ELYSIAN Winter 2019 Travel Issue

ART BAR-RESTAURANT SAANEN MITTELGÄSSLI 16 3792 SAANEN +41 33 748 16 16 | contact@16eme.ch www.16eme.ch

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• l’hiver 2019 • readelysian.com

EV ER Y DAY I S A N OPPORTUNITY T O CRE AT E L A S TING MEMORIES

SUITE COLLECTION

CLUB INTERCONTINENTAL

InterContinental David Tel Aviv is proud to be celebrating 20 years of passion, service, comfort and festive experiences in the heart of Tel Aviv since first opening its doors in 1999.

Create your own experience with us.

For bookings please contact our Reservations team at: tlvha.rsrv@ihg.com or +972-3-7951234

NOMI

ATRIUM LOBBY BAR

THE SPA

POOL

www.telaviv.intercontinental.com MEETINGS

WEDDINGS

THE BOARDROOMS

CONCIERGE

@ICTelAviv

Live the InterContinental life. readelysian.com • l’hiver 2019 •

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ELYSIAN Volume 4 • Issue 4 • l’hiver 2019/2020

eyelash Revolution

BY TRISH CARROLL

BY LATRIA GRAHAM

FEATURES

Yayoi Kusama’s Japan

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Catherine the Great’s Russia

BY JENNIFER EREMEEVA

Inspiring Women Grace Bender — page 106 Barbara Martinuzzi — page 112 Chitra Narayanan — page 118 Martynka Wawrzyniak — page 128 INTERVIEWS BY KAREN FLOYD

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Lessons You Can Learn from Jackie

BY LAURIE BOGART WILES

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President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy watch the first race of the 1962 America’s Cup from aboard the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Newport, Rhode Island.

ROBERT KNUDSEN. WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS. JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON

destination

Destination moon. BY SARA JARRELL

adventure 24entertaining 30 food dining wellness health fitness

Call of the wild. BY ANGELA CARAWAY-CARLTON

Trine Hahnemann, hygge & the Scandinavian Way. BY PAIGE FARRELL NYC nostalgia. BY SUZANNE JOHNSON

DEPARTMENTS

12 travel

My ego died in Bali. BY MARY ROGERS MCMASTER

Importance of self care during the holidays.

BY ANGIE COMER

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beauty graceful living

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Turning back the hands of time. BY AMY ZIMMER

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‘Tis the season in Palm Beach. BY RHONDA FISCHER

art culture philanthropy change creator

Creative exploring in the Arctic. BY HANNAH SHEPARD

Becoming someone who CARES. BY LATRIA GRAHAM

146 150expanding

Identity through vocation. BY ALEXIA PAUL

the

circle

From Coast to Coast: The ELYSIAN x Medjet Perfect Escape Event Series in New York & Los Angeles.

closing the circle

Cover model Rachel Castellani with ELYSIAN Inspiring Woman and global strategic advisor Chitra Narayanan.

the cover

Rachel Castellani of Greenville, South Carolina was photographed

by Donald Latham. Hair and makeup by Tiffany Brown.

the backstory

More on Rachel Castellani and how ELYSIAN is empowering talent.

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E publisher

Karen Floyd chief business officer

Jaclynn Jarrett

executive editor

Abby Deering

media director

Rob Springer

president of sales

&

marketing

Billy Leach

p r e s i d e n t o f d i g i ta l o p e r at i o n s

Taylor Brown

director of design

Ryan Stalvey

managing editor

/

arts

&

c u lt u r e e d i t o r

Hannah Shepard

editorial director

Rita Allison

comptroller

Kristin Eastwood &

development

Elliot Derhay

e ly s i a n i m pa c t d i r e c t o r o f p h i l a n t h r o p y

Kelly Nichols

art director

Tessa Wood

director of photography

Donald Latham

inspiring women

Karen Floyd

graceful living

Rhonda Fischer style

&

beauty editor

Trish Carroll

columnists

Angie Comer, Mary Rogers McMaster, Amy Zimmer senior writers

Laurie Bogart Wiles, Latria Graham contributing writers

Angela Caraway-Carlton, Jennifer Eremeeva, Paige Farrell, Sara Jarrell, Suzanne Johnson, Alexia Paul

copy editors

Diane High, Hadley Inabinet, Baker Maultsby, Phil Randall social media manager

Ruby Kubac

style director

Angie Woodard ta l e n t s c o u t

/

m o d e l i n g c o n s u lta n t

Robyn Shirley

production stylist

Tiffany Brown intern

Rachel Cohn

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ELYSIAN Magazine is published four times per year by Palladian Publications LLC, 113 W. Main St., Spartanburg, SC 29306.

For subscription information, call 888-329-9534; visit subscriptions@elysianservice.com; mailing address: Subscription Service, Elysian Magazine PO Box 2172, Williamsport, PA 17703 All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

• l’hiver 2019 • readelysian.com

From top: Social Media Manager Ruby Kubac styles the ELYSIAN Fall 2019 Issue for an upcoming social media post. ELYSIAN Chief Business Officer Jaclynn Jarrett with Susanna Auf der Maur-Quinn, who was an attendee of the ELYSIAN Women Entrepreneur CrossCultural Roundtable. Executive Editor Abby Deering reviews layouts for the Winter 2019 Issue. Arts & Culture Editor Hannah Shepard arrives at the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in Bern, Switzerland.

director of web design

M

“

TWENTY YEARS FROM NOW YOU WILL BE MORE DISAPPOINTED BY THE THINGS THAT YOU DIDN’T DO THAN BY THE ONES YOU DID DO. SO THROW OFF THE BOWLINES. SAIL AWAY FROM THE SAFE HARBOR. CATCH THE TRADE WINDS IN YOUR SAILS. EXPLORE. DREAM. DISCOVER.

”

— MARK TWAIN

y earliest memories involve travel. My father was born and raised in New York City to first generation immigrants who found refuge in America during the First World War. His worldview was limited to the sounds and smells of the city and the books he read. He understood that education was his way out and earned a PhD as a petroleum geologist. The movie, Lawrence of Arabia, forever changed his life—impacting the lives of all of us: He loved the story of announcing to his wife that they would raise their family in the Middle East.

On the way to fulfilling this dream, they moved to Houston, Texas, where he worked for ESSO, embarking on a nomadic career that took the family to Northern Africa. I remember sand storms in Libya (Ghibli), gold markets in Jordan, the traditional horse shows in Morocco, and the souks of Tunisia. It was a simpler time. My sister and I played “cache-cache” with the Arab children. We spoke colloquial Arabic and French, did not have television, and read constantly. We fearlessly explored every place we traveled, unescorted, with a freedom that is hard to imagine today. Our mother was drawn to everything aesthetic. While my sister and I were making friends from country to country, we were also in tow with this amazing woman and her insatiable appetite for art. We visited museums and galleries and attended the theatre. From the Van Gogh Museum’s opening in Amsterdam in the 1970’s to tours at the Louvre, I came to understand her passion.

Our Publisher’s Letters often reference Robert Frost’s line: “Two roads diverged in a wood . . . and I took the one less traveled.” Reflecting on my upbringing, my parents’ diverse interests—living abroad, exploring different cultures, gravitating toward everything aesthetically beautiful—were examples of their taking the road less traveled, fulfilling dreams and discovery throughout the world.

Inspiring Women. (Anecdotal stories)

PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIK RUSSELL

I reflect on my childhood experiences and my parents’ choices as I consider the evolution of ELYSIAN. Our footprint has expanded globally as represented in the perspectives we share.

In this issue, the publisher’s nonpareil recognizes an Inspiring Woman as an exemplar of excellence for achievements of transcending influence. Chitra Narayanan traveled the world and followed in her father’s diplomatic footsteps, serving as Ambassador of India to six countries. Today, she expertly advises international think tanks on creative diplomacy.

Earlier this year, we visited Barbara Martinuzzi, world-renowned designer and entrepreneur at her home in Switzerland. Like Chitra and Barbara, Martynka Wawrzyniak was born abroad—Poland—and brings a unique perspective. In addition to being an editor for Rizzoli publishing, Martynka’s minimalist artwork explores global and social themes. Grace Bender represents a common theme among our Inspiring Women: impact giving. A known philanthropist in Washington, D.C., Grace reflects, “Donating is nice, and it’s easy to write a check, but it’s more important to give of yourself, your time.” A foundational concept of ELYSIAN is to connect accomplished women with young women.

In this issue, you’ll read about Ambassador Narayanan and the insights she provided our cover model, Rachel Castellani, a freshman at Clemson University.

Graceful Living. (Deliberate, spirited and bold)

In our winter issue, readers share adventures with independent women who inspire us to reach further. Sail with artists near the Arctic Circle, travel to Alaska with a woman whose life changed when introduced to Alaskan sled dogs and the Iditarod. Celebrate the holidays at two of NYC’s classic restaurants or view the work of Yayoi Kusama in Japan. Brave the winter for a tour of Russia and Catherine the Great’s palaces. Take a nostalgic look at high fashion with Hattie Carnegie, then celebrate the woman who reigned over America’s Camelot, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Philanthropy. (Creating legacy)

ELYSIAN Inspiring Woman Susan Taylor was the editor-in-chief of Essence magazine for 20 plus years before becoming the CEO of the National CARES Mentoring Movement, an innovative effort aimed at addressing intergenerational poverty. ELYSIAN has dedicated two pages in support of this cause and we invite readers to attend the 2020 For the Love of Our Children Gala on February 10, 2020 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

Challenging oneself through travel, searching for individual interpretations of beauty and art, always seeking knowledge is ELYSIAN’s purpose. As Dr. Seuss so eloquently put it, “Oh the places you’ll go.”

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Thank you for taking the journey.

Before becoming an award-winning interior designer, Barbara Martinuzzi had a career as a model, being crowned Miss Italy at the age of 17. Though challenging, for ten years, modeling afforded her independence. Making the decision that the world of fashion modeling was not for her, Barbara moved to Zürich, Switzerland, where she founded Martinuzzi Interiors. Her intuitive and eclectic designs have been recognized throughout Europe and the United States.

Barbara Martinuzzi

Former Miss Italy, Creative Director & Founder of Martinuzzi Interiors

What an amazing home you have overlooking Lake Zurich. As I sit here with this incredible vista, clouds breaking on the horizon, I thank you very much for opening your home for ELYSIAN’S European launch. What a masterpiece you have created here with your expertise in home décor and interior design.

Thank you, Karen.

Why are you selling this magnificent home?

This home is too big for me, with just my little doggie, Otto. I would like to move to something smaller and closer to town.

It has been said that your untraditional childhood manifested in your creative ability?

My parents never married. In the ‘70s my mother’s journey was definitely considered unique because she did not marry my father. They just fell in love. My father was 25 years older than my mother, and though their love story did not last long, it was very intense. I am the result.

Did you have a good relationship with both of your parents?

I did not have much contact with my father. I saw him when I was small, two or three years old, but we lost contact because he was living with his own family. I grew up with my mother and my grandmother.

You have achieved great success. At some point later in life, did your father re-enter your world?

For a while, yes.

And how did that feel?

It felt quite strange. In front of me was a person that was supposed to be my father, but he was someone I didn’t really know. Our conversations were distant, like meeting a stranger.

Italy has a more rigid culture, perhaps, than many countries. How did your mother survive in that strict environment and the judgment that accompanied it?

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It is a good question because she was a rebel compared to • l’hiver readelysian.com other woman in the 1970s.

It was2019 a time•when female power and independence from the male world was evolving. Mother acted independently her entire life, long before it was acceptable.

Was she an artist?

She was an artist, a painter, actually. She painted for ten years but stopped a few years ago. Before that, my mother was an entrepreneur. She opened a restaurant in Rome and managed it for two or three years. We moved to Turin, and from there, she worked for a real estate company until she opened her own company.

Was she successful?

She says her biggest success was related to me. She didn’t really want to have a career. Her career was to sustain me in my studies and in my education. That was her biggest goal. I think she felt she was successful.

Did your mother ever find love again?

Sad to say, but no.

And what do you do to make sure that doesn’t happen to you?

I don’t think about it. I just live my life happily and am not looking for love. Love comes when you give love. What you put out . . . comes back.

Does she come to Switzerland often?

Well, she did in the past especially when the kids were smaller.

She enjoyed her time as a grandmother. We have regular contact with her. She has always had an important role in my life.

Is there a lesson that you took from her life’s experiences?

Yes, absolutely! The same way she accomplished her successes with determination and drive I try to reach my goals with the same mindset.

The pageantry world. When did you first know that you were exceptional in that arena?

I felt like a normal child with nothing more special about me then my peers. I didn’t have confidence in myself even when I went into modeling. When I participated in the Miss Italy contest, I was not confident in my beauty.

Why is that?

Because my sense of beauty comes from the inside. It’s not visual or aesthetic, which probably is what other people saw in me.

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The unique atmospheric conditions at the Sheldon Chalet of a high elevation and clear mountain air provide the perfect condition for guests to view the truest colors of the aurora borealis.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY JENA GARDNER

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&

Destination moon

BY SARA JARRELL

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Surrounded by breathtaking views of the mountainscape, guests at Sheldon Chalet can refresh their body and soul in an environment of natural silence. Opposite: At 6,000 feet in elevation and with zero light pollution, the 35-square mile amphitheater is illuminated by the night sky for stellar aurora-viewing and stargazing.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JENA GARDNER

decades ago, legendary Alaskan bush pilot, Don Sheldon, acquired a plot of land within the Denali National Forest under the Homestead Act of 1950. He and cartographer Brad Washburn surveyed and mapped out the land. Sheldon dreamed of opening a vacation spot on the property.

In 1966, he built the famed Mountain House, which quickly drew attention from the likes of National Geographic.

He hoped to build additional structures, making the property a destination for tourists. He planned to fly guests from the nearest town to the property himself. Sadly, Sheldon passed away in 1975 of cancer before his dream could be realized.

Sheldon’s wife Roberta held on to the land and the Mountain House but never developed the resort her late husband had envisioned.

Following her death in 2014, the Sheldons’ children, Robert and Kate, along with Robert’s wife Marne, decided to pursue their father’s original plans. In 2018, they opened the Sheldon Chalet.

The luxury lodge is only accessible by helicopter or plane as it is in one

BUILT ON NORTH AMERICA’S HIGHEST MOUNTAIN AND ONLY ACCESSIBLE

BY HELICOPTER, THE SHELDON CHALET LUXURY LODGE OFFERS GUESTS AN UNPARALLELED WINTER ESCAPE.

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of the most remote places on earth. Located 6,000 feet above sea level, the Chalet sits atop a rocky area exposed within a glacier, called a nunatak. “(The nunatak) is super strong, and that’s what we’ve anchored the Chalet into,” says Robert Sheldon. “That’s why we have such confidence in this engineering marvel. In this case, the nunatak is not only unique up there; it is the only reason we’re able to exist.”

Using old blueprints and plans their father had drawn up before his death, Robert and Kate started designing the Chalet. “We adapted those drawings to what was necessary, but Sheldon Chalet is within 10 percent of the footprint of the original design, and we’re really excited about that,” Robert says.

Materials for the hotel were flown in by plane or helicopter. The Sheldon family made sure that the hotel would withstand high winds and extreme weather. The construction team selected the best materials for the protection and preservation of the hotel, the guests, and the natural surroundings.

“We ended up going with steel and glass because it will last the longest— we hope it will last at least two generations, if not longer, and we designed the building to withstand tremendous forces of nature,” Robert says.

While starting on the foundation of the Chalet, the team discovered that Sheldon had already begun building before he died, and were able to repurpose some of the materials that he had used. It almost seemed as if Sheldon was guiding the project.

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ow open, the Sheldon Chalet houses and provides guests with a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Guests start their journey in either Talkeetna or Anchorage with a helicopter ride that takes them through mountains and valleys as deep as the Grand Canyon. On the ride over to the Sheldon Chalet, pilots give guests a short history of the lives of Don and Roberta. The helicopter might feel as if it’s going to crash into these massive granite mountains with icy peaks, but it’s all about depth perception. Pilots caution guests that their perception is thrown off due to the magnitude of their surroundings.

“So the flight in whisks you away with a whole lot of geography, place, and story,” Robert says. “And about 35 minutes later, you land at the Sheldon Chalet. It’s all frequently described by guests as, ‘I feel as if I’ve just entered a James Bond movie.’”

After landing, guests are treated to fine dining by chefs who prepare the freshest Alaskan seafood, paired with other locally sourced ingredients and outstanding wines. The luxury chalet includes five bedrooms, a kitchen, a sauna, an observation deck and helicopter pad. The observation deck offers breathtaking views that can include the aurora borealis from midSeptember to mid-April.

Guests choose from one of two daily activities, led by local guides, that may

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Whether you are launching helicopter adventures, stargazing or relaxing with a glass of champagne, the observation deck is perfect for taking in the view.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SHELDON CHALET

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include glacier treks, skiing, sledding, and a mountain ropes course. “We believe folks should have three types of exploration,” Robert says. “The first is, of course, geographical. The second is place—sensing who you are and how you fit into the environment. And the third is story— and that’s what you come away with.”

After a day of exploring and adventure, guests unwind in the chalet’s common living area, relaxing and reading by the fire. Or they may prefer to head to their bedroom for a nap or to gaze at the peak of Denali.

While enjoying all that the Sheldon Chalet has to offer, guests are asked to unplug. In fact, the lodge does not have wifi, TV, or cell service. “It takes between six hours and a full day for people to relax enough to deprogram and become their natural selves, to let go of the pressures of the world and their design to be connected,” Robert says.

He stressed that the experience of staying at the Sheldon Chalet is rooted in his family’s history.

Decorated with family photos and heirlooms, the entire structure of the Chalet pays homage to Don and Roberta. Staff members also open the historic Mountain House for guests to see where it all began. They can sign the guestbook and feel that they’ve become part of the place.

Robert Sheldon is excited to share with visitors his family’s special connection to Alaska. “It’s really a magnetic place—our philosophy as a family is that everything we do needs to derive from the magnificence of the place, that is what the luxury experience is.” ■

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WINTER IS COMING — AND ZOYA DENURE TAKES US ON AN ADVENTURE FROM MODEL TO MUSHER IN THE ALASKAN WILDERNESS.

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MORANDINI LUCA / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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call

of the

Wild

BY ANGELA CARAWAY-CARLTON

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When Zoya DeNure made the dramatic move from Wisconsin to a remote area of Alaska to chase dreams of sled-dog racing, she didn’t totally let go of her glamorous life as a fashion model. Instead, she paid for a storage unit packed with extravagant clothing and shoes.

“I had shoes for every occasion, fancy shoes for dancing, special shoes for dinner,” DeNure recalls with a laugh.

When the model-turned-musher finally made a special trip back to reclaim her once-coveted possessions, something had changed: “I couldn’t shove my foot into any of my cute shoes. My feet have actually gotten wider because of all the work I do here. We ended up dropping them off at the Goodwill—someone got very lucky that day.”

Like those shoes, her old life as a model 20-plus years ago doesn’t fit anymore. Makeup and perfect hair are no longer a priority; puffer jackets and parkas have replaced dresses and heels. And instead of strutting down the runway, she’s often up at dawn, speeding through the freezing wilderness on the runners of a sled while juggling motherhood and taking care of a gaggle of rescue dogs that are like family. She’s a different person.

“I think I’m a better version, a more authentic version of myself,” she says.

Model Behavior

It was 1988 when the 12-year-old beauty was scouted by a modeling school while shopping with her mom at a Minneapolis mall. At the time, DeNure’s bedroom walls were covered with posters of Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell, and the chance to model felt like a dream for the young girl living in tiny Black River Falls, Wisconsin.

“My mom was a single mom, and she worked really hard. Life was tough.

We didn’t have a lot of opportunities or a lot of money, so this really opened up a fantasy world,” says DeNure, who soon enrolled in a 12-week modeling school where she learned to apply makeup and work the catwalk. For nearly 12 years, she would live a jet-set lifestyle, walking the famed runways of Milan and even Beijing for China Fashion Week. Returning from a gig in Italy, the pressures of the industry began to weigh on the then 23-year-old.

“I had this exciting life, wearing beautiful clothing and flying here and there, but I was always in a state of wanting,” she says. “I wanted to be prettier, to be skinnier, to be better, but I never felt good enough.”

A Dog’s Purpose

Zoya DeNure went from fashion model to musher, competing in dogsledding races and opening the Crazy Dog Kennel, a rescue and rehabilitation facility with her family for unwanted sled dogs.

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Ditching her modeling career, DeNure went in search of a simpler life in Madison, Wisconsin, where she rented a lake house and bought a puppy—a Siberian husky mix—to help fill her days.

“He was this little white fur ball with cinnamon color on his back,” says DeNure of the dog she named Ethan. “Chasing material things was never fulfilling, but this dog made me happy. He awakened a new me.”

Caring for Ethan would also lead to a new, life-altering passion. While buying dog food at the local feed store, she was introduced to the prominent owner of a sprint-racing kennel. She invited DeNure to her farmhouse, where she mingled with Alaskan huskies for the first time and took an exhilarating ride with the owner on the runners of the sled.

“That ride changed everything,” she recalls. “The part that grabbed my attention was all these dogs have such different personalities, and they live for running.”

After spending every weekend there for almost a year, training and taking care of the dogs, DeNure set up her own kennel in the country, where she would train a team of four dogs around a cornfield, and started competing

Pretty Rugged...Transforming your outdoor experience.

Ultimate Warmth, Ultimate Luxury.

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pr et t y r uggedgear. com readelysian.com • l’hiver 2019 •

in sprint races.

She started with quick four-mile races, but “after some time, there was something in me that longed for more distance and more time with the dogs.”

That’s when someone suggested she should check out the Iditarod, a grueling, thousand-plus-mile dog sled race in Alaska that runs from Anchorage to Nome.

“I ordered some VHS tapes with Susan Butcher, who was winning in the ’80s, and I was intrigued by the independence of the mushers, alone in the wilderness with their dog team. I thought if she could do it, maybe I could, too.”

Placing 57th in the 2017 Iditarod, which is a thousand-plus-mile dog sled race in Alaska, Zoya trains with her racing dogs to compete again in March. “All these dogs have such different personalities, and they live for running.”

The Amazing Race

Called to go north, DeNure packed up a few of her belongings, along with her Ethan, and headed for the interior of Alaska.

At first, she worked with well-known musher Bill Cotter, who encouraged her to start competing in mid-distance races. When it was time for her to begin putting together her own team, she realized that she couldn’t afford to buy the pricey race dogs from the kennels. She ended up rescuing dogs that were either going to be put down or weren’t considered raceworthy.

“They were all good dogs with nothing wrong with them,” says DeNure.

“I quickly bonded with them, and that was my little team.”

That following winter, at a race in the middle of the wilderness, she would meet her future husband, John Schandelmeier, a fellow dog driver who had won many races and was well-known for taking unwanted dogs and turning them into champions. They married in 2003 and combined their dog kennels, and decided to go for her dream of competing in the Iditarod. In 2008, she finished her first Iditarod, placing 53rd, and was instantly hooked.

“There’s nothing quite like it—maybe giving birth to your first baby,” she says. “It’s magical. You’re out there in the wilderness with your team; they depend on you, and you depend on them.”

Now 42, DeNure placed 57th in the 2017 Iditarod, and she’s currently training to compete again this March.

“I would love to compete in the top-end of the Iditarod, with a chance to win,” says DeNure, who believes she now has a top-20 team or better. “I also know the reality of the competition these days, the style of running it takes.

You have to push the dogs really hard, and I’m not willing to sacrifice my

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team for the win. I feel like we can make a difference in the sport by how we play the game—how we run—and I think that’s more important.”

Rescue, Rehab, Repeat

That compassionate belief of putting the dogs first is the backbone of Crazy Dog Kennel, her family’s rescue and rehabilitation facility for unwanted sled dogs. The couple strives for positive training techniques, which means no negative or physical disciplining. With around 50 dogs, the family works to rehab the animals—giving them whatever they need to thrive—and then finds them a happy home.

“A lot of the people who adopt from us send pictures and letters saying that this dog changed their life,” she says. “To me, that makes all the difference.

We believed in that dog, and we gave him a second chance.”

Along with dogs that they’ve bred, some of the rescued dogs will go on to race with them while others are a fit for their dog-sledding tour operation, Delta Outdoor Adventures. This is a real-deal tour in which DeNure takes visitors on a 3-to-5-mile excursion through the Delta Junction, where there are no roads or homes—just spectacular alpine views.

“We’re giving them a taste of the ‘real’ Alaska,” she says. “It’s an authentic experience where visitors can walk away with knowledge about sled dogs along with a hands-on experience.”

While it’s a far cry from her former life, DeNure has never looked back.

“I’m still in a fast lifestyle—it hasn’t slowed down,” she says. “My goals and priorities have changed, and I’m always looking ahead.”

Editors Note: For more information, go to dogsleddenali.com. ■

EKATERINA KONDRATOVA / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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Trine Hahnemann, Hygge & the Scandinavian Way

BY PAIGE FARRELL

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COURTESY OF ROYAL COPENHAGEN

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calm.” Call it the “Scandinavian Way.” With her work and her luscious cookbooks, Hahnemann is considered the expert on hygge. She is also an indefatigable advocate of sustainability. She began working as a chef in the early 1990s and acquired her canteen (catering) business not long after.

The business, Hahnemanns Køkken, quickly grew. Located in Copenhagen, not far from the hospital in which she was born, the Køkken, which is Danish for kitchen, is a lively, inviting, collaborative think-tank for learning, cooking deliciously and eating healthily and sustainably. It is comprised of an eatery and event space and housed her canteen division, which she recently sold.

This was a pivotal move for Hahnemann. An opportunity arose for the sale of the canteen to a larger corporation, allowing for a greater reach of her philosophy “that everyone should have one

The recipe for this Chocolate Rice Pudding and Warm Cherry Sauce and other holiday dishes can be found in Trine Hahnemann’s Scandinavian Comfort Food cookbook.

Opposite: Similar to a doughnut hole, the Copenhagen classic Æbleskiver is best enjoyed with homemade jam.

Find the recipe in Hahnemann’s Copenhagen Food cookbook.

“FOR ME, HYGGE IS ABOUT BEING PRESENT, CONTENT, SLOWING DOWN AND SPENDING TIME WITH PEOPLE YOU ENJOY. IT IS ALSO ABOUT TAKING TIME FOR ONESELF AND TAKING A PAUSE FROM DOING, TO JUST BE, CONTENT AND CALM.” SCANDINAVIAN COMFORT FOOD BY TRINE HAHNEMANN (QUADRILLE £25) PHOTOGRAPHY ©COLUMBUS LETH

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COPENHAGEN FOOD BY TRINE HAHNEMANN (QUADRILLE £25) PHOTOGRAPHY ©COLUMBUS LETH

D

anish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi painted simple, minimalistic interiors bathed in calm earthen tones that invite contemplation. Hammershøi’s De fire stuer, a dreamlike, minimalistic sweep of a room opening into a room, and into another, introduces the foreword to Danish chef and prolific food writer Trine Hahnemann’s decadent cookbook, Scandinavian Food.

“I always feel drawn to Hammershøi’s paintings,” Hahnemann says. “I like to just sit on a chair and observe quietly with my hands folded in my lap. Even though this was painted more than 100 years ago, there is something profound going on for me—a sense of belonging. I can imagine myself as a child sitting on the chair listening to the silence while I swing my legs in my own rhythm, waiting for something to happen.”

Hygge, pronounced ‘hue-geh,’ is a Danish word that is for Scandinavians “a part of our everyday life, so ingrained in our culture, that it’s just a part of who we are,” says Hahnemann.

“For me, hygge is about being present, content, slowing down and spending time with people you enjoy. It is also about taking time for oneself and taking a pause from doing, to just be, content and

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COURTESY OF ROYAL COPENHAGEN

Hahnemann cherishes the holidays when family gathers together in a warm kitchen. “The season is all about comfort and good cheer, and we spend as much time as we can at home.” Find the recipe for Steamed Leeks and Brown Butter, pictured below, in her Scandinavian Comfort Food cookbook.

SCANDINAVIAN COMFORT FOOD BY TRINE HAHNEMANN (QUADRILLE £25) PHOTOGRAPHY ©COLUMBUS LETH

good meal a day.” At the time of the sale, she and her team were cooking and serving lunch to 3,000 people daily.

The sale will also give Hahnemann the ability to devote herself completely to her mission of promoting sustainable eating, organic farming, and the importance of eating a plant-based diet.

“I think the world is asking us all to slow down, to spend less, waste less and be more present. Both hygge and a sustainable future are all about that,” she says. “Right now, I believe it is important that we always question if we as a people are on the right path. We need to listen to each other. We need to cook, eat and talk to each other. I believe food could be the center of understanding this. If you cook daily, set the table, sit and eat with your family and friends, you will create memories. I like to think civilization starts at the dinner table.”

Hahnemann’s cookbooks are about comfort, and they ooze hygge, with their sinews and sweeps of the beauty and intrigue of Scandinavian culture. “My books are about the way I cook and eat.

All my work is based around food—organic and sustainable—and a good life. In a Danish context, this always somehow involves hygge,” she says. Colorful, and laced with prose that takes the reader back in time, her books celebrate living well. Her hope is that she will change the way people eat—for personal health and that of the planet.

With Comfort Food, she embraces the art of hygge. In Copenhagen Food, we are treated to stories and traditions. Open Sandwiches dives into 70 ideas for smørrebrød, the classic, open-faced sandwiches made on traditional Scandinavian rye bread. Eating Nordic features the ‘ultimate diet,’ along with seasonal eating. And then there are the winter favorites, Scandinavian Baking and Scandinavian Christmas.

December and the celebration of the Christmas holiday can be defined as quintessential hygge, and for Scandinavians, it begins

with the First Sunday of Advent and lasts long and deliciously into the New Year. While quick to state that she loves every season, each transition, and the shift in how and when to nourish with different ingredients and cooking techniques, it is winter— and Christmas in particular—which holds a special place in her heart. She savors the early morning twilight as December takes hold, lighting candles, drinking hot beverages, baking, enjoying root vegetables, fermenting and pickling, watching the first snow, staying indoors and gathering together in a warm kitchen. And always, a visit to Royal Copenhagen is on order, for the beautiful porcelain displays, especially the Christmas Table.

“We love to decorate our homes, and we love to entertain, and of course we love to eat,” says Hahnemann. Saffron buns are now a yearround treat, but Hahnemann sticks with tradition and reserves them for December. Æbleskiver—similar to a doughnut hole—enjoyed with homemade jam, are a Copenhagen favorite. Hot chocolate, glögg-a seasonal, sweet and spicy mulled wine, and lots of Champagne are the beverages of choice. “The season is all about comfort and good cheer, and we spend as much time as we can at home,” she says. “A festive home, a cozy home, is a must, it is where we entertain. It is how we entertain. Our homes are an extension of who we are, our stories. In fact, the greatest compliment you could give a Dane is to say that their home is hyggelig!”

How to embrace your own art of Scandinavian living, dining and entertaining this winter? Begin by emulating Hahnemann, and “savor the intermission.” Dissolve into her cookbooks. Channel your inner hygge, gather in the kitchen, tap into a bit of decadence. Bake.

Revisit your family traditions.

Now is the time to slow down, take time and, in the words of poet E. E. Cummings, stay “locked in foreverish time’s tide at poise.”

Hygge. Nourishment for the soul. ■

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& Curious, Subtle, Delicate, Robust, Strong and Greedy. These adjectives aren’t a part of a personality assessment test, but they can be taste-tested at one of London’s newest restaurants: Caractère.

NYC Nostalgia

Manhattan’s legendary speakeasy, the 21 Club, has served worldfamous artists, actors, athletes and almost every U.S. president since the bar and restaurant opened in 1930.

IMAGES COURTESY OF ‘21’ CLUB

Few

BY SUZANNE JOHNSON

AS NEW YORK CITY SHINES BRIGHT WITH HOLIDAY SPIRIT YEAR AFTER YEAR, THESE TWO RESTAURANTS TRIUMPH AS EVERLASTING CLASSICS.

places are more exciting than New York City during the holiday season. From the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center to the remarkable decorations along Fifth Avenue, New York City is the home to some of the most historic and beloved holiday sights in the country.

Two of New York City’s most iconic restaurants, the 21 Club and the Waverly Inn, transform their popular dining establishments right after Thanksgiving into the most decorative and delicious celebrations of the holiday season you will ever see. Or taste.

Yes, New York City is known for offering the latest trends in world-class dining, but when it comes to experiencing the best of the holidays, I much prefer these classic restaurants. Newer restaurants may garner most of the attention from the deluge of “culinary influencers” and “crowd-sourced reviewers” who now determine who’s been bad or good, but iconic restaurants like the 21 Club and the Waverly Inn are still thriving after years of success.

So whether you are downtown—the Waverly Inn—or uptown—the 21 Club—for lunch, brunch or dinner, I promise that the decorations alone at these two landmarks will make you feel as if you are starring in your very

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own holiday classic movie. In fact, both restaurants have been in films and television shows, but it’s not just the décor that wows directors and customers alike.

The Waverly Inn and the 21 Club attribute their success to a balance of service, ambiance and, above all, food. With each restaurant celebrating a significant anniversary this year, both continue to serve their beloved traditional dishes while striving to stay current. Incorporating clean lifestyle trends like vegan and gluten-free choices, each restaurant is dedicated to catering to its customers’ culinary likes and needs.

T

he Waverly Inn is situated in an 1844 townhouse on Bank Street in Greenwich Village. As you approach the restaurant during the holiday season, the heart-warming phrase “you had me at hello” comes to mind. And as you take in the 10,000 white lights on the tree illuminating this tastefully decorated landmark, you’ll wish you’d brought your Christmas stocking to hang from one of the ornate fireplaces within.

With its old world vibe, the Waverly Inn has enjoyed a charmed existence but not simply by coasting on ambience and charm. “It’s all due to very hard work,” says Emil Varda, the estimable manager who opened the Waverly Inn in partnership with journalist and former Vanity Fair editor, Graydon Carter, and Roberto Benadid, television writer and producer. The three were neighbors on Bank Street and had a quest to create “a haunt we could feel at home in.”

Soon celebrating their 15th anniversary, Emil says their success comes down simply to their philosophy about service.

“We are not trying to educate our customers,” he says. “We are not trying to tell them what to order or what wine to drink. We serve what our customers know, can afford and like. We are an institution built on regulars. We treat our patrons very well, and they return because of our great service, our great food and our policy of protection. We keep our customers safe from the public eye.”

And what Emil means by “safe from the public eye” is that under the amber lighting of the Waverly Inn, perhaps nestled in one of its fabulous red leather booths or discretely dining in the ivy-covered atrium built literally around a tree, a celebrity or notable figure is able to dine with comfort in this clubby space.

Still attracting intellectuals, A-listers and the like, there is one “star” seen every day in the dining room at the Waverly Inn that cannot go unmentioned: the six-panel mural by famed caricaturist Ed Sorrel. The mural includes large drawings of artistic greats such as Pollock, Brando, Warhol, Dylan, Monk and others intended to show and tell a story to the customers about the type of people—actors, musicians, poets, playwrights, beatniks and bohemians—for whom the Waverly played host back in its previous incarnation. It is the best of Greenwich Village and not to be missed.

But, to be sure, the biggest star at the Waverly Inn is always the food. The Waverly Inn’s special Chicken Pot Pie, delicious Dover Sole and “to-die-for” mac and cheese with white truffles are just a few of the many traditional and seasonal dishes and desserts offered on the menu that will make your season bright as well as delicious.

Whether you are escaping stardom or want to be transported to your own holiday movie, the charm of Greenwich Village’s landmark restaurant The Waverly Inn will warm your soul with its cozy ambience, classic dishes and impeccable service.

IMAGES COURTESY OF WAVERLY INN

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THE WAVERLY INN’S SPECIAL CHICKEN POT PIE, DELICIOUS DOVER SOLE AND “TO-DIEFOR” MAC AND CHEESE WITH WHITE TRUFFLES ARE JUST A FEW OF THE MANY TRADITIONAL AND SEASONAL DISHES THAT WILL MAKE YOUR SEASON BRIGHT AS WELL AS DELICIOUS.

M

As identifiably New York as cheesecake, the famed 21 Club, with its 35 multi-colored jockeys lining the balcony above the entrance, is still as much a part of the Manhattan social scene as it was during Prohibition.

oving up to Midtown, which is the absolute “must go” zone in New York City during the holidays, you will find the 21 Club—a classic and beloved restaurant located on West 52nd Street.

The 21 Club is a “reassuring constant in an ever-changing world,” offering sophisticated fun and timeless elegance for everyone, young and old.

The legendary restaurant is a short distance from Radio City Music Hall, where the Rockettes have been kicking off the season since 1925, and conveniently close to Rockefeller Center. So, whether you’re gearing up for a show or looking to unwind afterwards, it’s right on the way.

And a bonus: During the holidays, it’s just two blocks away from the world’s most famous Christmas tree, erected each year on Fifth Avenue.

Like the Waverly Inn, the 21 Club is situated in a historic townhouse. But in contrast to Greenwich Village, its surroundings are the towering glass and steel buildings of Midtown Manhattan. Upon approach, you will see a row of colorful iron jockeys standing sentry, enclosed by a beautiful iron fence annually adorned with garlands, lights and bows for the holidays. To the step inside, one needs only to look for the faded red canopy and period lamplights that read “21.”

And when you walk in under that canopy, know that almost every U.S. president since “the 21” opened in 1930 has done so, too. So has the most impressive array of world-famous artists and actors, athletes and coaches, politicians and singers, captains of industry and Medal of Honor recipients.

It seems every inch of the 21 Club comes with a story. This beloved former speakeasy, considered “the best in the world” during Prohibition, makes the line “if only this restaurant could talk” ring true.

For one, there is the story about the elaborate measures taken to hide liquor from the feds during Prohibition. In fact, you can take a tour of a remarkable historic room, located in the basement behind a two-and-a-half-ton door, camouflaged as a wall, and still opened to this day with a meat skewer.

Now renovated, this room is considered one of the most coveted private rooms for events in the world, a perfect example of how the 21 Club continues to make history.

Celebrating its 90th anniversary this New Year’s Eve, the 21 Club’s rare history is filled with stories often shared over drinks or a meal in its famous barroom, where the ceiling is chock-full of memorabilia, each with a story better than the next.

The items are each unique gifts—from Howard Hughes and other business tycoons, sports legends including John McEnroe, presidents and entertainment celebrities. Sophia Coppola gifted the clapperboard from her recent film to this rare, suspended collection—a must-see when at the 21.

The secret to the 21’s 90-year success can be attributed to it being many things: a museum, an art gallery, an event space, a theater and, above all, an outstanding restaurant.

Under the direction of Chef Sylvain Delpique, favorites such as the famed “21 burger,” steak tartare and creamy chicken hash are prepared and served with pride by white jacket waiters overseen by black jacket managers. The menu offers inspired cuisine with seasonal ingredients—something for everyone with special additions for the holiday season. And don’t skip the cheesecake.

During the holiday season, the 21 Club is the place to be, not only for the food and festive decor, but also for the music: Christmas carols are sung by the Salvation Army, a heartfelt tradition at the restaurant since 1936.

In

an always-changing market, thankfully the Waverly Inn and the 21 Club have stood the test of time. Above all, both restaurants strive to maintain a standard of excellence, elegance and reverence for history. (The 21 Club still requires jackets and provides to anyone who comes unprepared. A shout-out for tradition: Here! Here!)

Make sure to put a reservation at both restaurants on your Christmas list when coming to New York City this holiday season. ■

IMAGES COURTESY OF ‘21’ CLUB

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Ganesha with balinese Barong masks sitting on the front of a temple.

TROPICAL STUDIO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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MY EGO DIED in BALI

BY MARY ROGERS McMASTER

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I

time my workouts to be exactly 30 minutes; fifteen minutes on the first set, focusing on the primary muscles, and 15 minutes on the second set, in which I can incorporate the secondary and fast-twitch muscles. This way, I know I am getting the best results possible without wasting any time.

Google Calendar splits the responsibility with my daily to-do list as I record even the mini-breaks between meetings by way of 15-minute increments. Metered parking forces us to regulate how long we spend at the local shops. And there is no limit to the alarms we can set on our iPhones.

Nothing is too small to be recorded and regulated, all in the pursuit of maximizing our time on earth.

But what if we have it wrong?

I spent the entire month of August in Bali, studying Balinese dance and traditional Balinese masks. I went in pursuit of experience and to deepen my understanding of the world.

Thirteen students from around the globe gathered in Bali to take this three-week course with the humble and brilliant Per Brahe, an acting coach, stage manager and healer (pictured).

We arrived in Bali and were given a schedule with no time markers on it. My brain begged me to put structure onto this artistic chart of experience, and for the first week, I was incredibly frustrated that I never knew when things were going to start and when things were going to end.

I argued that I needed to know both how long each class was and the point of the lesson so that I could get the most out of it.

Wrong.

My ego was shouting at me to control this learning experience, that I needed all of the pertinent paperwork beforehand so that I could juice my time in this far-away place. What my ego was really doing was pushing me away from the moment. We all have ego, and if it goes unchecked, our thoughts start to sound like this: • “I must be the prettiest in the room.”

• “Everyone needs to know how smart I am.”

• “I must be the best at this.”

When our ego is in control, we are comparing our experience, qualifying it and generally missing it. In order to be in the moment truly and fully, you must let go of this type of thinking.

My ego died in Bali.

“You cannot be good at this,” Per explained before our first dance class, assaulting my way of thinking. I am used to dance classes where you learn a combination and practice and practice and then perform at the end. Bali, a society run on song and dance, does it a bit differently.

Day one, our dance teacher silently walked to the front of the dance hall.

He got in position, his wife started the music and he began to move. Without instruction, without a list of counts, we followed. Again. Again. Again. This went on for weeks.

Before my ego died, it put up a fight. The thoughts kept running through my head, “What is the story to this dance? What are the steps? How many times are we going to go through this?”

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Above: Overlooking a rice field as the sun rises, Mary meditates and practices what she has learned of Balinese dance. Left: Her acting coach, stage manager, healer and internationally renowned Balinese mask maker, Per, led a three-week course in Bali on Balinese dance and traditional masks. His free-flowing approach to teaching breaks the western convention of strict structure and time management in the classroom.

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Balinese dance is an ancient dance tradition of artistic expression among Balinese people.

It is known for being dynamic, angular and intensely expressive, often used to tell stories through gestures.

MARIO ANDI SUPRIA / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Then I heard it again: “You cannot be good at this.”

When the ego is driving, you allow external forces to qualify your experience. You’ve put your happiness in the hands of others: • You are only good enough if they say you are.

• You are only talented if they recognize it.

• You lack a fundamental trust within yourself.

When the ego drives, you are telling yourself, “I am not enough.” I knew this in theory but had never been able to practice to this degree.

I’m a firm believer that the universe provides us with the lessons we are ready to learn, and this dance class was no different. It was time to surrender to the journey and forget the destination—the Bali way.

I embraced their ease. I didn’t look at my watch. I dismissed the need to explain myself or qualify the moment. I fell into the Bali flow.

Soon, my mind calmed, and my body relaxed. The dance class became a place of joy. As soon as I didn’t need to know what was happening, once I didn’t need control, once my ego stopped driving, I had endless energy. I could dance for hours on end.

“You cannot be good at this.”

What a relief. Can you imagine the freedom we could all experience if we applied this idea to our lives? If we erased the constant competition we have with ourselves and others, we could enjoy things a little bit easier, couldn’t we? Perhaps silencing our ego would strengthen our community, and success would become ubiquitous.

In a small village off of a tiny dirt road, I watched an 80-year-old woman sweep the concrete dance floor that we were to perform on a day later. I watched her move with purpose and ease as she swept the floor that

she knows so well. My old way of thinking crept back in as I asked Per, “But how does this woman make a living?” He smiled and explained that the village takes care of its members. “She knows her role in the community,” he said. “She makes her contribution, and whatever she needs, it will be provided.” Then I understood: She was once the tiny dancer in the village, and after passing down the tradition to her children and grandchildren, she now clears space for the dance to continue.

How can we clear space for the dance to continue? How can we focus our efforts so that generations to come have a clear, open space to explore?

Each one of us has a unique contribution to make, and if you’re spending your energy arranging your life to have the “greatest possible experience”—you’re missing it. We live in an age of reviews, researching our experience before we have it to guarantee that we are, once again, maximizing our time on earth.

My friends, you cannot be good at this.

But you can be a part of it.

So be a part of it. Realize that the “greatest possible experience” is the fact that you are you. See that future generations are going to follow your lead, and let that lead be one of community, presence and joy.

So go on. Take a breath, and take a chance on yourself. Be brave, and let go of the schedule. Be brave, and stop judging yourself constantly. Be brave, and step onto the dance floor. You don’t need to know the steps.

You just need to show up. ■

ABOUT MARY ROGERS McMASTER Mary Rogers is a holistic wellness coach with over twenty years of acting experience. Her work in personal wellness spans many forms including chakra work, energy healing, alexander technique, leadership training, executive coaching, fitness, dance, talk therapy and emotional release. She is based in New York City.

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&

Importance of Self Care during the Holidays

the

BY ANGIE COMER

holidays…family parties, endless shopping, a myriad of social events and a source of stress and anxiety for many. Because your schedule can quickly become filled at this time of year, it is important to take the time for balanced self-care. Self-care is not just focusing on your physical body with a massage, manicure or a yoga session. More importantly, it means paying attention to your thoughts, emotions, expectations and interactions. It means you will function at your best in all areas of your life. Use these six tips to help you carve out more time for yourself and get your mind and body ready for this busy holiday season.

NINAMALYNA / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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UVGROUP / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Schedule Time for Self-Care

If you have never focused on personal time, you may feel incredibly guilty scheduling self-care. If you can schedule shopping sessions, doctor appointments and parties for all of your family members, you can schedule guilt-free time for yourself. Give yourself permission to relax.

Consider self-care as a way to safeguard your mental and physical health.

Become your best self so that you can give your best to others.

Passing up the special treats can be difficult, but it will help you to stay energized during the holiday season. Eat lightly and focus on foods that provide proper nutrition to fuel your body, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, lean meats and healthy oils. This will require discipline, but you will feel lighter, more cheerful and thankful come January 1.

Set Your Intention

Learn When to Say No

The holiday season often passes in a blur of hectic activity that leaves us feeling exhausted and out of sorts. Set your intention. What is most meaningful, and what do you value most during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays? First, make a list of your priorities so that you can enjoy those things that are most important to you and avoid those that will cause stress. This will increase your pleasure in those activities, and you will feel more refreshed than exhausted. Your intention might be to enjoy the spiritual side of the holiday or to spend time with friends. Perhaps you love the music of the holiday season or the hours spent carefully decorating the tree and your home. Take the time to savor these experiences; you will find the holidays are more pleasurable.

With the increased demands on your time and energy during the holiday season, be prepared to say no to some activities to prevent “holiday burnout.” You may be invited to a number of get-togethers, asked to contribute food or time or may be expected to travel for family events. Keep your intentions in mind, and know your priorities.

However, know your limits, and set boundaries accordingly.

Tighten Your Circle

Stick to a Normal Routine

There is a saying that you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If you want to be peaceful and happy, surround yourself with peaceful, happy people. This is especially important during the holidays, where activities often necessitate spending time with toxic people who, for whatever reason, can steal your joy, drain your energy and put you in a negative frame of mind. While it may be impossible to get away completely from family members or friends who leave you feeling anxious, take every opportunity to spend time with people who lift your spirit and bring you joy.

Nourish Your Body

As you are shopping for gifts for your family and friends this holiday season, be sure to give yourself the gift of self-care along with a healthy mind and body. By being proactive in caring for yourself, you can avoid the stress and busyness that would otherwise feel overwhelming. Instead of dreading the holidays this year, celebrate them with pure joy by keeping your focus on what is healthiest for you. ■

Staying up late to wrap presents, cooking and attending parties is exhausting and leaves you feeling out of sorts. Try to maintain a normal routine as much as possible. Eat at your regular meal times, continue your usual exercise program and make sure you get sufficient sleep. Take time to read, relax or enjoy your hobbies. You will find sticking with a normal routine gives you a sense of organization and can help prevent fatigue during the hectic holiday season.

Over-indulging in the tempting holiday cookies, cakes, drinks and festive dinners can lead to digestive upsets and leave you feeling sluggish.

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FROM AGE SPOTS TO RAISED TENDONS TO DRY SKIN, NOTHING GIVES AWAY OUR AGE MORE THAN THE CONDITION OF OUR HANDS.

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AXL / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Turning Backthe Hands of Time

BY AMY ZIMMER

W

hen you consider daily abuse from sun exposure, UV nail lamps and chemicals in lotions, soaps and cleaning agents—added to the normal hormonal changes that come with aging—you realize that our hands truly take a beating. The skincare aisle of your local pharmacy or grocery store is overflowing with products that promise to return your hands to their former glow, while in-office treatments have become more advanced than ever.

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A simple in office procedure, dermal fillers give your hand a rejuvenating boost to restore volume and smooth lines.

ANZHELIKA VOLOSHYNA / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

“

Ultimately the degree of damage to your hands, along with your skincare goals, will determine the treatment best suited for you.

In office procedures:

HANDS ARE THE HEART’S LANDSCAPE.

”

– Pope John Paul II

• Laser Therapy: Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) is regarded as the best treatment for ensuring the gradual reduction of age and sun spots in the least amount of time. A handheld laser is passed over your hands for 30 to 45 minutes and stimulates the growth of new collagen while lightening the skin darkened by age spots. If you aim to avoid needles at all costs, then this is the treatment for you!

• Microneedling: This is a minimally invasive cosmetic procedure that involves using tiny needles that stimulate the production of collagen. With a proper microneedling procedure, the skin on the hands shows fewer wrinkles and fine lines. As your collagen rebuilds, a natural plumping takes place.

• Dermal Fillers: Through the injection of these specially designed ingredients, the skin can become more full and attractive.

• Fat Grafting: Reduce, reuse and recycle is the standard we all live by, so why not have that same attitude towards your own body! Using your own fat taken from another area of the body and injected into your hands, this procedure is the most natural and offers long-lasting results.

In home options:

• Prescription creams: In mobile phone technology, there is an app for that. For dermatology, there is a cream for that. There are countless options at your local pharmacy or grocery store, but one thing is a constant: Anti-aging hand creams all contain retinol, a vitamin that triggers collagen growth wherever applied.

• Sunscreen: Here’s another gold standard for skin protection. Sunscreen is, of course, a preventative measure for an afternoon at the beach. But exposure to the sun is a day-to-day reality, so adding sunscreen into your daily skin regime can really pay off. There are a variety of hand cream products on the market with SPF included.

• SPF Gloves: Wear fingerless gloves that contain SPF on sunny days. Purchase a pair, and leave them in your car, so they will always be handy.

Whether seeking treatment at a doctor’s office or finding a remedy on the retail shelf, these are ways you can “turn back the hands of time” and defy the aging process. ■

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ONLY 10 PACKAGES AVAILABLE! BOOK BY JAN. 31, 2020 Two Guests per Package

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Guests will also receive exclusive discounted lodging at The Collector, a must-stay luxury inn in the heart of historic St. Augustine.

To learn more or to book your stay, visit HistoricCoastCulture.com

'Tis the Season in Palm Beach

1.

BY RHONDA FISCHER

H

ark! The Palm Beach high season rings in an array of offerings that bring to life the magic of the winter holidays in this unique island setting. The island is a special place throughout the year, but I particularly love the holidays. Steeped in Christmas tradition and nostalgia, Palm Beach at this time of year makes you remember times gone by. The streets are buzzing with festive activity, happy smiles, and “Merry Christmas” wishes. Shops and restaurants are full of patrons. Cultural happenings are at their peak. Locals and visitors alike are in the giving spirit.

During the holiday season, Palm Beach is all about charity, tradition and well-rounded living. It becomes a magical place where special moments turn into lasting memories.

Monogrammed Merriment

Interior designer Leta Austin Foster has filled her eponymous boutique with custom-made and expertly sourced homewares that draw upon her long-standing relationships with European artisans.

From French linens by D. Porthault to exquisite Milanese handpainted tableware by Labatorio Paravicini, you can search the curated collection for that perfect item or request a custom order from Leta, who works with the very best monogrammers from Paris to New York.

64 Via Mizner, Palm Beach

3.

The Breakers, One South County Road, Palm Beach

Festive Florals

I have worked with event designer and florist extraordinaire Barbara Hamilton for more than 20 years. Together, we collaborate while decorating for the season, considering the fine details and color nuances of each space throughout the home. At Christmas, my style is more traditional (think: stunning displays of white lilies and staircases draped in magnolias), but when it comes to creating wreaths, I love to add inventive touches with natural elements such as berries, princess pine and eucalyptus. ociana.net

Dining Al Fresco

Across the way from Leta Austin Foster’s boutique is Renato’s—an absolute favorite among Palm Beach residents. This upscale Italian eatery is known for its romantic courtyard seating and elegant, old-world feel.

87 Via Mizner, Palm Beach

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Giving Back

Considered a highlight of the Palm Beach social season, the Annual Dinner Dance hosted by The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach is a dazzling affair. A night of French wine, enchanting décor and dancing raises over a million dollars for the Foundation’s advocacy initiatives, educational programs, architectural resources, cultural events and preservation in Palm Beach. palmbeachpreservation.org/annual-dinner-dance

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Cultural Enrichment

The Norton Museum of Art is where I treat my soul to all things cultural. On view this season is an exhibition examining the life of the legendary artist Georgia O’Keeffe through her art, her clothing and the way she posed for the camera. norton.org

World-Class Shopping

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Staying Active

The Palm Beach lifestyle is synonymous with living a healthy, active life. From the tennis court to the golf course, there are no shortage of ways to get outside on the island and stay fit. One of my favorite ways to get physical is at Squeeze Pilates in Royal Poinciana Plaza. squeezepilates.com

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Treasured Traditions Buttermilk Pancakes—A classic family recipe passed down by my husband’s grandmother.

1 egg, 11⁄2 cups of buttermilk, 1 cup of flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder, and 3⁄4 tsp of soda dissolved in a little water

The spirit of the holiday season comes alive on Worth Avenue with its palm trees wrapped in lights, decorated storefronts and much-loved singing Christmas tree. The sparkling window display at Richters, showcasing its exquisite collection of one-of-a-kind estate and vintage jewelry, is always enchanting and takes my breath away.

Richters of Palm Beach 224 Worth Avenue

Break egg in a bowl, add ¾ of a cup of buttermilk and water. Sift in flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix in the rest of the buttermilk.

Palm Beach Cheese Puffs—Never amiss are these cherished hors d’ouevres at any Palm Beach cocktail party.

2 cups mayonnaise, 2 cups grated Parmesan cheese, 1⁄2 cup finely chopped yellow onion, and 10 slices white bread Preheat oven to 350 °F. In a large bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, cheese, and onion.

Cut the bread into rounds using a 1-inch cutter. Arrange on a baking sheet. Place a heaping teaspoon of the mayonnaise-cheese spread on top. Bake for 6-8 minutes, until the tops turn golden. Transfer to a decorative plate and serve hot.

Executive Editor of Graceful Living, Rhonda Fischer, is a former Senior Executive at Balmar Printing & Graphics in the Washington D.C. Metro area.

Rhonda brings a wealth of knowledge in the fields of style, design, entertaining, travel and healthy living. Recently married to American entrepreneur Clifford Fischer, Rhonda and her husband currently split their time between Palm Beach, Florida, and Dallas, Texas, with summers spent in Europe.

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eyelash

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by Trish Carroll

ELYSIAN Style & Beauty Editor

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VALUA VITALY / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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my earliest memory of lash art was my Aunt Colleen, who studied at Cleveland Playhouse, lived in Las Vegas and was best friends with Liberace. She was dramatic and fashionable and wore the most amazing eyelashes—they became her signature. Glamorous and larger than life, Aunt Colleen made me realize while I was still very young that our eyes are an accessory that can be a make-or-break fashion statement.

When she was three, my niece studied Great Aunt Colleen intensely, watching every blink of her eyes. “Why does she have butterflies on her eyes?” was her puzzled inquiry. It was poetic and actually a reasonable question.

To answer, one needs to go back in history. Anna Taylor patented artificial eyelashes in 1911. They were composed of crescent-shaped fabric with tiny hairs. In the 1920s, it was customary for actresses in Hollywood to wear false eyelashes, inspiring flappers to copy

their “baby doll eyes.” By the 1930s, false lashes were everywhere.

Vogue had several fashion shoots with models wearing dramatic lashes. Marilyn Monroe wore them in photo shoots and films in the 40s and 50s, a glamorous influence on women the world over.

She knew the power and allure of a flirty eye, even when wearing glasses in How to Marry a Millionaire. When Twiggy donned fake lashes on her top and bottom lids in the 1960s, she caused a “lash revolution.” Twenty million lashes were sold during the decade.

In the 70s, artificial lashes fell out of favor—natural lashes were en vogue.

But by the 90s, false lashes had made a comeback.

And this brings us to today. The lash business is projected to grow to 1.5 billion in sales within five years, according to Forbes. That’s a lot of “butterflies.”

The business has “lashed out” with worldwide entrepreneurs. Here are some

of the most notable: Lilly Ghalichi, creator of Lilly Lashes, is the star of Bravo’s Shahs of Sunset. She created the industry’s first comfortable 3D lashes, which have been worn by Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez.

Tatti Lashes was launched by Charlotte Tiplady and Elliot Barton, two British entrepreneurs in their 20s. This affordable brand is available online in 82 countries—a global “lash empire.”

Huda Beauty was founded by Huda Kattan, an Iraqi-American with a beauty business valued at $1.2 billion! A-listers and women the world over who are looking for advice on achieving glamor have watched Huda’s tutorials online.

Her skill as a beauty influencer has catapulted the business from the Mideast and Persian Gulf into an international empire. She launched her first beauty product, false eyelashes, through Sephora.

Meanwhile, neither Fenty Beauty, Rihanna’s cosmetic company, nor Kylie Cosmetics, owned by Kylie Jenner, offer mascara, suggesting to their customers that while lashes are important, faux lashes are the way to go.

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oday’s fashion has taken the eyelash to its most extreme level on the catwalks of Europe. Pat McGrath, regarded by Vogue as the most influential makeup artist in the world, and Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director

German supermodel, actress and lash diva Veruschka von Lehndorff with actor David Hemmings on the set of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 mystery thriller film Blow-Up. TCD/PROD.DB / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Opposite: Marilyn Monroe commonly donned dramatic, false lashes during photoshoots, such as this publicity shot from 1953.

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IMAGE COURTESY HERITAGE AUCTIONS / HA.COM

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British cultural icon, widely known as Twiggy, sparked a ‘lash revolution’ in the 1960s with her avant-garde approach to wearing false lashes on both her top and bottom lids.

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Fake eyelashes can instantly give me a more dramatic look and also help to accentuate my eyes, which are a focal point to achieving the Lion Babe look.

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— JILLIAN HERVEY

As the lead singer of the New York-based music duo Lion Babe, Jillian Hervey relies on false lashes to emphasize her stage look while performing. Scala, London, May 2015.

WENN RIGHTS LTD / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

The Goddess of Pop, Cher, has been known for her over-the-top style, including flashy eye makeup and exaggerated lashes, 1966.

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for Valentino, joined forces to create a Spring 2019 Couture collection with Bambi-eyed feathers that fluttered and bashfully adorned the models’ eyes.

The magical lash trend continued at the Met Gala 2019, with Sarah Tanno creating over-the-top gold foil eyelashes that sat on top of four sets of false eyelashes. Wig tape was used to keep Lady Gaga’s eyes open for the entire eight hours—a brave commitment to lash fashion!

Designer Marc Jacobs, who embraces high fashion mixed with cool street style, collaborated with McGrath to create a “lash look” for the runway for his Spring 2020 Collection in New York. This creative duo channeled everything from Bob Fosse to Euphoria Tears, inspired by the glittery and glamorous looks of HBO’s Euphoria, and gave a nod to Shelley Duvall’s theatrically long spidery lashes. Art-meets-beauty-meets-fashion is a lifestyle, not just at a club or on a runway, but also on the streets.

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ow, let’s address the elephant in the room: FEAR of application resulting in an I Love Lucy dangling lash that at a critical moment decides to crawl down your face like a caterpillar! Forget your fears. Anyone can be a beauty pro with the invention of new adhesives as well as individually placed, long-lasting lashes and magnetic lashes that just pop on.

Now that your fear has been tackled, the next question is, “Where can I find them?” No problem: they are everywhere—from beauty supply chains and high-end salons to Walgreens and even grocery stores. Check them off your shopping list along with detergent and a head of lettuce.

Accessibility is increasingly important in the world of fashion. Everyone wants to be glamorous, from the Starbuck’s barista to the Silicon Valley entrepreneur to the music industry mogul. There are no restrictions on body type, skin color, gender or religion. In fact, it sends the most unifying fashion message: you can change your look and maybe even your life.

So, who cares if our lashes are “false?” Sure, no one in our culture wants to be regarded as fake. Yet where “real news,” “real experiences” and “real life programming” exist, the idea of hiding behind your “fake” lashes is acceptable. As the saying goes, “Fake it until you make it.” But in this case, let’s make it our secret. ■

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Fluttering lavish feather eyelashes, models walk the runway during the Valentino Spring 2019 show as part of Paris Fashion Week in Paris, France.

PHOTO BY PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN / GETTY IMAGES

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Architecture of the Messe Basel New Hall in Basel, Switzerland designed

by Herzog & de Meuron.

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I, Kusama, am the modern Alice in Wonderland.

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Yayoi Kusama’s Japan

By Latria Graham

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Yayoi Kusama’s pointillist signature and gourdshaped sculptures are instantly recognizable, and with more than 5 million people visiting her shows within the last five years, she is the most famous living female artist in the world. Known for her extensive use of polka dots and for her infinity room installations, the prolific contemporary Japanese artist has designed everything from Louis Vuitton handbags to lip gloss.

When Yayoi Kusama’s work is exhibited abroad, it is always situated in an international context. In order to get to the essence of Kusama’s work, art enthusiasts must visit her home country of Japan. The majority of her work lies in the capital city of Tokyo and her hometown of Matsumoto. Here’s where to go in order to get the ultimate Yayoi Kusama experience.

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orn March 22, 1929, in the mountainous region of Matsumoto, Yayoi Kusama is the youngest daughter of a well-to-do conservative family of plant merchants.

Creating art was initially an act of rebellion—her mother did not want her to be an artist and frequently confiscated her artwork, hoping to force Kusama into the role of a traditional Japanese housewife. Painting was her way of bucking her parents’ oldfashioned customs and morals, and as a child, she often decorated her clothes with polka dots.

In her youth, she created dozens of paintings a day, fearful that her work would be snatched from her before she could complete it. That fear seems to continue to dog her; Kusama works at a breakneck pace, and in her early years, she was capable of creating 250 pieces of art a year.

Kusama’s concepts, polka dot motif and

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lined meshed patterns she calls “infinity nets,” originate from visual and aural hallucinations that have haunted her since childhood, and art became a way of working through her psychological state and her obsessions. Her all-white, patterned and monochromatic Infinity Nets paintings allude to the artist’s hallucinations of being overwhelmed. Her work spans a number of mediums, including collage, drawing, fashion, film, installation, painting, performance, poetry and sculpture. Kusama has spent decades exploring the edges of subjects like life, death, class, ethnicity, gender, money, power and self-mythology. The green-and-black patterned painting Weeds and black-and-white dot painting Revived Soul use repetitive patterns of a single color paired against black or white.

Following a lengthy correspondence with the American artist Georgia O’Keeffe, who became

Opposite & preceding pages: Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field,1965, in Floor Show, Castellane Gallery, New York.

her friend and eventually her mentor, Kusama arrived in Seattle, Washington, from Japan in 1957 and moved to New York in 1958, intent on breaking into the male-dominated New York art world. In the early 1960s, through the simple use of water, mirrors and hanging lights, she began to create large-scale, immersive installations. In 1965, she produced her first Infinity Mirror Room at the Castellane Gallery in New York.

Her contemporaries, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol and Lucas Samaras were inspired by her avant-garde conceptual explorations, so much so that a number of the artists imitated her style, embracing the imagery of natural life cycles. Her psychosexual works were a notable precursor to the post-minimalist art of the 1970s. Idiosyncratic, ahead of her time, and not well understood, after suffering through burnout and multiple suicide attempts, Kusama

returned to Japan, eventually checking herself into the Seiwa Hospital for the Mentally Ill, which is still her residence. She visits her studio in the Shinjuku section of Tokyo daily.

Forgotten by the art establishment, Kusama kept creating. In a recent 18-month period, she created 100 paintings. For the last decade, Kusama’s paintings have strayed into realms of pure pop design featuring strong use of primary colors and cutout shapes, drawing comparisons to Matisse. The effect of her use of bright colors and bold patterns is simple in its presentation but deceptively complex in its execution.

With the rise of social media, the artist’s work has enjoyed a resurgence due to her work’s ability to sustain visual illusions on Instagram, and there are often hours-long lines to enter her museum and gallery shows. Her solo exhibitions have appeared at the Tate Modern in London, the

COURTESY OF OTA FINE ARTS, TOKYO/ SINGAPORE; VICTORIA MIRO, LONDON; DAVID ZWIRNER, NEW YORK. © YAYOI KUSAMA. PHOTOGRAPH BY EIKOH HOSOE

Top: Matsumoto Castle, one of Japan’s premier historic castles, located in Kusama’s hometown.

PHATTANA STOCK / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Above left: Matsumoto City Museum of Art with Kusama’s Flowers that Bloom at Midnight sculpture in its front courtyard.

COWARDLION / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Above: To celebrate Kusama, the city buses in her hometown are decorated with her signature polka dot motif.

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Installation view of the Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Rooms exhibition at the High Museum of Art, Nov 18, 2018–Feb 17, 2019. In The Obliteration Room, the white space is slowly filled with color as visitors are encouraged to place vibrant stickers throughout.

COURTESY OF THE HIGH MUSEUM OF ART

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My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings. All my works in pastels are the products of obsessional neurosis and are therefore inextricably connected to my disease.

I create pieces even when I don’t see hallucinations, though.

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. She was the first solo artist to represent Japan at the 1993 Venice Biennale.

Though, this was not Kusama’s first appearance at the Venice Biennale, with the earliest being considerably controversial. In 1966, at the age of 37, the artist displayed her infamous Narcissus Garden, which was partinstallation and part-performance, causing her to be expelled from the 33rd Biennale. Still on view elsewhere today, Narcissus Garden is comprised of 1,500 mirrored orbs laid on the ground encouraging visitors to play the role of the mythical Narcissus by peering into their own reflection. Wearing a golden kimono and poised among the orbs, Kusama sold them for two dollars each to passerby before being barred from the exhibition for her audacious, yet nonviolent, protest of the commercialization of art. Although Kusama was ahead of her time in this moment, her performance inspired a generation of artists who question the system and, today, the boldness of her work can be adequately recognized.

In 2006, she was awarded the Praemium Imperiale, one of Japan’s most prestigious arts prizes, and she is also the recipient of the International Art Critic Association prize, Golden prize from the Italian Academy of Arts, Asahi Prize and the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Kusama’s early Infinity Net pieces boast

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the highest auction prices of any living woman artist, and at 90 years old, she has created an estimated 50,000 works during a 60-year career.

Still intrigued by the unfathomable mystery and infinitude of the universe, the queen of pop art shows few signs of slowing down.

Kusama’s hometown of Matsumoto honors her as one of the most important contemporary artists to come out of Japan. With a population that hovers around 250,000, the provincial city provides a reprieve from urban centers like Tokyo and Kyoto. Kusama’s birthplace is a fertile valley embedded in the center of Japan’s main island, Honshu. Located just two hours from Tokyo by train, Matsumoto, nestled close to the spectacular Japanese Alps, makes for a fantastic day trip for any art enthusiast. While her early work might’ve been controversial for this mountain town, the 21st-century sensibilities of the municipality’s residents have embraced Kusama—even the buses of Matsumoto sport Kusama’s signature polka dots.

While in town, the best way to experience the full range of Kusama’s body of work is to visit the Matsumoto City Museum of Art. Her sculpture, Flowers that Bloom at Midnight is displayed in the courtyard of the Museum.

The eye-popping sculpture of plant life takes viewers on a psychedelic journey reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. Even the building is wrapped in Kusama’s signature polka dots, and this museum, founded in 2002, has the greatest number of Kusama’s pieces outside of the artist’s namesake museum in Tokyo.

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a less than five minute drive from the Museum is the Matsumoto Castle, which is pleasantly tucked within the Matsumoto Castle Park and surrounded by a moat, walking paths and gardens with cherry blossoms. Also known as the “Crow Castle” due to its black exterior, Matsumoto Castle is one of the finest representations of Japanese architecture from the 16th century. For 280 years, it was one of the major seats of power in Japan and is listed as one of the country’s national treasures.

If the luscious sights have left you with an appetite, authentic Japanese fare is offered nearby in a picturesque setting to extend your journey. True wasabi is hard to find outside of Japan—most of what Americans find on their plates at sushi restaurants is actually colored horseradish. So, if you’re up for a side excursion, Daio Wasabi Farm presents the opportunity to try the country’s delicacy in an idyllic farm-totable setting at the family’s onsite restaurant.

If wasabi isn’t your thing, but you’re in the mood to try the prefecture’s vegan and vegetarian dishes, make your way to Tofu Ryori Marui. Tofu might not sound like an interesting offering, but this outpost has been doing innovative things with this staple since the restaurant started over 80 years ago, which means their plates are sure to be anything but boring. ■

Other places to see Yayoi Kusama’s artwork in Japan:

YAYOI KUSAMA MUSEUM Opened in Tokyo in 2017, this five-story museum, complete with rotating exhibitions and a floor just for her internationally renowned infinity room installations, is a must-visit for any Yayoi Kusama art enthusiast.

TOWADA ART CENTER Located in Towada City, Aomori prefecture, this contemporary art museum has eight of Kusama’s sculptures titled Love Forever, Singing in Towada in its permanent collection.

NAOSHIMA ISLAND A short ferry ride from Japan’s main island of Honshu sits Naoshima, one of Japan’s “art islands,” part of a chain of landmasses set on the Seto Inland Sea in Kagawa prefecture known for their stunning architecture, colorful galleries, one-of-a-kind installations and beautiful scenery.

Kusama’s work Pumpkin has become the symbol of Naoshima, and two of her artworks reside on the island. The neighboring art islands of Teshima and Inujima have their own appeal and are not to be missed.

Dots Obsession – Love Transformed Into Dots, 2007, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

COURTESY OF OTA FINE ARTS, TOKYO/SINGAPORE; VICTORIA MIRO, LONDON; DAVID ZWIRNER, NEW YORK., © YAYOI KUSAMA PHOTOGRAPH BY CATHY CARVER

Top: Yayoi Kusama with recent works in Tokyo, 2016.

PHOTOGRAPH BY TOMOAKI MAKINO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST © YAYOI KUSAMA

KIRISHIMA OPEN-AIR MUSEUM Located in Yusui town in Kagoshima prefecture, the center is a meeting place for cultural and artistic exchange. The mission of the museum is to exhibit original works by artists from all over Japan in a way that showcases the nature, history, and culture of the region. Kusama’s Flowers of ShangriLa and High Heel reside in the permanent collection.

Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013. Made of mirrors, acrylic balls, water and an LED lighting system, Kusama creates a perceptual experience for viewers of the universe’s boundlessness.

COURTESY OF DAVID ZWIRNER, N.Y. © YAYOI KUSAMA

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I am a woman above everything else.

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Lessons You Can Learn from Jackie

By Laurie Bogart Wiles

Jacqueline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy at Hyannis Port, 1959.

MARK SHAW / MPTVIMAGES.COM

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HE WAS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS women of the 20th century, arguably the most fashionable outside of Hollywood. A woman of supreme style, grace, calmness and composure, she was America’s original princess. And yet, she wore a mask, always struggling to shield herself from a peering world, wrapping herself in privacy like a cloak on a frigid winter’s day, and endure the relentless limelight that shone upon her throughout her entire life. Her premature death at the age of 64 elevated her to the status of legend. Reams have been written about her. Countless photographs have been taken and miles of film. But the one thing she coveted more than anything was privacy—and it was the one thing that Jackie, who had all the money in the world, could not buy.

Jacqueline Bouvier as the “Inquiring Camera Girl” of the Washington Times-Herald.

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THE EVENTS OF HER LIFE are well-chronicled. Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was born in Southampton, New York, the summer playground of “old money” families, on July 28, three months before the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Her father was a handsome, debonair Wall Street stockbroker named John “Black Jack” Vernou Bouvier III, and her mother was American socialite and amateur equestrian champion Janet Norton Lee Auchincloss. Janet came from a life of privilege. Her father was the enormously wealthy lawyer, real estate broker and banker, James Thomas Aloysius Lee, himself the son of a successful attorney.

Jack and Janet’s marriage was volatile from the start. Jack Bouvier was a notorious womanizer with a deep affection for the bottle, and Janet, despite one failed attempt at reconciliation, had zero tolerance for her philandering husband. From the moment of Jackie’s birth, she was caught in a relentless tug-of-war between her parents for their child’s affections. Jackie adored her father. Her father adored Jackie.

Daughter favored father with the same wide-set eyes, straight nose and full lips. Her little sister and only sibling, Caroline Lee (“Lee”) Bouvier (1933-2019), favored her mother. Jack did not feel the same sort of love for his youngest daughter as he did his eldest.

Jackie was 11, and Lee was seven when their parents divorced, and they left with their mother. Two years later, Janet married the second of her three husbands, Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Jr., a stupendously successful stockbroker, lawyer and Standard Oil heir who came from a storied family of merchants, financiers and Republican politicians. They summered in Newport, Rhode Island, and spent the rest of the year at the Auchincloss estate, Merrywood, in McLean, Virginia. Jackie proved a hardworking and conscientious student at boarding school, followed by two years of college at Vassar, a Smith College program in her junior year at the Sorbonne in Paris and, lastly, at George Washington University.

She entered Vogue magazine’s “Prix de Paris” essay competition and out of 1,279 entries, won. The grand prize was a job at Condé Nast, Vogue’s New York headquarters, and a six-month fashion apprenticeship in Paris, but she determined after only one day on the job that sitting behind a desk was not for her. So, she forfeited the prize and embarked upon a grand tour of Europe with her sister, Lee, instead.

Whether she ever made her own bed, went shopping for a gallon of milk or hemmed her own skirt, we’ll never know—but if she did, she didn’t have to. But I needed to find the one constant in the life of this incredible woman that made her life so incredible. That’s what I wanted to know, but before I could find out, I had to look deeper than I ever had before into the life of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.

Upon the engagement announcement to Senator John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier would quickly go from the girl behind the lens to the center of media attention.

MEDIAPUNCH INC / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

I FOUND THAT THREAD early on in my research. When Jackie was 22, she moved back home to Merrywood to live with her stepfather and mother after getting a part-time job at the Washington Times-Herald as a receptionist. Finding herself again behind a desk, she lobbied for something more exciting and a week later became the newspaper’s “Inquiring Camera Girl,” with the assignment of photographing random pictures of “the man on the street” and writing witty captions to go with them.

She loved to write, she loved to read and she loved books. That was the thread.

During this time, she became engaged to a stockbroker named John Husted, Jr. He was her very “first love,” but after three months, she found him to be “immature and boring” and broke off the engagement. Curiously, it was during her engagement that she met the young, magnetic junior U.S. representative from Massachusetts, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, nicknamed “Jack,” at a dinner party. She found him charming; he found her fascinating. He was chatty and witty; she knew how to listen, flatter a man and laugh. He came from a wealthy, “new money” family; she came from a wealthy, “old money” one. They both were Catholic and of Irish descent. He was a Democrat, and she was a Republican, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was they had everything going for them and made an absolutely stunning couple.

Seven months later, Jackie was in London covering the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II for the Washington Times Herald when Jack phoned and asked her to marry him. She accepted.

She harbored concerns over the behavior her new fiancé had in common with her philanderer father. Jack’s insatiable sexual

John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Lee Bouvier were married on September 12, 1953. The wedding dress was created by designer Ann Lowe. Opposite: Jackie throwing the bouquet.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY TONI FRISSELL / COURTESY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, LOC.GOV

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appetites, according to all accounts, never abated, and throughout his engagement and marriage, countless women were lured into his bed, the most famous being Marilyn Monroe. In her tapes, Jackie said, “I thought I could conquer him.” She thought wrong.

Nonetheless, their engagement was announced June 25, 1953. They married at St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Spring Street in Newport, Rhode Island, on September 12. Seven hundred squeezed into the church, and the reception for 1,200 was held at the Auchincloss family’s summer home in Newport, Hammersmith Farm, where Jackie was in charge of taking care of the chickens when she was growing up.

After Kennedy took office as president, Hammersmith Farm would be known as “the Summer White House.”

The new bride was completely in love. “I remember thinking, ‘I won’t have to be afraid when I go to bed or wake up,’” she said years later in her taped interviews when she recalled the early days of her marriage. That level of love came to Jack gradually and over time. He was a complex person, and the marriage was as much a clever and calculated plan orchestrated by his father, Joe Kennedy, as by his own desires. Joe had groomed Jack, his second son, from the moment his eldest, Joe, Jr., was killed in World War II. It has been said that, as far as Joe Kennedy, Sr. was concerned, Jackie had everything he could wish for in a political helpmate for his son.

SHORTLY AFTER THEIR MARRIAGE, Jack was diagnosed with Addison’s disease, a chronic and debilitating adrenal deficiency. He underwent spinal surgery meant to relieve the horrible pain from the back injury he sustained in World War II, but the operation nearly killed

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President and Jacqueline Kennedy sailing with her parents, Janet and Hugh Auchincloss. Jackie Kennedy is smoking and reading with the President. The group is aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Yacht Manitou, in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. Sept. 14, 1962.

EVERETT COLLECTION HISTORICAL / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

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him, and in one of three times in his life, he was given last rites. Jack was bedridden for a half a year, and Jackie tended to him every waking minute.

Within their first three years of marriage, Jackie suffered a miscarriage and, on August 23, 1956, delivered a stillborn daughter. On August 3, 1957, Jack Bouvier died from liver cancer. On November 27, 1957, Jackie finally gave birth to a healthy daughter filled with the promise of a wonderful life.

Throughout, the one constant in their lives was politics. “I was always a liability to him,” Jackie reminisced in her tape recordings, “and I told him, ‘I’m so sorry for you that I am such a dud.’” But America and the world proved her wrong. Over the next five years, the Kennedys traveled together as much as possible on his campaign trips, and soon JFK’s campaign manager realized the crowds were twice as big whenever Jackie was with him. In November 1958, JFK was elected to a second term in

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Congress, and he realized the success of his re-election campaign could largely be attributed to his wife. Jackie was, he said, “simply invaluable”— and not just in public. At home, she supervised his wardrobe, his meals, his leisure time and their social agenda, and he came to depend upon her for—as Arthur M. Schlesinger would write in 1959, after first meeting Jackie at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port—her “tremendous awareness, an all-seeing eye and a ruthless judgment.”

On January 3, 1960, everything played out the way things had been carefully planned, and Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts formally announced his candidacy for President of the United States of America.

NOW JACKIE WAS PREGNANT once again, and rather than run the risk of losing another baby, she remained home in Georgetown and

supported her husband in other ways, most notably a syndicated newspaper column she wrote called “Campaign Wife.” Admired from the moment she was presented in 1947, at the age of 17, as Debutante of the Year for her tremendous style (“Always dress like a marble column,” she was later quoted as saying), people were captivated by her poise, warmth and breathy voice. As a speaker, she was naturally composed and compelling, yet she spoke with that aristocratic “twang” that had her pronounce her o’s like aw and single syllable words, like year, stretched to two, as in ye-ah.

People loved that about America’s princess; it made her sound so regal.

There were, however, concerns from JFK’s primary campaign headquarters. He was heading to campaign in West Virginia, one of the poorest states in the nation, when Jack’s advisors warned him that Jackie’s superior ways would harm his chances in a state he was already predicted to lose. Instead, crowds lined the streets ten deep in an attempt to capture even a glimpse of this lovely young woman. Her warm smile, her affected but charming accent and her sense of calm and composure captured the hearts of West Virginia, and Jack took the state handily.

Now the challenge was whether he could win the election. The nation was in the throes of reinventing itself after four decades of world wars bridged by the Great Depression and now, at the height of the Cold War with Russia. Once again, Jackie was the answer.

On November 8, 1960, by one of the narrowest margins of any presidential election, JFK defeated Richard Nixon to become the 35th

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis riding a camel while on vacation in Egypt, March 28, 1974.

ZUMA PRESS, INC. / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (center) and her sister, Princess Lee Radziwill of Poland (right), visit with camel driver Bashir Ahmad (left) and his family at the residence of President Mohammad Ayub Khan in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.

CECIL STOUGHTON. WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS. JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON

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president of the United States, the country’s first Catholic president and the youngest president in American history. Two weeks later, on November 25, Jackie gave birth to their first son, John F. Kennedy, Jr., and in the ensuing two weeks of her hospital recovery, reports were issued daily to assure a delighted nation that all was well with mother and child. On January 20, 1961, with eight inches of snow having fallen the night before, JFK was sworn into office on the steps of the Capitol Building. Jackie, incredibly slim after the recent birth, was dressed in an impeccably tailored inauguration ensemble designed by her friend, Oleg Cassini, wearing for the first time the “pillbox hat” that would become one of her most recognized fashion statements. Looking at the film footage, Jackie seems forgotten as seven or eight people separate her from her husband after the inauguration ceremony, as the guests filed out. But when she eventually caught up with him for a seemingly private moment, their feelings were captured in a photograph that would become one of her favorites. There were, she said in her tapes, tears in his eyes.

AS THE WIFE OF THE PRESIDENT of the United States, Jackie not only had become a cultural symbol but a symbol of the ideal woman. With her refined looks and trim figure, she idealized the best in American womanhood, and though she looked like no one else, every woman wanted to look just like her. She favored Chanel, Balenciaga and Givenchy. Her husband’s salary as president was $100,000 a year. She spent $150,000 that first year in the White House on her clothing alone. After all, she had an image to keep up.

The world was fascinated with Jackie. Aware she was public property, she discreetly and skillfully kept the press at arm’s length while wearing kid gloves.

She hired her own press secretary, the first to do so, as a cushion between herself and the media. Her name was Pamela Turnure, a young and attractive woman whose father was a New York banker, and whose stepfather was the editor of Harper’s Bazaar. She was, by all accounts, yet another one of JFK’s concubines. Nonetheless, she and Jackie remained friends.

In an interview, Jackie was asked what her role was as the wife of the president. “I think the major role of the first lady is to take care of the president so that he can best serve the people. And not to fail her family, her husband and children,” she replied. This wonderful woman, who had written in her high school yearbook that her ambition was to

not become a housewife, managed seamlessly with the help of a large staff, leaving her time not only to fulfill her obligations as first lady, but to devote herself to her lifelong obsession with the fine and performing arts. To this end, she established the National Endowment for the Arts and laid the foundation for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Perhaps Jackie’s greatest accomplishment was the restoration of the sorely neglected White House, which had last been given any serious attention in 1809 by Dolly Madison, wife of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States. Jackie took great care in returning the mansion at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to its historical character, gathering a team of experts in their respective fields. Among them was Adrianna Scalamandre Bitter of Scalamandre Silks, who undertook the supervision and manufacture of the restoration textiles; American furniture expert Henry du Pont; Rachel Lambert Mellon, who redesigned the White House gardens; and key to them all, one of the great interior designers of her day, Sister Parish. Jackie set out to transform “the house of the American people” into a showplace. She solicited contributions from donors, initiated a treasure hunt for lost White House furnishings and advocated a Congressional bill that established all White House furnishings as the property of the Smithsonian, rather than the property of departing presidents and their wives. She founded the White House Historical Association, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House and for the first time in the stately home’s history established the permanent position of curator of the White House, the first of whom she herself personally interviewed and hired. For the perpetuity of the historic building, she established the White House Endowment Trust and the White House Acquisition Trust. On February 14, 1962, Jackie invited the nation on a televised tour of the completed public rooms in a CBS News special program, “A Tour of the White House.” More than 56 million tuned in to watch the special, which subsequently was televised in 106 countries. Jackie Kennedy was the only first lady to win an Emmy Award, in 1962, which was accepted on her behalf by Lady Bird Johnson.

Jackie’s itinerary of official state visits abroad once again raised fears that her regal appearance and soft-spoken voice would not appeal to Europeans. Yet again, all fears were quickly dismissed. Jackie spoke four languages fluently, and she charmed everyone she met, most notably

Jacqueline Kennedy (seated in center) attends a fashion show at the Central Cottage Industries Emporium in New Delhi, India. Kitty Galbraith, wife of United States Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith, models clothing at right.

CECIL STOUGHTON. WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS. JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON

Opposite: Shopping in Isle of Capri, 1969.

MARK SHAW / MPTVIMAGES.COM

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the stern, formidable President Charles de Gaulle of France. He was immediately charmed by her flawless French and intelligent conversation, and although President Kennedy’s political mission failed, the success of the visit could not have been greater. As her husband announced upon their return home, “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris—and I have enjoyed it.” Indeed, a dependency and love evolved between Jack and Jackie, and although his extramarital affairs continued, Jackie appeared to ignore them, which drew Jack even closer to her.

Jackie once again gave the nation something to look forward to celebrating with the announcement that she was again expecting a baby.

However, on August 7, 1963, five weeks shy of her due date, she gave birth to Patrick Bouvier Kennedy by emergency Caesarean section. His little lungs were not fully developed, and two days later, the infant died.

The loss of three of the five children Jackie had carried affected her terribly, and she sank into a deep state of depression. On the insistence of her sister and with the reluctant consent of Jack, Jackie accompanied Lee on Lee’s boyfriend’s yacht in the Mediterranean to recuperate far away from the public eye. When she finally returned, on October 17, 1963, she admitted that while she had been away too long, she needed to deal with the “melancholy after the death of my baby.” Little could she know that she only had five weeks left to spend with her husband.

THE REST, AS THEY SAY, IS HISTORY. I remember, and maybe you do too. It was November 22, 1963. I was 10 years old and in the fourth grade when the principal’s voice was unexpectedly heard on the school intercom. It was an hour before the end of the school day. His voice sounded strange. He said, “President Kennedy has been shot in Dallas,

Texas. Go home. The buses are waiting. If you are a walker, go home immediately.” I went to the first-grade classroom to get my sister, Cindy, and we walked the three-quarters of a mile home, as we sometimes did, instead of taking the bus. We didn’t understand; we were too young.

We just knew something bad had happened. But we knew about Mrs. Kennedy. Mom adored her, bought every magazine at the grocery store that had her picture on the cover, dressed like her, wore her hair like her, even bought a pillbox hat. “She was a lady,” Mom said. Mom was a lady.

“And I’m raising you two to be ladies,” Mom often scolded.

We got home to find she had not returned from grocery shopping.

Thanksgiving was the following Thursday, and she always prepared well in advance of things. In those days, Dad, a consulting HVAC engineer, had his office in an enclosed porch adjacent to the living room, and that’s where we found him, sitting in front of our 12-inch black and white television, his head buried in his hands, weeping uncontrollably along with the rest of the world.

“From Dallas, Texas,” Walter Cronkite had announced on the television, “the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2 o’clock Eastern Time, some 38 minutes ago.” The brief pause as he put his glasses back on showed an expression on his face that everyone felt, like their heart had been torn out of their chest. Jackie would reflect on her own grief: “Do you think that God would separate me from my husband if I killed myself ? I feel as though I am going out of my mind at times. Wouldn’t God understand that I just want to be with him?”

Jack and Jackie Kennedy had been married only 10 years, in which time they had five children, of whom only two survived. Together, they wove a mantel of calm and peace during a terrifying time in United States history that included the Cuban Missile Crisis.

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and the Empress Farah Pahlavi, wife of the Shahanshah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (center right, holding bouquet of daffodils), visit with John F. Kennedy, Jr. (in baby carriage), as they tour the White House grounds. Mrs. Kennedy holds the reins of Caroline Kennedy’s pony Macaroni (standing between the Empress and the First Lady); an unidentified man stands at left. South Lawn, White House, Washington, D.C. CECIL STOUGHTON. WHITE HOUSE PHOTOGRAPHS. JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, BOSTON

Opposite: Jacqueline with daughter Caroline, 1959.

MARK SHAW / MPTVIMAGES.COM

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President John F. Kennedy (right) and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (holding bouquet of yellow roses) arrive at Houston International Airport in Houston, Texas; Air Force One is visible in the background.

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The Kennedy years, like Camelot, disappeared into the mist of history, a time that had never been known before and most likely will never be seen again. Jackie said, “There will be great presidents again, but there will never be another Camelot.” The title song of the Lerner and Loewe Broadway musical, Camelot, was her and Jack’s favorite, and these words have forever been associated with the Kennedy administration: Don’t let it be forgot That once there was a spot For one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.

But for me, at least, the words that come in the stanza before are far more compelling: Ask ev’ry person if he’s heard the story, And tell it strong and clear if he has not, That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory Called Camelot.

Camelot! Camelot!

Now say it out with pride and joy!

Camelot took place during medieval times. Interestingly, Jackie once said, “Our culture will become like it was during the medieval times when there truly was a cultural elite. The rest of the people will just watch television, which will be their only frame of reference.” Sadly, she was ever so right.

“DURING THOSE FOUR ENDLESS DAYS in 1963, she held us together as a family and a country,” Jackie’s brother-in-law and Jack’s youngest brother, Senator Edward Kennedy, would later say in his eulogy at Jackie’s funeral on May 19, 1994. “In large part because of her, we could grieve and then go on.”

Though no longer first lady, and despite her attempts to maintain a low profile and give her children as normal an upbringing as she could, Jackie appeared even more frequently in the tabloids.

She raised her fatherless children in as normal an environment as she, a single mother, could give them. Shortly after her husband’s assassination, they moved to New York City and bought a 15- room apartment on Fifth Avenue, nor far from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Still, tragedy would not leave the family alone. Five years later, on June 5, 1968, her

“

Can anyone understand how it is to have lived in the White House and then, suddenly, to be living alone as the President’s widow?

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beloved brother-in-law, Bobby Kennedy, also died by an assassin’s bullet.

The following October, she married her sister’s former boyfriend—the man whose yacht she had gone on to recuperate after the loss of her baby Patrick. His name was Aristotle Onassis, a Greek shipping magnate who was considered the wealthiest man in the world.

Now, she was “Jackie O.” Like a nomad, she would go from one of their six residences to another—her Fifth Avenue apartment; her horse farm in New Jersey; his Avenue Foch apartment in Paris and private island, Scorpios, off the coast of Greece; his mansion in Athens; and his yacht, Christina O. Increasingly, they were more apart than together, and their marriage showed signs of strain, playing out like acts in a Greek tragedy. There was Onassis’ spurned mistress, the great opera diva Maria Callas, who seemed to always be waiting in the wings and to whom Onassis remained devoted.

There were rumors of constant rifts over Jackie’s excessive spending of her husband’s money—never of her own, which she squirreled safely away. Then, on January 23, 1973, Onassis’ only son, Alexander, died from injuries sustained in a plane crash the day before. He was only 24.

“My father loved names, and Jackie loved money,” Alexander had said

of his father’s new wife, with whom both he and his sister had had a tense relationship. It was too much for Aristotle to bear. Alexander was handsome, bright, showed so much promise and was the heir apparent to his proud father’s empire; now he was gone. Less than two years later, consumed by a grief he never overcame, his health steadily and sharply declining, Aristotle Onassis died on March 15, 1975, from respiratory failure, a complication from myasthenia gravis, a debilitating neuromuscular disease. He was 69.

Jackie was left with a fortune—reports vary from $10 million to $26 million, which, along with her Kennedy money, burgeoned to several hundred millions by the time of her death under the financial stewardship of her last companion, Maurice Tempelsman, a Belgium-American diamond merchant. Jackie lost her only surviving stepchild in November 1988, when Onassis’ only daughter, Christina, died of a heart attack. She was 37.

Still, the thread that tied her life together—reading, writing and books—remained taut, and in 1977, she took a job at Viking Press as an editor and then moved to Doubleday & Company as an associate editor.

It is little known that Jackie edited more than 100 books during a career that spanned 20 years, longer than both her marriages combined. It was

Jacqueline Kennedy II (Jackie II), 1966, screenprint in colors on wove paper published in the portfolio 11 Pop Artists II. This portrait captures one of the most traumatic events in postwar America and marks the development of instant news, mass emotion and mass reaction.

Rather than a common voyeur, Warhol created a statement of American culture which is just as poignant today as it was in 1966. This image of Jackie Kennedy standing with dignity as the body of her husband was laid to rest before a throng of photographers and television reporters reflects classic Warhol cynicism of mass media. The visual imagery, based on newspaper photos rather than a firsthand account, is more a commentary on how the media represented the event than a study of Jackie’s experience. The choice of Jackie Kennedy is also illustrative of Warhol’s obsession with celebrities and how the media suppresses their ability to retain individuality and humanity.

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during this time that she also immersed herself in the rescue of Grand Central Terminal, one of the last great buildings in New York City, and its renovation, a serious addition to her already extensive legacy.

In November 1993, the lifelong equestrian was thrown from her horse during a foxhunt in Middleburg, Virginia. She was taken to the hospital, and during the examination, a swollen lymph node in her groin was discovered. Believed to be an infection, she was misdiagnosed.

Jackie was, in fact, in the early stages of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a painful form of cancer that attacks the autoimmune system. Two months later, she underwent chemotherapy, but by March, the cancer had metastasized to her spinal cord and brain, and by May, her liver. On May 18, she returned home from New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, and the following evening, May 19, 1994, she died peacefully in her Manhattan apartment, surrounded by her children and the people she held most dear. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was dead at age 64.

Her son, John, Jr., stood outside his mother’s Manhattan apartment building the following morning and said, “My mother was surrounded by her friends and her family and her books, and the people and the things that she loved. She did it in her very own way, and in her own terms, and we all feel lucky for that.” Four days later, on May 23, her funeral mass was conducted at the church she had attended since she was baptized in 1929 and later confirmed as a teenager, the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola.

Her body was interred alongside her husband, John F. Kennedy, and their children, son Patrick and daughter Arabella, at Arlington National

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Cemetery. She was survived by her daughter Caroline and her husband, Edwin Schlossberg, their three children; her sister, Lee Radziwill; and son John, Jr. Five years later, John, Jr. and his new wife, Carolyn, perished in an airplane crash over Nantucket. John had been piloting the small aircraft.

The first child ever born to a president-elect was dead at 38, and with him, the last flicker of hope that was Camelot was extinguished forevermore.

In 1996, children Caroline and John auctioned many of their mother’s possessions at Sotheby’s auction house in New York. It was the auction of the century, and the demand just to preview the auction was so intense that people had to draw from a lottery to get admission.

Sotheby’s projected the auction would realize $4.6 million. Instead, it went eight times over the estimate—almost $35 million. Silly of Sotheby’s. After all, how could you put a price on Camelot?

So, what lessons can you learn from Jackie? Grace under pressure.

Dignity in adversity.

Absolute devotion to family. Charm. Kindness. Dress for others but more importantly, for yourself. Pursue your interests. Grow yourself.

Be the person you are meant to be. Let’s leave her with the final word: “I have been through a lot and have suffered a great deal. But I have had lots of happy moments, as well. Every moment one lives is different from the other. The good, the bad, hardship, the joy, the tragedy, love, and happiness are all interwoven into one single, indescribable whole that is called life. You cannot separate the good from the bad. And perhaps there is no need to do so, either." ■

The familiar towers of lower Manhattan and the not-unknown physiognomy of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis can be made out in New York Harbor as she returns to the Big Apple from Staten Island, where she toured the Snug Harbor Cultural Center.

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A Visit to Catherine the Great’s Russia

by Jennifer Eremeeva

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Considered the central square of Moscow, the Red Square is one of Russia’s most vibrant public spaces and was the location of the country’s most important historical and political events since the 13th century.

Woman of the World

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With women-centric travel skyrocketing, one female-run, female-only travel company is offering the chance for lifechanging experiences.

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R ussia’s greatest ruler was never destined to sit on the Imperial throne.

But Catherine the Great firmly believed that destiny was a thing to be harnessed.

She was born Princess Sophia of AnhaltZerbst, a minor German backwater, and might well have become a mere footnote of history had she not caught the eye of Empress Elizabeth of Russia.

Elizabeth was the daughter of Peter the Great, the tsar whose legendary rule completely transformed Russia from an isolated, medieval, semi-Asiatic state into a powerful Western European empire and maritime superpower. After her father’s death in 1725, Elizabeth endured 11 uneasy years during the reign of her cousin, Empress Anna, when her life was in constant danger. With the help of her father’s loyal regiments, she seized power from Anna’s successor, the infant Ivan VI, in a bloodless coup in 1741 and resolved to rule Russia in the spirit of her illustrious father. The beautiful and passionate Elizabeth was energetic and exorbitant, owning more

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than 5,000 dresses and dazzling jewels. She loved masked balls, the thrill of the chase both of quarry and handsome men; many a noble Russian family could date its ascent in society back to a handsome member catching Elizabeth’s eye. Her most lasting affair was with a handsome Ukrainian singer, Alexei Razumovsky, who wisely stayed away from all intrigue.

Any discreet attempts by Elizabeth and Razumovsky to have children ended in failure. While thoroughly enjoying the present, the childless Empress kept one wary eye trained on the future; the Romanovs had been on the throne since 1613, but the succession after Peter had been choppy, with four sovereigns in 16 years.

To shore up confidence in her own reign, Elizabeth proclaimed her 14-yearold nephew, Peter Charles Ulrich, her heir. Peter arrived at court in 1742 and was almost immediately a profound disappointment to the Empress. Though he was assigned a battalion of tutors and priests to help prepare him for his future

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role as Russia’s autocrat, Peter proved a poor student and loathed everything about his adopted country. The only thing that remotely interested the new Grand Duke was the military, but Peter showed a marked preference for the traditions and styles of his native Holstein over those of the Russian Empire. His idol was Frederick the Great, Elizabeth’s lifelong bête noire, which did little to endear the young Grand Duke to his Imperial aunt.

Despite his age, Elizabeth decided Peter must marry and produce an heir as quickly as possible, a baby she could rear herself and mold into an ideal future ruler of Russia. A cursory glance at Europe’s royal studbook found Princess Sophia of AnhaltZerbst, and the young German princess was summoned with her mother to Russia with all haste. Elizabeth took care to ensure that Sophia, the niece of a handsome prince to whom Elizabeth had once been happily engaged, was healthy as well as good-looking. It is not clear if Elizabeth bothered to ask about Sophia’s intelligence

Aerial view of the Winter Palace and Aleksandr Column in Palace Square as seen through the triumphal chariot, a symbol of military glory, atop the arch of the General Staff Building.

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Catherine the Great, portrait painting in profile by Fyodor Rokotov, 1763.

The Bronze Horseman monument, erected

by Catherine the Great, and St. Isaac’s Cathedral in Senate Square.

beyond ascertaining which languages she could speak. This was less of a concern than her ability to give birth to an heir. Had Elizabeth inquired, she might have learned that Princess Sophia was unusually bright and well trained by a dedicated governess who had honed and developed Sophia’s keen mind and natural curiosity, instilling in Sophia rigorous study habits that would serve the princess well in the years to come.

As Sophia made her way across Northern Europe in the dead of winter, excitement and anticipation were no doubt tempered with some anxiety. Russia was not like her native Germany, then a neat patchwork quilt of small principalities, Grand Duchies, and Landgraviates. It was only half a century since Peter the Great had dragged his medieval realm into the community of European nations, ordering his nobles to embrace European styles of dress and behavior. Russia was a Christian nation, but the alien, more mystical branch of Eastern Orthodoxy rather than Roman Catholicism or Sophia’s own Lutheran

faith. Russia had weathered a 200-year occupation by the Tatar Mongols, and the civilizing influences of the Renaissance and Reformation had passed the country by.

In the subsequent two centuries, there had been frequent violent uprisings, civil strife and numerous succession crises.

Sophia was following in the footsteps of another Princess Sophia who had left an indelible mark on Russia, arriving in 1472 to marry Grand Prince Ivan. It was this Sophia who transformed the modest wooden Moscow “Kremlin” into an impressive complex of elegant royal palaces and magnificent stone churches topped with glittering gold domes, worthy of the Imperial legacy she brought as well as its ancient symbols and traditions: the double-headed eagle and the Imperial Roman title “Caesar,” which was translated into Russian as “Tsar.”

However, the majesty and might of this Moscow Kremlin was not lost on Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst. She was less impressed with Peter, her prospective bridegroom,

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The Catherine Palace is a Rococo palace located in the town of Tsarskoye Selo, slightly south of St. Petersburg. The Great Hall or the Light Gallery is the most spacious premises in the Catherine Palace.

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confessing in her Memoirs: “…I cannot say that I either liked or disliked [Peter]…to tell the truth, I believe that the Crown of Russia attracted me more than his person.” Sophia recognized that it was Empress Elizabeth who embodied the Crown of Russia. Their relationship would never be an easy one, for Elizabeth proved a stern taskmaster. But she was also an excellent role model, and from Peter the Great’s daughter, Sophia learned many valuable lessons in statecraft. From Elizabeth, Sophia learned the importance of respecting the past and how vital it was to earn and keep the loyalty of the officers of

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the Imperial Guard. And though Sophia’s bridegroom, Peter found mystical rites of Eastern Orthodoxy laughable, Elizabeth herself was very devout, making elaborate pilgrimages throughout Russia to atone for her sins. To win Elizabeth’s favor, Sophia worked hard to master both vernacular Russian and to memorize the Orthodox Catechism. Soon, Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst knelt and renounced her Lutheran faith and became the true believing Catherine Alexeievna, named for Elizabeth’s own mother, Catherine I. The Imperial Court was centered around St. Petersburg, Russia’s new maritime capital and Peter the Great’s “Window on the West.” Catherine soon accustomed herself to the rhythms of the Imperial year. Winters were spent in St. Petersburg at the ornate Winter Palace, while in spring, the court moved to opulent Peterhof, with its magnificent Grand Cascade gushing into the Gulf of Finland. In summer, they retreated to bucolic Tsarskoye Selo and the splendid

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Catherine Palace, with its already-famous Amber Room and immense marble staircase. Each palace was a masterpiece of Russian Baroque, expanded from more modest versions by Elizabeth’s architect, Bartolomeo Rastrelli, in his signature style of brightly painted plaster facades, with rococo sculptures.

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arried life was far from idyllic for Catherine. Peter’s behavior became more erratic and hostile, and he was unable or unwilling to consummate the marriage for many months. When Catherine showed no signs of becoming pregnant, Elizabeth placed the couple under strict supervision, threatening Catherine with annulment and exile to a convent should she not produce the desired heir.

During those barren years, Catherine studied the classics and contemporary Enlightenment philosophers, including Voltaire and Diderot. While Peter publicly flaunted his mistress, Catherine, probably with Elizabeth’s tacit approval, began a

Chesme Church, or the Church of St. John the Baptist, was built under the direction of Catherine the Great. It is known as the cake church because of its pink and white color.

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Opposite: One of the oldest museums in the world, the State Hermitage was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great upon her acquisition of a large collection of paintings.

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passionate affair with handsome courtier, Sergei Saltykov; Catherine’s son, Grand Duke Paul, was born roughly nine months later in 1754. Elizabeth immediately whisked the infant away and showered him with all her pent-up maternal love. Saltykov was sent abroad, but soon a new love interest appeared on Catherine’s horizon: the erudite, sophisticated, and romantic Stanislaw Poniatowski, a Polish-born prince, and diplomat, by whom Catherine had at least one more child. Poniatowski understood the complexities of Europe’s politics and was instrumental in helping Catherine better understand how Russia interacted with her neighbors, At the height of Catherine’s relationship with Poniatowski, Russia was allied with Austria and France against an Anglo-Prussian alliance led by Peter’s idol, and Elizabeth’s sworn enemy, Frederick II of Prussia. As Empress Elizabeth’s health declined, Grand Duke Peter’s continued preference for Frederick II and Prussia worried many, including Catherine, who was also wary of her husband’s increasingly vocal threats to send her to a convent and marry his mistress the moment Empress Elizabeth died. With Catherine’s fate hanging in the balance, Poniatowski reluctantly left Catherine and Russia.

It

was then that Catherine took decisive action and petitioned Elizabeth to be allowed to return to Germany rather than endure the humiliation of her life with Peter. It was a gamble, but Catherine was confident that “the Empress felt exactly as I did about her nephew.”

She did not record the details of the conversation with Elizabeth, but she was not sent home to Germany. Elizabeth’s

marked improvement in attitude towards Catherine was not lost on the Empress’s close circle, and many of the councilors pledged their allegiance to Catherine.

And another critically appeared on the scene—just when he was needed most.

His name was Grigory Orlov, and he was the most handsome of five Orlov brothers, each equally as bold and reckless in the bedroom as he was on the battlefield.

Orlov was no scholar and lacked the refinement and romance of either Saltykov or Poniatowski. However, he was a man of action and a popular officer in the allimportant Imperial Guard, as were his brothers. Catherine and Grigory soon embarked on a passionate and highly physical love affair, made more exciting by their plans to overthrow Peter. Grigory’s loyal brothers worked behind the scenes to drum up support for Catherine amongst the all-important Guards regiments.

When the hour came, it was thanks to the Orlovs’ swift action and the loyal support they engendered with the regiments that Catherine was able to realize her cherished ambition. “At the bottom of my soul,” she reflected in her Memoirs, “I had something, I know not what, that never for a single moment left me doubt that sooner or later I would succeed in becoming the sovereign Empress of Russia in my own right.”

Unfortunately, Elizabeth suffered a massive stroke in December 1761 and died two days later. Catherine’s solemn and constant vigil at Elizabeth’s coffin as it lay in state in the Kazan Cathedral was in stark contrast to the newly-proclaimed Peter III’s irreverent mocking of the Orthodox funeral rites. Peter’s continued attacks on the clergy, his plans to make peace with Prussia, and his hostile behavior towards Elizabeth’s councilors convinced all three groups to pledge themselves to Catherine.

Saint Basil’s Cathedral in the Red Square is Moscow’s most famous artistic work of architecture and is considered a major symbol of the country.

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On the night of June 28, 1762, Grigory’s elder brother, Alexei “Scarface” Orlov, galloped with Catherine from Peterhof to the barracks of the Izmailovsky Regiment.

Dressed in the green and red uniform of the Imperial Guard, Catherine accepted the oath of allegiance from the enthusiastic regiments and then led them on horseback to the Kazan Cathedral, where she was proclaimed Catherine II of Russia. Eight days later, Alexei Orlov confessed to killing Peter III “by accident.”

Shortly following the death of Peter III, in the Byzantine Sophia Palaiologina’s soaring Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin, Catherine placed the dazzling new nine-pound diamond Imperial Crown on her own head. Today, the Imperial Crown holds pride of place in the Kremlin Armory’s Diamond Fund, the glittering repository of Imperial Russia’s most valuable objects, together with the golden Imperial Orb and Imperial Sceptre, adorned with the 189.62-carat “Orlov” diamond, given to the Empress by Grigory Orlov. His gift of the diamond in 1771 was a last-ditch effort to rekindle his flagging relationship with Catherine. But he had already been eclipsed by the great love of Catherine’s life, the brilliant, mercurial, and passionate Grigory Potemkin. In Potemkin, Catherine found the perfect lover, soul mate, and partner in power.

She conspired to meet him whenever she could in the smaller, cozier annexes of the Winter Palace she called her “hermitages.” He was also instrumental in securing Imperial Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, which gave Russia access to the Black Sea and the integration of modern-day Belarus and Ukraine, which Catherine dubbed “New Russia.”

Potemkin was at Catherine’s side for the apogee of her reign, but in all things, she still looked to Empress Elizabeth’s illustrious father, Peter the Great, for inspiration.

Catherine erected a magnificent equestrian statue, the Bronze Horseman, to Peter’s memory, which has become an iconic symbol of St. Petersburg. Catherine’s self-confessed “mania for collecting and building” formed

the nucleus of the Hermitage Museum, named for the rooms in the Winter Palace she cherished as her private retreats. The graceful Neoclassical buildings so evocative of her reign remain potent symbols of the Golden Age of Imperial Russia. Catherine certainly left Russia far more beautiful than she found it, gifting St. Petersburg and the nation a superlative collection of painting and sculpture that attracts millions of tourists each year. [See sidebar.] In addition, Catherine the Great left Russia larger and far more powerful than she found it, ensuring that the throne of Russia was secure for her six successors. Each in his turn would struggle to bear the weight— and the authority it represented—of the nine-pound Imperial crown that Catherine herself had declared “as light as a feather.” ■

Catherine’s Masters of Neoclassicism

Catherine’s new Imperial Crown was a harbinger of the Palladian and Neoclassical design in art, architecture, fashion, and urban design that was to dominate her reign. These choices were deliberate as the new Empress sought to cast Russia in the role of the successor state to the mighty empires of antiquity.

Bartolomeo Rastrelli’s effervescent pastels, and plaster flourishes of the flamboyant Elizabethan Baroque were eclipsed by the more subdued yellows, symmetrical designs and understated decorative motifs favored by Catherine’s leading architects.

Catherine’s Court Architect Giacomo Quarenghi left an indelible mark on St. Petersburg, creating some of the city’s most recognizable buildings: The Smolny Institute, The Hermitage Theater, The Academy of Science and The Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selo, the primary residence of Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II. In Moscow, Quarenghi made much-needed improvements to the medieval Red Square.

Though her fingers may have itched

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Until 1689, ballet in Russia was nonexistent.

It wasn’t until the rise of Peter the Great that Russian society opened up to the West. A major patron of the arts, Catherine the Great helped further ballet by building ballet schools and theatres in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

EML / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Opposite: A Fabergé egg at the Fabergé Museum, which houses the world’s largest collection of works by Fabergé in the Shuvalovsky Palace of St. Petersburg.

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to try, Catherine wisely did not attempt to change Rastrelli’s facade of the Catherine Palace. Instead, she commissioned Charles Cameron to create some of the Empress’s favorite corners at Tsarskoye Selo, intimate spaces where Catherine “[laid] aside all state, and [lived] with her ladies on the footing of as easy intimacy as possible.”

These were the exquisite Agate Room and Cameron Gallery, decorated with busts of the Classical and Enlightenment philosophers Catherine most admired.

Antonio Rinaldi successfully made the shift from Baroque to Neoclassical with The Marble Palace on “Millionaire’s Row,” Catherine’s generous gift to Grigory Orlov “for grateful friendship” as the inscription over the main entrance reads. The Marble Palace was the first building in St. Petersburg faced with stone and the first completely built in the Neoclassical style. Today, it is a branch of the extensive Russian Museum.

Russian architect Ivan Starov created the magnificent Neoclassical, single-domed

Cathedral of The Holy Trinity at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and the elegant Tauride Palace, Catherine’s extravagant gift to Grigory Potemkin, which became the template for many provincial estates throughout the empire. Later, the Taurida Palace served as the headquarters of the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet in 1917.

Catherine’s Neoclassical style survived her, and for much of the nineteenth century, it dominated the significant building works in both St. Petersburg and Moscow. Carlo Rossi, famous for clean lines and perfect proportions, adorned the city with the Alexandrine Theater and National Library.

He also designed Rossi Street, which bears his name, known as the world’s most perfectly proportioned street. Today, it is home to the famous Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. Rossi is most famous for the dynamic parabolic General Staff Building that flanks the Winter Palace on Palace Square. Joseph Bové adopted a design for the iconic Bolshoi Theater in Moscow for the company Catherine II founded in 1776.

Travel to Russia in Winter

the discerning winter traveler ample time to stroll through a half-empty Kremlin Armory Chamber, feel the majesty of Red Square, or enjoy the luxury of a leisurely exploration of the Hermitage without waiting in line. Winter affords the possibility to admire the impressive Impressionists in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Art at your own pace, linger in Rastrelli’s Amber Room as long as you wish or spend a quiet half an hour with each of Peter Carl Fabergé’s incomparable Imperial Easter Eggs at the Link of Times Museum.

Opera and ballet fans will rejoice in finding the premier troops at the peak of their season and form in the legendary Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters.

Winter is the time when Russia’s stunning architecture really comes into its own; a dusting of white snow makes the pastels of St. Petersburg and the vibrant colors and glittering onion domes of Moscow’s St. Basil’s Cathedral come alive. And where else can you discover that a bracing shot of frozen vodka from an outdoor ice bar is the perfect pick-meup after a sleigh ride in a troika or a visit to the festive Shrovetide markets?

For those prepared to brave subzero temperatures and icy Baltic winds, winter Russia’s Surprisingly can be the best time to experience the full Eclectic Food Scene Centuries of culinary history, a sprawling range of Russia’s magnificent museums, empire that spans multiple cultures and palaces, and performing arts.

The hordes of summer tourists and climates and episodic mania for importing cruise ship passengers are gone, leaving foreign ingredients and techniques make Russian cuisine difficult to pin down.

One thing remains constant, however,

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and that is the age-old tradition of expansive Russian hospitality, which, once experienced, is not easily forgotten.

Traditional peasant food has never gone out of fashion. Siberian pelmeni (dumplings), hearty soups, stews, and pottages such as borscht and Shchi (cabbage soup) remain as popular today as they were in Catherine the Great’s time. The cuisine of Russia’s far-flung former states such as Uzbekistan, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan have added more exotic fare such as Uzbek plov, shashlik (shish kebob) Chicken Tabaka and all manner of lamb, eggplant and pork stews.

The Russian countryside and dacha tradition offer enthusiastic amateur chefs the opportunity to ferment and preserve nature’s bounty to sustain them for the long winters. Jams, jellies, sauerkraut, and all manner of pickled vegetables are essential components of Russian cuisine and not to be missed.

Imperial Russia embraced all things French, and no aristocratic home was complete without its French or Belgian chef de cuisine. From these men come a range of dishes adapted from the European canon and christened in honor of the Russian patrons: Beef Stroganoff, Veal Orloff, and Cutlets Demidov.

Today, Moscow and St. Petersburg are vibrant culinary capitals, serving up food from around the world to suit every palate.

And while vodka will always retain pride of place at a groaning Russian table, Russian beer, wine, and champagne have become equally popular, as have craft cocktails.

Postscript: Jennifer Eremeeva is an American expatriate writer who writes about travel, culture, cuisine and culinary history, Russian history, and Royal History. Her work has appeared in Reuters, Fodor’s, USTOA, LitHub, The Moscow Times, and Russian Life. She is the in-house travel blogger for Alexander & Roberts. Jennifer is the award-winning author of Lenin Lives Next Door: Marriage, Martinis, and Mayhem in Moscow and Have Personality Disorder, Will Rule Russia: A Pocket Guide to Russian History.

The Somali-American fashion model, actress and entrepreneur, mononymously known as Iman, on location in Loyangalani for a Play Boy shoot on the south eastern coast of Lake Turkana in the NFD Kenya.

PHOTOGRAPH BY VICTOR VAN KEUREN

Originally built in 1717 as a summer home for Catherine the Great, the Catherine Palace is filled with ornate rooms and the white and gold royal residence is surrounded by a 1400 acre-park with fountains and bridges.

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W INSPIRING WOMEN Our Inspiring Women have been selected because each has carved out a unique path through life that is recognized by others as exceptional. You will see a commonality in the interviews.

These remarkable women have achieved greatness by following their internal compasses while facing the circumstances they are dealt in life.

None had a road map.

I N T E R V I E W S B Y K A R E N F L OY D For video interviews, visit elysianwomen.com

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2019 PUBLISHER’s NONPAREIL

GRACE BENDER

Born: Washington, D.C. Resides: Washington, D.C.

Director of the Dorothy G. Bender Foundation; Philanthropist; Avid contributor of her time and funds to charities for over 40 years, including the Spring Gala at the Kennedy Center, For Love of Children, So Others May Eat, MANNA, Inc. and LUNGevity; Alongside her husband, has raised millions of dollars towards prominent causes.

CHITRA NARAYANAN

Born: Tokyo, Japan Resides: Zürich, Switzerland

BARBARA MARTINUZZI

Born: Rome, Italy Resides: Zürich, Switzerland

Founder and Creative Director of Martinuzzi Interiors; Former Miss Italy and fashion model; World-renowned designer and entrepreneur; Received the European Property Award for Interior Design in 2015, 2016 and 2018.

Independent Strategic Advisor, ACN Strategies; Former Ambassador of India, career diplomat, journalist, editor and publisher; Associate Fellow at Geneva Center for Security Policy GCSP and Course Director for Executive Course on Creative Diplomacy; Expert in high-level decision making and cultural sensitivities.

CHITRA IS WEARING A RED EMBROIDERED PASHMINA FROM THE BRAND KUKOON BY INDIAN DESIGNER SNEHA MEHTA.

SHOP & EXPLORE

E

MARTYNKA WAWRZYNIAK

Born: Warsaw, Poland Resides: Brooklyn, New York

Conceptual artist; Editor at Rizzoli New York publishing house; Born in Poland during the communist revolution; Has exhibited her multimedia work globally; Directly engages the viewer with issues of femininity, gluttony, violence and nationality.

A native-born Washingtonian, Grace Bender’s professional life took her into the world of politics.

But, she is many things: Morty’s wife, Jack’s mother and a philanthropist of some repute in the nation’s capital. Always ready to help raise funds for prominent local causes such as The Kennedy Center and LUNGevity, Grace seeks out and supports young and recently established charities focused on changing the lives of the less fortunate.

Grace Bender

Philanthropist & Director of the Dorothy G. Bender Foundation

Where were you raised?

I was born in Washington, D.C., a real native. I lived here for the first year or two of my life before my parents moved to Maryland.

How did your father’s profession influence you?

My father was in the restaurant business and was the manager of the casino at the Hotel Nacional in Havana for a few years. We lived in Cuba until Fidel Castro, the Communist revolutionary, started trying to take over.

What fundamental beliefs are instilled in you from that experience…or simply put, what was your takeaway?

The people in Cuba were just amazing, very loving and they appreciated life. What happened to the country after Castro took over is just pitiful. It showed me that you can have a great country, and the wrong leader can destroy it.

When was the last time you visited Cuba, and how was that experience?

Two years ago, my sister and I went back to visit. It had not changed much at all. It was as if time stood still. I said, “Let’s go find the apartment we grew up in.” We went into Miramar, which is just outside of Havana, and we found the apartment.

The taxi driver that took us there asked if we’d like to meet the woman who lived there now. I said “Yes,” but I asked, “How could we do that?” He said, “Come. We will just knock on her door.” He explained that he would tell her who we were, and she welcomed us. We did it, and it brought back so many memories of living in that very apartment.

Where is your family now?

My sister lives in Maryland. She’s not far away. My brother lives on the Eastern Shore, Saint Michaels, also in Maryland, and we’re a very close-knit family. My mother, sadly, died at 78 years old, and my father died at 95. They were married close to 60 years. He was born in Washington D.C. His house was at the entrance to the Commerce Building on 14th Street; a true native Washingtonian.

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Your profession was in both PR and government affairs?

I moved back to D.C. in my twenties and loved all the different jobs. I never worked on Capitol Hill, but I worked the Hill, and that was very interesting. Originally, I worked in governmental affairs, and then, eventually, I gravitated to public relations. After my husband and I married in ‘79, I became involved in philanthropy and spent the next 40 years chairing almost everything in this city. Donating is nice, and it is easy to write the check if you have the money, but I think it is more important to give of yourself, your time.

What criteria do you look for when you support a philanthropy?

I prefer to help charities that are young or recently established and don’t have “Who’s Who of America” on their boards. I like to help the underdog charities. The help I give is across the board.

People think I support a lot of cultural charities and I do, but I love to help those organizations that need it the most. I was cochair of the Spring Gala at the Kennedy Center, the opening night of the Opera and the Symphony. But, I also contributed to and worked with For Love of Children (FLOC), So Others May Eat (SOME) and MANNA, a charitable firm that bought old abandoned houses in the city, rebuilt them and sold them to people who otherwise would never have been able to afford a home. So that I loved.

Why do you give?

It’s very simple. I came from a very middle-class family. I had relatives and friends that were poor, and I saw a lot of hardships. I always thought, if I ever had money, I would want to give it away. My favorite television show was The Millionaire. Do you remember that show? John Beresford Tipton, Jr. sat behind his desk, and you never saw his face. He would give people a million-dollar check. That was who I wanted to be. I just fantasized about how that could change a person’s life. When Morty and I were married, I felt so fortunate to not have to worry about paying the rent or putting food on the table that I wanted to give back. Morty was very generous in letting me donate money to many causes in the city, but I never gave it unless I got involved in the organization.

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You established a foundation?

We did, and it’s named the Dorothy G. Bender Foundation after my husband’s mother.

Is philanthropy your avocation?

Yes, because working on all these different causes has given me tremendous satisfaction. One of the most rewarding charities I ever worked on honored a friend who had died of lung cancer. I was friendly with her daughter, and she asked me to chair the first event. I decided to do a dinner at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium.

Another friend said to me, “Grace, Why don’t you start small?

Do a little luncheon? Do a tea?” I said, “You know what? It will take just as much of my time to call, to write letters and to do all of this for a small event as a large event. So, I might as well go for the gold.” We raised one million net in 2011 for LUNGevity which put them on the map. That was great satisfaction for me.

Q

Is there one initiative you have undertaken that dramatically moved the philanthropy forward?

I try to do that with all of them, but I’ll give you an example. We had not been married very long, and I met Reverend Jim Dickerson, who ran a charity called MANNA. The men on his payroll renovated houses that had been boarded up in D.C. He couldn’t make his payroll at one point and was unable to secure a bank loan. I had a hundred thousand dollars to my name in my savings at that time. I

wanted to go to the best and have that experience. My friend and I had a lovely time. We ate in some of the finest restaurants, and I honestly didn’t mind spending my money for those fabulous meals. I came back and ran into him again at the same restaurant. He said, “You were supposed to call me when you got back from your trip.” I did tell him a lie because he was with a gentleman. I said “Oh, I did. Didn’t you get the message?” He said, “No, but call me. I want to hear about your trip.” A week later, I was parking in the Bender Building, and they announced that I couldn’t park unless I paid $5.00 a day. I did not want to have to pay every day and asked if I could just pay a monthly rate. They replied that there were no more monthly parking spaces left. I said, “What are you talking about? I have been parking here every day.” I learned that the owners of the building had taken the parking for their employee’s cars. So, I thought, I will call that man that I met because I think he was one of the owners of the building. So I called him and said, “I’m not asking for free parking. I’ll pay for it. I just don’t want to pay the $5.00 every day.”

He said, “It will cost you a dinner.” I said, “Okay. I’m happy to buy you dinner.” We went to dinner, and I realized how smart he was, and how much fun he was. We started dating in October, and by the end of November, we had taken our first trip together. On the plane coming home, he said to me, “Write down when you think we’ll get married, and I’ll write down when I think.” He got some paper from the stewardess, and we wrote down what we both thought. Morty asked me what I wrote, and I said, “It’s your game. What did you write?”

And he said, “June.” Now, mind you, this is November. I asked him,

You are a stunningly beautiful woman and to have some wounds or scars from childhood based on the nastiness of others is sad to me.

loaned him the entire $100,000. I remember my husband saying, “Well, I guess that’s the last you’ll see of that.” I knew he would give it back to me. He not only paid every penny back, he insisted on paying one or two percent interest. If I hadn’t given him the bridge loan, he would have had to shut down. I think about how many people have homes because of this organization. Those things are very rewarding and normally do not get written about in the newspaper.

My picture has been in the paper for chairing an event but usually a cultural charity. While it’s true I support all of those, it is the things that nobody knows about that I really love helping the most.

How did you meet your husband, Morty Bender?

There was a restaurant in Washington called Paul Young’s, and it was in the Bender Building. A friend of mine said, “Let’s have dinner there.” There was a table filled with men not much farther than where you are sitting. An elderly gentleman named Milton Kronheim would lean back in his chair and start talking to me. He was about 85 or 86 at the time. He said, “There’s a slightly younger bachelor here,” and he introduced me to Morty. At the end of the dinner, we chatted a little bit.

Was it love at first sight?

No, not at all. I was getting ready to go to the South of France with my girlfriend. He told me that he would ask a friend who was French for the names of restaurants in Paris and Monte Carlo for me. I think it was an excuse to get my phone number. The next day, he called me and gave me all the restaurant names. He said, “Now they’re very inexpensive, but they’re really good.” I thanked him, crumbled up the paper and threw it away. I thought this may be the only time I go to Paris and the South of France, and I am not going to worry about the cost of dining because I

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“Why June?” He said, “Well, you look like the type that wants to be a June bride.” He then asked me what I wrote. I said, “December. You look like the type that wants a tax deduction.” We were married in December. The irony of the story is that my little income took him into the next tax bracket, so there was no tax advantage.

Tell me about your son Jack.

Jack lives in Bethesda, Maryland, and he is named after my husband’s father. We adopted him when he was five days old. My husband had called his father J.B. because they worked together.

Jack was never called Jack until he turned 30. He was always J.B. He is the love of our lives. He and his wife, Nina, have just given us a beautiful baby girl named Amelia. Just seeing her giggle brings me joy. Jack can charm anyone. He’s very articulate. He’s an excellent writer. He grew up with older parents, and we entertained everyone from neighbors and family to members of Congress, Ambassadors and various Secretaries in the various administrations. They were just people to him. He learned to talk to them. He has an ability to make you feel at ease, and he is so genuine. He is truly loved, an old soul. We were so blessed to be given him to raise.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?

My greatest accomplishment is raising this young man to be someone I’m very proud of. I think he will give back to society as well.

What life lesson would you want others to know?

It’s very important that people learn, at a very young age, to save.

Too many of the young people today buy whatever the latest craze is for the moment and spend every dollar they have. I started saving when my aunts and uncles would put $5.00 in a Valentine card or an

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Grace joined ELYSIAN Publisher Karen Floyd for this “Inspiring Woman” interview at Grace’s home in Washington, D.C.

Easter card. When I was very young, I had a passbook from a local bank. Remember bank passbooks? While I spend a lot of money, and my husband will attest to that, I also know how to save and how to invest. I have made some very wise decisions in the stock market as has our son. When he was very young, he was not good in math.

I decided to teach him something practical. We went to a bank on Connecticut Avenue, where thirty years ago, they still had passbooks.

When they stamped the interest, he said, “Mom, that’s not very much money.” I said, “If you want to make money, you should buy stocks.”

He wanted to know what stocks were. That night, Bill Gates was on television and was declared one the wealthiest men in the world. “Oh, mom, he’s so young. Let’s buy some stock in his company,” he said.

We did. That summer we were in Nantucket, and I was telling Steven Rales, a neighbor and friend who owned Danaher, what I did with J.B. I thought the story was funny. Steven asked me to call my son up to where we were. He said, “I’m not Bill Gates yet, but some day my company’s going to make a lot of money too. You should buy into my company.” That night he said, “Mom, Steven is the same age as dad’s children, and he’s got a big house in our neighborhood, and he has a house in Nantucket. He even has an airplane. Do I have enough money in my account to invest?” I said yes, and we bought a few shares and continued to invest in stocks. The only investment that my husband thought was very funny was when J.B. bought stock in Pepco, our electric company. When we asked J.B. why he wanted Pepco, he said, “Because dad is always yelling - turn the computer off and turn the lights off. You need electricity.” So, of course, that one didn’t go up, but all his other stock purchases have gone up.

What do you fear?

That I will be old and alone. I love people, I love my family, and I love my friends. If I could, I would freeze everybody in time for a while because I get very attached to people. I’ve lost some girlfriends, and their deaths were very painful.

What makes you tick?

I think pleasing people and doing things for those that need help.

What are the most difficult things that you have overcome?

I have had 20 surgeries in my life and not plastic. These are real. When I was a child, I was cross-eyed. I had to have seven muscle surgeries, the last when I was in my forties. That was very difficult because children can be very cruel. They’d ask me, “Why aren’t you looking at me? What are you looking at?” Even though my parents took me to Wilmer Eye Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital, one of the best in the country, it wasn’t corrected. I had to live with that for a very long time. That was hard.

What did it teach you?

It taught me to never make fun of somebody who looks different or sounds different because I knew how hurtful it can be.

But see, I never felt beautiful. It wasn’t until I was much older, and a man that I was dating said to me, “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”

And I said, “Oh, stop it.” He said, “No, you are.” He said, “But what makes you even more beautiful is the beauty on the inside.” And he said, “Maybe you wouldn’t have had that inside beauty if you really knew what you looked like.” I’ll always remember that. readelysian.com • l’hiver 2019 •

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Grace’s lovely home is adorned with original artwork like this impressionist piece by Carl Frederick Frieseke.

Below: Grace at the Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs, Louisville.

decided I wanted to have an MRI to be sure nothing was going on someplace else in my body. I called a breast surgeon. She was reluctant to order the test, but I was rather insistent, and she gave me a referral for one. I had a hard time getting the MRI appointment because the insurance companies didn’t want to pay for it. “Fine,” I said, “I’ll pay for it. I just need to have the peace of mind.” I wanted to be sure I did not have lung cancer. I also wanted to be sure I did not have breast cancer because my mother had had breast cancer. To everyone’s shock, the MRI showed I had cancer in three of the four quadrants of my left breast. While the spots were very small, they said it might have been several years before a mammogram would have picked it up. Breast cancer started a whole series of surgeries. I had nothing in my lymph nodes, but I opted to do a double mastectomy.

At the time, that was a little avant-garde?

You are a stunningly beautiful woman and to have some wounds or scars from childhood based on the nastiness of others is sad to me.

But see, I never felt beautiful. It wasn’t until I was much older, and a man that I was dating said to me, “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?” And I said, “Oh, stop it.” He said, “No, you are.” He said, “But what makes you even more beautiful is the beauty on the inside.” And he said, “Maybe you wouldn’t have had that inside beauty if you really knew what you looked like.” I’ll always remember that.

If you could ask God one question, what would it be?

Have I done enough, and is there anything more you want me to do?

You mentioned 20 surgeries. Seven related to the eye.

Tell me about breast cancer.

I was in Sibley Hospital with my dad, who was being admitted for pneumonia, and I had bronchitis. I called my doctor and said, “I’m here. Can I get a chest x-ray because I think I have pneumonia as well?” The chest x-ray showed a very large spot on my lung, and my doctor ordered further tests. The weekend my father died, they told me I needed to see a pulmonary oncologist about the spot. I saw the oncologist, and he said he had seen my chest x-rays, but what was appearing to be a large mass on my lungs, wasn’t there a year ago. He asked when I had my last mammogram. I told him in September, and it was clear then. He asked if I had a colonoscopy, and I said I had one in October, and it was clear as well. He explained that I would have had to have cancer somewhere else in my body, and it would have had to spread to my lung for it to be that large compared to the previous year’s chest x-rays. Because I had large dense breasts and had just read that the best way to check for breast cancer was to have an MRI, I

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Yes, it was in 2008. I just thought I don’t want to have to worry about having biopsies and tests if I had only had one mastectomy.

A lot of women are very afraid of a double mastectomy because they feel like they won’t look as pretty or feel attractive. That might have been true years ago, but not today. It’s so amazing what they can do. I just never hesitated. I didn’t even give it a thought. Once I had both breasts removed, and had reconstruction, I never thought about it again, never thought, “I will get it again.” My breast cancer came at a time in my life when I was worried about so many things. I had so much stress going on that it didn’t even surprise me when they told me. I think we all have some cancer cells in our body, and when our immune system gets low because we’re stressed, it wreaks havoc. That’s one of the reasons I like to travel because I can decompress and just appreciate God’s world.

You have had a life well lived, Grace. What life lesson can you share with ELYSIAN readers?

I would tell them to always make time for themselves. Always. I would also tell any young woman, even if you have a child or more than one, always make time for your husband because it’s so easy to get so wrapped up in the children that you forget your other half. I think that’s extremely important. Finally, I believe every woman should have her own money. That way, she never will feel at the mercy of anyone, whether it’s her parents, a husband, a boyfriend. Women need to get out there and make their own money, save and invest. ■

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info@ shopmckennaquinn.com

American Made

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Before becoming an award-winning interior designer, Barbara Martinuzzi had a career as a model, being crowned Miss Italy at the age of 17. Though challenging, for ten years, modeling afforded her independence. Making the decision that the world of fashion modeling was not for her, Barbara moved to Zürich, Switzerland, where she founded Martinuzzi Interiors. Her intuitive and eclectic designs have been recognized throughout Europe and the United States.

Barbara Martinuzzi

Former Miss Italy, Creative Director & Founder of Martinuzzi Interiors

What an amazing home you have overlooking Lake Zurich. As I sit here with this incredible vista, clouds breaking on the horizon, I thank you very much for opening your home for ELYSIAN’S European launch. What a masterpiece you have created here with your expertise in home décor and interior design.

Thank you, Karen.

Why are you selling this magnificent home?

This home is too big for me, with just my little doggie, Otto. I would like to move to something smaller and closer to town.

It has been said that your untraditional childhood manifested in your creative ability?

My parents never married. In the ‘70s my mother’s journey was definitely considered unique because she did not marry my father. They just fell in love. My father was 25 years older than my mother, and though their love story did not last long, it was very intense. I am the result.

Did you have a good relationship with both of your parents?

I did not have much contact with my father. I saw him when I was small, two or three years old, but we lost contact because he was living with his own family. I grew up with my mother and my grandmother.

You have achieved great success. At some point later in life, did your father re-enter your world?

For a while, yes.

And how did that feel?

It felt quite strange. In front of me was a person that was supposed to be my father, but he was someone I didn’t really know. Our conversations were distant, like meeting a stranger.

Italy has a more rigid culture, perhaps, than many countries. How did your mother survive in that strict environment and the judgment that accompanied it?

It is a good question because she was a rebel compared to other woman in the 1970s. It was a time when female power and independence from the male world was evolving. Mother acted independently her entire life, long before it was acceptable.

Was she an artist?

She was an artist, a painter, actually. She painted for ten years but stopped a few years ago. Before that, my mother was an entrepreneur. She opened a restaurant in Rome and managed it for two or three years. We moved to Turin, and from there, she worked for a real estate company until she opened her own company.

Was she successful?

She says her biggest success was related to me. She didn’t really want to have a career. Her career was to sustain me in my studies and in my education. That was her biggest goal. I think she felt she was successful.

Did your mother ever find love again?

Sad to say, but no.

And what do you do to make sure that doesn’t happen to you?

I don’t think about it. I just live my life happily and am not looking for love. Love comes when you give love. What you put out . . . comes back.

Does she come to Switzerland often?

Well, she did in the past especially when the kids were smaller.

She enjoyed her time as a grandmother. We have regular contact with her. She has always had an important role in my life.

Is there a lesson that you took from her life’s experiences?

Yes, absolutely! The same way she accomplished her successes with determination and drive I try to reach my goals with the same mindset.

The pageantry world. When did you first know that you were exceptional in that arena?

I felt like a normal child with nothing more special about me than my peers. I didn’t have confidence in myself even when I went into modeling. When I participated in the Miss Italy contest, I was not confident in my beauty.

Why is that?

Because my sense of beauty comes from the inside. It’s not visual or aesthetic, which probably is what other people saw in me.

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You modeled afterwards?

Is that why your design work is so ensconced in the individual’s preference? The belief that beauty is inside out?

Yes. Then I started a modeling career.

Correct. Every individual and every project is different. The aesthetic reflects the entirety of the owner’s soul. Maybe it is my design, but it is their vision. It is not my project just the imprint of the design.

How did you first get involved in pageantry?

Strangely enough, it just came by chance. I was in Turin at a disco club with my mother and some friends. I was only 17 years old. The Miss Turin competition was happening, and they saw me and invited me to participate. So, for fun, I went on the stage, and I won. The next day I was told to leave for the finals of Miss Italy in the Miss World contest. It was a surprise, but I packed my luggage, and I went.

And your mother went with you?

Yes, we went to Trento and participated in the contest.

And then you won the title of Miss Italy?

And then I won again.

Were you surprised?

Absolutely. I was a student and not involved in fashion or the modeling industry. I had not expected to be there. I just found myself on that stage with a crown.

And how long did you model?

Another ten years. It looks like my life goes by in tens.

During your modeling tenure, were there difficult times?

Oh, yes. Because competition is stressful… and to live every day where your future depends on casting or being chosen for certain publicity is hard. There are moments where you feel unsure and tired.

To be successful, you need a lot of determination and discipline.

Most women that I have known that have been in the modeling world have had challenges with food. Food can become a big issue. Did it ever become so for you?

Of course.

And it’s something no one talks about, do they?

No, because there is a kind of shame, unfortunately, associated with eating disorders. Even today, it is a big problem; anorexia or bulimia.

Did you experience either?

I experienced bulimia for one year. Nobody knew what that was, and I lived alone with it, not understanding why I felt that way.

How did you come through it?

I decided that the fashion world was not my world. The moment I decided to step back from all the constriction, restriction and rules, and get back to my life with myself, I started to find the balance.

Balance. Do you regret the years as a model, those ten years?

Q

No, I don’t regret those years because they were also amazingly fun. I travelled and met so many people. From age 17 years old onward, I was basically independent and self-sustaining.

And that was always so important to you.

Yes.

Turin is also important to you. Why?

Turin is a very interesting city. I loved it. I grew up and did all my studies there. I was always fascinated with the culture and history, which is still evident in every street. Living in that city was interesting and challenging. The French influence was also present and became part of my growing up and adolescence.

While I have good memories there, I will not go back to live.

Barbara Martinuzzi with her sons, Alexander and Karl Primo, at the graduation of Karl Primo from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Right: At the age of 24, while working as an actress in Rome. Opposite: Barbara with her dog, Otto, at her gorgeous home overlooking Lake Zurich in Switzerland.

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Miss Italy, world-renowned designer, entrepreneur and expat . . . and single mother. How do you manage?

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Why? I will not go back to live in Italy. Even though my heart is still Italian,

I don’t feel like I could adapt to the Italian rituals.

Why?

Because I feel different. I am more comfortable in Switzerland with more structured and more organized habits. In Milan or Rome, I feel lost, which is a contradiction because I also want to travel again. I’ve been in Switzerland for 20 years, and I want to explore the opportunities to work and lead in the rest of the world.

You have two boys?

I have two boys, one who just graduated from high school and the other who graduated from university this summer.

You are a single mother?

I am.

Miss Italy, world-renowned designer, entrepreneur and expat… and single mother. How do you manage?

It is a feeling of “well-being” and security, knowing that you depend only on yourself. You create your own happiness, day-to-day, without depending on another person. As a single mother, there are more challenges because kids want to be a part of a family, and my boys grew up in a family. Recently, I

became a single mother again, but they always had a family environment. I guess now this nucleus or traditional structure is a bit less important for them. Having a single mother provides a good example of how a person can carry on many tasks at the same time successfully.

Do you see yourself marrying in the future?

Never say never.

How many hours do you work a day?

It’s difficult to say because my brain never stops working.

I think about projects always; when I leave the office, in the evening or in the morning when I wake up.

Do you work seven days a week, or do you take time on the weekends too?

I don’t work in the office seven days a week. I often work half a day from home, which is more relaxing. I don’t count that as a workday. I take some days off from the office though on a weekly basis.

Do you meditate? And does that work for you?

Yes, I love it. I think meditation is an important tool to help our brain de-stress, relax and open up. Meditation creates a new point of view.

How do you stay so fit?

I participate in sports but am not really regular. I love to get myself fit. I go running, or I do cross-training in the gym. I try to keep myself moving even if it is just walking with the dog.

Where is your favorite place to vacation?

I love the Mediterranean. I am in love with the Maldives, where I have been going since I was 18. I love Africa, but I’m more attracted to Asian surroundings and the Asian culture.

Do you require quiet time, alone time, to be balanced?

Absolutely. Two or three hours dedicated to all my tasks and getting organized.

Professionally, has anyone helped you in a mentorship capacity?

No person comes to mind. I really grew this business alone, from nothing. I did not even know how business worked when I decided to open this company ten years ago.

You have won so many awards and are recognized in Europe, Switzerland and in the United States. Of the awards that you received, what was the one that made you the most proud?

All of them but the first one stands out. It was absolutely unexpected. The award was for the penthouse in Dottikon. I won the Best Interior Design in Europe.

When you learned you won that award, what did you do?

I had no words. I probably screamed with joy.

It is a feeling of “well-being” and security, knowing that you depend only on yourself. You create your own happiness, day-to-day, without depending on another person. As a single mother, there are more challenges because kids want to be a part of a family, and my boys grew up in a family . . . Having a single mother provides a good example of how a person can carry on many tasks at the same time successfully. readelysian.com • l’hiver 2019 •

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Twenty years from now, where will you be?

Ten years from now, what will you be doing?

Hopefully, I will be doing the same job but more work on a global scale and not just design work here in Switzerland. My goal is to expand my business and do interior design projects in different cultures. It’s inspiring and challenging, and it’s absolutely something I want to experience now in the second half of my life.

When I look at your aesthetic, you incorporate Asia, the Middle East and other cultures with very clean lines… almost an overtone of modernism. Your work is very eclectic. How do others describe your work?

I have heard different comments about éclectisme. Yes, and it’s true. My work stems from memories of my trips and travels when I was younger.

I will be maybe in the Maldives doing the design of a resort.

If you could ask God one question, what would you ask him?

I would ask for peace and equality to all children in this world.

What piece of advice would you tell a young independent woman, like your younger self?

Never stop believing in yourself. That’s the first rule.

Whatever suffering you face, take it as reinforcement instead of letting it destroy you. Suffering has a transforming energy that can compel you forward.

What is your process? How do you learn their “inside,” so you can build the outside or vision?

It is important to know as much as possible about the client and their lifestyle. Does the client want to change lifestyle, how many children, and other relationships . . . There are so many questions and details important to know before you have a vision for that interior.

How long does it take for you to get that vision?

Normally, it’s the first thing that comes into my mind. Sometimes a vision comes during the meeting, sometimes right after.

Do you draw it, sketch it or do you write?

I sketch first. I write down the important briefing details, and then I start to draw.

Do you work first from palette/color, texture or space?

First of all space. Layout is the first step. The color and the materials follow.

Is there another part of the world, other than where you vacationed, that is attractive to you, and you could see yourself living?

I’ve always played with the thought of eventually moving to Los Angeles. I think my style and vision compliments the taste of clients in Los Angeles allowing me to work freely with no restrictions. I’m also a big fan of the active and outdoor lifestyle which moves the city.

When you travel, do you spend your time on adventures, relaxing or just watching?

Well, it depends upon where I am. In the Maldives, I like to relax, but in Los Angeles, I would like to both watch and be active.

So, it really is situational for you?

Yes.

What is your greatest accomplishment?

My kids, of course. They are my proudest and my biggest accomplishment.

As you enter this next chapter of your life, can you give me one word that describes what you are looking for?

Excitement.

And do you translate excitement into your work?

Yes.

You also translate excitement into every aspect of your life, don’t you?

Yes. Definitely.

Barbara in London, accepting the coveted “Best Interior Design Private Residence Switzerland” award for her project, Pietra Nobile.

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Is that what you did?

Yes.

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Bilder Sagen Mehr Wie Worte Capturing Unique Moments BERGRESTAURANT WASSERNGRAT 3780 GSTAAD +41 33 744 96 22 info@wasserngrat.ch www.wasserngrat.ch

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PUBLISHER’s NONPAREIL An exemplar of excellence and success in her field, distinguished by achievements with transcending influence and impact.

LEADING the WORLD with CREATIVE EXPERTISE Inspired by her father, a career diplomat and later president of India, and her mother who was Burmese, CHITRA NARAYANAN was bound for a global career. Numbered among her many roles are a mother, journalist, editor and publisher, Foreign Service Officer and Ambassador of India to six countries. Chitra now shares her leadership and cultural expertise as an independent consultant to high-level corporations and think tanks around the world. She believes that excellence, creativity and strategy, above all else, are paramount to success.

Chitra as Ambassador of India to the Holy See (Vatican), congratulating His Holiness Pope Frances on his election, 2013.

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Your mother was Burmese and your father Indian. At a time when such a marriage was rare, particularly in the Indian culture, how was that perceived?

It was very difficult for my mother. My father was in the Foreign Service, and they were the first internationally mixed couple of their generation, station and culture. It was a great romance. My father had to get permission from Prime Minister Nehru. Because they broke with the tradition and were the first couple to marry outside of their nationality, my mother adapted. She was amazing. She took the Indian nationality and changed her name from Tint Tint to Usha, which means, “dawn.” For her, it was a new beginning. At home, there was obviously no problem. My regret is that I did not know either Burmese or my father’s language, Malayalam. They were so correct that English became the home language. That was my mother tongue. She merged seemingly effortlessly into Indian life.

As fate would have it, their first posting was Japan. She had been in Burma during the Japanese occupation in the Second World War, and she had suffered. She also lost a brother, but she just took that in her stride. I was born in Tokyo. Japan was a happy memory. I marvel at her remarkable ability to adapt and make adjustments.

Her ability to forgive?

Exactly. I appreciate that only recently, after she’s gone. I never really understood what she was able to do. As a child, growing up in the family, you are not as aware of these things. Recently, I have come to understand how truly remarkable she must have been to accomplish that and always have friends from Japan.

Was it love at first sight between them?

Yes. Yes. As a postgraduate student, she studied social work in India and was then teaching in Rangoon University. My father’s first posting was to Rangoon, and she invited him to give a talk. He went back to India and negotiated permission to marry. Then, she came.

Did witnessing your parent’s love affair, so strident and authentic, affect your perspective on what you wanted for your partner in life?

It’s exactly that. I presumed everything was like the environment in which I was raised. My parents brought me up to believe that men and women were equal. There was no prejudice in our family. It was a bit of a shock when I found that I was ill-prepared for other aspects in relationships. I presumed everybody was as thoughtful as my father and mother were of each other. My home life and their love for each other perhaps spoiled me. It didn’t affect my expectations, but I guess one simulates values. They were such a team throughout their lives in his diplomatic career and later his political career. Everybody thought of them always as Usha and K.R. They were always a team.

The diplomatic corps at first and then politics for your parents. Your father later became President of India. How old were you when the political juncture began?

Well, I was 26. The year my father retired from the diplomatic service he was serving as Ambassador to China. I joined the Foreign Service that year and was already in my career as a young diplomat when he joined politics.

And your father was the first person from India to enter China as a diplomat?

He was the first Ambassador after 17 years of having broken off relations between the countries, in ‘76. This was before I joined the Foreign Service. I visited them and was able to see China in transition, what is referred to as the “Gang of Four” time. It was very exciting. One of the advantages of being a diplomatic offspring is the ability to witness history in the making, to be able to see. These moments in time are truly exciting because they were stationed primarily in Peking.

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When you visited your parents in Peking, was it an overly stressful time for him in light of how tentative everything was?

We thought of it as exciting because it was during the ChineseVietnamese War. I had grown up as a child in Hanoi with my parents. I was trying to be a journalist, so when I wanted to travel by train during the war from Peking to Hanoi to write a story, they said go for it. We were a very adventurous and unorthodox family.

Where were you educated?

As a child, all over. It would be London or Australia . . . I was homeschooled in Hanoi and in boarding school in the Himalayas in India. As a young child, when they went to Hanoi, I was very unhappy. The day before returning, I just told my parents I couldn’t do it. I was what, eight? Seven? My father said, “Okay, we will homeschool you. Cancel the ticket.” For one and a half years I was homeschooled in Hanoi. We went back to New Delhi, and from that time on, I studied in India. At first I studied in New Delhi and then went back to the same boarding school in the mountains. I completed my undergraduate work in political science at Delhi University and postgraduate at Delhi University, international relations specializing in Chinese politics. So, my education was, by and large, in India.

Did any mentor make a significant impact or difference to you?

I never really could say I had a mentor. My father and mother always had interesting people coming into our home. I was brought up that there was no such thing as go to your room. We always were in the room listening to wonderful people with the most interesting minds, talking and expressing their views. I guess that was the biggest influence in my life. I was able to listen to their views, their values and their convictions. I think that’s more valuable than a mentorship. I cannot think of a better education than the one I had.

What was the longest place that you lived under the age of 30?

It would be New Delhi.

Outside of that?

In our business, the post lasts three years. So, it was Rome, Nairobi and then Washington, D.C. as Counsellor for political military affairs.

That was very nice. My little daughter was there as well. That was interesting because it was dealing both with the State Department and the Pentagon. The experience was actually very educative and perhaps one of the most interesting locations of my career.

As a baby in Tokyo, Chitra with her mother and father who were the first internationally mixed couple of their generation, station and culture.

Surrounded by diplomats at an early age, Chitra is in Hanoi with her parents and former President Ho Chi Minh of North Vietnam, 1962.

Her father was the Consul General of India in Hanoi.

Why?

Because I learned Washington. D.C. is another planet, where policy is made which influences the world. And, I believe that defense is very much a crucial part of it. I was able to understand and associate with it.

I made friends. I enjoyed that.

You were married for almost twenty years and have a daughter. Any desire to remarry?

I am open to that, especially sharing life. It has been 20 years since I was divorced. I have to say one constant, as a single mother, was work, various family issues, my elderly parents and bringing up my daughter. I am open to remarrying now because now I am ready to share.

Tell me about your daughter.

I have to say she is the greatest achievement of my life. Her name is Chandrika, which means moonlight. She is the joy of both her parents’ lives. The moment she was born, when I held her, was the happiest moment of my life. And what she has achieved! She is a really interesting person. Now at age 30, she lives in Dublin. She’s fiercely independent and has grown up to be highly talented. She works in a theater company as their marketing executive. She’s a performing poet and, above all, a very compassionate human being.

She was raised by my parents and has a very special closeness to her grandparents. I admire and respect her very much as an individual.

From journalism to the diplomatic corps, how did your career pivot?

My first job was with the Press Institute of India. I worked with a highly respected journalist Chanchal Sarkar who headed it. He did television, and he also had this “journal” which I wanted to be part of. I was doing other things in the Press Institute but could not write for the journal. I left and worked in the Nehru Memorial Fund and Library, which did Jawaharlal Nehru’s work. Three women, we were friends, decided to start a journal called The Book Review. It was inspired by the New York Review of Books and was the first English-speaking journal in India dedicated to books. I was the founder-editor and co-publisher. It is running today, though I am not with it anymore. It was an interesting experience because I had to go around on a little motorbike with my helmet in my hand and persuade publishers to buy advertisements to support it. I asked first if they would give us books for free and then publish advertisements. It did very well. We made a profit in the first year. But after three years, I realized I wanted to do something else. We have a civil service exam in India, which is held

for all India; candidates who pass are selected for the Foreign Service, the administrative service etc. I sat for this exam and resigned from my job in the Nehru Memorial and went off to join my parents in Peking. I wanted to join the Far Eastern Economic Review because, at that time, it was the most important one. I was very interested in the unification of Vietnam. I travelled to Hong Kong, and I walked in and said, “I would like to work.” They said, “Give us a story, and we will consider you.” I went to Peking, then by train to Hanoi. It was during the Chinese-Vietnamese War. When I flew back to Peking to write my story, there was this telegram that appointed me to the Indian Foreign Service. I got on the first plane, and that was my fourth job which became my career for the next 36 years. I went into the Foreign Service with no illusions, so unlike many of my colleagues, I went in with a very different mindset. I knew the glamour was superficial; it was a tough career path, and it was very exacting. I was in for the long haul, while at the same time, since I had another career under my belt, I knew I could leave anytime. I think that’s why I enjoyed my career.

You served as Ambassador to six countries. Which do you consider the crème de la crème?

Ambassador to Switzerland, (which is also accredited to Liechtenstein, and the Holy See—The Vatican). I have to say, still today, the Holy See was the one that excited me the most.

Why?

Because it was pure politics. The Vatican has the best diplomatic service in the world, and we deal with the “State Department” of the Vatican. Individuals are highly intellectually stimulating because many are sharp, Jesuit-trained minds. It was truly a pleasure. The Italian that I learned on my first posting in Rome I could finally use in my last posting, which gave me an “in.” It helped in my interaction with the Segretario di Stato and my friends. We used to have such open conversations about all the things that one would consider forbidden, but they had their view, and I was able to present my view, and we became good friends. The whole politics of the Holy See is fascinating.

I was privileged with both Pope Benedict, who I admire and revered very much with great affection, and Pope Francis at the end.

Can you take us through the order of the posts you held as Ambassador?

My first Ambassadorship was to Stockholm, Sweden. At the same time, I was Ambassador to Latvia. Again, this was very exciting because

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it was a newly independent country that was just about to join the EU. After Sweden, I served in Turkey which was very special for us because my father had been there as Ambassador 30 years before. It actually was our second home. To go back to the same residence and be with many old friends was wonderful. Of course, the new government had just joined, and my father’s friends were the former Presidents, but it was lovely. My daughter studied there, and it was also very special to her. It was a unique and remarkable experience. In fact, my parent’s last visit was to Turkey. They came for a conference. Just to give you an indication how it was a second home, I said, “Daddy, I’m going to have a little party for you with your friends.” He said, “Okay. Here’s a list.” We had 400 people at the reception. They remembered my parents because he had also been on a state visit as President. It was fantastic. So, very special.

Emotionally, that was the most special posting that I remember.

What did it take for you to get here?

Your struggles and overcoming?

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And then from Turkey?

From Turkey, I came directly to Switzerland, which was the last posting in my career. Switzerland is fascinating, an interesting and very complex country with very interesting people.

In the diplomatic corps, you are privy to confidential information that gives you a very different worldview. You are not a cynical woman. How did you maintain your grace knowing and seeing what you have experienced and witnessed?

That is a complicated question. It has a simple answer for me. I believe, sadly, that human beings are, just below the skin, very violent.

We can see that today all over the world. I had hoped we were evolving into taking the road of peace or trying to promote and maintain peace, but it’s not happening. You realize, in policymaking, the actual method of violence. Strategy is very much part of military defense strategy, which is the basis of all diplomacy. It used to be the fact that, in order to avoid war, you used diplomacy as a tool. I think it’s happening the other way. I guess eventually my take is that I have to accept the fact that human beings are what they are. You can’t change them. If they are set on this path of violence, and you see it more and more, you can only influence or suggest, but, sadly, we cannot change. The great minds that have come into the world like Mahatma Gandhi understood this. Mahatma Gandhi was an extremely practical man. He fought violence of the British Rule by a method that has become universal: Civil Disobedience. I don’t see how it can happen in today’s world. I would ask you a question. Who do you think today is a great statesman or world leader, statesperson? Who would you name? Who was there? I cannot name anyone. I ask this question of people I meet who have a deep conscience.

Do you think that women are more prone to a belief or quest for peace than men? This idea of why is there so much violence? Why is there so much discourse?

You mean women question it more?

Yes.

No, I think women and men are equally violent but for different reasons and varying degrees. Many men, if you look at it, who advocate for violence, are supported by women. No, I believe that this capacity for violence is gender neutral.

Chitra speaking at the Horasis China Meeting held by Horasis: The Global Visions Community, where Chinese business leaders and their global counterparts gather annually. Opposite: Chitra as Ambassador of India to Switzerland, signing the Memorandum of Understanding on Financial Dialogue in the presence of Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey and the President of India Pratibha Patel, 2011.

I strongly believe there is a crisis in the functioning of democracy. Not in democracy, but in the functioning of democracy. Politicians tend to do anything for a vote, so the moral compass has become obscured. It’s not working anymore because the goal has changed. It is why I say the functioning of democracy. In the case of parliamentary democracy, members of parliament (which is the one that I’m familiar with) will do almost anything to get elected, or they would not do anything to not get elected. That is when you realize that so many things are in play. Ask yourself, “What is wrong with this situation?”

People who have a vote, and I come from a country where the vote is so important, have no more tolerance for politicians who are not doing their jobs.

Where do you consider home?

Voltaire said that mankind is not mean by nature, and you’re saying that you do believe that they are?

Not mean, but violent.

And the reason is?

Actually, you know I asked that of so many people. I said why is it so? Take a group of people who are perfectly rational and put them in a situation like a protest or a mob, and then you just need to instigate them, and they turn completely different. They will turn upon each other or an enemy; something they would not do individually. Why is that? That is what I mean that, under the skin, given circumstances, it’s an exception to find somebody who will say, “Hold back. This is not you. There is another way.” This is why people who are leaders in the worst kind of violence can do what they do.

Situations like genocide?

Yes. Similar, like when you read about the medieval days. It is a blood lust that comes out.

And what is the cause of that? Poverty? Visual stimulation from technology/TV? Not poverty alone. You see it everywhere. You see it in highly affluent societies. The visual plays a role because we dehumanize and become immune to really despicable violence.

What is the antidote?

That is difficult. I really think it is leadership. Real leadership. I feel this is lacking and does not exist at the moment.

Who do I look to? Who do I look to on a global scale?

Difficult to answer, so isn’t that tragic? Twenty years ago you would not have this problem. But now?

Why? What has changed?

I don’t know. This is where I feel politics has changed.

This is a big question, and my daughter always complains about this. When I was a child, home was where my parents were because we were on the move every three years. Obviously, my heart will always be in New Delhi because that’s where I was brought up, but my parents are no more. I don’t have family in Delhi, but many of my friends are there, so Delhi would be home. But professionally, you can live everywhere. At this certain moment, temporarily, I’m in Zürich, but I could be anywhere. We’re a very small family now.

My younger sister lives in the Hague, and my daughter is in Dublin.

So, it’s convenient being here because we are in close proximity.

Presently, you own a multifaceted consultancy. Can you rank the importance of strategy, diplomacy and advisor?

Strategy easily is ranked the highest because it is an aspect of every profession. We all use it in our work, but I would add the word “creative” to strategy. Strategy is there. It’s in books. But creative strategy is what you bring to the table. It is what you believe, what you bring and mix together, what you present or what you would like to achieve for every aspect of business or of life. Diplomacy, I would say, is very important.

Again, it’s not just important in work, not just as a career, but also in every aspect of professional dealings and especially in family. I think we underrate that. There, too, I think my mantra in all facets of my career was “creative” diplomacy. I created curriculum/courses for creative diplomacy at the Geneva Center for Security Policy where I am an associate fellow because the director put me on the spot. After I left my last job, he said, “What did you do differently in your career, or what was unique about what you did?” I said, “Creative diplomacy.”

I used it everywhere. He said, “Okay, do a course for us, and put it in a formula.” That was a challenge. It was basically using all different disciplines in relationship to how a person thinks. It is actually how to train your mind in decision making as a musician, conductor, in sports, architecture etcetera. Because how you make split decisions when you’re under pressure is important to understand. It is exactly what I practiced as a diplomat, and I realized that it was a useful tool for everybody. Now is the time to share what I have learned.

Clients also retain your services as an advisor, the third component of the trifecta?

I am a strategic advisor because it takes into account both sides of the picture. I work with think tanks, corporations and boards because they want a different perspective. It doesn’t have to be a formal presentation either because Q&A’s can be very impactful. I give my views, and then they ask me anything. If I know, I know. If

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I don’t know, I don’t know. Having this peculiar global perspective brings a different viewpoint, particularly in light of having been a child in Hanoi and Australia and living in Southeast Asia, China, Europe and India. One learns certain things. I also do a lot of public speaking on political risks in Southeast Asia, China and Turkey.

What is your specialization?

I found in the Q&A session, inevitably the audience would focus on cultural sensitivities while conducting business or during negotiations. We all know that in any interaction, it can just take one inadvertent gesture or word of unintentional offense that can bring a deal crashing. Something seemingly effortless, an embracing word or gesture, can make the deal a complete success. I decided this would be my specialization because I realize there is a niche. The world has become really quite small business wise. Everybody interacts, and all companies have internationals. I found, in my experience, Company A (usually a Swiss company) deals with Company B in that country.

They don’t know anything outside of that business interaction. They go in and conduct business for two days. They do the deal. They return home. They know very little, if anything, about the country or the people. I don’t lecture the client, I provide assistance on what should they avoid doing. What should they be a little careful about?

I realize helpful information about cultural sensitivities is something that people want to hear, and I am able to share.

What is success?

Contentment, or that you can look in the mirror (maybe not every morning), but occasionally, and say, “I tried my best.”

Combining little bits of success. When something goes right, you come home and say, “Yes, I did it. I got it.” I think that is success.

Is excellence a part of success?

It is the bottom line.

Talk about excellence. What is the common ground of excellence?

It is a belief in doing the very best creatively and seeing a

That is really the crux of all of us in our journeys, right? We all have a story. How do you handle it? So many things. People use the word “hiccups.” I think that’s a bit patronizing.

These are earthshaking times in everybody’s life. So, what do you do with it? product, (which is almost flawless), whether it is a concept, whether it’s a design, whether it’s a piece of art. It’s exciting that the human mind and the brain can produce something. I think that is excellence. Excellence is a moving target, but it is very exciting that the human being can produce that.

What undergirds success?

Excellence, creativity and strategy.

Chitra as Ambassador of India to the Holy See (Vatican), receiving the Swiss Guard of Honor, on the way to meeting the Pope, 2013. Opposite: Chitra in Rashtrapati Bhavan (Presidential Palace) with her daughter Chandrika (right) and her best friend Melissa, New Delhi, 2019.

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When you take on a client, what is your process for crafting a strategy?

First, you must know the client, know the business, know the intended outcome, know the countries that they deal with and the unique personalities. When you do business, you need to understand how to not offend. So, if the client is receptive, there will be a different strategy than if the client is tough to work with in business dealings or interactions. If a client is open-minded, it can work. But, if the personality has a fixed notion and cannot be influenced, in the back of your mind, you know that there is only so far you can go. Strategy, I guess. It’s being very practical.

What did it take for you to get here? Your struggles and overcoming?

That is really the crux of all of us in our journeys, right? We all have a story. How do you handle it? So many things. People use the word “hiccups.” I think that’s a bit patronizing. These are earthshaking times in everybody’s life. So, what do you do with it? Apart from various personal things, I had two occasions to be on the abyss of life and death here in Switzerland. I’m here because of the most amazing medical team. I am grateful to Switzerland. The first one, in 2010, I was diagnosed with a pancreatic tumor, which is pretty final in many ways. I had a brilliant surgeon, Professor Kaspar Z’graggen, one of the three best in the world. I owe my life to him. I was blessed that, fortunately, it was not malignant. But the experience changes your whole perspective. It is very serious, as you know. Apart from that, I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012. Cancer is difficult, especially when you live alone. Obviously, my family, my friends and my doctors were there with me. But when these things happen, first, you realize life is sweet. I always realized life is sweet. I have to say I always enjoyed life. But this experience gave me a little added something that made it more precious.

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Receiving His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Geneva, Switzerland. He has autographed the photograph. The translation reads: “I wish and hope for the best for you all the time, while remembering vividly your father and my friend, the former President. With my prayers for your well being and success always.”

Dalai Lama a Buddhist Monk 17/4/2013

Positively, I was very blessed because my family and friends gave me the strength to endure. I realized, apart from that, my parents were no more. I’m glad they didn’t have to go through that with me. But they were with me, in a way. I realized, also when something hits you, it hits you here (gestures to her heart).

What can you do? I guess my way of dealing with hardship is to take it and turn it around. You say to yourself, “I can handle this. I can handle it,” and I did.

Is overcoming and even survival based on attitude?

Totally. Totally. Apart from the fact that attitude is the best accessory for fashion, it is. You have to wear the clothes. The clothes can’t wear you. But yes, attitude . . . and it’s the mind.

Think of all of your life experiences, and tell me what one piece of advice you would give this 18-year-old woman from your infinite wisdom that she can carry with her for the rest of her life.

Ah. Self-belief. Do not be diffident. Enjoy every moment. You have to take the joy in everything. And just know that, whatever age you are, life is a learning experience. Always be curious. ■

FOR THE LOVE OF OUR CHILDREN,

we strengthen

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NATIONAL CARES

MENTORING MOVEMENT

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Growing up in Poland during the communist revolution profoundly impacted Martynka Wawrzyniak’s life and career as a conceptual artist. Necessities were scarce, and this minimalist way of life is reflected in her work today. She has lived independently since the age of 18, when she moved to New York where she successfully pursued a career as an artist and publisher. She is an editor for Rizzoli New York, an international publishing house, and has exhibited her multimedia work globally. In her practice, Martynka explores issues of femininity, gluttony, violence and nationality in a way that is often visceral and confrontational for the viewer.

Martynka Wawrzyniak Conceptual Artist, Editor at Rizzoli New York

You are of Polish origin?

Yes, I was born and raised in Poland. Because it was communist, we immigrated to New Zealand when I was eight years old. We lived in New Zealand for ten years, and then, 22 years ago, I came to America.

How old were you when Lech Walesa and the revolution were going on?

My whole childhood really. I was so young. We finally left around 1987, toward the end of Communism.

Were you alone when you came to the U.S.?

No, my father came to the United States when I was six. At that time, many Polish fathers left our country to make money. Two years later, my mother, my sister and I moved to New Zealand. My father went back to Poland in 2000, and my brother was born in Warsaw.

And your mother?

She’s in New Zealand. But, I came here where my father was.

I just started my own life.

How old were you when you started your own life?

I came to the United States when I was about 18. I didn’t live with my father though; but he lived in New York as well.

So, you have been on your own effectively since you were 18?

Pretty much.

When did you know that you had a gift in art?

I came to New York to be an artist and to work in publishing.

In what ways did your experience in communist Poland impact you?

A lot of my artwork reflects a very minimalist aesthetic because I was raised in a country where everything was without packaging, without colors, without brands. There was not much food. You would go into a store and it was empty. For example, I never leave

anything on my plate because I just like feel like you can’t throw away food. It has been that way my whole life. Those attitudes are ingrained in you from childhood. I think many Polish people perceive themselves as victims and have guilt complexes. These are feelings that are deep-rooted in our culture as a result of living in a country that was constantly being invaded and ripped apart. My Polish heritage has significant connection to my art. To illustrate, my last art project was all about immigration. The public art work Ziemia (Earth - in Polish), took the form of a ceramic orb in a native plant meadow installed in McGolrick Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Almost all of my artwork has been somewhat autobiographical. It is something that I want to share with the world; something that we can all connect about and identify with.

Tell us about the Ziemia project.

I wanted to go through a journey of healing. It is always therapeutic when you create art. You hope that other people collaborating can also feel the therapeutic benefits of going through the process. Ziemia is a group portrait of a community made up of immigrants. I wanted everybody to think of places that they had lived in or had memories from or nostalgic connections to . . . I invited them to give me a cup of soil from this place that represented them metaphorically so that it connected us all through something very primal: our connection to earth and nature. We literally come from dirt, and we end up in dirt after we die. And it was a way for all these neighbors that may be prejudiced toward each other, to identify with the fact that we’re all from soil, and end in soil. It does not matter whether you are a migrant from another neighborhood or an immigrant from a faraway country. Many people in the neighborhood are from Poland. So, I went on a pilgrimage to Poland on behalf of a lot of Polish seniors who weren’t able to go back or are too old to travel. I dug up soil from places that used to be their homes or from the special places that they remember but haven’t been to sometimes for 50 years. That whole project was very much connected to my roots.

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Which ethnicities are represented in the Ziemia project, and what was the end result?

Polish people are a big part of the Greenpoint community, and I am Polish. The soil came from over 150 different locations, from all over the world. I created an orb that is made out of clay that I also dug up in Greenpoint on Clay Street. The glaze is a mixture of everyone’s soil. So, on the outside of the orb, you can see all the different colored soils. The orb sits in a meadow (all native plants) that I grew in a plot in McGolrick Park. The project connects us back to what the neighborhood looked like back before it was urban… the wilderness that used to be here. I wanted to do something about how I feel as an immigrant. I wanted to connect people that are disconnected and from different cultures that are prejudiced toward each other.

What substance connects everyone? Nature and earth, right? I thought, “What can I do with this idea of earth and nature?” I can make an orb that looks like earth made out of clay. The soil will go on the outside, and nature will grow around it.

I counted seven different art projects that you have done that are written about quite frequently. I am most curious about Ketchup, Smell Me and Chocolate, which is a video. Tell me about the Ketchup project.

Ketchup, like all my projects, was an experiment. I thought, “Okay, what substance represents American children?” To me, it’s ketchup. It’s the American kid’s food, right? And, also, water guns that they play with in the park when it’s hot. I was inspired by watching my stepson playing in the park on a hot summer afternoon.

I began to wonder what would happen if I gave these ten-year-old boys water guns filled with ketchup while I stood blindfolded against the gallery wall. Let’s just see what happens… if my hypothesis of male aggression is correct. It was an experiment. Lo and behold, they started acting like they were playing a video game, and they wanted to murder me. I showed it later in a gallery. We had the footage of me projected on a wall. It looked like a murder scene with dirty clothes on the ground. There was a very loud voiceover of them yelling, “Kill her, kill her, get her in the mouth, kill her.” Little kids giggling . . . it was really creepy . . . like Lord of the Flies. When you see the projection of me blindfolded getting blasted, you don’t really know where the kids are coming from. Six years later, they asked me to reenact the same performance in Poland at a group show with local children. That was really interesting. The Polish children’s behavior was extremely different. They were shy.

They were nervous about me asking them to shoot a woman with a gun. They were asking me politely, “Ma’am, is it okay if I stand here. What should I do?” And when I said, “Just do whatever you want” they just stood there. They didn’t even want to shoot the gun because they are programmed differently.

Why the difference? Are Polish men less violent?

I wouldn’t say that Polish men are less violent than American men. There are lots of Polish alcoholic men beating their wives. But, I think that Polish children are raised to respect adults and respect women in a different degree than American children. I am just saying that the difference in reactions was a really strange thing. I was really touched.

They did a national radio interview with me, and I shared this discovery.

What conclusion did you draw?

Maybe it takes them a little while longer to turn into that.

The Smell Me project and Eu de M fragrance campaign. Can you tell me about that project?

I am interested in unconventional media. Smell Me was a feminist statement. I wanted to create a purely visceral self-portrait of a woman, devoid of visual prejudice, because I feel we are judged by our physical appearance. I used my own body as the subject to try to capture my biological essence, or my smell. It also is a little bit metaphorical because chemicals inside your body biologically create your essence. I created a show which you walked into and didn’t see anything except some tiny vials. You went in and experienced inhaling the artist.

It is about human beings connecting in this animalistic form of communication, through our pheromones and through smells our bodies emit, like signals. Some people talk about an aura of color around you spiritually, but there also is an aura of chemicals that we emit as we feel and think things. We communicate with our sweat and other elements inside our bodies. I spent two years working with a research team at Hunter College. There, chemistry graduate students helped me to figure out how to bottle the essential oils of my own sweat, my hair and my tears. Later, a renown professional perfumer from the Swiss fragrance house, Givaudan, recreated a synthetic formula so that we could have enough to be diffused in a scent chamber for people to walk in and inhale, as well as on a scent-strip fragrance advertisement Eau de M which appeared in Harper’s Bazaar.

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What did the scent chamber look like?

It was completely white. You didn’t even know it was there. You walked in, and there was a circle inside, which was very dimly lit.

You had to find the four holes in the wall to smell the diffusions.

What is the smell?

It smells like my sweat, tears and hair.

And you prefer that to something like cologne that a man would wear?

Yes, I would definitely because I feel it’s not the person. I’m not against beautiful smells. I love the smell of flowers. I love the smell of essential oils. I love the smell of many things in the world.

What I’m saying is that I would rather a person smell like a person than of the ten different things that they put on their body that day. People are wearing a cocktail at all times. They’re wearing the smell of their shampoo, their laundry powder, their fragrance, their aftershave, their lotion and their makeup. God knows what else they put on. People are not just wearing one smell anymore.

They’re wearing 25 different smells, so it gets confusing.

You are just interested in a person’s natural state?

I guess I’m more like a primal animal creature, but they should not smell dirty.

And the Eau de M ad in Harper’s Bazaar?

I actually purchased an ad in Harper’s Bazaar. My collector funded it. The whole purpose of the Eau de M ad was to have the biggest art show I could ever have in one million copies of American Harper’s Bazaar. It would be in Hudson News, doctors’ clinics, the airport and people’s homes. People would be putting on my sweat thinking it is a fragrance. It was olfactory guerrilla terrorism or something, proving that people didn’t realize that they were actually smelling a human. It was a bit of a joke. They were thinking the strip contained fragrance and saying how much they liked it (they were calling Macy’s and Barneys and asking where they could buy it). They didn’t realize it was actually my sweat.

Instead of guerrilla marketing . . .

It was also a guerrilla art show.

Can you tell our readers about your project Lipstick?

It was a collaboration between four female artists. We are all Eastern European, and we decided to use each other as subjects. We had carte blanch to do whatever we wanted. I wanted to make a statement on how to liberate women, including myself. Lipstick is normally representative of vanity, trying to make your face look perfect, looking in a mirror and beautifying yourself. A woman has a lot of insecurity and tries to cover herself up by using makeup as a way to be perfect.

When you go wild and get all messy and let the sexual side of you loose, you really feel beautiful, right? You are a mess, and your hair is disheveled, and you no longer care. I wanted to give them this lipstick and say, “Destroy your face because then you’ll really be you, and your true essence will come out.”

Were you shy to be doing that?

No, not at all, but they were. They were all scared to become ugly. But their true personalities and their true beauty came out because they were told to go wild. In the beginning, they were afraid of destroying their faces and looking not beautiful in the camera. I just said, “I don’t care. I want you to just go crazy because I want your true essence to come out.” All my projects have that in common because I think of an idea, and then I think of the substance or the medium.

The Chocolate video?

Chocolate represents the feeling of drowning in excess and gluttony, consumerism and pleasure and suffocation, all that. It’s chocolate.

It also looks like oil, an oil spill and materialism. Chocolate syrup is abstract black lava. It is nine-and-a-half minutes long. I thought of that idea, and then I thought of me drowning because I wanted to communicate that feeling. It is always the idea first.

Who do you process all this with? You come up with this idea, and it’s always inside your own head?

Sometimes it’s on paper, but it’s usually inside my head. It’s like starting as a little seed and then growing and growing, and there are little stops and starts and wrong ways to do it. Then you go back and fix it and rewind, and maybe it goes in a totally different direction.

Martynka in her studio glazing the Ziemia orb, Cornwall, CT, 2018. Opposite: Climbing Madame Grunnebaum’s Wulst, Gunks, 2018.

Photograph by Francois Lebeau for the Climbing Rock book published by Rizzoli.

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Q A

What advice would you give a new artist “artist to artist”?

Start with the idea . . . what do you want to communicate, and why is this important to you. That is where you start. Then figure out how to communicate it. Don’t start thinking of the packaging before you have the product. What I’m thinking and feeling is what I want to share with the world. What is important to me is a message. As an artist, you are sending that message to one or more people. Whatever you create, it needs to be an idea and a message you feel strongly about. Later, think of what medium and format you want to use to communicate the idea. Is it a video, a painting, a performance or a substance?

I’m a very conceptual artist. I think that a lot of these kids in art school think, “I am going to be a painter or a sculptor,” but they have no idea behind what they’re actually doing. What is the idea behind this physical medium?

Is it just an object? It is empty otherwise.

You also work in the publishing house Rizzoli in a senior position. What do you do as editor?

Some people think that being an editor is like a copy editor. I am more of an acquisition editor, the producer or creative editor of the book. I conceptualize the book from the very beginning. When I have an idea, a vision for a book, I find the right photographer, and I creatively direct and edit the whole process. At other times, a book already has a team, and it is packaged together. Then, I am more of a producer that just makes sure it looks good and that everything’s in order.

Of all the projects that you’ve worked on in publishing, which was your favorite?

That is so hard to answer. I’ve been here for over 15 years, so it is like choosing a child. I don’t know. I guess the ones that I am more invested in are always the most exciting. I recently did a book on rock climbing.

I am a rock climber, and it was a very special personal project to do a photography monograph of rock climbing areas around America. I created the concept for all the other people that love rock climbing in these beautiful areas. That book was very much from the heart. A book I’m working on right now is also quite exciting. I’m sitting with Kim Gordon, going through the archive of images of her from the time she was a little girl until now, her artworks, her writings, her art theory and her song lyrics. It is a book on the essence of Kim Gordon. So, that’s fun.

When did you begin rock climbing?

It is a recent thing. I began rock climbing two years ago.

The last place you climbed?

The Adirondacks.

Are you strong?

I would say so. My entire body has changed in the last two years.

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And you enjoy it because?

It is an incredibly meditative and empowering sport. It makes you so completely present. Other than taking yoga for almost 20 years, I was never really an athletic person. I used to be scared of heights, and rock climbing breaks all fear barriers. I love being in nature. Climbing is just you and nature, no cell phone reception, on a wall, with your two hands and your two feet. It doesn’t matter what is going on because it is just you and the rock. You have to think and control yourself and just forget about everything except the present and what to do next. It’s healing. In today’s world of chaos, many people are gravitating towards rock climbing. I push myself in a physical and mental way that I have never done before because there is a lot of fear management when you’re high up on a cliff and don’t want to fall.

You are afraid of heights, and you rock climb?

I still have a fear of heights, but it is awesome to be in a place where you just have to forget your fears.

Do you meditate?

I used to. Not so much anymore. I feel like climbing is meditating, especially when you’re on a big mountain all by yourself, waiting for your partner, because you’re always about a hundred feet apart.

Have you ever free soloed?

No, I am not interested in free soloing. That’s like playing with death. Rock climbing itself is empowering to me. I was passionate about this book and all the people I’ve met while publishing it. Sharing and giving back to the community was amazing. People who rock climb are a very special tribe. We gravitate towards the same thing, and like family, we have something in common.

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Chocolate, 2010.

What does work as an editor at Rizzoli entail?

My work at any given point really depends on the project . . . if I have to look at proofs, meet with the publisher or have meetings. My projects dictate my work. I have four books transmitting to print right now. I have four transmitting for spring and four starting for the fall.

While some are literally finishing and I need to just oversee proofs, others are developing. And some projects I am creating new.

How do you interface with the publisher, Charles Miers, who heads editorial?

Sometimes, Charles will find a project, or someone will bring him a project, and he might ask me to edit it because he feels I would be the right editor for the book. When it is my own idea, like the rock-climbing book, I pitch the project to Charles, and then I work to make the entire book happen. The Kim Gordon book was also my idea. I’m an acquisition editor meaning I acquire titles. Charles brings some titles to me, and people often contact me directly with book ideas.

Does God exist?

I believe in more of a Buddhist approach to God. I feel like we are all God, or God is around us, and the sun is God.

What is your purpose?

That’s a really hard one. I hope to be able to give something back to this world, not in a charity way, but through kindness towards a person, or growing a flower so that the bees can be happy or creating something that people can feel inspired by. I don’t know.

What advice would you give a new artist “artist to artist”?

Start with the idea . . . what do you want to communicate, and why is this important to you. That is where you start. Then figure out how to communicate it. Don’t start thinking of the packaging before you have the product. What I’m thinking and feeling is what I want to share with the world. What is important to me is a message. As an artist, you are sending that message to one or more people. Whatever you create, it needs to be an idea and a message you feel strongly about. Later, think of what medium and format you want to use to communicate the idea.

Is it a video, a painting, a performance or a substance? I’m a very conceptual artist. I think that a lot of these kids in art school think, “I am going to be a painter or a sculptor,” but they have no idea behind what they’re actually doing. What is the idea behind this physical medium? Is it just an object? It is empty otherwise. ■

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&

Residency participant Summer McCorckle aboard the tall ship, Antigua, enjoying her morning coffee before starting the day, summer 2019.

PHOTOGRAPH BY BROOKE HOLM

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Creative Exploring in the Arctic

BY HANNAH SHEPARD

ELYSIAN Arts & Culture Editor

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W Hannah Rowan developing a performance, summer 2019.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HANNAH ROWAN

ith today’s access to illimitable information and global connections, it is unsurprising that artists are seldom defined by a single discipline. In the same vein, collaboration is at the forefront of artistic ingenuity by way of artist collectives, guilds and artistin-residence programs. A.I.R. programs, in essence, offer space and time for artists to research, experiment and create. These programs are located all over the globe and are wildly diverse in their approach, with the majority focused inside the artistic domain. Some afford artists unadulterated freedom, where they can spend the time as they desire, having no conditions to produce a final product. Others are more structured, requiring focus on a specific outcome, whether that be definitive research, work for an upcoming exhibition or interaction with the local community.

One such program that is spearheading interdisciplinary collaboration is an annual expeditionary residency that brings together international creatives of all fields—visual artists, scientists, educators, musicians and writers—who collectively explore the High-Arctic Svalbard Archipelago and Arctic Ocean

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aboard a barquentine sailing vessel for three weeks. The Arctic Circle program, founded in 2009 by current director, Aaron O’Connor, is a rare breed in the realm of residencies whose participants experience extreme conditions while having the opportunity to collaborate across platforms. A panel of jurors reviews and selects approximately 60 participants a year, who are then divided between only two expeditions, one in summer and one in autumn. There are no stipulations to what an applicant can or cannot propose for their residency project.

Even for the ultimate worldly traveler, it is difficult to imagine the unforgiving conditions of an arctic climate. For seventeen days, the ship sails the waters of the international territory of Svalbard, an archipelago that is midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The cluster of islands is known for its rugged, isolated terrain of glaciers and vast, frozen expanse.

Explorers on the summer expedition observe a relentless 24 hours of daylight, while the autumn trip endures frigid temperatures as low as -4° Fahrenheit. No two expeditions are the same because the destinations explored within the territory entirely depend on the individual needs of the proposed projects.

Expansive seas under perpetual daylight. An incessant chattering of cracking ice. The thunder of calving icebergs. Ceaseless winds of penetrating cold. An endless resource for inspiration and contemplation.

EXPANSIVE SEAS UNDER PERPETUAL DAYLIGHT. AN INCESSANT CHATTERING OF CRACKING ICE. THE THUNDER OF CALVING ICEBERGS. CEASELESS WINDS OF PENETRATING COLD. AN ENDLESS RESOURCE FOR INSPIRATION AND CONTEMPLATION.

Mia Mulvey immersing herself in a glacial lagoon using photogrammetry to scan forms of ice, Recherchebreen Glacier, summer 2019.

PHOTOGRAPH BY RUSSELL SLOAN

Left: Janet Biggs, still from the video In the Cold Edge, 2010.

Single-channel, high definition video with sound. Running time 05:29. Biggs was a participant of the inaugural residency expedition, autumn 2009.

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST, CRISTIN TIERNEY GALLERY, NEW YORK, NY, CONNERSMITH, WASHINGTON D.C. AND GALERIE ANALIX FOREVER, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

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ach artist arrives with their own goals for the trip, but those intentions are at the mercy of the environment and their boat mates. Brooke Holm, who was on the latest summer 2019 expedition, is a photographic artist who studies the unique and complex bonds humans form with the natural environment, exploring ideas of our impact on the world. “I went with clear ideas and concepts in my head about what I wanted to capture, and how it would look visually—but as with any landscape work, you are at the mercy of the elements of nature. You can’t control it. You need to let it guide you, work with it and not force your own ideas on it,” says Holm.

Among the other creatives in Holm’s group, there were photographers, painters, sculptors, historians, book authors, poets, educators and, of course, several were less-defined and traversed fields. There was a total of twenty-one women, in contrast to nine men, all bringing varying viewpoints from the United States, Switzerland, France, Italy, Ireland, England, Germany and Australia. Each came to share space, time and ideas with other field experts in the hopes of breaking disciplinary traditions and discovering new approaches to the issues of our time. A great number of the participants shared a strong interest in the intersection between art and science, which was a driving

force behind the program’s founding.

Mia Mulvey, a visual artist whose work addresses the recording of time, climate change and our relationship to remote landscapes, was among this group. Mulvey explained that the work she is creating could not be done without participating in this residency. “The unique and varied role of glacial and sea ice within this landscape as a marker of climate change and ecological time was compelling to me from both a scientific and a poetic perspective,” tells Mulvey. To collect data, she would immerse herself into freezing lagoons and examine forms of ice using a process of 3-D scanning and infrared photography, as well as through sound and video documentation.

The changing environment is important to capture for both Holm and Mulvey, yet their means of gathering research vastly differ. That is what makes The Arctic Circle program so unique and effective—it brings together a diverse array of inquisitive minds that can learn from one another. Besides, this collective learning experience is quite inevitable for the participants who must share tight quarters. Holm recalls, “It felt like a social experiment to throw 30 people onto a ship in the northernmost part of the world with no internet, no phone service, no outside contact with the world, 24 hours of sunlight a day AND with the most dangerous predators in the world—just to see what would happen . . . We hardly slept, we worked on our projects, we hiked, swam, shared our work, shared our personal lives, we laughed, we cried, we collaborated . . . It felt like one really, really long day.” Strong and everlasting bonds were formed among participants, who have continued to share their knowledge and collaborate upon returning to land.

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board the tall ship, Antigua, artists bunked together in two-berth cabins and were afforded a workspace, common areas and room for creativity.

Holm describes the outside deck as an “open playground” for cyanotypes, paintings, stick and poke tattoos, collecting plastic trash, yoga, hammock laying, hoisting the sails, climbing the mast, rope tying tutorials and more. A team of four guides leads the expedition, ensuring everyone is prepared prior to leaving port and is responsible for the group’s safety on and off the ship. Almost daily, these guides, armed with rifles, would take the passengers to land by a small, inflatable boat called a zodiac.

No one is permitted to venture on land without the protection of a guide, and a simple rule is to take nothing and leave no trace behind. If they are lucky, participants may catch sight of polar bears, arctic foxes and Svalbard reindeer.

Janet Biggs, who was part of the inaugural residency in 2009,

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The ship Antigua peeking over an iceberg. During the summer 2019 expedition, the ship’s engine and navigation system went down and Antigua became stuck in packed ice for 17 hours.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HANNAH ROWAN

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recalled seeing a group of polar bears feeding on a whale carcass: “They slid around on their bellies, with legs stretched out behind, and playfully boxed at each other. A couple of bears wrestled and rolled down the snow-covered hill. It was an amazing sight. Our guide said he has never seen so many bears in one place in the twenty years he has been working in the Arctic. Nearby, an Arctic fox waited a good distance away, hoping the bears would leave some of the whale for them.” Biggs is an interdisciplinary artist, known for her work in video, photography and performance, who investigates individuals in extreme landscapes or situations and often navigates the territory between art and science.

When you think about a voyage to one of the most remote, extreme places on earth, who do you imagine is leading the expedition? The Arctic Circle team of guides is entirely comprised of women, some of whom are artists and past participants themselves. As Mulvey tells, “They shared their knowledge, kept us safe and were examples of strong, independent women. I realized this was an important factor for me in contrast to the backdrop of male dominated history of arctic exploration.”

These spirited women, both guides and participants, prioritize seeking answers over comfort.

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magnificent as the experience may seem, the lingering sight that brings attention to the most pressing issue is that of the rapidly melting landscape.

This is a scene that was described repeatedly by each artist.

“Seeing a glacier calve for the first time changed me for the rest of my life. To see a natural process sped up by climate change and

to know I added to the change even by flying that far in a plane to see it, really impacted my whole way of thinking about the world,” says Regan Rosburg, an artist, curator and educator who was on the 2019 summer expedition. She explains, “One cannot be in that environment (Svalbard) and not be right up against the climate change reality. Everything there is literally melting, shifting, surging, gushing, growing and changing.”

Questions of such magnitude are best investigated in incubators like The Arctic Circle, where creative minds across all fields share knowledge through unrestrained exploration. Not only was the studio practice of each artist impacted, but many described the experience as life-changing. “This place is so profoundly significant to me that it has its own life within my practice.

While I was there, I changed on a personal level, learned more about myself and my work, about others and our planet.” Holm continues, “Art has the power to change the world and society, so in my opinion, an institution or organization that is actively pursuing the imperative role of supporting artists is aiding in the progression towards positive change.”

For more information, go to thearcticcircle.org. ■

Today, the Arctic Circle expeditions are led by an all-female team of guides, often armed with rifles to protect participants while exploring on land.

PHOTOGRAPH BY REGAN ROSBURG

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SUSAN L. TAYLOR and the

NATIONAL CARES MENTORING MOVEMENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS are thrilled to announce the

2020

FOR THE LOVE OF OUR CHILDREN

Gala Honoring

ROBERT F. SMITH

Founder, Chairman and CEO, Vista Equity Partners

Please Save the Date MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2020 CIPRIANI WALL STREET NEW YORK CITY

NATIONAL CARES

MENTORING MOVEMENT

An Evening of Passion and Promise For more information please contact caresgala@eventassociatesinc.com

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PHOTOGRAPH BY SAMANTHA-SOPHIA

Becoming Someone Who CARES WITH THE FOURTH ANNUAL FOR THE LOVE OF OUR CHILDREN GALA ON THE HORIZON, WE LOOK BACK AT OVER A DECADE’S WORTH OF WORK SHAPING THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN IN NEED.

it

BY LATRIA GRAHAM

is almost 2 am when Simone’s cell phone rings— the electronic’s powerful vibrations break her slumber, and the blue light it emits rouses her.

On the other end of the phone is Marchae, her mentee. A senior in high school, she has a lot going on—her family dynamic is changing, she’s trying to navigate college decisions, schoolwork just keeps getting more challenging, and her part-time job keeps demanding more of her energy. Sometimes it’s all too much, and when things get that way, the teenager calls her mentor. Marchae knows she can call Simone when she’s in trouble or just needs someone willing to listen to her side of the story.

Both natives of Chicago who had quite a bit in common, the pairing got off to a rocky start. When they were placed together, Marchae’s freshman year, she saw Simone as “just another teacher” and decided she had enough of those already. Simone admits it took time to earn Marchae’s trust but insists she saw something special in her mentee from day one: “She was easily distracted and didn’t want to be bothered. But I knew she had a lot of potential because she was a leader from the moment I met her.

She was able to get the rest of the students to follow directions.”

They see each other at least twice a week, and rarely does a day go by that they don’t communicate—sometimes it’s just a check in, other days set aside structured time to do some problem solving. Marchae is now a senior and applying to college. Because of the work Simone helped her do

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earlier in her high school career, Marchae isn’t worried about being accepted, but rather choosing where she can go, and making sure the scholarships Simone helped her apply for will cover the costs.

The pair met through the National CARES Mentoring affiliate program in Chicago. Founded by Susan L. Taylor, Editor-in-Chief Emerita of Essence Magazine, the nonprofit’s mission is to galvanize the communities, instilling hope, critical thinking skills, racial pride and a love for learning and wellness in mind, body and spirit in every participant.

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he organization’s structure blossomed out of the needs that Susan saw when she curated the magazine’s annual summer shindig. Essence Festival began in 1995. Dubbed “the party with a purpose,” the event has always had a philanthropic bent, and its focus on uplifting its attendees led it to become the largest event celebrating African-American culture and music in the United States. Held annually in New Orleans, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina forced Taylor to think about the people of the city and the impact the disaster had upon the Black community. People were out of work and desperately trying to hold onto their homes, and the struggle of the city’s children was on display: without stability, they were doing what it took to survive, like joining gangs and engaging in transactional activities.

The statistics are daunting: according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, 29 percent of Black children live in poverty, a number higher than any other ethnic group. Black children are most likely to be living in “deep poverty,” defined as a family of four subsisting on half of the federal poverty limit, approximately $12,429 per year.

“African American children on average have two additional adverse childhood experiences than any other racial group.”

Kerri Osborne, the Chief Development Officer for CARES, explains. “What that does is create trauma and toxic stress.

There is research that shows that (these experiences) affect brain development, and that impacts your ability to make decisions and understand consequences.”

The experiences that Osborne mentions include frequent socioeconomic hardship, parental divorce or separation, parental death, parental incarceration, family violence, neighborhood violence, living with someone who was mentally ill or suicidal, living with someone who had a substance abuse problem or racial discrimination.

According to the ACLU, 14 million students are in schools with

Left to right: Al Sharpton, Tamron Hall, Jesse Jackson, Susan Taylor and Michael Eric Dyson attend the 2019 For the Love of Our Children Gala by National CARES Mentoring Movement Gala at Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York, New York.

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police officers but no counselors, nurses, psychologists or social workers, and the lack of school mental health staff is harming students. This school-to-prison pipeline mentality, combined with under-resourced schools and overwhelmed adults, can derail a child’s future. The problems start early: by age two, disparities in development skills between Black and White children are evident, with fewer Black children demonstrating proficiency indicators such as receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, matching, early counting, math, color knowledge, numbers and shapes.

According to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Black children are disproportionally disciplined and suspended—although they represent 18 percent of preschool enrollment, they are 42 percent of preschool students who are suspended once, and 48 percent of students suspended more than once. Studies find that third grade reading levels are predictive of high school graduation, with one in six children who are not reading proficiently not graduating from high school on time, and that socioeconomic status is one of the biggest factors for high school graduation rates. For a large number of American schoolchildren, the factors they’re facing seem insurmountable.

“We don’t expect a bird with a broken wing to fly, but we expect children with very deep emotional wounds to perform like children who don’t have those,” says Osborne. “We see these children achieve so many of the goals set for them once they’ve had a chance to talk about the hurts they’ve endured and learned new strategies on how to cope and how to flourish.”

In order to combat some of this trauma and with the hope of creating a safe place for reflection and connection, CARES launched Community Wellness and Wealth-Building Circles in 2018. A series of healing gatherings, facilitators pair stress-management techniques with stories of what African Americans have survived and achieved, create a sense of pride in participants’ Black heritage.

Taylor understood that the plight of New Orleans was made more visible after the hurricane, but the dynamics at play made life untenable for children all over the country. In response, she and the rest of the magazine’s editorial team created a program called Essence CARES, with the intention of pairing vulnerable youth with adults who could guide and support them as they went through life’s transitions. The organization learned that one-on-one mentoring was effective, but there was often a shortage of adults willing to be mentors.

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he team went back to the drawing board and came up with two ways to solve the problem. The first was to recruit adults who need a push to become a mentor and create programming that gives them the support they need. The second was to shift to a group mentoring program, in which an adult mentor could spend time facilitating discussions with a group of youth while getting to know them better. The organization rolled out the idea in several cities all over the country. Eventually, Taylor shifted her attention from running the magazine to supporting the nonprofit full-time, and the project was renamed National CARES Mentoring Movement. The nonprofit now has five different levels of programming to help youth in different stages of their lives. CARES utilizes a culturally specific curriculum that affirms and emphasizes a participant’s humanity, resilience and ancestry. The type of programming that CARES implements helps attendees focus on overcoming internal and external barriers to self-sufficiency and emphasizes the benefits of a healthy, high-quality life within a community.

There are lessons on workforce readiness, conflict-resolution, economic independence and civic engagement.

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Simone got involved with National CARES Mentoring Movement because of the impact her high school and college mentor had on her life. When she was in high school, a woman named Mrs. Bannister was her mentor. “All of the things that my family could not give me, Mrs. Bannister did. Her entire family took me under their wing and gave me culture and opened my eyes to the things I could obtain outside of working at places like TJ Maxx and being on public assistance,” she explains. “At the time, I had a child, and she loved on my child too. Her family took me wherever they went. Mrs. Bannister taught me about style and life. She was my mentor for eight years.”

Simone does her best to be that type of anchor for Marchae. “The support at home is nothing like what I have with Ms. Simone,” Marchae explains. “My mom has her own thing going on, and she’s living her life right now. My dad— he’s there, but this is his first opportunity at being a real dad. I never lived with him or spent time around him, and he mostly contributed financially.” Having an adult willing to come to her volleyball games and National Honor Society induction made her happy to celebrate her accomplishments.

When teens like Marchae reach adulthood, they have all of the tools they need to become a mentor to another youth in need of guidance. The organization’s pipeline program appears to be working: Marchae is already well on her way to becoming a mentor. As she walks the hallways of her high school, she encourages freshmen she encounters, and she often gives her younger sister the same words of wisdom Simone gave her: don’t make excuses. Marchae will graduate in 2020. She knows Simone will be in the auditorium that day, cheering her on.

Stories like Simone and Marchae’s will be highlighted at the organization’s fourth annual For The Love Of Our Children Gala, which will take place on Monday, February 10th, 2020 at Cipriani Wall Street. The event raises critical funds for the organization’s life-changing work with young people in need.

This year’s honoree is Robert F. Smith, a chemical engineer whose work as a philanthropist led him to found Vista Equity Partners, which he now serves as CEO. Smith recently made

the news when he changed the lives of some Morehouse College graduates. At their commencement, he announced his intention to pay off the entire student loan debt of the 2019 graduating class, breaking the cycle of debt bondage college graduates often find themselves in. More information about the event can be found at caresmentoring.org/gala/■

In an effort to overcome barriers to success resulting from the trauma-causing impacts of poverty, National CARES Mentoring Movement pairs vulnerable youth with adults to provide social, emotional and academic support.

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Discovering Identity Through Vocation

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BY ALEXIA PAUL

THE JOURNEY TO PROFESSIONAL CONFIDENCE WITH ATTORNEY DENA GIVARI.

ena Givari was only nine months old when her mother relocated her and her sisters to France, leaving her dad to work as an attorney in Iran. For the next seven years, the family traveled back and forth between two worlds—both of which were fixated on the female form, though from utterly opposing perspectives.

Driving to the airport as a child, Dena recalls billboards featuring beautiful, sexy, semi-clad women selling French lingerie. Hours later in Tehran, female flesh on public display was an abomination, punishable under law. Being exposed to various forms of these fixations, Dena remembers, “My mom worked really hard to make us understand that whatever attributes a society associates with our gender, those do not limit our inherent potential for success.”

Holding these two realities simultaneously in her young mind was confusing and unsettling. For Dena, early childhood was a bewildering cultural whiplash.

“The struggle for me was the constant shifting and trying to make sense of the world around me and trying to find my place in it. It wasn’t until my teens that I started to feel like I identified with a society. I feel more Canadian than anything else.”

Now 30, Dena is a litigator handling corporate and securities disputes at Crawley MacKewn Brush, a top firm in Toronto. An impassioned attorney determined to help others, Dena acknowledges that carving out this identity for herself took years to accomplish.

How does the daughter of hardworking immigrants settling into a new country become a rising star at one of Toronto’s leading law firms? Like so many stories of immigration, one courageous foot forward at a time.

Choosing to Have an Impact

Dena’s path to practicing law seems inevitable in hindsight. At last reunited with his wife and children in Canada, her father encouraged her writing skills, relying on Dena to craft persuasive letters on his behalf—a task made doubly arduous as this required her to translate his Farsi into English. “I’d be 16 years old writing to Air Canada because they messed up our baggage,” she laughs.

In school, she was the girl with her hand raised high, questioning assumptions and lazy conclusions, willing to live inside the discomfort of pushing back. Despite occasionally feeling alienated among her peers, the roots of her future as an advocate began here, speaking up in the classroom, insisting on raising issues that made others uncomfortable.

An interest in science led her to major in biology in college, a choice Dena now sees as a minor rebellion. After receiving a graduate degree in applied statistics, the law began to brighten in its appeal: “Law gives you a path toward a larger platform and a higher-level conversation about the values we maintain in our society and what’s worth fighting for.” Encouraged by her master’s advisor, Dena considered this

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career swerve. She thought to herself, “Wait a minute. I’m a people person, and I love communicating. I want to have an impact. I want to feel like I’m doing something where I can see the effect I can have on someone else’s life.”

Discovering and embracing one’s identity is a lifetime’s work, one that Dena sees as a deliberate, personal evolution that informs her career path. In August 2019, after three days of intensive interviewing, she made the leap from her first job as an associate at the corporate firm Blaney McMurtry to Crawley MacKewn Brush, a move she feels will enable her to capitalize on her unique strengths: advocacy and public speaking.

“I didn’t realize that there was a part of me waiting to come out,” she says. “It’s one thing to do a job and to even be good at it, but it’s another thing to really capitalize on those attributes in yourself that you value. That gives you another sense of fulfillment.”

In the weeks leading up to her departure from Blaney—a place where Dena felt at ease and supported— she questioned whether or not she was doing the right thing. But by the time she walked away from her all-toocomfortable office for the final time, she had no doubt that whatever challenges lay ahead, this move was a necessary step on her path to becoming her best self.

“It doesn’t matter how much people value you in a role.

You really need to feel like whatever it is you’re doing is a reflection of those things you value in yourself.”

Mentorship is the Key

The cases Dena tackles today are complex— often David vs. Goliath entanglements that require a deep understanding of case law as well as robust intellectual creativity. She defends people—and their savings and futures and livelihoods—against enormous conglomerations whose oppressive tactics can be ruinous to individual lives. It’s serious work that demands she push through feelings of insecurity and vulnerability as a young female associate in a male-dominated field.

This ability was in part a gift from a person who Dena dubs the “mentor of a lifetime,” Dan Giantsopoulos. An attorney at her previous firm, Dan’s advice and support empowered Dena’s burgeoning career in part because he

Attorney Dena Givari has persevered in a male-dominated field by way of self-reflection and a passion for advocacy.

She recently accepted a position at Toronto’s leading law firm, Crawley MacKewn Brush, where her practice encompasses a broad range of civil, commercial and securities litigation matters.

was willing to come clean about the emotional realities of practicing law. For Dena, having someone who was her senior be forthcoming about feelings of vulnerability normalized her own insecurities and gave her the courage to keep pushing forward with confidence— even and especially when she’s the only woman in the room.

For Dena, mentorship is not something she takes lightly, and with a grateful heart, she passes on insight and advice freely. “I can’t think

Dena attributes much of her success to Dan Giantsopoulos, the person she calls, the “mentor of a lifetime.” To pay it forward, Dena strives to help young lawyers and female entrepreneurs through personal mentorship. “I want to make life easier for the next generation of women.”

“AS MUCH AS IT IS ABOUT SUBSTANTIVE CONVERSATIONS, IT’S A LOT OF CHEERLEADING, A LOT OF HEARING THE SAME HESITATIONS IN SOMEONE ELSE AND GIVING THEM THAT PUSH THAT WHAT THEY ARE FEELING IS COMPLETELY NORMAL AND THEY CAN ACCOMPLISH WHAT THEY WANT TO ACCOMPLISH, MAYBE NOT IN THE WAY THEY THOUGHT – BUT THEY CAN DO IT.”

of any stage of my life where I haven’t had at least one person outside of my family share their experiences with me and really help,” she says. Shining a bright light on the “impostor syndrome” felt by assistants, associates and CEOs alike neutralizes its dark power—and this is a lesson she wants to pass on to the women she now mentors. Over the phone, on coffee dates, at networking events, Dena makes time for younger lawyers as well as a host of female entrepreneurs looking for guidance.

“I bend over backward to leverage whatever network I’ve been lucky enough to build as a lawyer to help them,” she says. “As much as it is about substantive conversations, it’s a lot of cheerleading, a lot of hearing the same hesitations in someone else and giving them that push that what they are feeling is completely normal and they can accomplish what they want to accomplish, maybe not in the way they thought—but they can do it.”

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ena has had the help of so many people—from her parents to mentors and friends—to build her own identity as a woman and to thrive. Today, Dena passes on that gift through her hard work and commitment to helping lift up those strivers coming behind her.

“I want to make life easier for the next generation of women,” she says. ■

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FROM COAST TO COAST:

The ELYSIAN X MEDJET PERFECT ESCAPE EVENT SERIES in NEW YORK & LOS ANGELES ELYSIAN is dedicated to inspiring and connecting women around the globe, and we recognize that travel expands horizons, creates opportunities to connect, and transforms lives.

It was fitting, then, for ELYSIAN to partner with Medjet, the premier traveler protection program in the US and Canada.

Recommended by just about every travel expert under the sun, they are the preferred protectors of celebrities, athletes, Fortune 500 executives and the NFL. A Medjet membership is every traveler’s passport to traveling with peace of mind and without boundaries.

Together with Medjet, we launched The Perfect Escape, a signature series featuring two spectacular events—in New York City and Los Angeles—that brought together women from diverse geographic, cultural, and professional backgrounds. New friendships were formed during this “coast to coast” partnership, as guests shared experiences related to travel, health, wellness, and work.

In New York, international artist and ELYSIAN Inspiring Woman, Edwina Sandys, opened her

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Above: Guests toasted to safe travels and future adventures. • Left: ELYSIAN Inspiring Women Jennifer Justice, CoFounder of The Justice Dept., and Fern Mallis, Founder, New York Fashion Week, former executive director of the CFDA, former senior vice president of IMG Fashion, with Kara Ross, jewelry designer & CFDA board member. • Counter clockwise from top left: ELYSIAN Chief Business Officer Jaclynn Jarrett, Annette Goodwin and Edwina Sandys, artist, sculptor and ELYSIAN Inspiring Woman.

• Stephanie Baptiste, curator of Medium Tings, featured in the ELYSIAN Summer 2019 Issue. • ELYSIAN Inspiring Woman, ELYSIAN Wellness Editor & Wellness Director at Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in St. Moritz, Martha Wiedemann, with Mia Ljungberg Nevado, CEO of Little Valet.

• ELYSIAN fashion writer, Karen Fragala Smith, and ELYSIAN Style Director, Angie Woodard. • Right: ELYSIAN Publisher Karen Floyd with Jina Song, Creative Director of Coty.

Opposite page, top to bottom: Rebecca Singelenberg, Account Supervisor at Geoffrey Weill Associates and Codie Steensma, Deputy Managing Editor at GQ Magazine. • Guests forged new connections and shared stories.

• ELYSIAN Inspiring Woman Tara Sherbert, Managing Partner of Moxie Investment Funds, TMS Development, and Sherbert Consulting, conversing with event guests. • ELYSIAN cover models Cassi Sherbert and Rachel Castellani. • ELYSIAN Inspiring Women Amel Derragui, Founder of Tandem Nomads; Chitra Narayanan, six-time Ambassador of India, strategic advisor & journalist; and Judyth Nsababera, Founder of Project Hope Africa, globallevel project operations leader & roving ambassador to Uganda.

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magnificently artful Soho loft. Filled with Sandys’ sculptures and paintings—works of art displaying her incisive social commentary and signature wit and, in many cases, exploring and celebrating the power of the female figure—it was the perfect setting to share our Summer 2019 Women in Art Issue. Guests included women from all over the world, including national and international ELYSIAN Inspiring Women, current and former ambassadors, designers, entrepreneurs, curators and artists.

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n to the West Coast, where ELYSIAN Chief Business Officer, Jaclynn Jarrett, hosted the Los Angeles edition of the ELYSIAN x Medjet Perfect Escape in her spectacular home overlooking the Hollywood Hills.

Trained dancer, aspiring beauty entrepreneur, and ELYSIAN Fall 2019 cover model, Cassi Sherbert, joined for the reveal of the ELYSIAN Fall 2019 Wellness and Adventure Issue.

The evening was filled with celebratory toasts and conversations among women who have achieved success in the fields of entertainment, publishing, and health and wellness. Glasses were raised to Medjet, a company driven by the mantra, “take trips, not chances,” to the #MedjetSet and to the women who are exploring beyond boundaries. ■

LOS ANGELES EVENT PHOTOGRAPHS BY ARI PERILSTEIN / GETTY IMAGES

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Above: An assortment of hors d’oeuvres enjoyed by guests at the ELYSIAN x Medjet Perfect Escape Cocktail Party event hosted by Jaclynn Jarrett, Chief Business Officer of ELYSIAN. Counter clockwise from top left: Jaclynn Jarrett’s mother Esther Franco and Jeanne Chavez, Co-Founder of Smith & Cult., with guests raising a glass. • Fall 2019 ELYSIAN cover model Cassi Sherbert with ELYSIAN Publisher Karen Floyd. • Sheri Howell, Vice President of Marketing & Communications at Medjet with Bill Miller, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Medjet. • Karen Strassman, actress, voice over artist & dialect coach; Syd Wilder, actress & comedian; and Victoria Konefal, actress.

Opposite page, counter clockwise from top left: Sheri Howell; Justine Chiara, Emmy-award winning producer & creative consultant; and Jaclynn Jarrett. • The ELYSIAN Fall 2019 Issue overlooking Hollywood Hills. • Guests in conversation connecting at the event. • Nikki DeLoach, actress & singer, and Jen Dede Kelly, actress, producer, writer & filmmaker, with guest sharing a moment. • Jill Crenshaw, actress, writer & voice over artist; Sabrina Azadi, fashion writer; and Karen Strassman. • Katy Davis, actress, and Lisa Linke, actress, famously known for her role in Bless This Mess, with guest. • ELYSIAN Change Creator, Chelsea Williams, nationally recognized plant-based media contributor & wellness blogger, with Cori Lefkowith, fitness expert & entrepreneur, and guest admiring the ELYSIAN Fall 2019 Issue.

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“

ONE MINUTE, I WAS HAVING A BLAST WITH MY FRIENDS IN MEXICO. THE NEXT I WAS LYING UNCONSCIOUS AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AFTER A TRUCK HIT OUR JEEP HEAD-ON. I WOKE UP IN A CROWDED EMERGENCY ROOM. NO ONE SPOKE ENGLISH. WHEN THEY TOOK ME INTO SURGERY, I HAD NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE GOING TO DO. IT WAS TERRIFYING. AFTERWARDS, THE MEDICATION WASN’T WORKING AND I WAS SCREAMING OUT IN AGONY.”

LUCKILY, EILEEN SHIRK HAD MEMBERSHIP IN A PROGRAM CALLED MEDJET: “A FRIEND CALLED MY MOM IN TOLEDO, AND SHE MADE THE CALL TO MEDJET. WHEN THE MEDICAL TEAM CAME RUSHING IN, I JUST STARTED CRYING. I WAS SO OVERWHELMED WITH HAPPINESS. THEY IDENTIFIED THE SEVERITY OF MY INJURIES AND GAVE ME ADEQUATE PAIN MEDICATION. I WAS MOVED TO MY HOME HOSPITAL, WHERE MY FAMILY, FRIENDS AND THE SOFTEST BED IN THE WORLD WERE ALL WAITING FOR ME. THE DOCTORS IN MEXICO HAD MISSED A BADLY BROKEN VERTEBRA. HAD I STAYED THERE, I COULD HAVE SUFFERED PERMANENT DAMAGE.” IT IS A NIGHTMARE SCENARIO THAT NO TRAVELER WANTS TO DEAL WITH: being in an accident or falling ill while out exploring, and unable to return home. More annoying than lost luggage and more stressful than missing your flight, being stuck in a different country where you may not speak the language while needing assistance ranks high on the list of concerns jet setters have about their upcoming trips.

Finding out, in your moment of need, that the travel insurance you purchased, or the credit card benefits you counted on, may not get you evacuated home can be an extremely unpleasant surprise. And not having access to the kind of care you need can have long-term ramifications.

SO MORE AND MORE PEOPLE ARE ENROLLING IN A MEDICAL TRANSPORT AND TRAVEL SECURITY PROGRAM LIKE MEDJET. Medjet is a membership program that provides air medical transport in the event you are hospitalized while traveling. Travel insurance and card evacuation benefits typically only get you to the “nearest acceptable facility” in an emergency. Medjet makes sure you can get to a hospital at home. Members with a security membership, MedjetHorizon, also have access to a 24/7 crisis line, with in-country security response teams able to get members to safety. Memberships are available for individuals and families, and coverage can be purchased on an annual basis.

MEDJET PROTECTS INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES, CELEBRITIES, FORTUNE 500 EXECUTIVES . . . EVEN THE NFL. THEY CAN PROTECT YOU TOO.

WHO IS THIS SERVICE FOR? Jennifer Justice, co-founder of The Justice Dept, a female-focused strategic advisory and law firm, and single mother to two young children, travels “constantly.” She purchased a membership to make sure if anything happens, to her or her family, they can get home:

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I JOINED MEDJET AS SOON AS I HEARD ABOUT IT AND ALL IT HAS TO OFFER. I TRAVEL ALONE, FOR WORK, A LOT, AND CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MANY DICEY SITUATIONS I’VE FOUND MYSELF IN OVER THE YEARS, WONDERING IF SOMETHING REALLY BAD HAPPENS, WHO AM I GOING TO CALL? WHO WOULD MY FAMILY CALL? NOW I’D CALL MEDJET.”

“I’M ALSO A SINGLE MOM, WITH TWO YOUNG KIDS. WE JUST GOT BACK FROM GREECE . . . LOTS OF BOATING AND WATER ACTIVITIES. I JUST CANNOT IMAGINE NOT BEING ABLE TO GET THEM HOME IF THEY WERE HOSPITALIZED. I’D WANT THEM BACK IN NY, WITH THEIR OWN DOCTORS.”

HOW IS MEDJET ADDRESSING THE SHIFTING SECURITY LANDSCAPE OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES? THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPE OF SECURITY WHILE TRAVELING. As the world gets smaller and people travel more often, places once considered safe—festivals, Christmas markets—have become targets. Safety and security is #1 on the list of concerns many modern travelers have. The MedjetHorizon membership option is there in case you need backup.

“

Well-known Venezuelan actress Maria Gabriela de Faria’s manager purchased a membership for her to ensure her safety while traveling and working away from home in Los Angeles:

I STILL DO A LOT OF WORK AND APPEARANCES IN LATIN AMERICA, AND FREQUENTLY TRAVEL BY MYSELF TO SETS. I’M UP IN CANADA RIGHT NOW SHOOTING A SERIES, AWAY FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS. IT’S AN UNBELIEVABLE SENSE OF SECURITY, TO KNOW THERE ARE ON-THE-GROUND SECURITY RESPONSE TEAMS, JUST ABOUT EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD, ONLY A PHONE CALL AWAY. IT MAKES MY FIANCÉ AND MY PARENTS AND EVERYONE ON MY TEAM RELAX A LITTLE BIT!”

WHY WOULDN’T YOU JUST USE YOUR CREDIT CARD OR INSURANCE? Medjet goes above and beyond what platinum level credit card perks and travel insurance offer. Health insurance and travel insurance are important, they cover medical bills and emergency local evacuation expenses—but getting home is often up to the patient and their family. With out-of-pocket air ambulance costs ranging from $30,000 to $180,000, getting home can be a financially devastating challenge.

THE STATISTICS Every year, over 10 million travelers are hospitalized abroad, millions more domestically. A full 3 out of 4 people now list safety as a top travel concern, especially solo travelers and business travelers (who frequently travel alone). As ski season ramps up (Medjet works domestically too), and you make choices about your winter vacation destination, keep Medjet in mind.

Emergencies can be scary, but with Medjet you don’t have to go it alone. Remember, travel insurance will only go so far, but Medjet can make sure you get home.

“

YOU ALWAYS HOPE YOU’LL NEVER NEED IT” SAID ANOTHER MEDJET MEMBER, “BUT IF YOU EVER DO, IT’S THE BEST PROTECTION YOU CAN HAVE.”

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PAVING THE WAY TO SUCCESS. ne of the guiding principles of ELYSIAN is the idea of women supporting women— encouraging, teaching, mentoring. And as we prepare each edition of ELYSIAN, one of the things we most look forward to is the opportunity to connect women who have accomplished great things with those who are just beginning to discover their passions and starting to dedicate themselves to personal and professional goals.

We were thrilled recently to bring together ELYSIAN Inspiring Woman and Publisher’s Nonpareil, Chitra Narayanan, and our Winter Issue cover model, Rachel Castellani.

Chitra is a former journalist and Ambassador of India, serving as a diplomat to European countries including Switzerland and the Vatican. With a wealth of experience and insight, she currently works as a consultant to businesses and think tanks. She is sought after for her understanding of governments and cultures throughout Asia as well as her insight on corporate diversity and gender issues.

Rachel, a first-year student at Clemson University and an aspiring lawyer, was well-aware that her conversation with Chitra was an extraordinary opportunity. She asked multiple questions and listened closely to Chitra’s life story.

Chitra’s father was K.R. Narayanan, a career diplomat who went on to become the president of India. Much of her upbringing was in Vietnam, but her family traveled throughout the world. These experiences were vital to Chitra’s perspective as she launched her career in journalism and diplomacy.

She told Rachel, “It’s been my parents who have taught me very much to have respect for different opinions. You don’t have to agree.

I can say my opinion, I listen to another opinion, and from that maybe something will come up. Always be curious, have an open mind, and there’s so much waiting for you and me.”

Rachel, who loves to travel and seek out new cultural experiences, has always been inquisitive. “I am interested in history and the customs of the countries I visit,” she said. “I ask questions and listen to what people say about their life and experiences. It’s not just learning from a textbook—you’re learning people’s heritage, the way people act, and it allows you to remember it a little bit more.”

Rachel also has a passion for helping others. She has particular concern for victims of sexual abuse and envisions working as a prosecutor of these unfortunately-too-common cases. She has considered getting into politics as well.

To practice for a life of law and leadership, Rachel became involved with several extracurricular learning opportunities in high school. Her experiences include Youth in Government and the Mock Trial Program at Stanford Law School. These activities helped her to develop a set of valuable skills that she will use for the rest of her life.

Impressed by Rachel’s commitment to making a difference, Chitra shared her views on leadership: “Fundamental is really to have self-belief and conviction, which provides a moral compass, an appreciation of right and wrong. And from that, you naturally and seamlessly set an example that others will follow. You have to say what you mean . . . You’d be amazed what resonates and how many other people feel what you feel. Just have faith that it is possible to do it, and believe." ■

Cover model and aspiring lawyer Rachel Castellani with ELYSIAN Inspiring Woman and global strategic advisor Chitra Narayanan.

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or someone who has a naturally cosmopolitan manner, you would never know that Rachel Castellani has lived in the same city her entire life.

Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, her travels have taken her to places your average 18-year-old would never dream of visiting: the Bahamas, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Austria, Germany, Scotland, Ireland and now—Switzerland, where she joined the ELYSIAN team for the Women Entrepreneur CrossCultural Roundtable. Even more impressive, for many of her trips, she traveled solo, without parental guidance to help her navigate public transportation or cultural differences.

An undeniable extrovert, Rachel genuinely loves people and treats every interaction, at home or abroad, as an opportunity to create a life-long connection. Traveling, she believes, teaches you a soft skill that is similar to critical thinking.

“There’s a level of maturity and confidence that comes with traveling, especially independent of your family.”

Rachel, who cares deeply about helping others, went on mission trips to the Dominican Republic and the Czech Republic, to teach English to grades K-12.

While most college freshman are not yet ready to declare a major, Rachel, in her first year at Clemson University, has already decided to become a lawyer. She can make this choice confidently after participating in extracurricular activities such as Youth in Government and the Mock Trial Program at Stanford Law School throughout high school.

To Rachel, these activities felt like hobbies because of the diverse interactions she has had globally. She says, “I love people so much. Being a lawyer is the best way I know to help them.”

Rachel plans to specialize in bringing justice to victims of sexual misconduct, child abuse and domestic violence. She is also interested in animal or environmental law. Whatever her focus, it is evident that she is poised for success. “Success, to me, is being a good, loving person, living my life in a way that reflects the ethical and moral values I have been taught.” ■

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