children in Boston’s low-income communities to prevent and treat lifestyle-related chronic illness and promote overall health and well-being. The Foundation also partners with community health centers and other non-profit organizations in the Greater Boston region, which address the needs of women and children in the areas of health, wellness and athletics; violence prevention and survival; and economic empowerment through financial contributions and volunteer efforts. www.healthworksfoundation.org

Marketing Executives Networking Group MENG is a national network of top marketing executives. The organization is devoted to enhancing its members’ professional skills, relationships and knowledge.

With a number of special interest groups and local chapters, MENG caters to a large and diverse community. www.mengonline.com

Moms in Business Network Mothers influence everything — from what we eat to the way we dress to what

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we drive. Of the 82 million moms in the United States, 74 percent work and 80 percent control household purchasing decisions for an average of three or more people — and spend nearly $2 trillion annually. That’s the same purchasing power as Great Britain! Today’s mom drives our economy, and the Moms in Business Network is the association that represents her. www.mibn.org

National Association for Female Executives With 250,000 members and 400 local networks, NAFE is the largest businesswomen’s organization in the United States. They are dedicated to advancing women in the workplace through education, networking and public advocacy. www.nafe.com

National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club The NANBPWC provides opportunities for women to enhance leadership skills and educational awareness of issues impacting the black community. Founded in 1935, it materialized as a national nonprofit organization that promoted and protected the interests of women business owners and professionals. www.nanbpwc.org

The National Association of Women in Construction The NAWIC has a membership of 5,500 with more than 179 chapters. This organization advances the causes of the almost 900,000 women in construction today whose careers range from business ownership to the skilled trades. They offer several educational opportunities for children and adults interested in any of the construction fields. www.nawic.org

National Association of Women MBAs A nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women MBAs in order to propel more women into leadership positions in corporate America and to enhance the diversity of the nation’s workforce. In order to accomplish its mission, NAWMBA focuses its efforts in four key areas: education; professional development; networking; collaboration. www.mbawomen.org

National Council of Women’s Organizations The National Council of Women’s Organizations represents more than 11 million women in the United States. Through both policy work and activism, they address several issues of concern for women such as family and work, education, women and technology and reproductive freedom. www.womensorganizations.org

National Hook-Up of Black Women With about 400 members in 10 chapters, Hook-Up is supported by membership dues and chapter donations only. It provides a strong support system for all black women who serve in political office and organizational leadership. www.nhbwinc.com

New Economics for Women Committed to reducing poverty by increasing wealth opportunities for women and children, NEW measures their impact by the specific impacts they make on families.

From finding someone a safe place to live to helping start a business, NEW provides women with hope for the future. www.neweconomicsforwomen.org

Possible Woman Foundation The purpose of the Possible Woman Foundation is to support the development of an academic scholarship program for women. Through education and strong mentoring, they give women the ability to provide for themselves and their families. www.possiblewomanfoundation.org

Simmons School of Management Since 1973, the award-winning Simmons School of Management has prepared young women and future entrepreneurs for a bright career in business. Women are prepped to be exceptional leaders and exit the school ready to lead in Fortune 500 corporations, entrepreneurial ventures, governmental agencies or nonprofit organizations. www.simmons.edu/som

South Shore Women’s Business Network The SSWBN strives to make personal connections for women in different professional fields. www.sswbn.org

Susan G. Komen for the Cure Massachusetts The Massachusetts Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure is committed to 100 percent screening and 100 percent access to care for all in the Commonwealth.

At this time education, screening and treatment are the best tools we have to reduce mortality from breast cancer. We are focused on meeting the needs of those who are underserved and/or lacking insurance. Our success is made possible through the passion, dedication and generosity of our many supporters. www.komenmass.org

Third Wave Foundation Young women and transgender youth have a voice through the Third Wave Foundation, a feminist, activist institution fighting for social justice. They work to empower young people fighting for gender, racial, economic and social justice. www.thirdwavefoundation.org

U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce Representing the economic development interests of more than 23 million small business owners and 450,000 members across the country, the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce works to open the doors to economic and leadership opportunities. www.uswcc.org

The women’s center The Women’s Center is a community resource, to be used and contributed to by as many women as possible. The Center’s goals are to foster empowerment and social justice in a multicultural space that is safe, warm, respectful and comforting to all women and their children. We strive to provide healing opportunities; celebrate women’s voices, victories and survival; and encourage women to become advocates for themselves and others. www.cambridgewomenscenter.org

Women in Management, Inc. Founded in 1976, Women in Management, Inc. brings together women professionals in order to foster long-term, mutually beneficial relationships and collaborative ideas and resources. www.wimonline.org/mc/page.do

Women Presidents’ Organization All members of WPO, an international nonprofit organization whose members are a diverse group of entrepreneurial women presidents, have guided their businesses to a minimum of $1 million in annual sales. www.womenpresidentsorg.com

Young Black Women’s Society The Young Black Women’s Society, Inc. (YBWS) leads and empowers women and girls of color, helping them to develop their personal and professional lives by providing tools and access through social activities, professional development, civic engagement, leadership development and mentoring. YBWS currently has 70 active members from the Greater Boston Area, ranging from ages 24-44 years old, representing a wide variety of professions and industries. www.ybws.org or e-mail info@ybws.org

Younger Women’s Task Force The YWTF is a nationwide movement dedicated to organizing younger women in their 20s and 30s to take action on issues that matter to them. Featuring women who have asserted themselves in their community and at work, they encourage this young generation to continue to break the glass ceiling and promote their own unique agenda. www.ywtf.org

YWCA Founded in 1866, YWCA Boston is America’s first YWCA. For more than 140 years, YWCA Boston has worked to eliminate racism and empower women.

Today’s YWCA provides critical services in the community. They include mobile health and wellness education for women and girls; breast cancer survivor support; adult interracial community dialogues; youth/police dialogues; and financial literacy programs for women. YWCA Boston sponsor’s Boston’s Academy of Women Achievers and an annual, city-wide, Stand Against Racism Day. YWCA provides housing for single women at its Berkeley Residence. www.ywcaboston.org

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Women’s City Club of New York Inc. Since its founding in 1915, this nonpartisan, nonprofit organization has influenced and shaped public policy through education and advocacy. Through citizen participation, the WCCNY works to achieve equality and inclusion for all New Yorkers. www.wccny.org

Women Impacting Public Policy Women Impacting Public Policy is a national bipartisan public policy organization that advocates for and on behalf of women in business. www.wipp.org

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