#wellesley entrepreneur series

[wellesleyunderground]

Wellesley Underground’s Holiday Guide to Wellesley-Owned Businesses: November 2019

The Good Supply / Image Credit: The Good Supply

Looking for your holiday gifts? Check out Wellesley Underground’s crowd-sourced list of Wellesley-owned businesses (updated for 2019)! Compiled by Hoi-Fei Mok ‘10, WU Managing Editor.

Pinterest Board of the Shops (incomplete)

Jewelry

Alumnati Jewelry by Stephanie Christie ‘00: Handmade Wellesley lamppost earrings

Ecru Collection by Kara Templeton '12: Jewelry, home decor, and stationery

Kindred Spirit Studios by Michelle Davis Petelinz '78: Jewelry, home decor

Lauren Wimmer Jewelry by Lauren Wimmer ‘98: Jewelry

Mala Shah Design by Mala Shah ‘98: Metalworks and Reiki-infused jewelry

Ready-Made by Jenn Meng ‘13: Materials-focused jewelry brand offering minimal, everyday pieces that are affordable, hypoallergenic, super strong, and tarnish-free.

Porcelain and Stone by Kimberly Huestis '05: Nautically inspired jewelry

Space Mermaid by Stephanie Carbone '93: Sky and sea inspired jewelry

Urban Witchcraft by Elena Gauvin ‘13: hand fabricated sterling silver gemstone jewelry with a gothic feel 

Wellesley Voices For Disability: Wellesley earring and necklace set, scarf and hat set, fountain pen, bookmark, keyboard covers and more. 

Art & Crafts

A Riot of Color by Susan Eiseman Levitin '85: Hand-dyed yarns

Achiaa Paper and Pen by Rebecca Amponsah ‘08: Handmade paper goods and lettering

Alyssa Sketch’d by Alyssa Torres ‘09: Original illustrations/art and jewelry

Art Without A Frame by Hoi-Fei Mok ‘10: Original illustrations/art from the Dragon Fruit Project, an oral history project of queer and trans Asian Pacific Islanders

Cardiology Cards by Tamar Zmora ‘11: Break up Cards

ChemKnits Creations by Rebecca Brown ‘06: Hand dyed yarns

Connie-Chen.com by Connie Chen ‘17: Calligraphy commissions, prints, bookish apparel, oblique holders, penmanship lessons 

DisaporicArts by Jenny Jean ‘13: Modern digital art prints

Fran Decker by Fran Decker '80: Original paintings, prints, tiles and notecards

Genevieve Calligraphy by Genevieve Goldleaf ‘12: Botanical illustrations and custom calligraphy

The Grey Fox Studio by Katherine Grey '08: Printmaking, drawing & painting

KT Obermanns by KT Obermanns '07: Illustrations, portraits, pinups, and caricature

Leslie Ordal Fibre Arts by Leslie Ordal ‘04: Handspun yarns, handwoven scarves, and other fibre arts. Lessons and workshops in the Toronto, Ontario, area.

Map Attic by Alex Azzi ‘15: Block-printed holiday cards, resin jewelry, vintage map crafts, ceramics, and abstract fluid paintings.

Misc Midwest by Marie Clymer Sarnacki '13: Wooden coasters and fridge magnets with a Wellesley design

Miyun Makes by Gena Hong ‘12: handmade pottery inspired by Korean traditions.

Monica Starr Creations by Monica Starr Feldman ‘14: Leather luggage tags, metal flower bouquets, embossed stationary, scarves, mason jar cozies, metal & wood working

My Big Pink Crafty Box by Sophia Giordano '09: Feminist crafts

Pick Two Pottery by Dana Lamb ‘99: Pottery

Singing Whale Stained Glass by Amy Putnam ‘90: Handmade stained glass art and shattered glass pins, plus chainmaille bracelets and earrings, including Wellesley inspired pieces.

Stephanie Hessler by Stephanie Hessler ‘84: Wellesley inspired prints, apparel, homewares

Tiny Small Joys by Alyssa Kayser-Hirsh '14: handmade books, calendars, notebooks, and planners

Wear I’ve Been by Samaa Ahmed ‘13: Art designs on throw pillows, prints, mugs, tote bags and more.

Kacie Lyn Martinez by Kacie Lyn Martinez ‘09: fiber artist who weaves tapestries and other fiber art 

Photography

Az Bulutlu by Eylul Dogruel ‘07: Skyscapes, travel and abstract photography, prints and merchandise.

JezRebelle by Jess Planos '10: Wellesley photos on prints, apparel, homewares

Meera Graham Photography by Meera Mohan ‘09: Nature Prints for Sale, Headshots & Candid Portraiture

Vero Kherian Photography by Veronique (Chau) Kherian ‘05: Professional Portraits and Headshot Photography in the SF Bay area  

Health & Skincare

Beautycounter by Jen Askin Pollock ‘99: Safer, high-performing products for the whole family

Box Naturals by Irene Kim ‘99: Luxe towelettes with organic essential oils

Cocofloss by Chrystle Cu '05: Flavored dental floss

EmmGerri by Karen and Kristi Jordan: Skincare lotion

Eu’Genia Shea by Naa-Sakle Akuete ‘08: Shea butter 

Just Botanicals by Sonya Funaro ‘00: Handcraft organic, ethically-sourced skincare  

Hubba Hubba by Megan (MJ) Pullins `94: The oldest alternative adult store in New England, stocking everything from corsets, club clothes, lingerie, and all sorts of sex toys.

Lioness by Liz Klinger: Smart vibrator

Maum Goods Co. by Helen (Tak) Kingery ‘01: Handmade essential oil products for wellness and balance

TATCHA Beauty by Victoria Tsai ‘00: Japanese based skincare products

Fashion and Apparel 

A Gifted Baby by Amelia Gray ‘03: Online boutique for babies and little people focussing on small and emerging designers, ethical production practices and women-owned labels. Alums are friends and family, use code “weloveyou20much” for the 20% f&f discount:).

Baby Blast Off by Emily Bennett: Baby clothes

Catie’s Natives by Jennifer Roesch ‘92: Shirts, hoodies, and accessories that show city pride. Developed and designed by Jennifer’s 10 year old daughter. Featured in Time Out NY. 10% of profits support Hartley House which provides social services to residents of Hell’s Kitchen, NY.

Charlotte and Asher by Laura Hahn ‘06: Fashionable diaper bags

Cliobags by Alejandra Zambrano: Handmade bags

Emma Finney by Kristin Bunce ‘00: Bags and clutches

Orange Soda Baby by Dorothy Hsiung '05: Whimsical children's clothing

The Outrage by Claire Schlemme ‘06: Feminist clothing and accessories with a portion of profits to women’s empowerment orgs.

Satya Twena by Satya Twena ‘05: Hats and millinery 

Stoptiques by Olga Vidisheva '07: Apparel and accessories

Wellesley Class of 1990: Purple W capes!  Made of durable material - great for wearing as a cape, using a picnic blanket, keeping your car seat clean, etc.

Wellesley Class of 2003: Wellesley lamp post shirts, baby apparel, and accessories

Wellesley Class of 2007: Wellesley apron (“We can stand the heat!”), baby and kids apparel

Wellesley Club of Columbus, OH: Wellesley insignia whistle

Swells Swag by Sarie Hale-Alper ‘04: Wellesley-themed designs on a variety of apparel and accessories.

Food & Care Packages

ChocolatesU by Amy Camargo ‘94: Chocolates

Ice Cream Jubilee by Victoria Lai ‘01: 6 ice cream pints, shipped nationwide

Montecarlos Estate by Carlota Batres ‘09: Coffee

Off The Beaten Path Food Tours by Lizzie Bell '03: Food tours in MA

Sky Vineyards by Skyla Olds ‘99: Wines

Sunny Exchange by Connie Su ‘09 and Jennifer Lim ‘06: Care packages

Takeout Kit by Rachael Blanchard Lake '07: Shelf-stable meal kit

Tranquil Tuesdays by Charlene Wang '03: Tea and teaware

Toys

My Muse Dolls by Torlisa Jeffery ‘06: Customizable dolls

Animal Care

Newbury Paws by Andrea Fowler '07: Harnesses for large dogs

Wellesley DC Club: Wellesley pet bowls

Domesticat: Rocío Garza Tisdell ‘07: modern-design cat furniture and accessories

Books & Zines

DefinitiveLeigh by Leigh Morrison '15: Feminist zines

Children’s photo books by Cristi Carlstead ‘01: Colors, alphabet and numbers from various countries around the world Romance Novels by Kate Broad ‘06, writing as Rebecca Brooks: sexy contemporary feminist romance

Jambo Book Club by Mijha Butcher Godfrey ‘98: Receive two-three age-appropriate children’s books each month that feature a child of color as the star. Jambo books show children of color in situations where children’s literature rarely places them - making friends, raising pets, loving grandparents and fighting dragons. The books arrive with a personalized letter in boxes beautifully decorated with art that celebrates the joy of childhood. We serve children aged 0-13.

General Home:

Domesticat by Rocío Garza Tisdell ‘07: posters, more products in development

TAIT Design Co. by Audrey Elkus ‘18: Toys + Homewares designed and assembled in Detroit and 100% made in USA. Minimalist, mid-century modern, built to last and make great gifts. Thanks for checking us out : )!

Professional Services

Abilities Dance: Boston-based physically-integrated dance company. Able to perform at holiday parties, fundraisers, and all types of events. Always willing to negotiate rates for W alums. 

Grace Astrology by Elisabeth Grace ‘83: Professionally certified astrologer; life strategist. Astrology is a powerful tool for understanding why you are the way you are; what you need in order to feel fulfilled and why things happen when they do. Improve your timing and your relationships. Based in New York -- available for parties, fundraisers, speaking/teaching engagements.  

Leslie Ordal: Writing and editing, with a specialty in medicine and science but other fields also welcome. Ad copy, journal manuscripts, etc.--my clients have ranged from Big Pharma to artisans to graduate students. Discount on my usual rate for W alums! Makefast Workshop (Maura Atwater ‘08): Prototyping consultancy; hardware, software, and musical instrument design.

#wellesley underground #hoi-fei mok #wellesley owned businesses #wellesley entrepreneurs #wellesley entrepreneur series

[businessfrontrunners]

Dr. Barbara J. Brown, Founder, and CEO of CapitolHill Consortium for Counseling & Consultation, LLC Signed A Bооk Deal wіth T & S Publіѕhіng, LP

https://authoritypresswire.com/?p=31834 Thіѕ second book of the "Wоmеn in Business" series titled "Breaking Through" іѕ designed to fіll that gар іn trаіnіng аnd knоwlеdgе. This bооk will feature conversations wіth ѕuссеѕѕful WBENC Cеrtіfіеd buѕіnеѕѕ lеаdеrѕ. These leaders hаvе achieved ѕuссеѕѕ in their industries and will be оffеrіng ѕоmе іnѕіght and real stories оn how thеу broke through and overcame оbѕtасlеѕ and barriers. This еxtrеmеlу valuable аnd realistic business іnѕіght will be shared directly from thоѕе whо have ѕuссееded. Gеt true-life stories, real еxреrіеnсеѕ, tеѕtеd іdеаѕ, trіеd аnd gеnuіnе buѕіnеѕѕ solutions so уоu too саn Break Through. Barbara J. Brown, Ph.D. is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who studied in Massachusetts, earning her bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Sociology from Wellesley College and her master's and doctoral degrees in Clinical/Community Psychology from Boston University. She has practiced psychology in the District of Columbia for over 30 years and founded the CapitolHill Consortium for Counseling & Consultation, LLC (CCCC) in 2009. The company grew out of her solo private practice on Capitol Hill and now has several locations in the greater Washington DC area, many therapists, an accredited training program, and a continued path for growth. CCCC offers high quality, accessible, affordable and culturally competent outpatient mental health services. The clinicians are a dedicated group of multicultural and multidisciplinary professionals who provide psychotherapy, bio-psycho-social assessment, and psychological testing to meet the mental health needs of children, adolescents, and adults (www.ccccmentalhealth.com). The Consortium also offers consultation, presentations, and diverse program services to community-based and corporate organizations. CCCC is certified as a woman-owned business enterprise by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and as a woman-owned small business (WOSB) as designated by the National Women's Business Council. Dr. Brown’s commitment to serve the community was born out of a family legacy of African American physicians and civil rights attorneys. She was also profoundly inspired by the writings of Dr. David Satcher, the 16th Surgeon General of the United States who wrote the first report from that distinguished office on mental health. Dr. Brown attributes her business success and perseverance to her deeply held values. When signing the book deal, Dr. Brown ѕtated, " It is an honor being part of a group of women whose entrepreneurial spirit, leadership and resilience are being celebrated. " About T&S Publishing, LP T&S Publishing, LP, іѕ an аgеnсу specializing in mеdіа and bооk publishing whоѕе mіѕѕіоn іѕ tо hеlр thоuѕаndѕ оf entrepreneurs, buѕіnеѕѕ owners аnd рrоfеѕѕіоnаlѕ become sought-after еxреrtѕ іn their fields. Wе position thеm as recognized аuthоrіtіеѕ that ѕtаnd оut rather than rеmаіn the bеѕt-kерt secrets оf thеіr industries. We dо thіѕ bу engaging thеm in strategic роѕіtіоnіng саmраіgnѕ, іnсludіng саuѕаl mаrkеtіng, collaborative book projects, ѕhоwіng up in the national media, gаіnіng celebrity ѕtаtuѕ аnd thеn tеасhіng thеm to tаkе advantage оf аll thіѕ еxроѕurе оn ѕосіаl media рlаtfоrmѕ tо ԛuісklу buіld their brаnd to еlеvаtе. Wе оffеr so-called 'authority books' and a unіԛuе рublіѕhіng process thаt аllоwѕ оur clients tо talk about their book аnd eliminate thе nееd tо bесоmе a wrіtеr. Wе ѕресіаlіzе in bооkѕ fоr соllаbоrаtіоn bеtwееn оnе аnd multірlе authors wіth the best рrоfеѕѕіоnаlѕ. Visit оur website fоr mоrе information: www.tspublishing.us

[hippiedennyc]

Amazing to chat plants x #cannabis x #HumbleBloomCo on LABAROMA. Photo @helenadebraganca Reposted from @lab_aroma (@get_regrann) - 🌱THE LABAROMA PODCAST🌱 This weeks incredible guest is Solonje Burnett with 'Giving The Underrepresented A Seat At The Table'. Show us some love for the wonderful Solonje ❤️ @solonjeburnett @humblebloomco Solonje is a co-founder, cannavist and people advocate at Humble Bloom where it is her mission to give the underrepresented a seat at the table in the cannabis industry. She believes that we can shatter stereotypes and poor business practices through culture curation and by providing the industry with more access to strategic branding, advocacy and inclusive community experiences. She was recently recognized as 15 Women to Watch in the CBD Industry in Marie Claire and Culture Magazine’s Five Cannabis Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2019. Humble Bloom was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year at CannaGather's 5-Year Anniversary Summit this spring. As a culture consultant, she creates innovative workplace conferences, designs and implements D&I plans, as well as forges partnerships for agencies. Solonje also produces events and festivals for conscious companies like Afropunk, Summit Series, and Soho House. Prior to launching her consultancy, she executive produced Life@Work at Live Grey and focused on their inclusion strategy. Solonje is a political activist speaking out on equality and human justice. She is a singer and performs with the Resistance Revival Chorus – born out of the Women’s March. She has a BA from Wellesley College in Psychology with a minor in Africana Studies and a MA from Emerson College in Broadcast Journalism. We love Solonje and had the most interesting chat with her!❤️ Listen to this wonderful podcast on iTunes here https://apple.co/2De8UnS Find and Learn from at the following links Website: https://bit.ly/2XM9geL Instagram and Facebook: @humblebloomco LinkedIn: Humble Bloom #labaroma #podcast #labaromapodcast #aromatherapy #essentialoils #therapeutic #blends #naturalremedies #formulating #learning #holistic #aromatic #aroma #holistichealth #plants #wellbeing #aromachemistry #blending #plantchemistry https://www.instagram.com/p/B5V5q7rlf2i/?igshid=1wmwysa7gmot

#cannabis #humblebloomco #labaroma #podcast #labaromapodcast #aromatherapy #essentialoils #therapeutic #blends #naturalremedies #formulating #learning #holistic #aromatic #aroma #holistichealth #plants #wellbeing #aromachemistry #blending #plantchemistry

[beenasarwar]

Iranian anthropologist Shahla Haeri pays tribute to her Pakistani behen Asma. Photo: Ibrahim Rashid.

Days after Asma Jahangir passed away in Lahore, some of us, members of Asma’s tribe as I think of it, got together at Harvard to commemorate her life, impact and achievements. We had lots of flowers, and music, and chai and samosas – she loved these things and loved hosting people. The languages spoken — English, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali and Farsi — are a testament to Asma’s reach. Below, a short report about the event by a student at Emerson College, Boston, and a longer one by a Wellesley College student. Video clips of some speakers’ comments below; all video clips online on Vimeo, courtesy Rick Brotman. Cambridge Community Television will run a full video of the event next Saturday.

People influenced by Asma Jahangir gather in Cambridge to celebrate her life, by Maysoon Khan

Celebrating Asma Jahangir – by Aliza Amin

People influenced by Asma Jahangir gather in Cambridge to celebrate her life

By Maysoon Khan

On a chilly Saturday afternoon in February, students, professionals and community members crowded into an over 100-seater auditorium at the Harvard Kennedy School to celebrate the life of Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani human rights lawyer and social activist who passed away at her hometown in Lahore the previous Sunday, February 11, 2018.

Celebrating Asma Jahangir-Amartya Sen from Rick Brotman on Vimeo.

An assortment of people who worked with and knew Jahangir personally paid tribute by sharing stories and reading poetry at an event organized by Jahangir’s friends and admirers including students.

What Asma means to me – a whiteboard series. Photos: Ibrahim Rashid

Introducing the event, Beena Sarwar, a Pakistani journalist who worked with Jahangir, said, “We were originally going to call this a memorial service, then we called it a remembrance, and then we decided to call it a celebration. We want this to be an uplifting celebration of Asma.” Sarwar first met Jahangir when she started voluntary work reporting and writing for the Human Rights Commission in Lahore in the late 1980s.

Speakers ranged from cardiologist Kashif Choudhry who flew in from Baltimore to pay his respects, to entrepreneur Mahmud Jafari, historians Ayesha Jalal and Sugata Bose, writers Sara Suleri and Homi Bhabha, to Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen, to a chaplain, lawyers, professors and newspaper editors.

Asma Jahangir was more than just a lawyer and activist. She was a fearless leader and mentor who fought for justice and democracy in a society that is heavily conservative and marred by corruption. She remained undeterred in the face of imprisonment, beatings, and death threats.

She co-founded Pakistan’s first all-women law firm in 1980, the Women’s Action Forum in 1981, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in 1987 and was also the first woman president of Pakistan’s Supreme Court Bar Association. She took up cudgels on behalf of women, laborers and other marginalized communities in Pakistan. In her role setting up institutions as well as being an activist, she was revolutionary.

Additionally, she was a long serving UN Special Rapporteur who held several portfolios: 1998 to 2004 on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, 2004 to 2010 on freedom of religion or belief, and mostly recently on the situation of human rights in Iran, a position she assumed on 1 November 2016 and held until her death.

Celebrating Asma Jahangir-Shahla Haeri from Rick Brotman on Vimeo.

Tufts professor Ayesha Jalal, a close friend of Jahangir, said, “You could find her at 7:30 in the morning at the bazaar buying fish. And at 10 am protesting outside the Lahore High Courts, and going to courts to fight her case, and then attending a funeral for a human rights activist, and then going home and making dinner and entertaining friends till 3 a.m.” Laughter resounded through the hall.

The auditorium reverberated with emotion, as speakers remembered Asma Jahangir through both laughter and tears. She was remembered as a ‘mentor of mentors’, as ‘Pakistan’s conscience’, and as a national icon whose courage was needed today more than ever to stand up to the tyranny in Pakistan.

“No country produces only heroes. But no country should do without heroes who can give us examples of integrity, courage, and honesty,” said Thomas W. Simons, former United States ambassador to Pakistan.

At the end, the organizers called for the young people present to continue Jahangir’s legacy, to be the next voice of optimism, and to “overcome sounds of war drums with courage.”

(ends)

Celebrating Asma Jahangir: “We will not stop. We will take her work forward”

By Aliza Amin

A memorial titled “Celebrating Asma Jahangir” at Harvard Kennedy School on 17 February 2018 was held to honor to the late lawyer and human rights activist, who passed away on 11 February 2018 in Lahore from a cardiac arrest at age 66. She will be remembered for championing the rights of marginalized communities including women and children, workers, low-income and religious minorities, and ethnic minorities for almost four decades. She is survived by her husband, two daughters, and a son. Her funeral prayers at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium in Pakistan were attended by over 3,000 people, around half of them women.

In Cambridge MA, students, community members, writers and professionals, including many who came in from out of town, gathered to pay their last respects at the well-attended event, organized by friends and admirers of Asma Jahangir.

The event began with an introduction by Beena Sarwar, who first learnt of Asma Jahangir through the Woman’s Action Forum launched in 1981, and subsequently worked with her at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan that Jahangir started in 1987. Sarwar praised Jahangir and her ability to change and inspire the lives of so many.

“We lost someone who meant a lot to people who knew her as well as those who did not know her because she took on issues such as rule of law, due process, and the democratic political process,” said Sarwar. “We will not stop. We will take her work forward.”

Lawyer Yasser Kureshi, a doctoral candidate from Brandeis University, gave a brief summary of Jahangir’s achievements before introducing each speaker to the podium.

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Mahmud Jafari described Jahangir as “a small person with an indomitable will.” He shared the text of a Facebook post that had been widely shared, written by Zahra Hayat, recounting her experience attending the activist’s funeral in Lahore and how moving it was to see men and women gathered in congregation. He also recited a poem by Urdu poet Kishwar Naheed, written specifically for Jahangir.

“She had no fear of speaking truth to power,” said Shahla Haeri, an associate professor of anthropology at Boston University who had met Jahangir while conducting research in Pakistan. “A person with a good name never dies,” she stated, alluding to a couplet written by the Persian poet Sa’adi.

Celebrating Asma Jahangir-Yasser Latif Hamdani from Rick Brotman on Vimeo.

Yasser Latif Hamdani, an advocate of the Lahore High Court and Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School, said Jahangir was one of his inspirations when he entered the field of law. He considered her to be a mother figure.

Martha Chen, who teaches Public Policy at Harvard University, recalled the time she and Jahangir first met at a conference in Sweden. They discovered that they had much in common, Chen said. Both had attended Christian schools, had a deep admiration of the Urdu language, and been active in protesting the atrocities in then East Pakistan, 1971, and had fought for the recognition of Bangladesh.

Celebrating Asma Jahangir-Marty Chen from Rick Brotman on Vimeo.

Editor of Daily Times Pakistan Raza Rumi had worked with Jahangir while he was an intern at the Center for Advocacy and Rights and witnessed her courage firsthand when she confronted the inspector general of a police station for their inaction over a gang rape case. She continued to display such bravery, he said, as she stood against arrays of killings, missing persons, and brick kiln workers. Rumi talked about AGHS Legal Aid Cell that Jahangir founded with other young women lawyers, which continues to remain a valuable resource for minorities, women, and children.

Celebrating Asma Jahangir-Raza Rumi from Rick Brotman on Vimeo.

“In her home country, she was a firebrand activist and a fearless lawyer. Through her work she ensured that a military dictator, however powerful, would always be regarded as a usurper. In India, she was a messenger of peace and goodwill,” said Sugata Bose, a historian at Harvard University. His mother in India had once nominated Jahangir for a Gandhi Peace Prize, which later received backlash and was disregarded.

Chanta Bhan, an interfaith chaplain originally from Lahore, talked about Dastak, the women’s shelter in Lahore set up through AGHS Legal Aid Centre that Asma Jahangir ran along with her sister Hina Jillani. Dastak remains an exemplary interfaith sanctuary, where Christian and Muslim women live together when they have nowhere else to go.

Celebrating Asma Jahangir-Chanta Bhan from Rick Brotman on Vimeo.

“The sheer integrity of Asma’s voice as a feminist activist is more resonant and relevant today than ever,” said Homi Bhabha, an English professor at Harvard University. “Her struggle must never end because we must interiorize the struggle and make it part of our internal ethical vigilance. We struggle not only against tyranny but for truth that we cannot live without.”

Kashif Chaudhry, a cardiologist at the University of Maryland who had flown in for the event from Baltimore, praised Jahangir’s unrelenting support for religious minorities such as Ahmadi Muslims. “No words can suffice to pay tribute to Asma Jahangir,” said Chaudhry.

“One of my favorite authors, the Viennese writer Karl Kraus, was called a faithful hater of his fatherland,” said former US ambassador to Pakistan Thomas W. Simons, Jr. “And there was something of that in the way Asma felt about her country.”

He went on to speak of her heroism and integrity, concluding, “I must also share with you my first reaction to the news of her death: Pakistan, you’re on your own.”

Author Sara Suleri, Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, paid tribute to Jahangir’s authenticity of spirit and courage by sharing anecdotes of their decades-long friendship. “She did not have to speak for women. She personified what the travails were to women around and also provided some solutions for our predicament.”

“I would hope that the sense of immediate loneliness is mitigated by this occasion,” said Suleri. “We are all learning a language that is post-Asma Jahangir, and I encourage all of us to keep practicing it.”

Historian Ayesha Jalal, another old friend of Jahangir’s, talked about how remarkable it was that she could manage politics and be a friend and a mother all at once. She reminded the audience that Jahangir was a fallible human being with worries and concerns, and that we all must do even better than her.

Celebrating Asma Jahangir-Ayesha Jalal from Rick Brotman on Vimeo.

“When the canons of Pakistani democracy are put together, this small-framed friend of mine will stand amongst the tallest of giants,” said Jalal.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen recounted some of Jahangir’s numerous achievements while she was alive, such as how she won her first case at a mere age of 18 and went on to become a leading defender of human rights in Pakistan. The two had been close friends for over two decades, and Sen described how awestruck he was by Jahangir’s clarity of mind and boundless humanity.

“The angel of humanity may have gone, but the education and training we got from her is here to stay,” Sen said. “We can have pride in having known so perfect of a human being.”

The event concluded with a poetry reading by Sughra Raza, an associate professor at Harvard Medical Center. She recited passages “Shorish-e-Barbat-o-Nai” by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a dialogue on hope by two different voices. The first voice speaks of the pain of destiny and annihilation, to which the second voice responds with hope and commitment to truth and to overthrow the sound of war drums with music.

(ends)

Asma’s tribe: a remembrance at Harvard Days after Asma Jahangir passed away in Lahore, some of us, members of Asma's tribe as I think of it, got together at Harvard to commemorate her life, impact and achievements.

#Amartya Sen #Asma Jahangir #Ayesha Jalal #Homi Bhabha

[viralhottopics]

Three days with The Dice Man: I never wrote for money or fame’

His 1971 novel was a countercultural sensation, selling 2m copies. But the author has surrounded himself in mystery. Why?

When I read The Dice Man 15 years ago, I wanted to know who had written it, and why. It read more like an act of survival than a novel, but whether it was the authors survival or mine, I wasnt sure. I had stopped drinking alcohol and I was looking, simply, for another drug. The book made me high; it offered multiple universes, all of them safer than vodka.

The Dice Man is seemingly an autobiography, narrated by a bored, clever New York psychiatrist, Luke Rhinehart. He is a nerd run mad. He decides that, in pursuit of ultimate freedom or nihilism he will make decisions using dice. He offers the dice options, and they choose for him. The dice tell him to rape his neighbour, but he fails because she wants him. The dice make him tell his patients what he thinks of them (my favourite dice decision). It was a perfect novel: a fantasy of escape and, for me, a search for an absent and charismatic father.

The book was published in 1971, an era devoted to psychoanalysis (not the mocking of it), and it was not an instant success. But over the course of 45 years, it has become a famous book, with devoted fans. The Dice Man has sold more than 2m copies in multiple languages and is still in print.

Dicing became a minor craze. Richard Branson said The Dice Man had inspired him, although he used the dice for only 24 hours because it was too dangerous to carry on longer. The entrepreneur Jeremy King opened a series of London restaurants due to a dice decision. In 1999, a Loaded magazine writer, who described Rhinehart as the novelist of the century, took heroin after a dice decision, while his girlfriend performed in a strip club. In 2005, comedian Danny Wallace published a memoir, Yes Man, in which he travelled the world saying yes to everything, again loosely inspired by Rhinehart.

As his notoriety grew, journalists came to interview the Dice Man. But Luke Rhinehart does not exist: he is the pseudonym of a man called George Powers Cockcroft, who shielded his real identity from his readers for many years. There was no Dice Man in these interviews, but there was no one else, either. Cockcroft played his part as an avuncular blank who liked dicing and drinking, a sort of Robert Mitchum pastiche; and of Cockcroft, whom I increasingly found more interesting than Rhinehart, there was almost nothing.

Why write a perfect novel, give all the credit to a ghost, then never write its equal again? I have been emailing Cockcroft since 2002, when, in a frenzy of half-hearted self-destruction, I attempted to dice my way through a Conservative party conference in Brighton. It was for an article, and I sought his advice, which was friendly and encouraging. The choices I gave myself were timid would I order a hamburger or a steak? though I do remember pretending to be Jesus Christ in the restaurant of the Grand hotel. The article was not a success, and was never published. The appeal of the dice is: how much power will you give them? I gave them nothing, and they gave nothing in return.

I have tried to interview Cockcroft before. I even met him once, in a hotel bar in London 10 years ago. He looked large and alien amid the pale chintz of Kensington, wearing a stetson that almost reached the chandelier. Last year, around the publication of his most recent novel, Invasion, which is about a friendly and intelligent alien who comes to Earth and is bewildered by our stupidity, we had a telephone interview in which he claimed, at 84, to be multiple selves, describing himself as we. We he and I were on a conference call with his publicist, and I asked him where The Dice Man had come from. You must realise, he told me softly, his voice a little hoarse, I have always conceived of myself as being multiple having, you know, a dozen different selves, if not a thousand different selves, at any given moment. He sounded croaky and crotchety, and I didnt push him. Instead, I asked if I could come and stay with him in upstate New York.

***

George Cockcroft, I say for the tape recorder. Yes, he says. Here I am.

We are in a large white house in Canaan. The houses are widely spaced here, on hills around a pond of ice; there are spindly trees on the horizon. The house is warm, comfortable, shabby, with wind chimes on the terrace.

Cockcroft is very tall and lean, his face weather-beaten from years of sailing and working in the garden. It has a kind of luminous joy that is very childlike, unless he is weary. His voice is deep, hoarse and excitable. He is, in some ways, very conventional for a myth: he chops wood, drinks whiskey, eats chocolate biscuits, feeds the fire. When he wants something, he shouts for his wife, Ann. They have been married for 60 years and there is deep love between them. I can feel it all through the house.

Cockcroft at his home in Canaan, New York. Photograph: Reed Young for the Guardian

Slowly, he tells me the facts of his biography. He is warm, courteous and curious; at one point, when I mention I need money to buy a house, he offers, very seriously, to lend it to me. Sometimes he says he cant remember things. Sometimes he says he doesnt know why he does things. Sometimes he repeats that he has multiple selves, and cant access the one who has the answer to my question. (I begin to think he does this when he feels threatened; if it were habitual, wouldnt he they do it all the time?) Then he will give a sorrowful grin and we retreat: he to his study, to write or to answer emails from fans, I to the sofa to read a novel Ann wrote many years ago. Later, we try again.

Cockcroft grew up 30 miles away, in Albany. His grandfather was the chief justice of the supreme court of Vermont; his great-grandfather was the governor of Vermont; so the creator of The Dice Man was born to New England grandees. I ask about his family. My parents were both college graduates, he says, a curious first observation from a novelist who doesnt care about class. His father Donald was an electrical engineer, his mother Elizabeth went to Wellesley College. She was clever and expected cleverness from her two sons.

As a boy, he was shy and compliant, and began to use the dice at 16. He was a procrastinator: So I would make a list of things to do in a day and the dice would choose which one I did first. Then he began to use the dice to force myself to do things I was too shy to do. If the dice chose it, then somehow that made it possible.

He says he didnt have a single original thought in his adolescence. He went to his fathers school, again showing how little originality I had, and studied electrical engineering, like his father. I cant believe how naturally and easily I was conforming to everything, Cockcroft says. His younger brother James, an expert in South American politics, was a rebel; even today, his website describes him as author, lecturer, revolutionary. But I was a total conformist, he says. I was intellectually dead until I was 20.

He also studied psychology and English literature. He worked nights in a psychiatric hospital, and considered being a lawyer. (I long to meet a dice lawyer.) The dice chose Ann for him. He was driving home from the hospital and saw two nurses. He got out his dice. If it was odd, he told himself, he would offer them a lift. One of them was Ann.

She looked like Rita Hayworth, and he fell in love with her immediately, applying to Columbia University to be close to her in Brooklyn. They married in 1956 and had three sons: Corby, Powers and Christopher, who has paranoid schizophrenia and still lives with them. Cockcroft avoided the draft to Korea because he had varicose veins: I hate to think what would have happened if I had gone into the military, he says. (The dice soldier.) Instead, he taught English literature at a series of colleges in America and beyond.

With Ann in 1956, minutes after proposing to her. Photograph: courtesy of George Cockcroft

He says he has no idea why he began writing. He read outsiders, and men who railed against belonging: Tolstoy, Kafka, Hemingway. His first attempt at fiction was about a young boy who is locked up in a psychiatric institution because he thinks he is Jesus Christ. He abandoned it after 80 pages, but one chapter featured a psychiatrist called Dr Luke Rhinehart. He was a minor character, Cockcroft says, but there he was.

The year he began writing The Dice Man, 1965, there was a crisis in the marriage. He and Ann were living in Mexico with James and his family. Ann was pregnant with their youngest son, and developed hepatitis. She was very frightened for herself, for the baby, Cockcroft says. She felt isolated, and felt I was somehow closer to my brother than her. She came back from Mexico very resentful of me, and frightened in a way she had never been before.

He was reading Zen and Sufism, which he describes as attacks on the self. Somehow writing the book and reading these philosophies enabled me to be detached from any bad places I was in, to not be enmeshed in them. He wrote slowly, 50 pages a year for five years. His previous writing had been laboured and self-conscious, but this was different. As soon as I began writing The Dice Man, he says, I felt I had found my natural voice. I didnt think of it that way at the time, but the book is about what makes human beings unhappy and how they can escape.

He admits the writing was psychoanalysis, a way of understanding, and processing, his brief estrangement from Ann. The Dice Man involves some of the things I could do if I could free myself from Ann. But the book went way beyond that. There is, for instance, much adulterous sex.

Lukes wife in the book, Lil, funny, sexy, a good mother, is something like Ann. He admits that the children are based on my own children. But he couldnt go as far as Luke. My dicing has always been very limited, he says. I was wise enough to know that I didnt want to risk my marriage by giving options to things that might ruin the marriage. I never gave an option that would hurt people.

Upstairs, above his and Anns bed, there is a painting of two Georges one good, one bad by Ann. Her paintings fill the house. I wasnt consciously angry, Cockcroft says, of the trouble in their marriage. Sad is closer than angry. I never get very unhappy. Every year that goes by, you realise how unimportant everything is. I dont think Ive asked much of life since I wrote The Dice Man. I was ambitious then. Ive mellowed. Pretty soon Ill be a liquid lying on the ground.

Above the couples bed hangs a painting by Ann of two Georges one good, one bad. Photograph: Reed Young for the Guardian

Is Luke your repressed self, I ask. Because, for all his wit, Luke Rhinehart is a raging man, and George Cockcroft is not. But he wont answer the question. Remember, he says, there is no single you. So that is a question I would not answer. Later, he does go further. Luke is the hard, cold version of George, he says, then adds: What I have come to love about the Luke of the novel is his willingness to be a fool, his willingness to laugh at himself.

He shows me an excerpt from his diary, dated 10 June 1969, written in Mallorca: I must finish the Dice Man novel. I know that if I open the novel and begin to read it, I, and it, will live, and my desire to work on it and complete it will bloom again. I am the Dice Man in a way I am no one else. It is the idea which my life has created. I am not good for a second one. I am not a professional writer. I am without talent in any way. But the theory of the dice man, the ironic spirit of his life, grows as naturally in my rocky soil as do boulders here along the rocky coast of Mallorca.

Cockcroft came across the journal three or four months ago and was startled: he doesnt remember feeling that way. Later, in a restaurant by the frozen lake, I ask if the description of Luke that opens the novel is him: I am a large man, with big butchers hands, great oak thighs, rock-jawed head and massive, thick-lens glasses. Im 6ft 4in and weigh close to 230lbs; I look like Clark Kent.

Id have to look at it again, Cockcroft says. Physically, its not me. I made him a much bigger man. Hes overweight.

Luke is overweight? Ann says. I dont remember that.

Thats how I always picture him, he says.

Ann replies: I always picture him like you.

***

When Cockcroft was a child, there was a calamity. His father developed cancer in his 30s. He decided he wasnt going to put himself and his family through any more pain, he says, and he called up his doctor and said he was going to shoot himself and to come over and handle things, and he shot himself. Its the longest single sentence Cockcroft utters. He was eight or nine at the time. He cant remember exactly. He says his mother greeted him at the door after school and said, Father is dead. His only memory, after that, is, going out to the garage and not crying and wondering if I should cry. He was not close to his mother. She was a Vermont puritan, and not a naturally warm person. Did you ask her what happened to your father? No, he says, and for a moment I can hear the compliant boy. I mean no.

Do you forgive him? I admire him, he says wonderingly, as if the question is ridiculous. But it was a savage act of separation; his father didnt say goodbye.

Cockcroft says he remembers almost nothing of his life before his fathers death. He shows me fragments of an autobiography he has not finished, because he has not solved the problem of writing a narrative by multiple selves.

Was our childhood so traumatic we cant face it? he writes, in the third person. Our brother, Jim, thinks so. Jim is three years younger than we are and he remembers a cruel father that used to whip him with a belt. We dont have a single memory of being beaten with a belt. Jim is unrepressed, remembers a cruel father; we are repressed, remember nothing. Saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. We have no painful memories pre-Dads death-day, nor any happy ones.

***

In 1969, while teaching in Mallorca, Cockcroft found a publisher for The Dice Man called Mike Franklin, and swiftly wrote the second half of the book. Franklin called it a near masterpiece and got a huge advance for the American edition.

It did badly in America, partly, Cockcroft thinks, because of a cover jacket featuring a naked woman lying on a bed. But it did better in Europe, particularly in England, Sweden, Denmark and now Spain, where it was for a time the most requested library book in Spanish universities.

No publisher asked for another novel, so he didnt write one. He fell into indolence; he was busy sailing and raising his children. Another example of my life of ambition, Cockcroft says, sarcastically. All through my 20s, I was fighting ambition. My mother had made me very ambitious to be successful at whatever I did, and I felt that was a sickness. I never wrote for money and I never consciously wrote for fame. The Dice Man was part of a lifelong process to get me to relax and enjoy things as they are, and not aspire to more than I have.

The film rights to The Dice Man were sold, and he wrote screenplays for a film that was never made. He and Ann travelled for years, often on boats; they smoked marijuana. He sank a catamaran in a storm in the Mediterranean, after Ann had prayed for three nights on deck while he apologised, precipitantly, for drowning their children. (They were picked up by a Scottish freighter 40 miles off the coast of Africa.)

The family settled in Canaan after following a Sufi cult to New York state. The Dice Man grew in fame, but Cockcroft didnt. He spent his money, and earned more. He discouraged any questions about his real self, and people rarely asked. They interviewed Luke Rhinehart and that was it, he says now. I wasnt being secretive so much as simply preferring to keep the two identities separate. Rhinehart allowed him to have a private life. Acquaintances in Canaan do not know he is the author of The Dice Man.

Cockcroft with his sons Powers (left) and Chris in 1972. Photograph: courtesy of George Cockcroft

He wrote books only when the mood, or the advance, came: White Wind, Black Rider; Whim; Long Voyage Back; The Book Of Est, a guidebook to a popular 70s cult; The Book Of The Die; and Naked Before The World, a novel alluded to in The Dice Man. Jesus Invades George is a very funny tale of George W Bush being possessed by Jesus Christ. He wrote The Search For The Dice Man, in which Luke ends up in a Japanese monastery, but it is the work of a sleeping writer: Luke barely appears and, when he does, he is a cipher.

In 2012, an email announcing his death was sent to 25 friends, apparently from Ann: It is our pleasure to inform you that Luke Rhinehart is dead. He very much wanted us to tell you this as soon as possible so you wouldnt be annoyed that he wasnt replying to your emails. But people were upset, and he later apologised for his thoughtlessness, blaming Luke. To pretend to die while sneakily lurking here and there in the darkest shadows is the lowest of the low. But we can expect no better from him.

Ask me about Invasion, he says now. He wants another roll; he is enjoying the attention. This latest book is full of his politics, which are the politics of Bernie Sanders; its tone is amused disgust, and it is very funny, if you can handle an alien protagonist who looks like a beachball, and whose beachball friend is called Molire.

I try to find a tactful way to ask him: do you mind that The Dice Man, your first book, is your best book? But my opinion doesnt bother him, because he cant agree. Right now, he says, using the multiple pronoun, we have no idea of the relative merits of our novels. At this moment, Invasion is liked very much by most of us, more than our previous books. Two years ago, we told people our favourite novel was Whim. After I finished writing Jesus Invades George, it was our favourite novel. If Invasion fails to sell, he says, he doesnt think it will bother him for more than a single afternoon.

At the end of my stay, I ask Cockcroft again about his father. He tells me he has nightmares about the garage attached to the house in which he grew up, in which he tried to weep after his fathers death. He has an image, he says hesitantly, too faint to be a memory, of a maid washing blood off the walls in the house, at the top of the stairs. I feel morbid, prodding him. He has already told me more than he has told any journalist, and he doesnt believe in cause and effect. He cannot see a connection between his fathers suicide and the creation of the Dice Man, so I stop.

But a few days later, after I have returned to England, he sends me an email. Last night I had a really remarkable dream, he writes, using the first person. For the first time in months, if not years, I was outside the house where my father committed suicide. I was walking over to our neighbours house, where contractors were arriving to do some sort of work that involved both the neighbours property and ours. I said with great confidence and authority in the direction of the contractors (not seen), I am George Cockcroft, the owner of this property. I think the subject line, in capital letters, is a joke at my expense. It says, Im CURED!

Invasion by Luke Rhinehart is published by Titan at 8.99.

Read more: http://bit.ly/2msMTKK

from Three days with The Dice Man: I never wrote for money or fame’

#Three days with The Dice Man: I never wrote for money or fame’

[wellesleyunderground]

Wellesley Entrepreneurs: Karen Jordan (@thekarenjordan), EmmGerri Skin Products (@EmmGerri)

WU: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Karen! Tell us about your family’s skin care company, EmmGerri. How did your mother get inspired to start making these skin creams?

My mother is a nurse, and she has always done a great job taking care of her skin. She was inspired back then by her mother, Emma, a woman who was part Cherokee and had beautiful skin that she also took great care of.

WU: How do you like working with your family in a business?

I love working with my family. My sister and I are like best friends and get along really well and work very well together. We’re also working on another project together, bringing the story of our great-grandfather, the first African-American doctor in Coweta County, GA, to life in the form of a film that is based on a book I’m writing.

WU: Tell us more about the film project of your great-grandfather! You wrote an article for the Atlantic last year about this history. How did you first come to hear about it?

When I was growing up, my grandparents lived in the house that my great-grandfather, the first African-American Doctor in their county, had built. His name was Dr. John Henry Jordan, and he lived in Coweta County, Georgia, moving there after he graduated from medical school in 1896. They had photos of him all around the house and his old medical books and other mementoes from his life. I was fascinated by the man and began to write about him as far back as high school when I wrote a term paper about my great-grandfather. His life was especially intriguing because his parents had been slaves.

WU: There’s a lot of discussion around how challenging it can be for women and people of color as entrepreneurs. As a black woman entrepreneur, how has your experience been in this realm?

There are definitely challenges.  Funding is a huge one and just resources in general. I also feel like I have sometimes not been taken seriously, for example, in meetings with outside vendors and manufacturers.

WU: Have there been any experiences at Wellesley that have helped prepare you for your work?

Not one I can point to, but I think just being there watching women run everything was great preparation.

WU: What did you study at Wellesley? Does your educational background inform your work now?

I majored in English and minored in music. Yes, my educational background has served me well my entire career.

WU: Any experiences from Wellesley that you miss?

I loved living in Tower Court. Sometimes my sister and I talk about the weekly teas and how we didn’t appreciate things at the time. I loved looking at the lake and the scenery on our beautiful campus.

WU: What have been some of the most significant challenges or failures you have faced in your career? How have you dealt with them?

My faith in God always strengthens me when I have disappointments.

WU: Running your own business can be stressful! What do you do for your self care?

I believe in going to spas and getting regular massages, which I consider preventative healthcare. Music, especially classical music, also relaxes me.

WU: What’s next for you?

We’d like to get EmmGerri into Sephora and establish a national presence. We also want to have a complete EmmGerri product line to offer.

WU: Any words of advices for entrepreneurial alums out there?

I think one of the most important things is don't be afraid to ask for help. Also, use your resources, and know your worth.

#wellesley underground #EmmGerri Skin Products #wellesley entrepreneurs series #wellesley entrepreneurs #karen jordan

[wellesleyunderground]

Wellesley Entrepreneurs & Self Care: Theresa Piasta ’06, Iraq War Veteran and Founder of Puppy Mama

Photo credit: Amber Mae Bailey Photography

Theresa Piasta is the Founder & CEO of Puppy Mama, Inc.​, a tech start-up and lifestyle brand ​helping ​to ​enhance​ the lives of women dog moms and their pups​ around the world. ​The Puppy Mama app helps dog parents connect with one another, effortlessly schedule fun meet-ups, share their stories and rate businesses according to a 5-paw rating to help create a more pup-friendly world.

Before founding Puppy Mama, Inc., Theresa Piasta was a Vice President at JPMorgan - spending six total years in the Investment Bank and Sales & Trading businesses at two Wall Street banks.  Prior to that she served as an Army Captain in a Field Artillery Brigade. During her 14-month Iraq deployment in 2008, Theresa led a large team to defend thousands of soldiers and contractors residing on Forward Operating Base (FOB) Delta near the Iranian border.  She was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for her service.

Theresa attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business Ignite program in 2016 and received a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College in 2006. She also studied military science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a ROTC scholarship recipient and was a collegiate soccer player for two seasons during her time at Wellesley College.

As more stories about speaking out against sexual harassment in the workplace emerge, it becomes more important to think also about the healing process and self care. Theresa speaks with WU on her self care journey, her work with Puppy Mama, and speaking out against sexual harassment. Interview by Hoi-Fei Mok ‘10, WU Managing Editor.

WU: Thanks for taking the time to chat, Theresa! You started active duty with the US Army after graduating Wellesley. What inspired you to join the military?

Military service has always been a big part of my family. My then eighteen-year-old grandfather was one of the about thousands of young trainees rushed to Europe during the Battle of the Bulge and then fought during the invasion of Germany to end WWII, my father is a retired Colonel in the U.S. Army, and two of my brothers are Army veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan respectively, as well. After 9/11, I joined the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and started active duty after graduating from Wellesley.

WU: After four years in the army and a 14-month deployment in Iraq, you spent six years on Wall Street in the sales and trading divisions of Bank of America and J.P. Morgan. These were really high stress situations! When did you start noticing the impact on your wellness?

When I left the service, I started to experience significant stomach pain, as well as the onset of migraines while working on the trading floor.  I felt like I had two full-time jobs, my role at the firm, and the 24-7 job to cope with the pain. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me and I was often times misdiagnosed. All the while, my health continued to decline.

When I finally transferred within JPMorgan to move back home to California three years ago, the pain in my stomach somehow shifted to relentless throbbing and stabbing knives sensations in my brain. Working at a big screen every day did not help. As I kept doing what I had always done - ‘fight through it’ - the stabbing sensations eventually spread all over my upper back, shoulders and neck, and my immune system started showing signs of immense fatigue.

For years, I hunted to find a cure, but continuously learned that there wasn’t one. After numerous medications and therapies did not work, my doctors strongly encouraged that I reinvent my life and leave my banking job.  One of my neurologists even said to me two summers ago, “a career in front of a computer screen is not in your future.”  As much as I told myself that they were wrong, it became very evident that my body’s defenses were shutting down due to years of fighting immense pain.

Last winter was it.  Although I had received the flu shot, I still caught the flu four times. After the third flu, I went to the doctor and he wasn’t surprised. He told me that after a nervous system collapse, the immune system is likely to fall next. He was right - my body was starting to shut down and it was exhausted from years of suffering.

Despite fearing that my career was over, I finally took my many doctors’ advice. I left banking to make my health my top priority. I knew that I didn’t have any other option.  

WU: Tell us about finding your dog, Waffles.

After numerous years struggling to overcome the painful illness incurred during my military service, I met Waffles, an angel puppy who helped me survive the most difficult year of my life.  Despite all of the obstacles I have had to overcome throughout the years, battling PTSD was my Everest.

My Waffles, a 13-pound ball of furry puppy happiness, was there every moment to help me get through significant pain. She comforted me when I needed it most, and never failed to put a smile on my face. Her love is contagious - she spreads laughter and happiness to anyone she meets.  She reminds me every day to embrace life and search for love and joy.  

This unconditional love and companionship gifted to me from my angel became not only a powerful form of healing, but also became my connection back to community. While with Waffles, every interaction we have together with other people is positive and joyful.

Canine therapy is powerful and during our recently published video interview Power of Canine Therapy - Robin Apple, Ph.D., Clinical and Consulting Psychology, Robin Apple Ph.D. further highlighted that “community is essential.” I’ve witnessed just that over the years and I strongly believe that the harsh words and lack of support from others during and after my service, further deteriorated my health.

Fortunately, through my new role as a dog mom, I was welcomed into the very positive dog parent community, a community that is as passionate about their loving pups as I am. Through the thousands of discussions I've had with other dog parents, I’ve learned that canine therapy is very helpful for many illnesses — not just PTSD.

Photo credit: Amber Mae Bailey Photography

WU: You got the opportunity to share your personal PTSD healing journey with the Woman Warrior Project and are advocating ending sexual harassment in the workplace. What motivates you to be open and vulnerable about these topics?  

During my search to find relief from the suffering associated with PTSD, I learned that sexual harassment and bullying can deteriorate health and limit women’s capability to achieve their full potential.

I have experienced sexual harassment in the Army, Wall Street and in the tech industry. And, I unfortunately have discovered that many women choose to remain silent for various reasons, including but not limited to fear of retaliation and abiding by clauses in their settlement agreements.  

Women need help - especially our female veterans.  Recent data was released highlighting that “female veterans have a suicide rate between two and five times higher than women who never served” (Source).

My goal is to educate and encourage equal rights in the workplace – treating everyone with respect and dignity.

WU: Last year, you were accepted into the Stanford Graduate School of Business Ignite program and developed an idea for a tech start-up and lifestyle brand that celebrates the healing power of canine support and companionship. Enter Puppy Mama, Inc. How has the response been to this new social media community for dog lovers?

I’ve learned firsthand how powerful canine therapy can be. Since the VA didn’t (and still doesn’t) offer canine therapy to veterans suffering with PTSD, I wanted to gather the stories of others who were willing to share.

I asked for three sentences, and women shared such personal experiences - over 300 stories of how dogs have helped comfort them through cancer, depression, sexual assault, a difficult divorce, illness, infertility, suicidal thoughts or the loss of a loved one. These stories span six continents, and many women shared their story for the first time via our community.

I am very proud of the Puppy Mama Community for opening up so courageously. This special community has proven that canine therapy should be taken seriously as a therapy for a variety of illnesses and that women are stronger when we support one another.  

WU: What have been some of the most compelling stories shared on Puppy Mama thus far?

Published Short Videos:

Power of Canine Therapy - Robin Apple, Ph.D., Clinical and Consulting Psychology

Y Combinator Partners Levy and Mañalac discuss the various benefits dogs bring to families and workplaces

Puppy Mama Stories

How canine therapy helped a 2-tour woman combat veteran beat PTSD

Crohn's Disease and Depression Survivor

Gift from a mother while she was dying from cancer

College Student: Extreme Depression Survivor

Coping with illness

WU: How is the experience of founding your own tech organization?

I absolutely love it!  The best job in the world as it blends the various skills I honed in the Army and on Wall Street.

I also am ecstatic to finally follow my passions and build a business promoting women. I spent the first 22 years of my life surrounded by women (highly supportive Mother and Grandmothers, three sisters, soccer, all-women catholic high school, Wellesley). The next decade was the polar opposite; after graduating Wellesley, I spent four years in the active duty Army and six years on Wall Street - surrounded by men.

Three years ago, I finally moved back to the Bay Area and discovered that Silicon Valley also had mostly men running the tech industry. I saw an opportunity to focus on women and something that many of us passionately love - our pups (60% of women between ages 18 - 44 years old in the USA have dogs - Source).

WU: You also got the opportunity to work with some Wellesley students as interns recently, what was that experience like?

Professionally developing talent is one of my passions; therefore, I wanted to find Wellesley students who were interested in getting involved with the Silicon Valley excitement. Once I found the ladies, I was not surprised how excited, talented, intellectually curious and dedicated they were. It was evident that they enjoyed learning about the app and community development experience.

Unfortunately, however, I hit too many road blocks trying to find them; these roadblocks include but are not limited to unkind messages from some alums in Wellesley Facebook groups and an immediate denial from the college’s Handshake intern program without an email explaining why. No other network that I belong to had treated my budding company this way.

There is significant opportunity in “the Valley” for smart, crafty and thoughtful women to be impactful entrepreneurs. And, I believe that Wellesley women would make great CEOs, including the outstanding Wellesley ladies who worked with me this past year. Creating more opportunities like the internship program I led last summer, would help increase students’ confidence that they can build a career in technology, too.

Not to mention - supportive networks and mentors are key for an entrepreneur’s success, especially for female technology founders. And, “most venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are men, with female entrepreneurs receiving $1.5 billion in funding last year versus $58.2 billion for men” - NYTimes.  

When women drive 70-80% of consumer spending (source: Forbes), <2.6% funding rate per year is a problem. Needless to say, there is a substantial need right now for women to sponsor other women - providing a significant opportunity for Wellesley women to positively impact the female entrepreneurial community.

WU: What’s in store for you and Puppy Mama in the coming future?

I am really excited about Puppy Mama’s future. We have many more app features that we plan on building, and we are about to launch our online E-Commerce global store.  

Building a business linked with passion has been an incredibly rewarding experience, and I encourage other Wellesley sisters to do the same.  

Photo credit: Samba to the Sea

#wellesley underground #wellesley entrepreneurs #self care series #theresa piasta #class of 2006 #puppy mama #ptsd recovery #self care #dogs #canine therapy

[wellesleyunderground]

(Minority Trailblazer)

Minority Trailblazer interviews Gabrielle Jones ‘14 of Rielle Events

#wellesley underground #gabrielle jones #music #SoundCloud #Minority Trailblazer #EventPlanning #BlackGirlMagic #Business #wellesley entrepreneurs series #wellesley entrepreneurs #class of 2014

[wellesleyunderground]

Wellesley Entrepreneurs: Emily Bennett, Founder of Baby Blastoff

Emily Bennett is the owner and designer at Baby Blastoff! Find her on Instagram and Facebook. Emily studied art while at Wellesley and finished her B.A. at Whitman College in 2003. She went on complete a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education at the University of New Mexico and taught Kinder, 1st and 2nd grade for five years before taking time with the birth of her son.  She always loved textiles and was a knitting fanatic before launching Baby Blastoff!  Her business is the melding of her passions: her love of small children and her love of textiles and design. Emily’s favorite thing about Baby Blastoff! is the chance it gives her to engage her brain in a diverse set of challenges from efficient manufacturing practices, to sales techniques, to managing employees. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with her husband, son and daughter.

Interview conducted by Hoi-Fei Mok ‘10, WU Managing Editor

WU: Thanks for taking the time to chat, Emily! Tell us about your baby clothing business, Baby Blastoff! What inspired you to start this?

When we were pregnant, my husband and I decided not to find out the if our baby was a boy or girl, and looking around for gender neutral options clothing, toy, bedding and gift options, we came up short. This was when I started to tune into the gender stereotype messaging so common on children’s clothing. I didn’t like that baby clothing was already covered with messages like “All shopped out!” or “Mr. Tough Guy.” I couldn’t believe that we promote these stereotypes at such a young age. I was inspired to create an alternative that would provide both some hip gender-neutral options and also images that challenge gender role norms.  

WU: What are some of the products that you specialize in? Any favorites?

I make and sell mostly baby onesies. I’m proud to say that all of our bodysuits are now manufactured right here in Albuquerque New Mexico, where I live. This year we launched with 15 different colors and 38 unique graphics.  My favorites this year are the bike and the bowl of noodles. I’m also super happy about the sparkly dinosaurs on pink, lavender, and purple.

WU: What is your creative process for making these clothes?

My mission is to create baby clothes that are either gender neutral or challenge gender stereotypes. I spend a lot of time thinking about the imagery that appears on children’s clothing. Creating designs that are truly free of gender messaging but also exciting and unique, well, it’s tough. I am constantly on the look-out for inspiration in this category. What images, every day items, or ideas can really sit in-between the girl section and the boy section? The salt and pepper shakers are one example in this category.  Another is the apple core and banana peel.

Usually I’m thinking about a grouping of images for a long time before I start drawing. Right now I’m thinking about an outdoors theme for fall. I like to let my mind work on it for up to several months before I begin to collect images to help support the drawings. I come up with my best ideas, like everyone else, in the shower or while driving.  Once I get started, I try to work on a few images at once so they will have the same feel and character.  Many hours are spent on the computer drawing and redrawing, coming to terms with the failure of favorite ideas, and having new ideas emerge. Once I have a set of images, I get feedback from a variety of trusted people near me. Then there’s more weeding and cutting and revision ensues. In the end, a group of images remain that then go to the screen printers to be made into screens and ready to print.

WU: How has making clothes changed your perspective on the textile industry?

The current trend of fast fashion has corroded our sense of what textiles are worth in the US. Through Baby Blastoff! I have learned so much about what it takes to manufacture garments, and I know for certain now that if a pair of pants costs $10 then both the earth and human lives are suffering to make it happen. Clothing is primarily made by hand. Yes, there is specialty machinery that makes production sewing easier, but still those machines are operated by skilled people. In recent times garment manufacturing has rushed to whatever location has the cheapest source of labor because it apparel manufacturing is so labor intensive.  This is how we ended up with factories in Bangladesh collapsing on top of garment industry workers. Sometimes people balk at the price point of “Made in the USA” textiles, and this is what I want people to know-- when you support “Made in the USA” brands, you are buying safer working conditions, minimum wage at least for workers, you are buying meaningful and productive work for people in the US, and you are keeping alive the knowledge and skills in an industry that has all but left North America.

WU: Are there any moments at Wellesley that still stick with you or influence your work now?

Yes! I was a member of Shakes, and in the spring (my sophomore year) we produced “The Winter’s Tale”. One extremely intrepid member decided to sew new period costumes for the show. I mean an entire set of new costumes. I was so impressed! I knew sewing was a thing prior to that, but I didn’t really know. I was inspired to learn, and after that I spent a lot of time in the dorm teaching myself home sewing. My love of textiles dates before that time, but the idea that I myself to could make things was in part inspired there.

WU: What has been the most challenging experience for you in your work and beyond thus far?

The most challenging thing is to simply keep going and not give up, to count the successes and not compare to others.

WU: Holding down a business can be tough! What do you do for your self care?

We live in an area where people keep horses, goats, peacocks, guinea hens and other livestock. I enjoy going for long walks past the animals and along the irrigation canal to clear out all the thoughts and stress.  

WU: Do you have any goals for the coming year?

This year my goal is to fine-tune the new products that we just launched and then add t-shirts for older kids this fall.  

My long term dream right now is to open a workshop/retail space so I can bring as much production as possible in-house, and have an outlet for my products and sell other kid-empowering brands as well.  

Check out Baby Blastoff! here!

Etsy

Website

Instagram

Facebook

All photo credit to Baby Blastoff!

#wellesley underground #wellesley entrepreneurs #wellesley entrepreneurs series #emily bennett #baby clothes #fashion #gender neutral #gender #textiles