Hot Tubbin' For...Pecha Kucha: Women Transforming Cities
My friend Julie and I attended the v. 26 of the Pecha Kucha Vancouver series titled: Women Transforming Cities.
The Vogue Theatre was ram jammed with people - yep I said people. While the audience was mostly made up of women I was pleasantly surprised at the number of men attending this session. Our seats were fairly high up but we got a clear view of the stage. A band called Onelife was playing and they were great!
The line up of presenters was really eclectic and I was excited to see the evening unfold. I have never been to a pecha kucha before - the format is 20 slides shown for 20 seconds each so each presentation is just over 6 minutes long.
The evening started with a bang with Ellen Woodsworth. A former city councillor and founder of COPE she asked us all - what is your dream for an idea city for women and girls? She was followed by Chantelle Buffie and Sonam Swurup - two young and passionate firecrackers who were described as having "private sector brains" and "public sector hearts" - these are two ladies who are going to change the world through their initiative Fusion Kitchen. They talked about the times they took risks and ventured out of their comfort zones and found themselves. They asked us what are your baby powder and paella events?
We heard from Winnie Cheung who talked about the power and importance of memory to preserve our personal histories. Then it was Melanie Matining who reminded us about the importance of year (taon), home (bahay) and love (mahal) in the filipino culture.
One of my favourite presenters was Natacha Beim - the founder of CEFA Schools. She made the point that early childhood education needs to have solid learning foundation but the reminder that kids need to have the opportunity to find their passions as their brains are developing. They've built 12 schools across the country all owned by parents.
Tiffany Muller Myrdhal spoke candidly about her mother and the struggle women can find themselves in when there is a breakdown of a relationship, leaving them without a safety net. There is no monetary value on women's work in the home and when they are left with nothing - that means no pension, no retirement - we need to find ways to take care of them (especially if they don't have children)...
City Councillor Andrea Reimer spoke to us about her history in organizing (starting in preschool, when they didn't like their imposed snacks). She talked about being a community organizer and rallying people around environmental issues.
The evening closed with Madeline Shaw - the founder of Lunapads. She started her presentation off with an image of the cover of Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me Margaret. For any woman, this is a book almost all of us have read at some point. It introduces a lot of us to puberty and our periods. And what's a women's event without a little bit of talk about our periods? Madeline was great. She was tired of having to use bleached, chemical laden tampons and pads to put in our bodies every month and then into the landfills. So she created cloth pads that would be reusable and good for our bodies (reducing our carbon footprint by avoiding landfills). Then she showed us a slide of a girl from Ethiopia and told us that girls often stay home from school for a week because they don't have products. A couple contacted her and asked if they could use her idea. She said yes, and then in Uganda this couple hired women to make the lunapads there. They now employ 65 women and men - they provide wages and skills training and girls can now go to school when they have their periods.
My heart sings at events like this where women are actually changing the world. They are not talking about, they are actually doing it. As usual I am making connections in my head trying to figure out where labour can fit in. We have a role to play and I hope the next time there is an event like this we can feature our union sisters too!
The Vogue Theatre was ram jammed with people - yep I said people. While the audience was mostly made up of women I was pleasantly surprised at the number of men attending this session. Our seats were fairly high up but we got a clear view of the stage. A band called Onelife was playing and they were great!
The line up of presenters was really eclectic and I was excited to see the evening unfold. I have never been to a pecha kucha before - the format is 20 slides shown for 20 seconds each so each presentation is just over 6 minutes long.
The evening started with a bang with Ellen Woodsworth. A former city councillor and founder of COPE she asked us all - what is your dream for an idea city for women and girls? She was followed by Chantelle Buffie and Sonam Swurup - two young and passionate firecrackers who were described as having "private sector brains" and "public sector hearts" - these are two ladies who are going to change the world through their initiative Fusion Kitchen. They talked about the times they took risks and ventured out of their comfort zones and found themselves. They asked us what are your baby powder and paella events?
We heard from Winnie Cheung who talked about the power and importance of memory to preserve our personal histories. Then it was Melanie Matining who reminded us about the importance of year (taon), home (bahay) and love (mahal) in the filipino culture.
One of my favourite presenters was Natacha Beim - the founder of CEFA Schools. She made the point that early childhood education needs to have solid learning foundation but the reminder that kids need to have the opportunity to find their passions as their brains are developing. They've built 12 schools across the country all owned by parents.
Tiffany Muller Myrdhal spoke candidly about her mother and the struggle women can find themselves in when there is a breakdown of a relationship, leaving them without a safety net. There is no monetary value on women's work in the home and when they are left with nothing - that means no pension, no retirement - we need to find ways to take care of them (especially if they don't have children)...
City Councillor Andrea Reimer spoke to us about her history in organizing (starting in preschool, when they didn't like their imposed snacks). She talked about being a community organizer and rallying people around environmental issues.
The evening closed with Madeline Shaw - the founder of Lunapads. She started her presentation off with an image of the cover of Judy Blume's Are You There God? It's Me Margaret. For any woman, this is a book almost all of us have read at some point. It introduces a lot of us to puberty and our periods. And what's a women's event without a little bit of talk about our periods? Madeline was great. She was tired of having to use bleached, chemical laden tampons and pads to put in our bodies every month and then into the landfills. So she created cloth pads that would be reusable and good for our bodies (reducing our carbon footprint by avoiding landfills). Then she showed us a slide of a girl from Ethiopia and told us that girls often stay home from school for a week because they don't have products. A couple contacted her and asked if they could use her idea. She said yes, and then in Uganda this couple hired women to make the lunapads there. They now employ 65 women and men - they provide wages and skills training and girls can now go to school when they have their periods.
My heart sings at events like this where women are actually changing the world. They are not talking about, they are actually doing it. As usual I am making connections in my head trying to figure out where labour can fit in. We have a role to play and I hope the next time there is an event like this we can feature our union sisters too!
Comments
Post a Comment