Lucid Motors Luxury mobility company reimagining what a car can be.
Lucid Motors Luxury mobility company reimagining what a car can be.
The Art Of Wearing
The Art Of Wearing
Modern and stylish, the Dendrobium earring combines bold blue peacock feathers with rich jade goose to create an angular pattern offset by the circular hardware. Lightweight by design, you can wear these earrings from day to night for striking style.
Feathers for each pair of earrings are hand-selected, giving each pair a unique coloring. Each earring drops approximately 1" from the ear. Earrings are 1.25" in diameter. 24k Gold Plated stud with post push back. Suitable for sensitive ears (nickel-free and lead-free).
DENDROBIUM CIRCLE EARRING
brackish.com
brackish.com
GABOON
Gaboon is a textured pocket square crafted with emerald green and royal peacock and navy, black, and white pheasant feathers.
Each pocket square measures 3.5" wide and 6.5" tall. Grosgrain fabric is used for the pocket square insert. Each feather used in production is all-natural and sustainably sourced. Feathers for each pocket square are hand-selected, giving each piece a unique coloring.
Each pocket square is hand-crafted in Charleston, South Carolina.
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Passion for travel and exquisite apparels.
« People come, live and go ».
And we are here to celebrate the diversity of the world.
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Founder TRYSTANNE CUNNINGHAM
CREATIVE ART DEPARTMENT
Creative Director TRYSTANNE CUNNINGHAM
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Editor In Chief TRYSTANNE CUNNINGHAM
Copy Editor AMANDA ORAHA
Editorial Design Director SHERDELLAH ANUNCIADO
Creative Art Director ANDRES MALDONADO
Proofreading CRISTINA DEPTULA
Proofreading MICHAEL DAKS
ART DEPARTMENT
Graphic Design Director SAMMY CAMPANER
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
Global Brand Outreach KATIE LISTER
European Brand Outreach MANSOUR NDIAYE
HUMAN RESOURCES DEPARTMENT
HR Director PETA-GAYE WILLIS
OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT
Operations Director TRYSTANNE CUNNINGHAM
ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENT
Executive Administrative Assistant RONA MAGLINES
Virtual Administrative Assistant INNAH MARIE ALMARENIA
MARKETING DEPARTMENT
Marketing Director KWESI DONTOH
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING DEPARTMENT
Social Media Director JUSTICE ANN CUENCA
FINANCE DEPARTMENT
Finance Director RONA MAGLINES
WEB & SYSTEMS DEPARTMENT
Web Design & Development MATT SCHULER
Web Maintenance MRUDAVI PUNEKAR Systems & Operations Director ALESSIO MONINO
As TrooRa Founder, Creative Director and Executive Editor my team and I actively seek to honor and support the emerging designers, brands, creatives and founders we feature at every occasion. As we celebrate Women’s History throughout the month of March, here at TrooRa we will honor all women. All the pillars and pioneers whose accomplishments have allowed for following generations to feel empowered to constantly break barriers and shatter glass ceilings. We will especially recognize the many women who have made significant contributions to society, yet often go unrecognized.
TrooRa’s Spring 2023 Women’s Issue showcases the stories and experiences of diverse and inspiring women from all walks of life. The edition is a fitting tribute to the many trailblazing sheroes we all love to support.
I am reminded of the strength, power, resilience, and passion of these sensational women and the ones I have been privileged to include in my orbit, specifically the matriarchs in my personal life, gems like my mother, her older sister (my late favorite aunt), my late maternal and paternal grandmothers. Additionally, stellar friendships from childhood, individuals I’ve reconnected with throughout the years, and the newly found beauties I have the honor to create new experiences with. These exceptional beings help empower and inspire confidence to be our best selves, to continue fighting for equality, respect, and safety for all. I am grateful for these fascinating women and the incredible network of community leaders we are constantly growing and are partnering with here at TrooRa.
This issue celebrates the triumphs, creativity, and work of the featured emerging talents we chose to spotlight. My team and I bring you a fresh spring perspective to another beautifully curated issue, highlighting the brave, remarkable, innovative, confident women we love to champion.
In Home Design, read about Tatiana Bilbao’s exquisitely designed spaces; South African designer Heather Moore is the force behind Skinny laMinx, an innovative fabric brand that’s all about joyously patterned textiles in a range of retro-inspired colors; and discover how Leah Alexander elevates your space through her breathtaking compositions.
In Culinary, The Story of Chef Georgianna Hiliadaki will have your mouth watering reading about her journey to becoming a chef. Powerhouses Sheila Jackson and Natasha McCrea begin their quest as the first Black Women Owned Whiskey Brand based in SoCal; Jackson McCrea Whiskey breaks into the liquor market with a taste of California. Read about empowerment, world-traveling women that have been making their rounds across the globe, and the work of artist Katarina Tifft carefully handcrafting art with tiny sea shells making organic, textured patterns found in nature.
Alina Rudya’s passion for photos brings us Bell Collective a group of female -(identifying) artists redefining the way we see travel photography. Samantha Black shares her passion for visual arts and tells her fashion love story.
Our cover feature spotlights award-winning Dorian Webb’s journey into the jewelry industry with her timeless, stunning pieces worn by celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Halle Berry, Rihanna, Michaela Coel, and Jennifer Aniston. Mavis By Herrera’s sustainable handbags tell a riveting story that will have you ordering one of her beautifully handcrafted pieces on the spot. TrooRa's Celebrating Women’s Excellence event on March 31, 2023 will commemorates the launch of this powerful issue, where Dorian Webb will announce our new partnership designed to support “Give Her Her Flowers,” an initiative conceived by Dorian. The partnership with Webb reflects my commitment to continue highlighting diverse creatives and championing marginalized groups of entrepreneurs throughout the meticulously curated pages of TrooRa. Ta Ta for now et A+!
Trystanne Cunningham Editor-In-Chief Creative Director Founder Charles Schoenberger
TrooRa’s Sustainability Efforts
TrooRa is committed to building a sustainable business model promoting and protecting the environment. Our digital platform on troora.com offers a conscious approach, creating an immersive space.
With your help in building robust online support, TrooRa will print fewer magazines to ensure we remain a leader in the industry. However, when TrooRa produces print issues, we will uphold the highest quality in sustainable standards.
The magazine you are reading is:
printed on fully recycled paper
printed with vegetable-based ink and biodegradable laminates
printed in close proximity to our markets in an effort to reduce distribution emissions
cocoacentric.com celebrating us, the strong, resilient, and radiant women in our communities who inspire the world with our diversity and beauty
Krysalis Eltheria
They’re not hookahs, they’re better. Krysalis are Hookahs Evolved. Kaloud’s Krysalis Eltheria offers the best smoking experience. It combines high quality materials, jaw-dropping aesthetics and state-of-the-art technology to create tastier, smoother, cleaner clouds from each shisha puff.
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ADRIAN DASCAL
AFROELLE MAGAZINE
AKOLA JEWELRY BRAND
ALEXANDER SCHIMMECK
ALEXIS ROSE ALFORD
ANA HOP
ANDY SALAZAR
ANDRES CARRENO
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
ASHLEY MARIE
BELL COLLECTIVE
BEN OSTROWER
BINUTA SUDHAKARAN
BLACKBOUGH SWIM
BONNIE NICHOALDS
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@BOTANICALPAPERWORKS
CAROL’S DAUGHTERS
CASEY HO
CATHARINE WOOD
CHRIS FOX-KELLY
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COLE MCMANUS @COLE_IN_NYC
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DVAL PHOTOGRAPHY
EATING WITH ERICA
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ELISA FERRARI EMILY MARSHALL
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HERIDE
IWAN BAAN
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
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ODETTE AQUITANIA RICASA
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SHAMELL MASON
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SUSAN ALEXANDRA
T-W
TAMMY HEMBROW
TATIANA BILBAO ESTUDIO TAYLOR DEMONBREUN THE SUN
THERESA GIAMMATEI
TIMA MIROSHNICHENKO
UNC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
VAN DEN BROEK LIFE
WARREN HEATH/BUREAUX
WILLIAN JUSTEN DE VASCONCELLOS
The world’s first highly sustainable and environmentally friendly organic material made of Nopal cactus, also known as the prickly pear.
desserto.com.mx
STORY BEHIND THE COVER:
The Womens Issue Spring 23
PHOTOGRAPHED BY: ERICA CERVANTEZ, BELL COLLECTIVE, MOAD, KWAME BRATHWAITE
WRITTEN BY: TRYSTANNE CUNNIGHAM
The Women’s Issue Spring ’23 cover choice was a challenge. Trystanne Cunningham, founder, creative director, and executive editor, has found it increasingly difficult to choose just one cover. Moving forward, she and her team will produce each issue with three covers. She feels this will give her readers and audience the chance to choose the cover that resonates most with their aesthetic preferences. “We revel in the fact that we can give our readers a choice and figure they will enjoy it as well.”
Bell Collective
Dorian Webb was awarded the cover feature due to her passion for design, the magnificent work she has contributed to local communities, her exquisite, unique jewelry brand, and her inspiring story, as well as to announce her partnership with TrooRa founder Trystanne Cunningham. The photoshoot by Erica Cervantes of Dorian Webb’s cover is stunning. The images exude elegance, grace, beauty, and fresh, crisp, spring-themed hues. We are grateful to Dorian, Erica, and their creative team for the immediate attention they allotted to produce this cover shoot for TrooRa.
The second cover choice is an images from The Bell Collective feature. As a team, we felt it was not only artistically shot and a superb image, but the significance of two women steering their own boat being able to take a shot like this looks effortless and is perfect for The Women’s Issue.
The third cover choice is from the photography of Kwame Brathwaite, exhibited at Museum of the African Diaspora December 4, 2019-March 1, 2020.
The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) is one of very few museums worldwide focused exclusively on contemporary art of the Diaspora of Black people worldwide. They are an esteemed Smithsonian Affiliate and modern art museum focused on uplifting Black art and culture and inspiring learning through the global lens of the African diaspora.
We hope you will procure all three copies but we are thrilled to provide you with the choice of 3 stunning and amazing covers.
Dorian Webb Bell Collective
Museum of the African Diaspora MoAD
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Home Design & Decor
A carefully chosen selection of items for people that enjoy “the finer things in life.”
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LOVE THE WAY YOU LOOK LOVE THE WAY YOU FEEL.
home design
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SPOTLIGHTING MEXICAN ARCHITECT TATIANA BILBAO BY: KEVIN JAMES JEFFERY
THE BEAUTY OF DIVERSITY IN STYLE BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
REPEAT AFTER ME BY: ROBYN ALEXANDER
Tatiana Bilbao Spotlighting Mexican Architect
Designing Through Collaboration to Create Exquisite Spaces
As a young architecture student, that was one of the first questions Tatiana Bilbao was asked during a lecture. At the time, she had never considered that the world wasn’t equal for men and women. That became an important lesson that would stick with her throughout her career.
Another important lesson Bilbao learned in school was that it takes collaboration between many minds to create a space that reflects the needs of those living and working in a building. Not only from the people designing the spaces but from those who will use them as well. When Bilboa opened her studio in 2004, those main principles would carry her, to where it is today.
Tatiana Bilbao
From architects to model makers and academics, Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO now has nearly 60 team members collaborating on projects throughout the world. While the majority of her plans are designed for towns and cities within her home country of Mexico, her team is also currently working on projects in the USA, Germany, and Spain.
Her studio operates where she was born, Mexico City, where her grandfather, Tomás Bilbao Hospitalet, moved from Spain during the war in 1942. Before he became a refugee in Mexico, he was a well-known architect and political figure in Bilbao, Spain. Bilbao says she never met her grandfather, but she grew up with his and her family’s political beliefs.
From her early days in the industry, Bilbao always had a strong interest in social and affordable housing. However, she realized there was only one way architects could make a difference.
“No one’s coming to knock on our studio door to ask us if we want to do housing,” she told Frame Magazine last year. “So why don’t we become active in the politics of housing?”
Affordable housing has always been an issue in Mexico. With such a fastgrowing population and a lack of places to live, the country is in need of millions of homes. Bilbao knows that Mexico has a long way to go before the problem is even close to being solved, but by having conversations with politicians and developers, something can start to change.
Bilbao understands that while it’s important for people to have a roof over their heads, it’s also important to create a home that inspires the people that live in them. Just because it’s affordable housing doesn’t mean it has to be designed the same for everyone. By considering people’s personal preferences, affordable housing can be a nurturing environment for its inhabitants.
One of Bilbao’s first affordable housing designs that got major traction in the global community was her studio’s adaptable low-cost house. The idea behind the design is that it could be adapted to suit the needs of different residents and expand when needed. And with a variety of material options, the houses can be built to suit a variety of climates depending on where they are built.
Back in 2015, the Mexican government commissioned the Bilbao Studio’s affordable house design as part of a program created to incentivize people to buy homes by offering credit and subsidizing half the cost of the house. At just $8,000 to build the base design, there’s much that's desirable about these houses.
In addition to the affordability of her studio’s houses, they also look like completed houses. If you’ve ever driven through neighborhoods in Mexico, you might notice how many homes are built with flat roofs and steel bars sticking out of the walls. To many, this indicates that the house is still under construction. To many others, those houses appear to be failures.
The project is called Housing+, and each unit starts with two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, a living space, and a dining space. The living and dining spaces are five meters (16.4 feet) tall and up to five bedrooms can be added at separate stages. The best part of the design is that the home looks complete, no matter how many rooms have been added.
In addition to affordability projects, Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO designs for density, social landscape, education, domesticity, and culture projects. Among other projects in the works, Bilbao’s studio works as a consultant for Pacific Gas & Electric’s new substation project at Hunter’s Point in San Francisco. The project will include community gardens and a plaza with the aim of regenerating the former military base.
: @TABILBAO : @TABILBAOESTUDIO : @TABILBAOESTUDIO
Plant-based designs bringing the outside in & celebrating the natural world fableandbase.co.uk
Founder Francesca Baur
Designed and hand-produced stoneware ceramic table lamps from the Catskill Mountains of New York
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of Diversity in Style The Beauty
offers a $15 e-book titled “Starter Kit” on her website, designed to share her insights with those who have fallen in love with her sensibility.
Leah Alexander
In an interview with HGTV, Alexander points out three elements she works into just about any interior she designs. These are multiple sources of lighting, plants, and any interesting objects the home or business owner already has in the space.
She appreciates color and inspiration from nature, bringing in nature-themed artwork alongside houseplants in several of her kitchen and living room designs. And she encourages decorators to create cohesive color palettes between the indoors and outdoors for spaces such as sunrooms and lanais.
CELEBRATING DIVERSITY IN STYLE
Based in Los Angeles and Atlanta, Beauty Is Abundant brings an international, crosscultural design sensibility to the table.
“We support diversity in the design community by collaborating with underrepresented artists and vendors who contribute talent, culture, and worldviews along with us,” Alexander says. These include many vendors who explicitly seek to amplify and celebrate Black talent.
“We are agents of change,” she says. “And if you work with us, so are you.”
She showcases some of these vendors in blog posts on her site, particularly those who can “trick out” a kid’s playroom with fun paintings and stuffed animals.
She loves to visit museums whenever she can and attends furniture conventions, including the giant High Point Market, which regales visitors with miles of furniture, fabric, upholstery, lighting, and art.
As a Black designer, she gets asked how to make the industry more welcoming to Black designers and clients. As she explains in her interview with HGTV, “There’s never been a lack of talent. I think featuring and celebrating Black designers on TV, in magazines, in showhouses and creating that exposure is simply going to make people aware that some Black designers have been creating excellent spaces for decades.”
PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITION
Beauty Is Abundant designed the laundry room for the first-ever virtual show house from Architectural Digest and the Black Interior Designers Network, known as The Iconic Home.
“I really wanted anyone in this space to feel expansive and abundant, to be able to open their mind and relax in this little space that I designed,” said Alexander. She also created a unique bathroom concept for House Beautiful’s Kips Bay Decorator Show House, displayed in Dallas in 2022. Here, the words “your beauty is abundant, forever and ever, amen…” in neon cursive take the place of a mirror in her star-speckled, red, white, and marble Intergalactic Superstar room. Those words have become a mantra for Alexander, joyfully repeated throughout her social media.
Alexander has been featured in Atlanta Magazine’s HOME section, Curbed Atlanta, and Designers Today She just finished a six-home development in West Midtown, Atlanta, and is currently renovating a 1930s home.
Critics describe Leah Alexander’s work as “clean and contemporary.” She refers to her basic principles as “shifting paradigms” and “unifying in diversity.”
After just over five years in business, she’s come a long way toward her mission to help her clients “thrive and live the beautiful lives they want to live!”
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PHOTOGRAPHED
BY
WARREN HEATH
PRODUCED BY SVEN ALBERDING
WRITTEN BY ROBYN ALEXANDER
South African Designer Heather Moore is the Creative Force Behind Skinny Laminx, an Innovative Fabrics and Design Brand That is All About Joyously Patterned Textiles and a Range of Retro-Inspired Colors
Step into the Skinny laMinx store on Bree Street in Cape Town, and you’re instantly transported into designer Heather Moore’s colorful, multipatterned world. In one section, a cushion cover in a signature Skinny laMinx print such as Brancusi Stripe accessorizes a chair upholstered in another linear Moore design called Weft. On the opposite side of the shop, a stack of drum lampshades in shades of mustardy yellow, bright green, and bold blue draws the eye. A wall display shows off Moore’s popular range of patterned tea towels, while nearby, tote bags in yet more colorful fabrics designed by her are on display.
From the racks of fabrics in Moore’s signature shades—reminiscent, as she says, of “colors that I associate with a Mid-Century palette”—to the range of decor accessories, children’s clothing, and tableware on offer, this place perfectly encapsulates the Skinny laMinx aesthetic. Playful yet beautifully considered, witty yet thoughtful, bright but not garish—this is the very special realm that Moore has created via her unique take on pattern and color.
Skinny laMinx is now known across the world: the sales team maintains the brand’s own thriving e-commerce website, and Moore hosted their first international product range launch in Paris in 2017. And both brand and store are well known to all South Africans who take an interest in locally produced designs and products. But, of course, this wasn’t always the case.
Heather Moore
Designer Heather Moore in front of the large rack of fabrics that are available to purchase by the meter from the Skinny laMinx store in Bree Street, Cape Town. The print on the roll she is holding is Roof Garden in Mumbai.
This corner of the living room in Heather Moore’s Cape Town apartment features a linocut, “The Same but Different,” by her husband, South African artist Paul Edmunds (pauledmunds.co.za). (Edmunds also made the Lego-based artworks, “Image” and “Snake,” on the wallmounted shelf.) The sideboard was purchased from local vintage dealer Space for Life (spaceforlife.co.za), and the round ceramic vessel is one of Moore’s limited-edition “Oddjects.” Moore stitched the cushion covers herself, too, using appliquéd linen.
The kitchen cabinetry by Gibb Cabinet Works (gibbcabinetworks.co.za) is finished in a precise shade of green: Pantone 578C. The items hanging on the vintage rack are (from left) a vintage tea towel, a Skinny laMinx tea towel made from the brand’s Breeze print in Petrol, a Skinny laMinx branded tote bag, and a Skinny laMinx Pebble tea towel (skinnylaminx.com). The mugs and teapots on the shelves include vintage pieces and a Stem mug by Orla Kiely (orlakiely.com).
In 2006, when Moore created her Skinny laMinx blog (still active today) and launched her Etsy store selling vinyl cutouts made into fridge magnets and one-off screen prints, her ‘day job’ was writing for an ongoing series of South African comics. But as a lifelong “maker of things” in general, Moore says, “the [arrival of the] Internet made me very frustrated because I could see into everyone’s studios, where they were making [and selling] things, and I had such a strong urge to do the same.”
Between 2006 and 2008, Moore began to focus on creating screen-printed tea towels, which she sold on Saturday mornings at the Neighbourgoods market in Woodstock, Cape Town, and which she also marketed internationally via her Etsy storefront. Quite quickly, those international orders became regular ones.
Heather Moore’s Cape Town apartment, which she shares with her husband, South African artist Paul Edmunds (pauledmunds.co.za), a vintage copy of an Ercol day bed is adorned with cushions in vintage Mid-Century Modern Dutch fabrics as well as a Skinny laMinx Colour Pop pillow (far left; just seen) and a cushion cover in the Skinny print called Brancusi Stripe (in the colorway Cocoa; far right). The wall-mounted lamps are from House Doctor (housedoctor.dk).
Above the day bed is a pencil drawing named “Tent” by Edmunds; the rug is from Tirmah Interiors (tirmahinteriors.com) and the vintage workbasket belongs to Moore.
In
Moore prefers cutouts to drawings when going through the making process that results in a new design, so will frequently create linocuts such as these to experiment with blockprinted patterns.
Heather Moore at work in her studio. Just visible on the cane chair behind her, which is from South African furniture retailer Weylandts (weylandts.co.za), is a bright green cushion in Skinny laMinx’s ZigZag print in Brazil (skinnylaminx.com). Asked about the origins of the name “Skinny laMinx,” Moore says, “The short answer, and one that everyone can understand, is that it’s a nickname for our skinny little Siamese cat, Monkey. The long answer, which is a little more culturally specific, is that it’s a slightly mangled version of the playground chant, ‘Skinnymalinky long legs/ Big banana feet,’ and also, Skinnymalinks is cute, but Skinny laMinx is sexier.”
Moore prefers cutouts to drawings when going through the making process that results in a new design, so will frequently create linocuts with which to experiment with blockprinted patterns such as these.
well
The couple’s bed is decorated with a Mexican serape blanket that is a travel memento, as
as a pair of Skinny laMinx cushions in Aperture, in Petrol (skinnylaminx.com). The linocut artwork above the bed is entitled “Solid” and is by Edmunds (pauledmunds.co.za); the bronze monkey and bear figurines on the shelf behind the bed were also made by him
were
by Moore during a batik workshop on a recent trip to Eswatini (Swaziland), during which she led a printmaking workshop for Ace Camps (acecampstravel.com). The birdlike ceramic piece and embroidered work in the wooden hoop are two of Moore’s creations, too, while the basket is from Design Afrika (designafrika.co.za).
For example, it was around this time that Heath Ceramics, the globally renowned San Francisco-based creator of handmade ceramic tiles and tableware, placed their first “order” with Heather, which at first was a “let’s swap ceramics for tea towels” arrangement. (The relationship between the two brands is ongoing, with Heath Ceramics now stocking a range of Skinny laMinx tea towels and other goods in their stores, and Moore having produced a range of fabric designs inspired by their tiles.)
The positive feedback from both local and international customers convinced Moore that she really did have a viable business on her hands, and by 2009 she was able to give up her writing job and devote herself to Skinny laMinx full-time. Still working out of a small shared studio, she also began to move beyond tea towels into designing fabrics for yardage—a rather different enterprise as it involves working out pattern repetitions across a larger area.
“I’m always making things,” Moore says. “There’s always something buzzing around in the background [of my mind]. Whether it’s color collages or linocuts… just things really.” She explains this during a conversation in her charming apartment (in which her own
This series of creative experiments were all made using paper cutouts of various kinds. Moore says she spent quite a lot of time last year [2017] exploring sunburst patterns inspired by American architect and designer Alexander Girard (1907-1993)—the one seen here at the top left is an example.
This spread/ page from one of Moore’s workbooks demonstrates how she works from an image that inspires her to the cutout pieces, patterns that might become a printed pattern on fabric someday.
The wicker chair is a flea-market find, as is the electric fan. The fabric swatches displayed against the wall
created
designs feature alongside a range of carefully collected Mid-Century Modern furniture and objects) while we are examining the products of her current experimentation with a small table-top loom—lengths of colorful woven fabric pieces in a variety of stripes and zigzag patterns, all made from scraps of wool.
When asked what these might turn into, Moore smiles and says she’s probably collaborating with a rug maker soon and that she thought it would be a good idea if she understood weaving from the inside out before actually starting to design a full-size rug. In fact, this hands-on approach to the design process is essential to how Moore creates all her work. It’s why making a paper cutout of South Africa’s ubiquitous Pincushion protea flower became a fabric called Pincushion (later, Large Pincushion and Tall Pincushion). And it’s why working on a group of ceramic objects at her ceramics class also, in time, became a fabric called Oddjects. Moore’s experience of traditional block-printing techniques in Jaipur, India, inspired a print called Weft, visual cues from architectural elements became repeat patterns called Aperture and Breeze, and Heath Ceramics tiles inspired fabrics that reflect on the visual workings of their shapes (Dimensional Ovals, Dimensional Triangles, and Dimensional Diamonds).
It’s also why Moore repeatedly—on her blog and in person—references the importance of what she calls “Making Friday.”
In spite (or rather, she would say, because) of the demands of running a small business, Moore almost invariably spends at least one day per week just making things, on her own, in her studio.
The Colour Pop display in the Skinny laMinx shop in Bree Street, Cape Town, showcases advice for customers about putting together their own pillow selections. The Saks Clarke two-seater is by Cape Town furniture maker Saks Corner (sakscorner.co.za) and is topped with Skinny laMinx cushions in (from left) Flower Fields with Lemon Piping in Penny Black, Colour Pop Pillow in Gold and Lemon, Large Pincushion with Graphite Piping in Graphite, Colour Pop Pillow in Graphite and Lemon, Colour Pop Oblong in Lemon and Gold and Pincushion in Charcoal (skinnylaminx.com). The drum lampshade is in Breeze in Concrete.
For long periods, too, she may not know whether the ceramics, paper dolls, or chair cutouts that she’s creating will turn into fabric designs—and that lack of a set “design direction” is precisely what results in genuine creative moments. “If you’re trying to see a star in the night sky,” she says, “you see it better if you look off to one side.”
“It just, kind of, gathers itself,” she adds, explaining that by “gathering,” she means “continually visually recording and processing” that then turns into a “sort of story.” This is often expressed via a paper cutout (rather than a drawing) or block printing using a linocut technique. Then it’s a case of learning to “trust your first decision”—and the result might well be the recent Palmetto, Fronds, and ZigZag fabrics, which feature stylized leaf shapes, or the Roof Garden range, an homage to the succulent plants that have been able to survive—and thrive— during Cape Town’s current drought.
The first Skinny laMinx range of prints produced exclusively for yardage was the Sevilla Rock collection of 2006, inspired by South Africa’s world-renowned ancient Khoisan cave paintings. Of these five designs, one— called Herds and consisting of a repeat-and-reverse pattern made up of an ultra-simple animal silhouette—is still being produced. Available in Black, Deep Red, and a chic Hide Grey, it’s a unique and elegant design.
Asked about the Skinny laMinx color palette, Moore says that it “tends towards the dirtier tones, like petrol blues, olive greens, chartreuse, cocoa, and burnt orange, all of which are colors that I associate with a midcentury palette, and all of which work together in interesting ways.” She also confesses to “a deep hatred of purple,” saying that “it makes me feel revolting inside when I think about purple fabrics or products, although I do quite love it on flowers and butterflies,”
In short, Moore’s palette—and her overall aesthetic—very much combines a contemporary sensibility with a subtly retro, Mid-Century Modern feel. In terms of the Skinny laMinx brand, that palette has also subtly shifted over the years. “I used to have quite a lot of olive green, which no longer features,” says Moore, “but I have been pretty consistent with colors like chartreuse and grey. Over the last few years, as Skinny laMinx has been growing more of a market with decorators, we’ve tried to fill gaps in our palette. So when we were choosing colors for our 2016 Brise Soleil collection, we focussed on blues, as we hardly had any in the color mix. We also find neutrals like charcoals and greys are popular, so we often include them as a colorway. When we launched the Roof Garden design, we took the opportunity of making our first three-color print to create some marvelously wild color mixes, which was exciting.”
Highlights of this colorful display of pillows in the Skinny laMinx store are bright cushion covers in Woodpile in Teal (top, third from left) and Pebble in Brazil (center right), as well as a very graphic monochrome cushion cover in the Tall Protea print in charcoal (center left; skinnylaminx.com).
tranquil yet
In 2010 Pearl Thompson—now head of business at Skinny laMinx—arrived on the scene: Thompson was working for herself at the time, having left the corporate world, and as she told the Skinny laMinx blog, “had the idea of approaching a couple of independent Cape Town-based creatives to see if they needed someone like me to help with the running of their business while they got on with the design side of things.” Soon after she and Moore had their first meeting, Moore offered Thompson a stake in the business and ever since, Thompson has been the “organized, decisive, numbers-driven person” in the business, as Moore puts it.
At the end of 2011, the Skinny laMinx shop opened on Bree Street, which at that time was just on the cusp of becoming the hive of creative businesses and foodie enterprises that it is today. In 2017—a very busy year for Moore, during which she also launched the Roof Garden fabric range and traveled to Jaipur in India for a second time with Ace Camps to teach pattern-making workshops—the store was renovated and expanded slightly. Moore picks out her Bowls print in bright persimmon (a vibrant coral shade) as an ever-popular option with customers. “Our two top-selling designs are Bowls in persimmon, which is quite a strong choice, and Pincushion in charcoal, which is very traditional. Our sharp lemon yellow is a consistent seller [too] because it mixes so well with so many other colors, adding a burst of energy to greys or sages or blues,” she says.
Town is focused on softly “muddy” pastel shades. The Oslo chair is manufactured by South African furniture makers Fechters (fechters. co.za), which is based in Knysna and is only available to purchasers in South Africa: here, it has been upholstered in Skinny laMinx’s Roof Garden print in Miami (skinnylaminx.com). On the shelf on the far wall, a plethora of cushions and Colour Pop pillows includes a cushion in Woodpile (part of the Rough Cuts collection) in Spruce (top left) and two cushions in the brand’s very popular Bowls print, which also started as a paper cutout, in Lemon Slice and Graphite respectively.
Designer Heather Moore stands alongside the large rack of fabrics that are available to purchase by the meter from the Skinny laMinx store in Bree Street, Cape Town. The print on the roll she is holding is Palmetto in Pine Nut.
This
invigorating display area in the Skinny laMinx shop in Bree Street, Cape
The Skinny laMinx store also stocks tote bags in various sizes and other small accessories, as well as a very appealing selection of children’s clothing and babies’ shoes. The Alex Sack on the left here is made up in the Oddjects print in Tangerine, and the Skinny Tote on the right in the Breeze print in Petrol; the Travel Bags, Stash Bags, and petite Coin Purses are available in a wide variety of prints, with colorful, often contrasting zippers (skinnylaminx.com).
One area of the Skinny laMinx shop is given over to the brand’s range of napkins and other table linen. Here, pairs of napkins are stacked according to color “families,” so customers are encouraged to mix and match designs in similar shades if they prefer. The table runner is made up of Orla in Fog, and on the top shelf is one of a selection of the brand’s “soft buckets,” which are ideal for storage or as indoor plant holders (skinnylaminx.com).
Mindful of all the other makers out there, Moore’s online and brickand-mortar stores both stock color-coordinated packs of fabric pieces that are perfect for DIY projects of all kinds (skinnylaminx.com).
So far in 2018, Skinny laMinx has launched its new “Colour Pop” pillow range—a range of scatter cushions in solid colors that coordinate perfectly with the brand’s patterns—and Moore, who enjoys a spot of teaching, has run pattern-design workshops in Eswatini (Swaziland) and Cape Town. In a recent blog post, Moore suggested that her current aim is to go beyond a single “Making Friday” to spending a minimum of three days a week “building a strong line in my studio.” The results are sure to bring yet more brilliant Skinny laMinx patterns and colors to homes and interiors around the globe.
skinnylaminx.com
This Skinny laMinx display of tea towels would light up any room. Clockwise from top left, they are: Breeze in Persimmon, Eep! in Tomato, Across the Sea in Sunrise, Tall Protea in Leaf, Summer Weeds in Pollen, Borrowed Spoons in Sage, Summer Weeds in Pistachio, Pebble in Tomato, Pebble in Brazil, Across the Sea in Granite, Stig in Pine Nut and Across the Sea in Pacific (skinnylaminx.com).
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EUREKA! STRANGER THAN FICTION BY: KEVIN JAMES JEFFERY
108 AGAINST THE GRAIN BY: CARY WONG
114 WOMEN LOVE WHISKEY! BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
122 FUNKALICIOUS BY: CARY WONG
Eureka!
Stranger Than Fiction
The McBride Sisters’ Triumphant Discovery of Each Other
McBride Sisters Wine Company became a business under the most unlikely of circumstances. While it’s not entirely unlikely for siblings to start a company together, it’s almost completely unheard of to open one with a sibling you never knew you had. Robin and Andréa grew up with dreams of working in the wine industry. But for the first half of their lives, one half-sister grew up in Marlborough, New Zealand, and the other grew up in Monterey, California. They didn’t even know the other existed.
Robin McBride and Andrea McBride
Both half-sisters grew up thinking they were only children on opposite ends of the Pacific Ocean, over 6,500 miles away. Andréa grew up with her mother, Pauline, in New Zealand until she sadly died of breast cancer. At the age of six, she was placed with a foster family. While Robin was raised by her mother, Karen, in Monterey, California.
Their shared biological father never mentioned to either of the siblings that they had a half-sister. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to ask their father why he never told them, as he died from stomach cancer in 1996. However, before passing, he did ask his family to connect the two girls. They were able to get in touch with Andréa but had no idea where Robin was living.
With no way of searching by Google or Facebook, as they did not exist at the time, the family had to perform time-consuming investigation techniques. They ended up pulling the records of every Robin McBride listed in the Department of Motor Vehicle database. After writing dozens of letters, Robin received one from her aunt (her father’s sister).
The note read, “I’m your aunt, and I’m sorry to tell you that your dad has passed away, but you have a little sister,” Andréa told CBS This Morning. The shocking and exciting news led to the sisters meeting at LaGuardia Airport in New York just one day after Robin received the letter.
“The world brought us together. We’re invincible, we can do anything…”
As the story goes, Andréa recalls walking down the jet bridge and thinking she was seeing her reflection in the glass at the end of the hall. While walking toward the glass, she realized it wasn’t her reflection. It was her first time seeing her sister. Robin says she often gets emotional listening to that story because after losing a mother and a father, discovering she had a sister meant so much.
Not long after meeting each other, Robin and Andréa discovered they both had a passion for wine. Robin says that while they both grew up in major wine regions in California and New Zealand and had big dreams, they probably wouldn’t have ended up in the industry alone. But since all the stars aligned and the world brought them together, they seemed destined to start a winery together.
“The world brought us together. We’re invincible, we can do anything,” says Robin. That was certainly the attitude that was needed when they opened their company in 2005. Even now, the wine industry is mostly white and male. Back then, it was even more so. But they took on the challenge to transform the industry, leading by example and cultivating the community.
With the right mindset and intent, these two fierce and forward-thinking leaders were able to defy tradition and gender, seize opportunities, and build the largest Black-owned wine business in the United States. But it’s not the size of their company that they are most proud of — it’s that they accomplished that feat by focusing on being socially aware, inclusive, accessible, and sustainable.
What’s even more unique about the McBride Sisters Collection is that you can try wines from Andréa’s home state of California and Robin’s home country of New Zealand. For instance, you can try the Reserve Pinot Noir “Papatūānuku” from Central Otago, New Zealand (92 Points by Wine Enthusiast) or the Reserve Pinot Noir “Cocky Motherf*cker” from Santa Lucia Highlands, California (91 Points Wine Enthusiast).
While the wine we just mentioned hover around $70 (which is a great deal for the quality you’re getting), most of the McBride Sisters’ wine can be purchased for under $25. Robin and Andréa make it a point to keep their wines affordable for the average jane and joe without sacrificing quality. That’s just part of the reason the company has gained such a loyal customer base.
In addition to their unique collection, like SHE CAN, canned wine you can bring anywhere, McBride Sisters also have their ever-popular Black Girl Magic collection. Not only is this collection an ode to their story and culture, but “they are premium wines that respect her palate and showcase the flavors of the finest single vineyards in California,” says Robin and Andréa.
Women-owned. Blackowned. Sister-owned. What started as two halfsisters meeting after the loss of their father turned into an amazing success story that’s stranger than fiction… and there’s a lot more to be told.
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Against the Grain
How la Barbecue and Chef LeAnn Mueller Stood Out Against the Norm
WRITTEN BY: CARY WONG
Astrong muscular man chopping wood. Maybe a heavily tattooed and mustached pitmaster tending the fire. We have certain stereotypes attached to those who own and work at a barbecue restaurant. The first image that comes to mind would surely not be a woman with short-cropped blonde hair. LeAnn Mueller, though, is exactly that. Along with her wife and partner, Chef Ali Clem, she runs la Barbecue, one of the best barbecue joints in the United States.
As part of the “barbecue royalty” family, her grandfather opened Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas as one of the first restaurants to serve Texas barbecue. Her father, Bobbie, took over the pits in 1974; while her brothers Wayne and John also got involved in the barbecue game in their own ways as they grew up.
Despite having helped out with the restaurant from a very young age until her mid-20s, Chef Mueller had her sights set on something outside the pit. She wanted to be a photographer.
“If I don’t do this photography thing now,” she thought at the time, “I’m gonna be stuck here doing barbecue for the rest of my life.” So, she sold everything she owned, moved to Santa Barbara, California, and went to photo school.
After finishing her education in 2006, she moved to New York to work on her craft. Barely two months had passed when her dad called and said he had won the James Beard Award (the first ever given to a barbecue restaurant) and that he would be traveling to New York to visit her and to receive the honor. They had a great time during her parents’ visit, even as the couple constantly complained about how pricey the beer was in Times Square. Chef Mueller recalls fondly that she even brought her mother to different dive bars in Brooklyn!
As she continued to progress in her career, she eventually became a famous photographer who traveled the world to shoot for magazines like Rolling Stone and Texas Monthly with people such as Willie Nelson, Jay-Z, Rascal Flatts, and Beastie Boys.
Eventually, though, barbecue came back to her.
though, barbecue came back to her.
When her father suddenly passed away at 69, she returned to Texas. Due to some family issues, she had to take over Louie Mueller Barbecue, which was being run by her brother Wayne. She decided to rename it la Barbecue (with the first two characters in lowercase) for three reasons. First, they were her initials. Second, the lowercase was meant as a feminized barbecue. The third and final reason was that, by not putting her name on it, she could prove she could stand on her own merits, even as the baby sister. “I didn’t need to use my parents’ last name to be successful,” she says. Despite the great branding, it was anything but smooth sailing in the beginning. The business was in debt, and Chefs
Mueller and Clem faced a lot of pushback as if they had done something horrible by running the restaurant. They also did not get the proper respect because of their gender—even though, in her eyes, Chef Clem (in addition to being Chef Mueller’s wife) is one of the best brisket cooks.
Eventually, things turned around as people started to recognize their abilities. la Barbecue became highly ranked in all Texas barbecue lists as the lines to get a taste became longer and longer.
It took hard work and consistency to get to where they are now. Their brisket starts with a cold smoke the day before. On
the day of service, they put it back on again to finish. For the ribs, they start somewhere around three o’clock in the morning, sometimes earlier, depending on the amount needed. So, the team works seven days a week even though the restaurant is only open for five of those.
When asked what her method was, she was generous enough to share some pointers. “It’s a complete science. You’re always tending your fires and can’t let the brisket stall,” she says. Even though the process uses low and slow heat, a chef “might have to [turn the temperature] up a little bit at points. It just depends. You can’t just let it ride [at 250, 275 degrees Fahrenheit]. There are a few other steps that go in there. I can’t give them all away, though—they’re our secrets.”
The barbecue business is steeped in tradition. la Barbecue follows that path with their beef brisket that uses a conventional salt and pepper rub. They also make sure they source “happy cows” that are given nutritious feeds, especially after experiencing how much better the beef tasted when they were raised with better diets.
While she adheres to the tradition for her briskets, Chef Mueller gets to be creative for other offerings by channeling her imagination the way she does during photo shoots. In fact, Chef Clem got mad at her during the pandemic because Chef Mueller kept creating new items on the menu, even saying that they would become “the Cheesecake Factory of barbecue if you don’t stop.”
difficult process that took seven or eight tries to get the grind just right. All the hard work did pay off in the end, as they are now sold as Red Rocket Wiener Wagon hotdogs, adding to their product lineup of homemade brisket and chili.
Having lived the barbecue lifestyle her entire life, she also mentioned a few observations that may surprise some people. First, the meat should have a balanced flavor without being overly smoky. If the only thing one can taste is smoke, the chef did not cook with a clean fire. Second, burnt ends are an issue for her. “I’m always like, I don’t burn my brisket,” she says. “You want an end piece that has the seasoning on it, call it that, but don’t say burnt tips. It drives me nuts. Do you want lean? Or do you want moist? It’s just that simple. You know, don’t try to use all this jargon.” Third, competition cooking is completely different from serving every day at a restaurant. “We don’t inject (to add flavor and moisture). We don’t cook to be pretty,” she says. “We’re cooking 50 to 60 briskets a day. They just need to be consistent, and they need to be done well.”
“You want an end piece that has the seasoning on it, call it that, but don’t say burnt tips. It drives me nuts. Do you want lean? Or do you want moist? It’s just that simple. You know, don’t try to use all this jargon.”
The ideas that ended up on the menu include a chipotle chili slaw inspired by her travels. They also have a sweet pepper cucumber kimchi that came about thanks to the couple’s visit to Korea right before COVID. As for the mains, some sausages are made a little differently with uncommon ingredients—such as homemade pickled jalapeños—that actually started as a project between herself and her father.
As she was trying to make different kinds of sausages during the pandemic, she wanted to make hotdogs. It was a very
Talking about her in-house favorites, turkey tops her list, while sausage and brisket chili follows. “I’m not a heavy meat barbecue eater,” she says. “But when we go out to eat, it’s usually sushi. Or at Suerte, one of our favorite places in Austin. It’s a Mexican walk-in style restaurant that is pretty amazing.”
Perhaps surprisingly, she does not go out to eat barbecue as she works with it every single day. More than anything, she is looking forward to being able to travel again so she can bring more recipes back from her adventures. Currently, she is waiting for la Barbecue’s beer and wine license so they can stop giving away free beer. That and “slinging weenies (hotdogs) and keeping the doors open.”
We can certainly all drink to that!
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Women Love Whiskey!
Sheila Jackson and Natasha McCrea Launch a New Line of Whiskeys Aimed at Female Connoisseurs
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: BENMIO MCCREA
WRITTEN BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
Sheila Jackson and Natasha McCrea discovered their mutual passion for whiskey one night over dinner as Natasha sipped an old-fashioned.
“We had connected over our love for wine and had no idea we shared an appreciation for whiskey as well!” says McCrea.
As for their personal tastes, Jackson loves to explore a variety of whiskeys—from Angel’s Envy to Oban to Basil Hayden to the Japanese whiskey Tenjaku. McCrea enjoys smokey flavors and is disappointed that many other brands don’t lean into the smokey flavors enough. She says the smoke gets her attention, and she gets a kick out of the perfect balance of smoke, spice, and just a little bit of caramel.
Sheila Jackson and Natasha McCrea
BREAKING INTO THE MARKET WITH A TASTE OF CALIFORNIA
This shared enjoyment led the two to start Jackson McCrea Whiskey, the first Black woman-owned whiskey brand in California. Jackson had wanted to launch a brand and had already been exploring the wine industry when she got the idea for a line of whiskeys. When McCrea said she had the same idea, the rest was history.
“During COVID, sales of wine and spirits increased by 65 percent,” says Jackson. McCrea, who considers herself and Jackson to be natural disruptors, was excited to break into that market.
They source the finest rye they can find in the South and blend it in California.
According to McCrea, “Jackson McCrea is inspired by California sunsets and all the things that we love about California life.” Jackson says that the state’s wine country is chief among them. They are creating their signature flavor by resting their rye in French oak and Syrah barrels to create a premium blend with a rich, smooth body and notes of caramel, vanilla, smoke, and spice.
The Jackson McCrea Whiskey, will be housed in a striking bottle which is currently being finalized by their creative team. They are planning a launch early Summer 2023.
WOMEN, WHISKEY, AND WELLNESS
Both founders hope to diversify the image of whiskey so that it’s no longer seen as a beverage just for men.
“Representation matters,” says Jackson. “Women have been almost erased from the narrative around whiskey. When 78% of the images used in whiskey ads feature men, it’s easy to position whiskey as a man’s drink. But we know from the data that women are drinking whiskey. In fact, the research shows women are largely responsible for the recent boom in whiskey sales.”
McCrea also wants women whiskey drinkers to feel seen and heard. Toward that end, they launched a Women and Whiskey Survey, where they asked women what they liked and used those results to formulate their drinks.
“We’re still collecting results and want to invite women out there to take the survey,” McCrea says.
Jackson also affirms that this kind of innovation is at the foundation of Jackson McCrea. The brand will try fresh approaches to develop more inclusive marketing and advertising to change the narrative around whiskey. “We’re cultivating a new visual footprint that represents and celebrates the diversity of whiskey lovers,” says Jackson.
Another way Jackson McCrea sets out to change the adult beverage industry is by setting up the JM 100 Fund. This will provide money and resources to other emerging entrepreneurs.
“The grantees will be hand-selected leader-disruptors who are passionate about empowering women,” says Jackson. While their beverages are crafted to be enjoyed by all whiskey lovers, Jackson and McCrea unapologetically want to take up space as women in this industry and leverage their brand to advance the dialogue around self-care, joy, and women’s wellness. They want to champion the busy women who run households, teams, and companies.
In 2023, the JM 100 Fund will host the first annual JM 100 retreat, where they will put together a strategy and action plan.
ADVICE FOR NEW WHISKEY TASTERS
Back to whiskey, McCrea offers advice for those who want to develop an appreciation for the drink.
“Whiskey is like wine, in the sense that there are different flavors and qualities that come forth based on how the whiskey is distilled and/or blended,” she says.
“When tasting whiskey, consider trying it neat [no ice], or add a small drop of water, which opens up the aromatics. You can really experience the unfolding of whiskey flavors by adding one large round or square cube, which is going to melt much slower, allowing the taste to evolve—which provides an opportunity for the drinker to explore different tastes and potency levels.”
Jackson follows up by pointing out that much like wine, more expensive doesn’t guarantee better taste.
“Explore whiskeys from different regions, read the labels, and learn the language. Become familiar with the terms used to describe the brands you enjoy, and look for those in the notes of other brands when you shop. And lastly, aromatics are as important as taste and, in fact, impact taste. So, follow your nose. Have fun!”
@JACKSONMCCREA @JACKSONMCCREAWHISKEY
Sheila Jackson
Natasha McCrea
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Funkalicious
THE STORY OF CHEF GEORGIANNA HILIADAKI
WRITTEN BY: CARY WONG
The moment her mother inspired her to open a restaurant called “Funky Gourmet,” i t should have been clear to an observer that Chef Georgianna Hiliadaki has a cool family.
She was studying the rather normal and plain subjects of Italian and European Relations at England’s Reading University. As soon as she graduated, her open-minded and forward-looking father told her that she should follow her passion instead of taking the safe route as her friends. So, he persuaded her to go to New York and study culinary arts. There, she attended The Institute of Culinary Education, one of the best cooking schools in the country.
In truth, her love of food and kitchen experience started much earlier—precisely when she was six years old.
“I remember that I asked my mom to give me something like $1 to buy a book that was called Little Chefs,” she says. “It only had pictures and [instructions on] how to cook food from around the world.” The dishes came out delicious. And that was the
moment her cooking talent first shone through. After studying, she started working at various restaurants in the United States, Greece, and Europe. One of her most memorable experiences was staging at the legendary “El Bulli” under Chef Ferran Adrià. She observed firsthand how much research and development meant for a cutting-edge restaurant. She saw cooking from a very different viewpoint in that difficult and hectic environment. “All of a sudden, from being a student and a culinary infant, I was transported into the best kitchen in the world,” she says. “There were no fires… and no salt (in the kitchen). Everything was weighed with a scale.” She also saw the philosophical side of Chef Adrià. When he was not creating at the chef’s table, he gazed into the sky for inspiration.
Eventually, Chef Hiliadaki returned to her native Athens and worked at numerous establishments. She met her business partner and now husband, Nikos Roussos, and they decided to open up their own business along with her sister. They looked at different houses to bring patrons into a home-like experience. The restaurant would have tasting menus with 13 courses. However, they were responsible for everything— cooking, serving, and cleaning up afterward. It was a very entrepreneurial venture.
Chef Georgianna Hiliadaki
With high-quality dishes, word of mouth spread quickly. They grew rapidly and decided to take a more professional approach and make things more official. They found a kitchen and a space to host larger events and continued to provide private chef services.
The restaurant bug, however, never left their hearts. So, they transformed the private event space into a restaurant in 2009. There was only one problem: they needed a catchy name.
“We were talking with my father, Nikos,” she says. “We couldn’t find the (missing) concept. And my mother suggested, ‘Why don’t you open something which is like gourmet and funky; like Funky Gourmet?’”
At that moment, they realized that the name also worked as a great concept. She explains that in Greek, funky means “very stylish and friendly” and does not have a bad connotation. It means something useful and happy. That relaxed and creative word offsets the word “gourmet,” a stuffy and self-serious term. They would serve playful food cooked with thoughtful techniques and provide explosive flavors. The guests may eat something that they have never tasted before.
A perfect example is the Funky Gourmet Greek salad, one of their signature dishes. The classic version is made with tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and capers. However, in Chef Hiliadaki’s kitchen, all these ingredients were presented in the form of a white granita. The textures and techniques were new, yet the flavors were rooted in tradition.
Two years after the restaurant opened its doors, it was awarded its first Michelin star, and received its second star two years after that. It was a crazy dream that came true.
These accolades, however, meant that the team could not rest on its laurels. Chef Hiliadaki worked with a big research and development team to come up with new ideas. There were multiple ways of creating new items. Sometimes it was based on seasonal ingredients. “For example, cauliflowers,” she says. “Okay, what could we do with cauliflowers? Should we braise them? Should we make a stock out of it? Or should we make a juice?”
Other times, she began with an illusion. An example would be the aforementioned Greek salad. Or consider the “soft-boiled egg”—which, while it certainly looked like one, tasted anything but. Its shell was made from chocolate, with coconut ice cream substituted for egg whites and mango puree standing in for the yolk. Diners would take the “bread” (a piece of vanilla cake) and dip it into the “egg.” It was a perfect illusion.
“We would serve this dish as the first dessert after the main courses, so [some people] didn’t know it was a dessert,” she recalls. “And there was even a guest who said ‘no, I don’t want a boiled egg right now. I don’t want to eat it; take it away from me.’
Her friends started eating, and they realized that it was a dessert, so she said okay, bring it back.”
Chef Hiliadaki takes inspiration from everything. She even used the feeling of nostalgia to create a picnic course that served a host of small delicacies on a picnic stage—including the picnic tablecloth—on the table.
As Funky Gourmet became more successful, investors started getting in touch, suggesting
they open restaurants in England. So, in 2014, they opened OPSO. And its success eventually led to PittaBun and Ino, all located in London, but with different setups and approaches. OPSO, which means “delicacy” in ancient Greek, seats 150 and serves brunch all the way to dinner. INO, meaning “wine” in modern Greek, is a small Greek tapas place where diners eat food cooked over an open flame and charcoal by the counter. It serves only Greek wines that can be ordered by the glass. Last, PittaBun is a street food concept, selling souvlaki and other elevated items, where the pita bread is brought from Greece using an in-house recipe.
When asked what Greek food means to her, she defines it by its land, the sea, the produce, the sun, the versatility, and the tradition. “It’s the exquisite fish that we have… (in) a land where you see the sun almost 300 days a year.” That makes a difference in how the tomato, the cucumber, and the olive oil taste. A great example is the concept of ladera, which means “in oil.” It is a practice where vegetables, like okra, are cooked in olive oil for a very long time, similar to the French confit. “When it’s finished,” she says, “they melt in your mouth.”
And one can never forget the historical tradition of Greece that stretches far, far back in history. For example, the Peloponnesian pop-up she did unearthed a few recipes from those long-bygone eras.
Coming back to modern times and on the topic of gender equality, she believes that women are minorities in many fields, such as law, politics, and others. To her, it is because women’s priorities change after bearing children and giving birth. It is the same in cooking, where the crazy schedule makes things difficult. One has to stay in the kitchen and toil long hours while others are having fun. However, she does think that things have improved a lot. She often gets CVs from women, and most of her restaurants’ staff, both inside the kitchen and at the front of the house, are women. She thinks that the most important thing is to treat and respect all sexes the same way.
While Chef Hiliadaki decides on the next step for Funky Gourmet, as it has been on hiatus since 2019, she is busy running her restaurants and Horeca, a full-service restaurant consulting company. She is also on the verge of doing something completely new, which she will announce on her Instagram.
As successful as she is with presenting traditional dishes in new ways and bringing new audiences to Greek food, the new venture will surely be a smash. We cannot wait to see it for ourselves!
@GEORGIANNA_HILIADAKI
@FUNKYGOURMETRESTAURANT
@INOGASTROBAR
@PITTABUN
@OPSO_LONDON
@DIGITALWONG
Chef Georgianna Hiliadaki
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134
SACRED VALLEY WONDERS BY: FILIPA ARAÚJO
146 FIRST FOOT FORWARD BY: NIZIE LOKMAN
Sacred Valley Wonders
Explore the Sacred Valley in the Peruvian Andes Through an Immersive Local Experience
WRITTEN BY: FILIPA ARAÚJO
With the undeniable boom of tourism and the consequent exploitation of land and indigenous communities comes the big question: How can we develop the travel industry while maintaining the soul of a place, respecting cultural heritage, and strengthening the community?
Forget tourist traps that feed a cycle of consumerism and exploitation. In 2023 we are celebrating authenticity, and we are choosing reciprocity.
Social enterprises like Awamaki are helping to create the new concept of mindful traveling. When we choose tourism experiences that are designed by locals, we are able to connect with our destination at a much deeper layer. Only a vision from within can truly allow us to understand the soul of the land.
Awamaki is a non-profit organization that creates authentic tourism experiences that support and empower women entrepreneurs from rural areas in the Peruvian Andes.
Have you ever wondered how the indigenous Quechua community lives? The different tourism programs at Awamaki allow you to experience the Sacred Valley in Peru as you never had before… from an insider’s perspective.
WHAT THEY DO
Awamaki’s goal is to empower the women in Quechua communities through tourism, providing them with new economic opportunities and offering training skills to allow these women to build a sustainable financial source that is based on their knowledge and skills so that they can support themselves and their families while honoring cultural traditions.
As a community-based business, Awamaki partners and collaborates with Quechua Artisans in the Patacancha Valley, an isolated, steep mountainous region adjacent to the town of Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. Together, they create sustainable grassroots programs that benefit the community.
The organization is built on three main values: Thoughtfulness, Community, and Reciprocity.
On their website, Awamaki explains the core of their work: “We care deeply about cultivating relationships built on mutual respect, honesty, and authenticity. Collaborating with and supporting women artisans in starting their own small businesses is at the heart of what we do. Our success is intertwined with the success of their businesses, and every decision we make is rooted in creating opportunities for knowledge exchange and growth. Because when women flourish, communities do too.”
Awamaki offers two programs: artisan cooperatives and sustainable tourism. The Artisan cooperatives are where they provide skills training and market access to the hard-working women in the community. Together, they create designs that are contemporary and stylish while still traditionally rooted. An effortless blend between old and new. They currently have an online store and a physical store in Ollantaytambo, where you can find their beautiful creations.
The sustainable tourism program offers unique travel experiences based on cultural respect and sustainability and provides a local experience of life in the Peruvian Andes. Depending on what you’re looking for, several experiences are at your disposal. Discover the Sacred Valley at the hands of local villagers, travel back in time as you explore ancient Inca ruins, and prepare to
be blown away by the magnificent scenery as you trek through the Andean mountains. You will have the opportunity to learn about Andean culture, connect with locals, experience how indigenous communities live, and marvel at the sight of their textile markets. For an even deeper dive into the Quechua community lifestyle, you can also spend the night in the village and participate in their traditional ceremonies, learn how to weave, and enjoy a cooking class of traditional dishes.
The communities organize these visits, along with the support of Awamaki. This way, the communities can benefit directly from tourism without compromising their traditional values and allowing visitors to have an even more memorable and deeply personal experience. For Awamaki, sustainable tourism is the way forward. Their website reinforces the importance of these kinds of programs in place, “Sustainable tourism also strengthens appreciation for the cultural heritage and environment of the destination community. Rather than undermining cultural practices, sustainable tourism respectfully elevates and values local traditions. For example, in the communities where Awamaki works, sustainable tourism offers women the opportunity to earn an income by sharing their deep knowledge of weaving and fiber arts instead of working in a hotel or a job in a nearby city that is removed from their community.”
THE IDEA BEHIND THE CONCEPT
The Patacancha Valley has been the home of Quechua communities for centuries. Originally settled in the skyscratching Andean Mountains to escape the Spanish conquest, they have lived a separate life from the rest of Peru until relatively recently. About 30 years ago, they gained more access to the economy, education, and basic services with the new development of roads and schools.
But, with the arrival of roads came the tourists, and although that brought prospects of a new source of income, it wasn’t reliable or sustainable. On their website, Awakami paints a picture of the scene, “Years ago, tourism to the indigenous villages where we work was disorganized and chaotic. Without a tourist reception center, guides brought tourists to the village to wander the paths, even peeking into people’s homes to take pictures. Visits were not planned in advance, so when tourists arrived, women dropped everything they were doing to run to meet the tourists in the hopes they would sell a weaving, but if they didn’t, there was no compensation for the time they took out of their day. The economic benefit of tourism was uneven and unreliable. Visitors disrupted and eroded key parts of village life. Meanwhile, women had few options to earn money in the village, as paying jobs were located in towns several hours away.”
Awamaki was founded in 2009 by Kennedy Leavens and Miguel Galdo, who had previously worked in an organization that supported a cooperative of Quechua women weavers that eventually closed down. But when one door closes, we open a window, so Leavens and Galdo decided to open Awamaki to continue supporting the community. They have created several programs in the past, and their current focus is fair trade artisan cooperatives and sustainable tourism programs, with the goal of empowering the community without compromising their values. “Quechua people and women are using ancestral crafts to navigate the modern economy and make a place for themselves and their culture. We are honored to be part of this with them.”
HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT
If you want to support this important initiative and be part of the solution, you can donate towards Awamaki’s education and training programs for artisans. https://www.awamaki.org/pages/donate
You can also find beautiful contemporary creations in their online shop: https://www.awamaki.org/collections/shop-all
So if you’re planning on visiting Peru soon, make sure to book a trip with Awamaki, and you too can experience the mystical Sacred Valley like a local.
@FINDING_FILIPA
AWAMAKI.ORG
PHOTO CREDITS: (UNSPLASH) ADRIAN DASCAL, ANDRES CARRENO, JEAN VELLA, ALEXANDER SCHIMMECK, ANDY SALAZAR, BEN OSTROWER, WILLIAN JUSTEN DE VASCONCELLOS, SEIJI SEIJI
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First Foot Forward
Discover The Journeys of These Fearless Females Through Their Epic World Travel
WRITTEN BY: NIZIE NAZEHA LOKMAN , FCIM
Travel is multi-dimensional. Some of us take on a journey to escape routine , while others just want to push their boundaries, make dreams come true, or see travel as a learning experience. Some who travel discover a journey bigger than themselves. It is uplifting to learn how these globetrotting “she-roes,” or female heroes, from all walks of life inspire us as women of our time to be bold and brave and pioneer our own journeys, making a mark in the world. TrooRa highlights the women who have gone far and wide with their dreams to travel the world and made it to the finish line; from the youngest person at 21, the fastest person to circle the globe at 24, the first of South Asian origin at 34, the first Black person at 35, to the first Filipino one at 77.
Melissa Roy
TAYLOR DEMONBREUN
ALEXIS ROSE ALFORD
“We live on such a big, beautiful planet, and I’m looking forward to finding more fun and creative ways to involve my audience and inspire them to get out of their comfort zone and see the world.”
– 21-YEAR-OLD ALEXIS ALFORD
In 2017, Alexis Alford set off to make a mark in history by becoming the youngest person at 21 to travel to every country. And she made it in 2019. She mentioned in Forbes that she was initially just an intrepid traveler who wanted to see the world. The thought of stepping foot in every country on the globe was not her intention. However, as she realized her journey around the world was inspiring many people, especially younger women, she decided to push further and became a historical female hero who made a mark in the Guinness World Records.
Alford was looking for answers to how people find happiness and lead their lives around the world. She finds it intriguing that those who don’t prioritize material possessions are the happiest. In turn, she discusses useful tips and unique advice on how to reconnect by disconnecting on her Instagram. She also appeared on TEDx for her lessons learned traveling the world.
“Young women can, and should, see as much of the world as they can. I believe that travel is vitally important to shaping one’s worldview, so it is important for everyone to get out and learn more about the world that they live in. To have played even a small part in encouraging someone to travel and see something new makes me so incredibly proud to have worked toward and set this record.”
– 24-YEAR-OLD TAYLOR DEMONBREUN
Who would have thought that just out of college with a diploma in her hand and a belief in her dreams, 24-year-old Taylor Demonbreun from Florida would become the Fastest Female to Travel the World and the record holder for the fastest person to go around the globe? The Guinness World Records named her the fastest time to visit all sovereign nations (overall and female) within one year and 189 days. Her amazing achievement celebrated the launch of the Guinness World Records Day 2019. It is a day that promotes the Spirit of Adventure and encourages people to push themselves to attempt to break a record. She embarked after graduation in June 2017 and inspired women to travel solo.
Acknowledging that humans are different from one another in race, religion, and way of life, she discovered in her own experiences that humans all want the simple things in life—safety, basic values, and freedom. It is how we choose to live our life meaningfully.
Travel broke Taylor free from struggles like social anxiety. Conversing and communicating with strangers in foreign languages led her to be bold and brave in facing the world. Taylor speaks a lot about her solo travels in her blog and, with her journey, inspires us to make our dreams come true.
Alexis Alford
Her childhood dream became a reality as she stepped foot in her last country, Mozambique. Alford with her Guinness World Record. The photo was taken from Alford’s Instagram.
MELISSA ROY
“I have an insatiable curiosity for the unknown and building meaningful connections. What we need is an open heart and a desire to connect with others, to understand them. A little bit of empathy goes a long way.”
– 34-YEAR-OLD MELISSA ROY
While many fear the unknown, not knowing what to expect of the future, Melissa Roy takes the opposite view. She finds the unknown to be a place to tap into her potential. Believing in herself and financing her travels without sponsorship deals or free trips pushed Melissa Roy to become
the first woman of South Asian origin to travel to all 193 sovereign nations in the world in 2019. She chooses to circumnavigate the world with local hosts instead of hotel stays.
Melissa’s journey is unique, considering she didn’t have the opportunity to travel as a child like most travel explorers. Michiganborn, she saw travel as an escape from the economic struggles of her childhood as a firstgeneration Asian minority in America. Nevertheless, she proved that anything was possible. Believing in staying close to her roots, she chose Bangladesh as her last country to visit as a sentimental tribute to her late father, whom she last saw at the tender age of six.
She told Urban Asian in an interview that she hopes to inspire others and build more meaningful connections. She keeps in touch with over 200 friends that she met while traveling the globe.
She did it. Roy in one of her travels. The photo was taken from her Instagram.
JESSICA NABONGO
“Everyone wants women to be afraid to go into the world alone. I am not. I’ve learned that most people are good. I move with positive energy, and that is a magnet for all these wonderful, amazing humans that are brought into my life.”
– 35-YEAR-OLD JESSICA NABONGO
Her book “The Catch Me if You Can: One Woman’s Journey to Every Country in the World
Jessica Nabongo, a Ugandan-American, felt a call to the world. She believes humanity still exists and forges deep connections with people and places. At 35 years old, she became the first recorded Black woman to visit every UN-recognized country. Her epic travels have taken her to 195 countries and 10 territories, 89 of which she visited solo. Her journey traveling the world was largely self-funded, and she doesn’t do free trips either.
I’m inspired by her wisdom in saying, “I hope that what people get from my journey is that the world is all of ours, it belongs to all of us, and we can go, we can play, we can meet, and we can see every place in the world that we want to see,” in The 247 .
She’s also a public speaker, writer, entrepreneur, and founder of The Catch, her lifestyle brand.
Her latest achievement is a book published by National Geographic that documents her travels called The Catch Me if You Can: One Woman’s Journey to Every Country in the World, which is now a best-selling book worldwide. Get inspired by her journey on her website.
” is now a best-selling travel book.
The photo was taken from Nabongo’s Instagram.
ODETTE AQUITANIA RICASA
“Ricasa is living proof that there can be no limit to one’s dreams as long as one has the perseverance to pursue them.” – Inquirer
When it comes to travel, Odette Aquitania Ricasa shows us that age is just a number. The 77-yearold Filipino made rare history by becoming the first senior citizen and first Filipino to set foot in all countries and continents. Driven by her dreams, she encourages people to pursue their passion.
From humble beginnings in Manila to outstanding achievements as a US immigrant, Ricasa has earned Inquirer's recognition as a modern Renaissance woman.. She is a world traveler, an established artist, a pianist, a motivational speaker, and a mother who raised three children. After financial difficulties in her younger days, she navigated toward her dreams of traveling the world. She began traveling at 40 years old and continued year after year until the age of 77, completing the globe by foot, train, and bus and staying with strangers with families.
Ricasa is said to be a travel icon in a prestigious community; the Travelers’ Century Club only allows access to members who have traveled to more than 100 countries. She has written more than six books and displayed her paintings of more than 120 at the Ricasa Art Gallery in San Clemente, Southern California, and some other places around the world. She also gives back to the community through charity. For more of her travel journeys, you can visit her blog.
@LEXIELIMITLESS
@TREKWITHTAYLOR
@MAPPEDBYMELISSA
@JESSICANABONGO
@ODETTERICASA
@NIZIEE__
“Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
— Warren Buffett
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BELL COLLECTIVE BY: FILIPA ARAÚJO
A GLOBAL CONVERSATION BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
CATHARINE’S SCORE BY: KEVIN JAMES JEFFERY
UNDER CONSTRUCTION BY: GEORGE DIKE
TIFFT ’ S GOLDEN RATIO BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
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Bell Collective
A Collective Of Women Redefining The Way We See Travel Photography
PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY OF BELL COLLECTIVE
WRITTEN BY: FILIPA ARAÚJO
The Bell Collective comprises female (-identifying) photographers and creators. Founded by photographer Alina Rudya, this collective uses visual storytelling to redefine the woman traveler and challenge how we see female travel photography. They work on multiple projects and have collaborated with big names like Nikon and Mercedes-Benz. As an open collective, they work with women from all over the world, with different visions and backgrounds, who share a common goal: showcasing a variety of powerful perspectives on the world. Last year, the Bell Collective co-organized the Female Photo Days event in Berlin, Germany. This is an open invitation to female and non-binary photographers to empower creative female voices and create a space for emerging talent in the industry.
In 2019, they also released a book named “Bell Collective,” where we are invited to follow the path of 14 amazing women as they share life through their lens and allow us a sneak peek into their worlds. From big busy cities, between endless hot deserts and snowy white mountains, from intrepid road trips and wandering off the beaten path, we get to explore different corners of the world, with some powerful insights into travel and photography along the way. Inspired by the iconic Gertrude Bell, a famous British adventurer, archaeologist, travel writer, political officer, and a collective role model of the photographers, this book reminds us that we come from a legacy of powerful women pioneers who helped pave the way for our paths in an often male-dominated world.
Alina Rudya
Kolmanskopp, Namibia
CHALLENGING FEMALE STEREOTYPES
When Rudya founded the Bell Collective, she had a clear view of the future of the photography industry: “I created Bell Collective because I saw that women creators were misrepresented on social media. Women were seen as muses and models rather than adventurers, explorers, and artists. I wanted to create a collective of female photographers who show the world through their perspective and have a different angle on what traveling means.”
The idea is to use visual storytelling to challenge stereotypes about female travel and creative choices. In a male-dominated creative world, women often face issues regarding access to the industry and representation. Rudya explains the importance of having female representation in the industry: “Since the majority of photographers and creators in the journalistic, editorial, and commercial area are still men, we are often faced with the male gaze and lack of representation in advertisement, both in the creative teams & final product. Showcasing female creators and working with female & nonbinary teams on commercial projects helps to balance the scene & show different areas of interest, life, and expertise.”
The girls and women of tomorrow should get to experience a world free of imposed identities and stereotypes, and for Rudya, it is vital to showcase women who are strong, adventurous, fierce, and who challenge the idea of the fragile woman. “Role models are important for younger girls who are standing before a career choice, and seeing professional women who do not follow the established gender stereotypes will help to encourage the young generation to think out of the box, follow their true passion without a fear of being judged, and fix the imbalance in many professional fields.”
Rudya,
THE FACE BEHIND THE CONCEPT
Alina Rudya was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, and currently lives in Berlin, Germany. She originally moved to Berlin to follow her passion for photography and ended up falling in love with the city, where she’s been living for 13 years.
She studied visual communication and photography at the Berlin University of Arts and the Parsons School of Design in New York City. Her interest in photography was passed on from her father, a nuclear physicist with a fondness for the camera. She recalls when her father brought home a National Geographic magazine
Alina
professional photographer and founder of Bell Collective
from one of his trips to the US as the specific moment when her love for photography started. At the tender age of 9, young Rudya discovered the power of telling stories through visuals, and the camera became her vessel for storytelling.
Growing up, Rudya struggled to find a community where she would fit. Moving to Berlin and discovering the art world allowed her to find this community of powerful
women who have helped her grow and elevate her art form. “I love meeting other women who have the same passions as me. Growing up, I rarely met people who were interested in the same things as I were—both men and women, but now finally, I have a great circle of amazing women who are inspiring me and others with their passion, dedication, and talent.”
Rudya has traveled all over the world and explored some breathtaking places, from the eclectic streets of Japan to the colorful mosques of Iran to the quiet mountains of Iceland, she’s been capturing movement and stillness and using her camera to tell the stories of our land, and the different people and cultures that walk it.
When asked to talk about her favorite trip so far, Rudya couldn’t name just one and reminisces about three of her most impactful adventures to date. She first takes us on a journey to the sandy stretches of Namibia, where she traveled a few years ago with a girlfriend and fellow photographer. Here she experienced the tranquility and stillness of untouched land under the harsh sun that burns your skin during the day and the magical dance of a starry night: “Driving for hours through the deserted landscape, visiting an abandoned mining town in the middle of the desert, sleeping in a tent under the Milky Way was truly unforgettable.”
On our next stop, she brings us to the Grand Canyon in the US, an emotionally charged place for Rudya, as visiting this incredible natural work of art brought back some memories. “The American West has a special place in my heart. My father visited Arizona in 1994 and promised we would go to the Grand Canyon one day. He passed away in 2006 without being able to make the trip, so going to the Grand Canyon was on my Bucket List. It was one of the most breathtaking and heartbreaking experiences in my life because of the unimaginable beauty and grandeur of the place combined with the bittersweet memory of my father being there and experiencing the same feelings.”
For the final stop, Rudya brings us to a very special place on a trip that was one of the most intense and deeply personal experiences for the photographer. This time, Rudya returned to her roots in Ukraine, to the now abandoned city where she holds memories of a painful past. She reflects on the impact this trip had on her: “Going back to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the ghost town of Pripyat, which my family and I were evacuated from after the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster of 1986. My photography book Prypyat mon Amour resulted from multiple trips to Prypyat with people like me who were evacuated from the area. It was a very personal and cathartic project.”
Kolmanskopp, Namibia
Kolmanskopp, Namibia
PRYPYAT MON AMOUR
The photography book Prypyat mon Amour, meaning Prypyat my love, is a collection of memories of a place that once held life, joy, and laugher, and where now only the shadows of these memories still live on. The photo series portrays a group of people who, like Rudya, were evacuated from the city of Prypyat after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Rudya portrays them in their old homes, workplaces, the places they used to go to enjoy a sunny afternoon, the places where they were once happy. The book also includes interviews and an essay reflecting on this journey of remembering after forced displacement.
For Rudya, it was important to focus on the impact on life and the celebration of memories instead of showcasing a ghost town. She speaks of the message behind the project, “I didn’t want to show another picture of an abandoned city. Many photographers showed that side of the story. By looking at the pictures of the abandoned buildings, we see ‘absence of people,’ thus forgetting about thousands of those who left and are now still living a seemingly normal life, but at the same time, their lives will never be absolutely normal, because they were all more or less, directly or indirectly, marked by this disaster. I wanted to show the emotions of these people, triggered by coming back to the town of their youth. “Prypyat is a town of my youth. And how can one forget his youth?” - says Viktor, a former nuclear physicist and a current painter.”
This project was particularly intense for the Ukrainian photographer, as it brought back a mix of memories and feelings regarding her past and the loss of her father. She opens up about how significant this project was for her own closure: “I was evacuated from Chernobyl as a kid, and my father worked at the station on the night of the Chernobyl disaster. It was a personal project for me, something I needed to do to close that chapter of my life. My father passed away when I was 21 from the consequences of the radiation exposure, which influenced me a lot and made me rethink this horrible part of my life, which I don’t even remember but which completely changed my destiny, and the destiny of hundreds of thousands of people.”
For Rudya, this project was a big undertaking and proved emotionally harder than what the photographer thought at first. Being back in a place that had such an impact in her life and the life of others was difficult and nostalgic. She reflects on some realizations from working with this group of people, “It was harder emotionally than I thought. It took me a while to work on each interview because every time I was reading the words of these people, mentally, I was going back, seeing these empty apartments, fragile remains of the past, thinking of all the beautiful moments they’ve had in the town and its surroundings. The whole project made me realize how beautiful and unique the city was, how young all the people were, and that the most beautiful and meaningful memories of their youth are connected to that place. They don’t have a place they can go back to commemorate their wedding anniversary other than a ruin in an abandoned city. They cannot visit their old school because it collapsed, they cannot be nostalgic without being tremendously sad for all the things which happened to them and even more for those which didn’t happen because their lives were interrupted by the disaster.”
A beautiful testament to life, resilience, and memories, Prypyat mon Amour is a photo book that promises to leave no one indifferent, and reminds us of our fragile life is, and the importance of cherishing every ordinary moment of our lives.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
For the Bell Collective, 2023 is an exciting year filled with new projects on the horizon. Early this year, the collective began shaping into a production studio based in Berlin with many exciting projects in store. This production studio works with female and non-binary creators, producers, and visual storytellers to curate fresh and cutting-edge content. Rudya gives us a sneak-peek of this new venture, “The new website is coming up soon, and we are working on growing a bigger network of artists and creators from various backgrounds in the future. We are looking forward to developing our Bell Collective production studio and have the first projects of the year already in planning.”
They will also organize another edition of the Female Photo Days event in Berlin. Rudya tells us all about it, “This coming year, Bell Collective will be organizing another Female Photo Days event in Berlin, which I am really looking forward to. This event will have photography and videography workshops, as well as masterclasses from women to women. Last year’s event proved to be very inspiring, helpful, and encouraging for many aspiring photographers.”
As the future brightens for the Bell Collective, we are reminded of the importance of representation for girls. Initiatives like the Bell Collective show our daughters, sisters, mothers, and friends that women belong in all places. We are the explorers, the adventurers, and the never-ending curious minds, and the world is our classroom.
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A Global Conversation
San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) Expands
International Focus Since Pandemic Shutdown
PHOTO COURTESY OF: MOAD SF WRITTEN BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) is one of very few museums worldwide focused exclusively on contemporary art of the Diaspora of Black people worldwide. They are an esteemed Smithsonian Affiliate and modern art museum focused on uplifting Black art and culture and inspiring learning through the global lens of the African diaspora.
Their CEO, Monetta White, a native San Franciscan, is a career-long community advocate and devoted champion of preserving African American culture. With a background in civic engagement, production, and entrepreneurship, and over 20 years of development experience in public programs and local business, White has collaborated with hundreds of nonprofits, donors, corporations, and creators.
Before coming to the MoAD, White launched two restaurants, served as managing partner of the hospitality consortium Fillmore Food Group, and was credited with leading the revival of San Francisco’s Black jazz district.
White’s connection to MoAD began over 15 years ago, in 2004, at its inception as an avid partner and donor. She has since led MoAD to alliances with institutions such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture; the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Perez Art Museum of Miami; and the African American Art and Cultural Complex. She has also pioneered the U.S. debut of global and internationally regarded Black artists and curators such as Chanell Stone, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Larry Ossei-Mensah, Ekow Eshun, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Billie Zangewa, and Amoako Boafo.
Monetta White
INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY WORK ON EXHIBITION
Recently, the MoAD presented the first solo museum exhibitions of two highly recognized contemporary artists from Africa: Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo in The Soul of Black Folks and Malawian artist Billie Zangewa’s silk collages in Threads of a Web.
White also highlights new artists they’ve been able to showcase through their Emerging Artist Program. “We have an impressive record of identifying exciting artists ready to step into a full-fledged career as professional, international artists. This year, we have featured Cynthia Aurora Brannvall, Richard-Jonathon Nelson, Trina Michelle Robinson, and Ashley Ross. Last year we had Sydney Cain! In the past, we presented Chanell Stone. The list goes on. So many exciting new artists.”
A current exhibit, The New Black Vanguard, curated by Antwaun Sargent, explores the intersection of fashion and contemporary art through the work of over 15 photographers.
These include professional photographers focused on fashion and contemporary artists integrating fashion into their work.
“These artists are pushing boundaries while focusing fashion front and center,” says White.
To highlight three of the included artists, Tyler Mitchell was the first photographer to shoot a Vogue cover - in 2018. Quil Lemons explores representations of Black masculinity. Arielle Bobb-Willis, an artist who speaks openly about her experience with depression, explores the visible and the invisible through fashion.
An upcoming exhibition of which the MoAD is quite proud will be Black Venus.
“Black Venus is a powerful exhibition, including eighteen artists whose work focuses on the legacy of Black women in visual culture, curated by a powerful woman, Andrea Emilife. The exhibition is a celebration of Black beauty, the many faces of Black femininity, and the shaping of Black women in the public consciousness then and now,” says White.
The Photography of Kwame Brathwaite, exhibited at Museum of the African Diaspora December 4, 2019-March 1, 2020.
Photo credit: MoAD
PANDEMIC-INSPIRED GLOBAL FOCUS
The pandemic was an extreme challenge for the MoAD and all cultural institutions. Closed to in-person visitors for 18 months, they had to furlough staff, cancel exhibitions, switch their fundraising strategy, and do whatever they could to make sure they would survive.
They pivoted from in-person programs to digital programs, including In the Artist’s Studio, Art as We See It, the African Book Club, and more. Their digital programs were quite successful, bringing art and artists into people’s homes.
“We continue to have lots of engagement with our digital programs, so we’ve kept them going even though we’ve been open again for over a year. Our digital following has grown a lot over the past six months along with our membership,” says White.
Everyone at the MoAD agrees that it has been challenging to get up and running again after Covid and wants to focus on
strategies to get visitors back into the museum.
However, they are still quite optimistic about visitors’ returning.
“It is amazing to see art back on the walls and to see people coming through our doors and wandering our galleries again.
We are seeing more and more long-time friends visiting and new friends arriving,” White says.
As an art museum, they are focused on in-person experiences. But the virtual technology of the Covid shutdowns also opened new doors for the MoAD.
“The ‘globalness’ of the African Diaspora emerged through a forced digital experience. As a non-collecting institution, we benefit from more flexibility in programming, and so we quickly adapted to virtual engagement with artists and audiences. In the first few weeks of the pandemic, we had new members dialing in from countries across Africa, South America, and Europe in numbers we had never seen in person,” explains White.
They now seek to maintain the Digital Diaspora while also encouraging in-person visitors at the MoAD.
Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim
“We continue to have lots of engagement with our digital programs, so we’ve kept them going even though we’ve been open again for over a year. Our digital following has grown a lot over the past six months along with our membership,” says White.
“In addition to being a museum for contemporary art, MoAD is equally a space for community and for learning,” White explains.
The MoAD is home to a signature program, the Chef-InResidence, which focuses on food as creative practice, activism, and a source of well-being. It is an exploration of food, art, and culture and how these intersect throughout the African Diaspora.
MoAD is excited to welcome a new Chef-in-Residence, Jocelyn Jackson, who has taken over from Chef Bryant Terry.
They also host an African Book Club, an African Diaspora Film Club, poetry readings, and other public community events, over 200 a year.
NEW CHIEF OF CURATORIAL AFFAIRS AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS
MoAD CEO Monetta White and the rest of the museum leadership recently decided to create a new position on their board, the Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Public Programs.
“The vision for this position is that it will define and strengthen MoAD's curatorial narrative and contributions to the global contemporary art conversation, propelling the museum as the global thought leader of contemporary art of the African Diaspora. The need for this position and the impact it will have is demonstrated by the grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund this role,” says White.
For this position, which began in January 2023, they have chosen Key Jo Lee, who comes to them from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Lee’s expertise is in American art history, histories and theories of photography, and African American studies, as well as museum education. She has been responsible for curatorial and publication projects that highlight the intersection of scholarly work and public audiences and that illuminate works by artists of the Black Diaspora.
Lee is a Ph.D. candidate in History of Art and African American Studies at Yale University. She also holds a B.A. in Art History from Douglass College at Rutgers University and a dual M.A. in History of Art and African American Studies from Yale.
“What excites me about seeing Key Jo Lee occupy this new position is a matter of scale,” says Ashley James, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. “How, on the one hand, she can articulate the big picture, high-level stakes of Black art and its multiple narratives, while at the same time attending to the details and specificities, even the very physics of art. Hers is an enthusiasm for artists and artworks that extends from the macro to the molecular level. MoAD is lucky to have a leader who not only sees these multilevels but cultivates them with great skill, care, and possibility.”
Lee will oversee the design of a strategic direction for the Museum’s exhibitions and programs, lead globally in identifying and promoting emerging artists from the African Diaspora, and expand MoAD’s reach and influence locally, nationally, and internationally.
“It took us a year to find the right person for this role, and it was so worth the wait. With her bold vision, insightful scholarship, wide-ranging museum experience, and can-do attitude, Key Jo Lee is not only a perfect fit for MoAD but will be a game changer. We are thankful to the Mellon Foundation for the opportunity,” says White.
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@MOADSF /MOADSANFRANCISCO
Catharine’s Score
Advice and Q&A With Owner of Planetwood Productions,
An Internationally Acclaimed Producer and Engineer
Catharine Wood has worked on hundreds of national and international ad campaigns as a post-production expert, including the first Apple commercial. As a mix and mastering engineer, she has over 500 original compositions that can be heard on NBC, CBS, BBC, and many more networks. Wood is also a GRAMMY® Voting Member and a Voting Member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
As she is busy producer, composer, engineer, and owner of Planetwood Productions, I’m thankful she took the time out of her busy schedule to answer some of my questions.
Q: Growing up, who or what type of music influenced you the most, and at what point did you decide this was the industry for you?
A: This is an interesting question. My early influences by The Beatles, Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Delta Blues, the 1970s “singersongwriter” phenomenon, Soul music, and old-school doo-wop have a lot to do with my appreciation of music with my style. As a professional in the industry, I am hired to do as the artist wishes (or the project requires)—not really putting “my thing” on their sound.
Wood is the Owner/ Producer and Chief Engineer at Planetwood Studios, LLC.
When I entered the industry (in audio post, prior to building my studio), it was after completing audio engineering school - graduating #1 in my class and being approached by a leading audio post-production mix house in Santa Monica for commercials to join their staff. I helped engineer the first Apple iPhone commercial and the entire Apple “Get A Mac” campaign (Justin Long, John Hodgman), and knew I was in the right field for me.
Q: As someone who has engineered over 500 commercially released songs—including your own custom compositions—are there any projects that have tested your skills and knowledge, and how so?
A: As a recording, mix, and mastering engineer, composer, and producer, my skills and knowledge base are constantly expanding. Part of the job is to be able to say “Yes” to a variety of projects and genres I may not have had previous experience with. I had a recent film score and soundtrack project in the studio where the director needed all of the film’s music recorded, mixed, and mastered in two days due to their intense post-production schedule. It was two full songs and several thematic cues. I had a pre-session meeting with the composer to manage expectations on the timeline and how we’d successfully execute this project—and get it all delivered on time. The band flew into LA from New York, and we knocked it all out. Currently, the film is winning awards on the festival circuit. This project tested my producer abilities — as score recording typically can take weeks to months.
Q: Are there any singer-songwriters you’ve produced that really stand out to you or taught you something new about music?
A: Yes, I’ve worked with many, many singer-songwriters over the years (partly because I was the Director of Southern California for the West Coast Songwriters organization for three years). While there have been some true talents among them, the most fascinating observation (and, therefore, learning experience) has been that in the indie sector, each singer-songwriter is very individualistic — often blending genres — far more than genre-specific singer-songwriters (thinking Country and Pop specifically). I am constantly wowed by their innovation in genre-blending and always proud to help bring their creations to life. Since this is a San Francisco-headquartered publication, I should mention two local singer-songwriters I’ve had the joy to produce: Katie Ekin (Santa Cruz) and Billy Lawler (Sacramento).
Wood’s past clients include ESPN with their custom orchestral rock theme song, “Epic Boxing”, as well as HBO and more.
Q: Does providing engineering, production, and composition services differ quite a bit between the TV and film industries? If so, what are the main differences?
A: The main difference between TV vs Film compositions, engineering, and production services is the timeline. When I worked in audio post-production for high-profile commercials, the ads in-studio that day would often air the same day. One theme song I co-wrote, produced, and engineered for ESPN was completed in three days. Some source cue music recorded for HBO at my studio was completed in a half day with about five options for the director of Perry Mason, Timothy Van Patten (Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire). That means recording and mixing a quartet with same-day delivery. A score might be recorded, as mentioned earlier, over weeks. There also tends to be the use of Production Music (pre-recorded underscore) in TV — with custom scores used more often for Film.
Q: Are there any unique challenges to navigating the music industry as a female composer/producer? What would you say to women aspiring to be composers/producers?
A: The main challenge as a female composer/ producer in our current industry, in my opinion,
is rarity. Female composers and producers both come in at around 2% of the professional industry population - and around 5% of engineers, respectively. In an industry where there are very, very few women in these roles — many artists, labels, and hiring parties are unaware of the female talent that is available.
I recently had some USC Thornton School of Music engineering students in my studio — and one of my favorite questions asked was: “how has your experience been as a female in the music tech field? Do you have any suggestions for women who want to follow your path?” I absolutely love music+audio, and in the 20 years in LA, I’ve been celebrating the journey.
Everyone has their own path - but my suggestion? Find passion in the skills you’re uniquely good at, produce quality work and earn respect. This is a relationships business — and in this current climate where female producers still make up under 3% of the professional music industry — the glass ceiling is only broken by respect. As an LA Chapter Recording Academy Governor on the Board (Grammys®), I encourage women interested in music+audio to participate in any kind of mentoring sessions available (SoundGirls. org, Women’s Audio Mission, We Are Moving The Needle, She Is The Music, AES, The Recording Academy #WomenInTheMix).
Wood’s special areas of expertise are producing singersongwriters and tracking vocalists, acoustic instruments and mastering.
cacophonous, fractal, visual, symphonies
Under Construction
Conceptual Painter Theresa Giammatei Explores the
Quirkiness of Life Through Her Artwork.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: THERESA GIAMMATEI
WRITTEN BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
The wrenches, pliers, and screwdrivers in Theresa Giammatei’s paintings almost leapt off the canvas at me. I was intrigued by how her art focused on building, construction, and repair, rather than presenting perfectly polished sensuous human forms, mythic creatures, or soaring natural scenes. These unusual subjects drew me in and inspired me to contact her for this TrooRa Magazine’s women’s issue.
As I looked further into her portfolio, I saw that several of her artistic collections depicted tools, whether for the laboratory or the kitchen, home, or garden. She explains that some of these pieces reflect how following scientific research and cooking for her loved ones helped her stay sane during the pandemic.
MENTAL HEALTH AND NEURODIVERSITY
Giammatei also incorporates images of tools and building equipment into paintings of DNA and brain matter in her mental health collection, conveying that each of us, and our mental health, are “under construction.”
Mental health and the brain are particular interests of Giammatei, as she crafts neurons and synapses as well as molecules such as caffeine that act on our brains. She has also proudly taken part in exhibitions that advocate neurodiversity, the acceptance of diverse brain types, and ways of thinking. Giammatei says we are all “born with differences, superpowers, ailments, and genetic issues. [We should] use whatever tools we need to adjust ourselves to whatever spectrums we are on.”
Theresa Giammatei
We are all “born with differences, superpowers, ailments, and genetic issues. [We should] use whatever tools we need to adjust ourselves to whatever spectrums we are on.”
Teresa Giammatei We Gaze Into
This philosophy shows up in her felt illustrations of the substances delivered through mental health medications such as Ritalin, “Take Them If You Need Them,” and her DNA images, “Don’t Let Genetics Get You Down.”
Comparing mental health care to other sorts of repair de-stigmatizes mental health issues. And, by mentioning “differences” and “superpowers” alongside “ailments,” Giammatei signals that her work acknowledges the perspectives of those who feel their brain differences are simply natural human variations as well as those who see themselves as suffering from illness.
The language she uses highlights her belief that mental healthcare should be about individual people working with their bodies and brains to build lives that work for them rather than meeting a single standard of “functioning.”
In keeping with the concept of personal choice and self-definition, she places a representation of an estrogen molecule at a table setting, showing that we should be able to show up and make sense of gender in whatever way works for us.
CULTURAL AND BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY
Respect for diversity is a thread that runs through much of Giammatei’s work, although occasionally subtle.
Her inspiration for painting the large telescope at the Lick Observatory, besides a fascination with science, was to celebrate and illustrate how we all look at the world from different vantage points and perspectives. Another large acrylic—of the U.S.S. Midway aircraft carrier bridge—which she created for the Midway Museum is entitled “There’s Room to Help Steer,” and Giammatei interprets it as a call for people to work together.
She has created acrylic paintings of ants, flies, beetles, and silk moths and botanically accurate cards with mushroom images, spotlighting unique and less commonly photogenic creatures to reflect her fascination with the variety of life on earth.
NATURE, ECOLOGY, AND TECHNOLOGY
Giammatei’s nature and ecology-inspired paintings also touch upon environmental themes, such as species extinction, and suggest that humans can become a biohazard when we do not treat nature with respect. Other “biohazard” themed works ask us to think about the risks we pose to our food supply through pesticides or other contamination.
Other paintings look at our relationship to technology, exploring how we mediate our experience of the wilderness through social media or how artificial intelligence may eventually interpret and categorize human beings. There’s a winged sculpture hooked up to a fan echoing the Greek myth of Icarus, questioning whether our tech has empowered us to fly too close to the sun and thus fall to our destruction, and a metallic-colored “altered diary” with commentary suggesting that we lose some control of our personal narratives when they become completely digital.
Teresa Giammatei Synaptic Silk Moth
The tech-themed works include a version of children’s classic Goodnight Moon that is made to look digitized, reflecting on the changing nature of our early experiences.
Other pieces touch on children’s literature, some with more whimsy than social critique. She crafted gilded binoculars that incorporate pages of E. Nesbit’s The Magic City and another piece inspired by the Edward Lear poem The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
AT HOME WITH WORKS GALLERY
Giammatei is a proud member of many galleries and nonprofit art organizations around the San Francisco Bay Area and the world. One of these is Works Gallery in San Jose, CA, a nonprofit art and performance center that focuses on celebrating the process of art creation as much as the finished product and encourages its residents and visiting artists to take creative risks.
Works accomplishes these goals by hosting professional development classes and networking events for artists creating with various media. It is in line with Giammatei’s aesthetic, which emphasizes how we, ourselves, as well as the rest of the natural world, are continually under construction.
Teresa Giammatei Ant
Teresa Giammatei
Biohazard
Theresa Giammatei Startup Art Fair
Theresa Giammatei Methylphenidate Ritalin
Hand Crafted Jewelry & Accessories
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Environmental Responsibility
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Tifft’s Golden Ratio
A Mixed M edia Artist From Florida Is Mastering The Shell Craft, Turning Organic Seashells Into Sensational Art
PHOTOGRAPHED BY: @KIMBERLYSUITSLEWIS
WRITTEN BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
There are no rules to art, and there are no rules to selfexpression. In a world of rising consumption and mass production, Katarina Tifft has found the golden ratio to create something meaningful and sustainable.
Among the side effects of consumerism is the depletion of natural resources and pollution of the earth. This artist has adopted an eco-conscious lifestyle, practicing her art through organic materials and playing with the shells so naturally, like she was born for this.
From a young age, Tifft had an eye for the arts. “I was always creative and passionate about anything that intrigued my mind and soul,” she recalls. Before choosing the artistic road, she studied Civil Engineering, majoring in water management.
Katarina Tifft
While on a trip to South Africa with her husband, she started exploring her artistic side and experimenting with shells as a medium. In an attempt to create something with natural ingredients from home.
Before finally moving to Lakeland, Florida, Tifft had traveled worldwide, searching for new experiences. “Living in different parts of the world and being exposed to diverse cultural experiences made me the person I am today,” she adds.
While in Florida, Tifft contacted a salon owner who advertised local artists and agreed to display her artworks. After selling out all of her pieces there, she started promoting her work through social media, gaining many admirers.
“The more you create, the better you get to know yourself ”
What makes her art unique are the special ingredients, imagination, and creativity she puts into her work. For her, it’s a self-exploration, more like a self-discovery. “The more you create, the better you get to know yourself,” she declares. Each art piece is carefully handcrafted from tiny shells, making it one of a kind due to the organic, textured patterns found in nature. Bringing a shell to life and forming it into a piece of art can be a time-consuming process but for her is a way to relax and meditate. “Through this process, I can transform my imagination into something beautiful while learning, growing, and moving forward in life,” she notes.
During the creative process, she draws inspiration from everything around her, from the soft tones and natural textures to the clean lines and minimalism of coastal living. The spirit of the East Coast, where she lives now, with the sun, sand, and blue sea, plays a key role in the energy she puts into her business. Once she has a clear vision of what her clients are thinking, she starts the design process.
Often, she draws inspiration from other artists. From the living ones, she distinguishes Heather Knight, who is a Savannah, GAbased ceramic artist known for her handmade porcelain and stoneware work. One of her favorite artworks is the Lincoln in Dalivision, a lithograph created by Salvador Dalí. I like to visit the Dali Museum in St.Petersburg, Florida, and
notice this painting and the 3D illusion he created for hours, hoping to reach that masterpiece one day,” she highlights. Since her artworks are also based on this 3D illusion, they could be great additions to a minimalistic house, hung on the wall without overpowering anything else. “Commissions are a perfect way to complement your home’s aesthetic with art that is a custom size and color palette,” she suggests.
Katarina Tifft
When asked what’s the meaning of her artwork, Tifft answered that she wishes to encourage others to be themselves through the beauty of art. “I want my art to make people stop for a moment, stare, take a step closer and evoke an urge to touch and feel the texture,” she says.
Like every artist wishing to leave his or her mark on the world, Tifft hopes her art pieces will pass down as heirlooms to future generations.
Unlike overproduction and fast fashion that overwhelm the modern world, her art is slow, ethically made, a craft to be admired by others.
CONSCIOUSLY-MADE CANNED LUXURY WINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD THAT TELL A STORY AFFORDABLE LUXURY WINES WITH MINIMAL INTERVENTION
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Through Her Specs
The World Through Photographer Dval’s Lens
PHOTOGRAPHED BY:
WRITTEN BY:
DVAL PHOTOGRAPHY
GEORGE DIKE
Photography in Nigeria began as a profession in the late nineteenth century, attracting practitioners from across West Africa. The professional prestige accorded to photography in Nigeria has characterized the country as a ‘photographic giant’ in the region. The industry saw a major boom in the 1950s and 1960s, with prominent photographers such as Jackie Philips, Billyrose, and Sunmi Smart-Cole.
Valerie Dike PHOTO BY JUST SHOTIT
“My photos are often richly symbolic. For me, this is the essence of photography: capturing emotions in real-time and creating lasting memories.”
In recent years, professional studios have lost ground to independent photographers. Notwithstanding the challenges faced by several such freelancers, promising youngsters continue to spring up, giving crisp and clear photos like never before. One such talent is Valerie Dike, Owner of the Dval Photography brand.
VALERIE DIKE
Valerie was raised in the suburbs of Ojo in Lagos, Nigeria. She has a BA in Internal Studies and Diplomacy from The University of Benin. After graduation, she became interested in photography and took paid online and personal classes.
She further honed her skills through many photography trips across the country. Her photography spans many genres, including street photography, portrait photography, and wedding shots that last a lifetime. Currently, her focus is a series of candid portraits of everyday Nigerians who want to have a piece of cherished memories.
The smile is the window to the soul for Valerie, who uses pop colors to accentuate and bring life to her portraits. She has turned her lens to using her photographic artistry to document and educate women on being unapologetically themselves.
When asked how she ventured into her craft, Valerie had this to say,
“I started my photography brand toward the end of 2019, right after my studies at the University. As a woman, finding someone willing to let me practice and grow under their tutelage was difficult.
“I initially worked in front of the camera. I tried a couple of video blog sessions and face modeling. But soon enough, I got bored with posing and became more curious about standing on the other side of the camera. So slowly, but certainly, I started my own way in the big universe of photography.”
DVAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Since returning to live and work in Lagos as an adult, she has created photographs that bring to light the
emotions hidden behind the stern faces of those who keep the ever-bustling city alive. In a society in such flux, Valerie is attracted to innocence that has vacated or somehow been disrupted by the strife that has plagued average Nigerians.
When in session, she finds a way to engage her clients and models so they feel connected on a personal level. This way, they open up, and that innocence mixed with sheer natural beauty is set free. Methodology and materials are less important as she utilizes any and all that will help her achieve this.
When asked about the major challenges and how she has been able to get past them, she says:
“One major challenge I have personally faced in my industry is unhealthy competition. I have learned that you need to really horn your craft to be able to stand out. Also, most photography veterans are unwilling to share secrets or valuable knowledge to help the new generation thrive.
I have principles in my shootings and always keep my own style in focus. It’s very important for an artist to keep their unique style and progress in it simultaneously.”
When it comes to inspiration, Valerie says the desire to see it through and get to the very peak of her career is what wakes her up at 5 am, and she gets on with her business with no hesitation.
Currently, she is working towards setting up a training studio, especially for young girls who would love to pursue a career in photography. There are many issues women creatives face, so she looks to play her part by offering free training and mentorship classes for girls.
Valerie envisions going beyond societal limitations and becoming an internationally acclaimed photographer. She wants to motivate young creatives whom societal limits may deter. Through her trials and success story, she hopes they are inspired to pursue and achieve their dreams.
Over the years, Valerie has grown to become an influential visual artist working in portrait and wedding photography. Her projects focus on finding new innovative shooting and post-processing styles. Her work has been rewarded and featured in several published photography blogs. Aside from photography, she’s keen on furthering her academic journey with a master’s degree in International Relations so she can expand her photography portfolio to cover and fight for human rights and against social injustice.
Across Nigeria, photographers face great challenges. From dwindling sales and increased competition to a fragile trust in photographers’ abilities. They have sometimes suffered physical and mental attacks. Yet, they continue to have a significant reputation and role.
Those who make up today’s thriving photography industry are our eyes to the world. Whether they are seasoned photographers or fervent up-and-coming voices, they continue to educate us, excite us, and place our reality in the larger framework of history. Valerie is one such hero worthy of celebration.
sculpture and site-specific installations elevating vernacular forms of knots inspiring awe and understanding
the journey of the line
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Laurel Vanguard
Renowned Jewelry Designer Dorian Webb Partners With Trystanne Cunningham to Kick Off a Joint Annual Effort to Laud Accomplished Women With One of a Kind Designed Necklaces
WRITTEN BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
PHOTO CREDIT: ERICA CERVANTEZ
Dorian Webb's Laurels for Leaders
Founder and CEO of her eponymous jewelry brand, Dorian Webb, considers jewelry a form of biography, telling the story of the chapters of our lives.
PATHWAY TO DISTINCTION
Creative since childhood, Webb began her career as an architect. She discovered that she enjoyed the experience of jewelry making even more than architecture because it allowed her to be hands-on throughout the entire process.
During her junior year at Yale, she visited Italy and bought glass beads inspired by Italy's long tradition of glassblowing. She formed them into jewelry to give to friends, and a photographer she'd hired brought her pieces to galleries, where they sold.
Webb explains how one form of art feeds into the other: “Studying architecture at Yale really made me start to think in terms of composition and spatial relationships. There, the focus on creating spaces emphasized the experiential and the structure's connection to its community. How did the building make you feel? How does it relate to its environment? [Those were the types of questions we were asked to consider.] I think that carries over to my jewelry design. When I design, I take into consideration how the design—its composition, materials, and colors—will interact with the person wearing it. The process of each design is an exploratory one to highlight distinct qualities of the women I come in contact with. I gravitate towards unusual color combinations that draw the eye and bring light to the face. They also work with the wearer's skin tones. Although these color combinations seem very specific, they are often quite versatile.”
She considers her architectural background an asset despite having gone in a different direction. Her studies at Yale focused on the experience of walking through a space as well as the technical aspects of building stability. Now, she brings that focus on creating 3D art to jewelry, as well as chandeliers and other home decor.
She quotes Coco Chanel: “Fashion is architecture; it's a question of proportions.”
“My work also serves as a means of marking and preserving the current moment as well as memorializing our collective and individual presence…As an African American woman, I understand the difficulty in feeling seen and heard and the necessity of both.”
Trystanne Cunningham, editor and founder of TrooRa Magazine, shares that sentiment. Trystanne & Dorian met when Webb spoke on a panel at Conn3cted by TrooRa’s networking holiday issue launch event in San Francisco. They recognized they shared common values and decided to work together to celebrate women's accomplishments.
Dorian Webb
“I am regularly inspired by the African American women I meet. Each of us is carrying so much and handling so many things in our everyday lives that it astounds me how we then manage to stand up and show up for others as well as ourselves so strongly and completely,” says Webb.
LEGACY OF SERVICE AND RECOGNITION
Webb has won several awards, including the Artisan’s Award at the NY International Gift Fair and the Madam CJ Walker Entrepreneur Award (named for America’s first female selfmade millionaire). She was also a finalist in the 2021 The Next Now international competition for emerging jewelry designers. She has been a guest on the radio program Beyond the Fog, a show that has previously interviewed San Francisco mayor London Breed and California governor Gavin Newsom.
In 1998, Dorian was commissioned by the Red Cross to design an award pin for its Woman of the Year recipient. Other jewelry commissions ensued, including one for Judith Jamison’s Kennedy Center honor and another for Celine Dion’s world tour.
In 2018, Dorian Webb had her first solo exhibition at Thelma Harris Art Gallery in Oakland, CA. The show included not only her jewelry but also her floral headpieces, gem-encrusted sculptures, and large-scale watercolors.
In 2021 Webb was selected as one of six jewelers nationwide for the Emerging Designer Diamond Initiative, which seeks to diversify the natural diamond industry.
Through her blog, she honors female community leaders who have impacted their communities, pioneering women not being recognized for their accomplishments. She also formally
and informally coaches women of color on running sustainable businesses.
“I enjoy sharing my experiences with others and hope that by sharing my challenges with emerging entrepreneurs, they can avoid some of the issues I have faced. I hope this additional insight helps fuel their growth and saves them precious resources- time and money. It's not a selfless activity. I love learning more about what motivates people to do what they do, and l learn a lot about business owners' thought processes and means of evaluating opportunities. The people that I advise bring as much to the table, if not more, than I do. Their questions keep me on my toes and push me to think more critically about my approach and decisions. Often, those I mentor introduce me to other interesting entrepreneurs and new ways of thinking, as well as innovative, helpful technological platforms. They ALWAYS inspire me with their determination, enthusiasm, and optimism.”
Viewing Oakland as her home community and wishing to give back, Dorian often donates a portion of her sales revenue to
nonprofit causes. She also launched a program, Uplift, that helps fill empty storefronts in Oakland with pop-up shops featuring Black artists and vendors.
She is also a frequent lecturer and panelist at universities, design schools, and business conferences, where she speaks about her entrepreneurial philosophy and art. Dorian is the co-founder and a board member of the Yale Alumni Arts League, which seeks to involve Yale alumni in supporting the arts, and has served on the board of directors for the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco.
In 2022, Dorian’s jewelry was selected to exhibit in the summer-long exhibition Imagine: Celebrating Black Female Creativity at the Featherstone Gallery in Oak Bluffs, MA, curated by Dr. Adrienne Childs.
Celebrities have discovered and worn Dorian Webb's jewelry, including Vanessa Williams, Halle Berry, Rihanna, and Jennifer Aniston. Maya Angelou and Michelle Obama followed in later years.
BEAUTY IN COMPLEXITY
Dorian believes in crafting jewelry that will last generations and “keep people in the present moment, noticing all the beauty that surrounds them.”
She explains on her site, “The power of art is in its ability to encourage us to pause, if even for a moment. This leaves a space for rumination and appreciation to happen.”
She goes into further detail about her aesthetic.
“Contrast is defined through difference. It is an extraordinary gift. It enables us to appreciate the complexity of individual beauty. Perfection is overrated. Imperfection is what intrigues... It challenges our preconceived notions and engages our minds. It reminds us of who we are and those we love,” says Webb.
Intricate coral-inspired designs are a favorite of Webb's, as she loves color and the experience of working with semiprecious stones.
She quotes Coco Chanel: “Fashion is architecture; it's a question of proportions.”
“I love all the pieces I design, but that being said, I think my favorite is my signature coral ring. There is something unapologetic about how it takes up space on the hand and the oversized proportion of the stone. It is not a shy piece; it is one to draw strength from. I appreciate the fact that it is almost impossible to overlook and that its power rests not just in its size but also in its organic and thoughtful design. I designed it maybe 20 years ago, and it is still one of our best sellers,” Webb explains.
She also created a set of colorful pieces incorporating butterflies after George Floyd’s murder to symbolize the resurgence of hope through the subsequent anti-racist activism and public reckoning. The proceeds from this “Hope” butterfly collection were donated to racial justice nonprofits. She intends her work to celebrate the beauty of women and Black culture. Sometimes this is explicit, as with her pieces engraved with “Hope,” “Black Lives Matter,” or “I Vote,” but
more often, it's an implicit focus, as with the elegance of her “Quality II Equality” collection.
Quality II Equality was her first collection for the Emerging Designer Diamond Initiative.
She appreciates the connection to Earth's natural history and the unique qualities of natural diamonds.
“I love diamonds for their history and their scarcity. I think there's something really meaningful in wearing something that was created billions of years ago and that cannot be replenished. The sparkle of diamonds is wonderful, but it is their connection to the past, their promise of stability, and their continued longevity that inspires me. The idea that they are natural, with all the beautiful imperfections that implies, also is meaningful to me.”
Dorian’s hope is that her pieces spark connection and open conversations.
HONORING EXCELLENT WOMEN
In the spirit of her lifetime of work, Webb is partnering with TrooRa Magazine for the revolutionary project Give Her Her Flowers.
“When we don’t see talented individuals for who they are or acknowledge their societal impact, we [all] lose. GIVE HER HER FLOWERS changes that narrative. I will create ceremonial metal wreaths to honor 12 incredible African American women to ensure that they will no longer be overlooked. Reminiscent of the laurels bestowed upon those who performed great feats in Ancient Greece, these colorful pieces, enameled and studded with semiprecious gems and a hidden diamond, are an unmistakable visual acknowledgment of the wearer’s contribution to the world,” says Webb.
Each ceremonial necklace will be custom designed to embody its recipient, inspired by who they are and their work and accomplishments. A true work of art, each handcrafted neck piece will consist of repoussé flowers and leaves (made of flat pieces of metal and hammered into shape and accented with semiprecious stones). These handcrafted brass pieces will be enameled in vibrant colors.
Through this project, every year, Webb and Cunningham will choose 12 inspirational women who are accomplished in their fields and present them with ceremonial necklaces influenced by the concept of ancient laurel wreaths.
To find and select the women they will honor, Webb and Cunningham will start with their networks and expand that circle with referrals. They will also research outstanding women nationwide by reading articles and publications, put out an open call for recommendations on social media, and partner with the sponsors of business incubators.
These necklaces will be awarded at a special event, “Celebrating Women's Excellence,” beginning in March 2024 in conjunction with the launch of TrooRa's annual women's issues. The colorful images from the ceremony recognizing these recipients, along with their powerful stories, will later be compiled into a coffee table book. The Thelma Harris Art Gallery in Oakland, California, will be the first to host a reception for this documentation of the acclamation of Black women.
This partnership will be announced at TrooRa's 2023 women's issue launch event.
“This project was inspired by Black women I have met. I was struck by not only their brilliance but also how they were using their talents to really advance the African American community. Not only were they doing this incredible work, but they were also coming up with new ways to approach systemic issues. And they were doing it with such style! I was so inspired by them and thought that not only should they be noted, but that they should be celebrated on a public and ongoing basis,” says Webb.
Cunningham, Troora Magazine founder serving as creative director as well as executive editor, will be one of the first women honored in March 2024 through the Give Her Her Flowers project.
SHARED VALUES WITH TROORA
After attending a Connected by TrooRa event, Webb had this to say about Cunningham and TrooRa Magazine.
“Wow!!! Just WOW...
I Just had to take a moment to let you know how bowled over I am by Troora! You, my friend, are a force of nature. Your magazine is like none I have ever experienced before, and I am SO glad to have found it! The writing is as incredible as the images are, and each page invites me to sit and linger with the exquisite luxuriousness of it all.”
Webb considers TrooRa Magazine visionary and appreciates not only the publication itself but our efforts to support our communities and cultural leaders.
“I was struck not only by the boldness of launching a print magazine in a challenging environment but also by the beauty and richness of the publication itself. It is a periodical that you want to take the time to really savor. And the fact that it actively seeks to support the emerging designers it features is also rare and wonderful. Trystanne Cunningham's advocacy is exactly the type of multi-layered concept and far-reaching activity that I want to honor with ‘GIVE HER HER FLOWERS.”
To Webb, it made sense to approach TrooRa to partner with her on this project. It is founded on the same principles she's seeking to celebrate, and she is excited to see our publication share her call for nominations of women to honor.
“TrooRa magazine is a forward-thinking media platform that shines a light on people who inspire, engage, and are following their passions in new and exciting ways to the benefit of local and global communities. I would love for TrooRa to amplify the story of these women by featuring them within its pages and, in
turn, inspire other women to explore how they can do the same with their particular gifts.”
Webb is also considering creating a line of jewelry inspired by the pieces created for Give Her Her Flowers and showcasing it through TrooRa.
Trystanne is not only humbled by Dorian's acknowledgment of the magazine and her personally, and says “The fact that someone of Dorian’s stature appreciates my vision, creativity and determination and recognizes my efforts to utilize TrooRa to bring a much-needed change in the narrative for the magazine industry. Our synergy reflects our mutual passion to celebrate emerging brands, undiscovered artists, talented individuals and creative black women entrepreneurs.”
Webb highlights her passion for and reasons behind creating this project.
“As I enter the second phase of my career and consider my ‘legacy,’ I want to be known not only for bespoke intentional jewelry that connects but also for championing women, broadening the perspective of African American excellence, and cultivating and sustaining communities.”
Our mission is to remake, re-use, recycle, and repurpose for a prolonged life cycle.
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COLOR IS THE NEW BLACK BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
BREAKING THE WAVES BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
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DELISH LITTLE GEMS BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
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QUEEN OF BOWS BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
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GENUINE LOVE OF SLEEP BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
WOMAN TO WOMAN BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
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POLLUTION SOLUTION BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
Color is the New Black
Bold Colors, Funky Prints, and Intricate Patterns are Synonymous With This Black Woman-Owned Brand
What started as a simple passion for visual arts soon became a fashion love story. That’s the case for Samantha Black and her clothing brand, Sammy B. Designs, which is perfect for the modern woman on the go. With fun prints, happy colors, and excellent craftsmanship, Black has created a women’s ready-to-wear clothing line addressed to the “It Girls” and all the sexy, powerful women with tomboy’s hearts.
Born in the Bronx to Jamaican parents and living in different parts of New York City led to developing her aesthetic, which is evident in her designs. Her Jamaican roots and family’s past were the early inspirations that put her into the fashion design world. Taking inspiration from her stylish family members, who were always dressed to the nines on every occasion, was the key to her design process.
Samantha Black
“Her brand is much more than dressing celebrities; it’s about offering accessible luxury to everyday women.”
Growing up, Black took stimuli from drawing, painting, and creating; thus, on her sweet sixteen birthday, she took a pre-college program in Brooklyn at Pratt Institute in fashion design. While in school, she interned for a few designers, including Michael Kors and Jill Stuart. After graduating in 2005, she moved to London, where she worked in Alexander McQueen’s design studio. There, she got involved with everything creative, from sewing and cutting to making patterns and dyeing fabrics. Returning to New York, she worked as a designer for corporate fashion brands, doing specific designs and celebrity outfits until she built her own namesake line.
After two years of constant effort to promote her business, she made it onto Project Runway. During her participation in the show, she left her artistic footprint; thus, she was invited back to the Project Runway All Stars season, where she competed against the best of the best in the show’s history. Although she was known before attending both shows, she gained a further reputation that led celebrities and pop stars like Beyoncé, Halle Berry, Issa Rae, Gabrielle Union, Jennifer Hudson, Nicki Minaj, and Keke Palmer to wear her creations. Foremost, Black recognizes the importance of growth within a brand. Her brand is more than dressing celebrities; it’s about offering accessible luxury to everyday women. Black is a fearless designer with a New York state of mind who delivers fashion-forward pieces and wishes to leave her mark. During the creative design process, she takes inspiration from everything she loves—her people, street art, different cultures, textures, trips, architecture, and, of course, the spirit of NYC that impacts the energy she puts into her work. From there, she adds her taste, current trends, and new intakes in fashion until she finally brings her sketches to life.
“Black is a fearless designer with a New York state of mind.”
In a modern society where diversity and inclusion are still debatable, shifting towards a diverse and inclusive culture is essential. One of the more pressing issues is Black representation in fashion, especially the lack of diversity in mainstream fashion. As a young Black woman navigating the world of fashion, Black wants to ensure her community is represented properly, accurately, and uplifting when needed. Grants and scholarships, free fashion business classes, and support, especially from established industry people, would make a world of difference in achieving that.
The World’s Finest, Consciously Made Handbags
Breaking the Waves
Jemina Ty is the Founder and Creative Director of Blackbough Swim, a Sustainable Swimwear Brand That is Making Waves in the Fashion Industry
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BLACKBOUGH SWIM WRITTEN BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
Born and raised in the Philippines, Jemina Ty has always had a love for the ocean and a passion for sustainable fashion. As her business was expanding, so did her ambitions. Initially, Ty’s goal was to combine these two passions and create a bikini label. She couldn’t imagine that her long-shot venture would put her on the Forbes CEO Under 30 list one day. Achieving high recognition at a young age was the driving force to continue running her business. Ty managed to break down stereotypes about females, specifically Filipino women, in leadership positions while serving as an inspiration for other young women.
Rio Collection
Jemina Ty
As she was growing up, Ty spotted a lack of good-quality bikinis and decided to create one herself. In 2016, she designed the first bikinis in her bedroom and sold small batches of them. Since then, her brand has evolved into a “mini” swimwear empire thanks to her persistence and hardwork. Furthermore, nearly 97% of her staff consists of female employees, as she believes that women’s leadership and creativity are essential in modern business. Her company provides several facilities to employees, from health benefits and mental health support to upskilling opportunities.
In the modern era, sustainability is becoming increasingly important in the fashion industry, including the swimwear market. As consumers become more aware of the environmental impact of the products they buy, they are looking for brands that prioritize sustainability in their manufacturing processes and materials.
“Flattering for any shape, size, or skin color—perfect for lounging on the beach, sunbathing at the pool, or swimming in the ocean.”
Behind this brand’s mission lies a thoughtful thoughtful combination of high quality and sustainability. Ty’s designs are inspired by the natural beauty of the ocean and feature unique cuts, bold colors, and playful prints. They are equally environmentally friendly, stylish, and flattering for any shape, size, or skin color—perfect for lounging on the beach, sunbathing at the pool, or swimming in the ocean. Ty mainly draws inspiration from her travels around the world, allowing her to look at things from a different perspective.
To incorporate her perspective into her business, she focuses on ethical production and ensures that all products are made in fair working conditions. One thing that sets Blackbough Swim apart from other
sustainable swimwear brands is the brand’s commitment to transparency. Ty is open about the materials she uses and the production process, and she invites customers to take a behind-the-scenes look at the brand’s operations.
Black Boughswim Bikini Collection
Swimwear production, in particular, can have a significant environmental impact due to the use of synthetic materials, such as polyester, and the dyeing and printing processes used to create the patterns and colors on the fabric. These materials and methods can release microfibers and chemicals into the water supply, which can harm aquatic life and ecosystems.
Blackbough uses sustainable materials for fabric production, such as recycled plastic bottles and fishing nets. Not only do these practices minimize the amount of waste in the ocean, but they also ensure the durability and longevity of the products. Therefore, each bikini is carefully made with the utmost care and attention to detail from ecofriendly materials. Some sustainable materials used in swimwear include recycled polyester, made from plastic bottles, and ECONYL, a type of nylon made from discarded fishing nets and other ocean waste.
In addition to creating sustainable swimwear, Ty is dedicated to promoting ocean conservation and protecting marine life. The brand regularly partners with ocean conservation organizations and supports initiatives to clean up plastic pollution in the ocean. Amidst global environmental challenges, this brand is moving towards a
more sustainable future, positively impacting the fashion industry. Rightfully, it has been favored among A-listers, celebrities, and Instagrammers, including Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Vanessa Hudgens, Camilla Cabello, Madison Beer, Millie Bobby Brown, and many more. Ty’s designs are perfect for beach-goers and ocean lovers and those who are willing to adopt an eco-conscious fashion mindset through their stylistic choices.
Inspired by a love of vintage pieces, flowing feminine dresses, florals, and life by the sea.
Delish Little Gems Susan Korn Brings the Idea of Aesthetically Pleasing Food Into the Fashion World
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: SUSAN ALEXANDRA WRITTEN BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
Susan Korn is the founder and creative force behind the New York-based fashion brand Susan Alexandra. With her bold use of color and playful designs, Korn has created a line of bags and jewelry that is both fun and functional.
What started as a small business in 2012 quickly became a go-to brand for fashion-conscious women looking for a pop of color in their wardrobe.
Korn started making fruity beaded bags and accessories in her tiny New York apartment. Later, she moved to a bigger store where she could promote her creations and host amazing dinner parties, pop-ups, and other community events.
As a Jewish American, Korn grew up with a deep sense of Jewish culture, as apparent from her store at 33 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, located at the heart of both the New York fashion scene and the historic Jewish community. One thing that sets Susan Alexandra apart from other fashion brands is the level of craftsmanship and attention to detail that goes into each piece. Each handbag is handbeaded and embroidered by skilled artisans, ensuring the uniqueness of her products. Having changed seven houses already, Korn is currently living in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York City, at her lucky seven home. She chose this place to feed her artistic inspiration and to be closer to her manufacturers and local artisans, who have practiced these techniques for more than 40 years. Thus, each bag can take up to a month to be shipped out since it’s made by hand and can take more than 24 hours—with breaks—to be completed.
Susan Alexandra
“Korn’s world is drenched in color.”
Besides handbags, Korn has also developed a vast collection of rainbowbright jewelry, clothing, and accessories inspired mainly by food, featuring ice cream cones, fruit, and smiley faces. Susan Korn’s world is drenched in color; she takes cues from fruits, vegetables, candies, and cute animals and turns them into whimsical symbols. This playful aesthetic is a refreshing change of pace in a fashion world that can often be quite dull and minimalistic. She started her journey in the fashion industry, taking metalwork classes in her free time and creating colorful jewelry that only she would wear. Soon she caught people’s attention and started selling them through her website. Korn’s style is bold, eccentric, and full of life, and so are her designs. On her website and in her store, you can find anything storybook from charming necklaces and beaded micro bags to home decor and accessories.
The idea behind these stunning creations came initially from the food world. Korn’s father is an amazing chef, and cooking together was the starting point for blending food and fashion. Thinking of food as a bridge to modern fashion, Korn has the same approach to cooking and designing— very intuitive, very colorful, and reminiscent of many things and places.
Susan Alexandra’s designs are not only unique and visually striking but also practical and functional. The brand’s handbags are made with high-quality materials and are designed to be durable enough to withstand daily use. Korn is also dedicated to using sustainable and ethically-sourced materials in her products. Each handbag and jewelry piece is made with care and attention to detail, ensuring they are made to last. She also ensures that her artisans are paid fair wages and work in safe conditions.
“Thinking of food as a bridge to modern fashion, Korn has the same approach to cooking and designing.”
This dedication to sustainability and ethical manufacturing practices is a core part of the Susan Alexandra brand and is one of the reasons why it is beloved by many celebrities, including Pete Davidson, Ziwe Fumudoh, and Gigi Hadid. The brand’s signature beaded handbags and statement jewelry have been spotted on the arms of stylish women worldwide, from fashion editors and influencers to everyday women who just love to stand out.
Overall, Susan Korn and her brand Susan Alexandra are a true force in the fashion industry. With its growing popularity and increasing presence in the fashion world, the brand will continue to make a splash in the coming years. Whether you’re looking for a statement handbag or a pair of statement earrings, Susan Alexandra has something for everyone.
swim and lounge wear sustainable and inclusive designed for fit, comfort, and versatility
Quality, Design and Functionality
We love creating accessories to be worn year round.
Queen of Bows
Aminah Abdul-Jillil—world-class dancer to world-class shoe designer—A career transition not made for walking
PHOTOGRAPHED BY: HEATHER BYINGTON / COURTESY OF THE BRAND
WRITTEN BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
STYLED BY: AMINAH ABDUL-JILLIL
Born in Anchorage, Alaska, the now famous shoe designer started as a ballet dancer at a young age. After graduating from college, she wanted to pursue a career in commercial dance; thus, she moved to Los Angeles and began working as a professional dancer. Her talent led her to perform next to prominent names and big pop stars Britney Spears and Janet Jackson while also becoming a Cirque du Soleil team member.
Aminah Abdul Jillil
Her dancing past was the starting point when she was first exposed to the creative world of costumes, makeup, and fashion. Throughout the years, Jillil traveled worldwide and cultivated an eye for art, design, and fashion. While still performing and working as a dancer, she enrolled in a fashion course at the local college that included illustration, sewing, and color analysis. After accompanying Britney Spears on her world tours, Jillil pivoted to shoe designing and launched her first collection in August 2012.
Designing shoes with intricate shapes and distinctive details has always been her second biggest passion. Her shoes stand out with bold accents — oversized bows, chain detailing, and bejeweled ankle straps. What makes Jillil’s designs unique is her excitement to “try something different.” Like every young entrepreneur, she struggled to establish her business but never quit. She is a gleaming example of people starting with small savings and turning them into profitable businesses, confirmed by the brand’s worldwide reputation and global distribution in over 50 countries, including partnerships with premier luxury retailers Harvey Nichols and Level Shoes
Jillil found it more efficient for her business to give her designs to a very talented shoemaker she discovered; that was the beginning of her brand’s journey. After experimenting, she found her characteristic style: the over-thetop statement bows that you will see on her shoe. Her shoes are a perfect combination of sexiness, class, and comfort! While comfort is not how she defines her collection, she says she’s very picky about the fit of the shoes. One of the reasons her brand is gaining popularity is the fact that Jillil doesn’t compromise quality.
“What makes Jillil’s designs unique is her excitement to try something different.”
The Black female shoe designer is known for her bold design aesthetic that is reflected in her brand. Although her style leans toward a more masculine and edgy look, her shoe designs stand out for their feminine and sexy touch.
The Black-owned and Las Vegas-based brand first launched a collection of flat sandals. Taking inspiration from a belt she owned, Jillil’s first shoe design was a flat sandal with a huge buckle strap around the ankle. She then evolved the flat bow sandals into her signature design, the bow pumps. After her husband gave her a beautiful purse with a huge leather bow detail as a birthday gift, she created a pair of sandals with black leather bows around the ankles. Since then, her
name has been linked with the cute oversized bows on the shoes. In fact, her first shoe collection was adored by many celebrities, especially Rihanna, who chose to wear one of her designs in the “Where Have You Been” music video.
Given Women’s History Month and the important conversations about equality, supporting brands and entrepreneurs who represent true values and beliefs is now more vital than ever. Despite the increased attention on Black-owned brands and designers, Jillil doesn’t put herself into a box. She declared that what matters the most to her is the passion and effort she puts into her business and the people who can relate to her endeavor.
A great Blazer can only go so far...
To uplift, inspire, and empower women all over the world, playing any variety of roles, and at all ages through clothing and community that helps you feel like your best self and reach your highest potential.
Genuine Love of Sleep
Mother-daughter Duo Helen and Olivia Collins Curate Sleep Products Through Myza’s Online Marketplace
WRITTEN BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
PHOTOGRAPHED BY: LITTLE RED PANDA
London lawyer Helen Collins struggled with insomnia.
Her daughter, Olivia Collins, explains, “If you have ever lain wide awake at night, mind racing, wishing you could fall back to sleep, watching the clock, knowing tomorrow is going to be a write-off—you know that insomnia can be brutal!”
After retiring from her law career, Helen decided to help others who
also struggled with poor sleep. Olivia, who has a “genuine love of sleep,” gave up her successful career in finance to start Myza, an online sleep products marketplace, with her mother.
“The brand is influenced by a Scandinavian theme of simplicity with its effortless coolness, with its name stemming from the Swedish word ‘mysa’ meaning pleasurable, cozy, or contented,” says co-founder Olivia Collins.
Helen and Olivia Collins
PRODUCTS FOR THE ENTIRE SLEEP EXPERIENCE
Myza is a content-rich, customer-centric e-commerce marketplace that curates sleep-related products from independent brands around the world on a single platform to help consumers enhance the quality of their sleep experience.
“We feature only those products and concepts that we love and feel will benefit the customer’s sleep experience. All products listed on our website must fit our core values—independent, quality, and ethical—so we turn away more brands than we accept,” explains Olivia.
Everything Helen and Olivia feature on the Myza site is something they love and will help customers sleep better.
“We are continually introducing new brands and products to the website (from both the UK and worldwide), influenced by customer demand and new sleep trends, so our products are continually changing,” says Olivia.
She also highlights the wide range of products available on the site: bedding, sleepwear, mattresses, and electronic devices for sleep enhancement.
“Many factors affect sleep quality, including bedding selection, sleepwear, mattress type, light, sound, temperature, and humidity, as well as bedtime and wake-up rituals. According to experts, it is not just what you do at night that affects your sleep, it is also how you go about your day and shift into the evening that also plays a big role, so we aim to provide restorative solutions together with expert sleep advice, to help you to connect with your body, calm your nervous system, breathe out tension, and relax your mind—maximizing your time asleep, every night,” she says.
The pandemic made people more aware of the importance of good health in general, and scientists and experts highlighted the crucial role of good sleep for good health.
“As consumers become more educated about the serious potential health consequences of poor sleep, they spend more on sleep products in the same way that they increase spending in other areas of health and wellness. Sleep has rapidly gained importance as the third pillar of health and wellness alongside fitness and nutrition,” says Olivia.
SUPPORTING AND NURTURING WOMEN FOUNDERS
As Myza has two female founders, they appreciate how important it is to support other women in business. They know from personal experience some of the difficulties women can experience in the business world, so they aim to nurture other female-fronted businesses.
“84% of our sleep brands are either co-founded or founded by women, which we as a company are very proud of. Each of the brands featured on our website has been hand-selected by our team of in-house curators, and it’s our role to give them a platform and champion them every step of the way,” Olivia points out.
Supporting each other as a mother-daughter duo is also part of Myza’s culture. Olivia describes how she and her mother find balance and work together.
“We have established a business where our individual skills complement rather than compete. We have found that the most effective way of working together is to take responsibility for separate areas of the business. We constantly share thoughts and ideas on each other’s area, but the ultimate responsibility for that area is down to that respective person.”
That doesn’t mean Helen and Olivia agree on everything, but they grow and learn and enhance Myza by collaborating.
“As a mother-daughter duo, we can make effective changes far quicker than many other businesses because of this and because we trust what the other is doing. Of course, we are not always in agreement, but this adds an extra spark to our working relationship, and as we both have huge respect for each other, we always manage to resolve any differences satisfactorily.”
MORE SUSTAINABLE MYZA SLEEPWEAR
Next steps for the brand involve making Myza’s own sleepwear more sustainable and ethical and bringing their sleepwear brands out to more global retail stores.
“We are committed to producing our own brand label cotton sleepwear sustainably and ethically, and so with our new collection, we are making the switch to 100% GOTS-certified organic cotton across our entire women’s and children’s sleepwear ranges,” says Olivia.
Olivia and Helen would like to wish us all a good night of sleep tonight.
Clean Conscious Skin Care
Cruelty Free, Vegan, Organic, Inclusive for all Skin Types
Get Your Glow On
Woman To Woman
How could a trip to Uganda be a life-changing experience? Keep reading to find out.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: AKOLA JEWELRY BRAND
WRITTEN BY: STELLA POLYZOIDOU
Akola Jewelry is a socially conscious brand that empowers women in need. The jewelry is designed with a minimalist aesthetic, focusing on simplicity and elegance. This gives the jewelry a timeless and understated look that is easy to wear and suitable for various occasions. The jewelry is handmade by local women in Uganda and from high-quality materials, such as brass, horn, and semiprecious stones. This ensures their durability, longevity, and uniqueness, which is appreciated by consumers looking for something special.
Brittany Merrill
Bringing her vision to life, the mastermind behind this brand, Brittany Merrill Underwood, became determined to make a difference and came up with the concept of the Akola Project. It was not by accident, but after her traveling experience in Uganda, where she experienced firsthand the impact poverty had on women and their families. Moved by the plight of the women she met, Underwood founded the Akola Jewelry company in 2010, and since then, she has continued to empower women in all possible ways. Through her leadership, Akola has become a leading example of how an eco-conscious brand can be successful and make a real difference in the world.
She achieved her goal of providing living wage employment, training, and education to women in poverty in Uganda through a combination of different strategies. After researching the needs of the community, Underwood identified a gap in the market for affordable, high-quality jewelry. To bridge this real need, she created a sustainable business model by building a supply chain that connects the women artisans in Uganda with customers in the United States.
“Akola is more than a brand; it’s a purpose.”
By forming partnerships with local organizations and nonprofits to provide, she increased the reach and impact of the project. Working with local artisans to design and develop a line of jewelry that was both fashionable and affordable, Underwood was able to create a desirable and affordable product. With this knowledge, she expanded to other countries and communities, replicating her successful model and empowering more women to become financially independent.
“The brand is committed to building a more equitable and fair world, one woman at a time.”
In addition to its jewelry production program, Akola supports women through its microfinance program. The brand provides small loans to women in need, enabling them to start their own businesses or expand existing ones. Specifically, this includes teaching them jewelry-making skills, business management, and financial literacy, which helps them to improve their earning potential and standard of living. Women in Akola can now have access to education and resources that allows them to overcome the
challenges, such as lack of access to healthcare, child care, and education for their children. Overall, this initiative helps to create jobs and stimulate economic growth in the communities where Akola works.
Akola’s vision is to create a femaleempowered workforce that will be a strong contributor to Africa’s economic development. As the brand’s name implies, Akola means “she works” in a local Ugandan dialect. In a beautiful city along the Nile River, Jinja, Uganda, there is the Akola manufacturing company, where nearly 50 Akola women are given dignified employment and living wages. When a woman is employed by Akola, she is more likely to keep her kids in school,
gain the skills to generate additional income, and operate as a leader in her community. The living wages for women in Uganda can vary widely and often fall below what is considered a living wage. However, organizations like Akola Jewelry are taking steps to ensure that the women they employ are paid fair wages and provided with benefits that help to reach a better living standard.
What differentiates this brand from others is its holistic approach to sustainability. Underwood is committed to using environmentally-friendly materials and practices in its jewelry designs, including recycled cow horns, hand-dyed raffia, pearls, and gunmetal. From creating horn pendants and earrings to using them as a decorative element in other pieces, the horn isn’t only durable and lightweight but has a unique natural pattern that adds character to each piece. One of the reasons Akola Jewelry chose to work with horns is because it is a by-product of the meat industry. The animal’s horn is removed during the butchering process and would otherwise go to waste. By using the horn, Akola Jewelry is not only creating beautiful jewelry but also making a positive impact on the environment. Moreover, Underwood ensures that the sourcing of the horn is ethically done by working with suppliers who comply with all the regulations and guidelines. Furthermore, she regularly shares Akola’s impact stories and data with the customers and partners to ensure they can see their purchases’ positive impact and to enhance transparency and accountability.
“Akola is more than a brand; it’s a purpose.”
“The brand is committed to building a more equitable and fair world, one woman at a time.”
By choosing a piece of jewelry from Akola, customers can feel good knowing they are not only getting a beautiful and unique piece of jewelry but also supporting a brand that is making a positive impact on the environment and the communities where they operate. Akola Jewelry’s impact model is centered around empowering women living in poverty through training, education, and employment opportunities. And we at Troora can’t help but stand in admiration of their mission, values, and the impact they are making.
AKOLA.CO @BRITTANYUNDERWOOD84 @AKOLAJEWELRY
Renewing glasses into sunglasses
lunelvintage.com
Pollution Solution
Mavis by Herrera: Leading By Example And Making Handbags Part of the Global Sustainability Solution
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MAVIS BY HERRERA
WRITTEN BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
Mavis by Herrera bags are designed for strong, powerful individuals. Those who do not need to wear recognized designer brands because they are enough, and they are creating a positive impact in the world.
As founder Mavis Carolina Herrera says, "I always say that it is not about the bag, but the story behind each bag."
BAGS FOR ALL OCCASIONS
Mavis by Herrera offers several lines of bag designs, including a set of yellow, blue, green, and pink resort bags designed to be taken to the beach!
They also carry a collection of cross-body bags in more classic and subdued colors (except for the Vivacious bag, which is bright pink). And a collection of clutch bags and purses in a variety of colors and designs, as well as colorful hats sporting elegant feather designs.
Finally, Mavis offers convertible bags, tote bags that can be turned into clutch bags designed to be a useful investment for many years and multiple purposes.
Mavis Carolina Herrera
"I learned that perfection does not exist and the definition of success is evolution. We must always be evolving and innovative in our business."
PART OF THE SOLUTION
Ecology and sustainability have been Mavis' inspirations all along. She loves cycling outdoors and traveling solo around the world and has seen firsthand how our waste is polluting the planet.
Each bag is made from recycled plastic bottles and constructed by hand.
"After working in the fashion industry and with international companies, my eyes were opened to see how badly the industries are polluting our planet and the lack of sustainable change in some industries. So, I started my business with the idea to be part of the plastic pollution solution by creating a beautiful handbag that will speak for the planet and for the people and to be a company that leads by example."
Customers can also choose to retire a Mavis by Herrera bag within one year of purchase. The bags are cleaned up and recycled into new bags, and the customer receives a significant credit toward a new bag.
Mavis by Herrera pays artisans a living wage to achieve financial independence. Also, the company contributes towards children's education and donates shoes to charity, one pair with each bag sold.
The idea for the shoe program, Shoes for Souls, came about when Mavis was a child and thought it would be fun to join other kids playing barefoot in Baja, California. She later realized the children were barefoot because their parents couldn't afford shoes. So, while in college, she started an effort to collect and donate shoes to low-income communities. In an annual event sponsored by Mavis by Herrera, children paint and decorate pairs of shoes to give to other children.
"Our bags are a fashion statement because they are oneof-a-kind and have a beautiful story to share," Mavis says.
EVOLUTION, NOT PERFECTION
When asked about lessons she's learned while running her business, Mavis says, "I learned that perfection does not exist, and the definition of success is evolution. We must always be evolving and innovative in our business."
Some challenges she faced that required adaptation came from the recycled raw materials she uses.
"It took me seven months to perfect the first bag, the Less Pollution Convertible Handbag, and now it is our best-seller!"
She says that working with recycled plastic is hard because it doesn't bend like other fabrics. It's also difficult to get a consistent color during recycling because they avoid using toxic chemicals that would make the color uniform.
She's embraced the uniqueness of her products, seeing these issues as design features, not flaws. So each bag is one-of-akind and is woven by hand, not by machines.
"Our bags are a fashion statement because they are one-of-akind and have a beautiful story to share," Mavis says.
She is also proud to say that she started her company with $285 and is self-funded. As she says, when she had nothing, she realized that she had everything.
The impetus for starting the company came in 2017 when she ended up in the ICU with heart trouble after a run and stayed in the hospital for a week. Realizing she would not be here forever, she decided to start then and there to follow her purpose and vision.
"I needed to choose the hard way to challenge myself and bring out my full potential and the best of me, and that's what I did. I built my own website in 23 hours, did my own product photography, and registered my own trademark. When you have big dreams, nothing can stop you, even when your cash is limited.
Starting her company a few months before the pandemic was also not easy.
"One thing that I would do differently is to share more behind the scenes with my audience and to not be so hard on myself. When I started my business, I sold my car and left my corporate job. For a year, I delivered the bags to the post office on my road bike. I became vegetarian to save money and did not buy myself a cup of coffee for a year. So yeah, definitely do not be so hard on myself!"
The biggest lesson that she has learned is to believe in herself and have integrity and build trust with anything she does.
SOURCES OF SUPPORT
Mavis says that being an entrepreneur can be a lonely journey, but one must always stay focused and be one's own biggest cheerleader.
Other sources of support for Mavis include her parents and her business mentor, Robert Uno. He continually reminds her of her purpose in running Mavis by Herrera.
"I find my supporters based on shared values, and that leads to incredible things and more impact," says Mavis.
MAVISBYHERRERA.COM
@MAVISBYHERRERA
Sustainable jewellery made out of recycled and eco-friendly materials
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286 AN AUTHOR OF BEAUTY BY: JESSE ADUMA
296 ASHLEY’S SUDS BY: NEHA SURADKAR
304 THE SKIN LORD BY: GEORGE DIKE
An Author of Beauty
Carol’s Daughters, an Inspiring Story of Success
PHOTOGRAPHED BY: CAROL’S DAUGHTERS
WRITTEN BY: JESSE ADUMA
Carol’s Daughters is a cosmetics company that produces goods such as body & skincare and hair products for women.
Since its founding in 1993, Carol’s Daughters has been deeply loyal and committed to delivering the highest quality products, offering their customers nothing but the best products made with love from the entire Carol family.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
Lisa Price’s journey began like that of many entrepreneurs—with curiosity, determination, and a firm belief that products made with love and that deliver what they promised will find their following.
The company was born of the founder’s love for fragrance and passion and scent alchemy, which formed the foundation of her high-performing products.
In 1993, Price, with a gentle nudge from her mother Carol, began to sell her products in a cramped kitchen with only a hundred dollars in cash. Operating out of a cramped little kitchen, Price created a collection that would be the foundation for a beauty empire.
Price then began selling her products at flea markets and, later, out of her living room.
Not long after, positive words began to spread for early iterations of almond cookie, black vanilla hair smoothie, and hair milk, all of which are core parts of the brand’s identity today.
Over time, word of her product spread, with celebrities such as Jada Pinkett-Smith, Erykah Badu, Halle Berry, and Rosie Perez becoming loyal customers, consequently increasing the standing of Lisa’s products.
Lisa Price
During the Obama administration, Price hit yet another huge milestone in her life and career when she was appointed to the National Women’s Business Council, an independent source of advice and policy recommendations to the President, Congress, and United States Small Business Administration on economic issues that face female business owners.
Price and her husband, Gordon, have three children and still live in Brooklyn. When she finds time, Price enjoys going to the beach, reading, crocheting, knitting, and watching movies.
Lisa Price has come a long way from the start of her journey, and her company has met and will continue to meet promised standards for her products.
HISTORY OF CAROL’S DAUGHTERS
“In 1993, encouraged by my mother, Carol, I began creating hair and body products made with love in my Brooklyn kitchen. Family and friends instantly fell in love. To name my company, I listed everything I was and wanted to be, and realized the most special thing that I am is Lisa, Carol’s daughter.” – Lisa Price, Founder of Carol’s Daughters
Capitalizing on the huge success of her products, Price opened up her first boutique in 1999 in FT. Greene, Brooklyn.
Later In 2000, Carol’s daughters changed the natural hair care world by being one of the first to sell their beauty recipes directly to their customers. What’s more, In 2002, Lisa made an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show, another huge win for the industrious entrepreneur.
Penning her dreamy success story in her first book, Success Never Smelled So Sweet, Lisa attained the title of author. The book was published in 2004, marking another important chapter of her life. In 2008 Carol’s daughter launched on HSN. Years later, Lisa continues to accomplish outstanding feats as she helps improve the lives of her brand’s consumers.
There are several outstanding products under the company. Some of the brand’s best sellers include:
• HEALTHY HAIR BUTTER
• ALMOND COOKIE EAU DE TOILETTE FOR WOMEN
• LOVE BUTTER BODY BALM
• MIMOSA HAIR HONEY
• MARGUERITES MAGIC RESTORATIVE CREAM
• LAVENDER & VANILLA BODY CREAM
• MONOI REPAIRING HAIR MASK
Hair breakage has been a major cause for concern amongst many women with kinky, curly, and textured hair.
To this effect, Carol’s Daughters is offering not just tested and trusted products with proven results but also advice and consultancy via the company blog and webpage. All engineered to help you “break up with hair breakage for good,” as the company so humorously loves to iterate.
Uniquely Hawaiian Skincare From Soil to Skin to Soul
Ashley’s Suds
Customizable Natural Hand Poured Soap
Hand Crafted With Passion and Love For Nature
WRITTEN BY: NEHA SURADKAR
PHOTOGRAPHED BY: ASHLEY MARIE
Afew decades ago, the world moved from using soap bars to body wash, shower gels, shampoos, and hand wash. All these replacements were considered signs of advancement and using the latest products in the beauty and hygiene category. But in the last few years, soap bars have become popular again. There are many reasons why this could be—the most important being the sustainability factor. Using soap bars helps reduce the plastic waste generated by shampoo bottles, body wash, and other such products. Also, soap bars don’t contain ingredients that pollute the environment.
Ashley Marie LeBaron
The luxury angle is another factor. Soap bars come in various textures and scents, and some even have little surprises like sea salt, almonds, or charcoal embedded in them. Others are available in attractive or even humorous novelty shapes and sizes. Beautiful soap bars can be wrapped in silk ribbons and given as gifts to loved ones.
Ashley Marie is one such entrepreneur who started making luxury soap bars as gifts for her family at Christmas, and there was no looking back after that. Ashley Marie, the owner and creator of Ashley Marie Soap, is based in St. George, Utah. Marie and her family were fascinated with everything organic and homemade while growing up in Chihuahua, Mexico. They collected these items from their farm. They grew vegetables, made cheese, milked cows, and baked bread.
After graduating from college in Utah, Ashley Marie was at a loss for what to give the many members of her vast family for Christmas that would be considerate and practical without going over budget. Her next move was obviously to create something! She learned how to make soap. Before she knew it, she’d nervously combined the components for natural, handcrafted soap as lye poured into a kitchen bowl. Her first batch was a mess and led her nowhere. She wanted to learn from her mistakes and gave the process another shot. She made a new batch, and her entire family cherished the thoughtful and lovely gift, and she appreciated the fact that she knew what was going into her skincare products.
Marie’s soap and skincare recipes are inspired by the maxim that you shouldn’t put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t eat. She uses only natural ingredients in her products, which are 100% synthetic-free. In contrast to many soap makers who utilize fragrance oils, refined oils, and butter, she uses virgin oils and essential oils for fragrance. She is proud that she taught herself how to make a product that people love and that actually sells, and she gets to do it all right out of her home. The soaps are made in small batches to ensure the highest quality. Marie makes the soaps old-fashioned, without removing the glycerin, which helps with skin hydration. The cold process technique ensures that the ingredients retain their therapeutic properties. The soaps are cured for 4-6 weeks, each bar being unique and varying in size, shape, and weight.
The small business development center in St. George, where she lives, was incredibly helpful in her journey. They assisted her with business registration and paid for her travel expenses to the 2019 Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild conference in Dallas, Texas. There, she picked up a lot of knowledge about soapmaking. Her recipes improved, her packaging changed, and her company management improved.
After making skin-nourishing soaps on the side for two years, working almost 100 hours a week, and with no social life, she decided to quit her job and devote her full time to making these artisan soaps. The demand for her products has been growing steadily for the last few years, and she is currently making beautiful soap loaves in her St. George kitchen studio with a lot of love, passion, and years of experience. She goes
above and beyond to ensure that all her products adhere to her principles. She is passionate about using high-quality, organic, and synthetic-free ingredients.
Marie can be found exploring and canyoneering in the vast canyons of southern Utah or climbing, rappelling, and touring, when not working in her soap store. She currently sells her soap at 20 stores. Marie believes that it takes a certain kind of personality to be an entrepreneur and start a business, and it’s not for the faint of heart because there is a lot of hard work, and things can be very stressful at times. However, she also feels an entrepreneur should be open to learning and keep trying without aiming for perfection. Trying to be perfect can be limiting for a business and can hold you back. It is always better to attempt something, even if it’s not perfect, than not do it at all.
ethically grown, certified-organic hemp and essential oils
organic certified CBD* made in the United States sustainable packaging made in Italy
The Skin Lord
Afro-Organic Skincare Building Confident, Radiant Beings with Nature’s Remedies
WRITTEN BY: GEORGE DIKE
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: PHIBEL NATURALS
Natural skincare products are skincare products made from ingredients made available by nature and are not harmful to the skin and the environment. They are 100% natural, organic, plant-based, sustainably sourced, and marketed.
No one wants a skincare product that is harsh on the skin. Thus, people sway to the organic and eco-friendly because such products are tender on the skin. Organic and eco-friendly skincare products also nourish, revitalize and moisturize the skin.
Beautiful, healthy skin is paramount for attractive well-being. For this reason, Phibel Naturals skin care products are composed of only the best and purest natural ingredients and lots of love and care.
Made from plant ingredients such as shea butter, aloe, coconut oil, honey, fruit extracts, and palm kernel, her skincare brand has continued to restore glow and confidence to people across the globe.
Philippa Jones
“Be consistent in delivering value. Show up and give your 100% no matter the weather, good days or bad.”
PHIBEL NATURALS BY PHILIPPA JONES
Phibel Naturals is a line of natural skin care products with a mission to provide excellent skin care products. It was founded in 2019 by Philippa Jones , with its current headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria. They formulate only the best organic products with high-quality ingredients that give visible and sustainable results without negative side effects.
The skin lord, as Philippa is popularly called, envisions becoming a household name at the top of people’s minds when they think of reliable skin care. She started the brand with the mission to provide excellent skin care and use carefully curated products tested for safety and quality.
The brand has adopted safety standards ensuring only professionals formulate their products using environmentally friendly materials and packaging that meet ethical standards to which every beauty brand should aspire.
According to the founder, she started the brand to address beauty concerns and fight
the stigma and wrong notion of true beauty. In her own words, “There has been a widespread misconception about what beautiful skin should look like. The magazines portray perfect flawless skin that has been edited and airbrushed to be the yardstick of beautiful skin. And so, young women and men feel pressured to attain the impossible so that they can identify as beautiful.
However, perfect skin is next to impossible. What we promise our Phibel family is healthy skin. Everyone, especially women, must understand that it is okay to have textured skin and regular hormonal breakouts. That does not in any way make you less beautiful. We are all perfectly and beautifully made.”
The brand is undoubtedly on its way to restoring natural beauty and confidence to several people of all ages, races, and gender. But like every business, they are also faced with some challenges. Philippa says competition and pricing continue to be an issue.
“The beauty industry is getting saturated by the day, and people would more likely patronize bigger, popular brands than emerging startups, notwithstanding the quality or price. It is a wrong ideology that these popular brands have superior products just because of their high prices.”
Notwithstanding this challenge, Philippa strives to maintain quality and consistency by letting her products speak volumes. In three years, she has garnered an array of return clients who have become family. Their trust in the brand and visible results continues to do the work of marketing and upselling Phibel Naturals.
She says her passion and love for her work get her past the negativity and challenges. “I love what I do, and I’m always elated knowing I have helped restore someone’s confidence. It shows I’m doing something right and encourages me to do even more. Also, I hope to build an army of confident women and men while creating generational wealth for myself and my students.”
Philippa plans to expand the brand internationally so everyone can access the natural goodness they bring. She looks to inspire even more people and restore their confidence, one quality product at a time. When asked for a piece of advice she can give young inspiring skincare enthusiasts, she says,
“Be consistent in delivering value. Show up and give your 100% no matter the weather, good days or bad.”
Great skin takes time to achieve; it’s more than drinking countless glasses of water, sipping herbal tea, and minding your business. It takes patience, the right amount, and of course, the right products. People want their skincare to have a nice smell. They want organic soap that lathers well and leaves a clean and soft feel on the skin.
That is why we especially celebrate Phibel Naturals for their quality focus on natural, locally sourced ingredients, which are very kind to the skin. Their Glow Body Oil and Purifying Face Mask are beauty must-haves.
With the amount of damage our skin goes through because of overexposure to the wrong chemicals, hormonal changes, and UV rays, glowing skin can be difficult to attain. However, it is possible! Of the many organic skincare brands making us proud, Phibel Naturals stands out and lives up to its slogan, “illuminating all shades of beauty.”
@PHIBEL_NATURALS
TAPLINK.CC/PHIBEL_NATURALS
Healthy beauty that works.
Personalized guidance that’s unparalleled.
FOR EVERY BODY BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
YOGA
Yoga For Every Body
Binuta Sudhakaran, Artist and Yoga Teacher
WRITTEN BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
PHOTOGRAPHED BY: BINUTA SUDHAKARAN
Yoga teacher Binuta Sudhakaran teaches in the Roots of Yoga Studio out of Davis, CA, and online and says that yoga can be for anyone who is human.
“Irrespective of whether you are old or young, athletic, flexible, spiritual, religious, or atheist, your yoga practice can meet and serve you wherever you are at the moment.”
Sudhakaran explains that yoga allows us to recognize and access our connection to the universe through stillness (meditation) or movement (asana). The practice can give us a sense of peace and grounding and help heal the stress and trauma stored in our physical body and bring us back to alignment with our relationships and environment.
“When I teach asana, I provide enough variety with modifications to suit different body types. My classes involve chanting—using sound to align energies— philosophy, alignment-based asana sequences, pranayama (loosely translated as breath control), and dhyana (meditation).”
She encourages all practitioners to access their inner wisdom while practicing so they can take what resonates with them and leave behind what does not.
“I am cognizant at all times that yoga is a spiritual tradition that has existed for many millennia, has traveled the world, and is constantly changing and evolving to connect to different cultures and bodies,” she explains.
Binuta Sudhakaran
“Irrespective of whether you are old or young, athletic, flexible, spiritual, religious, or atheist, your yoga practice can meet and serve you wherever you are at the moment.”
YOGA’S RICH HISTORY AND MEANING
Sudhakaran provides further background on the history of yoga, which dates back to a time before known language existed.
“The Pashupati seal, a clay seal of a figure seated in asana, dates back to the Indus Valley 5000 years ago. The oldest sacred text in existence, the Rig Veda, mentions yoga as a technique to still the mind. Physical poses, asanas, evolved much later, and even then, there were only about eight of them as preparation for meditation.”
She explains how yoga is a diverse body of knowledge that continually morphed and merged over time, borrowing from diverse Vedic, Tantric, and ascetic traditions. The third-century sage Patanjali codified the practice into eight steps or limbs (Ashtanga yoga), which is the precursor to modern yoga.
During the British colonization of India, the more esoteric elements were banned or went underground, leaving the focus on physical movement. This was the form of yoga that was exported to the Western world.
When asked how Westerners and non-South Asians can practice yoga respectfully without cultural appropriation, she again highlights that yoga can be for everyone who approaches it with curiosity.
“Staying open and curious about our experiences at every moment helps us recognize when we’re appropriating practices to mold to our worldview. Recognizing that we’re a conduit of learning and approaching these practices as they are, and not through the lens of our personal experience, allows us to access the deeper meaning of yoga.”
SUDHAKARAN’S PERSONAL PRACTICE
Sudhakaran started her personal yoga practice as a six-yearold when her dad sat her and her sisters down in lotus pose for 20 minutes a day, reciting chants, nursery rhymes, and multiplication tables.
“It was torture then, but after a while, I was drawn to the peace and calm, and it became part of my morning routine.”
Each of her family members still practices yoga in a different way that works for each of them. She follows Vinyasa yoga, which she was introduced to in Davis in 2008.
“During the pandemic, I moved away from more intense asana practice toward subtler practices like pranayama and meditation. My personal practice involves an early morning sit for about two hours and an asana sequence to wind down in late evening.”
Her teaching practice is inspired by her personal yoga practice and by what she feels is often lacking in many Western yoga classes.
“As I moved away from a studio practice to a home practice, I started craving the deeper teachings of yoga, the talks and discussions and spiritual experiences. That brought me to the recognition that there’s a need for a platform that provides people with yoga beyond the asana positions. That’s why I designed the offerings you’ll find on my website.”
She teaches online and one-on-one classes as she finds that format best facilitates her work helping people develop their practices.
LEARNING AND TEACHING
“At this moment, I’m focused on shining light on the elements of yoga that got lost as it traveled to the west. To that end, I work with teacher training programs delivering modules of history, culture, and philosophy. I offer pranayama, meditation, and other practices that serve to enhance a strong asana practice. I also offer mentoring for spiritual seekers and teachers who might want guidance on accessing some of these teachings and incorporating them into their classes or personal practice.”
She explains that the teacher-student relationship is a vital part of yoga. She considers herself a learner as well as a teacher, and although she’s practiced under many amazing teachers throughout her life, she’d still love to find a go-to teacher to reach out to during her journey. And she would like to use her website talks and practices to offer that relationship to other learners.
“As a way to show gratitude for the teachers in my life, I have created a monthly circle for yoga teachers where we hold space for each other, discuss concerns that come up in class, and explore various topics within this vast ancient wisdom tradition. Since both my learning and teaching process is constantly evolving, my hope is that what I have to offer may help those who are on the path as I am.”
WOMEN IN YOGA
As for being a woman in the yoga world, Sudhakaran says that she doesn’t approach yoga through the lens of gender. However, some poses are tailored to women’s bodies, although they can be practiced by most people.
She mentions that although historically, Hatha yoga, where movement in yoga originates, was a male-only practice in ancient India, women practiced several other forms of yoga that involved study and service to others.
As for more modern women in yoga, “Asana opened up to women primarily through Indra Devi, who was a student of Krishnamacharya in Mysore in the 1940s. She brought asana to Hollywood, and the rest is history!”
UNIVERSAL QUEST FOR WISDOM
To her, yoga is about the universal quest for understanding and wisdom, regardless of gender.
“At the end of the day, we’re still asking the same questions as the yogis did thousands of years ago. Who am I, why am I here, and what’s next for me? The human mind hasn’t changed. The environment has, but the questions remain the same.”
“I am cognizant at all times that yoga is a spiritual tradition that has existed for many millennia, has traveled the world, and is constantly changing and evolving to connect to different cultures and bodies”
Skincare is self-care
Created in California, our all natural, sustainably sourced skincare is formulated with the recognition that we are all part of the earth.
Idon’t know about you, but for 34 years of my existence, I was always promised a much longer lifespan than previous generations. After all, technology is rapidly advancing, and by the time I reach old age, the new 90 should be the old 50, right?
As you’re well aware, that hasn’t happened yet. Sure there are advancements in technology each and every day, but none of us are expecting to live as long as those characters in futuristic science fiction flicks.
But there are people working on it, and one of them is Celine Halioua, Founder and CEO of Cellular Longevity, Inc. Except this biotechnology company isn’t attempting to extend the life of humans. Halioua is working on developing therapies to treat aging in dogs.
is the founder and CEO of Loyal, a biotech startup developing drugs to extend dog lifespan.
That’s right, woman’s best friend, whose life has always been too short for our liking, could finally be living more years with their humans. When you think about it more, it makes sense. Biotech firms aren’t going to be experimenting on humans until therapies have been proven to work on other large mammals.
At the time this article was written, Cellular Longevity’s clinical-stage veterinary medicine company, Loyal, had raised $27M. As you can imagine, there is plenty of excitement around extending the lives of Fido or Bailey. But the fact that Loyal’s work is backed by decades of research on the biology of aging has investors even more thrilled. So what does Halioua expect to accomplish? First, it’s much easier and cheaper to perform clinical trials on animals than on humans, where 90% of new drugs don’t make it through. And most importantly, canine lives are much shorter than human lives, greatly shortening the time it takes to receive results.
Halioua’s interest in the field of biology began at the University of Texas in the state where she was born and raised. Even though she majored in neuroscience, her interest in aging began during her sophomore year internship at the SENS Research Foundation, a leading lab in La Jolla, California, working on age-related diseases.
Halioua
Celine Halioua
Fast forward after two internships with the nonprofit, and Halioua was convinced the study of aging was the field she wanted to pursue permanently. “It just made so much sense,” she told Wired in October 2022. “I very quickly knew that this was a hundred percent where I was going to spend my life.”
After impressing an Oxford researcher involved with the SENS Research Foundation, she was offered the chance to move to the UK. That experience quickly soured after realizing that her admiration for the foundation was quickly disappearing. In the past years, she publicly outed the foundation’s co-founder and mastermind Aubrey de Grey for encouraging her to sleep with potential donors to raise more funds (an accusation Grey has denied).
In 2018, Halioua was in search of something new. She contacted a leading woman in aging treatments, the child prodigy who had enrolled in MIT at 14, Laura Deming. Deming was running a venture capital fund for age-related startups in San Francisco. After impressing Deming in a phone interview, Halioua was offered a short but impactful two-week internship at WeWork in San Francisco.
After her brief internship, Halioua was offered a job and the opportunity to simultaneously finish her Ph.D. at Oxford. But soon after, she was dealing with an investigation at the university due to a formal complaint she had filed against her supervisor regarding bullying and harassment. Overwhelmed by the investigation, her studies, and her work, she left Oxford to focus on her passion.
interest in biotechnology has led her to unraveling and developing therapeutics for pathological aging
Halioua’s
Halioua’s idea for Loyal emerged from a memo she worked on during her time with Deming, which involved something called insulin-like growth factor 1. This hormone (IGF-1 for short) is naturally found in the blood. It was known back then that tweaking the hormone’s pathway could extend the life of mice. However, the effects on humans were unknown.
It wasn’t until 2019 that Halioua revealed her knowledge of the hormone and its potential to extend the life of dogs on a summer camping trip. The trip was organized by a startup, and she didn’t know any of the investors and entrepreneurs to whom she revealed these details. Eventually, her idea made its rounds throughout Silicon Valley, where it eventually caught the attention of an interested venture capitalist. That man was Greg Rosen, who met with Halioua for coffee in San Francisco. Shortly after that meeting, she had just over $5M in funding from Rosen and others. But as luck would have it, the pandemic started in the first month that her office’s lease began. But that didn’t stop her new team from growing and hiring experts with another $6M in funding raised.
The self-proclaimed “Oxford dropout” and her team of scientists have now identified two compounds that can delay the aging process of young, large dogs and help with cognitive decline. Loyal also has close to 70 employees, and half of its new investors are women—no small feat in a world where startups are backed significantly by male venture capitalists.
As of 2023, Loyal is developing two drugs that target the underlying causes of aging. LOY-001 is expected to expand the lifespan of large breeds of dogs and is projected to enter companion dog studies this year. Whereas LOY-002 is intended to expand the lifespan of older breeds. If you’d like to help, Loyal is actively recruiting for upcoming studies in 2023.
@CELINEHALIOUA
@CELINELEAHH
Longevity. Technology. Halioua studied neuroscience and nanobiotechnology at the University of Texas at Austin and Uppsala Universitet in Sweden.
A holistic healing collective founded on the principles of Chinese and Functional medicine.
A blend of modern health principles and ancient wisdom, to curate a personalized, multi-disciplinary healing experience.
Beyond Paper
Botanical PaperWorks, The World’s Leading Supplier & Manufacturer of Seed Paper, Will Go Beyond Paper
WRITTEN BY: NIZIE N. LOKMAN, FCIM
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: HEIDI REIMER-EPP
Heidi Reimer-Epp, CEO, and co-founder of Botanical PaperWorks based in Manitoba, Canada, has a powerful quote on her desk at work that reminds her every day to see the impossible in a different light. A Walt Disney quote, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible,” motivated Heidi and her team o ver 25 years ago when sustainability was not yet a thing. Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters named her one of the women in manufacturing making a difference. TrooRa magazine digs deeper into her leadership style in building Botanical PaperWorks from the past, present, and future and her views on running a business as a woman entrepreneur.
Heidi Reimer-Epp, CEO and co-founder of Botanical PaperWorks
PLANTING A SMALL SEED IDEA IN 1997
When Botanical PaperWorks was a startup, Heidi and her mom, as co-founders, went to a seminar at the Women’s Enterprise Centre called “Starting A Business.” When asked where they saw themselves in 10 years, Heidi imagined that they saw their handmade paper company issuing its first IPO. The audience thought that she was joking. She laughed along with the audience because it did look impossible to grow a startup to be publicly traded. Nevertheless, she was determined to become a selfsustaining and thriving business in 10 years.
Heidi was very honest about her dreams. She mentioned that the next 10 years were pure hard work, even to the point that it made her unwell. She said on her website, “I wasn’t a slave to the dream as much as I was a slave to the investment that we’d made in Botanical PaperWorks. To start a manufacturing company from scratch, one in which we were often inventing the equipment, was a huge, all-consuming challenge. A solid support system became vital. My parents, my husband, and my team were all committed to the task.”
“Over the last 25 years, we have created a company that employs over 40 people, makes a product by hand, uses waste inputs to create a product that leaves no waste, ships it all around the world, hires people from the local community, many who are newcomers to Canada or have barriers to employment. Botanical PaperWorks does it all profitably, year after year, within the context of a strong, stable, thriving company—Doing the impossible is fun!” Heidi shared with me about her entrepreneurship journey—a joyful one.
LEADER OF A PLANTABLE PAPER MAKER
Looking back, Botanical PaperWorks was pioneering something new even before sustainable products were a conscious concept. Seed paper came to the co-founders’ minds. It is a plantable eco-paper made with post-consumer and post-industrial paper waste embedded with seeds. Heidi explained in simple terms, “the process begins when the paper is planted in a pot of soil, the seeds grow, and the paper composts away. All that is left behind is flowers, herbs or vegetables, and no waste.”
The unique market positioning not only landed them as a supplier and manufacturer of plantable paper but also as the designer and printer of plantable paper products in Canada and across the world. Their products range from seal and send wedding invitations, eco-friendly wedding favors, seed paper business cards, bookmarks, greeting cards, memorial products, baby shower invitations, and so much more. For more of their long list of offerings, the Botanical PaperWorks 2022 Catalog would give great insight into the magnitude of seed paper products to the world.
Botanical PaperWorks is unique compared to other seed paper companies. The company’s involvement with zero waste made with recycled materials, connecting people and the planet, supporting biodiversity, and becoming a certified women’s business enterprise has brought them to the center of sustainability. They have won more than 13 awards, including Best in Sustainability 2022 PPPC Awards and the Gold Award for Most Creative New Promotional Product 2018 PPPC Image Awards. More details can be found on their website. Botanical PaperWorks is also a diverse and inclusive company in employment.
Heidi Reimer
BEYOND PAPER, SPILLOVER AS A VEGAN SOAP MAKER
Sustainability is the cornerstone of Botanical PaperWorks. When the global pandemic happened, Heidi decided to look beyond her status quo. “At the start of Covid, I found myself thinking of ways to extend our support to customers beyond paper. We turned our product development attention to soap because it was a great fit with Covid times and all the hand washing we were all doing,” said Heidi.
She expressed that she loved the multi-sensory aspect of soap with the beautiful lather and scent. “And handmade vegan soap has many similarities to seed paper—it’s handcrafted, it’s appreciated by people who care about themselves and the environment, and it uses infrastructure that we already have in a place like our light manufacturing facility and skilled team. We use natural ingredients so that, like seed paper, you can feel good about its impact on the environment.”
As she looks ahead to 2023 and beyond, the company will add more natural products that touch the senses and contribute to sustainability and the circular economy. They recently added a line of beautiful handmade paper (with no seeds) and have other nonseeded products in their development pipeline as well.
Joyfully, Heidi explained, “I’m really excited about what’s coming in 2023!”
HEIDI’S ADVICE ON WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Botanical PaperWorks is certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the Women Business Enterprises Canada Council (WBE Canada), Canada’s largest third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women. When asked to share her wisdom in her experience from over 30 years in the manufacturing industry, she noticed that many women entrepreneurs need to have total proof of concept before they launch a new product or service, whereas many male entrepreneurs will go ahead with launch and figure it out as they go. While there’s a balance to be achieved with enough prelaunch due diligence and post-launch iteration, waiting until something is perfect is a huge barrier to business success. Nothing is ever perfect, and the pursuit of perfection is a roadblock to business and personal growth. As women in business, we need to be bold and put our ideas, products, and services out there as quickly as possible, so that customer feedback comes quickly to drive continuous improvement.
“Along these same lines, I encourage women business leaders to join co-ed business organizations. Many women-centric organizations are doing good work, but in my experience, I grew up in my leadership when I was immersed in the Entrepreneurs Organization.” She observes that the diversity of leadership styles from both women and men was an education for which she will forever be grateful.
Another insight as an experienced female entrepreneur is seeing so many entrepreneurs fail when they run out of cash to grow or encounter an unexpected bump in the road and don’t have a cash buffer. She advises women to learn everything about strong financial management. She spoke about the need for hiring a team of accountants, bookkeepers, and advisors who will keep entrepreneurs laser-focused on building a strong financial foundation with strong financial processes.
“If you are a woman who grew up with a fear of money, do what you need to do to conquer that fear. Early on, to increase my knowledge and comfort and get over my money hangups, I hired my accountant to give me a couple of lessons on financial ratios where I could ask her anything that I wanted within a private, no-wrong-question environment.” Looking back, she is glad she did that because it was a big leap forward in her business capability to expand. Besides financial sense, she also mentioned that becoming a woman entrepreneur requires getting mentally strong and becoming a life learner, which she also mentioned in her interview with UM Today Alumni.
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HERIDE: GETTING ATLANTA’S WOMEN FROM POINT A TO POINT B UNBOTHERED BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
HERide: Getting Atlanta’s Women from Point A to Point B Unbothered
Profitable Startup Poised to Go National
PHOTO CREDIT COURTESY OF: HERide
WRITTEN BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
As an Uber driver in Atlanta, Jillian Anderson noticed that many women and female-identified people felt safe in her vehicle. These passengers would offer to hire her privately for transportation outside of the Uber app.
Inspired by that, she and serial entrepreneur and marketing and communications expert DeVynne Starks launched HERide, a rideshare service for women drivers.
“When I listened to the business podcast How I Built This, I found out that it only took two people to found Lyft and Uber; everything clicked from there. And I’ve been locked in ever since,” says Anderson.
Anderson serves as the chief technical officer, and Starks’ background is in strategic planning and partnership development, project management, public relations, and content writing.
The site and logo and accompanying social media come in a classy shade of purple and incorporate the symbol for “women” into the brand name. While the app was under development, the founders posted some material related to general female empowerment. Now that HERide has been launched, their channels appear more tightly focused.
Jillian Anderson DeVynne Starks
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES, BECOMING PROFITABLE
HERide isn’t the first rideshare service to be aimed at women. Others have launched and then had to close their doors or pivot due to problems ranging from accusations of gender-based discrimination against men to difficulty raising the capital to compete in a market saturated by two dominant firms.
Anderson and Starks are aware of the difficulties they face but believe they can succeed because of their combined skill sets and experience and because of the success they are already enjoying.
Currently operating in the Atlanta metro area, the service has been featured in Essence and Black Enterprise magazines, and its founders have appeared on several podcasts. They have also provided 432 rides for customers from March to September 2022, breaking 1K/ week in gross profit.
In the fundraising stage, Anderson and Starks hope to raise $1.5 million in venture capital. This was roughly how much it took to get Uber and Lyft off the ground. People can also donate amounts ranging from $1 to $20 on the HERide website or purchase HERidebranded clothing and tote bags.
“Built with the needs of women in mind, we aim to improve the lives of women everywhere through safe transportation, job creation, and financial security”
Anderson describes how and why her background and personality suit her for this role.
“Not only do I know the market space because I was an Uber driver, but I think like an athlete. I played sports as a teen, and that made me a new person, used to sustained work and improvement and to take risks. And I’m fearless, I will keep going since I don’t want to let customers or investors or our staff down.”
EMPOWERMENT FOR DRIVERS AND PASSENGERS
HERide’s drivers keep 80 percent of the price customers pay for each ride and tend to earn more than the average pay from mainstream rideshare companies. HERide also claims to offer drivers greater schedule flexibility and the ability to plan their workdays to a greater extent than other rideshare firms. Providing economic opportunities for women is part of HERide’s mission, along with rider safety.
“Built with the needs of women in mind, we aim to improve the lives of women everywhere through safe transportation, job creation, and financial security,” their website reads. Most have said they want the flexibility of gig work but with the chance to earn a living wage.
Priding themselves on getting women and girls from Point A to Point B “unbothered,” HERide thoroughly vets each potential driver and administers a background check. In-ride security features also provide a safer experience for both riders and drivers.
Although HERide serves passengers regardless of gender, they can choose which riders to accept and rate their passengers on the site. As long as the service has existed, no driver or passenger has ever mentioned any safety issue with HERide. The company has been approved by Atlanta’s Department of Public Safety and has set up a partnership where they can pick up passengers (along with Uber and Lyft) at Atlanta’s main airport.
HERide’s services are competitive in price,
“I’m not going to sit here and diss the VC space. It’s just one more place to which I need to adapt, and I’m doing that!”
according to customers, and can even be cheaper than other rideshare options. Users remark that HERide offers relatively affordable rides home from the airport, for example. They are already the #1 most frequently used alternative to Uber and Lyft in the Atlanta metro area.
HERide offers online video tutorials to simplify the processes of booking rides and becoming a driver through the company. Their goal is to create 1,000 jobs within the Atlanta area in 2022, and as of last spring, they had already received around 250 applicants.
“It’s all about options,” says Anderson. “We’re providing this option for women who would like a women-centric rideshare.”
They currently have 95 active drivers (as of November 2022), which is not nearly enough for the market demand, so they are hiring!
NETWORKING AND FUNDRAISING AS AN INTROVERT
Anderson learned that raising capital involves networking, connections, and a solid idea and performance. Neither she nor Starks come from Ivy League universities: she was Starks’ resident assistant at Georgia’s Albany State University. However, she remains upbeat and confident.
“I’m not going to sit here and diss the VC space. It’s just one more place to which I need to adapt, and I’m doing that!”
If she could start over again, Anderson says, she’d start raising cash much earlier (as well as not launch during Covid!)
With the help of a support system that includes an accountability partner and a therapist, she’s attending and making the most of at least one networking event a week as an introvert.
“I grew up without many other entrepreneurial role models in my family,” she says. “But they came around when they saw how well I was doing as an Uber driver, and they supported me in this new venture.” Starks is also more extroverted and helps with the promotion and communication aspects of HERide.
FUTURE GOALS
Once they raise the needed funds, Anderson and Starks plan to expand HERide to serve passengers nationally and internationally. They will reach out beyond Atlanta once they hire 1000 drivers and hope to expand beyond rides to set up a boot camp to train women who want to work in transportation and logistics.
With over 12,000 downloads of the HERide app in the first months of operation, they seem poised to reach a greater market.
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18 OR 80, THE SOFT LIFE BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
FUNDING MAIN STREET BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
WOMEN ’ S CIVIL RIGHTS: BUILDING AWARENESS OF WOMEN ’ S EMPOWERMENT BY: GEORGE DIKE
WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH BY: GEORGE DIKE
18 or 80, The Soft Life
The Best Me Conference Returns in 2023 to Inspire Black Women.
PHOTO COURTESY OF: AMINA EL KABBANY & MARY RUCKER
WRITTEN BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
Lauren Jennings, the founder of The Best Me Conference, grew tired of being the only Black woman in the room while serving in professional leadership roles.
“While this was something I had grown accustomed to, often, it felt exhausting,” she says.
She searched for a space where she could feel seen and safe, where she could be authentically herself.
“I thought, how powerful would it be to have a conference focused specifically on Black women with one common goal: to become the best version of themselves? It was there that The Best Me Conference was born. I took a risk, and since I could not find it, I chose to create the space I was looking for, a space for Black women to feel loved, nurtured, and inspired,” says Jennings.
Jennings affirms that Black women deserve a space where they can be celebrated and supported. Black women often face unique challenges and obstacles to success, and The Best Me Conference was created to address those challenges and provide resources and support to help overcome them.
“By bringing Black women together in a supportive and inclusive community, our goal is to inspire women to reach their full potential and become their best selves,” she says.
Lauren Jennings
“As Black women, we’re tired of struggling, and we’re tired of having to always be strong. 2023 is the year of redefining softness and prioritizing rest, ease, and unapologetic joy,” says Jennings.
THE SOFT LIFE: EMBRACING REST, EASE, AND JOY
The Best Me’s theme for 2023 is The Soft Life. Jennings says that while she’s sure we’ve all likely heard this phrase, the definition of it is simple: living in alignment with the vision you have for yourself. It’s a daily reminder to evaluate what parts of your life are no longer serving you and give yourself permission to make the necessary changes to invest in the life you’ve always wanted to live.
“As Black women, we’re tired of struggling, and we’re tired of having to always be strong. 2023 is the year of redefining softness and prioritizing rest, ease, and unapologetic joy,” says Jennings.
The conference organizers set out in search of speakers who could identify with the theme. Each diverse Black woman on the panel is embracing their own version of the soft life.
“While we share an identity as Black women, we’re all on unique journeys. Our speakers exemplify diversity of thought and conversation, so different attendees can all feel a sense of connection and benefit from the content,” Jennings says.
“We are uniting our tribe, so raise your hand and gather with us!”
NURTURING THE WHOLE WOMAN, FROM 18 TO 80
Speakers come from a wide range of backgrounds and ages. This is intentional, as the goal is to promote crossgenerational conversation.
“Our tagline is, ‘Whether you are 18 or 80, The Best Me Conference is for you.’ This is not just something that sounds good; it truly represents our target audience. Black women need community. Our speakers and attendees range in age, and no matter your age or background, you will walk away feeling celebrated and inspired. We are geared to meet the Black woman in her current state of being, whatever that is. Our topics, speakers, and workshops are created with this in mind,” she says.
The Best Me Conference also discusses various aspects of
Black women’s lives: health and wellness, self-esteem, career empowerment, love and family relationships.
“As women and human beings, we are multi-faceted. We are body, soul, and spirit, and if one area is suffering, our entire being suffers. We felt it was critical that in order to be healthy whole women, we needed our entire well-being nurtured. Our topics reflect this,” says Jennings.
CHANGING WOMEN’S LIVES
After the last Best Me conference, many women reached out to Jennings to share how the conference made a difference for them.
Two, in particular, come to her mind. One attendee shared that the conference inspired her to run for public office. She
had never considered that, but knew she wanted to make a difference in her community.
COME ON OUT!
“The conference gave her the push she needed to trust in herself and take the risk. She now serves as the first Black City Councilmember of her city,” says Jennings.
Also, Jennings remembers two women who had both come by themselves. Both almost didn’t buy tickets because they felt awkward attending an all-day event where they didn’t know anyone.
“As fate would have it, they sat next to each other at the conference, and the rest is history. A few weeks after the event, they tagged us in a photo of them together and thanked the conference for their newfound friendship!” says Jennings.
The Best Me Conference is returning to California State University East Bay (Hayward) on April 1st, 2023. The organizers invite you to come clarify your purpose, top off your confidence, sharpen your skills and talents, and forge new connections.
“We are uniting our tribe, so raise your hand and gather with us!”
Funding Main Street
Jenny Kassan Helps Entrepreneurs Out of the Bootstrap Trap
WRITTEN BY: CRISTINA DEPTULA
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: JENNY KASSAN
Jenny Kassan, lawyer, business coach, and financial innovator, has seen many promising businesses fall into the “bootstrap trap.”
People who can’t access capital end up funding everything themselves out of their limited resources and go under, even when they have good ideas that will eventually be profitable because they can’t sustain themselves in the meantime.
“Even if you’ve got a great idea, if your equipment and computers are falling apart, if you can’t hire the expertise you need, you’re less likely to succeed,” she says.
So she usually recommends that entrepreneurs seek outside funding in a way that doesn’t saddle them with debt or compromise their values, and has dedicated her life to facilitating that process.
Founder Jenny Kassan
“We need to lower the barriers to becoming an investor, make this more accessible to regular people,” Kassan says. “People would like to support and build their communities.”
GOING BEYOND THE “USUAL SUSPECTS” FOR FUNDING
She has one main piece of advice for emerging entrepreneurs seeking funding.
“Think about why you started your business, what issue you’re hoping to solve. Then when you’re first starting out, go for the lowest hanging fruit, the people who will be the most excited about you.”
Investors can simply be people you know who share your passion and have some money saved and who can be more open-minded about what they’ll fund than venture capital firms.
Kassan encourages founders to look beyond the traditional idea of VC funding, which is not realistically available to everyone.
“Find like-minded people, those who are trying to solve the same problem as you are with your business. You can do this by writing articles and getting them published or by going to events for professionals in your field.”
She says that often, funders will be even more excited about a business tackling a social or environmental issue than a nonprofit because there are fewer regulations and restrictions on how a small business can operate than on a legally registered 501c3 organization.
She points out that 99 percent of investors are not professional investors, the sort of people with INVESTOR in their LinkedIn profile, who tend to go for startups that can get very big very quickly and whose founders have a proven track record.
“Also, you don’t need one person to write a huge check,” says Kassan. “I raised $1.1 million for a startup once from 135 different people!”
Kassan also advises entrepreneurs to structure their investment offerings to match the rate and time frame they expect for business growth. This is also easier with non-VC investors, who are less likely to have a preconceived idea of what a successful business looks like.
“Find like-minded people, those who are trying to solve the same problem as you are with your business. You can do this by writing articles and getting them published or by going to events for professionals in your field.”
BUSINESS FUNDING AND DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
She acknowledges that while entrepreneurship is challenging for everyone, founders who are women and/or people of color face unique obstacles. Not long ago, racist laws straight up prevented many people of color from fully participating in the economy, and the resulting legacies of biases, stereotypes, and lower amounts of generational wealth present continuing issues for business founders from marginalized communities.
“It can help to find potential investors who are passionate about rectifying wrongs done to people in the past,” Kassan explains.
“Also, studies show that you get higher returns from investing in women and people of color.”
She says it will be a long fight to make the venture capital world equitable and that, in the meantime, it’s more effective to seek investors outside of the traditional model.
“83 percent of entrepreneurs in the U.S. don’t receive venture capital or institutional loans and aren’t likely to be able to access them. So I’m specializing in helping people find their way around, rather than through, the system.”
COMMUNITY BUILDING AND FINANCE: KASSAN’S BACKGROUND
When Kassan first got out of law school, she worked for a nonprofit focused on a low-income community in Oakland. They helped organize festivals, farmers’ markets, street cleanup, and beautification projects.
“I saw all these amazing mom-and-pop shops run by people from around the world. But I also saw how under-resourced
these businesses were, how they had trouble doing basic things such as complying with regulations,” she says. “If they could only have access to funding, the world would be such a better place.”
Kassan became passionate about what she could do as a lawyer to see more funding moved toward small businesses, social enterprises, and emerging entrepreneurs. She studied the laws governing how businesses can raise money and how to facilitate the transactions that let people invest in the companies they love.
Currently, she heads Kassan Law Group, composed of two lawyers and two full-time operations employees, which provides legal and coaching services. She’s also founded a place-based investment initiative in Baltimore and Angels of Main Street, an avenue to give ordinary people the chance to get behind the businesses they love in their communities.
“We need to lower the barriers to becoming an investor, make this more accessible to regular people,” Kassan says. “People would like to support and build their communities.”
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Women’s Civil Rights
Building Awareness of Women’s Empowerment
WRITTEN BY: GEORGE DIKE
COURTESY OF: ISTOCK, PEXELS, GIACOMO FERRONI
History has shown that women have been the most disadvantaged group globally. That has been the case for all women regardless of culture, race, region, or religion. Across the world, gender equality is a basic human right. It is fundamental to having a peaceful and prosperous world.
However, girls and women continue to face significant challenges. In less-developed nations, girls are often seen as less valuable than boys. Instead of being sent to school, they are usually made to do domestic work at home or are married off for a dowry before adulthood.
Certainly, gender inequality has been the cause of numerous issues affecting women, including sexual and domestic violence, lower pay, lack of education, and access to medical services. For a long time, women’s rights activists have fought earnestly to address this disparity, battled to change laws, or rioted to request that their rights be acknowledged and upheld.
The Feminist Movement gave rise to a series of social and political campaigns for reforms on women’s issues. Since its inception, it has held the belief that women are entitled to political, economic, and social equality.
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SO, WHAT IS WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT, AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Women’s empowerment involves promoting women’s sense of self-worth, ability to determine their own choices, and right to influence social change for themselves and other women. Empowering women is essential to the health and social development of families, communities, and countries.
When women live safe, fulfilled, and productive lives, they can reach their full potential, contribute their skills to the workforce, and raise happier and healthier children. Women can also help fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large. Looking at recent facts and figures, we can better understand the need and urgency for women’s empowerment.
According to UNICEF reports, as many as 12 million underage girls are married yearly. Globally, women perform at least two and a half times more unpaid domestic work than men, from cooking and cleaning to fetching water and firewood and caring for children and the elderly. As a result, women either have less time to work paid labor or longer workdays with all the additional unpaid labor.
From these statistics, empowering women might seem difficult. Still, the good news is that the world is becoming increasingly aware of the need to combat gender inequality. Empowering women does not require a miracle. It takes me, you, and the next person. We can start from the comfort of our homes and communities.
HOW CAN WE PLAY OUR PART?
Although grassroots movements and organizations have done so much to effect change, here’s how we can play our part and have an impact.
SPEAK UP
According to a report released by the World Health Organization, at least 1 in 3 women experience violence in their lifetime. We need to make some noise about these issues! We lay the building blocks for the change we want when we have such conversations through social media or in person.
When you see people make insensitive comments about women and women’s rights, call them out. Ignorance is never an excuse. Share local pro-women events with your circle, and let us amplify women’s voices on the front lines.
VOLUNTEER
Volunteering with a women’s rights organization is the perfect opportunity to learn more about women’s rights and contribute to change. Volunteers make a valuable contribution to the fight for women’s empowerment. You can help with research, event planning, or communications work.
MARCH AGAINST INEQUALITY
Be proactive, sign up for matches, spread the word, and bring a friend along. Women’s marches and protests have made real strides in securing support for women’s movements since the early years of women’s activism. These protests and matches offer a platform where women and everyone else demand action for women’s rights and realize actual results.
SUPPORT WOMEN’S MOVEMENTS AND ORGANIZATIONS
A growing number of organizations have been set up to tackle women’s inequality and gender-based violence. One recurring problem they face is the issue of proper funding. Funding is crucial to achieving the goal of gender equality and women’s rights.
You can visit your local fundraisers to find out if they also champion the cause. Or you can search for women-specific organizations in need of such funding. Your donations will go a long way.
According to the UN, “gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is not just a goal in itself, but a key to
sustainable development, economic growth, and peace and security.” That goes without saying—society gets better for everyone when women’s rights are upheld and taken seriously. The civil and fundamental human rights of all can only be fully upheld when we have an all-inclusive society.
One hundred years after women gained suffrage and with a growing number of women in the workforce holding elected office and running for president, the time for drastic societal changes explicitly guaranteeing equal rights regardless of sex is long overdue.
There is more work to be done. It is a continuous struggle, but we will not be deterred. Together, we shall achieve greatness all for one and one for all!
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Women’s History Month
African-American Founding Mothers
Who Inspired Black Excellence
WRITTEN BY: GEORGE DIKE
PHOTOS COURTESY OF: ISTOCK, PEXELS, UNC SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
In 1978, the schools of Sonoma County, California, designated a day in March as Women’s History Day to examine women’s history, issues, and contributions. Hundreds of students participated in the essay competitions, many presentations were given, and a parade was held at Santa Rosa. The idea caught on, and a few years later, school districts, communities, and organizations all over the country celebrated the day.
In 1980, the National Women’s History Alliance moved for a holiday as a national week. This was backed by President Jimmy Carter, who issued the first proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as National Women’s History Week.
In 1981, a U.S. congressional resolution proclaimed the week, including March 8, to be National Women’s History Week. In 1986, the National Women’s History Project played a significant role in expanding the observance to the entire month of March. By 1986, 14 states had declared March as Women’s History Month. This momentum and state-by-state action were used as the rationale to lobby Congress to declare the entire month of March 1987 as National Women’s History Month.
undervalued role in history.
In 1987, Congress declared March as National Women’s History Month in perpetuity. A special Presidential Proclamation is issued every year, which honors the extraordinary achievements of American women.
Since then, the United States has formally recognized March as National Women’s History Month to recognize women’s many accomplishments throughout history. Today, various agencies, schools, and organizations observe Women’s History Month by focusing on American women’s consistently overlooked and
Over the years, several women have played major roles in ensuring that women are not belittled or underrepresented. These women have shown strength in the face of fear and societal imbalance. We celebrate every woman of all races, religions, or beliefs. But we especially want to highlight some key Black women who have left their footprints in the sands of time.
REBECCA LEE CRUMPLER
“I early conceived a liking for and sought every opportunity to relieve the sufferings of others.”
As the first African-American woman to become a physician in the U.S., Rebecca Lee Crumpler challenged the racial prejudice that plagued our nation in the mid-1800s. After graduating from what is now Boston University in 1864, Rebecca practiced medicine in Boston.
She moved to Virginia later, where she cared for formerly enslaved people who did not have access to health care. She was also one of the first African-Americans to publish a medical book called Book of Medical Discourses.
MAYA ANGELOU
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Maya Angelou was a poet and civil rights activist whose writings are frequently considered essential to the African American literary canon. Her writings have won several accolades and earned her over 50 honorary degrees, including “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “On the Pulse of Morning.”
Her recital of “On the Pulse of Morning” acquired prominence in 1993, when she became the first poet since Robert Frost in 1961 to deliver their work during a presidential inauguration. In her poems, racism, injustice, family, and identity are prevalent topics. Angelou’s legacy lives on via one grandson and two greatgrandchildren.
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
–MAYA ANGELOU
KATHERINE JOHNSON
“Like what you do, and then you will do your best.”
Katherine Johnson, born in West Virginia in 1918, was an African-American mathematician whose work with NASA and orbital mechanics calculations was critical to the success of America’s crewed spaceflights. She is remembered as one of the first black women to work as a scientist at NASA.
In addition to her mathematical achievements, her contributions have been acknowledged by various prestigious prizes, including President Obama’s Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine named Katherine “an American hero” after her death in February 2020.
SOJOURNER TRUTH
“If women want any rights more than they’ve got, why don’t they just take them and not be talking about it.”
Sojourner Truth was an abolitionist and a woman’s rights campaigner. Despite being born into slavery, she fled with her little daughter in 1826. When she went to court in 1828 to reclaim her son, she became the first African American woman to win a court case against a white man.
JOSEPHINE BAKER
“All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.”
Josephine Baker, a French performer born in America, was a French resistance operative and a civil rights campaigner. Her performance in the silent film “Siren of the Tropics” in 1927 was historic since it marked the first time a black woman starred in a major motion picture. Her acting skills weren’t her only asset; she also supported the French Resistance during WWII, earning the title of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (a knight of the Legion of Honor).
“All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.”
– JOSEPHINE BAKER
Her most famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” was delivered at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851. Despite facing unspeakable atrocities and adversity throughout her life, her attempts to eliminate slavery and achieve women’s rights to provide the most meaningful life for her children demonstrate how strong and remarkable a woman she was.
In the United States, she refused to play for segregated audiences, earning her notoriety in the Civil Rights Movement. While working with the Civil Rights Movement, Baker began adopting children of all nationalities and cultures. This dubbed her family “The Rainbow Tribe.” She had a total of 12 children, two girls and ten boys.
WHY DO WE CELEBRATE WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH?
We celebrate Women’s History Month to remind ourselves of the accomplishments of women throughout the years in our culture and society. From science to politics, it is a chance to reflect on the trailblazing women who lead the way for change.
There’s no doubt about it; women are a powerful force! Despite an extensive history of people belittling our ambitions, we’ve persevered to become politicians, lawyers, activists, teachers, and leaders in medicine. Let us raise a glass and toast to honor our women who have made great strides to better our lives.
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