AwareNow: Issue 25: The Light Edition

AWARENOW

ISSUE 25

T H E AWA R E N E S S T I E S ™ O F F I C I A L M A G A Z I N E F O R C A U S E S

MICHAEL BECKWITH ‘BEYOND WORDS’ EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

DELIVERING HOPE RUSS PRITCHARD

AWKWARD

JESSE LIPSCOMBE

FOR THE WIN CHARLË WEBB

GUILTY OF BEING INNOCENT AMANDA KNOX/TODD BROWN

CANTSTOPGOODBOY

NICK & ADAM SIMON/EDDIE DONALDSON

CURRENCY FOR HUMANKIND KARLA BALLARD

THE MEDICAL ARTIST

RUTH SWISSA/LAURA SHARPE

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TALIBAN LEGEND

THE LIGHT EDITION F I N D I N G

L I G H T

I N

T H E

D A R K

TOGETHER WE RISE. JOIN OUR NATION. WWW.AWARENESSTIES.US/NATION

THE LIGHT EDITION ON THE COVER:

MICHAEL BECKWITH

AwareNow™ is a monthly publication produced by Awareness Ties™ in partnership with Issuu™. Awareness Ties is the ‘Official Symbol of Support for Causes’. Our mission is to support causes by elevating awareness and providing sustainable resources for positive social impact. Through our AwareNow Magazine, Podcast & Productions, we raise awareness for causes and support for nonprofits one story at a time.

06 SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND

66 WHAT I NEED YOU TO SEE

106 REINFORCEMENTS

10 AT SEA

70 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TALIBAN

110 CANTSTOPGOODBOY

14 BEYOND WORDS

74

118 BEING BAZAN/THE STORYTELLER

22 NOT A BURDEN

78 22:22

128 GOOD FEELINGS

24 DELIVERING HOPE

80 AKWA BABY

130 ALWAYS AN ATHLETE

34 MONSTERS AMONG US

86 THE MEDICAL ARTIST

132 ILLUMINATING

38 AWKWARD

94 HEALING

138 A NEW STATE OF ART

44 JUST SWIPE

96 TULUMINATION

144 GLOBAL GOOD

52 FOR THE WIN

98 GUILTY OF BEING INNOCENT

60 THE GO-GIVER MARRIAGE

104 UNSUGARCOATED

PAUL S. ROGERS

LEX GILLETTE LEGEND

THI NGUYEN MICHAEL BECKWITH KAM REDLAWSK

CURRENCY FOR HUMANKIND

KARLA BALLARD

LAURA WESTCOTT

RUSS PRICHARD

OGO & CLAIRE MKPARU/TANITH HARDING

DAWN CAMPABELL

RUTH SWISSA/LAURA SHARPE

JESSE LIPSCOMBE

SAGE GALLON

ELIZABETH BLAKE-THOMAS

CHARLOTTE ALEXANDRA

CHARLË WEBB

LORI BUTIERRIES

NICK & ADAM SIMON/EDDIE DONALDSON DR. NICOLAS BAZAN LUKE GIALANELLA CRAIG GRAHAM

HILARY BILBREY/SONJA MONTIEL LAURA KIMPTON

STACEY FRU/TANITH HARDING

AMANDA KNOX/TODD BROWN

JOHN & ANA MANN

JOLLY GOOD GINGER/AALIA LANIUS

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AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Nothing offends the darkness more than the light.

Sage Gallon

While we wake this morning darkness has crept back into our world.

Our hearts and thoughts are with all the innocent lives lost in Ukraine as well as all the men, women and children that continue to face the dark in Afghanistan.

Each and everyone of us have faced a dark time in our lives. If we dwell on the darkness, it can be overwhelming. Know that you are not alone. We stand beside you with love positive light knowing that with hope and trust we can overcome any shade of darkness together.

While there will always be a dark to overcome, there will always be light to be found. With you we raise awareness one story at a time about the battles we fight and the wins with find, as together we do more than survive. We thrive.

I’ve always said “from positive thoughts, come positive outcomes”. We believe the laws of attraction are just the beginning of converting dark to light. Sometimes the answers to life’s questions are not so easily seen, but if we look between the lines and read between the path forward becomes more clear. Welcome to ‘The Light Edition’.

Have a story of your own you’d like to share?

We would love to hear from you. Send us an email: info@awarenessties.us

ALLIÉ McGUIRE Editor In Chief & Co-Founder of Awareness Ties Allié is a Taurus. She started her career in performance poetry, then switched gears to wine where she made a name for herself as an online wine personality and content producer. She then focused on content production under her own label The Allié Way™ before marrying the love of her life (Jack) and switching gears yet again to a pursue a higher calling to raise awareness and funds for causes with Awareness Ties™.

JACK McGUIRE Production Manager & Co-Founder of Awareness Ties Jack is a Gemini. He got his start in the Navy before his acting and modeling career. Jack then got into hospitality, focusing on excellence in service and efficiency in operations and management. After establishing himself with years of experience in the F&B industry, he sought to establish something different… something that would allow him to serve others in a greater way. With his wife (Allié), Awareness Ties™ was born.

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in AwareNow are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Awareness Ties. Any content provided by our columnists or interviewees is of their opinion and not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, political group, organization, company, or individual.

In fact, its intent is not to vilify anyone or anything. Its intent is to make you think. www.IamAwareNow.com @AWARENESSTIES @AWARENESSTIES @AWARENESSTIES 5

AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Our light is the light that refused to surrender to the dark.

PAUL S. ROGERS

TRANSFORMATION EXPERT, AWARENESS HELLRAISER & PUBLIC SPEAKER 6

AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘RELEASE THE GENIE’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY PAUL S. ROGERS

SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND REFUSE TO SURRENDER TO THE DARK

Release The Genie Fact: The Genie’s telephone number is last night’s lottery numbers.

We all have our own energy and light that lives within us. It is just covered up by layers of life. The light sometimes grows dim. Happiness and awakening can only happen from the inside, and some days, you just don't feel it and don't want to shine for anyone, including yourself.

Have you ever met anyone who, just being in their presence, makes you feel lighter, happier and energised? It is that invisible uplifting energy that chases the darkness away. If you have felt this, then you have been the recipient of vicarious lighting.

It is the same process as when one candle lights another candle; the lighting candle does not diminish or lose any of its energy by lighting the other. One of the common misconceptions of healing is that in order to heal another, the healer must take on the other person's ailment at a cost and to their own detriment. There is no loss, just a transfusion of energy and light, to bring that person up to the same light. The great news is that the impact of the light has impacted another person and doubled its reach.

This feeling of being energised is a soul need for our species, and one which we have, in the last few years, had restricted due to lockdowns and social isolation. I must admit, I have been feeling pretty lousy over the last few months. Recently, I decided to keep, rather than cancel, a zoom appointment with a good friend. I am very pleased that I did, as the interaction made me feel a lot better and put me in a much lighter place. This is vicarious lighting in action. It is these interactions which really make us feel connected, even if we are not physically in the same room.

“Sometimes, no words are necessary.”

They say that no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted. A smile. A nice word. An acknowledgement. Being seen. Kindness and the act of giving is the medium for the light to be passed like a baton from person to person. The most powerful light I have witnessed firsthand is when nothing is done at all. Sometimes, no words are necessary.

Instead, all that is needed is for someone to simply notice the struggle. Then, in a loving silence, sit down next to us where we are in the dark and be able to hold the light for both of us.

I am learning, as part of my lengthy injury recovery, the ability to reframe things and events using the light. What is a silver lining, but the edges of the dark clouds encompassed in light? By no coincidence I came across this wonderful quote from Rumi: “The wound is the place where the light enters you”. I love this as a subtle reframe. A wound typically is an injury causing pain or suffering. When I apply Rumi’s quote, I can see this great beacon of light that has entered me. A wound/injury does not just mean a physical injury but also refers to any physiological, emotional and/or spiritual wounds past and present. We know from experience that being broken is a chance to regrow. It’s a chance to forge ahead.

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AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

AwareNow Podcast

SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND

Written and Narrated by Paul S. Rogers

https://awarenow.us/podcast/shine-on-you-crazy-diamond

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This is why it is so important for us to share our stories and the lessons we have learned from them with others. It is by the light of our own wounds that we can notice others’ struggles and be there to hold the light for them.

I am sure that you are familiar with the ancient Japanese practice of ‘Kintsugi’ (Golden Joinery): the fixing of broken pots with gold. Let's try something right now. In your mind, imagine that instead of fixing breaks/wounds with gold you use light instead. Imagine if for each type of wound, you could assign it a different light color of your own choosing.

Ok, now take a few imaginative steps away. Wow….How magnificent do we all look! A series of broken shapes and sizes uplighting the edges of our wounds like a series of coloured silver linings. We cast magical silhouettes which are framed by the dark. Just as a wound is the mark left by something that failed to stop us, our light is the light that refused to surrender to the dark.

In the words of my all time favourite band, Pink Floyd: “Shine on You Crazy Diamond…” ∎

PAUL S. ROGERS

Transformation Expert, Awareness Hellraiser & Public Speaker www.awarenessties.us/paul-rogers PAUL S. ROGERS is a keynote public speaking coach, “Adversity to hope, opportunity and prosperity. “ Transformation expert, awareness Hellraiser, life coach, Trauma TBI, CPTSD mentor, train crash and cancer survivor, public speaking coach, Podcast host “Release the Genie” & Best-selling author. His journey has taken him from from corporate leader to kitesurfer to teacher on first nations reserve to today. Paul’s goal is to inspire others to find their true purpose and passion.

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AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Perhaps when you are desperate enough to survive anything is possible.

THI NGUYEN

NONPROFIT CONSULTANT, ENTREPRENEUR & PHILANTHROPIST Photo Credit: Albert Evangelista (@aarree ) 10 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

GO GREEN DRESS: ‘RECOLLECTIONS' EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY THI NGUYEN

AT SEA

PART 1: WHERE THE JOURNEY BEGAN I dedicate this to my mother and any women who sacrifice everything they know and love for the security and safety of their family and loved ones. They are the real superheroes. Based on real life events, ‘Recollections’ is a collection of personal stories about surviving and thriving as a refugee.

The wind bellows like a fury beast waiting for its next meal; intense but definitely needed for our journey ahead. We tiptoe out into the dark of night scanning the horizon and hoping the world is still asleep. This was not our first attempt but praying it will be our last. In complete darkness with nothing but the light of the moon to guide us we made our way to the meeting point. Women with young children cradling what they could carry one by one boarded the boat.

With wet clothes from wading the water we helped each other on and sat silently until our departure. Made to fit 10 passengers max, it seems we've managed to squeeze in over 30. How could this even be possible? Perhaps when you are desperate enough to survive anything is possible.

Finally out at sea, the wind and waves were welcomed since it helped us move along during our journey. As if riding on the back of a dragon, we glided effortless into the open water. Looking behind, what was once our home disappeared into oblivion. Is this it? Is this the end? Will we ever see our family again?

Photo Credit: Albert Evangelista (@aarree ) 11 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

There is rain in every rainbow.

THI NGUYEN

NONPROFIT CONSULTANT, ENTREPRENEUR & PHILANTHROPIST Photo Credit: Albert Evangelista (@aarree ) 12 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“My cry broke the silence and fear was prevalent in everyone's eyes.”

The night was cold, piercing our every being. We huddled together tight as sardines silently waiting for the cue to when we could look out over the boat. My cry broke the silence and fear was prevalent in everyone's eyes. "Hush the child otherwise we'll all be discovered,” one of the passengers snarled. "Your child will wake up my baby,” another whispered. My mother, frightened for my life, rocked me back and forth against her bosom in hopes of calming me down. I wasn't having it; it was cold, I was hungry and I was awakened from my slumber. I wanted to be back where it was warm. Crying from the top of my lungs, I didn't care what everyone else was saying, all I wanted was to go home.

"If you don't shut her up we're going to throw her overboard," one whispered. "Yes! Better one than the whole boat," another added. "Please. Please. She's all I got," my mother stammered through her tears, clinching me tighter. Her warmth calmed me, and for a moment complete silence rocked the boat. I dozed off with the smell of home and the feeling of comfort through my mother's sobbing body. It put me right to sleep.

Daylight broke and the sun was shining. Awoken by the bright light, I woke up surrounded by water and weary travelers. Where are we and where are we headed? How long have I been sleeping and how long have we been traveling? Minutes went on for hours, hours went on for days and days felt like infinity.

Our journey has just begun… ∎

"In our darkest of days we have to let the light inside shine in order to survive.

Remember there is rain in every rainbow." - GoGreenDress THI NGUYEN

Nonprofit Consultant, Entrepreneur & Philanthropist www.awarenessties.us/thi THI NGUYEN brings with her over 2 decades of non profit experience as a participant, advisor, board member, consultant, volunteer and research and development specialist. Her expertise combining technology to further advance the vision and mission for philanthropic causes has allowed her to serve as a trusted partner with many notable organizations large and small. Thi has experience working with organizations focusing on combating various global issues such as: human sex trafficking, homelessness, poverty, fair wages, global warming, malnutrition, gender equality, humanitarian assistance and human rights. She's currently developing an app to connect individuals and corporations to assist nonprofits in furthering their vision and mission.

13 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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We're the light.

We're the luminosity itself, but we’ve forgotten.

DR. MICHAEL BECKWITH

FOUNDER AND SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR OF AGAPE INTERNATIONAL SPIRITUAL CENTER 14 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH DR. MICHAEL BECKWITH

BEYOND WORDS

THE INSIGHTS INSIDE THE QUOTES In a conversation framed with referenced quotes, we go deep with the always inspiring Dr. Michael Beckwith, a spiritual teacher creating leaders not followers. Michael Bernard Beckwith is the Founder and Spiritual Director of Agape International Spiritual Center in Los Angeles. Founded in 1986, Agape is a trans-denominational community comprised of thousands of local members and global live streamers that is highly regarded for its cultural, racial, and spiritual diversity and inclusivity.

ALLIÉ: If someone ever doubted the power of words, all they need to do is listen to you speak and that doubt is removed. Through words you educate and empower. Beyond words seen or heard, they are felt and understood.

When and how did this gift come to you?

MICHAEL: When I think back on the evolution of Michael B. Beckwith, when I was attending USC, I had a number of spiritual experiences. I didn't know what it was. I didn't know what was happening to me. It culminated with an awakening in which I could see. Surrounded by a presence of such love and beauty, the magnitude was beyond any description that I could give it. Any way that I could articulate, it would fall short of what it was. I could never get back in the box again. So, my life became dedicated to discovering what had happened to me and what this was. Over a course of a number of years, I was able to integrate into this expanded awareness. In integrating, I would say I embodied the frequency so that my words are activated. It's not just information. It's actually a frequency that emanates from me. I don't even take credit for it, really. I just surrender to it and allow it to happen.

BEYOND WORDS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY ALLIÉ MCGUIRE WITH DR. MICHAEL BECKWITH

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15 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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You can't get there if you're listening to an external voice.

DR. MICHAEL BECKWITH

FOUNDER AND SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR OF AGAPE INTERNATIONAL SPIRITUAL CENTER 16 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“When the least of us begin to rise up and begin to expand and speak out, it heals everyone…"

ALLIÉ: Because you are very quotable, I’d like to move forward with this conversation referencing a number of your quotes and asking a few questions. The first quote is this: “Practice broadcasting the high vibrations of your inner radiance, remembering all the while that the place upon which you stand is holy, simply because you are standing there.” As beings, we have a hard time just ‘being’. It’s not enough to just ‘be’... We have to ‘go’. We have to ‘do’. Why is it that we have such a hard time just ‘being’?

MICHAEL: I think there are two reasons. One reason is that most human beings live in the domain of survival. And so there's an insidious fear of not having enough. That fear drives people into a state of doing, acquiring, getting, and protecting what they get. They do things of that particular nature. And then the primary reason is people just don't know who they are. They have a tendency to relegate themselves to thinking that they're merely the son or daughter of their parents, merely the degrees that they have, merely where they were born... but they don't know their spiritual nature. Until one wakes up to their spiritual nature, there's always this insidious perception that's being created by a limited personality. So, people are on edge. They're in fear. They're worried all the time. They're anxious. There's a high level of anxiety. That dissipates when one begins to discover their real nature and being through some level of spiritual practice that allows them to have an insight into that reality. Then things begin to change. Now, I'm not talking about being religious. I'm talking about our spiritual nature, which is real. It's powerful. It's our real nature. It's our authentic self.

ALLIÉ: “The mute button on women has been turned off, and women everywhere are standing up. As a result both women and men will be healed.” Will you take a moment to share why the silence of some can be harmful for all?

MICHAEL: Historically the dominant culture has oppressed women and people of color for many years. So, without the voice of all of us, individuals that are doing the oppressing don't get to grow into their real nature either. They stay stuck in a very small paradigm, that's about control, manipulation, and force. So, they don't get to grow. They're stymied in their own expanded awareness. As we see the evolution of liberation for all people, and in particular women, men can't stay the same either. So, when the mute button is gone, men have to grow as well. They have to unfold into their real nature and being. Men aren't happy, stuck in an emotionless, dominating, controlling point of view. They're not happy that way, even though they may feel some level of security in that particular culture. But when the least of us begin to rise up and begin to expand and speak out, it heals everyone because the oppressor energy is not healthy. It's not whole, and it's not healed.

ALLIÉ: I love this quote and am reminded of these words every time I turn on a lamp. “We’ve gotten caught up in thinking we are what we look like, the physical, the exterior. We think we’re the lamp shade. We’ve forgotten that we are the light – the electricity and the luminosity that lights up every man, woman, and child. The light is who we truly are.” And yet, our default is to see ourselves as shades. How do we change that default setting?

MICHAEL: I love that quote too, because it actually explains our real nature of being on so many levels. First of all, when we think about electricity, electricity is everywhere. It never runs out. Even though they'll meter it and sell it to you, it's infinite. It's everywhere, but it gets to be seen through a light bulb. And then there are lamp shades around

17 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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It's the voice of your own soul, and it knows what you are meant to be.

DR. MICHAEL BECKWITH

FOUNDER AND SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR OF AGAPE INTERNATIONAL SPIRITUAL CENTER 18 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“They are forgetting that we have eyes because we see. We have ears because we hear. It's not the other way around.”

MICHAEL: (continued) that light bulb. We are an emanation of that electricity. We're the light. We're the luminosity itself, but we have forgotten. In order to wake up to that, there must be some level of sincerity that is a desire to wake up to it. There must be some level of intention which leads to a level of spiritual practice. It can include study. It can include meditation. It can include prayer. It can include the yogic practices. It can include how you take care of your body temple, but at a certain point, you have an awareness that you're more than the body. You're more than the color of your skin. You're more than your sexual orientation. You're more than what country you were born in. Those are small descriptions, but oftentimes people get caught up in their small limiting description rather than the macro -rather than the large real description.

What happens is when you discover your real nature, the lamp bulb and the lampshade is used to reveal the luminosity. It's like we are able to take our eternal nature and paint on the landscape of time and space with the colors of our soul. It's a whole different way of living. And so now what do we do? We're radiating. What are we doing? We're shining, we're glowing, we're sharing, and we're giving from an inexhaustible source that is within us. But we have to wake up to that. You see? People, I like to say, sometimes are dimensionally challenged. They're only living in three dimensions, which is a very small package when they're only living from the five senses. They are forgetting that we have eyes because we see. We have ears because we hear. It's not the other way around. You don't see because you have eyes. You don't hear because you have ears. You actually see first, and you hear first. That's a spiritual faculty, and it produces eyes and ears to hear this dimension. Most people are caught up in this dimension, and it's not anybody's fault. We think we are our body. We think we are our possessions, but again, with just a little bit of intention and spiritual practice, a whole new world opens up to you. And when you begin to live in that world, you're in this other world, but you're of a higher frequency. This is the whole impetus of people waking up spiritually. And until that happens, all of the issues that we're facing in humanity will never be permanently solved because individuals are not in their real nature.

ALLIÉ: “You don’t want to be what you should be. You want to be what you’re meant to be.” I feel what you ‘should do’ is often an external suggestion, as opposed to what you are ‘meant to do’ which is always an internal truth.

For those who question themselves more than others, what advice do you have?

MICHAEL: Going back to the original, people are living from external authority figures all the time. They haven't found the voice of the genuine, as Dr. Howard Washington Thurman called it. They haven't found their own voice of their own soul. So, they're walking lockstep to what they think they should be... Something their parents said, "You should be this." Something someone told them. Society says, "You should do this. You should be this and that." As you just said, that's outside of yourself. So, you're never truly free. You're never truly yourself because you're a puppet dangling on the strings of somebody else's agenda. There is what is called 'the voice of the genuine'. It's the voice of your own soul, and it knows what you are meant to be. It knows your talents, your gifts, your capacities (which are infinite by the way), your uniqueness and how your uniqueness is to be expressed as the activation of your gifts in your world. But you can't get there, if you're constantly listening to a voice outside of yourself, particularly the societal voice, because that voice is the voice of the status quo. And no one took an incarnation to walk in the status quo. The status quo has already been done. Everyone has come to shatter the status quo, to go beyond it, and to create something new -- to walk a path that we are creating by walking on it. You can't get there if you're listening to an external voice. You have to become still. You have to ask empowering questions. You have to learn how to listen to yourself, the inner self. And then you're able to tell the difference after a while between the egoic voice and the voice of the society and the voice of the spirit, the voice of the soul. When you walk in the direction of your own soul, that 19 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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freedom, so many gifts show up in your life. So many opportunities, so many blessings that can only come if you're opening yourself up to what you're meant to be. An avocado seed is not meant to be a rose. A rose is not meant to be an apricot. Each and every one of us has a unique design of expression. If we listen with the ear that is beyond the ear and have some dimension of spiritual practice, we're able to discern it, feel it, hear it, and then take baby steps and walk in that direction. Then inertia becomes momentum, and it feels like we're being pulled by something because we're finally listening to our soul.

ALLIÉ: I’d like to end this conversation with something to begin each day with – ‘affirmations’. Please share the importance and power of affirmations. Please also share what’s in the works with Love Los Angeles Style and hand written originals, limited edition prints and alter cards where words spoken can be words held.

MICHAEL: Affirmations are very important. The key obviously is in the word 'affirm'. People need to understand that they have a mind. They're not their mind, but they have one. The mind has been programmed. It's been programmed by beliefs, superstitious thoughts, society, and corporate media. It's been programmed, and it has some good stuff in there as well. Until those programs are neutralized, they act as a law in our life. If a person has been told all their life that they're not worthy or that they're not enough, that becomes a program. It acts as a law and regardless of how hard they work in life, until that program is neutralized it acts as a law.

“We start to come into coherence with the truth that the universe is on our side, but are we on our own side?”

Affirmations are the beginning process of telling ourselves the truth about ourselves... that we are worthy, that we are receptive to harmonizing prosperity, that our body can heal anything, that everything is working together for our good, that all of my needs are met now, and forever. I manifest perfect health, divine wealth, harmonizing, prosperity, and divine peace. We begin to talk to ourselves. The idea is not to talk to the world, but to talk to ourselves. And as we talk to ourselves, we start to ferret out the false beliefs that have been programmed within us. We start to come into coherence with the truth that the universe is on our side, but are we on our own side? We're not on our own side oftentimes because we actually believe some superstitious thought that we're not good enough. The affirmations are a beginning step in walking in the direction of being available to more good than we could possibly imagine. When you wake up in the morning, you wanna have an intention of growing and unfolding until your greatest self. Many people suffer from an intention deficit disorder. They don't have an intention. They're just going out to the world, reacting to circumstances. That's like a ship without a rudder. You have to have an intention. And then in that intention, you affirm the truth. You listen to yourself, affirming until a new law is set in motion. Then you're on your own side. You begin to see opportunities that you didn't see before. You see possibilities that you didn't notice before. You start to hear the voice of the genuine within you. Life becomes a lot more graceful when you're on your own side, living an intentional life and speaking the truth about yourself. And when I say truth, I'm talking about capital 'T' -- Truth. I am talking about facts. I'm talking about your real nature, which is spiritual.

I'm going to be writing out, in my own handwriting, affirmations that will be short and poignant and powerful that people will be able to just memorize or read and use on a daily basis, particularly when you wake up and even when you're about to go to sleep. Sleep is very important. People spend at least a third of their life sleeping. You can actually use sleep to reprogram the mind and to heal yourself. If you take an intention and an affirmation right before you go to sleep, and then you fall asleep with it, it will go into the deep regions of your subconscious. It will begin to work without you having to work it. With the affirmations that I'll be writing, you can read them in the morning. You can read them as you go to sleep at night. And then throughout the course of the day, they can be like a vitamin B shot.

When you're having a bad day, in a bad mood or things aren't going your way, you can remember... I feel that everything is working together for my good. I may not be able to see it right now, but I know it's the truth. We can begin to bring ourselves back into some kind of balance by high intentional self talk.

20 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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AwareNow Podcast

BEYOND WORDS

Exclusive Interview with Dr. Michael Beckwith

https://awarenow.us/podcast/beyond-words

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ALLIÉ: ​​It's beautiful. It's incredible. I can't thank you enough for the time that you've taken to go in-depth with these quotes of yours and truly go beyond words. I felt my posture improve with this single conversation.

MICHAEL: You know what that means? That means as we were talking your biochemical nature changed. You started producing more tonic chemicals. You started flushing out toxic chemicals. Your immune system got stronger.

You slowed down your aging process. Your brain became more coherent. You became more available to inspiration, which is the voice of God, by the way. And I don't mean a man in the sky. God is not man. God is a presence, that's never an absence. You changed your whole biochemical nature, and I saw you smiling a lot as well. People don't realize that if you just smile sometimes, the chemicals that you produce in your body become tonic, rather than toxic.

Your pH and your body changes from acidic to much more homeostasis and conditioned around health. You're a great testimony of participating in something that's vibrationally worthy and your body changed... just like that.

ALLIÉ: What an amazing conversation, Michael. I'm excited to share this with the world. I can't thank you enough for helping all of us become a bit more aware now.

MICHAEL: You know, I love that title. AwareNow. That's exactly what we teach at Agape International... staying aware in the nowness of this moment. ∎

Michael Bernard Beckwith is the Founder and Spiritual Director of Agape International Spiritual Center, a trans-denominational community based in Los Angeles comprised of thousands of local members and global live streamers. Highly regarded for its cultural, racial, and spiritual diversity and inclusivity, the late Coretta Scott King wrote to Dr. Beckwith, “I greatly admire what you are doing to bring about the Beloved Community, which is certainly what my dear husband worked for and ultimately gave his life.” Widely recognized for his teachings on the science of inner transformation and unity, Dr. Beckwith embraces a practical approach to spirituality utilizing meditation, affirmative prayer, and Life VisioningTM, a spiritual technology he developed for conscious evolution, authentic living, and living your life purpose. These practices teach us to take the experience of inner peace and awakened awareness into our everyday lives.

Dr. Beckwith is a sought-after meditation teacher, conference speaker, and seminar leader on the Life Visioning ProcessTM. He’s addressed audiences at the UN General Assembly during its annual World Interfaith Harmony Week, TEDx Maui, and Oprah Winfrey Network’s (OWN) SuperSoul Sessions, among numerous others. As co-founder and president of the Association for Global New Thought, he hosts conferences featuring harbingers of world peace including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and had the distinguished honor of presenting to Nelson Mandela the Gandhi King Award. As a spiritual leader, Dr. Beckwith has always taught about the unity of humanity and that of all life, including protecting the sanctity and preciousness of Mother Earth: “We are to be responsible stewards for the earth, and during this time of climate change, we must reduce our carbon footprint, protect the rainforests, plant more trees and take a stand for Mother Earth as if our lives depend on it, because they do.”

Three of his books—Life Visioning, Spiritual Liberation, and TranscenDance Expanded—have received the prestigious Nautilus Award. His app, Beckwith Inspires, features essential spiritual tools, technologies, and practices to help shift perceptions and transform lives. Dr. Beckwith has appeared on OWN’s SuperSoul Sunday and Help Desk; Dr. Oz; CNN, The Oprah Show; Larry King Live; Tavis Smiley; and in his own PBS Special, The Answer Is You. He is a member of Oprah’s esteemed inaugural SuperSoul 100.

For more information visit: agapelive.com and michaelbeckwith.com

21 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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I’m an equal as an individual human and an intimate partner in every way.

KAM REDLAWSK

AWARD-WINNING INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER, WRITER, ARTIST & DISABILITY ADVOCATE Photo Credit: @kamredlawsk 22 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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PERSONAL STORY BY KAM REDLAWSK

NOT A BURDEN

A S T AT E M E N T A B O U T E V E R Y D AY H U M A N S We’re Kam and Jason. We’re an interabled couple from Detroit living in Los Angeles.

We’re both Korean American adoptees and artists and designers who met at a Detroit art college. My husband is a concept illustrator in the video games and entertainment industry, and I’m an award-winning industrial designer, writer, artist, and a disability advocate for 15 years. A couple years ago we began Chair Devils (@chairdevils) together to increase awareness of the vibrancy of disabled lives and misconceptions.

A very rare and progressive muscle wasting condition called #GNEM (genetic form of muscular dystrophy) began touching my life when I was 17-20 years old. If no treatment is found, this leads to complete immobility of my entire body. In the meantime, I’ve been living my life fully with great passion.

We frequently get congratulated by society because my husband is deemed a hero and saint for “rescuing” poor disabled me. But there’s nothing “poor disabled” about me. I’m an equal as an individual human and an intimate partner in every way. Please, follow me (@kamredlawsk) to learn more about my story, my travels, the nuances of humanity and celebration of uniqueness, and things like ableism that direct society to view disabled as victims who can’t or shouldn’t find love (because they think disabled have nothing to offer just because we’re disabled). Let’s change minds, including our own. ∎

NOT A BURDEN A VIDEO POST BY KAM REDLAWSK

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23 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Every little victory… that carries you on to the next one.

RUSS PRITCHARD

FOUNDER OF AFGHAN MEDICAL CORPS 24 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

HOPE FOR AFGHANISTAN: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH RUSS PRITCHARD

DELIVERING HOPE HEARING THE UNHEARD & HELPING THE UNSEEN IN AFGHANISTAN TRIGGER WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS FIRST HAND INFORMATION ON THE TALIBAN AND TERRORISM.

From delivering babies in Afghanistan to delivering supplies sent from the U.S., Russ Pritchard delivers hope to the people of Afghanistan. While he would say he’s just a glorified telephone operator, he’s so much more. He runs the Afghan Medical Corps, bringing help and hope to those unseen and unheard.

ALLIÉ: You write, you run, and you save lives. How long have you been writing? How far have you been running?

And how many lives have you saved in Afghanistan?

RUSS: I've been writing a long time. I first got published in 1983 when I was in college by a very enthusiastic and supportive British lit professor. Both my parents are history writers. My background is more corporate. My last real job was Chief Marketing Officer for an oral care company. Before that I was Director of Marketing for an international paper company. I've always written. I walked away from the corporate world about six years ago because it was just really boring. I was doing a lot of writing projects on the side all the time and decided I could just make a living as a content writer. All my clients are small to medium size businesses and nonprofits. And when COVID hit, it was the perfect job because I could work from home most of the time.

How far do I run? I do triathlons. I'm into Iron Man, but I'm also into obstacle course racing like Spartan and Bonefrog.

Those have kind of taken a backseat for the last two years only because of COVID, but I'm looking forward to another competition coming up this July.

For how many lives I've saved, I don't really remember or keep track of that number. I think the memory is probably a little bit more... not to get morbid, but it's more along the lines of ones lost because... we just don't stop. It's a very unique lifestyle because we're living in two time zones. I'm Eastern Standard Time, and Afghanistan is nine and a half hours difference. So, I'm constantly straddling those. I can't tell you how many lives I've saved. I've been going at this since the first week of September, basically. And it's every single day, but I can certainly tell you some of the rougher ones we've lost.

“The Afghan Medical Corps is not an entity. It's an underground movement.”

ALLIÉ: Since the Taliban took control in Afghanistan, people there have been desperate for help. Here enters the Afghan Medical Corps. Please tell us about the organization and your role.

RUSS: The Afghan Medical Corps is not an entity. It's an underground movement. In college I was a flight medic. I'm a grandpa now. So there are some years in between. And when we started working to try and evacuate people, some medical emergencies cropped up, and I moved in a direction to solve those because it was kind of a natural thing for me. I was used to it from years ago. I have a daughter that's an emergency room nurse, as is her husband. So, I 25 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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99% of our patients are in hiding.

RUSS PRITCHARD

FOUNDER OF AFGHAN MEDICAL CORPS 26 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

RUSS: (continued) stepped up and solved some of those medical emergencies. We all are covering people in Afghanistan that we've met through the internet. And I had met a couple doctors. So, I reached out to one doctor one night and I said, "Hey, can you call this person there? They're like sick. And I know you're in hiding, and they're in hiding. And maybe if you each use fake names, we can work something out. This doctor and I at around 3:30 one morning came up with the idea of the Afghan Medical Corps, which is basically connecting Afghan doctors in country to Afghan patients. 99.9% of our patients are in hiding. They pose a security risk. They are indigent because they've lost their jobs and they cannot work. So, I want to say, mid-September, we came up with the Afghan Medical Corps, and we've grown to over 270 doctors now that assist and have relationships with six hospitals.

What do I do, you ask? I'm a glorified telephone operator. I connect people to doctors and hospitals. One of my passions is to help pregnant women in Afghanistan, because prenatal care ceased August 15th, when the country collapsed, and on August 30th, when the last plane flew out. If you were pregnant, you stopped prenatal care at that point. And we've experienced a lot of stillborns in the field. So, we came up with a Safe Delivery Program, and that is one of the essences of the Afghan Medical Corps. We have a very strong relationship with the maternity hospital in Afghanistan that we're able to send patients to for prenatal care, safe deliveries and postpartum care. And we've done hundreds and hundreds of deliveries now that way. That's something I'm super proud of, but the Afghan Medical Corps is nothing more than an underground movement operating like an American healthcare network. You come into our system, you're sick, and we triage you with an Afghan doctor on the ground. Either he helps you or he refers you on to a specialist. From there, we reach out to the hospitals if we need tests. We beg, and beg, and beg... We have no budget. We beg for everything, and we get it done. With the exception of the deliveries... We have a donor, a very private donor, who actually funds all that through the maternity hospital in Afghanistan.

ALLIÉ: Typical work hours don’t apply for you. I’ve been told you take calls 24 hours a day. I can’t imagine how difficult your work must be. The physical, mental and financial demands must seem impossible at times. What gives you the hope needed to make your work possible?

RUSS: Every little victory, every time someone sends you a picture of a baby that was just born, every time somebody recovers from a surgery... that carries you on to the next one. It's probably the best way of putting it. I mean, we take phone calls 24 hours a day. The phone never gets turned off. Again, we're straddling two time zones. So, there's no choice. You know, the only golden time we have, my wife and I joke about it, is between about 4:30 in the afternoon and about 9:00 in the evening when most of the people in Afghanistan are sleeping. That's when we kind of get catch up time. But babies... babies don't what hours to be born. Our record number is 15 babies delivered in one day.

“…the Taliban shot him in the face and killed him.”

ALLIÉ: Delivering medical care is not an easy task, especially when the Taliban is involved. Your quote: “We have had medical staff shot and killed by the Taliban while on medical calls. My number one emergency is pregnant mothers.

Most ceased prenatal care in August. We had some really great wins and some devastating losses with moms delivering in the fields.” Can you share two stories with us? One of a great win and one of a devastating loss?

RUSS: Well, we've had one casualty that you alluded to. We had a doctor head out on a medical call for us. He took his young teenage cousin with him to carry medical supplies, and they hit a Taliban checkpoint. The Taliban asked them to basically produce identification. The teenager was a little too slow in lowering his satchel over his shoulder -the satchel of medical supplies. So, the Taliban shot him in the face and killed him.

27 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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…the Taliban detained her when she was in labor.

RUSS PRITCHARD

FOUNDER OF AFGHAN MEDICAL CORPS 28 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

RUSS: (continued) That’s our one and only casualty right now. Horrific, but if we look at the volume of calls that we've gone on and the number of times we've had doctors hidden in various types of trucks to make house calls to people in hiding, we've been very fortunate. I'll leave it at that.

Our best victory came Christmas night around 2 a.m. We had a situation blow up that we knew was gonna blow up.

What I mean by Christmas night is the Christmas Eve that ended at midnight, and it was now Christmas day. So, around 2 in the morning in the states, we had a set of twins that were born prematurely at another hospital. The family was initially supposed to go to the hospital where we have the relationship with, but the Taliban detained her when she was in labor. Her husband's here in the United States, and because she was not traveling with her husband, the Taliban pulled her and the other male out of the car. They separated and questioned them. They kept her to the point where she was ready to deliver within minutes. So, she had to go to another hospital, which was substandard where we did not have a relationship. Because she was indigent, they kicked her out. She delivered at around 33 or 34 weeks, which as you know is more than a month premature. They sent the babies home, and about 48 hours later, both started to crash. Knowing that we had had problems trying to get them through various Taliban checkpoints, during the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we arranged for a food truck to go pick up the mother, pick up the twins, and hide them in a very creative way. They made their way to this particular maternity hospital where they were put into the NICU for two weeks, and they survived. And they're here today because of not only the creativity of the doctors in Afghanistan that cared for her, but because the people that operated the food trucks that were willing to take the risk as well. I won't take any credit for that. I made phone calls, and I stayed on the phone.

That's it. So that's something we're proud of. The hospital sent us videos of the twins going home, and that's been a blessing for us, but again, that's just two babies out of literally hundreds. But that's one that was pretty special, because you like to think that on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, you're focusing on your own family and your own blessings. Instead, all of our attention was directed towards Afghanistan and in particular towards these twins.

Allié, do you want to hear a bad story too?

ALLIÉ: Please share.

RUSS: We had a particularly bad situation the week after Thanksgiving, and we've had the same situation over and over again... but this one was particularly poignant and difficult. We had a couple expecting their first child. They were living in a bombed out basement. The mother was a television journalist. So, her face was highly visible. Her husband was in special forces. He was highly visible. They would not leave the bombed out basement shelter that they were living in. They felt that to be seen at any hospital would be basically execution for them. We got an OB/GYN to head out to their house. We had an OB/GYN from the states, also on the phone. Just happened to be a coincidence, but this person asked how they could help. I said, "Well, we'll connect you in."

“…we all stayed on the phone together after being up most of the night, as they buried their stillborn child in a pile of rocks.”

It was daytime here. It was nighttime there, and we listened in horror basically as they had a stillborn child. And we listened to the husband and the wife scream that the baby wasn't breathing. We heard the doctor trying to calm them in a combination of Dari and English so that we would understand what was going on. There wasn't electricity. They were using the lights of their cell phones. At first light for them, we all stayed on the phone together after being up most of the night, as they buried their stillborn child in a pile of rocks, a bunch of rubble outside the house. We all just stayed on the phone and rode it out together as a very strange family that had bonded during the night.

29 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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90% of Afghanistan is living in poverty…

RUSS PRITCHARD

FOUNDER OF AFGHAN MEDICAL CORPS 30 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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“We feed over 8,000 people a month right now. Sounds like a lot, right?

It’s a joke… 22.8 million people in Afghanistan are facing starvation.”

RUSS: (continued) I will tell you that story, that situation (no pun intended) gave birth to our Safe Delivery Program.

When that happened, we realized we needed to form a relationship with a hospital in Afghanistan, where we could send pregnant mothers to, where they wouldn't have to worry about security, where they wouldn't have to give their names, where they could come in with no questions asked, no bill, no charge and have a safe delivery.

ALLIÉ: While the headlines have decreased, the need for help has increased. Russ, please help us understand what’s really going on in Afghanistan. What is needed? What’s at stake? People need to know what’s really happening.

RUSS: It's interesting when you say that to me, because when my wife and I are around friends, they don't understand how our lives have changed, because it's not in the media anymore with Afghanistan. They just don't comprehend. We have wonderful friends who, when we have had crises because we're very active with the resettlement side, they donate. While they give and they step right up, they just don't understand, but the math is relatively simple. 90% of Afghanistan is living in poverty. 22.8 million people face death by starvation and freezing temperatures this winter.

One of the things that we started with the Afghan Medical Corps was an offshoot, which is now its own, not an entity, but movement. We call it the Afghan Supply Corps. We feed over 8,000 people a month right now. Sounds like a lot, right? Sounds really impressive, because we're doing 800 food drops per month with the average family being 10. So, there's your 8,000, and it sounds impressive. But you know what? It's a joke. 22.8 million people in Afghanistan are facing starvation. We're doing 8,000 a month, and we can't keep up with the volume. It just not there. I don't understand why it's not more in the media right now. I am apolitical. This is not a Republican or a Democrat thing.

It's just somehow it's fallen off the radar. I wake up every morning, whatever time the Afghans that are my friends, let me wake up, and I usually will have somewhere between 400 to 700 texts that take me hours to catch up on. The majority of them are from people asking for food. They're asking for food, they're asking for wood, they're asking for clothes... closed-toed shoes. With the Afghan Supply Corps, we supply food, we supply wood, we supply coal, we supply clothing and blankets. We supply Charris which is something I didn’t even know existed, but it's basically the American version of a wood burning stove. The horror is so many Afghans thought in August that they would be evacuated before the winter so one of the first things they sold were their wood burning stoves, because they didn't think they'd be there for the winter and would have to heat their homes. They thought they'd be long gone. So, we actually go out and install these stoves all over the place now. We put in wood burning, coal burning stoves in the people's houses. The minutia is so important because if they don't have wood to burn, they burn plastic and that's toxic fumes. If the Charri isn't installed correctly and they burn coal, that's carbon monoxide and everybody in the house dies. So, we actually make sure that we have enough flu piping or venting going to the outside to make sure those fumes are carried out.

31 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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…there’s no data being kept anymore… they don’t exist.

RUSS PRITCHARD

FOUNDER OF AFGHAN MEDICAL CORPS 32 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

AwareNow Podcast

DELIVERING HOPE

Exclusive Interview with Russ Pritchard

https://awarenow.us/podcast/delivering-hope

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“…what horrifies me most is what we don’t see, what we don’t hear about, and what we don’t know…”

RUSS: (continued) So, I don't know how it's fallen off the media. I can tell you that one of the hospitals that I have a very strong relationship with told me 48 hours ago that on their pediatric ward, they lose between 16 and 22 kids a day -- toddlers, infants, children die from malnutrition. And those are the ones that managed to make it to the hospital and die in the hospital. I have a very strong relationship with the Afghan Embassy in Washington, DC. One of the things that has been expressed to me is there's no data being kept anymore. Taliban takes some guy out back and shoots him in the alley. There's no death record. If you worked for the Afghan military, there's no record of your existence anymore. I have been involved with numerous births in the field. So we know that those children that are born in the field, they don't have birth records. There's no birth certificate; they don't exist. It's horrifying. I think what horrifies me the most is what we don't see, what we don't hear about, and what we don't know, because those numbers are staggering.

ALLIÉ: I can't thank you enough, Russ. By sharing these stories, I hope we can all wake up to the reality of the situation. We need to see and believe… We must see what’s really happening and believe we can make a difference.

Because we can. Let’s begin with being aware and take action by sharing your story and the stories of those you’ve shared. Let’s wake people up. Thank you, Russ, for making us all a little more aware now. ∎

HOPE FOR AFGHANISTAN

An AwareNow Spotlight Series

In a series of interviews and stories, hope for Afghanistan will be raised and shared with content that uncovers what goes unseen and unheard. Real stories of real people will be shared by contributor Russ Pritchard, Founder of Afghan Medical Corps.

33 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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I think a lot of people don't see themselves the way other people do.

DAWN CAMPBELL

CREATOR OF DUMPZSTER DOLLS 34 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH DAWN CAMPBELL

MONSTERS AMONG US

DUMPZSTER DOLLS: HANDMADE & EMOTIONALLY FRAGILE While some find comfort from emotional support dogs, others find solace from emotional support dolls.

Dumpzster Dolls embody various states of mental health and multiple lenses of self image. Imperfectly perfect, these monsters remind us that despite our looks there is much to be loved.

ALLIÉ: What inspired you to create your Dumpzster Dolls?

DAWN: Well, honestly it is the whimsy of the dolls and textiles to different art and coming up with different ways to do things. I'm a big fan of fabric and I love watching their little faces come alive. When I get the doll itself done and I can put their faces on, that's the best part.

ALLIÉ: I love that the imperfection of your dolls is what makes them perfect. Like us, each is unique, with a past and with needs of its own. How do these dolls mirror your own reality?

DAWN: I think a lot of people don't see themselves the way other people do. You think that you're imperfect or slighted in some way -- too fat, too skinny, or too whatever. You really don't see how other people see you. The dolls are very imperfect. I mean, I'm not a perfect sewer and I don't even wanna be because I don't want them to be perfect. It's just a way of making ugly cute.

ALLIÉ: I love that. I love the simplicity of that and the intention. So often we see on social media where everyone is glossed over and 'perfect', but that is not reality.

DAWN: It’s not.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY ALLIÉ MCGUIRE WITH DAWN CAMPBELL

MONSTERS AMONG US

ALLIÉ: Made of recycled fabric and adorned with handmade earrings from scrap metal, your emotionally fragile dolls are all female. Why?

DAWN: They're all female. Even if I get a request for a male, I'll say no, just because that's the way I want it. And there's just more power in that for me, for them to be all female... I wanna put some feeling into it and connect with women.

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ALLIÉ: When someone picks up one of your dolls and looks at it, what is it you hope they see?

DAWN: There are two reactions they usually get. People pick them up, they smile and they show them to their friends.

Then there's some people that just don't even want to go there. They'll put it down as fast as they pick it up. And I don't know what those two different personalities are, but I guess what I want you to do is smile… It’s an expression of TO WATCH NOW myself and my art.

ALLIÉ: Which Dumpzster Doll is your favorite? Why?

DAWN: It’s the nuns. They fight evil with evil.

35 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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“It’s an expression of myself and my art.”

ALLIÉ: I love that. I love the simplicity of that and the intention. So often we see on social media where everyone is glossed over and 'perfect', but that is not reality.

DAWN: It’s not.

ALLIÉ: Made of recycled fabric and adorned with handmade earrings from scrap metal, your emotionally fragile dolls are all female. Why?

DAWN: They're all female. Even if I get a request for a male, I'll say no, just because that's the way I want it. And there's just more power in that for me, for them to be all female... I wanna put some feeling into it. I want to connect with women.

ALLIÉ: When someone picks up one of your dolls and looks at it, what is it you hope they see?

DAWN: There are two reactions they usually get. People pick them up, they smile and they show them to their friends.

Then there's some people that just don't even want to go there. They'll put it down as fast as they pick it up. And I don't know what those two different personalities are, but I guess what I want you to do is smile… It’s an expression of myself and my art.

ALLIÉ: Which Dumpzster Doll is your favorite? Why?

DAWN: It’s the nuns. They fight evil with evil. ∎

DUMPZSTER DOLLS

Hand-stitched and crafted from recycled materials, each doll is an original made with love and comes with a name, a story and her own set of earrings

Want one to call your own?

Reach out to Dawn Campbell on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/dawn.campbell.9421

36 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Let's call privilege a superpower.

JESSE LIPSCOMBE

ACTOR, SPEAKER, ACTIVIST & ENTREPRENEUR 38 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JESSE LIPSCOMBE

AWKWARD

CHANGING THE WORLD WITH AWKWARD CONVERSATIONS What started with something not that funny resulted in a mission to #MakeItAwkward. This then became a game by the name of ‘Not That Funny’. Actor, activist, speaker and singer (both professional and karaoke with his kids), Jesse Lipscombe is an empathetic entrepreneur who is gamifying social change one awkward conversation at a time.

ALLIÉ: Is ‘awkwardness’ your superpower, Jesse? It started with a campaign then evolved into a game. For those who don’t know your story, please start at #MakeItAwkward and bring us up to what has become ‘Not That Funny’.

JESSE: I wouldn't say awkwardness is my superpower. If I were to pick a superpower, I would probably go with fearlessness, but not fearlessness in the way that I don't get scared. I get scared daily but I don't let fear get in the way of me moving and moving forward. I think that's a big chunk of how Make It Awkward started in its early infancy.

I'm an actor. I was shooting a commercial about the city that I lived in at the time, Edmonton, about how wonderful our city is. During one of the takes, the car drove up and started spewing racial slurs at me through the window, and we were rolling. I didn't know we were rolling, but I I stopped and walked over to the car. It was a red light. And I asked them why they said that and why they thought that was an okay thing to say to someone they don't know. I got down on one knee; I was trying to be as least confrontational as possible because I'm well aware of the trope that lives with

AWKWARD EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY ALLIÉ MCGUIRE WITH JESSE LIPSCOMBE

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39 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Uncomfortable conversations can be uncomfortable, but there can also be levity in those situations.

JESSE LIPSCOMBE

ACTOR, SPEAKER, ACTIVIST & ENTREPRENEUR 40 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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“I can't act the same way that other people who don't look like me act. I have to be better. I have to be more conscious.”

JESSE: (continued) me being a 6' 3" and 250 pound Black man. As unthreatening as possible, I had that conversation, which kind of went with them denying that they said it, slamming the door, speeding off, and then saying it another time. So, we had it on camera. Afterward, after the camera guy told me we had it, I wondered what to do with this. I thought I'd just put it on social media, just to start a conversation. That was the hope. And that conversation grew very, very quickly.

There were millions of views and shares all over North America and Europe, and then it became a big media thing. It became international news. And the news was... One, it was awareness of what happens on the daily to marginalize individuals. Two, it was what my reaction to it was. It's almost like, "I can't believe that you were so calm and could have this conversation." But the truth of the matter is I didn't have an option. If I were to respond angrily, then the story is now "An angry Black man does this to an alleged racist incident." Right?

There are all these things that while growing up, I've known my whole life. I can't act the same way that other people who don't look like me act. I have to be better. I have to be more conscious. But then it also became an opportunity because this wasn't just a Black and white thing. Marginalized individuals all over the world deal with stuff like this on a daily basis and worse. Right? So I thought, look, we have a platform. Let's use this platform, and let's create a conversation where marginalized individuals can share their stories without having to defend that it really happened.

Let's make sure that people understand and feel it's safe to speak about it.

It moved from being a platform online and a hashtag to being a place where we put on events, seminars, conferences and summits. We speak. We create different TV shows with, Make It Awkward themes. It moved all the way to the game, which is called 'Not That Funny', which plays a little like Cards Against Humanity, with the goal of uncovering microaggressions in everyday speech across all the different intersections of marginalized people. So, we've been listening, adapting, and as the world has said, 'pivoting' as needed. We have 12,000 members that are learning with us, growing with us and trying to make change in their environments and be everyday activists.

ALLIÉ: A card game to call out our biases, ‘Not That Funny’ gives us permission to call it like we see it and then through conversation, correct it. Is that what it’s going to take, Jesse? To create a more just, tolerant and equitable society, we just need to talk?

JESSE: It is not a binary solution... No, it takes hard work. It takes practice. It takes habit changing. This is simply another tool. If I'm being honest, it's a tool because I'm well aware that we human beings are relatively lazy. We can have all the answers in front of us and we won't do anything with them. So how can I create something that will provide the most for people having to do the least? That was my suggestion and why we created it. Even though it's a gamification of activism, you can have fun and learn. Uncomfortable conversations can be uncomfortable, but there can also be levity in those situations. I'm trying to take the walls down so that people can make errors in safe spaces so that they can be brave in other spaces in the future.

41 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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ALLIÉ: Beyond your own endeavors to combat racism, misogyny, homophobia and hatred in general, you work with organizations and leaders to help them understand and address racism. It’s interesting. I was told by a guy the other day that racism doesn’t exist anymore and he didn’t understand why people are still talking about it. How far have we come and how far do we still have to go? How much talking do we still need to do, Jesse?

JESSE: I don't think the conversation will ever stop because the conversation is ever changing. As much as you can look into the world and say that it's horrible, everything is bad, and it looks just disgusting... truthfully, it is better. It is better than it used to be. Even the conversations that we're having now are different, better and important. Five and 10 years ago, I wasn't talking about intersectionality or BIPOCs or pronouns. I wasn't talking about making sure that we create safe spaces for individuals. They were still needed, but they weren't even part of the conversation. That conversation was a different conversation. It was a conversation of, "Am I allowed in this space?" It was, "Can I live in the LGBT world?" It was only LGBT. There were not two plus... none of this existed yet. It existed, but it wasn't acknowledged. So, the fact that we're acknowledging things, and even though it's uncomfortable for people and it's difficult, this is how it goes. It's difficult. Then it becomes no longer difficult. It's obtuse and abnormal; then it becomes normal.

There was a time when wearing seatbelts was so wild. It was like, "Nobody's taking away my freedoms!" Now, most people wear a seatbelt. Times change, and we change with them. We have a long way to go, and talk is not enough.

For sure, talk is not enough, but here's the thing... Thoughts become things. This is a fact. It doesn't matter what it is.

Even your map, my computer, our conversation, the clothes we're wearing... Somebody had a thought. That thought then was articulated, written down, followed through with actions that were taken, and now they exist.

Talk is important. We need to make sure that we take that talk into actions and follow through with said actions. Then we see real, tangible changes in our everyday life. They don't show up without the thought and then the talking. So, we will continue to talk no matter what it feels like. History tells us it does work, but only when we follow through with movement.

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“We all have a responsibility to act.”

ALLIÉ: In addition to being an activist, you’re an artist. Mentored by the great Sidney Poitier, you are a great actor, writer, producer and director. With this great talent comes a great responsibility. Please share this responsibility as it pertains to being Black.

JESSE: Yeah, it does come with responsibility. It does, but not just with great power... with any power, with any platform, with any position comes responsibility. It's too easy to say ‘with great power’. So I can look at someone else and say, they're responsible. I've placed them on a pedestal. So they're responsible for all of the responsibility that needs to happen. Not me. And that's not true. You have people watching you, looking at you, being inspired by you, whether you know it or not. Especially in a social media world, you might have six followers. Guess what? You have six followers. You have responsibility to six people, one person, it doesn't matter. So, yes, great responsibility, but it's not something that we are offering to someone else where we can sit back and watch.

We all have a responsibility to act. We have a responsibility to use whatever platform and whatever voice we have to elevate, amplify, and sponsor other voices that don't. We have a responsibility to understand what our privileges are.

What are they? What are the things that I have that I didn't work for that make life easier for me? Let me use those to help those who don't have them. Right? That's all it's about. Let's use them as superpowers. If we're talking about superpowers, let's call privilege a superpower. I'm tall. That's my superpower. If you're white, that's your superpower. It doesn't mean you don't work for what you have. It just means being white wasn't one of the things that made it harder.

For me, just being tall means that it's easier for me to reach stuff. It's not a knock on me. It doesn't mean I didn't work hard in other ways. Find those privileges out. And when you find those out, you have a responsibility to make life easier for those who don't have them. ∎

Follow Jesse on Instagram: @thelipscombe

43 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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I can’t pretend, and I don’t want to pretend.

ELIZABETH BLAKE-THOMAS

STORYTELLER, FILMMAKER & DIRECTOR OF JUST SWIPE 44 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH ELIZABETH BLAKE-THOMAS

JUST SWIPE

THE MUST-SEE ROMANTIC COMEDY OF & FOR OUR TIMES A beautiful young woman who rejects every guy she meets because they don't meet her insane standards for perfection meets a guy on a dating app who is smart, funny, and kind but heavier and balder than the old pics he posted. Confined to the digital realm by quarantine -- and eager to prove to her friends that she isn't shallow, she allows herself to get to know him in a way she never would have in the outside world. Of course the huge mansion he lives in doesn't hurt. They fall in love over Zoom, but when she discovers he's not the person she thought he was financially or professionally, she rejects him, resigned to go back to her lonely life, until a real world emergency turns her world upside down and changes her priorities forever. Now that you know what ‘Just Swipe’, is all about, let’s hear the story behind it from the film’s director, Elizabeth Blake-Thomas.

ALLIÉ: First of all, I absolutely love this film. Too many believe you can’t find love with an app, but too many have proven that wrong. Jack and I, for example, we both swiped right. Love at first swipe, one week later we got matching ink, and one month later we got married. Now that’s not how every online match ends, and I won’t say how your film ends, but I will say it had me in tears. Is that why you made this film, Elizabeth? To give people hope for finding love?

ELIZABETH: It's not about just giving people hope or making them cry. It's about saying, what is it that you can get from this film? What is it personally? And I think there are a lot of people that have got these personal experiences,

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ELIZABETH: (continued) especially in the world we live in where this online dating is now so relevant. So whether it be a good feeling, a bad feeling, a funny feeling, it doesn't matter. It was just to create a feeling of something, because I feel like feelings are something that we kind of ignore and push down. And actually any feeling is a positive feeling, especially in this current world.

ALLIÉ: This film is so relatable on so many levels. From COVID to relationships, you introduce comedy and romance to set a stage that so many of us feel we are on. As the director, what was the most important aspect of this film – the comedy or the romance?

ELIZABETH: As a director, it's fun on set when you get to have fun. Again, we were in this world where I'd been on my boat, which is where I am right now, for two months. The fun had left us all. And that was the most important word that I was coming up with. What does this feel like? What was going on in life? For me, the comedy aspect of not only filming it, but also afterwards. I had some great actors that had amazing comic timing. Every single one of them was superb with that and to try and push those jokes. The writer that I work with is a comedy writer. That (comedy) was the most important thing. However, also giving people the understanding that even in the darkest moments, you can still connect with people and connection is what's important. So not necessarily just the romance, but connecting.

ALLIÉ: I don’t think you could have selected a better cast. By the end, I wanted to jump on their group video chat and be part of the conversation. Can you share a moment on set that was the most comical? The most unforgettable?

ELIZABETH: One thing that I remember is that because COVID was happening, I had to rehearse with everybody like this over Zoom. So I never got to be in person with everybody. Even their wardrobes were taken in bags and left at people's front doors. They would try them on, take photos, send them back to wardrobe, and I would choose. There was no connection physically, until we were on set. And then even when we were on set, I split it up over eight days of filming because I didn't want anyone to get COVID. We had the first two days where it was just Jodi. There was nobody else there. So we did the entire script with just her, and somebody else was reading the other lines. So they were never in the same room or all together, but we'd done so many Zoom rehearsals that they knew how people

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I feel I have lots of stories in me…

ELIZABETH BLAKE-THOMAS

STORYTELLER, FILMMAKER & DIRECTOR OF JUST SWIPE 48 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“I've got my cup of tea, I'm in my pajamas and I'm on my boat.”

ELIZABETH: (continued) were going to speak. So when you see the four together on screen, they're not talking to each other, they're talking to my first AD or my second AD who was reading the lines. So that was a very interesting experience. But I think the funny aspects were things that just came naturally, like one of my favorite lines. It wasn't even in the script. It was Alex's line, because he's just hysterical. It's when they're playing ping pong, and I love that game. I'd seen it on Instagram. Everyone's playing it separately, you put the cups on, and you try and get the ball in.

And Alex came up with, "I'm Asian. I should be good at this." And I thought that was the best line ever. Because he said, it's okay. He would come up with these beautiful moments, and I will say he's such a lovely guy. Again, that makes it even better -- when someone's lovely on set.

ALLIÉ: Your film does a brilliant job of showing the real connections that can be made from virtual introductions. While the way we communicate has changed so much, the way we connect hasn’t changed at all. What element(s) of the storyline really helped you make this case?

ELIZABETH: It's interesting because I was probably the only person in the world that didn't do Zooms. It might have been you, Allié, that even asked me to go on the Zoom and I said no. I said I don't do them, I don't have them, I don't want to be on a Zoom, and I don't want to sit with 30 people. I don't need you to see where I am or what I'm doing. I'm good. I mean, I'm actually in my pajamas now. This is what the film's about. It's about saying we don't need to pretend, but yet we still do.

You know, you've seen those funny photos of everyone with their fancy shirts on, but yet they're wearing just their underpants below. I think the connection we created in our virtual world is a pretend situation, which we often do in real life as well. Then we broke down those barriers and we realized actually on Zooms, we need to be real too. We need to have realness. You have a lovely real background behind you. Then, you have all those people that put up the Bahamas and other fake photos. I actually never did. Again, I didn't do many Zooms, but if I did, this is where I live.

This is what I am. I can't pretend, and I don't want to pretend. So I think the connections that I felt from experiencing what it was like being on FaceTime or Zoom with people were interesting for me because I think they were very different from other people's experiences. I just find it energy zapping being on a Zoom, and people use it as an excuse... "Oh, well you must be free, because you're at home all day. Here's a Zoom." But hold on... People are on Zooms 12 hours a day! What are they doing?! This is awful. This is worse than when we were in person. At least you could get some down time.

Now, I FaceTime my mum in England for about two hours every day. So, I love having the technology to do it, but I'll put it down and I'll carry on. I'll brush my teeth, and she'll be doing stuff too. It's not this pretend. For me, trying to find that understanding of what it is that we are faking, why are we faking it and how are we still having a connection? It's a fine line. I remember I went on a date once, having met somebody online. The first thing they said to me was, "Oh, you look just like your photo." I didn't even know what to say about that. Isn't that what a photo is? I never understood.

I don't do things to my face on a photo or change things. I was like, "Well, of course I look like my photo. What are you talking about?" They said, "Well, you know... you haven't done things." And I was like, "No, because this is me.

Otherwise what's the point?!" So, I think there's that line between connecting, finding that love from being real with it, and using our technology in a positive way... removing all of this fakeness. I've got my cup of tea, I'm in my pajamas and I'm on my boat.

49 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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ALLIÉ: In this film, Vanessa, played by Jodie Sweetin, learns a lot about Brandon, played by David Lipper, while at the same time learning a lot about herself that it seems she only comes to realize at the end. As much as this is a film about a relationship explored, it’s also very much a story about an individual’s growth. When you wrote this, Elizabeth, with Wendy Braff crafting the screenplay, was this the original intention?

ELIZABETH: It was actually because again, sitting here during COVID on the boat and going on that Zoom date, I realized that I looked good here, you know? But everything else wasn't real. COVID gave me two or three months, or whatever it was, of absolute timeout, which I've never had in my life... ever. And I became incredibly analytical of myself, probably quite harsh to myself, actually. I was questioning things, looking at choices. And then I did this arc where I came out and went, hold on a minute. I cannot be blamed for everything, for everybody, for all those other people's choices. The arc of that, I suppose, is a similar journey where she has this self realization. I felt I went on a self realization journey, a very strong one, and I'm still going through it now. I still go through it every single day. I question. I look at myself. Is that a good thing to do? Was that the right thing to do? And I think that is just as important because it's about the individual. Because we can't change other people. We can only change ourselves. So, in this kind of a movie, yes, it's a romcom. Yes, it's supposed to make you laugh. Yes, it's about relationships, but it is also about that self-reflection -- especially during the COVID time to stop, reassess, look at ourselves, and decide what kind of person we want to be. I think that was very important to me. The main concept came up because I went on that Zoom date, and I realized that there was this fakeness. There was something you could hide behind. You should see my notes that I gave to Wendy. I gave her a stack of my notes and asked, "Can you write a screenplay with this?"

And she did. She did a phenomenal job... It was fantastic teamwork.

ALLIÉ: While this romance comedy was entertaining, your passion comes from educating. You have an incredible talent for embodying stories with empathy seen and felt on screen. More than a writer and director, you are a storyteller. Tell us about your passion in the form of social impact filmmaking.

ELIZABETH: I feel like I have a responsibility with anything I do. I have a responsibility to put something out there that is going to make a difference or do something. I can't tell you where that comes from, but it comes from deep in here.

So, no matter what I do, whether it's the actual experience of filming or the filming of the thing itself, there has to be a social impact. So, when I work with my crew, I make sure that they are looked after. I make sure that they don't work long hours, that they're fed as well as I can afford within a budget, that they are happy, enjoying it, and having a good experience. It's a priority to me. That social impact starts in a physical way, even when I'm working. And then as I get to the projects, I try to find projects that are going to connect. I feel I have lots of stories in me or stories that I'm told that, again, I have a responsibility to share in the best way. I write my books. I have my healing through storytelling. To me, it's the most powerful thing. And therefore, because I have that ability to tell it through film, that is the way I do it.

That is my main source of telling stories. When somebody comes to me with a story, I visually see it straight away. I know there's one we're working on, Allié, that was exactly that. I was told a story by this chap. It was so impactful for me that I thought this could have a huge impact on other people. I visually saw it and that's the way I need to tell it. Any story that's given to me, I see visually. I want to get that story out there and have that impact on people. It can be as simple as making people laugh. Again, when we're sad, we want to laugh. We want to find something funny. I think whatever the reason behind the things I do, it's got to have some kind of impact on people. I mentor a lot. I have a lot of people on my set that haven't experienced this kind of filmmaking before. They come away and they say that it was a great experience... That's just as important. If I can do things on a tiny seed level, then hopefully the big trees will grow. ∎

JUST SWIPE

Vanessa has always had trouble in the dating world, never mind now being confined to her home. She soon discovers just how much you can get away with dating via webcam, but is the love she feels true or only a distorted version of reality?

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50 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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It’s taken me double the time to get half as far…

CHARLË WEBB

NEW YORK CITY LUXURY REAL ESTATE AGENT WITH DOUGLAS ELLIMAN 52 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CHARLË WEBB

FOR THE WIN

FINDING SUCCESS IN LIFE WITH LOVE, LEISURE & LISTINGS Go-getter and jet-setter, Charlë Webb, is a luxury real estate professional with an extensive background in the arts as an accomplished actress, writer and producer for film and television, and is a lifelong New Yorker. Finding success in love and life is all about finding your fit. In this conversation, Charlë Webb shares how she tailored her life to find success.

ALLIÉ: Closing multi-million dollar deals in New York’s luxury real estate market isn’t done overnight. As a top realtor in New York City, share your journey with us, Charlë. Please tell us about the obstacles you overcame along the way that led to your success.

CHARLË: Well, it's been a journey to get to this destination. I started out in my early twenties in commercial real estate. No one ever told me I was lucky enough to have parents that never told me that I could never do anything.

Right. So, whatever I wanted to do, I could do it. I thought to myself, I wanna sell these big buildings in New York. I wanna be part of making the structure. So, I got into the real estate world. At the time, I had blonde hair. It was blonde, curly and natural, which was not something that was normally seen many years ago. I would show up to meetings and people would just be like, "Oh, wow." They didn't expect to see me. People would say I sound different on the phone, and I understood what that meant. First things first, I'm a woman, and that was hard enough in commercial. Second, I was showing up as a Black woman in commercial. There was no representation.

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53 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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They didn’t expect to see me.

CHARLË WEBB

NEW YORK CITY LUXURY REAL ESTATE AGENT WITH DOUGLAS ELLIMAN 54 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“If you don’t see anyone like you, you start be believe it’s not for you.”

CHARLË: (continued) I worked for the W after commercial. I wanted to get into hospitality. I wanted to own a hotel and run it later on in life. I then went into residential. Again, there was no representation. As we all are starting to understand in the world, representation is so important. If you don't see anyone like you, you start to believe that it's not for you. People will say, there's no one like me in the industry, it's gonna be too hard, I don't wanna be the first...

But I never really thought that way, but I did see it in real estate. I was lucky enough to grow up in a real estate family... I'd already seen my parents' success. So I thought to myself, if they can do it, I can do it... It's like a learned behavior.

I own a building with my sister. So I understand real estate on every level. But it's the community of brokers and the community of the world that has to get used to you being in that space. It's harder for customers to take you seriously, because they don't see people who look like you in leadership positions in real estate. To be fair and to be frank, the industry is mostly people who are not of color and male. I walk in the door and I immediately come up against this subconscious block they have to get over. "Oh, Black woman... Wasn't expecting that." It's because there is no representation of me in the field. I know that. So, I have to come up behind it with all my skill sets and things that I've done. It's this perceived idea of what someone in my field should look like that I have to get past.

Look at Jackie Robinson. There were no other Black baseball players before him when people had to come out and say, "Oh, well, Black people can play baseball." He was so legendary, acceptance grew, and it is now normal to have any ethnicity in baseball. So, people ask me, "Charlë, why don't you do X, Y, or Z with your career?" And I say to them, "Show me another Black woman that you know in this sphere. Just name me one. Give one name." And they just look at me. I say, "Okay, name me five white men or five white women. You could probably give me 20 off the top of your head." The representation isn't there. It's taken me double the time to get half as far because I have to get past people's ideas of what they normally see in this industry. I have to get past thoughts like "I don't know if that makes me feel safe... I'd rather go with someone else who looks like me..." I had to get past that and get to the brass tacks.

This is just me. I'm good at my job. I think I'm likable, and you're gonna love it. But it's been a climb.

When I got into residential real estate, I realized I had to get the community of brokers used to me first. Right. Brokers are a specific breed of cat. I thought, let me get the community knowledgeable of my personality and who I am. I needed them to know that when they are dealing with me, they're dealing with a well spoken knowledgeable person.

That was first. After that, I needed to back that up with sales. When I first met Frederick and John for a million dollar listing, I thought to myself that these two men come from what you wouldn't normally expect in the real estate industry.

John is BIPOC, and Frederick comes from another community. So these are two men that didn't fit the mold, if you will. And I thought, what better team to help me along my path -- people who understand what it is to be on the outside and yet make people realize that this is the representation they want to sell their luxury real estate with. This is not normal. This is what I want every day. They've really helped to build me up as a person and say that I can sell anything anywhere to anyone at any time. "Don't worry. We've got your back. We've done over $4 billion in sales. If someone doesn't like you that's on them... That is their issue." Having that community around me has been really helpful. I've had to be very strategic in my career and how I've moved. I have to be four times as knowledgeable when I walk into that room because a lot of the time they're just going to look over me, and I've had to deal with that. But being on their team has really bolstered me up.

55 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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This is just me.

I'm good at my job. I think I'm likable, and you're gonna love it.

CHARLË WEBB

NEW YORK CITY LUXURY REAL ESTATE AGENT WITH DOUGLAS ELLIMAN 56 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

CHARLË: (continued) I want to be that representation for younger Black women coming up in the fields because there's maybe one more of me out here operating at this level. I think it's important to let them know that you can do this... You are worthy. You're smart enough. You're good enough. You can operate in these circles, and don't let anyone tell you that you can't. I am a direct representation. You call me if you need; I'm here for the mentorship. It will take time, but like anything else, change takes time. I'm here for positive reinforcement and representation. You can, as a Black woman, be in this field and operate at a luxury level.

ALLIÉ: A talented producer, writer and actress, you’ve worn many hats and worn them well. When it comes to the world of arts and entertainment, what hat was your personal favorite and why?

CHARLË: Honestly, I love voiceovers. I'm always a performer... I think the highlight of my career was being on the HBO's, 'The Undoing'. That was definitely the highlight. I met Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman, Donald Sutherland. I had a little romcom moment with Hugh Grant in the makeup trailer, eating my breakfast burrito. He walks in and he goes, "Oh, hello. I'm Hugh." I was like, "I'm Charlë," with my mouth full of breakfast burrito. So embarrassed, I'm thinking, yes, I know who you are. I'm aware of you. That was definitely a highlight of my career. But I do love voiceovers. I think there's a peacefulness to it -- your own voice in your head. I like to play with the levels and for me that's just a fun thing I like to do. I think it's important to have business and a creative outlet. In the world we live in now, I think people don't put you in a box as much as they used to. You're allowed to be multifaceted without it taking away from what they perceive to be your main job. It can only add to it.

ALLIÉ: You’ve found success not only in your professional life, but in your personal life as well. Congratulations on your marriage last May! Secrets of success to share there? You and Janne were separated due to COVID before taking your vows. For others bound by love but separated by distance, what advice would you share?

CHARLË: Communication, communication, communication. That's it. Anyway, you can slice it. We are lucky to be living in this 21st century, where we have FaceTime and Zoom. Just be there with them as much as you can, if you're separated. Communicate, even in the monotony of life. I was walking down the street and I have this thing where my shades always fall to the back of my head. It's just a classic Charlë thing. I don't know why, but they just always fall off my head. Walking down the street, talking to my husband; it's just this little thing, and he's laughing. Those little minutia moments, give you that 'touch', without having the physical touch. Watch a movie, eat dinner, communicate.

Know what their love language is, and know how you give love. How you give love can be different than how you receive; how they give may be different than how they receive. Know that. When you are apart and they are a person who likes gifts, it doesn't have to be Gucci. It can be gummy bears. Send them gummy bears from wherever you're at.

Just to let them know that you're thinking about them.

ALLIÉ: While you are a lifelong New Yorker, you’ve already traveled more than most do in a lifetime – Venice, Bangkok, Tokyo, and Hong Kong to name a few. In all your travels, if you could return to only one destination, what would it be and why? What has been your greatest personal gain from traveling?

CHARLË: For me, the place that I wanna go back to is the place I haven't been yet. I don't like to go to places twice.

There's such a big world out there that until I feel like I've really kind of hit where I wanna hit in the world, I don't like to revisit when I have the chance to go somewhere. I like to spend like two weeks, and I like to go with someone who's from that country – Greece, India, or wherever we're going. I want to get that real life experience. It's not just tourism for me. And that's how I travel to most places around the world, with some knowledge or someone with me who's from there. So, the place I’d go back to is the place I haven't been.

57 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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…the place I’d go back to is the place I haven't been.

CHARLË WEBB

NEW YORK CITY LUXURY REAL ESTATE AGENT WITH DOUGLAS ELLIMAN 58 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

ALLIÉ: Whether professional or personal, success in life is all about finding wins within losses. Charlë, please share a loss you’ve experienced and the win you were able to find within it.

CHARLË: It's hard for me to think of any bigger loss recently than losing my best friend in that Surfside building collapse. People might say, what kind of win could you find from that? And this was recent — only six or seven months ago. It's been a very trying time, but the win that I get from that is really understanding the impermanence of life and to make decisions, while not being flighty, because you don't know how long you have here. For me, since then, every decision that I make is very pointed. I don't do things the way I used to anymore. Even in Cassie's death, she brings a light to me. I'm looking at a picture of her right now behind the screen. It's going to make me cry. It just reminds me that life is really fleeting, and every decision that you make has weight. Do whatever you want to do. Be a good person and don't go crazy, but do whatever you want... Go crazy, but in a healthy way. Do whatever you want to do in life. Don't make concessions for people about who you are or what you want. Don't limit yourself. Go for the gusto. Do you want to go back to school? Go back to school. Do you want to have kids? Do it. You don't want to have kids?

Don't. You want to travel the world? You want to change your profession at 60? Do it. Do it because you never know what next step may be your last. And that is the win that I've learned from that loss. Life now has a different meaning and a different weight. Everything I do now is done with her in mind, knowing that she would've loved to continue living and doing. She always grabbed life by the horns... That's what I loved about her. I'm going to make sure that I continue to do that. I want to say, "I love you" to my friends and my family. I want to see them as much as I can — not just on Instagram, but in person to remind them that I love them. I want to see them. I wanna touch their faces. I want to continue to travel the world. I want to have experiences with them as much as I can. And I want to be myself as much as I can. ∎

59 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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If you go looking, you'll go finding.

JOHN MANN

CO-AUTHOR OF THE GO-GIVER MARRIAGE 60 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JOHN & ANA MANN

THE GO-GIVER MARRIAGE

A LITTLE STORY ABOUT THE FIVE SECRETS TO LASTING LOVE “To say love is what makes a marriage work is like saying it takes oxygen to climb a mountain. Yes, oxygen is necessary. But not sufficient.” Clinical therapist and marriage coach Ana Gabriel Mann and her husband, New York Times bestselling author John David Mann, are the authors of The Go-Giver Marriage, a little story about the five secrets to lasting love.

ALLIÉ: Let’s start at the beginning. Did you both reach for the same book at the library? Or swipe right on an app?

Please share the story of how the two of you met and a bit about your marriage.

JOHN: When we were kids in our twenties, one night we both attended the same party, and we had a Tony and Maria moment, like right out of West Side Story. Our eyes met across a crowded room, and we saw each other. I won't speak for Ana, but for me, I thought, "She's really cute...This person looks fascinating." We never met. I didn't even know her name. We never spoke a word until 20 years later when we both showed up for the same business event and happened to be involved in the same business enterprise. And we ended up as business colleagues and became fast friends. We read all the same books and loved all the same books. And over the years, that friendship turned into something more.

THE GO-GIVER MARRIAGE EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY ALLIÉ MERRICK MCGUIRE WITH JOHN & ANA MANN

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We want to help people learn how to drop the scorecard…

ANA MANN

CO-AUTHOR OF THE GO-GIVER MARRIAGE 62 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

It's tempting to say in times of difficulty,

“I didn't sign up for this.”

Actually, you did. You signed up for everything.

ALLIÉ: Amazing… You saw each other but never spoke until 20 years later. What else can you share about the two of you coming together?

ANA: I think I would say that there really were immediate sparks even at 20, when we saw each other across the room. And when we met 20 years later, we had both grown so much that there was a very different intellectual bond that happened as well. John is brilliant, and I found that conversations between us were like lightning. There was just a lot to say, and we had a lot in common. It was kind of a magical beginning in a certain way, but we remained just good friends for almost 10 years after that. We had a very long courtship because we had five teenagers between us from previous relationships. We both had a previous marriage, we had five teenagers, and we weren't interested in basically creating what we'd call in America, 'The Brady Bunch'. We weren't interested in merging five teenagers. So, we spent a long time getting to know each other and a long time dating. That was part of the power of our relationship actually... There wasn't any hurry to get married. We both knew that we were in the right place and it was just really about making sure that our children were comfortable and that everything was really in the right place.

ALLIÉ: A marriage with lasting love requires overcoming obstacles. As a married couple that helps other married couples, is there a personal story you could share about an obstacle of your own and how you overcame it?

ANA: This is a complex story. Not only had we both had marriages before, but our kids were still at home. We navigated the first few years of getting to know each other and dating, living in two states that were 10 hours apart.

John spent two weeks in Virginia with his children and then spent two weeks in Massachusetts with us. And I was not interested in him sharing a bed when I had a teenage daughter with special needs. I was not interested in confusing her in any way. For the first year or two, John had an apartment separate from our house. When he finally moved into our house, he lived in a bedroom downstairs with a private bath at the other end of the house, away from the two bedrooms and the shared bath that my daughter and I had upstairs. So, that was one challenge. I really wanted my daughter to be comfortable; I wanted no strangeness for her. I wanted to make certain that if she needed any kind of...

I wouldn't say 'reprimanding', because that's really not a part of our way of being, but I mean, if she needed any kind of correction in her path that was at my hands, not at his. There was one authority in the house and there were clear boundaries. During the 10 years that we were dating and knew we wanted to be married, all of our parents died during that time. There were illnesses. There were times when one of our parents had five surgeries in two years. It was my mother. Understanding that I had a teenage daughter, who was at a tender age and couldn't live alone, at times John lived in Massachusetts and watched my daughter and took care of the house. He made sure everything was good for her while I was in Florida attending to my mother and advocating for her at a hospital. Those were very challenging situations followed by me breaking my leg -- a compound fracture with over 30 fracture lines. I didn't walk for over a year. So, you put all those together, and it was a very challenging 10 years and that was all before we were married and in the first year we were married.

ALLIÉ: That's quite an obstacle... That's quite a series of obstacles actually.

JOHN: It's tempting to say in times of difficulty, "I didn't sign up for this." Actually, you did. You signed up for everything. When you fall in love with somebody, when you start a relationship with somebody, you sign up for the universe. You sign up for whatever happens. You're in.

63 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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ALLIÉ: Patience, trust, forgiveness. Is there an order of importance when it comes to marriage? What should be at the top of the requirement list?

JOHN: I'm going to say, top of my list would be patience, and by top I don't mean most important. I mean, it comes first. Ana and I had been friends and colleagues for years, and we did fall in love and the relationship deepened, I wanted to get married immediately. I knew that if I didn't get married to her right now, I would die. It would be like taking away food and water for a month. I would expire on the floor. And she said, "We can't do this. This is too soon."

And I fought it like a child having his lollipop taken away. I was in a tantrum, but she was absolutely right. Patience was called for. In retrospect, I would wish that I had been more patient the first time around. It takes time. I'll speak from my own experience. It certainly has taken me time to come to a real understanding of who I am just in myself, let alone who I am in a relationship. And I think one of the great failings of my first marriage... I was married to somebody who was a great person. We're all great people. Every human being alive is put here as a great person, but I was too young. It was too early. It was too fast. I didn't know who I was. We weren't a good match. We shouldn't have ever gotten married. It was a bad idea. The day I got married, I got married in a big Catholic church. My first wife was from a big Catholic family, and I don't have a Catholic background. The priest took me into a back room before the ceremony and showed me, without explaining a word, where the back door was and waited a few moments. It was only years later that I realized he was giving me a message. He knew this family. He had literally showed me the door.

It would've been wise if I had some introspection at that time. You know, we've had to have a lot of patience with the hardships that Ana described. I think sometimes it takes patience for the other two things you described, forgiveness and trust, to unfold.

ALLIÉ: A storybook, a guidebook and a discussion guide all in one, please tell us about tools we find in the tale ‘The Go-Giver Marriage’.

ANA: With The Go-Giver marriage, there's two sides to it, two halves. The first half is called the parable and the second half is called the practice. And the first premise of the practice is it's the guide. It's how to put the parable into action in your marriage. But it's also a statement on what love is. Just like a meditation practice or a prayer practice or a yoga practice, your marriage will only be as good as the energy you put into the practice of marriage. People think when they get married, that love is a state of being that once you feel that euphoric, romantic love that's going to be there forever, simply because you feel it right now. The truth is life happens, things happen, and even if life is relatively calm, you arrive at marriage with many, many suitcases of personal history and all those suitcases start magically unpacking... as soon as the honeymoon's over really. And the intimacy of the marriage is challenged by whatever personal material that you had in your history. For example, if you had a father who was very dismissive and very critical, then you kind of have a choice. And I've said this to many of the clients that I've had, who had that father, you have a choice. You're either going to be the person who's dismissive and critical, or you're going to marry the person who's dismissive and critical because you're seeking to heal. The basic premise of the book is that love is a practice, and the better you get at practicing the stronger your marriage will be. The more patient you are, the more the trust will build. The more the compassion will be there. All the elements that make a marriage great are born out of practicing what we call 'the five secrets to lasting love'. The five secrets are based on developmental theory. What I mean by developmental theory is the psychology of what did you need when you were a child that you also needed when you were an adolescent and guess what? You also need it now. So with developmental theory, even though we grow up and we become independent, all the things that we needed in early childhood, we still need today. And so all of the five secrets and in the second half of the book, the practice, are not only explained in the context of what each one means developmentally to you and why it's important and critical, but also what happens when you don't get it because you can feed a marriage or starve a marriage. We have this tree in the background, and that's an element that's in the parable. There's a wonderful little fable inside the parable, and there's a tree, a very magical tree. And the tree really is the marriage. The marriage can either be fed or it can be starved and the tree will reflect it. The marriage itself will reflect if you are feeding it or starving it? And when you practice these five secrets, it's as if you're, and I don't wanna say raising a child, but when you're raising a child, there are things that that child needs. And if they don't get those things that they need, there will be huge holes in their development. You can even arrest a child's development altogether with a certain amount of neglect. I mean, neglect is probably more profound than direct abuse when it comes to a child. Neglect leaves that child with no resources whatsoever and people neglect each other in marriages all the time. People think that having an affair is the big deal, but people ignore each other... They have friendships at work that are really powerful and important -- so called 'outside emotional relationships'. There are so many ways that 64 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Exclusive interview with John & Ana Mann

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ANA: (continued) you can neglect your partner. So, what we're really trying to share is a recipe, if you will, for how do you drop the score card? How do you stop keeping score with your partner? Because that's just another form of criticism. As long as you're keeping score, you're still trying to figure out what did I get and what did I lose? I did the dishes three times this week. What have you done? That's really not gonna get you there. That's a recipe for failure.

We want to help people learn how to drop the scorecard, be self aware, be emotionally mature and emotionally intelligent. We want to give people the everyday skills that will make such a difference in their marriage.

ALLIÉ: I won’t ask you to give away all five secrets revealed in your book, but can you share one?

JOHN: I'll share the first secret. They become progressively more deep in a sense. The first is really accessible, and it's one that we all know. It's one that we all put into practice when we're first in love. It's one that we all know intuitively. And if we're parents, we know that we have to do it for our kids, and we do it spontaneously, but we can forget it over time with each other. It's simply called 'appreciate'. The first secret is to take the time every day, multiple times a day, to find something about your partner that you love. You take a moment to tell them about it. There's two parts to it. It's finding the thing that you love. It's noticing -- taking the time to notice. Then it's also saying it out loud to the other person. And that may just take 30 seconds. It may take 60 seconds. It's a little thing. For some people that can feel awkward. We've been married for 15 years. I'm supposed to tell you what I love about you? It feels kind of weird -- especially guys, for some reason, will get weird about this. It can be like using a muscle that you haven't used for 15 years, but if you stop your spouse and say, "I just wanna tell you the way that you talked to me yesterday when I was so upset about work... I was upset. I didn't even know how to put it in words, but you just talked to me and you made me feel so much better about myself. I really appreciate that." That's all. Boom. Go on with our day. These can be huge things. These can be simple things. Do it three times a day. We even have people make a list on paper, and build the list. The cool thing about this, Allié, is that as you go in your marriage, you keep looking for new things to add on your list every day. It's like a gratitude list. It is a gratitude list, in a sense. The more things you find, the more things there are to look for. The more you look, the more you discover. It's like a treasure hunt. You engage in a treasure hunt about the other person. The fascinating thing is that it can last and will last the rest of your life. Every individual is an unexplored continent of great things to love and appreciate about them. If you go looking, you'll go finding. ∎

“To say love is what makes a marriage work is like saying it takes oxygen to climb a mountain. Yes, oxygen is necessary. But not sufficient.”

Learn more about John, Ana, and ‘The Go-Giver Marriage:

www.gogivermarriage.com

65 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Blindness, like my blackness, does not define me…

LEX GILLETTE

5X PARALYMPIC MEDALIST, 4X WORLD CHAMPION & KEYNOTE SPEAKER Photo Credit: Lex Gillette 66 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘NO NEED FOR SIGHT WHEN YOU HAVE VISION’ BY LEX GILLETTE

WHAT I NEED YOU TO SEE

A REQUEST WHEN I WALK UP ON STAGE Sunday, February 20th is the United Nations’ World Day of Social Justice. As fate would have it, it is also Black History Month here in the United States. As I reflect on what that means, it brings to mind some questions I was recently asked by a participant at one of my speeches.

“How do you perceive the world when you literally can’t see it? Do you think about race? Do you think about not being able to see race?”

I grew up in North Carolina which has a long history with race, racism, and the conversations that go with them. That being said, my family never told me white people were bad or that certain races were this way or that way. The message my family gave me growing up was, “We're all people. We all have something to offer the world.” I love that.

I love that my family instilled in me inclusivity and acceptance. Everyone has a purpose. Everyone means something.

“We are not victims of what others believe about us…”

That’s not to say that if you have that view, that everything is fair and hunky-dory. Or that I’ve never experienced prejudice or mistreatment for simply being Black. It’s there. It’s front and center in the national consciousness and as hot a topic as it’s ever been. Like I said, everyone means something, and everyone gets to choose what that something is. We are not bound by the thoughts of others. We are not victims of what others believe about us simply because of our race or what they perceive us to be.

When I lost my sight, it also put me in a spot where there was another box checked off. I became a person with a disability. Many perceive this as being a person with no ability. That’s simply not true. Like race, I’m not bound by their opinion. And perhaps it’s merely my perception, or how intimately I live with my own disability, but I do feel as if blindness is marginalized even more than many other disabilities. As far as the non-disabled are concerned, there are active, visible steps that can help normalize the experience for many disabilities. Ramps, elevators, wheelchairs, and prosthetics don’t create perfect replacements, but they apply a certain normalcy to how people interact with the world.

Blindness is foreign to most people. They wonder if I can read. If I can’t, am I smart? Maybe, but probably not book smart. Do I need someone to go with me everywhere? How can I possibly navigate the world on my own? (Note: I’ve been living on my own for nearly two decades. And while I owe a lot to my mother and teachers and coaches for teaching me to be independent, I bet everyone else could say the same thing.)

While my blindness has limited me in some ways, it has shown me a world where race can be a secondary conversation instead of a primary one. Race is not something that is top of mind as I interact with the world on a daily basis. My blindness helps me in that way.

For example, if someone who is Black approaches a group of people who just so happen to be white, there may be some actions or interactions I simply cannot see. A woman clutches her bag a little tighter, an unkind look, a finger pointing at the Black man to let people know I’m there and I’m different from them. I see none of this. I’m shielded from it.

Each of those folks will be treated like I treat everyone else, as a person of purpose and who means something.

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WINGS ARE JUST A DETAIL LEX GILLETTE @ TEDxSanDiego

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This means that race may not be top of mind, but I’m not naïve. As a young Black man with a voice, I know it’s important, vital even, that I shed light on mistreatment, discrimination, and the structures and strategies that need to be changed in America and everywhere. People of color need the same access and treatment as everyone else.

It’s my sincere hope that the current discussions around race are a real step at removing the barriers for those who have been marginalized, that we are moving toward a society that embraces our varied cultures. We all have to be willing to have an open conversation to make that society a reality.

As a Black athlete and a professional speaker, Black History Month is a busy time for me. My job takes me to a lot of places and puts me in front of a lot of people; rich, poor, gay, straight, black, brown, and white. But I don’t use that to primarily define who it is I’m speaking to. I’m going into those spaces and relating my experiences and opening up conversation. In return, there’s three things I need from them.

When I walk up on stage, I need them to see me as a man. I am Black. Everyone knows the mistreatment and discrimination that has historically come with being Black in America, and it clearly needs to be discussed even more.

More action is necessary.

When I walk up on stage, I need them to see me as a man. I am blind. Blindness, like my blackness, does not define me, does not make me less than.

When I walk up on stage, I need them to see me as a man, as an athlete, as intelligent, as a speaker, as one who is willing to have the conversations needed for everyone to know, “We are all people. We all have something to offer the world.” ∎ LEX GILLETTE

5x Paralympic Medalist, 4x World Champion & Keynote Speaker www.awarenessties.us/lex-gillette LEX GILLETTE has quickly become one of the most sought after keynote speakers on the market. Losing his sight at the age of eight was painful to say the least, but life happens. Things don’t always go your way. You can either stay stuck in frustration because the old way doesn’t work anymore, or you can create a new vision for your life, even if you can’t see how it will happen just yet. His sight was lost, but Lex acquired a renewed vision, a vision that has seen him become the best totally blind long and triple jumper Team USA has ever witnessed.

68 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Legend pushed his way in, got on his knees, and hugged the boy.

LEGEND

FORMER U.S. ARMY STAFF SERGEANT, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST & EVACUATION SPECIALIST 70 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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‘ACCORDING TO LEGEND’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY LEGEND

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TALIBAN

TO DEFEAT THE ENEMY, YOU MUST FIRST KNOW THE ENEMY TRIGGER WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS FIRST HAND INFORMATION ON THE TALIBAN AND TERRORISM.

I’ll refer to myself in the third person. Outside looking in on my life, both past and present, I will share my lived experiences and what I’ve learned along the way. You can call me ‘Legend’, a name given to me by those seeking my help. It is my goal with this column to help you and others become more aware.

It’s September 2021, all American soldiers have left Afghanistan and terrorist networks have seized power…

The nation’s economy has collapsed and the freedoms of children, women and men have been snatched away. No more employment for women, no more rights for women. Men are told what to wear, how to wear their beards, and those once employed in the previous government, tormented. Children, well, they too are not entirely innocent if their Afghan parents ever supported and believed in the American “infidels’” vision for democracy for Afghanistan.

In such conditions, Legend had returned to Afghanistan to rescue the Americans left behind as well as the Afghans facing imminent danger.

At the eastern border town of Torkham, a group of men had circled around a very loud old woman. Legend was still able to hear her from a distance even though it sounded as if she had lost her voice from screaming. As he got closer, he noticed the old woman, although appearing terribly sad, had no tears yet men gathered around sobbed.

“She did not want to let him go, but she was there to sell her grandson.”

“Buy my grandson,” she kept repeating. “We are hungry.” she kept putting the child on his feet then picking him back up again and hugged him. She did not want to let him go, but she was there to sell her grandson. Legend wanted to walk away not only for operational security but because this was a sad and recent reality he kept hearing about. Some villagers were selling their children in order to afford feeding their other children and to keep them alive. Legend took a few steps back but images of a 1-year-old child (his daughter) back in America, wouldn’t let him take another step back. Legend pushed his way in, got on his knees, and hugged the boy. He then touched the woman’s feet saying, “Mother, I swear by my Lord in whose hand is my soul, I will support your grandson, let’s return.” It was then that the old woman cried, but she did return.

Who and what unearthly thing has brought a noble and family-oriented people to the brink of calamity where they are forced to sell their own flesh in order to feed their blood—one’s own child? That unearthly thing isn’t Afghan but a foreign trained, foreign backed, and foreign supported terrorists Taliban regime.

In the mind of a Talib, he is fighting for God. He is a soldier on earth tasked to “purify” others and make the impure just like them. That’s exactly what he was told when going through training across the border. God loves the Taliban and God is angry at the Afghans who asked for freedom, change and hope.

71 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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The Taliban were taught how to wear an explosive vest and how to detonate and blow up schools…

LEGEND

FORMER U.S. ARMY STAFF SERGEANT, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST & EVACUATION SPECIALIST 72 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“They were created with a purpose, and that’s to terrorize and conquer.”

The Taliban were taught how to wear an explosive vest and how to detonate and blow up schools to turn children into pieces. Ways to use a knife, any knife, even a kitchen knife to slice the necks of people. No Talib was ever taught Algebra or Economics 101 classes but instead “How To Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom”.

They weren’t trained across the border to lead a nation or to bring about a stable economy for the benefit of the people. No, they were trained to terrorize to the point where an average citizen would tremble at hearing the footsteps of a bloodthirsty Talib. Why? Because God is angry at the Afghans and God loves the “holy” Talib for “purifying” the Emirates from within. Once purified, this Emirate is from where armies carrying the Taliban flag will march eastwards and westwards, and they will not rest until they plant their flag over a place called the White House, ruled by a group of people the Talibs were able to “defeat” in Afghanistan, and so why not defeat them in their own territory?

What else is in the Talib’s psyche?

If you are hungry in-the-now purified Emirates, it must be because God is punishing you. After all, why else would you be jobless, cashless and without food? See the Taliban right over there laughing and eating? They seem satisfied.

Why? Because God loves them. You want food, job, rights or security? Ask God. If you speak, the Taliban will silence you. If you are silent, perhaps all is well and God has started loving you.

America, this is the psyche of the Taliban who—although not organized—are definitely a motley crime syndicate with terroristic intent bent on your destruction.

They were created with a purpose and that’s to terrorize and conquer.

Let us not forget and let us make sure the world remembers, that the Global War against Terrorism is not over and the Afghans who are continuing that war right now. We don’t have to join them in the valleys of Panjshir, but what choice do we have other than supporting their National Resistance Front.

The morality, duty, and responsibility of being a super power demands U.S. assist Afghans.

This is Legend and you are aware now. ∎

LEGEND GROUP

Legend Group is a humanitarian operation to rescue Americans, Afghan allies and minorities living in imminent danger from the Taliban persecution, especially religious minorities.

www.legend.ngo

LEGEND

Former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant, Human Rights. Activist & Evacuation Specialist www.awarenessties.us/legend LEGEND is an Afghan-American, former U.S. Army Staff Sergeant currently working tirelessly to evacuate atrisk humans from persecution by the terrorists. Since the fall of Kabul in August 2021, Legend has assisted hundreds of at-risk Afghans, U.S. citizens, U.S. lawful permanent residents, vetted-allies, and persecuted religious minorities to safety. Most recently, he returned to Afghanistan to personally aid in the evacuations. He continues to work day and night with numerous stakeholder groups who call on “Legend” to assist those in desperate need. Prior to the 2021 evacuation efforts, he served in the U.S. military directly in Afghanistan and then focused on anti-terrorism efforts.

73 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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I am so passionate about humanity coming together…

KARLA BALLARD

FOUNDER & CEO OF YING 74 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH KARLA BALLARD

CURRENCY FOR HUMANKIND CREATING COMMUNITY CAPITAL

Imagine a virtual marketplace where your skills and your time build value, create opportunity and foster community. Picture a place where intersectionality and community blends with everyday transactional services, where no matter who we are or where we come from, there’s a place for everyone to create a world of worth and impact. Welcome to YING. Karla Ballard is the Founder and CEO of this peer to peer skill sharing platform that offers an alternative to the currency construct.

ALLIÉ: “Today, I think I’ll create a new system for currency.” I’m sure you didn’t randomly wake up one day and make this statement to yourself. Please share the story behind the story of YING.

KARLA: I was inspired by Dr. Edgar Cahn who founded an indigenous model for skillsharing called time banking. As a former banker I found the idea of banking time super interesting. Two decades later three things took place in society that led me to start YING:

1) P2P Payments through Venmo

2) Sharing Economy projected to be $335 billion dollars by 2026

3) Blockchain gave way to tokenizing other forms of value as currency

CURRENCY FOR HUMANKIND EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY ALLIÉ MCGUIRE WITH KARLA BALLARD

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75 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Our movement is about placing value back into supporting the deeper interconnectedness we all seek and need to thrive.

KARLA BALLARD

FOUNDER & CEO OF YING 76 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

ALLIÉ: In recent times, the traditional construct for currency has been challenged with the introduction and infusion of cryptocurrency. Many, including myself, are still very confused about this form of currency. Please share in the simplest terms possible how this human currency system works?

KARLA: There are two economies at play in society 1) Monetary Economy and the CARE Economy which is made up of groups and people we have a particular affinity for and who we decide to spend time and resources with. The ability to share life and tasks between family, friends, and colleagues and not solely non-relational entities. There’s an even more profound desire to have deeper felt connections especially after the pandemic. Soul-filled transactions… connected to a higher mission will be way more sought after than non-relational transactions. Group Skillsharing is a new lifestyle giving groups the ability to upload their skills and willingness to gift in-kind to their colleagues, family and friends. A Group Admin signs up for an account, and then once approved, they are given a group code to give out to Members. The Members download the YING Group Skillsharing APP or go to the website www.yingme.app to create a new account where they can immediately begin skillsharing with others who have signed up. All members start with 24 Balance Tokens in their accounts, with one balance token equal to one hour of tasks. They can ask for any kind of assistance or task that they need. The Group Admin can even post tasks for help to sustain group needs. Our goal is truly to build a more connected culture and truly democratize abundance.

ALLIÉ: Of all the names you could have given your peer to peer platform, you chose YING. What does it mean?

KARLA: I was in the Hollywood Hills and I asked Spirit what the name should be and my attention went to the leaf of the tree in my front yard. At that moment what came was the yin versus the yang - that combined gives us perfect balance and harmony and that’s what we are called to bring back - the balance behind both our economies.

ALLIÉ: Prepared to serve United States citizens, you are a former 2020 Vice President Candidate for the Independent party. As Founder of YING, your commitment to service has now broadened to include all global citizens. Why is this level of inclusivity important to you?

KARLA: I am an Afro Indigenous Euro so all citizens matter to me. I am a descendant of Nigerian, Cherokee and European ancestors. I am the 5th generation granddaughter of VP Burr - the founder of Manhattan Bank now JP Morgan Chase… I am so passionate about humanity coming together and realizing we are way more interweaved than we want to ever imagine.

ALLIÉ: The lexicon alone used to define your direction with YING is inspiring. Love for you to speak for a moment about ‘community capital’.

KARLA: We are innately more valuable than what we acknowledge - money draws us to look outside of ourselves for fulfillment and validation - money causes us to hunger for more money to extrinsically seek inner value. The more we go within there’s a sense of intrinsic value that we gain that often gets overlooked until our last moment in this time continuum we’re in. At that point we recognize the most valuable asset we as humans are given is the time we spend with the people and experiences that allow us to vibrate at our highest frequencies. Our movement is about placing value back into supporting the deeper interconnectedness we all seek and need to thrive. If I can now, after connecting and building a heart and soul bond with you, Allie…. show up to support you in-kind for whatever you needed… that form of currency supersedes what we now know as fiat currency. You see that currency I just described is what we call Currency for Humankind. ∎

Learn more about YING and join the community:

www.yingme.co

77 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

It symbolises spiritual growth and personal development.

LAURA ‘AURA’ WESTCOTT

SINGER, MENTAL HEALTH CAMPAIGNER & AWARENESS TIES OFFICIAL AMBASSADOR Photo Credit: Chun Wah Ng 78 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

FEATURE STORY WITH LAURA WESCOTT

22:22

A N A L B U M T O S U P P O R T M E N TA L H E A LT H Mental health campaigner and Awareness Ties Ambassador, Laura Westcott, who sings under the name ‘Aura’, is releasing her debut album 22:22 with composer Chris Marshall, combining spoken & sung meditational techniques with beautiful music to help improve mental wellbeing globally.

Aura’s debut album 22:22 is a combination of emotive music, ethereal singing, Latin affirmations and ASMR (auto sensory meridian response) to take listeners on a musical safari of the mind and help with their personal development.

Laura’s friends gifted her a voice recorder for her birthday in April 2020 (during Lockdown one), which she used to record her voice with composer Chris ‘Wood’ Marshall to help people overcome anxiety and sleep better. Laura met Chris through a mutual friend two weeks before lockdown and all their work is recorded remotely. Laura said, “It’s not easy hitting those high notes hunched over a handheld mic under my duvet! It gets quite claustrophobic at times; which I used to my advantage whilst recording the Chrysalis phase before MetaMorphosis. I literally felt like I was in a cocoon so it was easy to convey”.

Laura explains why the album is called 22:22. “I often unknowingly send/receive messages with my producer Chris Marshall at 22:22 hence us choosing the name. For me it symbolises a clear sign to stop and assess if we are in alignment with our authentic self and higher purpose. It symbolises spiritual growth and personal development”.

The album is a journey through life: experiencing love, loss, self-discovery and authenticity. Spanning birth to death with real raw emotions. The vocals for ‘Other Side’ were recorded immediately after Laura received a phone call from her best friend Laura Innes saying she had terminal cancer. The crying heard when Laura sings “Te amo” (I love you) is real. ∎

CHRYSALIS FROM LAURA WESTCOTT’S DEBUT ALBUM 22:22

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79 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Celebrate colour to us means I see and love the uniqueness of myself and the uniqueness of others.

CLAIRE MKPARU

CO-FOUNDER OF AKWA BABY 80 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘GLOBAL GOOD’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY TANITH HARDING

AKWA BABY

A CONVERSATION WITH FOUNDERS OGO & CLAIRE MKPARU Ogo and Claire Mkparu are husband and wife founders of unique unisex clothing brand Akwa Baby, an African inspired clothing company that carries a positive social narrative around self-love, confidence and the celebration of colour. They are passionate about creating a world of acceptance and bringing diversity and vibrancy to a market that is currently flooded with traditional western colour palettes.

TANITH: Ogo you talk passionately about your childhood and the lack of black representation and teaching in schools. What was your experience as a black youth growing up in the UK?

OGO: I was born in the UK but at the age of six my family moved back to Nigeria and I lived there until I was 14. In Nigeria the majority of people were black, the President, doctors, police officers, everyone was black, so it didn't seem like a barrier to enter certain things. If you were clever enough and your family had money to send you to university you could study and become or do whatever you needed to. When I came back here I had that same thinking, that the world was my oyster, but then I started noticing that there was clearly some sort of divide. I did some work experience at a barristers chambers, and it was overwhelmingly old school English public school educated people and I suddenly realised that certain places were harder for you to break into if you hadn't come from a white background.

AKWA BABY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY TANITH HARDING WITH OGO & CLAIRE MKPARU

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81 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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We wanted them to always feel pride in their heritage.

CLAIRE MKPARU

CO-FOUNDER OF AKWA BABY 82 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“…we started to learn about how the symbols tell stories between the generations.”

OGO: (continued) I didn't see many other people like me doing things that I wanted to do. Maybe if I had more of a keen eye on sports and entertainment I might have felt better than looking at entrepreneurship at the time. It didn't seem easily accessible for me. That was something that affected the way I thought about myself, and also as I grew older, I started thinking about things like the Live Aid song. Before I'd gone back to Nigeria my school had sent canned goods to Ethiopia to help the poor people. I listened to those lyrics, ‘nothing ever grows, no rain, or rivers flow’ and it’s just such a damaging idea of the whole of Africa. Of course there's a lot of poverty but that's not all, there's so much more. When you have those sort of perceptions put into your consciousness as a child, I started growing up thinking that maybe as a people we were less than, and that's a terrible way for a young teenager to see themselves.

TANITH: Claire your childhood was a stark contrast to this and you have mentioned that your awareness of ethnic minorities was very limited until you met Ogo. Now that you’re a mother, you have talked about parenting being a form of activism. What does that look like to you?

CLAIRE: It doesn't have to be anything extreme. If you look at what activism is at its core, it's taking action to create change. It's calling on parents to not rest on their laurels, that society is moving forward. Black history is now taught in schools and there's conversations that didn't happen before, but what happens in the home is still the most influential place for a child. They really do listen to everything, and they'll repeat everything you say and if you don't have the conversations that are important, sometimes uncomfortable conversations about race and diversity you're teaching your children that it's a taboo topic. That there's something wrong with discussing these things, I think it's about working together to create a more conscious and confident generation and that means, if you live in a predominantly white area, that you introduce diversity into your home through conversation or toys, books and television programmes, etc, that you do something and not sit back and do nothing at all.

TANITH: Akwa Baby is much more than a clothing brand! Talk me through the concept and meaning behind the label?

OGO: My family in Nigeria were divided by tribes. One of the tribes is Igbo and I speak the language. In my language Akwa means clothes or cloth. I thought that was an amazing name for us to use and it's got that connection to my heritage. We felt that because African clothing tells stories it would be an amazing opportunity for us to use our clothes to tell our story. What we've done with our OBI print is artworked meaningful symbols into the design, so you've got the African desert rose that represents the proverb 'family names are like flowers, they blossom in clusters, two lions both male and female on there to symbolse courage, incidentally my daughter's middle name is Lioness!

We've also included an ancient African writing symbol which is about 5000 years old, that represents 'Chi'. Chi in my language is described as God, but it's more your personal God, your guiding spirit, so everybody has their own Chi. This symbol along with the really vibrant colours we've used represents the celebration of colour, uniqueness and diversity.

CLAIRE: Parenthood is life changing and it makes you reflect on your own experiences as a child and that's when we first started having conversations about our experiences. It was so important to Ogo that his children never grow up feeling less than, that they always feel confident. We talked about how can we do this? We wanted them to always feel pride in their heritage. We were looking at materials to have little outfits made for them and that's when we started to learn about how the symbols tell stories between the generations. We thought that was amazing. What if we created this print that carried our messages to the new generation and the affirmations that we ended up crafting into the print were ‘I am loved. I am courageous. I celebrate colour.’ Celebrate colour to us means I see and love the uniqueness of myself and the uniqueness of others.

83 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

TANITH: I love that the clothing that you are creating carries a story and a legacy that can be left behind through the patterns you have created. What legacy do you hope to leave for the next generation?

CLAIRE: We have a vision that every child grows up in a world where they feel valued. That is driving everything that we do with Akwa Baby. That's what we try and come back to with every single movement.

OGO: I owned a business in property for a long time. I hadn't necessarily been loving and enjoying what I was doing.

It was something that provided for me and my family. I realised kids don't listen to a word you say; they copy what you do. I wanted my children to grow up knowing that they can be the best version of themselves. They can be, do or have anything they put their minds to. I realised I can't be preaching that to my children when they look at me every day going to work, feeling dejected, thinking ‘you don't look happy, and then you're going to tell me that I should go out and pursue my dream? Come on’. So I thought about setting up this business, which we're genuinely passionate about. It allows us to work from home and spend time with our children. I pick up and drop off my kids to nursery every day. I'm hoping that as they grow up, that instead of potentially taking a job that they don't have any passion for they would be inspired to do something that they actually love. I think they're more likely to have a positive impact on the world if they're doing something they genuinely love.

TANITH: As Akwa baby grows and expands, what are your hopes and dreams for the future?

CLAIRE: The main reason we started Akwa Baby was shopping for our children and seeing on the high street rows of pinks and blues, western style prints and really cliche messaging. We hated the fact that if you had really bold colourful prints or any reference to African culture within fashion, it was seen as a passing trend and I just thought it deserves to be so much more. It should be in the mainstream—these bold unisex colours. We wanted to create some ripples in the marketplace. We wanted it to be really inclusive and to reach as many families and children as possible with our prints and message. We’d love to become a positive hub to encourage parents to have confidence in opening up conversations about race and equality. We've got all sorts of hopes and dreams for Akwa baby.

OGO: I’d love to see more people wearing bright colourful clothing, especially in this country, I remember getting stopped at a petrol station recently because I was wearing an African top and the guy commented on it. Certainly brightened up my day and I would love to see more people wearing and doing that. I also hope that when people recognise the African origin on some of the patterns it helps to dispel the old vision of Africa, the one of hopelessness and famine. To see a more modern version, where there is poverty and famine and these things need to be addressed, but there's so much more. We've got such high culture, amazing history and especially the youth in Africa doing some amazing things. I think Afrobeats has been helping with that and people's perception of it is changing. I would really like my children to grow up in a world where there's more of a positive perception of Africa. ∎

AKWA BABY

www.beyondbamboo.life/pages/seller-profile?akwa-baby TANITH HARDING

Director of International Development, The Legacy Project, RoundTable Global www.awarenessties.us/tanith-harding Tanith is leading change management through commitment to the RoundTable Global Three Global Goals of: Educational Reform, Environmental Rejuvenation & Empowerment for All. She delivers innovative and transformational leadership and development programmes in over 30 different countries and is also lead on the international development of philanthropic programmes and projects. This includes working with a growing team of extraordinary Global Change Ambassadors and putting together the Global Youth Awards which celebrate the amazing things our young people are doing to change the world.

84 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

You can feel whole again.

RUTH SWISSA

C.M.M. CLINICAL MEDICAL MICROPIGMENTATION 86 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘FELLOW TRAVELERS’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY LAURA SHARPE

THE MEDICAL ARTIST

A CONVERSATION WITH RUTH SWISSA In September 2017, I and Artists For Trauma (AFT) had the gift of being introduced to Ruth Swissa, C.M.M., via our philanthropic, community integrative health collaboration team sparked by humanitarian Sharon Levine, then executive producer for EXTRA TV, lead plastic surgeon, Dr. Andrew Frankel of the renowned Lasky Clinic in Beverly Hills, California, Artists For Trauma, Dr. Peter Grossman of The Grossman Burn Foundation and Ruth Swissa C.M.M. Ruth has provided her time, medical talent and treasure, to disfigured trauma survivors via her long term, integrative health treatments, collaborating with renowned plastic surgeons and non-profits to reconstruct and empower some of the globes’ most challenged trauma survivors disfigured by breast cancer reconstruction, horrific burns from multiple causes, and other life altering scarring incidents. It is an honor to introduce you to the integrative health professional Ruth Swissa, a highly trained certified medical micropigmentation specialist with over 25 years of professional, international medical training and experience.

LAURA: Ruth, please introduce yourself and share a bit about yourself. No one can do it better than you.

RUTH: My name is Ruth Swissa. I’m a medical micropigmentation specialist. I am second generation PMU (Permanent Make Up) & medical tattoo artist . For 25 years, I’ve studied micropigmentation for scars. Of course, with all of this, I have a background of art. I graduated in 1985 from art school, and I’m so happy because I know it’s things

THE MEDICAL ARTIST

LAURA: That is really beautifully stated. That is the strength of our integrative health partnership and what you have been providing for all these decades with your training as a medical professional and as an artist. I also share with our viewers, the focus of the ‘Fellow Travelers’ column, that this particular edition of AwareNow is called ‘The Light EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH RUTH SWISSA BY LAURA SHARPE Edition’. It’s about finding light in the dark. So, know that trauma, tragedy and miracles are all a part of the life process.

They do not discriminate or distribute fairly. Simultaneously, it’s amazing what we’ve learned about life and trauma. It’s occurring across all diverse cultures, ethnicities, colors, countries, genders, religions and humanity. You’ve worked with many, many extraordinarily challenged traumas survivors beyond most people’s imaginations, and you do it with so much positivity.

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87 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT CLEAN EDITION EDITION

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We do it step by step, and we never give up.

RUTH SWISSA

C.M.M. CLINICAL MEDICAL MICROPIGMENTATION 88 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

RUTH: (continued) that collide together. It’s artistic and medical at the same time. I’m so happy to share my knowledge with people that need my help.

LAURA: That is really beautifully stated. That is the strength of our integrative health partnership and what you have been providing for all these decades with your training as a medical professional and as an artist. I also share with our viewers, the focus of the ‘Fellow Travelers’ column, that this particular edition of AwareNow is called ‘The Light Edition’. It’s about finding light in the dark. So, know that trauma, tragedy and miracles are all a part of the life process.

They do not discriminate or distribute fairly. Simultaneously, it’s amazing what we’ve learned about life and trauma. It’s occurring across all diverse cultures, ethnicities, colors, countries, genders, religions and humanity. You’ve worked with many, many extraordinarily challenged traumas survivors beyond most people’s imagination, and you do it with so much positivity and respect. There’s a lot of magic that happens when someone meets you because they come to you completely decimated.

RUTH: It’s true. They see me as… ‘the magical person’. I don’t say it this way, because it’s far from that. I wish I had the wand to fix the world, but that’s not how it works. The idea is to come and see that they have hope in my hands.

And that to me is huge. It’s driving me to work on them and make it happen. That’s the most important because they are feeling that they have hope. They put it in my room, in my hands, and how could I actually destroy this little bit of hope that someone has?

LAURA: That is so true. And being a life altered trauma survivor, we’ve known each other a long time — personally and professionally. From complete disfigurement, I had such a blessed recovery from a tragic and traumatic event, a burn survivor, a helicopter crash survivor, myself. One of the things I wanted to ask you is how does trust impact your relationship with your patients?

RUTH: In the beginning, they come with hope. They don’t know if I can really do it, but for them, even a little bit is huge. When I hear this and I feel like I know I can do more than just a little bit, I take it as a project for me. I really put all of my knowledge, soul, talent, and everything I have from all my years to this specific project. I don’t care how long it’s going to take. Some of them have come, and they are with me for 8 months. We do it step by step, and we never give up. We know it will get better. We know it will be okay. You can feel whole again. That for me, is a blessing — for me and for her. I can’t even explain the joy I have from that.

LAURA: It is undefinable. I would also share that I feel that you adapt to each particular individual. As human beings we’re not cookie cutters. We have similar emotions, but the way we handle our traumas are different. So, I would imagine that they come in particular terrified. Our goal is to find that spark of hope. But when they come in that decimated, and they don’t even recognize themselves… I feel that one of the most important healing components is love and respect. And you bring that to each and every one of these individuals.

What are some of the feelings that your patients share about how their scars and disfigurement impact their self worth as well as their physical mobility?

RUTH: Let’s talk about a specific patient that I have. She was burned, half of her face. Her ex-boyfriend threw battery acid at her face and destroyed half of her face. She is very beautiful, and he has an amazing attitude. That’s one thing that makes this story already beautiful, but you can tell that she doesn’t want to take pictures. She wants to show only the other side or a very different angle. When I started working with her and giving her back the color of her skin, creating her lips and eyebrows back to normal, it can take a long time — months or years. I try to teach them… “You know what? Let me tell you. You now need to start to love yourself. Love those scars. Love everything that will happen to you, because it has a reason.” She’s not from the United States. She went back to South Africa. I’m so happy because she’s become an ambassador to talk there, because it’s very common for them to throw acid on young girls if they think something is not right to them. You see that today she is teaching people to love themselves and to love their scars. I am thrilled. Yes, she looks amazing, but with any scar, it’s a scar. We’re going to make it better. What happens is they start to love the new them. I love it. This is the main thing for me. When I see that I get this point to people, it’s a miracle for me. It’s a miracle… Then it’s amazing that I have some people coming in and saying, “You see this scar? I want it gone.” It’s not happening. It’s not going to go. It’s a scar. It can get better, but don’t say ‘gone’.

89 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

It’s like a puzzle, where we work together - the doctor, the patient, and me.

RUTH SWISSA

C.M.M. CLINICAL MEDICAL MICROPIGMENTATION 90 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“The most difficult thing in this process is to accept.”

LAURA: We’re looking forward to sharing with our readers some before-and-afters. We realize and respect that some of these photos may be really difficult to look at, but this is what we’re talking about. Life happens. Trauma happens, when you least expect it. It comes from a variety of reasons — illness, injury, civilian violence. Different cultures feel it’s okay to behave in certain ways to disrespect each other, for example throwing acid on a woman to shame her. To that point that you were sharing, Ruth, that’s what I was talking about. I used that word, ‘magic’, because in that process, the miracles taking place are undefinable really. This is the power of the human spirit and the power of collaboration.

One of the things that you love about working with the trauma survivors is when they begin to see their beauty — their internal and external beauty. Self acceptance. They begin reintegrating back into the life process, honoring their new self. Your techniques are so incredible, and I loved the way you defined beauty and how you translate that to your patients through your art and your medical prowess. What is most difficult about the procedural techniques? You mentioned it’s such a long term recovery process for people. How would you define some of the greatest difficulties with this process?

RUTH: The most difficult thing in this process is to accept. Second, for me, it’s when I work on burns. It’s very hard.

We need to fight it. We need to make it happen. We need to keep fighting it again and again. Sometimes, with the back and forth, they lose hope sometimes. When they come back, I need to remind them that it will be there. We are together in this. I need to bring them back to the mission. We have a mission, and we need to finish it. That’s the difficulty. People coming with this hope. Then there’s ups and downs. It’s happened to a lot of girls that I’ve worked with. In the end, they’re like, “Oh my God. I cannot believe this.” We show them the before-and-afters. They even forget sometimes, because they got used to it. They accepted it.

LAURA: Ruth, you work on many different extreme types of physical trauma that affects these survivors, not only physically, but mentally, emotionally and sexually, in terms of self identification. I agree and respect how you identify with that. Probably the most difficult thing is how they feel about themselves and helping them stay in the process.

Continuing to fuel that hope, that’s through listening and respecting. It’s probably one of the first times that they are sharing the depth of their story.

RUTH: Most likely, they go through the medical. The doctor will do the job, but we can’t forget there is a lot of psychology in there, because now they can actually express to someone what they are thinking and feeling. When they do the surgery, the surgeon will ‘fix it’. That’s the technical thing. But to shine the work of this doctor, it’s actually me. I’m trying to make it look beautiful. It’s like a puzzle, where we work together — the doctor, the patient, and me.

LAURA: It’s your skill. It’s the finishing work. We want to make sure that we are educating and sharing this work of community collaboration on this side of trauma. In the ‘Fellow Travelers’ column, not only are we interviewing the trauma survivors and the thrivers, but also the individuals who are providing this incredible, powerful medical collaboration. It takes an incredible team. But the finish work that you do, Ruth, is so extraordinary. I’m so excited to share the before-and-after photos. You see the joy in these women’s faces. You see… I know that we honor their journey. We see their pain.

91 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

Photo Credit: Ruth Swissa 92 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“…your gratitude and this opportunity to serve is a great example of finding the light.”

RUTH: I am blessed to be there for this journey. Every time I am blessed to be part of this journey. Every project, every person, every time I am touching them, I feel part of them. It’s strong. It’s very strong.

LAURA: I feel that speaks so beautifully about finding light in the darkness. Through the medical, artistic treatment and the human connection, your gratitude and this opportunity to serve is a great example of finding the light. I want to say that your patients are completely reinvented. They are so transformed following your human connection and your medical application. You are a medical artist. ∎

Ruth Swissa, C.M.M.

www.ruthswissa.com

Instagram: @ruthswissamedspa Breast Cancer Reconstruction

www.breastcancer.org/treatment/surgery/reconstruction

The California Society of Facial Plastic Surgeons

www.csfps.org/about/mission-statement

Dr. Andrew Frankel with Kechi Okwuchi

www.drandrewfrankel.com

Instagram: @drandrewfrankel Artists For Trauma, The Kechi Love Project and Per Bernal Photography

artistsfortrauma.org/2018/11/extra-tv-kechi-love-project-with-artists-for-trauma

Transformed Fellow Traveler Kechi Okwuchi:

www.kechiofficial.com

Singer/Songwriter, Speaker & Author

Instagram: @kechiofficial

LAURA SHARPE

Artists For Trauma Founder & Executive Director, Trauma Survivor & Artist www.awarenessties.us/laura-sharpe LAURA SHARPE contributes to AwareNow with her exclusive column, ‘Fellow Travelers’. Trauma, tragedy and miracle are all part of the life process. They do not discriminate nor are they fairly distributed. Simultaneously they occur across all diverse cultures, countries, colors, ethnicities, genders, religious beliefs, and dimensions of time and thought on planet Earth. In this process of life, birth and re-birth; decay and destruction are integral to creating new life. As fellow travelers, we are mindful, compassionate, and intentional through our attitude and actions to one another. We share our authentic personal story of survival or service to offer relatability, respect and hope to others who are navigating intense physical, mental and emotional life impact. Uncomfortably or joyfully, we share the range of human emotions related to our personal trauma or miracle. In the end or the new beginning, we learn we are all fellow travelers.

93 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

I allowed my tears to water my soul…

SAGE GALLON

MULTI-MEDIA ARTIST, AUTHOR & OFFICIAL AMBASSADOR FOR HOMELESSNESS AWARENESS 94 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘SAGE ADVICE’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY SAGE GALLON

HEALING

NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT I spent so much of my life pointing my finger at others until I realized that when I did, three fingers were pointing back at me.

It was then I began to heal. I allowed my tears to water my soul, and I realized that the SH*T of my life could become the fertilizer that will grow a stronger me than I started with… some things, I’ve come to understand, are done FOR us not TO us. Healing is not a spectator sport. ∎

SAGE GALLON

Multi-Media Artists, Author & Official Ambassador for Homelessness Awareness www.awarenessties.us/sage-gallon SAGE GALLON is a published & award winning multi-media artist. His paintings, photographs, books, music and films present common themes of our humanity with ingenious artistry and inspiring articulation. Despite the losses he’s endured in his life, the wins he’s gained along the way serve as a light for so many lost in the dark.

95 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

Tulum is considered to be an energy vortex…

CHARLOTTE ALEXANDRA

FOUNDER & CEO OF CULTUROSITY 96 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘FEARLESS’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY CHARLOTTE ALEXANDRA

TULUMINATION NO LIGHT WITHOUT THE DARK

After two years of isolation, restrictions, and madness brought on by the global health crisis, many individuals are looking to break free from the restraints of modern day city life.

Offering a glimmer of hope in an era of darkness is a once small town called Tulum, Mexico. Its sandy white beaches, adventurous jungles, glamorous nightlife, combined with (most significantly) its spiritual heritage is calling out to many entrepreneurs, artists, and other eccentric living souls to reconnect with themselves, with others and especially with the world.

Tulum is considered to be an energy vortex — a place that allows the field of our own electro-magnetic field to be amplified by nature’s energy. Those that venture to Tulum say this energy allows us to release old trauma and heal old wounds. The magic of Tulum is rooted in the ease of available spiritual and healing facilities such as yoga retreats, shamanic coaching services, cacao ceremonies, temazcal, ecstatic dance, and medicinal plants, offering aid to the ones in search of a better reality.

In this new ‘out of this world’ reality show, we follow 8 free spirited souls on an epic journey towards spiritual enlightenment in one of the most stunning locations in the universe.

After the madness brought on by the global pandemic, Charlotte Alexandra Rabin decides to escape the lockdown in her hometown of Antwerp, Belgium and flee into the jungles of Tulum in order to create a better future and leave her old life behind, only upon arrival to ‘coincidentally’ bump into an old acquaintance — Andy Newton Lee. The chance encounter reminds her of a ‘past life’ in LA (a life full of vanity and ego) and how both of them are on a journey to transform into their true selves by letting go of demons from the past to create a better version of reality.

Former UK Soap Actor, Andy Newton Lee, spent 15 years living and working in LA as the CEO of relocation company Next Stop LAX. As a successful businessman, leading a celebrity lifestyle, Andy seemed to have it all. Yet he never felt fulfilled, and his ego led him into a life of endless partying and superficial friendships, until one night Andy was found alone in his car, passed out. He was brought to UCLA to be placed into a medically induced coma. When Andy finally woke up after this near death experience he wondered what the catalyst was for this catastrophic meltdown which nearly cost him his life. He wondered how had he become so disconnected from his true self.

This series follows Andy, with an ensemble cast in search of answers as he moves to Tulum on a spiritual mission to reconnect with himself, and with the world by inspiring others to join him on a journey to create a better future in one of the most epic locations in the world.

Powered by Eleven11 Media - EBC plus & Next Stop Tulum, this is Tulumination. ∎ CHARLOTTE ALEXANDRA

Founder & CEO of Culturosity www.awarenessties.us/charlotte-alexandra CHARLOTTE ALEXANDRA, founder & CEO of Culturosity is a business mentor, empowerment coach & serial entrepreneur with a passion for Media. She is on a mission to help You unlock your fullest potential! Helping people around the globe expand, grow, connect and to build a business they are proud of, a life they love and a mindset that will take them places. After kickstarting her career in Marketing + Advertising following a journalism & communications degree, she decided to launch Eleven11 Media Networks. Creating a platform for likeminded creatives to collaborate on spreading a positive message through media. Her work as both an entrepreneur and a media coach has provided her with an international network of inspirational and influential associates ranging from entrepreneurs, business leaders, public speakers & celebrities - uniting and combining their talents to make to world a better place.

97 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

I couldn’t go back to being an anonymous person because the world was not interested.

AMANDA KNOX

EXONEREE, WRITER, CO-HOST OF LABYRINTHS PODCAST 98 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘THE INSPIRE PROJECT’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY TODD BROWN

GUILTY OF BEING INNOCENT

FINDING LIGHT AFTER BEING CONFINED IN THE DARK Do you know Rudy Guede? No? How about Meredith Kercher. Maybe? Last one. Amanda Knox. Ah, there it is. You may not have recognized the murderer or perhaps the victim of the crime, but more than likely, you know who Amanda Knox is. Or do you? Sir Conan Doyle wrote, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” What you think you know about Amanda is probably based on a character in a story instead of a real human thrust into a terrible situation. If her name took you to a dark place, please sit back and read below. It will help you find light in that darkness and embrace the truth instead of the tabloid perpetuated delusion.

TODD: What kept you going through your time in prison?

AMANDA: I was very much hanging on to all that I had left, having been put into a situation of great extremity. I didn't have freedom, body autonomy, the ability to decide what I ate, who I spent my time with, what I did with my time, nor did I have privacy or identity. Who I was seemed to be defined by someone else more than who I actually was or the truth. What remained to me were a number of things. Primarily the love and support of my family and friends. Above all, I had access to my own mind in a way that I didn't really appreciate before I lost agency or control over the course of my life and the reality of my body. Locked in a room every day, I didn't even get to choose whether or not I was safe or if I could get medical care if needed. All these things were gone. But I could choose how to process what this was doing to me and who this made me. I had to lose and grieve life, safety, security, and hopes while recognizing that I have this indestructible superior power of being able to be the witness of my own life. To process and interpret my own life and my experiences how I saw fit. No one could take that. My experiences were still very sad; they were still very scary. But it did mean that I intuitively understood that we all can process, understand, and appreciate our own experiences. I think that freedom weirdly gives you the illusion that you have control over things in your life when actually we have much less control than we think. Pushed to that brink very young in life made me appreciate and have gratitude for the things that were going for me, that we're always not in my control.

TODD: What do you attribute to the media’s vilification of you taking hold, but any retraction or reports after you were released has fallen on somewhat deaf ears?

AMANDA: The power of storytelling. I was very much a blank slate in terms of the vast majority of people in the world who had never heard of me before. I had no reputation other than amongst my peers, family, and friends. Suddenly, people were put in a position to judge me, not having access to me as a human being before they had access to a compelling story in which I was a character. It tapped into old stories about heroes and villains, Madonna’s, and whores. It tapped into people’s subconscious, primal desires, fears, and fantasies. For that reason, it took hold of people. I think a lot of people irrationally hold on to the story despite facts and evidence showing otherwise. Really it goes to show the story about me being a psychotic sex demon woman registers with people beyond a rational level.

It’s not rational, it’s emotional, it’s primal. If their primal instincts and emotions have been tapped, you can’t use evidence and logic to change people’s thoughts. That was always the challenge with this. Being wrongly convicted, I thought evidence and logic mattered, and people would be rational, which is not what ended up being the case.

99 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

…I feel like I’m a forager in the wilderness, and I’m looking for nutrients.

AMANDA KNOX

EXONEREE, WRITER, CO-HOST OF LABYRINTHS PODCAST 100 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“I felt very isolated… I had never met another wrongfully convicted.”

TODD: How do you balance wanting anonymity with the public service of helping others through what happened to you?

AMANDA: When I first came home, I wanted to be an anonymous person. I did not want this horrible, scandalous ordeal to be the defining part of my life. I felt like it was a thing happening to me that I had nothing to do with. Other people’s actions were misdirected at me, and I had no role in it. I wasn’t thinking about coming home and being an advocate. I felt very isolated and did not understand how my experiences related to anyone else’s experiences because I had never met another wrongfully convicted. I thought what happened to me was that my life was stolen from me for a few years, and I want my life back. I want to go back to being anonymous. I was going to school, studying to become a translator. I thought that was possible, but I was very rudely awakened to the reality that was not true. My life did not exist as I knew it.

I couldn’t go back to being an anonymous person because the world was not interested; it was interested in a story that defined me under the terms of the accusations of this case. Countless people were authoring my experience without me or my consent. Do I hide from this and pretend like I’m a normal person and I have this weird quirk, or do I stare it directly in the face and address it? Ultimately, I tried hiding and pretending like it wasn’t there. I felt like that was more damaging to me than staring it straight on. It felt like I was not living a part of my life. I was not processing a really important aspect of my experience if I was not addressing it head-on. It was scary. If I don’t get to be an anonymous person, I actually have to integrate this experience with my self-identity and the course of my life.

What’s the best way I can do it? What is the best I can do in this space? Can I encounter other people and understand what this space I’ve inadvertently been thrust into, what is its landscape, who is it populated by, what are people doing about it already, and where do I fit in? Do I fit in at all? An empowering experience was attending the Innocence Network Conference and meeting other wrongfully convicted people. I was very quickly told you matter. Your perspective matters. You’re one of us, a family. We care about you, and what you went through matters. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I found that the emotional distance between people in the world was becoming greater while connecting more digitally- spending more time being judgmental and treating other people as symbols, not as people. Because I felt that so viscerally in my own life, I started investigating and digging deeper into those noetic qualities. It’s literally been an experience where people attribute to me some great planning and have this path laid out before me, but honestly, I feel like I’m a forager in the wilderness, and I’m looking for nutrients. I’m looking for ways to plant along the way as I am navigating an uncertain world with an uncertain future and trying to leave a positive mark.

TODD: What do you feel like your legacy is going to be using your experiences?

AMANDA: There seem to be two very different worlds. One is a deeply invested world in criminal justice reform, righteousness, law enforcement, and victimization. The other is a world of people that don’t think about that ever. I used to be on that side, never thinking about it at all. I literally never thought about prison or courts. I think a lot of people, especially people in positions of power, don’t really have to engage with it and it’s a privilege to be in that space. But then, I got thrust into the other side. I lived alongside people who were guilty of crimes. I realized that those two worlds are connected. I have felt my role has become a bridge-builder between those two worlds. I build in part by storytelling, connecting with other people, helping them tell their stories, and being me and being willing to speak openly, making this extreme experience relatable to people.

101 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

I lived alongside people who were guilty of crimes.

I realized that those two worlds are connected.

AMANDA KNOX

EXONEREE, WRITER, CO-HOST OF LABYRINTHS PODCAST 102 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

AMANDA: (continued) I don’t know why, but for some reason, people hear what happened to me, and it just hits them in a way that other people’s stories didn’t. The reason is specific to each person, and I can’t speculate on that, but that’s what I’ve been told. It really hits home in a way that people didn’t understand before, and I know that’s a good thing. At times I question how good it is for me to keep talking about this because it still remains the worst experience of my life. When I talk about it, it’s therapeutic because I’m still processing it. Still, it’s forcing me to continue to relive the worst experience in my life. It’s incredibly draining, and I feel stuck in a loop that I want to escape. I sometimes wonder if continuing to be a bridge-builder will eventually hurt me. I have to test whether or not the bearings of my bridge are still holding up. For now, I am very happily bridging the gap between those who know and care about these issues and those who are perfectly wonderful human beings who just haven’t had access to those feelings before.

TODD: Outside of your book, do you feel like your story has been told correctly and would that alleviate the burden of being a bridge-builder?

AMANDA: No, I don't feel like it has. I know many people have done their best and even done a good job telling certain parts of my story. I think the Netflix documentary did a good job of showing particularly how the media got wrapped up in it to sell papers played a huge role in injustice in this case. But I honestly feel like I'm at a point where I'm capable of telling the story in the right way because I have lived and breathed and thought about and processed this story for over a decade. I feel like, instead, what people have done is that they've been lazy. They haven't lived and breathed and had compassion and researched and identified. Instead, they see an easy story that everyone knows because they've heard about it. They do a version of it that has a slight spin to it, or they have a focus that is very narrow but doesn't cover the full scope of it. It's a case of the dollar over the truth.

TODD: You’re going to be a guest in May for the Inspire Project event, ‘It Won’t Always Be Like This’. Why is it important to share your life experience with kids that may not have any idea of who you are?

AMANDA: First and primarily, because you asked (laughing). That’s a legitimate thing because a lot of people don’t bother to care what my perspective is. Thank you for caring to know my perspective because not everyone who has seen the Netflix documentary or read about the case thinks that I have anything valuable to say. I do it particularly with young people because what happened to me when I was a kid who was just becoming an adult helped me learn and grow a lot. I hope that sharing with others will help protect and prevent it from happening to them.

Furthermore, it will help prevent them from perpetuating the same harm to someone else. I think deep down, it’s a question of impulsive judgment. Whether or not people feel entitled to do harm under certain circumstances, and if there is a danger of committing harm without even realizing it. Sometimes people seek to understand how one lives in a very judgmental world and look at me as someone who is surviving judgment. ∎

Follow Amanda on Instagram (@amamaknox).

Visit her website: www.amandaknox.com

TODD BROWN

Awareness Ties Columnist www.awarenessties.us/todd-brown Dr. Todd Brown is a winner of multiple education awards, including the U.S. Congressional Teacher of the Year Award, U.S. Henry Ford Innovator Award, Education Foundation Innovator of the Year, and Air Force Association STEM Teacher of the Year. Dr. Brown is the creator and founder of the Inspire Project and cocreator of Operation Outbreak, which was named the Reimagine Education Award for Best Hybrid Program in the world. He is also an Education Ambassador for the United Nations and an Educational Ambassador of the Center for Disease Control (CDC).

103 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

When I was 15, I told my dad, “I don’t want you to say the ’N’ word in front of me anymore.”

JOLLY GOOD GINGER

CEO OF #NOSAFESPACESFORRACISTS 104 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘UNSUGARCOATED’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY AALIA LANIUS

JOLLY GOOD GINGER FORMER RACIST, JOLLY GOOD GINGER EXPLAINS WHITE PRIVILEGE In Episode 73, “Jolly Good Ginger” (@jolly_good_ginger), a self-proclaimed reformed bigot and racist, shares with Aalia his journey of unlearning white supremacy and his mission to educate white people about their bigotry and implicit biases. Jolly discusses how racism is a spectrum and that everyday he continues his journey to learn about racism and reject the racist beliefs he was raised with (11:38). He shares how racism has transformed itself through history and that most Americans live with casual racism in their everyday life (19:35). White privilege has continued to dominate American culture as being white has become the standard of life (27:33). Listen to hear more about the disease of racism and the steps you can take toward becoming more aware of bigotry in your life. ∎

UNSUGARCOATED AALIA LANIUS WITH JOLLY GOOD GINGER

Like, comment, and subscribe! Stay connected with your host on IG: @aalia_unsugarcoated AALIA LANIUS

Novelist, Speaker, Podcast Host & Social Entrepreneur www.awarenessties.us/aalialanius AALIA LANIUS is the Founder and President of Unsugarcoated Media, a 501(c)(3) media organization.

Dedicated to helping survivors of trauma lead mentally healthier lives, Lanius' focus is creating media and events that empower, educate, heal, and inspire another the way it has for her. Lanius is also a multiple awardwinning American novelist, social entrepreneur, and advocate with over 20 years of sharing her personal experiences with audiences of all age groups and diverse backgrounds. Executive Producer and host of the award-nominated seasonal podcast show, “Unsugarcoated with Aalia”, a visual and audio experience that features conversations intended to bring value and amplify voices that create more empathy and understanding of one another.

105 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

Once upon a time, a little boy named Jacob fought a war.

LORI BUTIERRIES

AUTHOR, NAVY VETERAN & MOTHER OF 2 WITH SPECIAL NEEDS 106 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘SCARRED NOT BROKEN’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY LORI BUTIERRIES

REINFORCEMENTS

A STORY ABOUT HOPE & SMA Once upon a time, a little boy named Jacob fought a war.

It was a war without end.

On the day it began, the doctor told Jacob's parents, "I do not want to give you false hope," when he revealed Jacob's terminal and degenerative condition to them.

The prognosis was grim.

To paraphrase, "There would be no winning this battle," he told them.

Jacob was condemned.

Spinal Muscular Atrophy or SMA was a death sentence for children.

Thankfully, Jacob was too little to understand what was being said at the time or to grasp the concept that he had been born with a body that would stop working even if his will to live remained strong and unfaltering.

Therefore, Jacob didn't know that he wasn't expected to wake up each day with a smile on his face

or that he wasn't supposed to act like 'normal' children his age instead of a sick kid in need of 24 hour aid.

Jacob simply lived life to the fullest and dreamed big dreams despite his handicaps and physical limitations,

which made his health and mobility challenging to manage.

107 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

A chance is all Jacob ever really needed.

LORI BUTIERRIES

AUTHOR, NAVY VETERAN & MOTHER OF 2 WITH SPECIAL NEEDS 108 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

AwareNow Podcast

REINFORCEMENTS

Written and Narrated by Lori Butierries

https://awarenow.us/podcast/reinforcements

TAP/SCAN TO LISTEN

As the years flew by, the disease progressed as predicted, but Jacob never failed to show up to the internal fight for his life, taking punches and giving them right back tit for tat, undeterred by the fact that the odds of survival weren't in his favor.

Jacob stood fast against his invisible enemy, holding the line through every painful procedure and scary hospital stay, astounding his care team by proving that he didn't have a predetermined expiration date.

Jacob was more than a statistic, and he verified that fact with the longevity of his lifespan.

Unfortunately, as Jacob's body continued to deteriorate, his doctors started asking his parents about end-of-life preferences.

However, in the ninth hour of 2016, a Christmas miracle occurred in the form of a scientific and medical breakthrough that shifted the balance of power in Jacob's corner with the development of the first-ever treatment for his disorder.

It wasn't a cure, but it was helpful, all the same; SPINRAZA gave Jacob the strength to rally and get back in the ring.

The medication gave Jacob a fighting chance to have a future where previously none existed.

A chance is all Jacob ever really needed.

The moral of the story is that a hopeless situation can turn around in an instant, so dare to hope anyway.

Don't give up if you are in a similar situation. You never know what reinforcements might be heading your way out of view over the horizon.

May Jacob's fight with SMA encourage others to believe in themselves, have faith, and hope for impossible things as they face off, like David & Goliath in an epic battle of overcoming adversity in the unlikeliest ways. ∎

LORI BUTIERRIES

Author, Navy Veteran & Mother of 2 with Special Needs www.awarenessties.us/lori-butierries LORI BUTIERRIES is a full-time caregiver to two children with special needs, one child being terminally ill and physically disabled. Lori uses her life experiences and the medical knowledge she gained while serving as a Hospital Corpsman in the United States Navy to help others facing similar hardships. Lori focuses primarily on advocating for and educating others about the special needs, mental health, and veterans communities. Her long-term goal is to reduce the stigma associated with disability by talking about it with people of all ages, thus minimizing the fear and the mystery attributed to the unknown in this regard.

109 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

My dad has been with me since day one…literally.

NICK SIMON

ARTIST, CANTSTOPGOODBOY 110 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘THE WRITING ON THE WALL’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY EDDIE DONALDSON

CANTSTOPGOODBOY

A CREATIVE, CORPORATE COLLABORATION BETWEEN A FATHER & SON What do you find at the intersection of ‘corporate’ and ‘creative’? When it comes to Nick Simon and his father Adam, you find CANTSTOPGOODBOY where the best of both worlds meet. They accepted an invitation by Eddie Donaldson to speak about the business of art and the partnership of a father and son.

EDDIE: Let’s start with introducing ourselves. Both of you, let us know who you are and what’s going on?

NICK: My name is Nick Simon. I’m also known in the art world as CANTSTOPGOODBOY. Adam is my manager and father (my ‘dadager’). We have a pretty cool story about how we tie in the business and family together. I started off in the street art world. I’ve been a contemporary artist for the last 13 years now, I think. Right dad?

ADAM: Yep.

NICK: Yep… My dad has been with me since day one… literally.

ADAM: Whether he liked it or not.

ALLIÉ: So how about you, Dad? What’s your story?

ADAM: Sure. Adam Simon. I’ve had a couple of careers since I moved to Los Angeles almost 40 years ago from Toronto with $200 in my pocket, literally. As Nick was saying, it’s been 13 years that I’ve been managing Nick - full time for 6 or 7 of those years. It’s been a progression, and now it’s what I do full time. Once I started to understand the art world and how it works, I sort of had a game plan of how I wanted Nick’s career to go. For the most part, it’s gone in the direction that we’ve laid out. I’m the business side. Nick does all of the creating. Although we do overlap a little bit, we’ve been able over these years to figure out what our roles are and we kind of stay in our lanes.

NICK: Yeah, I remember in the beginning… My dad came from the corporate insurance world. In the beginning, I was the typical artist that woke up at 3 in the afternoon and went to bed at 3 in the morning. My dad would always wake up in the morning and go, “It’s a 9 to 5, Nick. You gotta wake up at 9. You stop at 5.” It was a constant battle for a couple years. Then finally he said, “I get it now. You work at night. You work when everyone else is sleeping.” So, that was a cool transition when we both figured out how to play our game. He came from the corporate side of the world, and I came from the creative. So, we merged both of them together. I think that’s how we’ve come so far these last years.

ALLIÉ: Amazing. I love the merger between corporate and creative… and the balance you two have found together.

EDDIE: How did we meet? Does anyone know the answer to that? How did our worlds collide? All I can remember is a show at Warner Brothers that you did. I didn’t even know you. Was that the first time we came in contact?

ADAM: When Nick and I first started, we had this list of people we wanted to meet that we thought would open up doors for us. Eddie, for what he’s done in the art world, he was at the top of our list of people we wanted to meet 13 111 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

He turned to me and said, “They’re either going to like it or they’re not.”

ADAM SIMON

BUSINESS MANAGER, CANTSTOPGOODBOY 112 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

ADAM: (continued) years ago. And here we are now. We have this saying. “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” When we did our first deal with Warner Records and worked with Serj Tankian, lead singer of System of a Down, he and Nick became friends. Nick created the artwork, designed the stage for the world tour, the merch… I was sitting in their offices one day. I was looking around, and I go, “Hey guys, how about we do an art show here?” And they all looked at me like I was crazy. Then they asked, “How would we do that?” So, I pitched them. They agreed. Then Nick and I reached out to some artists that we knew. We had the event, and that was the first time Eddie came upon CANTSTOPGOODBOY.

EDDIE: What I was impressed with is that there was a show at Warner Brothers. At the time, I had been coming and going out of the office because I worked for DJ Quik and I did a lot of street promotions for other bands. So, when I walked in and saw art there and people enjoying it, I thought this must be a good experience for the label… the different energy that it brought. It was a more creative, relaxed environment.

NICK: I think that was the first big show where I was like, “Whoa… People came and saw my work.” That event was just so mind-blowing… a “Wow. I can do this.” type of thing.

EDDIE: No doubt. That was your coming out party.

NICK: Exactly.

EDDIE: You mentioned working with Serj Tankian with System of a Down. Is it safe to say that one of your secret pieces of ammunition that has led to the success of your career is your ability to work with commercial companies and bands? Tell us a bit about who you’ve worked with and how that’s going.

NICK: The cool thing about the CANTSTOPGOODBOY brand is that it all starts from the art. We always go into commercial deals going, “Hey guys, I’m a contemporary artist and this is how we like to structure our things and this is how we like to do it. It’s a co-branding thing.

The first one was with Serj Tankian, lead singer of System of a Down with Warner. We did that, and it went off without a hitch. I remember that the head of marketing in the art department at Warner gave us a call to say they were pushing the Serj release date. I originally had 6 months to create something and then I got a call asking, “Hey, can you get us something in a couple days?” My big thing with CANTSTOPGOODBOY is that I will always come through. I will work all night. I will do everything to make it work. When they called me and said, “Hey, Green Day is releasing 3 albums in that time slot. We need to push up Serj. You have less than a week to create everything and get approvals.”

I was like, “Game on.” So, that was the first introduction to Warner Records that I was a reliable source for art.

ADAM: There’s a piece that you forgot to add, Nick. We were actually on our way to Coachella to do an installation for Absolut Vodka when we got the phone call.

NICK: So, when I finished the installation at Coachella, we turned around and came back to LA. At the time I knew nothing about PhotoShop and nothing about graphic design. Nothing. I made original paintings and presented original paintings to these companies. That was my thing. So, I came back. Worked all night. Made an original painting. The next day we had a meeting.

ADAM: So, I’m driving. I still have my ‘dad’ hat on. I’m thinking, “I hope they like it. What if they don’t?” This is when I knew Nick had something. He was 17 or 18. He turned to me and said, “They’re either going to like it or they’re not.”

And sure enough, they did. With all the other branding deals, whether it’s with American Idol, Sony, Columbia Pictures, Viacom CBS, Atlantic Records… with all the brands we work with, it’s kind of neat because they find us…

They contact us, and that’s where the business side and the creative side gets together. I figure out the deal. I give Nick a timeline, and then I get out of the way.

113 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

I tell people today, you learn business through doing it.

NICK SIMON

ARTIST, CANTSTOPGOODBOY 114 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

“No one’s gonna have my back more than my family – especially my dad.”

NICK: That’s been working a lot for us. I don’t think like a ‘typical artist’. I literally need a deadline. If I don’t have a deadline, it’s not going to work. We’re kind of unique in that way. I say, “I need a hard date. You give me that hard date, and I’ll have you 10 pieces by that hard date.” That’s what we’ve done, and that’s what’s been working. That’s bringing the corporate and the creative back into things.

EDDIE: So, me as an art guy. I would have loved to have met you 13 years ago because I work with too many people that just don’t understand the business side. They make it a little difficult when it comes to completing things on time, and bending on the creative. I applaud you guys for being able to have that relationship on a business level, from manager to artist. The one thing I can also say is I’m envious. I’m envious, Nick, that you’re able to work with your father on a daily basis. As you guys know, I lost my father to cancer when I was 30. He’s with me everyday, but I don’t get to see, touch, get mad at him, argue with him, or most importantly get that wisdom from him – that advice. Nick, how good does that feel waking up everyday knowing that your dad is in your corner?

NICK: I tell my dad that every single day. “We do what we love. I got you out of the boring insurance business, and we’re doing this creative world together.” It’s always been together. I’m very family oriented. I talk to my little sister every single day. My mom runs the studio with me. It’s a true family business, and I get to wake up everyday, go to the studio, and see my dad… sitting there either yelling at his computer or telling me what to do.

EDDIE: Nick, do you think part of the magic of CANTSTOPGOODBOY has anything to do with the fact that your family sits next to you?

NICK: A thousand-million percent. I still go to my dad and mom, “Hey, do you think this is a good idea?” Literally, everything gets run by my dad and my mom. Always. My dad comes at me with crazy ideas. Sometimes I’m like, “Dad, no. You’re crazy.” Other times, I’m like, “Whoa, that’s genius.” A lot of the ideas that we come up with for CANTSTOPGOODBOY are a collaboration between my dad and I sitting on the couch watching a stupid movie or a stupid tv show. For example, the Native American Chief that I have sold a ridiculous amount of was an idea that my dad said, “Hey, I’ve got a crazy idea…” That’s my number 1 painting.

EDDIE: That’s an amazing story – the fact that you guys have that relationship… When people really care about you.

You get genuine, authentic input versus being someone who is financially driven. When people really care about you, they tell you the truth. You get honesty.

NICK: No one’s gonna have my back more than my family – especially my dad.

EDDIE: Now, let’s talk about that. Nick, you’ve got your dad’s back too, right? Because your dad is fighting one of the hardest fights of his life. Now, we can turn things over to Adam. I’m pretty sure Adam appreciates the fact that you’re there for him, going through this battle. Right, Adam?

ADAM: Absolutely. When you’re battling cancer, it’s probably harder on the caregivers than it is on the person lying in that bed trying to fight for their life. I did that. I continue to do that. I just beat it again two months ago. When you know that you can rely on your family… I’ve been married for 35+ years. I met my wife when she was 17. I’m now 60. We’ve been together ever since. Nick, my daughter, and all the stuff that they’ve gone through in helping me get better… I tell people now, I cry at commercials.

NICK: I’d never seen my dad cry, and he cries now… a lot.

ADAM: I’m not ashamed of it either.

115 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

I tell people now, I cry at commercials…I’m not ashamed of it either.

ADAM SIMON

BUSINESS MANAGER, CANTSTOPGOODBOY 116 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

Growing up, my wife would say, “Oh, Nick, you’re such a good boy.”

EDDIE: As you shouldn’t be. I lost my mom at 16-years-old. I can’t go to a funeral because of it. It brings me back to that moment. In speaking to that, when I first sat down with you guys, I got choked up, because me and Nick had a sidebar conversation. I took care of my father when he had cancer. I bathed my father. I wiped my father’s butt. It was difficult because he was such a strong man. He couldn’t accept help… He wouldn’t allow me to help, until he really had no choice. For me, this is a special moment to sit here and talk to you guys about the reality of these situations, because you don’t know it or understand it, until you’ve gone through it. If I keep hearing a common theme in what you guys talk about, it’s that ‘we’re good’. Nick, you’re a good boy. Adam, you’re a good father. That’s why it’s CANTSTOPGOODBOY. You can’t stop you guys, because all you’re doing is good.

ADAM: The story behind that name is that Nick is an unabashed mama’s boy. He was with his mom all day yesterday… Growing up, my wife would say, “Oh, Nick, you’re such a good boy.” And that’s kind of how it happened.

That’s how CANTSTOPGOODBOY started. Going back to the artwork, when you look at his artwork, you don’t see anything political…

NICK: There’s no dark imagery. I just want everything to be happy and uplifting. When my dad was really, really sick, I was still working. I was balancing being a caregiver with my mom. I moved back in with my family when my dad got sick. My dad couldn’t even walk upstairs. I literally picked him up and brought him up into his bed. My mom and I helped bathe him. Everything was put on halt with CANTSTOPGOODBOY, as I worked to balance what I did and what my dad did. In the years before he got sick, my dad taught me how to run a business. I never went to business school.

I never went to art school. I actually dropped out of college. I tell people today, you learn business through doing it – not being told how to do it. When my dad got sick, I didn’t even realize how much he had taught me. I ran the business for a year and a half, by myself, trying to balance both things. And I would show my dad paintings. I’d say, “Look, dad, this sold. Look, I sold this.” I think that’s what helped him fight on and keep going.

EDDIE: You guys are lucky that you have this relationship. Allié, I told you how special I thought this story was… We commend you guys. ∎

Follow and connect with CANTSTOPGOODBOY on Instagram: @cantstopgoodboy

EDDIE DONALDSON

GuerillaOne x The Seventh Letter www.awarenessties.us/eddie-donaldson Louisville, Kentucky native Eddie Donaldson moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and became involved with the graffiti movement as an alternative to the turbulent gang activity of his generation. Immersed first as an artist amongst diverse L.A. crews like TCF, AWR, and The Seventh Letter, Donaldson had the vision to develop their homegrown graffiti movement into something beyond the streets. His loyalty and business sensibility transformed the graffiti scene and he evolved into the point person for producing art events and exhibitions that inspire and spread the stylistic of southern California art into the world.

117 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Quote.

DR. NICOLAS BAZAN

BOYD PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF LSU HEALTH NEW ORLEANS NEUROSCIENCE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE 118 AWARENOW / THE CLEAN EDITION

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‘BEING BAZAN’ A SPOTLIGHT SERIES FEATURING DR. NICOLAS BAZAN

THE STORYTELLER

WITH A FABLE & FILM ABOUT MUSIC & THE MIND The title of the novel written by Dr. Nicolas Bazan, ‘Una Vida’, translates to ‘One Life’. We all have just one life to live, and Dr. Bazan chose to dedicate his to understanding, protecting and preserving the mind. In addition to being a world renowned neuroscientist, Dr. Bazan is also an accomplished author with his novels ‘Una Vida' and ‘The Dark Madonna’, as well as an award winning producer with his film ‘Of Mind and Music’. This is the story behind the story.

THE FILM

‘Of Mind and Music’ is a film created to remove the stigma about Alzheimer’s disease and mental illnesses. In this story, a neuroscientist is drawn into the dilemma of a street singer in a peaceful drama about Alzheimer’s that unfolds in beautiful New Orleans locations. The film is powerful because the stirring tunes lend texture, intermittently breaking through the power of music and its connection with the brain.

Una Vida is the name of the street singer, played by Aunjanue Ellis who convincingly embodies the struggle against deepening dementia, with the light in her eyes flashing as abruptly as it vanishes. With compassion, Joaquim de Almeida plays the celebrated researcher Alvaro Cruz, whose scientific expertise could do nothing to relieve his late mother’s Alzheimer’s.

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It reveals elations and frustrations that go hand in hand…

DR. NICOLAS BAZAN

BOYD PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF LSU HEALTH NEW ORLEANS NEUROSCIENCE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE 120 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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Director Richie Adams and his screenplay co-writer, Dr. Nicolas Bazan adapted his novel ‘Una Vida: A Fable of Music and the Mind’, with a straightforward approach. Characters state precisely what they mean and feel. Una Vida’s adopted daughter (Ruth Negga) brilliantly portrays the extended concerns that this disease generates. Attracted by the music of Una Vida and her accompanist-caregiver, played by the talented Bill Cobbs, he recognizes the disease’s symptoms in her and is soon deeply involved in her life over the misgivings of his often-blindsided wife, played by Sharon Lawrence. Playing Alvaro's mother was Dora Elvira Pascual, Dr. Bazan’s mother-in-law, who acted for the first time in her life with this role at age 95. Born in Argentina, she was living in the home of Dr. Nicolas and Haydee Bazan. The actress that was selected to play that role wasn’t available at the last minute. Dr. Bazan suggested that the role be given to Dora so that her image in the film could be kept forever. Richie and Brent, the film’s Director and Producer agreed. Joaquim de Almeida who spoke Spanish guided her in the many scenes that she appears.

Overall, the film mesmerizes with visual poetry in Alvaro’s guilt-haunted dreams and in the neighborhood-level views of the French Quarter and beyond. Nods to Louis Armstrong enrich the sense of place. Overall, this film creates hope about Alzheimer’s, demonstrates the powerful connection of music and the brain, highlights the significance of caregivers, and provides awareness about brain diseases.

THE BOOK

The film ‘Of Mind And Music’ is based on the novel, ‘Una Vida’. While many parts of the story were pulled into the screenplay, these excerpts from the book, selected by Dr. Bazan, are not reflected in the film. However, they are important to share with regard to matters of the mind in terms of jazz, technology and addiction.

Excerpt 1: The Stories and Struggles of Stars

Armstrong was the star of Europe that year, famous for blowing a particular high-pitched note on the trumpet that no other player could reproduce. The tone made a rough callous in the center of Armstrong’s upper lip, which was prone to infection. His manager at the time booked him several nights in a row, refusing to let him rest, wanting to make as much money from him as possible. One night in London, Armstrong’s upper lip split apart right on stage during a high note.

Blood spurted everywhere. He went into semi-retirement for eight months, returning to the States more than a year after he’d left. When he got back home, the Great Satchmo had trouble finding steady work. Charlie Parker was thirteen at that time, learning to play the baritone horn in Kansas City, Missouri, by imitating the old-time jazz musicians.

Cruz marveled at all the greats playing in those speakeasies. Una Vida had to be one story in ten thousand, but one every bit as worth discovering and telling for posterity. How she had gotten by in those years, especially if she had a child at that time, was a testament to the strength of her will. The fact that she’d survived those years at all and was still surviving and walking around should count for something in the grand scheme of things, Cruz thought. The recesses of Una Vida’s synaptic connections held more songs than he and Elvira could possibly imagine, which accounted for the feeling of sacredness he felt in her presence.

The woman now speaking to Una Vida was well dressed and spoke in a French accent – but not Louisiana French.

They watched the woman pat Una Vida’s back, walk away, and bring a handkerchief to her face as she sat down on one of the green curved benches facing the Mississippi.

Excerpt 2: The Voice and Vision of Jazz

It was as if Billie Holiday had been channeled into their living room to sing the words more piercingly than ever before.

Something about the terrible beauty of the moment frightened her. He’d learn only later from Parker that Billie Holiday first sang what became one of her signature songs, “God Bless the Child,” at Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York in 1938 where she performed three shows a night before an integrated audience. The owner of Café Society, where Holiday performed solidly for nine straight months, was a man by the name of Barney Josephson, an ex-shoe salesman who believed in the dignity and vision of jazz. To him, Billie Holiday was a street prophet who spoke a truth beyond color, time, or place.

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Writing Una Vida represents a channel, an outlet, unlike technical journals, to freely express my emotions and opinions.

DR. NICOLAS BAZAN

BOYD PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF LSU HEALTH NEW ORLEANS NEUROSCIENCE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE 122 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

For the brain, there is no resolution to life’s aching questions; there is only communication, internal dialogue that ceases only when we contemplate the stillness beyond ourselves.

Excerpt 3: The Increased Access to Information

ALLIÉ: I love this excerpt. I remember while reading it for the first time and experiencing the same excitement that the character, Cruz, expresses. While it’s beautifully written with such eloquence, in simplest terms, what is it about?

DR. BAZAN: This is a thought about brain function and information flow.

A web without a thread of beginning or end, the language of the Internet was connection. One fact led to another, things could be constantly compared – searched for references, phrases, even lyrics to songs. We use the Internet with such pleasure, Cruz thought, because we’ve finally created a tool that can keep up with our questions, our endless thirst for knowledge, and the speed with which we have a tendency to turn any answer into our next question. The Internet is the brain’s mirror, its counterpart; there is nothing cold or alien about it. Its technology is not simply the outgrowth of economics or scientific rationale; it’s more akin to an art form that responds to a deep down human need. Once upon a time, the oral tradition – in which entire cultures were transmitted only through memory and word of mouth – gave way to the print tradition that came into its own with Gutenberg’s printing press. Cruz felt enormously privileged to be living in a time when the print tradition was giving way to the Internet.

For the brain, there is no resolution to life’s aching questions; there is only communication, internal dialogue that ceases only when we contemplate the stillness beyond ourselves. The Internet is the same – always a new piece of information, always an open case – but never the stillness. The stillness is left to us. The Internet is a great leap on the developmental scale of putting our thinking into action. More than utilitarian, the Internet isn’t a conscious outcome of the thinking brain, but a portrait of the thinking brain itself with all of its messy pop-up boxes, hyperlinks, and key word searches we conjure on a daily basis.

The excitement Cruz felt as his fingers flew over the keyboard – with Jessica looking on without a clue to his brain’s commentary on the splendors of cyberspace – was that the Internet freed the brain to do what it did best: not simply gathering data or chronicling opinion, but deciphering and analyzing it. How will the human brain evolve, he wondered, once it gets used to the fact that it doesn’t need to remember the things that are now just a few keystrokes away? Will we become better thinkers, be better equipped to hold different opinions on the same issue in the same mind in the same moment? If so, we’ll see further than we ever have and be more open than we’ve ever dreamed. What for so long seemed like an inborn instinctual necessity – the drive to compete – might even give way to a new evolutionary web-model, the sort that produces an instinctual drive to interactively cooperate for the benefit of mutual survival.

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Each day that passes brings us closer to understanding and preventing and curing these devastating diseases.

DR. NICOLAS BAZAN

BOYD PROFESSOR AND DIRECTOR OF LSU HEALTH NEW ORLEANS NEUROSCIENCE CENTER OF EXCELLENCE 124 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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I wrote this part as a reflection about addiction that has been a concern of mine for decades. At the time of drafting this book, I came up with an idea about a new, non-addictive painkiller.

Excerpt 4: The Pain and Then Addiction

ALLIÉ: This next excerpt from the book is about addiction. While painkillers can stop pain, they can start addiction. In the work that you do, Dr. Bazan, what are you doing to address this issue?

DR. BAZAN: I wrote this part as a reflection about addiction that has been a concern of mine for decades. At the time of drafting this book, I came up with an idea about a new, non-addictive painkiller. Now, these ideas have succeeded in a company that I co-founded, South Rampart Pharma (www.southrampartpharma.com). We now have a new FDA approved drug in phase I clinical trials.

By 1955, Charles Bird Parker had died of heart failure, pneumonia, and cirrhosis of the liver at thirty-four – with the “body of a sixty-four-year-old man,” according to the coroner. But he’d invented a new music, bebop, reaching with his instrument to places no one had reached; he was listening to a muse all his own. Despite that mastery, he was unable to control the addiction; he was a heroin addict and any time he tried to quit the drug he became a raging alcoholic.

One of his greatest admirers and protégés, the young Miles Davis, was also a heroin addict by 1954. But that year, Miles asked his father to lock him in his second-floor studio without his trumpet so he could kick his habit cold turkey.

Despite burning joints, pounding head, violent shakes, shivers, and frightening hallucinations, Davis held fast and emerged from the room a week later to walk on the freshly mowed grass of his father’s acreage and look up at the sun.

His father gave him back his trumpet when he saw the look in Miles’ eyes.

How did Miles Davis succeed, where Parker failed? Was it a matter of free will? Some people would call such spontaneous healing a miracle. St. Anthony certainly would have. Jessica’s grandparents believed that Una Vida’s appearance in their lives was nothing short of a miracle.

By 1968, the last club on 52nd Street had closed its doors. The Five Spot, where Willem De Kooning and Jackson Pollack hung out to listen to Coltrane, was gone. By 1974, both Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were dead. In 1975, Miles Davis declared jazz dead. He called it “the music of the museum.” Where it had once accounted for seventy percent of American record sales, in that year it was only three percent. But it was all alive in Una Vida, and Cruz knew it.

Without knowing what provoked it, Cruz told Jessica about his mother’s death. She listened with sympathy as he explained why he hadn’t rushed back after receiving Elvira’s summons and nodded when he explained his rationalization about focusing on something he could change. But her nod was wholehearted when he confessed he’d come to realize that rationalization didn’t excuse him. He should have jumped on that plane and made the effort.

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Left: Dr. Nicolas Bazan Right: Director Richie Adams

THE STORY

ALLIÉ: With your research consuming so much of your career, why was it so important to make time outside of your lab to write this book and produce this film? Why did you need to share this story?

DR. BAZAN: It reveals elations and frustrations that go hand in hand with research to understand brain functions and unravel diseases that affect the brain. The battle to conquer Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s diseases, macular degeneration, ALS, traumatic brain injury, stroke, depression, addictions, schizophrenia is not a story of continual, everyday successes. It is a slow journey down a complicated maze often with setbacks and unexpected twists and turns.

Experiments do not always yield the results anticipated, and scientists like me often find that we do not have the means available to solve the riddles of the mind we so desperately seek to untangle.

Yet despite the many trials we face, despite the many uncertainties we encounter, each day that passes brings us closer to understanding and preventing and curing these devastating diseases.

We realize how critical this research is for families, caregivers, and the overall community. Every new bit of information uncovered adds one more piece to the puzzle, bringing the bigger picture a little more in focus and providing us new knowledge, and renewed hope.

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“…that task itself is as important and rewarding as the pursuit to understand, to prevent, and to cure.”

DR. BAZAN: (continued) It is this hope that I wish to share with others through my book ‘Una Vida’ and my film ‘Of Mind and Music’. Both have allowed me to express my thoughts and emotions that surround neuroscience research, the exploration of cellular elements, and molecular switches that underlie the component of the mind and the eye. To be able to share these views with others and to provide them with the hope and optimism that the story of Una Vida ultimately presents, that task itself is as important and rewarding as the pursuit to understand, to prevent, and to cure.

Thus, writing Una Vida represents a channel, an outlet, unlike technical journals, to freely express my emotions and opinions. ∎

Watch the Film:

OF MIND AND MUSIC

https://awarenow.us/film/of-mind-and-music

Read the Books:

UNA VIDA

https://awarenow.us/book/una-vida

THE DARK MADONNA

https://awarenow.us/book/the-dark-madonna

Support Dr. Bazan’s work with a donation to the LSU Health Foundation.

While LSU Health New Orleans strives to discover, teach, heal, and serve, LSU Health Foundation New Orleans strives to connect the needs for critical funding to those capable of providing critical funds.

Donations to support Dr. Nicolas Bazan’s work can be made here:

https://give.lsuhealthfoundation.org/givenow

Please designate: ‘Medicine – Neuroscience Dr. Bazan Research’

Born in Argentina, MD, at the University of Tucuman in Argentina, trained at Columbia University P&S, NYC, and Harvard Medical School.

He was appointed faculty at age 26 at Univ. of Toronto/Clarke Institute of Psychiatry.

He is Founding Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence, School of Medicine, LSU Health New Orleans, inaugural founder of The Ernest C. and Yvette C. Villere Chair for Research in Retinal Degeneration (1984-), and appointed to the highest academic rank in the LSU System, a Boyd Professor (1994-). He is also a Foreign Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.

Learn more about Dr. Bazan: www.awarenessties.us/nicolasbazan

127 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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We all want to feel good again, but we can’t feel good until we agree on what “good” means.

LUKE GIALANELLA

FOUNDER OF GOVLEARN 128 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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‘GOVLEARN’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY LUKE GIALANELLA

GOOD FEELINGS

A LOOK AT THE “HAPPIEST” ERA IN U.S. HISTORY & LESSONS WE CAN LEARN It’s hard to think of a time when most of us were truly united together under one figure or belief.

In fact, it’s been a while–nearly 200 years, to be exact—since the last truly prosperous period in U.S. history. This era, known as the Era of Good Feelings, was a period after the war of 1812 where Americans collectively united under the support of the federal government. President James Monroe’s administration in particular was associated with this timeframe. After the war with the United Kingdom, Americans truly felt “American” for the first time. In the period after the Revolution, those living in the United States did not truly have a sense of national identity yet.

However, a victory in this war led them to truly identify as “American”, and citizens united under the ideology of nationalism. Government officials chose to set party lines aside and instead focus on bettering American society and truly defining the nation that the U.S. was beginning to become. However, this period did not last long. Eventually, government officials began to jockey for power, in the hopes of becoming well-loved figures in this era of good feelings.

This led to greater divides and the creation of the Democratic Party and the Whig Party.

What can we learn from this era? First, let’s discuss the context. The United States was reeling from a large-scale conflict with the United Kingdom that resulted in many casualties and even the destruction of the White House (which was later rebuilt). Americans wanted to come together and take back their national identity, which leads me to my second point: nationalism. Many Americans championed their country and collectively argued for America to be put first in public policy. Politicians, meanwhile, argued for decency and mutual respect. All seemed to be well, until it wasn’t.

So why am I discussing all of this? All of this is quite similar to the situation we are facing today. A country reeling from a tragedy (the pandemic), with some championing nationalism, and (some) politicians attempting to appeal to decency.

Today, I got to see many of my classmates without masks for the first time as the outdoor mask mandate was lifted in California. I began to see some light at the end of the tunnel. And for the first time since 2019, I was hopeful. I chose to write this piece because I believe that we should be heading towards a new era of good feelings, and yet, we aren’t. This crisis left us more divided than ever, and there is no common political understanding amongst Americans.

So, what should we do? I wish I could just say “respect each other” and call it a day, but the answer is far more complicated. No one individual can truly affect change, but as we’ve seen, the changes that led to the first Era of Good Feelings were elevated by those in power. This piece is for them. We need them not only to pass laws that benefit us, but also to unite us, because they are the only ones that truly can. We all want to feel good again, but we can’t feel good until we agree on what “good” means. And that change starts from the top. ∎

LUKE GIALANELLA

Founder & President of GOVLEARN www.awarenessties.us/luke-gialanella LUKE GIALANELLA Founder & President of GOVLEARN Luke Gialanella founded GOVLEARN when he was 11 years old, in the summer after the 2016 presidential election. Finding that there was a lack of substantive civics education for elementary and middle schoolers, he went on a mission to correct that. Creating a website and YouTube channel, Luke is obviously extremely passionate about government and politics and has participated in many mock governments, Model UN, and debate programs outside of school.

129 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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We decide who we are and the things that make us so.

CRAIG GRAHAM

PERSONAL TRAINER & FOUNDER OF ALT MOVEMENT 130 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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‘ALT MOVEMENT’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY CRAIG GRAHAM

ALWAYS AN ATHLETE BE ING I S BELI EV I NG

Most psychologists agree that we begin to form our identity as we enter adolescence. It’s a time when we begin to decide how we sit within the world around us, how we want to interact and be interacted with.

We decide who we are and the things that make us so, putting out signals with the way we talk, the way we dress, the things we do, to say ‘This is me’. But what happens when something stops us from assuming that identity and forces us to change who we are and how others perceive us?

For anyone who is a regular reader of mine, you’ll know I have written a lot about the trials and tribulations that one born with disability might go through on a daily basis. But I have spoken little about the reality of developing an impairment later on in life, be that genetic or owing to an injury. (A disclaimer here that I can only share what I have learnt from others and those that I work with, each individual’s reality will be different but I only hope to help bring awareness by the platform that I have been given). Developing a disability later on in life not only threatens who a person believes themselves to be, it potentially challenges how they behave, how they speak, how they move and ultimately how they are viewed by those around them.

Understandably, the adjustment to this new identity that has been thrust upon the newly disabled person can be utterly traumatic. From multiple studies, we know that a person is three times more likely to develop depression or display depressive symptoms. It is utterly reasonable to grieve the life that a person once had, and feel that they will never achieve that life or go on to do the great things that they were meant to do. But, there are some that have done just that.

Paralympian Alana Nichols was injured during a snowboarding trip at the age of 17. Attempting to back flip on her board, she didn't quite make the safe landing and instead found herself on her back on top of a rock. Although now paralysed from the waist down, Nichols’ passion for sport and competitive edge hasn’t faded. Instead of snowboarding she sought to focus her attention on wheelchair basketball and went on to to achieve plenty of success, earning a gold medal with the U.S. team in Beijing in 2008. But that would not be the pinnacle of her career, Nichols relocated from Alabama to Colorado and returned to winter sports. She took up skiing and her success was almost immediate.

In 2009, she trumped Laurie Stephens—a Paralympic gold medalist—in the Super G at the North American Cup. Nichols also medaled four times at the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver, taking home gold in the downhill sitting event and in the giant slalom sitting event. Nichols passion for sport trumped her disability. The change in the way that she had to move around and of what her body was capable of was not the defining factor of her identity. She is an athlete and always has been.

Most people chain themselves to the belief that they are a product of their external circumstances. But it is within our ability and control to choose whether we allow these circumstances, be it in our career or a life altering injury, define who we are as a person. ∎ CRAIG GRAHAM

Personal Trainer & Founder of Alt Movement www.awarenessties.us/craig-graham CRAIG GRAHAM is a Personal Trainer based in the UK, as well as the founder and creator of Alt Movement, which aims to provide individuals with disabilities alternative and adaptive ways of exercising.

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My survival and my thriving are through seeking knowledge.

HILARY BILBREY

LIFE COACH. SPEAKER & PODCAST CO-HOST. 132 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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‘THE DECIDED HEART EFFECT’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY SONJA MONTIEL

ILLUMINATING THE LIFELONG LEARNER

“Be careful of boiling water on the stove, Or when Farmer lights a fire in the grove.

Don’t go in the bath without Mom and Dad. It could be too hot, and that might hurt bad!”

Hilary Bilbrey, Brecker Bunny Learns to Be Careful!

Hilary thought she overcame the most traumatic time in her life after she was told to plan her own funeral while pregnant with her second child. The stress caused while planning for her death, triggered premature labor. She gave birth to her preemie, and after a week in the hospital, the scare was over. Arriving to her brand-new home, fully babyproof (they thought), Hilary was ready to return to her family of four, proudly wearing her badge of honor - Mama.

On April 6, 2003, Hilary went for a short walk with a friend. Her husband, 18-month-old son and preemie were at home while she was enjoying the fresh air, a good conversation, and movement. At home, while her husband was changing the preemie, her 18-month-old managed to quickly get into the master bathtub and turn on the hot water. He suffered severe third-degree burns. It was surreal. They trusted that the plumbing company set the water temperature gauge to “kid-safe”. They thought they did all the right things to protect their children.

The screams in the ambulance ride continue to haunt Hilary. On the way to the burn center that was two hours away from the three different hospitals he was transferred from, her toddler’s vitals were crashing. Her role as mother was disintegrating.

The next month was filled with skin grafts, debridement, investigations, and a complete shattering of Hilary’s identity.

She had one job as a mom – to keep her kid safe – and she had failed. Hilary couldn’t help thinking that if she wasn’t a good mom, who was she?

Her son was able to recover more quickly than the doctors thought, and through resilience and determination, he continues to live an incredible life as a young adult. For her son, his identity would not be defined by his injury.

However, for Hilary, she felt like a phony. She put on the smile for the public eye when inside she was living in darkness, self-doubt and anxiety. Then she met a friend who introduced her to The Virtues Project™ which was a new language to see people for who they really are rather than the roles they take on. Through months of training, Hilary understood that being a “perfect mom” was never her identity, but instead it was that she consistently showed up for others with her ability to care and love with excellence. These were her most powerful virtues, no matter the role.

As Hilary began to truly see herself, she began to cope through her trauma. She shared, “When I was met with adversity, I had to first find a way to be okay. I needed to have the stillness on how to respond. I wanted to hide but when I did, all I felt was the pain. I didn't know at the time, but my identity is lifelong learner. My survival and my thriving are through seeking knowledge.”

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“I want to know why children 0-5 years old end up in the burn center because we are going to decrease those numbers.”

Hilary’s virtue of service through education helped her rise from the darkness. Helping others through her compassion, helped her move to action. She wanted to keep kids safe. When she began interviewing professionals in the fire and safety world, she recalls starting her conversations with a statement - “I want to know why children 0-5 years old end up in the burn center because we are going to decrease those numbers.” Through tedious investigations, interviews and research, Hilary authored the Brecker Bunny series, an international children’s book series about fire and water safety. To date, there are 300,000 books in the hands of firefighters and children all over America thanks to the many sponsoring organizations and her friend and partner at that time, Michelle Heim.

The more that Hilary taught, the more she needed to stay in compassion instead of hurt, as she shared, “If I stayed in detachment, I could be a resource to others. I could use that pain to prevent my experience from happening again.”

The children’s book series was intentional in how to educate families about fire and water safety. These books are not just full of lovely little rhymes. Rather, illustrations were carefully designed to show in-home sprinklers, house safety equipment, and firefighters, police people and EMTs in full uniform using tools that help. Hilary didn’t want children to be afraid of emergency helpers. She knew that the more children saw and understood their home and helpers, the safer they would be. Each book has a guide, safety tips, and safety checklists that families can review together.

Hilary says, “Education is THE answer. It may not look like sitting at a desk. It’s starts with understanding that you can’t possibly have impact if you don’t seek to understand first. Understanding is its own form of education.”

So where does becoming a lifelong learner begin?

Hilary shares that "kids’ first teachers are their parents. We often think of educators as being separate from families, but they aren’t. Reading time at night between parent and child lowers cortisol levels. It is the most ideal time when the brain is most receptive to learning.”

Since the Brecker Bunny book series and comprehensive work with the fire and safety world, Hilary went on to work with vulnerable teens through state programming. She wanted to help teens see who they are in a positive way.

Speaking at Alcohol and other Drug Abuse conferences all over the country, she was determined to help others see the best in ALL kids through trust-building skills and virtues.

When parents and the community witnessed the change in their teens, adults became curious about their own personal development, and Hilary began working with parenting groups and companies on and off until January 2020, when Hilary launched Lived Inspired full time. In March 2020, she cofounded The DH Effect with Sonja Montiel. Her mission as a trust and belonging consultant, life coach and educator is to help people, families, organizations and corporations unlock their potential through curiosity, trust and belonging so that they can shine and innovate as their true selves.

135 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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AwareNow Podcast

ILLUMINATING

Written and Narrated by Sonja Montiel

https://awarenow.us/podcast/illuminating-the-lifelong-learner

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Education has always felt like home for Hilary, but she knows that isn’t the case for everyone. She is on a mission to make education safer, friendlier and more accessible. She states, “We don’t do better because we don’t know better.

But when we know better, we rise to become better human beings. The bridge is education. Finding a way to make it accessible to everyone is my mission.”

Hilary is leading the way with integrity and love that is transforming our world. She has faith we can learn how to be compassionate, learn how to become leaders, learn how to communicate with one another, learn how to see people in different ways and learn how to love. And she will never stop because lifelong learners never stop learning. ∎

Learn more about Hilary Bilbrey:

www.hilarybilbrey.com

www.thedheffect.com

www.rspexperience.com

SONJA MONTIEL

Co-Founder of The Decided Heart Effect www.awarenessties.us/sonja-montiel SONJA MONTIEL has served more than twenty-one years in the college admissions profession, having extensive experience in the areas of freshman, transfer, and international admissions. During her time working with thousands of teens and young adults worldwide, she began to witness many societies creating an unhealthy college-bound culture that misguides our young people in their pursuit of living a life of fulfillment. In 2021, Sonja met Hilary Bilbrey to begin something amazing. They created The DH Effect – The Decided Heart Effect with a mission to guide individuals, schools, and organizations to build high-trust relationships and belonging through self-discovery and personal accountability.

136 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

It makes the world all one…

LAURA KIMPTON

ARTIST, ACTIVIST & PHILOSOPHER 138 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH LAURA KIMPTON

A NEW STATE OF ART

T H E N F T F R O N T I E R : ‘ PA I N T I N G I N P I X E L S ’ What the heck is a NFT? The acronym NFT stands for ‘Non-Fungible Token’. And what the heck is that?! It’s a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger. What?! Just know this, the majority of NFTs represent collectible digital assets like digital artwork, music, photos, videos. In this article, our focus is on NFTs as digital artwork. In a conversation with the legendary artist, Laura Kimpton, we’ll see the world of NFTs through her lens.

ALLIÉ: You are known for your monumental word art - iconic metal sculptures notably seen and touched in the desert at Burning Man, along with venues and exhibitions around the world. Unlike these sculptures, your work in the form of NFTs cannot not be touched, only seen. But in being seen, it does touch you. Two very different ways to experience your art. Laura, please share your thoughts on physical art vs. digital art, along with your preference.

LAURA: Well, I started out as a digital artist, so this has been beautiful for me. I started out as a Photoshop artist; I'm also a photographer. I remember that when I was trying to get into a gallery once, but they wouldn't accept my digital art printed, but they would accept photography because I could repeat it. I thought that was kind of odd. So, I started putting three dimensional pieces on my digital printed art. This is kind of where I started, not in the video form or the NFT form, because that didn't exist yet, but playing digitally. And then during the pandemic, I couldn't go to my big studio in LA. I got an iPad pro with a pen and I learned Procreate and started making digital art again. Interestingly enough, I didn't know at the time when I made over 30 pieces that they make a video of you making that art. Then I felt so in tune with NFTs. And I started putting them out digitally. I understand... when you're a photographer a lot of times you have to number your art pieces. You have to put a little piece of paper on the back of the photograph that says, if you sell it, you have to pay the person. But that never really happens. I mean I've sold a thousand pieces of art with that. So, I understand what's going on with the NFT, because a lot of my art, even that I've made before, like pillars with video in it or a big American flag where the stars would be a video with the eagle burning. Then when I went to Miami Basel this year, I noticed that people were making old clocks and putting video in them as their NFTs. And I used to do bird cages with me flying on a video in it. So, this is exactly up my alley and I'm a junk artist more than I'm a sculptor. I'm gonna go forward with when you buy my NFTs, you're gonna be buying an art piece that the NFT is in. One thing I love about it is... my sculptures are very expensive to ship, and this is nothing. You just push a button, except when I put it in an art piece. Also, I was thinking of making TVs with really interesting frames and getting into that business, which I might do. In the world of crypto, people that are buying this, they need something to use with their crypto right now. There's not many opportunities for things they can buy. And when you buy art, it's also a way to get around taxes. So I understand the love of it. And I have friends who had digital art already, before NFTs. So, they have TVs on their walls. It's kind of like an MTV video. I know it started in gaming and music, but my NFTs are more like MTV videos.

ALLIÉ: As an established artist, how do you feel about this newly established way of selling, buying and owning art?

LAURA: I love it. Right now, it's only going to crypto people and crypto people weren't buying art. So, it's a whole new art buyer. Some crypto people were, but it's generally a new art buyer. And I also love the responsibility that if they sell it and trade it, I get money. I get to follow the history of my art. I would've loved to for the thousands of pieces of art

139 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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I get to follow the history of my art…

LAURA KIMPTON

ARTIST, ACTIVIST & PHILOSOPHER 140 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

LIVE DREAM BE OKAY DIGITAL ARTWORK BY LAURA KIMPTON

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LAURA: (continued) I’ve sold already to be able to follow them and know where they are and where they're hanging.

That would be absolutely beautiful for me. I'm also always interested in a new group of people to schmooze and talk to and sell. I went to Miami Basel, and I didn't have to ship anything. It just went over the internet, and I was on TVs with my art displayed all over the place. It was beautiful for me to see this new idea. And because of Burning Man, I'm really interested in different ways of commodities, since at Burning Man, there's no money. There's not even trading. I love the idea because... You know, a dollar bill is just paper. I've made quite a few pieces of art using dollar bills, even though it's against the law, but you know... it's just paper. The idea of a new commodity in the world makes everything interesting... You don't have to do exchange rates. It goes across the world. It makes the world all one, and I'm an earthist. So, I'm in love with this new idea.

My daughter's been doing it. She sold quite a bit. Good money for a 22 year old in NFTs at Miami Basel. That was exciting. I think anybody can jump into it in the world as a blue chip artist in galleries. Galleries are a very stale place to sell art. I'm going to go to LA, and I haven't had a gallery in... I leave galleries. I usually just do shows, and then I skip off. But right now, since I just sold quite a bit of art and am about to open San Jose Airport, I'm in a good position.

So, I'm going to LA to get a top gallery for all my work and my NFTs, but you don't have to have a gallery if you're an NFT artist. My daughter could sell without a gallery, which is beautiful.

ALLIÉ: If you could look into a crystal ball and gaze at the future of art galleries and exhibitions, what would you see?

LAURA: Well, I see an experiential experience, which I've almost already done. Now what they're doing with NFTs is the really popular ones, like my EGO one that I sold in Miami came with a concrete art piece, with not even the digital in it. It was a 3' by 3' EGO that I made out of trophies.

So, I see you're walking into 'an environment'... It could be screens. It could be totem poles. It could be everything in the whole gallery's environment, which is one of my problems that I have with galleries. I usually make it such a good environment that nobody thinks about anything that they want to buy. They don't want to take anything out of the environment. So, I would do an environment, and then you go into another room and have the choices in how to bring something home with you -- almost like a gifted experience.

141 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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The idea of a new commodity in the world makes everything interesting...

LAURA KIMPTON

ARTIST, ACTIVIST & PHILOSOPHER Photo Credit: Name 142 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

LAURA: (continued) Like at Burning Man, I'm putting up a hundred of my steel trees, and people are going to be sponsoring each tree. Then we're going to plant trees on the earth. On the tree will be a symbol that they have to find on their own if they want to -- if they want to see the tree that they sponsored. It's kind of a scavenger hunt. It's a 'get lost in these hundred trees of light'. They could even get a tree that comes to them afterwards -- the steel trees. And then we're planting trees on earth. It's all inclusive. Everything's becoming all of everything. If it wasn't Burning Man, I probably would've added digital in the middle, but I'm not gonna do that. But my next show would probably be a huge environment. You walk in, and it's an environment. Then you go to another room and get to see things for buying. I'm not very good at figuring out the things that sell. Well, I am very good at it, but I love to make environments. That's my favorite thing.

ALLIÉ: For collectors of art who have no idea where to begin in exploring NFTs, where should they start?

LAURA: OpenSea is the best platform that you can go to. You have to get into the crypto world first. The only way you can buy NFTs is with crypto... You go to OpenSea. You see what you love... you start collecting... If you want to get an NFT first, get into Ethereum or Bitcoin. You use that to buy fine art, and then you can put it on your TV in your house, while your TV's off. Suddenly your TV, while it's black, can become an art piece.

And if you want to get into digital art and learn to create it, get an iPad Pro with a pen. Get Procreate. It's a paint program. It's layers. It's great. And start playing with that. It's really fun. You can bring in everything and create anything. In order to fundraise for my Burning Man project, I'm making a Kimpton coin. It's a new thing that's happening, which is a social coin. It's kinda like trading cards. So, people who donate a thousand dollars to my Dream With Me project (www.dreamwithme.com), can sponsor a tree with that thousand dollars, and you'll end up getting a thousand dollars in 'Kimpton Coin’.

It’s a good world we’re coming into. ∎

LAURA KIMPTON

A Fierce, Feral, Female Focused on Creating Art

that Questions Traditional Views on Social Interaction

Learn more about Laura and her artwork:

www.laurakimpton.com

143 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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I used my lessons learnt to teach other children how to manage true life challenges.

STACEY FRU

14-YEAR-OLD SOUTH AFRICAN INTERNATIONAL MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING CHILD AUTHOR AND ACTIVIST 144 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

www.IamAwareNow.com

‘GLOBAL GOOD’ EXCLUSIVE COLUMN BY TANITH HARDING

STACEY FRU

A CONVERSATION WITH THE YOUNG AUTHOR & ACTIVIST Stacey Fru is a 14-year-old South African International Multiple Award-Winning Child Author and Activist. She wrote her first book “Smelly Cats” at age 7 and has dedicated a portion of her life to reaching out, inspiring and educating people of various ages across the world. In addition, she is the face of the African Union and International Labour Organisations campaign for the elimination of child labour and runs The Stacey Fru Foundation lending support to children and care homes across South Africa.

TANITH: Stacey you are 14 years old and yet you have already achieved what most people would consider ambitious for a lifetime! What inspired you to do what you do?

STACEY: Thank you so much. My story begins in 2014 which is 8 years ago this year. I was a small ambitious 7-yearold, who was unaware of what the world had to offer. I was a creative, bossy and very noisy child. My parents described me then as bubbly. In October of that year my mother graduated with her masters. She hosted a graduation party at home, and all went well until a few days AFTER the celebration. We had gathered around one morning to watch the graduation pictures slides and videos that my uncle compiled for us. In those videos, I began to notice everyone praising a particular book (keep in mind little Stacey had no idea what a thesis was). So as we continued watching I put the pieces together and came a conclusion that my mother had written a book, without telling me.

Therefore, I decided to start writing my own book without telling her. That is how my first book titled Smelly Cats was born when I was 7.

STACEY FRU EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW BY TANITH HARDING WITH STACEY FRU

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145 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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TANITH: You became an author at just 7 years old and now run The Stacey Fru Foundation. What does the foundation do and what are your ambitions for it?

STACEY: The Stacey Fru Foundation focuses on ending child labour, by promoting Child Safety and Security alongside Literacy. We started off in underprivileged areas around South Africa, but now work around the world. The foundation runs various programmes and drives. My ambition for the foundation is for it to grow bigger and help more children. I also hope to run bigger projects and partner up with governments and international organisations.

TANITH: As an activist you are working with the African Union and International Labour Organisations campaign for the elimination of child labour. Talk us through your role and why it is needed?

STACEY: I was the face of the #EndChildLabour campaign of 2021. My role in relation to the AU and ILO is to be an ambassador for children’s rights and to sensitise grownups and organization on children’s rights to childhood. This role is needed because usually in these discussions, big cooperations and governments are the target whereas everyday individuals are not educated on how they can be part of the change towards a better future. Thus, my role is to open up the communication between our children and other members of society to be involved.

TANITH: In addition to all of the above you founded The Annual African Children of the Year Awards honouring African children who are impacting their communities. What is your involvement and how can people get involved?

STACEY: I founded the Annual African Children of the Year Awards (ACOTYA) in 2018. ACOTYA is my most prestigious programme in the Stacey Fru Foundation. Like you say, it aims to encourage African children to continue to shine in their environment. I am their greatest motivator, so instead of bragging in my achievements, I used my lessons learnt to teach other children how to manage true life challenges. For instance, I am currently editing a story book that is written by myself and other aluminis. An ACOTYA alumni is considered to be a past nominee who is above 14. At 14, they are no longer eligible to be nominated, but I figured a way to team up with them to keep their motivation going while we continue to inspire younger ones. People can get involved in ACOTYA projects by contacting me directly or visiting www.staceyfru.co.za.

TANITH: If you change one thing in the world what would it be and why?

STACEY: In English class, we recently did a listening comprehension and the video that was played was something that articulated the western view on Africa, and how the ignorance is portrayed within that media. I wish for the majority of people’s ignorance of our beloved continent to be squashed. The media should know that if you show the people one thing over and over, they will become just that thing. It must stop depicting our continent as incapable, and see it as it is. If we learn to remove the stereotypes, and see Africa for what it is, then I think we would have a space to grow larger and to expand our ways into something much greater. And I also wish for the African child to be educated and become a more powerful individual.

TANITH: What are hopes and dreams for the future?

STACEY: What I want for myself is to finish school with good marks because I take my school work very seriously. I wasn't really academically inclined until maybe grade eight and ever since then I've realised how important is for me to not only focus on empowering others but to empower myself. The second thing is to go out and grow the work that I'm doing. So to grow the foundation as my hopes and dreams are to leave a positive legacy that effects millions of lives. I also hope to start a very, very big family because I really do like children, so that would be nice. ∎

TANITH HARDING

Director of International Development, The Legacy Project, RoundTable Global www.awarenessties.us/tanith-harding Tanith is leading change management through commitment to the RoundTable Global Three Global Goals of: Educational Reform, Environmental Rejuvenation & Empowerment for All. She delivers innovative and transformational leadership and development programmes in over 30 different countries and is also lead on the international development of philanthropic programmes and projects. This includes working with a growing team of extraordinary Global Change Ambassadors and putting together the Global Youth Awards which celebrate the amazing things our young people are doing to change the world.

146 AWARENOW / THE LIGHT EDITION

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THROUGH THESE STORIES WE SHARED

I AM AWARE NOW. www.IamAwareNow.com

R E A D , L I S T E N & WAT C H T h e M a g a z i n e , T h e P o d c a s t & T h e Ta l k S h o w