Color Magazine - October 2009 - Edition 22 by Color Media Group, LLC

Edition

22 October 1st October 31st

2009

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

Wines for Fall The Inclusion Paradox The Music of Zap Mama The Garden Girl Goes Indoors

The Asia Society's

Vishakha

Desai

on America and Asia's Cultural Convergence

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Contents

O ctober 2009

| 12 | Feature

Vishakha Desai Asia Society President and CEO

Lifestyle

17 | Get Gardening, Indoors 18 | Define Your Curls with Mixed Chicks 19 | T he Fall Five 20 | Wines for Fall

Dialogues

22 | T he Handicap Question

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

Business

5 | Success Strategies for the Extraordinary Leader 8 | Telling Stories: Cultural Competence is Key

Benchmarks

6 | Phil Putnam: Through it All 10 | T he Inclusion Paradox

Entertainment

15 | Zap Mama 16 | More than a Game

Cover photo courtesy of the Asia Society

www.colormagazineusa.com october 2009

Welcome

Dear Readers,

lthough the idea of a cold weather plays havoc with my Caribbean origins and my love of the warm sun, I do love the fall. The variety of hues in the Foliage in New England is particularly impressive and brings a sense of rejuvenation and new growth to come. Our debut into New York City is an example of such growth, and it is a step towards our goal of bringing inclusion and awareness into a broader perspective. That said, October is National Disability Awareness Month and while it is often overshadowed by more celebrated months like Hispanic Heritage and Black History, it is equally important in our quest for inclusion. I invite you to send us your suggestions on improving our product and scope. I would also like to invite you to join us at the All-Inclusive Awards in Boston on December 3, 2009. Please visit our website, www.colormagazineusa.com, for information, updates and how to buy tickets or become a sponsor. Thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing you in the cities. Josefina

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

Beverly Edgehill is the President and CEO of The Partnership Inc., the premier talent management service for professionals of color in New England. Previously, Beverly was the Vice President Organizational Effectiveness at Fidelity Investemnts in Boston and is a sought after speaker on women and leadership.

Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl, is a noted green columnist and the host of Farmers Almanac TV. Her popular online video show, Garden Girl TV, focuses on sustainable urban living. Patti also has an award-winning green product line and lives with her family in Boston on her “urban farmette.”

Ingrid Chiemi Trond Arne Ada Gonzalez is Schroffner is Undheim is an a Jungian Analyst Assistant entrepreneur, in training at the General Counsel speaker and C.G. Jung Institute. at the Mass. author. He lives beThe focus of her tween Boston and Executive Office of work is on crossLondon, speaks six Health and Human cultural issues languages and has Services. She is a and psychological leading expert in a Ph.D. in socioltrauma for indicultural compeogy. He writes viduals, couples frequently on wine tency in law and and families. She an accomplished and society. has a private pracsinger/songwriter. tice in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Editor In Chief/ Managing Director Josefina Bonilla josefina@colormagazineusa.com Editor Michael Chin michael@colormagazineusa.com Vice President Of Marketing And Sales Lisette Garcia lisette@colormagazineusa.com Intern Vanessa Williams Advisory Committee Greg Almieda Ferdinand Alvaro, Jr. Daren Bascome Mark Conrad Kim Dukes-Rivers Beverly Edgehill Yvonne Garcia Digna Gerena Kimberly Y. Jones Samson Lee Juan Carlos Morales Oswald Mondejar William Moran Russel Pergament Carol Sanchez John Sims Eduardo Tobon Leverett Wing Publisher Color Media Group, LLC Distribution

GateHouse Media

MAGAZINE october 2009

Business

Success Strategies for the Extraordinary Leader By Beverly Edgehill

n today’s competitive work environment, employers are looking for individuals who stand out from the crowd, those who could become extraordinary leaders. The best leaders get results because they focus on their strengths, cultivate strong interpersonal relationships and take time to understand the context in which they work. Focus on Strengths

Extraordinary leaders realize that the key to developing as a leader is to focus on their strengths and understand their weaknesses. They closely study the skills and personal attributes that can help them to accomplish their goals, but they must also be aware of their fatal flaws. In their book, The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders (McGraw-Hill 2002), John H. Zenger and Joseph Folkman describe fatal flaws as behaviors that undermine one’s quest to become an extraordinary leader. Successful leaders are wary of these fatal flaws, which include, the inability to learn from mistakes, interpersonal incompetence, lack of openness to new ideas, tendency to blame others for problems and lacking initiative. Cultivate Relationships

Every extraordinary leader cultivates strong interpersonal relationships. They create a web in their personal and professional life that extends multiple layers. While they take responsibility for their own development, they know they can’t become extraordinary on their own. They are willing to reach out to others and across differences.

Recognize the similarities, celebrate the differences. At BNY Mellon Wealth Management, we believe that celebrating our differences, as well as our similarities, will help us to one day be comfortable in our spots.

Understand Context

Extraordinary leaders match their leadership practices to their organization. For example, if their company’s decision making practice involves management gathering input from employees and then deciding on the outcome, the extraordinary leader adjusts accordingly. They recognize the importance of staying in tune, and in sync, with both explicit and implicit organizational practices. They understand what management and other key stakeholders value, and they aim to consistently meet and exceed their requests. Becoming an extraordinary leader is an ongoing process – there are no quick fixes. However, the benefits are worth the effort. Extraordinary leaders report that they are highly engaged and satisfied with their work. They describe themselves as being in the “driver’s seat” because they take responsibility for their own learning and development and add value to their employer. Everyone is born with the seeds to be an extraordinary leader, but it takes focus, determination and patience. If you want to be an extraordinary leader, ask yourself if you are willing to make the investment.

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benchmarks

By Brooke Botello

Phil Putnam Through it All

iving with a disability is difficult and presents hurdles in life that few understand. Dealing with that disability when you live your life on stage is even more difficult. Such is the case for up-and-coming musician Phil Putnam. Phil has Tourette Syndrome (TS), a genetic neurobiological disorder that affects the brain in the form of rapid impulses. These impulses come too quickly for the brain to process and manifest as verbal and motor tics. The tics – such LOGO Network – has receive widespread acas jumping, sniffing, eye blinking and involuntary claim. He will continue his North American shouting – are uncontrollable. Many with TS are tour over the next few months, concluding able to cope by surrounding themselves by people in Philadelphia, before heading to London who understand the disorder. This is not the case for Putnam who tours the and Paris later this year. world performing music as a solo artist. “I’ve learned, because of my Tourette’s,

Even though Putnam’s career requires spending much of this life in the spotlight, he was never deterred from his passion because of his disorder. “Adolescence was a real carnival for me. I was the kid who could curse and get away with it, but I was also viewed as a novelty, rather than a person,” he explained. “But Tourette’s has never held me back from being a professional musician. In fact, it was a significant part of why I fell in love with music.” Phil quickly learned to

MAGAZINE october 2009

that the only way to go through something answer ignorance with education, and he found is to go through it. Not around it, under, over or beside it. We can skirt an issue now, the means to educate in his passion for music. but it’ll come back around. “I’m not dealing with Tourette’s The best way to do it is to go just so I can keep what I’ve learned through it and the best time to myself. The value of the chal- “I’m not to do it is now.” lenges, for me, is in reaching out dealing with to others in musical and practical Tourette’s so To learn more about Phil Putways and my career grants me the I can keep nam visit www.philputnam. privilege to do that.” what I’ve com. To date, Phil has released seven To learn more about TS visit CDs and the video for his song, “I’m learned to the National Tourette SynNo Prize” – which entered MTV’s myself.” drome Association website, Top 10 Click List at No. 2 and www.tsa-usa.org. secured the No. 1 spot at MTV’s

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Business

Telling Stories

In Law, and in Life, Cultural Competence is Key By Ingrid Chiemi Schroffner

an we live our lives, relishing the inevitable contradictions, and try to harmonize and transform the complexities into something for the greater good through sharing with others? That is what cultural competence is all about – reaching out to a diverse other with respect, to understand their story, notwithstanding any perceived ethnic veneer. Cultural competence is not just about educating ourselves about different cultures, but acting on what we learn. Although this particular discussion may be ostensibly geared towards attorneys, the main concept applies to many other professions and contexts.

an affidavit filled with information that the client does not agree with and therefore will not sign. Likewise, a fact finder hearing such acquiescence might also read a response, with respect to a fact, with a different meaning than intended by the person testifying. Steps Towards Cultural Competence

Ask yourself which groups you may feel a part of, and in what order, whether it is gender, ethnicity, profession or something else. Whether you or your clients’ particular identifying groups are dominant, or have characteristics that are considered a “norm,” might depend on the city or state. Whether or not a member of a dominant racial or other group in a particular location, our positions as attorneys provide us

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Taken further, this could waste valuable time and even cause distrust within the attorneyclient relationship. One could end up drafting

Lawyers often overlook the human aspects of storytelling within their profession. The give and take of storytelling can be both instructive and inspiring – it is not a one-way street. It is this aspect of storytelling in the legal context that renders cultural competence so important for lawyers. We must be sensitive to issues that can arise from cultural differences. Some of these issues relate to communication problems by and among clients, attorneys, witnesses and judges. A judge must evaluate facts, which may be inadvertently distorted by the perspective of a litigant. For instance, what constitutes domestic violence or what property means to someone from another country may be different from what is conventionally viewed as such by a court. Another example is differing perceptions of what role a parent’s culture and its ramifications should have in a child’s education as an issue in a divorce/child custody matter. This is not to say that culture should be an additional legal factor. Rather, it is relevant to understanding the facts. Each person has their own way of looking at things based on experiences, which are often driven by cultures and/or ethnicities. Individuals often see themselves as members of racial, ethnic or other groups. If we are not careful, miscommunication issues may arise when we attorneys represent individuals who are from other cultures, in an American courtroom. We may be unaware of our own assumptions. For instance, in the Japanese culture, a Japanese individual may say “yes” to indicate that he or she has heard or understood the speaker without necessarily agreeing with the substance of the question. A person who is not cognizant of this cultural consideration might misunderstand.

Storytelling in Law

with power to help make justice accessible to those of different backgrounds. Consider these cultural professionalism guidelines for connecting with your clients: be mindful of the cultural barriers that your communications are passing through; do preliminary research on your client’s culture and what you know about the culture vis a vis what your client has informed you about that culture as it specifically applies to him or her; focus on your main point only, at first; use clear, simple language and words; be careful not to speak louder than usual when you are not immediately understood; and recognize that you may need to ask a question several times to get a complete and accurate answer. It is also important to pay attention to nonverbal behavior (body movements, voice tone and eye contact). In some cultures, not looking an elder in the eye is considered polite and respectful, while in others, lack of direct eye contact is perceived as rude and can indicate that a person is untrustworthy. Furthering Equal Access to Justice

When a cultural issue plays a role in a case, or a litigant’s story, it is the attorney’s duty to raise it. This may be especially true with respect to family disputes requiring legal adjudication. When representing someone where culture may be a factor, lawyers are obligated to use the tools of cultural competence. Due to the increasing diversity of the population, according to recent U.S. census statistics, it is incumbent on us to ensure that those litigants, whose backgrounds differ from the mainstream, have their interests properly represented. This sort of professionalism may require research on a particular culture. Even before any research is done, however, recognizing the need for it may be the first step to bridging the gap with respect to differing conceptions, communications and expectations. Those differing perspectives can stand in the way of revealing important facts. Once the need for cultural information to grasp a situation is identified, it brings the focus on meaningful communication to a new level because culture as a consideration is dignified with that recognition. Then, the story is more likely to be told and to an informed audience, promoting equal access to justice and the wider perception that people of all backgrounds are being heard.

The Letter ‘E’ in American Sign Language

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By embracing diverse skills, perspectives and ideas, we choose to lead: EOE.

Business

The Inclusion Paradox A New Take on Corporate Diversity By Michelle McKenzie

here is no question that the 21st century workforce looks different than it ever has. In his new book, “The Inclusion Paradox: The Obama Era and the Transformation of Global Diversity,” author Andres Tapia makes the argument that diversity doesn’t guarantee inclusion, and that employers must also adjust to a global workforce that thinks as differently as it look. 10

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The workforce as a whole is shrinking and less skilled, and it has been estimated that by 2012 – in less than three years – nearly 70 percent of the U.S. workforce will comprise women and minorities. Sustainable diversity, says Tapia, the chief diversity officer for Hewitt Associates, a leader in human resources consulting and outsourcing solutions worldwide, hinges on embracing the differences that come with a nontraditional workforce, and incorporating those differences into a company’s products and services. In other words, the old way of doing business will have to change. “One of the things that I say in the book – and Hewitt studies have shown – is that most companies are getting diversity, what I refer to as ‘the mix.’ About two-thirds have strategies for achieving a diverse workforce, but only about one-third have strategies for retaining that mix. The emphasis has been on our similarities. “That’s part of the paradox that I refer to in the title,” added Tapia, who also blogs on the subject at www.inclusionparadox.com. “Organizations and individuals think ‘I get this. I want more diversity. I want people to stay.’ We’ve learned how to be tolerant of our differences, and for so long our energy has gone into focusing on what we have in common.” But that, in effect, said Tapia, has paralyzed us in many ways. The author says it is not only time to recognize our differences, but actively discuss those differences and integrate them into company strategies and programs, such as health care and retirement plans, in order to retain the top talent. “We have to constructively call out our differences,” Tapia said. “The key is ‘constructively.’ In the past, we have called out difference, especially when it comes to race, and it has been destructive. As we have moved forward, the thinking has been ‘let’s focus on what we have in common’ and we got stuck. We have to look at what our differences are as well. “The emphasis that has been placed on being politically correct, on how differences are bad, let’s not make a big deal about it,” he continued. “And by differences I don’t just mean racial or ethnic or religious; also men and women, gaystraight, introvert-extrovert.

“The thinking has been ‘let’s focus on what we have in common’ and we got stuck. We have to look at what our differences are as well.”

As multidimensional individuals, we have to acknowledge that we have our own selfinterpretation of the world around us and about the world we work in.” Several sections of the book are dedicated to the idea of how we are different and understanding how those differences affect the workplace: “Calling Out Differences in Relationships”; “Calling Out Different Groups”; and “Calling Out Differences in Organizations.” Tapia breaks down understanding and mastering the Inclusion Paradox into three steps: understanding ourselves, understanding others and having the competence and awareness to navigate the gap between steps 1 and 2. The hardest step? “Number one without question. Self-awareness,” he said. “Usually when we focus on cross-cultural awareness, we focus on the other culture, not our own.” He gave the example of someone whose business is taking them to Argentina. “They may look at what’s polite, what’s impolite; what’s the economy like; learn some phrases in Spanish. Rarely do we ask ‘Who am I?’ “Our world view has been shaped by our religious, socio-economic and cultural background,” Tapia said. “We have to understand it as a subjective world view. When most people walk into a situation it is with the attitude that ‘I am the norm,’ when the reality is ‘I am as bizarre, strange and curious a creature to them as they are to me.’ The key is navigating those differences.” By achieving sustainable diversity and inclusion, it makes everyone in the company committed to its mission and goals from bottom to top, resulting in more effective workers and leaders. Products and services get more creative and more innovative. “The result will be that companies become most powerful, most productive and most profitable when they take into account our differences,” he said. “The Inclusion Paradox” is available through Amazon for $24.95.

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

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When Vishakha Desai was 16 years old, she left Bombay, India to study abroad in the United States for one year. While fewer than 30 students, of the 5,000 who applied to the program, were accepted, it was Desai’s mature worldview that was truly exceptional. She first experienced America during the Vietnam War and was struck by the prevailing, one-dimensional view of Vietnam as merely a war. Today, she is a noted scholar of Asian art and leading speaker on foreign policy, business and culture – areas she believes are inextricably linked. For the past five years, she has served as president and CEO of the Asia Society, a multinational, non-profit with the goal of strengthening relationships and promoting understanding between Asia and the United States. Her background in the arts – she holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Asian Art History, was a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and previously served as vice president and director of the Asia Society Museum – is shaping the direction of the multifaceted organization which covers business, politics, education, lifestyle and culture. As Asia has ascended in global importance, so too has the Asia Society, and under Desai’s leadership, has embraced its role as liaison to the East.

A World

Vishakha Desai, President and CEO of the Asia Society

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CM: How is the Asia Society promoting inclusion and why is that important in the global marketplace? VD: We started the Corporate Diversity Council, and our goal is to really look at Asian-American leadership in the corporate world, here, and understand the role of Asia for all minorities. My own experience is that when you look at multinationals going into Asia, you have Asian nationals or Asian-Americans a little bit, and you have Caucasians. I’m saying where are the African Americans and the Latinos? And we need to do a better job, as Asian-Americans, to figure out how to touch point with our other colleagues, so that knowing about Asia is a necessity for everyone not just a select few. We are very committed to fostering leadership, also recognizing that while there is a huge number of AsianAmericans in the workforce – believe it or not, statistics say that there are, in some cases, more Asian-Americans in the mid-level professionals positions than Caucasians – when you get to the CEO level, or board level, senior management, executive committees, it’s less than one percent. So we have to figure out why that is. We see that lots of corporations have their own work in this arena, but what we can do is share best practices and be a neutral platform where we can assemble those ideas and share them with people. There are no magazines that actually say, top 25 companies for Asian-Americans to work for or top 25 Asian-American leaders. How come we don’t have that? So we have to really figure out how we can make the corporate CEOs feel it matters how Asian-Americans are moving through the ranks. So that’s a big piece of our work that we do with multinational, global corporations. CM: What do you think is the explanation for the lack of Asian-American leadership? VD: I think it’s probably complex as to why that is. The simplistic one is that people often people promote people who are like them – that sort of familiarity. Another is that I think a lot of AsianAmericans mistake content expertise with leadership quality. We all feel like, if I do well in school, I get good grades, and I know my subject, then I’ll be able to do well. Once you get into the workforce and you’re moving through the channels, leadership quality is not about that, or at least not exclusively about that.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa with Vishakha Desai Credit: Elsa Ruiz

The other thing is, and the statistics show, that something like 41 percent of non-Asian-Americans think that Asians only look out for the people in their own community. What that means is that we are not good at civic participation outside of our communities. The other side is that people believe we have not really developed a sense of civic leadership and perhaps we need to do some work on that. And part of it may be just time. Right now more than 70 percent of Asian-Americans are foreign born. As we get into second and third generations, then you begin to see some differences as well.

CM: Asia is such a large and diverse place, how do you determine what to cover and avoid talking just about India and China for example? VD: There are a couple of different ways that we focus on countries, but we increasingly do more things that are pan-Asian. For example we have developed a very exciting young leader program, called Asia 21, made up of Asians, Asian-Americans and non-AsianAmericans who are engaged in global issues and we bring them together, from all different parts of Asia and the United States. There are some things that we do on a more pan-Asian basis, leadership is important, partnerships are important. We do a lot of work on environmental sustainability and that is much more pan-Asian. Clearly, China and India are big behemoths that you have to focus on because they are important to America, but we also do a fair amount of work on Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, because it is something we really need to

educate people about. And we do that, not just through policy discussions, but also through arts and culture programs. I believe that arts have a way to bridge cultural differences that just talking doesn’t do. We also will focus on smaller countries as they come up in the news. For example when we had the Burmese cyclone catastrophe, we did a whole series of programs on Burma and on international aid. So what happens is, the smaller countries, we really focus on them as they are topical. But it’s fair to say you can’t give the same level of weight to everything. You have to figure, based on interest of the audience, topicality of the subject, importance of the issue, and then try to add funding and try and balance it all out.

CM: How can the business world gain from learning about arts and culture? VD: For example, we currently have a major exhibition of contemporary art in Pakistan. When it comes to Pakistan, most businesses have this idea that it can’t possibly be a safe country, because the only thing we know about it is Taliban, all these problems in Swat Valley and that it’s completely destabilizing. But the truth is, and what this exhibition brings up, is that there are very important urban centers that are flourishing that are not so completely devastated by everything, and there are huge numbers of people in those areas. The exhibitions have artists looking at lots of different types of issues, but they also have a real market. Now what that says is that, in fact, there are pockets of stability in Pakistan that we should be looking at. And that could be useful to

www.colormagazineusa.com october 2009

Hilary Clinton and Vishakha Desai

business people. I also find that business people need to realize that countries of Asia are, what I call, millennial civilizations, or ancient civilizations. It really means a lot to people if you know something about their history and culture, and they kind of feel like you respect them. That in itself is a very important piece of creating partnerships.

CM: We hear all the time about globalization and how important it will be to do business with Asia. What is your strategy for helping us connect culturally and economically? VD: Actually, I hear a lot of CEOs say they are looking for people who are globally aware, with global understanding, with some knowledge of a foreign language, and all of these characteristics are important. And yet, when you look at how we teach our kids, if you only focus on unilingual, uni-cultural kinds of students, you’re not really preparing your students to get ready for the new world. We, at the Asia Society, have done a tremendous amount of work to promote the study of language and culture. We have a huge, national initiative on teaching Chinese language in America that would develop one hundred model classrooms throughout the United States, a model that could be replicated. We feel, and statistics show, that Americans are pretty low in the rankings of our awareness and understanding of the world. We did a survey in 2002 that pointed out that one in every three high school kids couldn’t name the ocean that separates America from Asia. And I often joke that the ones who could tell were either Asian-American or from California. (Americans) have a lot of work to do, and partly it’s because we are so big and so powerful that we don’t have to learn about the world, and that the whole world comes here. And that’s where I think Asian-Americans can play a very important role, which is not only to work within their own 14

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community, but to really bridge between our own community and border mainstream community so that people learn more about our cultures our places. Not just because it’s a good idea but because it makes good business sense.CM: So studying culture is not superfluous, it is essential to our future?VD: One of the lines I like to use is that being globally literate is an essential ingredient to being globally competitive. And that implies that you often need to be globally cooperative. The world is definitely moving from being what I call uni-polar, singular superpower status of one country, to a multi-polar world in which multiple countries are going to have an important place. China, and most likely India, will be up there. Most of the study’s suggest that earlier than 2050 – it used to be 2050 but because of the economic crisis most people agree that it will be accelerated – more than 50 percent of the world’s (Gross Domestic Product), will come from Asia. That’s a pretty big statement. We have to figure out how we manage those relationships, and it’s the first time in 250 years that the power will shift from Euro-American axis, to an American-Asian axis.

CM: What challenges did you face when you went from being director of the Asia Society Museum, to becoming the head of the entire, broader organization? VD: The big difference from being the director of the Museum, which is directly related to my professional expertise as an art historian, is becoming the leader of an institution that is multi-disciplinary. It’s sort of like going from a professor or a dean to becoming the president of the university. To me the difference is that, and I should give credit to Lee Bollinger, the president of Columbia (University), who said to me, you go from being an expert on a subject, to deciding, that your subject is your institution, and the projection of that institution. It also means that you can no longer be an expert in one narrow field. I find that it’s actually very liberating. I have a very expansive set of interests, and my mind kind of works that way. My undergraduate degree was in political science, and my Ph.D. is in art history. I’ve always been interested in the intersection of politics and culture. So I’m interested in visual arts and literature, that’s what my thesis was about, but I was also trained as a dancer. One of the things you have to realize, as a leader of a broader institution, is that it is no longer about one expertise. It’s really about speaking for the institution broadly, and being well-versed in a number of different areas. But ultimately that also means for a while you are really a jack-of-alltrades. That’s just the way it is.

CM: When Asia becomes a more dominant player what do you think will be the cultural shift? VD: To some extent, any prediction about the future you are bound to fail, because things are moving so fast that we can’t completely predict. But one thing we can see right now is that commerce is followed by culture. If you look at the 1950s, when America was ascendant after World CM: Do you ever miss having a more War II, it was the American arts that rose. They singular focus? took away from Paris at the center of the visual VD: The truth is, I don’t. We have a very able arts. So what is beginning to happen now is that, museum director, Melissa Chiu, who I brought if you look at where buildings for arts and culture from Australia to be our contemporary art curator are being built, it’s all in China and other parts of and now as director. And we are not so big that I Asia. But at the same time, if you look at contem- am completely removed from everything. It’s still porary art from China, the auction houses have a part of my life, but I incorporate it into broader figured out that there is so much money in China, issues. It’s just that I’ve grown from being narrow Hong Kong and Taiwan, so that’s where the cen- to broader. ters are moving. You are beginning to have more and more people wanting to buy the stuff. One CM: Do you have a different approach of the things that we will have to look out for to leading the Asia Society as opposed is what happens to Bollywood, what happens to to someone coming from, say, a the Chinese contemporary art scene which has business background would have? become very international, very globalized very VD: I do think it does affect it. Because I think I quickly. often raise questions of my colleague that otherWhat is the long-term effect of all of this? wise we might not raise. I think that clearly for all For 250 years we have never seen this pattern of us, our backgrounds do matter. The question before, and years when China and India were is how does it matter, how do you use what you powerful, the world was not as globalized and know? I often think of the difference between interconnected. So the pace is very different, but subject expertise and wisdom. It is more than also connectivity is very different. So I think at just narrow expertise in content, it is about the the very least, this hegemonic power of western insight you get from one thing that you can apply arts and culture might begin to shift in a differ- to something else. ent way. Today, a lot of people say that the “Being globally literate is Western Classical music is probably kept alive an essential ingredient to more in China and Korea than here, because of the thousands and thousands of kids who being globally competitive.” are studying it, and here we can’t get enough kids to go into the classical world.

entertainment

Zap Mama ReCreation Marie Daulne didn’t go to Brazil last year looking for inspiration. She went for a well-deserved vacation, a chance to relax and recharge her batteries. Her muse, however, had other ideas. By John Black

“I wasn’t there very long before everything started to become an inspiration to me: the language, the food, the rhythm of the music, the people. Everything,” Daulne, founder of the Grammy Award-nominated group Zap Mama told Color Magazine in a recent interview. “Music started filling my head. I forgot all about vacation and started looking for musicians to play and record the music I was feeling.” The result of Daulne’s inspired vacation is “ReCreation,” released in May on Heads Up International, a 13-song collection that not only captures the Brazilian vibe of her trip, but also showcases the world of influences the singer/songwriter has been exposed to over the years, both personal and professional. Born in the Congo in 1964, Daulne is the daughter of a Congolese mother and a white, Belgian civil servant who was murdered by rebels when she was just a week old. Mother and child were rescued by a local Pygmie tribe and sheltered until the family could be safely relocated too Belgium, where the singer still lives today. “My early childhood was filled with the music of my mother, the music of the Congo,” she said. “We had a radio when I was growing up in Belgium, so we heard a lot of French music, and of course, American music was also very popular all over Europe. Since my mother did not want me to watch TV, my sisters and I entertained ourselves by creating our own music. We were very musical.” Like most of her recordings, “ReCreation” also feature an eclectic list of guest musicians, including a pair of duets with French actor Vincent Cassel (Oceans Twelve) and a reunion of Daulne with vocalists Sylvie Nawasadio and Sabine Kabongo – members of the group’s original a cappella lineup of the early 1990s. “The music all had a very positive feel to it, which made

it a joy to create with these people. It was a very different experience than I went through for the last CD,” Daulne said, referring to Supermoon (2007), a disc she admits was crafted with an undercurrent of sadness at the death of a close friend shortly before recording began. “Music is a great way to deal with feelings of grief or sadness,” Daulne said, “but it was time to put something more uplifting out into the world. There’s great energy coming from people these days, very positive energy and I wanted to add my voice to it.” Along with releasing the disc, Daulne will hit the road to perform songs from “ReCreation,” and the rest of the Zap Mama catalog. Singing live for people, she admits, is the favorite part of her job. “I like working in the studio with musicians and seeing what we can create, but it never really comes close to the energy you share with an audience,” she said. “It’s a luxury to be in the studio and use 10 different vocal tracks to make the perfect sound that you hear in your head, but you can get the same feeling, the same joy, from two singers when you are up on stage singing to a room full of people.”

Marie Daulne and Zap Mama Play at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston on Monday, October 12th. For tickets ($20-22) call 617-562-8800. The band also will play at the Hiro Ballroom in New York City on Wednesday, Oct. 14. For tickets ($20-25) call 212-242-4300.

www.colormagazineusa.com october 2009

entertainment

More than a Game

LeBron’s Legacy Began with Five High School Friends By John Black

ristopher Belman could have taken the easy way out. After years of researching and filming the high school career of perhaps today’s most famous NBA personality, LeBron James, Belman could have saved a lot of time – and made a lot of money – by simply selling his exclusive footage to the highest bidder. He also could have taken the footage he collected for close to eight years and made his own biopic of James, a film that might never have made it to theaters outside Cleveland, but that would live forever on cable sports channels.

What Belman finally found can be seen in his final film, “More Than a Game,” a heartfelt exploration of growing up that nimbly jumps any clichés – particularly of the sports related kind – to give audiences an inside look at not what it takes to win, but at how being part of a team can shape a man’s life. “These were six of the most compelling individuals I had ever met,” Belman said, “and I quickly realized that LeBron James, as remarkable as he was, could never be the sole focus of

But Belman wanted more. He wanted to make a movie that transcended the world of sports to look at the world shared by the four young boys who played with James during his formative years, boys who became men through the friendship they developed on and off the court. “Watching these five boys and their coach win the national high school basketball championship in their senior year was a fantastic sports story, but getting to know them as individuals and seeing the bond they shared told me there was something more to it, something that went far beyond that final score,” Belman said. “It was by editing the footage, and doing interviews with these players today, that I found what I was looking for.”

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2009–2010 season sept 23– may 1 The Fab Five (Dru Joyce III, Sian Cotton, LeBron James, Willie McGee and Romeo Travis) with Coach Dru Joyce II (Courtesy of Lionsgate)

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this film. This was about all of them, together, and about the coach who became a father figure to them. I wanted to tell a story about their friendship.” The key to making the film work, Belman said, was step aside and let the boys tell their story in their own words. “A lot of documentary film makers bring themselves into the movie so that ultimately it’s a story about them. I didn’t want to do that,” he said. “For example, when the boys make a decision to go to an all-white school, I could have used that as a sounding board to bring up a lot of issues, but that wasn’t what the story was about. Switching schools was a difficult decision for these boys to make, particularly at such a young age, but the reason they did it – to stay classmates and teammates – was the important part of the story. “It’s rare for men to openly share the kind of bond these young men developed over the years, and it’s even rarer for a group like this to let an outsider in, especially when he comes in with a camera,” Belman added. “Trust is something that is earned over years. These boys had so many people trying to get to them. I tried very hard to break through the personal shields they each put up. It took years of sincere persistence for the guys to respect and trust what I was doing, and the story I wanted to tell. It’s because of that trust that the film works as well as it does.”

Health

Get Gardening, Indoors By Patti Merino, The Garden Girl

grew up in New York City and had no idea what a garden was. The gardening bug bit me when I became a mother. After my daughter Alejandra was born, I looked in the mirror, saw that I had gained 70 pounds and decided I had to do something about it quick. A new mother in a new house, I decided to start getting into shape by working on landscaping my yard at our home near Boston. At first, I was like many other newbies – a serial plant-killer. But I built on my small successes and learned from the defeats. Eating food fresh from my garden makes me a better cook, too, as I work with the freshest and most delicious ingredients. I travel the world through my garden, growing and eating varieties from Asia, Latin America and the Mediterranean. At the same time, I’m reducing our carbon footprint, because our food hasn’t traveled from the ends of the earth. Summer is long gone in now, but my obsession with gardening brought me indoors as well. I grow many herbs and vegetables indoors in containers. The scents of my potted basil, oregano, lavender and mint waft through my house. Using the fresh herbs gives my meals a fresh taste. I also bring containers indoors where I grow plants that aren’t cold hardy in the Northeast like my citrus trees and olive trees.

Tips for Starting an Indoor Garden > 1. Most food plants need at least six hours of direct sunlight. (Lettuce and other salad greens make do with just four hours of sun.) Set up your garden on the south or west side of your house to expose it to the maximum amount of sunlight. > 2. Containers need proper

drainage; make sure that there are holes in the bottom of the container. >3. Think big, start small. Begin with a few plants at first. Once you’ve established a routine of taking care of your plants you can add more without the worry of not being able to keep up. >4. Grow plants that are suited for containers like herbs and smaller vegetable plants like peppers,

lettuces and Asian greens. >5. Use compost based organic potting soil for the perfect nutrient rich growing medium. >6. Water your containers about three times per week or if the plant has dried out. Fertilize your indoor container garden regularly with organic fertilizer like liquid kelp that can be used once a week when you water.

www.colormagazineusa.com october 2009

Beauty

Define Your Curls with Mixed Chicks By Vanessa Williams

Curly-haired people, like myself, quickly realize that you can either embrace your wild mane of curls or try to fight it – but it will fight you back. More and more people are of mixed race these days, and that mixed heritage often comes with some curls.

Two beautiful, biracial women, Kim Etheredge and Wendi Levy, decided to take on the challenge of creating a unique line of hair care products for people with multicultural, biracial and combination hair. Their product does not discriminate; anyone with curls can enjoy beautiful frizz free curls, and those

with straight or relaxed hair can enjoy the benefits too!

proteins your hair needs to be manageable and frizz free.

1 Mixed Chicks Shampoo No more running back and forth between the “Normal” and the “Ethnic” isles of the beauty section. Mixed Chicks shampoo gently cleanses your hair without stripping it of the moisture and

2 Mixed Chicks Deep Conditioner Curly hair is one of the most difficult types of hair to manage. It is highly prone to dryness making deep conditioning a must. Mixed Chicks Deep Conditioner moisturizes and

detangles, leaving hair soft and supple. 3 Mixed Chicks Leave-In Conditioner To keep curls in check, a leave-in is essential. Imagine frizz-

free styling being as simple as combing a small amount of product through your wet hair and letting it dry. Now you can do just that with this quintessential styling product for combination hair. 4 Mixed Chicks Hair Silk For both curly and straight styles, Mixed Chicks Hair Silk’s light reflecting formula will naturally enhance your hair color, while polishing and smoothing your hair. For more information on finding Mixed Chicks products in stores or salons, to order online or for styling tutorials visit www. mixedchicks.net

MAGAZINE october 2009

style

The Fall Five By Rosanna Ortiz-Sinel

Need an update to your look this fall but can’t justify purchasing a whole new wardrobe? Add inexpensive of versions of these five and you are set!

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Wine for Fall By Trond Arne Undheim

Trond’s Autumn Picks Hospices de Beaune Cuvee Maurice Drouhin (1999, $49, 91/100). This is the real vintage Burgundy red wine deal. Slightly earthy tones slowly open up a very accurate, refined aroma of redcurrant and raspberry, with hints of crowberry and even blackberry. Try other vintages, price and quality varies.

hat to do about wine when the fall storms rage outside your window and the rain is hammering down on your roof? What to do when the leaves are turning aggressively yellow and reddish orange? The food and fruit of the fall fills the air with the smell of apples, figs and pears. Fall is, of course, the time of year when grapes are harvested, and the time to adjust to the coming cold. Ever since I wrote the eponymous essay “Fall” in secondary school, explaining the joy of such violent, colorful change, and the soothing, 20

gradual cooling of the climate, I have considered fall my favorite season. Whether you love the season’s explosive and ever-present remind-

MAGAZINE october 2009

Masi Campofiorin Ripasso Rosso del Veronese (2003, $15, my rating 87/100). Dark ruby color, immediate zesty fruitiness, lingering cherry with hints of raspberry, raisins, licorice, vanilla, cinnamon and clove. Good tannins that linger in the mouth. Clean and subtle, velvety and smooth.

Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau (2009, $10, not yet out but likely 80+/100). This wine will likely be strawberry colored and dominated by light, fruity flavors of banana, pear and cherry if you are lucky. Serve lightly chilled. Since the wine does not pretend to be more than light fun, don’t force it.

ers of change, decay and renewal or you hate its guts altogether, you may need the right wine to fully complement your feelings. Luckily, wine festivals are aplenty this time of year. Your local store will display exciting wines and offer lots of tastings. In short, fall is paradise for a wine lover. Finding a wine to match fall colors, big reds or intensely straw yellow whites, is a tested approach. But not all of us view life as an exercise in interior decor. With some guts, and a good, mature cheese at hand,

searching for intensity could bring you to a wine from the Loire Valley called Savennieres. You will find the bouquet of a sweet wine, but when you taste it, it’s totally dry with a strong texture, nuttiness, minerality and the Chenin Blanc grape’s hidden stamina. If you are cold, find comfort in a wine that will warm you up, something spicy, of the Zinfandel grape perhaps. Gewurz is German for spicy, and the grape means business. Gewuztraminers are full-bodied white wines that are dry, crisp, yet floral and citrusy at the same time. However, holidays like Thanksgiving and Halloween may entail hearty dishes with turkey and sweet potatoes that prompt a medium-bodied Amarone from Italy’s Veneto region, boosted by double fermented grapes. The cheaper variety Ripasso is, in fact, my favorite. Why overspend? Carefully chosen Italian wines seldom let you down. If you are a sucker for romance, fall is the time to strive to find a wine reminiscent of Belgian chocolate, among the few remaining artisan experiences of contemporary society. Chilean Colchagua Valley wines and Argentinian Mendoza wines imitate chocolate exceedingly well, unless over-oaked. For dessert wines, a nice Port from northern Portugal might do the trick, saving seriously oaked, Spanish wines for winter. Last, but not least, wait up for the Beaujolais Nouveau. A red wine from the instantly ripe Gamay grape is simply fun, but if you wish, it foreshadows the quality of the Burgundy vintage. (Moreover, you might appreciate that it provides an excuse for young Europeans to get more than slightly tipsy on the third Thursday in November.) Bottled just weeks after picking, the grape juice is still alive, jumping out of the bottle. Sold here as nouveau wine also from a few domestic producers, this stuff is perfect as an aphrodisiac. Arm yourself with a view on what you want to accomplish with your wine, forget specific labels, and embrace the change and renewal that fall asks of you. Being prepared with the right wine is a good way to escape, or even embrace, the post-Labor Day blues.

At Ocean Spray, we strive to create an inclusive culture in which individual perspectives are valued and differences leveraged for greater opportunities in today’s multicultural society.

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At the center of all we do. Great people from diverse backgrounds make a great company. At Tufts Health Plan, this philosophy is what you might expect from a health insurance leader that is driven to provide excellent coverage and improve the quality of care for each of its members. Headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, Tufts Health Plan is a health insurance leader offering a full array of health care coverage options for individuals across Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

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Dialogues

The Handicap Question By Ada Gonzalez

very popular religious myth says that humans are handicapped. Other myths highlight the connection between the disabled and alchemists. What do these stories tell us about human beings? The word handicap comes from a 17th century game, and later became the term for equalizing the strong and the weak. More recently, the term began to be used in sports, meaning to “impose an impediment,” and is still commonly used to express a mental or physical disadvantage. If we look at the origins of the world and people, we find a creation myth that depicts humans as incapacitated, or missing some capacity to function with all their might. The idea that “to err is to be human” is an example of this ideology’s prevalence. The handicap myth always contrasts a god that is superior to a creature with some kind of hindrance. The myth of Adam and Eve tells us that, because of temptation, the two are bound to suffer in the world, with only their love as a foundation for managing their suffering. Another myth, the Greek story of Hephaestus, positions the gods as healers of handicaps, placing “human impediment” in a different light. Hephaestus, the Greek god, magician, master of bonds, artisan and metallurgist, is able to liberate life by animating inert matter. Once a “cripple,” he was rejected by his mother, Hera, because of his condition. Hephaestus had been conceived without love, but in his search for it, he marries Aphrodite, the goddess of love. Brother to Athena, the goddess of civilization, he appears first as a mere technician working with metals that seemed to be without life, and then through his works with inanimate matter, he transforms it. His myth illustrates the human condition regardless of culture. At one extreme are those with pure love and without tools for living. At the other are technology-centric people who at times seem to lack a heart. Handicaps are not as much about a physical limitation; it is about what is in our hearts. The first myth says that human beings are in one way or another handicapped or disadvantaged. The second myths tell us we are not. A person may be a quadriplegic, but that is not what defines who he or she is. What defines us is our humanity. We are not a condition. What defines us is how we focus on ourselves – how we transform what initially seems to be a hindrance, a disadvantage. One perspective tells us that we are all handicapped because there is no perfection in this

A Depiction of Vulcan (the Roman equivalent of Hephaestus) by Peter Paul Rubens, 17th Century

world. If we focus on what has been taken away from us, however, we only see part of the world. We forget what we possess, what our talents are, what has been given to us. Whatever is defective in us is our opportunity to change and work. In another words, it is our mission in this lifetime. The most difficult thing is to be handicapped in your heart. Hephaestus is the god who gave fire to Asclepius, the Greek god of healing. Our difficulties are our strengths. We tend to misinterpret our condition with our task in life. Every kind of handicap is the best condition for overcoming our incapacity to face life. Pain and suffering can help us to bring forth the dignity within us. And as we face life this way we become more capable, and more engaged with our essence. For more from Dr. Gonzalez, visit her website, www.multiculturalpsychotherapy.com.

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