And go! by Y'Anad

Friday, June 12, 2015

Out On The Town - Ebony Magazine | Oakland Ballet | Academy of Art University Fashion and more....

On June 4, 2015, The Clorox Company in Oakland, CA, hosted Ebony Speaks Innovation, a conversation about the Impact of Culture on Innovation - How Technology Can Be Inclusive. Ebony Magazine, founded in 1945 by John H. Johnson, reaches 10M readers each month between their online audience and subscribers and they remain a strong voice in Black media. Cheryl Mayberry McKissack, COO - Johnson Publishing Company, President - JPC Digital, shared that while there is skepticism about the future of Ebony Magazine, the company is committed to creating content and building their audience base to remain innovative and competitive. Clorox is committed to Diversity & Inclusion efforts on all levels and Erby Foster, Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Clorox is the leading the efforts in this arena for the corporation. From my lens it was a good collaboration for Clorox to host Ebony Speaks on this topic.

With a packed room of more than 100 attendees, the presentations began with a viewing of the video of will.I.am's new weable technology - i.amPULS. It was very inspiring to see someone that looks like me create their own world of technology, a wearable and very functional piece that has the capability to do everything from voice recognition to playing music. A surprise visit by Rev. Jesse Jackson was a highlight of the event. Rev. Jackson has moved the dial on Diversity in Tech on national and international platforms and he gave remarks about those efforts as well as the great results of his PUSH2020 Tech Conference which recently happened a few months ago.

Ben Jealous, Partner - Kapor Capital, moderated a panel of speaking including Aisha Bowe, Co-Founder & CEO - STEM Board, Troy Katcher, VP - Customer Capability Development & Sport Marketing, Clorox, Erica Douglas, CEO - mSeed | Sister Scientist. Also, Todd Brown, former EVP & CRO - Johnson Publishing Company moderated a panel of speakers as well who included, Kimberly Bryant, Founder & Executive Director - Black Girls CODE, Kamilah Priforce, VP Qeyno Labs, Jason Towns, Director - CODE 2040 Residency. The ongoing theme during these discussions stemmed around ensuring that the pipeline of talent is strong where recruiters can find students and adults of color to fill corporate technology opportunities and also starting the technology education in pre-school grades for boys and girls of color.

On May 23rd at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, CA, the Oakland Ballet Company celebrated its 50th Anniversary Season with a weekend of programs that honor the company’s tradition of presenting iconic ballet masterworks alongside innovative commissions; strengthen its ties to area choreographers; and continue its commitment to community engagement in the East Bay. It was my first time attending an Oakland Ballet performance and I was simply delighted and very much enjoyed the performances. The liveliness of the music selections allowed me to have more of an engagement and interest in the talented dancers and my favorite move by one of the ballerinas was watching her 'glide across the stage on point backwards'. That was everything. Artistic Director Graham Lustig has created Oakland Ballet’s spring season, Five Decades of Dance, to celebrate the past through works that built the company’s reputation under founding Artistic Director Ronn Guidi, and look to the future with a series of newly-commissioned dances by alumni and choreographers close to the company.

The historical portion of Five Decades of Dance will include selections from the lavish Diaghilev-era ballets that built Oakland Ballet’s reputation internationally: Petrouchka and Scheherazade by Mikhail Fokine; La Boutique Fantasque by Léonide Massine; and Le Train Bleu and Les Biches by Bronislava Nijinska. Vaslav Nijinsky’s boldly innovative L'Après-midi d'un Faune, the first Nijinsky work to be added to Oakland Ballet’s repertoire, was presented in its entirety. In addition, the company remounts excerpts of modern masterpieces from the 1930s through the 1990s, including Billy the Kid by Eugene Loring; Love Dogs by Alonzo King; and Ronn Guidi’s The Secret Garden. Green by Carlos Carvajal will also be presented in its entirety.

The spring 50th Anniversary season concluded with East Bay DANCES, a showcase of East Bay dance organizations curated by Graham Lustig with two performances on Sunday, May 24 in the Laney College Theater.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Branding Your Agency’s Multicultural Marketing Strategy

Marketing is actively promoting a product or service. It’s a push tactic. It’s pushing out a message to get sales results: “Buy our product because it’s better than theirs.”

Branding should both precede and underlie any marketing effort. Branding is not push, but pull. A brand will help encourage someone to buy a product, and it directly supports whatever sales or marketing activities are in play, but the brand does not explicitly say, “Buy me.” Instead, it says, “This is what I am. This is why I exist. If you agree and if you like me, then you can buy me, support me and recommend me to your friends.”

Read more....

And go!

Monday, May 18, 2015

Did he REALLY just ask me that question? A Board President who has no filter!

The Glass House journey is constantly full of surprises, challenges and most of all, opportunities. Whether I am presenting before a group, delivering a keynote address or teaching, I can honestly say it's been years since I've been nervous or unsure. Indeed I get butterflies here and there, but that's good because it keeps my creative juices flowing. I never want to get to a point of being too self-assured.

I was fairly excited to meet with a particular arts organization in Walnut Creek for a leadership opportunity. The meeting was about two weeks ago and I was told in advance that I would be meeting with the Board President and three Board Members, and there would be twelve questions prepared for me to answer during this meeting. This was all very familiar given my experience before groups over the years.

The first 15 minutes of the meeting went smooth, at least for me, and then something very strange happened. Let's just say, it was very strange to me. The Board President struggled with his next question --- one that was 'not' on the pre-prepared list, and he admitted to struggling because he prefaced his statement by saying: "I don't want it to sound racial".

At that moment, I used my peripheral vision to scan the faces of the other Board Members who clearly were uncomfortable and on edge about what their Board President was leading up to. He continued to struggle and then said, "Walnut Creek looks like me....older white people. Would you have a challenge with that?"

I had about two seconds to have an out-of-body experience before responding and I never took my eyes off of him since he started that particular question. The first words out of my mouth were, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It is my belief that this organization has been stagnated with doing the same thing so you have chosen to take an innovative approach, coupled with the experience you knew I brought to the table, and hence I am here. So, I think this is a question for you because clearly you knew who I was before I arrived. Do you have a challenge with who I am?"

It would take a thesis statement to tell you the details of the discussion that followed this extremely disappointing, off-putting, egregious and disrespectful question from the Board President of this arts organization. Really? Seriously? Let's not talk about the very obvious - this man knew that I was a Commissioner for Contra Costa County Arts & Culture, Board VP for the SF/Oakland Chapter of the California Diversity Council, and yet he appeared very comfortable in his behavior, withstanding his 'struggle for words'.

The next day I received an email requesting a follow-up telephone conversation with two of the Board Members. On that call, I was extended an offer to continue the selection process and meet other team members. After declining that offer, I suggested they consider governance training for their entire Board and I would deliver those services, for a fee, given my Board Source Certification in that area of training. I further shared that I could tell by the body language and conversation that followed the Board President's discriminating question to me, that they were aware of the legalities that could ensue. Proper governance training may have avoided such questioning. However, the elephant in the room is the culture and dated thinking of the Board President that has been accepted by the group is really the most damaging to the arts field and it speaks completely against the milestones that have been in the area of Diversity & Inclusion.

In 2015...the 21st Century....Imagine that! And go!

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Who moved the dial on diversity at Rev. Jesse Jackson's PUSHTECH2020 Conference?

Rev. Jesse Jackson's PUSHTECH2020 Conference took place on May 6th in San Francisco, and during his remarks throughout the day you would often hear him say, 'here in Silicon Valley'. Clearly an implication that SF can be considered Silicon Valley and the movement of closing the gap of diversity and inclusion among the tech giants needed to happen in both the Bay Area and SV. Rev. Jackson's PUSHTECH2020 initiative of Diversity + Inclusion = Innovation has drawn national attention and just about every tech and corporate giant who has diversity and inclusion initiatives, were in the house at the conference. Well of course they were because when Rev. Jesse Jackson talks, people listen.

While there is certainly a reason to continue the conversation about the diversity gap in technology, Lisa Jackson, Apple's VP Environmental Initiatives, said in her keynote address to not discredit the non-tech jobs (which are 60% of the jobs in SV), that are held by a diverse population at Apple because these jobs do feed families. In Apple's effort to show their movement to divide their resources among diverse communities, Ms. Jackson further stated that Apple has donated $10M to NCWIIT (National Center for Women in Information Technology) and extended more than $3B to diverse suppliers. Those are indeed impressive numbers, however Mr. Butch Graves, President & CEO of Black Enterprise called it 'window dressing' because Apple, along with several other tech industry companies represented at the conference, do not have 'one' person of color on their Board of Directors. Particularly, during the Leading from the Top: Minority Board of Directors on Advancing the Diversity & Inclusion Agenda panel, Mr. Graves stated that Apple's idea of a 'diverse supplier' is women and many of those women-owned companies who receive contracts from Apple are not from a diverse populations. Desiree Johnson, CEO, Johnson Publishing, who was also on this panel, stated that attention must be paid to ad buys in Black media. That while many of the tech firms represented at this conference buy millions of dollars in advertisement, those ads are not seen in Black media.

Lastly, Lisa Jackson wanted attendees to know that Williams Capital Group, manages Apple's bond investments, where Christopher J. Williams, Chairman and CEO is an African American.

Who put money on the table and moved the dial at the conference? Who took a first step in showing a monetary investment right here in Oakland? Intel! Brian Krzanich, Intel's CEO announced they will invest $5 million over the next five years in a new pilot program to teach computer science to high school students in the Oakland Unified School District. The goal of the program will be to send 600 high school graduates to college to study computer science engineering in preparation for jobs with Intel or other companies.

Several comments during Rev. Jesse Jackson's keynote address reigned true and received applauds. Rev. Jackson stated, "Let’s turn pain to power by hiring youth and not shooting them down", "Diversity & Inclusion is not the cost of doing business, it’s doing good business", and "Let's move the conversation from diversity to equality".

By: Y'Anad Burrell - Glass House Communications

For more BUZZ visit theREGISTRYBayArea

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Ken Coleman's Perspective on Diversity in Technology - 4 Myths

Ken Coleman, Board Chairman for Saama Technology, is one of the most celebrated African Americans in technology here in the Bay Area and when he speaks many ears are listening. Mr. Coleman points out four myths about the state of Blacks in technology in Silicon Valley, two of which are: (1) media has treated the SV area like the 'left coast' and given far more attention and coverage to diversity in technology happening on the East Coast; and (2) given the success and contributions that West Indians and Asians have made to technology, little to no attention has been given to women, Hispanics or Blacks. While I agree with these myths, moving towards solutions and/or strategies to dealing with these issues is at the top of my list.

See Ken Coleman's interview and read more here: Silicon Valley Insider Pinpoints Common Myths Around Diversity In Tech

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Film Season Is Now! 58th San Francisco Int'l. Film Festival - April 23rd - May 7th

The 58th San Francisco Int'l. Film Festival is taking place right now and running through May 7th. I must say, this year's selection of films is the best I've seen in several years and I have more than 12 on my radar to see. I am hopeful I will make at least half of them as this is a very robust effort on my part. I am thrilled about the diversity in programming and applaud the SFIFF team for their selections this year. From Nina Simone to an intimate evening in conversation with stellar actor Richard Gere, bouncing between the Kabuki and Castro Theaters is well worth the ride.

Opening night on April 23rd with the screening of Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (Doc) did not disappoint. Director and Oscar-winner Alex Gibney was brilliant in not just pulling together such an amazing story around the build-up of how many people live now, iLife, but the sprinkles of Jobs' life showing the audience how many strived to understand a man who was a volatile enigma even to those closest to him during most of his life as a tech giant. Even to the point of, in the early days when he was worth $200M, only agreeing to pay $500/month in child support to the mother of his first born. How did a man who so valued enlightenment as he practiced Zen, act in often brutal self-interest when it came to work and family? After seeing this film I was definitely convinced that people did not fall in love with Steve Jobs, but rather the products he created that enhanced and changed lives forever.

In Conversation With Richard Gere - Screening: Time Out of Mind. On April 26th, the long lines of admirers started to form close to 2 hours before the highly anticipated arrival of Richard Gere at the Castro Theater, for what we all knew would be one of the most engaging conversations with an actor we would have in San Francisco. The evening with Mr. Gere, preceding the film screening of 'Time Out of Mind', was funny, enlightening, bold and above all genuine. He remains, by far An Officer and a Gentleman we loved so much on screen over 20 years ago. Richard has been a Buddish since his 20s and he came to learn about this religion while going through growing pains and wanting to have a deeper understanding of his place in this life. He found comfort and answers for his life in the study of Buddism and Zen, and at 65 years old it remains a strong force in his life. One thing Mr. Gere made clear, was that on the many occasions he has been with Dalai Lama, they have never talked about films. A huge 'aaaahhhaaa' moment for the audience. Imagine that! My favorite part of Richard's interview was when he mentioned that when searching for media consultants and interviewing many who represented high profile Democrats, he says, 'there was something unreliable about them'. The crowd burst into laughter and as a media professional, I definitely 'got it'. Mr. Gere went on further to say, that Roger Ailes was a solid in that area.

The film Time Out Of Mind is was about a homeless man trying to figure out how to pass the time when you have nowhere to go? How to get identification when you have none to start with? Disheveled and red-faced, George Hammond (Richard Gere) wanders New York’s cold streets, facing these questions The film exposes the bureaucracy of social services and a stirring glimpse into the lives of those on the margins.

Yves Saint Laurent - Wow! I was really and very much expecting to see much more glamour, fashion and couture, but the film was largely about the 'dark side' of the legendary Yves Saint Laurent. Fashionistas, like myself, are very much aware of the drugs and alcohol abuse, which is somewhat common in the industry, so I was very hopeful that we would have an opportunity to see much more of the creative process, the design mind behind the genius designer and have take-a-ways to use in the field. But watching a dog eat pills that accidentally made their way to the floor and watching that dog go into overdose and die was heart wrenching. From a production perspective, film well done. In the area of content, would have enjoyed seeing so much fashion.

There are a ton more films showing through May 7th so get your tickets NOW! Purchase here: SFIFF

For more Buzz check out theREGISTRYBayArea.

Saturday, April 25, 2015

“Head of Passes” Debuts at the Berkeley Rep - Running through May 24th

On Friday, April, 17th every seat at Berkeley’s Repertory Theatre (BRT) Thrust Stage was occupied when the West Coast premiere of the play “Head of Passes” debuted. The theatre was absolutely packed and the audience was mesmerized.

Head of Passes, written by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney and directed by writer Tina Landau, both ensemble members at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, together, gave the crowd more than they expected, which included an array of emotions ranging from despair, angst, sadness, and surprisingly, a good dose of laughter.

McCraney, a MacArthur “Genius” Award winner, told a poignant and poetic story about the journey of family, faith, trials and tribulations. “It is a story about someone’s personal faith and how they use it as an aperture or a guide to try and understand the many, sometimes fraught, sometimes beautiful, often chaotic events in our lives,” said McCraney.

BRT’s Michael Leibert Artistic Director Tony Taccone acknowledged that Tarell is a wonderful writer ‘who we’ve been yearning to work with for a long time’. Head of Passes chronicles a day in the life of this African American family that has to endure an unbearable amount of suffering,” said Taccone. “It’s not about insurmountable loss but incomprehensible loss and unrelenting faith.”

What captivated the audience more than the play itself was the compelling and stellar performance by Cheryl Lynn Bruce, who played Shelah in the production. “Shelah’s family gathers on a stormy night for her birthday, bringing ghosts and secrets of the past with them.”

“As her roof buckles under the weight of the rain, Shelah’s convictions begin to wash away, leaving her to excavate the truths buried below.” Bruce solely completed the last 30 minutes of Head of Passes as she poured out the pain, agony, and unyielding faith of her family’s lives.

At its world premiere in Chicago, the Chicago Tribune raved that “McCraney writes the richest dialogue of any scribe of his generation…it is the well-worth-seeing, must-be supported work of a extraordinary gifted and ambitious writer. And the Chicago Now lauded Head of Passes as ‘a heart-wrenching, thought-provoking, and soul-stirring experience’.

McCraney’s plays include The Brothers Size, In the Red and Brown Water, and Marcus: Or the Secret of Sweet. His other plays include Choir Boy and Wig Out!

Other cast members in Head of Passes are Francois Battiste (Aubrey), Johnathan Burke (Crier), James Carpenter (Dr. Anderson), Brian Tyree Henry (Spencer), Sullivan Jones (The Angel), Nikkole Salter (Cookie), Kimberly Scott (Mae) and Michael A. Sheppard (Creaker).

Head of Passes runs through Sunday, May 24, 2015. Individual tickets start at $29 and can be purchased by phone at (510) 647-2949 or online at berkeleyrep.org.

Written by: C.L. Williams