THE POWER OF WOMXN
k c o M t e n Ja
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THE POWER OF WOMXN
Janet Mock, the writer, television presenter, and activist, grew up in Honolulu and Dallas. At twelve, resettled in Hawaii, she fell into the protective company of a glamorous cadre of transgender friends and mentors; her seventhgrade hula teacher was a māhū, a native Hawaiian term, Mock explains, for people who live outside of the gender binary. “They were part of my everyday.” In her memoirs, “Redefining Realness” and “Surpassing Certainty,” and in her television work, journalism, and advocacy, Mock conjures that richness of representation— tracing the contours of her own life while laying the ground for the stories of other trans and gendernonconforming people, of creativity and resilience born of necessity.
The Power of Womxn
Janet Mock is an American writer, television host, director, producer and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir Redefining Realness, became a New York Times bestseller. She is a contributing editor for Marie Claire and a former staff editor of People magazine’s website.
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“No one can ca You must le your own co own cure. retreat into else for
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Janet Mock
n heal you. earn to be ompany, your You cannot o someone fulf illment.�
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There’s a power in empathy.
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Tara n
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THE POWER OF COMPASSION
urke
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TA BU
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THE POWER OF COMPASSION
RANA ARANA URKE As an African-American civil rights activist as well as a current Senior Director in Brooklyn, NY, Burke has contributed greatly to different organizations which aim to help people of color and women in a mostly white society. Girls for Gender Equity is an organization that supports women of color in gaining developmental skills by offering classes and programs that help them to succeed in a society that’s saturated in gender and racial inequality. In 2003 after college she began the organization Just Be which consisted of programs for girls of color from ages of 12-18 to promote wellness. TIME Magazine also named her as one of 2017’s People of the Year for her leadership in the #MeToo Movement that she originally began in 2006 as a way to raise awareness of sexual abuse and assault. Burke grew up in a low income, working class family where she herself experienced sexual assault throughout her childhood. This led her to want to help other women get past sexual trauma and is why she continues to speak out around the country to encourage healing and remove the stigma surrounded by begin a victim of sexual abuse.
Often sought out for social commentary, Tarana has been published and quoted in Colorlines, Mic, BK Nation, Glamour, Ebony, Essence, The Source and The Root among others.
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Gonzalez is a civil rights advocate but with a mission geared towards gun reform. As a victim of domestic terrorism from the 2017 Parkland High School shooting, she feels compelled to be the voice of her peers who can no longer fight for themselves. She helped organize the multi-city March for Our Lives protest that asked lawmakers to reduce gun sales and make changes to current laws. In turn, in March of 2018, Florida created the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Safety Act which raised the buying age from 18 to 21 as well as tightened other loose ends in gun safety. While this is a step in the right direction, Gonzalez continues to travel around the country to raise awareness of the severity of mass shootings in America. She is currently continuing her education at New College of Florida. She has been an advocate for the LGBTQ community for many years and is the daughter of a Cuban immigrant.
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EMMA GONZA
THE POWER OF COMPASSION
LEZ
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“ Adults like
us when we have strong test scores, but they hate us when we have strong opinions.
” Today, González boasts 1.5 million Twitter followers — almost double the NRA. Follow Emma on twitter: @Emma4Change 14
THE POWER OF COMPASSION
Emm
a Gonzalez 15
E H T OW P F O O W.
“Taking an intersectional feminist approach to the crises of today helps us seize the opportunity to build back better, stronger, resilient, and equal societies.�
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R E W N E M O. . . THE POWER OF WOMXN
Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor who coined the term in 1989 explained Intersectional feminism as, “a prism for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other,” in a recent interview with Time. “All inequality is not created equal,” she says. An intersectional approach shows the way that people’s social identities can overlap, creating the compounding experiences of discrimination. “We tend to talk about race inequality as separate from inequality based on gender, class, sexuality or immigrant status. What’s often missing is how some people are subject to all of these, and the experience is not just the sum of its parts,” Crenshaw said. Intersectional feminism centres the voices of those experiencing overlapping, concurrent forms of oppression in order to understand the depths of the inequalities and the relationships among them in any given context.
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DE HA
THE POWER OF DETERMINATION
On November 6, 2018, New Mexico voted into office one of the first Native American women, alongside Sharice Davids, as a member for the House of Representatives. Haaland has been deeply involved in Native American life, as she worked as the Tribal Administrator for the San Felipe Pueblo for 3 years. She received her BA in English and her Juris Doctor degree in Indian Law from University of New Mexico School of Law. She is currently working hard as an advocate for human rights, envisioning a world without ICE and deportations. She is a strong advocate for gun reform and healthcare for all. She believes workers and veterans deserve care and support in the form of unions and healthcare. She fought head on against the Dakota Access Pipeline in defense for clean water and land for all Americans and Native Americans. She believes in access over profit. She is preparing to fight for repairs to the economic infrastructure that has neglected minority populations. She believes in a $15 minimum wage and fights for working families. She is a firm believer in women having the right to choose and believes in complete gender equality, including the trans population.
EB AALAND 21
“In electing womxn to Americans to the e our demo tyranny, an policies tha back by di
Deb Haaland
g so many Congress, said no erosion of ocracy, to nd to the at hold us ividing us.�
R AS TL A H IB Tlaib has gained notice for being a member of “The Squad� along with fellow House freshmen Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Ocasio-Cortez.
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THE POWER OF DETERMINATION
HID B A During the same November election, Tlaib was voted into office for the House of Representatives in Michigan as one of two Muslim women elected to Congress, she was also the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress. She is a strong democratic socialist, with many of the same views as Haaland including abolishing ICE as well as providing Medicare for All. Growing up as the eldest of 14, she worked hard alongside her parents for many years. She earned her BA in Political Science from Wayne State University in 1998 following with her Law Degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 2004. Apart from her congressional duties she is current a single mother of two boys. 25
aib
Rashida Tl
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THE POWER OF DETERMINATION
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No one can heal you. You must learn to be your own company, your own cure. You cannot retreat into someone else for fulfillment.
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An inspiring group of women: Cheryl Durst, Honorary FIIDA, LEED AP, Executive Vice President and CEO of IIDA, Jessica O.Matthews, founder and CEO of Uncharted Play, and Shawn McLeanBergel, IIDA, IIDA Northern CA Chapter President
Before she was 20, Matthews co-developed a renewabke device that would help children around the world learn and increase access to technology. That device is called Soccket and is just one idea that Matthews has created alongside her co-founded company Uncharted Play which aims to bring motion-based renewable energy to developing communities around the world. The device is a soccer ball that stores kinetic energy created from the ball when it’s being played with, which can then be harvested to energize a lamp or other low powering device. As a dual citizen of Nigeria, Matthews gained her MBA from Harvard Business School and was elected as the Ambassador of Entrepreneurship for Nigeria. Because of her desire to help impoverished countries gain access to technology as well as her desire to develop environmentally friendly methods, she was invited to introduce Soccket during Obama’s 2013 trip to Tanzania. She has received many awards for her innovative thinking, from Black Enterprise’s “Innovator of the Year” aware to Harvard Foundation’s “Scientist of the Year.” She was also featured on the notorious Forbes “30 Under 30” list.
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JESSICA O.MAT T
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A THEWS
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Jessic a
O. M a s
w e h tt
THE POWER OF IMAGINATION
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Embrace discomfort. Innovation lies between a rock and a hard place.
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Matthews has received numerous awards, honors and recognition, like being named Innovator of the Year by Black Enterprise in 2013, one of both Forbes 30 Under 30 and Inc. Magazine’s 30 under 30 in 2014 and 2016, respectively. 35
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SABRIN MUTUK
THE POWER OF IMAGINATION
Sabrina helped develop a business that provides assistance to young people of color of in the Bay Area build a life in their native city. Mutukisna’s idea is to provide jobs, training, resources and economic stability to 15-25 year olds by offering college credit and fair wage employment. That’s where her company The Town Kitchen comes in. The Town Kitchen hires these disadvantaged young adults as cooks and delivery drivers to deliver high quality meals to tech companies in the Bay Area, companies vlike Twitter, Microsoft and Pandora. Their environment supports positive entryways into career building for those who are at a disadvantage due to their families income level or education restraints. Mutukisna attuned UC Berkley and has a history in community building and strategic partnerships within the Bay Area.
NA KISNA
Mutukisna also had a passion for baking, using it as a medium to express her creative side while using locally sourced ingredients. This motivated her to open Cynically Delicious in San Francisco—a boutique cupcake shop specializing in her creations.
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“ It’s important to make sure that we’re thinking intentionally about the way we want to show up in the world. 38
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THE POWER OF IMAGINATION
a kisn utu na M abri
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“Be fearless! easy and, at t feel near but don’t from your
Sabrina Mutukisna
! It won’t be times, it may impossible, back down dreams.”