Archive of ‘Speaking Truthfully AWARD’ category

09
Mar
2016

Amani Yahya: Yemen’s first female rapper

categories: Social Transformation, Speaking Truthfully AWARD

I have created the Speaking Truthfully Award to recognize and honor people who exemplify and embody Speaking Truthfully principles and practices.

Award

Amani Yahya is Yemen’s first female rapper and she is raising awareness of the struggles of women in war. The 22-year-old singer, who has had to flee her troubled homeland, is determined to use her music to highlight women’s rights, child marriage and sexual harassment in the Arab world.

Amani Yahya

“Women in Yemen don’t show their talents because our society is so dominated by men, and they don’t support women … in music,” she says. “But my dad loves music and my parents always taught me to speak my mind.”

Read a wonderful article about Amani in The Guardian by Homa Khaleeli: “Amani Yahya, Yemen’s first female rapper: I will find a way, I will shine”

23
Feb
2016

OMFG! I’m in Love! YES, I’M IN LOVE!

categories: People, Social Transformation, Society & Culture, Speaking Truthfully AWARD
I have created the Speaking Truthfully Award to recognize and honor people who exemplify and embody Speaking Truthfully principles and practices.

Award

There is impossible and there is IMPOSSIBLE. Me? In love? IMPOSSIBLE. No way! Head over heels in love, now, after everything that’s happened!? Who would have thought? Not me, that’s for sure. Those chapters had been written, and that was that. BUT IT HAS HAPPENED. I am madly, deliriously, out-of-control, top to bottom and inside out, take-me-to-bed-and-rock-my-soul-and-f*^k-me-till-I-scream-and-then-don’t-stop — in LOVE.

She’s super smart, sassy, brassy, edgy, gorgeous, fearless as a zombie apocalypse (I don’t know what that is but it sounds utterly fearless), brave as all get out, fierce, funny, hot — holy mother of god, I adore this woman. (more…)

07
Feb
2016

Malala Yousafzai — A Towering Presence

categories: Education, Social Transformation, Speaking Truthfully, Speaking Truthfully AWARD

I have created the Speaking Truthfully Award to recognize and honor people who exemplify and embody Speaking Truthfully principles and practices.

Award

Malala Yousafzai is a true exemplar and embodiment of Speaking Truthfully principles and practices. I am in awe of her, for she truly “speaks” from a place of surpassing wisdom, heart, and vision. Her strength, courage, and integrity are off the charts.

Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate, being co-recipient in 2014. She is known throughout the world for human rights advocacy for education and for women in her native Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. Yousafzai’s advocacy has since grown into an international movement.

Please watch her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, delivered on December 10, 2014.

25
Aug
2015

Comedienne Tig Notaro Gives A Masterclass In Speaking Truthfully

categories: Lifestyles, Social Transformation, Society & Culture, Speaking Truthfully, Speaking Truthfully AWARD
I have created the Speaking Truthfully Award to recognize and honor people who exemplify and embody Speaking Truthfully principles and practices.

Award

I always do my best to embody essential principles of Speaking Truthfully; I have to. Otherwise, who would want to learn from me? But my embodiment is just one of myriad ways the Speaking Truthfully principles — including integrity, vulnerability, transparency, intimacy, connection, honesty — can be demonstrated. I am always on the lookout for other manifestations of these principles. Holy mother of god, did I find one.

Last night, Saturday, August 22, I watched comedienne Tig Notaro’s HBO special, “Boyish Girl Interrupted.” I cannot remember ever seeing a more startling display of vulnerability, courage, and, well — do yourself a favor and read about, here.

Click here to read more about Tig Notaro.

Tig Notaro

 

01
Mar
2015

How Imani McGee-Stafford Found Her Voice

categories: Social Transformation, Speaking Truthfully, Speaking Truthfully AWARD, Sports

I have created the Speaking Truthfully Award to recognize and honor people who exemplify and embody Speaking Truthfully principles and practices.

Award

 

“I’ve always been a story waiting to be told, a survivor waiting to be a hero.”

Imani McGee-Stafford, a University of Texas student and star basketball player, uses the power of her voice to triumph over sexual molestation and three suicide attempts.

Imani McGee-Stafford

Imani McGee-Stafford

“I always say poetry is air because I think it’s something I can’t live without. I credit poetry with saving my life. I don’t think I would be here if I didn’t find poetry.”

Reading about her triumph and listening to her speak, one can only be energized and empowered and encouraged to use one’s voice and story for the benefit of others and for the soul-saving grace of oneself.

Don’t forget me

Don’t let a minute pass you by

Don’t forget these words …

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