“Alaskan Storyteller.” That’s the phrase Juneau-based Annie Bartholomew uses to describe herself on her website. Simple and to the point but way too modest.
Just one round of listening to Bartholomew’s first album makes that clear. “Sisters of White Chapel,” which tells the stories of the women who did sex work during the Klondike gold rush, was released earlier this month. The life stories woven into the album’s nine songs took Bartholomew several years to research and write.
Avant-garde theatre tends to attract rule breakers. For David Neumann (theatre), the founder and artistic director of Advanced Beginner Group, a multidisciplinary dance troupe, breaking the rules meant smashing the old chestnut that says kids should resist joining the family business.
https://www.sarahlawrence.edu/magazine/finding-courage/campus/into-the-storm.html
The Japanese tourist had decided to take a solo beach-camping vacation at the northernmost point in the United States: Point Barrow, Alaska, 1,200 miles from the North Pole. There were problems, though. The thick sea ice had hidden where the beach stopped and the water started, so his tent was planted on top of the Beaufort Sea. And there was a hairier problem wandering about: polar bears.
Cheryl Rosa, now deputy director of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, was also in the area for the first time, working on her dissertation about the health of Arctic bowhead whales, which the Native Iñupiaq people have hunted for thousands of years. It was 2000, and she had moved to Alaska to pursue a combined Ph.D. and wildlife residency at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Read my profile of Rosa and her work in the Arctic in the winter issue of the Magazine of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.
There are many traits common to real New Yorkers: A love of discussing how much they pay for their apartments; the absolute confidence with which they hand out subway advice; and the inability to keep the first appointment of the day—it’s part of the narrative of New York life.
So it wasn’t a big surprise when Joan Firestone, executive director of New York-based storytelling organization, The Moth, emailed to change the next day’s interview time. But Firestone had the most NYC-of-all reasons for the change: She was going to former Mayor Ed Koch’s funeral.
Read my profile of Firestone from the April One+.
There’s a lot to be said for experience. But, now and again, don’t you just wish you knew a little less about the how-it’s-always-been-done so you could just bully through with your plans, unconcerned that you’re going against the establishment, that you don’t know the rules? While we don’t necessarily agree that full-on ignorance is bliss—it usually leads to serious problems down the line—we’re pretty keen on going against the grain, shaking things up, keeping things interesting and evolving the industry.
There’s a duo determined to do just that in their own well-established industry: fashion. One of the greatest assets Kristin Glenn and Shannon Whitehead, founders of Austin, Texas-based {r}evolution apparel, have on their side is that they’re industry outsiders.
It’s practically a requirement to raise an eyebrow at a person who calls herself an innovator. Innovator. It’s such a grand word. Isn’t that something we get to brand a person, not something she gets to call herself? Yet, every once in a while, somebody gets a pass. Or more than a pass. Every once in a while you come across a person who really should have “innovator” bedazzled on all of her shirts and printed on her license plates.
Take, for instance, Cathy Davidson. After a few minutes of eyeballs a-jumping through her bio—co-founder of the 7,000-member Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (HASTAC), former Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke from 1998-2006, current English professor at Duke; after scrolling through the list of books she’s written or edited, which cover territory from understanding Japanese culture to the rise of the American novel to brain science; after finding out about her role in the creation of programs at Duke, including the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and the program in Information Science + Information Studies (ISIS); and, even more so, after hearing the sheer excitement in her voice when she discusses the Internet, education, her newfound love of young adult fiction and her ability to tie ideas together and make them accessible—well, innovator sounds downright humble.
Read the profile. The magazine's annual 100 Brilliant Companies report highlights great ideas across 10 different industries. For this year's section, I wrote about a travel search company, Hipmunk; a media app, Zite; and Yellow+Blue, a company that boxes up wine in the name of convenience, flavor, price, and the earth. Also in the June issue: How to map out an M&A brand strategy.
Can artist Jason Polan draw every person in NYC? Maybe not, but that won't stop him from trying.
No piece of paper had ever looked so blank. Or so threatening. But the only way to get a Taco Bell Drawing Club membership card--and you want a Taco Bell Drawing Club membership card--is to grab the pen being offered and start drawing a line on the blank before you.
It doesn't matter if the line wobbles, weaves and is the start of something horrific. With that first line, artist Jason Polan starts filling your name in on that card. You're part of his world.
And it's a good place to be.
One day, Joe Adachi intends to take up gardening, and in a very serious way. It's not just a green dream, says the president and CEO of Canon U.S.A., but "a goal in my life." For now, however, Adachi remains focused on tending to the care of the company's customers and his more than 2,300 employees. "My greatest joy," he says, "is seeing employees smile."