Category Archives: Personal Empowerment

That is a potent dynamic for a story, one reflected in different ways throughout pop history, where talented young women are exploited by powerful men. Macdonald keeps that fuse burning throughout, depicting Janets career as a personal battleground in which she has had to assert herself time and time again in a world dominated by male figures. Aged 18, she sacked her father and broke away from the Jackson organisation. Discipline without love is tyranny, and tyrants they were not, she loyally says of her parents, but her lingering unease at the choices her late father (in particular) made for her permeate the film.

Famous female talking heads, including Mariah Carey, Whoopi Goldberg, Missy Elliot and Janelle Mone, keep popping up to proclaim Janets talent and influence, but the star herself comes across as ineffably sad, often tearful, and emotionally conflicted about her career.

I was innocent, It wasnt fair, Its still painful, she remarks in a soft, trembling voice as she considers controversies that have dogged her, or relationships that went sour. Three marriages have ended in divorce, and various close personal friends (mainly choreographers, hairdressers, stylists and her official biographer, David Ritz) tentatively suggest issues with controlling men, somewhat ironically given how much of Janets most successful music has been about self-empowerment, notably her breakout 1986 album Control.

The second episode unearths compelling footage of Janet arguing with famed R&B producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis in the studio, and there is a constant assertion of her creative autonomy, yet the story keeps landing back in places where Janet feels victimised, unappreciated and uncertain who is controlling the narrative. She confesses to being an emotional eater who has struggled with her weight and reveals that Michael used to call her a pig and cow, then quickly defends him. It was not malice on his part, but it hurts.

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Janet Jackson, review: pain, regret and 'nipplegate' but there's no escaping Michael - The Telegraph

Where is Architecture Going After the Pandemic Fades?

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This article was originally published on Common Edge.

In terms of Covid, 2022 is more likely to be like 1920 than like 2020 or 2021.Change or die is a clich, but often a true one. The past two years under the pandemic have forced many kinds of changes across society that may have helped prevent a lot of deaths. But many other aspects of our culture had already been changing in ways that predated the pandemic, gradual shifts that, once Covid hit, became instant and ubiquitous: remote work, remote learning, the dominance of online shopping and the death of brick-and-mortar retail, the obsessive focus on health and well-being. All of this, and more, is now a fundamental aspect of our daily lives.

I think similar changes are at work in architecture.

The aesthetic revolution ofInternational School Modernism exploded into America before World War II, became the aesthetic default for recognition, and eventually was seen as the future of the profession. But radical movements change when they cannot sustaintheir expectations.Puritans were religious zealots who came to America and then, over a century, changed into Congregationalists. Marxists in the 19th century became Communists in the 20th, and now what wasCommunism has largely morphed into socialist statism.

If the past is prologue, then the pandemic may provide a pivot, where transformative change becomes possible.

Birthed in radical Modernism, the orthodoxy of Modernist aesthetics reigned unquestioned for several generations. That default outcome may be changingjust as radical Puritans and Marxists had compelling ideas for a minority of those they sought to save, while their ideas ceased to have relevance for everyone else. The internet allows for mass reaction to elite determination. There are no governing institutions, magazines, or museums to anoint a favored way of making architecture to the exclusion of others. Everyone can talk to anyone, now, for free. Ideas are flung out and responses are received. Debate occurs, instead of top-down direction from an expert class.The recent rethink in what we want from our homes was not led by HOUZZ,Architectural Digest, realtors, or the AIA, but by people deciding that what they had was not what they wanted or needed.

Architects are beginning to look at what they value, and how what they want and what they value can be manifest, not as a style, but as a basis for creating buildings and communities. This healthy change has been triggered in part by these two crazy years.

So much shut down in 2020 that most architects felt the construction constriction and a huge drop in billings that was not reversed for six months. Then the Covid bubble, when design and construction activity exploded, arrived for many and carried through to the end of 2021, when billings for most architects gravitated back to flat.

Regions vary, but the pandemic is global, so this has been a unique two-year moment when everyone was sitting in the same leaky boat. Construction is essentially an on-site, in-person exercise, classified as an essential activity during the 2020 lockdowns, so any architect building anything was busy. But economic uncertainty often stalled or terminated commercial projects or residential work in cities. Last year saw that depression become a boom, as interest rates remained low and desire ratcheted up in a time of uncertainty. Now, as with 1920, when the flu pandemic waned, Covid is slowly becoming more of a bother and less of an outright terror.

What does this mean for design? Since the Great Recession of 2008, the rollercoaster of the construction worlds boom/bust economic model had flattened to a lower-than-boom/higher- than-bust continuity.This decade of dull activity was essentially without any discernible direction.Yesterdays starchitects were passing away, with no new heroes offering anything but a broadly applied mutation of Modernism, or the parallel boutique of Classicism. Of course there were ongoing refinements of sustainability and resilience, and trendy marketing fads like 3D printing or tiny houses.The pandemic smashed this shaky status quo, but these two years have yet to reveal any coherent path forward and, even worse, have distracted everyone from the growing, increasingly daunting reality of climate change.

Academic enrollment for architecture was robust and steady before the pandemic, with about 27,000 students during the 201920 academic year. About 30,000 architecture positions were eliminated in 2020, and a third of those jobs returned in 2021, with an anecdotal shortage of people for jobs now plaguing the profession. Its a time of dramatic work fluctuations, but relatively steady human involvement.

Architecture culture, however, has been forever changed by digital technology. The 200,000-plus architects and 27,000 architecture students are finding each other instead of looking to an architectural establishment. Internet sites like The EntreArchitect, which has grown to more than 6,000 members in the past year, are conducting daily live streams and podcasts, bypassing the established venues of top-down communication. Architect Evelyn Lee focuses on new and evolving ways of using an architecture degree and making things in her Practice Disrupted podcast, as part of the website Practice of Architecture. Websites like Common Edge, ArchDaily, Architizer, and other venues have opened up editorial content to a broad spectrum of approaches, aesthetics, and authors. For the first time, thousands of voices (often unedited, alas), can express thought without the correct focus of the media and industry establishment.

When the Great Recession destroyed advertising revenue for publishing and limited the cash that architects had for PR and photographers, a long-established way of promoting architecture was compromised. That same moment saw the instant availability of smartphones, with insanely good cameras, huge memory, and powerful transmission. This digital revolution turned graphic duffers into artists. Anyone can now photo, video, and narrate any perception, anywhere, instantly, often for free,and share universally.

Institutions are both forming and changing, taking advantage of these new technologies. In my teaching at the University of Hartford, I can bring in many different voices into the studio at no cost. Similarly, I can be a live jury critic for Ryerson University in Toronto at no cost to them, and very limited time by me. The Building Beauty Program has flourished on the internet and added ancillary seminars and lectures. My local AIA chapter has also offered any number of new connections in programs, offering a diversity of perspective that was impossible before these technologies and was accelerated by the circumstances of sequestration.

Our Covid isolation has also spawned an upsurge in populist criticism, led by the participants, not by an elite dictating what gets criticized or why. Modernism, a Facebook group for architects, has long debates and open submissions for anyone who signs up. Another, Thats It: Im Architecture Shaming, has more than 500,000 members and endless commentary in conversation. Kate Wagners McMansion Hell remains an internet sensation, where posts receive thousands of comments, unsolicited, unedited, and free.

Change is happening, whether we like it or not.In cities, this means that office buildings in now-struggling commercial zones may morph into mixed-use structures. Universities may have part of their student enrollment shift fromin-person to interest-based classes, facilitated by remote capacity, but also manifesting the personal empowerment new technologies afford anyone who can access them. Telemedicine will live on long after Covid becomes endemic. And the ability to see and share architecture and even find designers who share your values (as opposed to a look) is now possible. Humans need human contact, so the use of virtual meetings will change to suit its limitationsonce this pandemic ebbs.

For a century in architecture, the canon of Modernist orthodoxy squeezed out aesthetic diversity, and was threatened for only a decade by the now-disdained PoMo revolt. But the time when a consensus elite has the exclusive tools of communication, creating an expert class for publication, communication and recognition, is over.

Ding-dong, the Canon may be dead. In its place may be a breadth of architectural expression that will surely alarm the purists, the ideologues, and will assuredly have some flawed outcomes, but might also celebrate the undeniablehumanity of buildings. Our culture continually finds both new language and new ways of speaking to each other, especially in unprecedented times. And thats when real change happens.

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Where is Architecture Going After the Pandemic Fades? - ArchDaily

This morning, the fashion industry woke up to the news of the loss of another titan: Manfred Thierry Mugler. Announced via a post on the legendary French designers personal Instagram account, Thierry passed away on Sunday of natural causes, The Guardian reports, triggering an outpouring of tributes from some of the most prominent voices in fashion and entertainment.

First coming to prominence in the mid-1970s, the designer played a formative role in shaping the exaggerated, architectural style that came to be known as power dressing bold-shouldered, wasp-waisted tailoring that cut imposing, dramatic silhouettes. Through the late 80s and 90s, he then went on to create some of the most enrapturing, otherworldly and outlandishly camp fashion confections the world has ever seen. Fittingly, his work was often presented in marathon spectacles that were more like acts of classical theatre than the 10-minute fashion week sprints were more used to today.

He became one of the most in-demand designers for stage-friendly style throughout his career. David Bowie famously catalysed the rising of the designers star when he wore a Mugler dress for his 1979 Saturday Night Live performance. The designer was behind some of the most significant fashion and pop culture crossover moments in history: the looks worn by Linda, Christy, Naomi and co. in George Michaels Too Funky video; the seminal campaigns for his best-selling perfume, Angel, starring Jerry Hall; and the custom looks hes created for some of todays most emblematic celebrities perhaps most memorable of all being the wet-look dress he designed for Kim Kardashian West for the 2019 Met Gala.

For all the sparkle, fantasy and theatricality of the world that Manfred Thierry Mugler built, a profound sense of humanity remained at the core. Throughout his lifetime, the designer was one of the most staunch advocates of the LGBTQ community, casting trans models like Connie Fleming and Teri Toye on his runway in the 90s; and in 1992 presenting the very first Life Ball, now one of the worlds biggest charity events supporting people living with HIV and AIDS.

Though his passing certainly marks a huge loss for the world, his legacy is an indelible one. As Casey Cadwallader, the current creative director of the house Manfred Thierry Mugler founded, wrote in an Instagram post, he changed our perception of beauty, of confidence, of representation, of self-empowerment, laying the foundation for fashion culture as we now know it.

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Manfred Thierry Mugler 1948 - 2022 - i-D

The Gaden Shartse monks have returned to Northern California, and will be offering different teachings, healings, and empowerments during their week-and-a-half stay in Grass Valley.

The monks visit includes the construction of a sand mandala that will be dissolved into Wolf Creek following its completion on Jan 29.

The majority of the events, including the construction of the sand mandala, will take place at Banner Community Guild, at 12629 McCourtney Road, though an animal blessing will take place Sunday at Animal Save, 520 E. Main St., in Grass Valley.

10 a.m., 10:45 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Saturday: Personal healings; 2 p.m.: Teaching on this precious life (part two), first noble truth; 7 p.m.: Medicine Buddha empowerment.

10 a.m. Sunday: Vajravidharan group healing; 2 p.m.: Animal Blessing at Animal Save, 520 E. Main St., Grass Valley.

2 p.m. Monday: Teaching on aging (part one), second noble truth (cause and effect); 7 p.m.: Teaching on aging ( part two), third noble truth (attain nirvana).

Tuesday: To be determined.

2 p.m. Wednesday: Chay Drol healing empowerment; 7 p.m.: Teaching on aging (part three), fourth noble truth (six perfections).

2 p.m. Thursday: Teaching on aging (part four), fourth noble truth (eightfold path); 7 p.m.: Prayers for the sick, dying and recently deceased.

2 p.m. Friday: Teaching on dying, death and rebirth; 7 p.m.: Explanation of Dukar sand mandala, followed by the Dukar empowerment.

10 a.m. Jan. 29: Closing ceremony and sand mandala dissolution at noon at Wolf Creek in Grass Valley.

Dates and times are subject to change. The monks are available for house, business and land blessings. Personal healings will take place at the Banner Guild by appointment. Suggested viewing of the sand mandala $1 to $10, and for events $10 to $20.

For more information, contact Joseph at 530-798-9576, sierrafriendsoftibet@gmail.com, http://www.sierrafriendsoftibet.org, and on Facebook at Sierra Friends of Tibet.

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Healing and empowerment: Gaden Shartse monks return to Nevada County - The Union

The Hearst Foundations Inc. has announced a $150,000 gift to the U of A Graduate School to help fund the Razorgrad Institute for Success and Engagement program, or RISE.

The contribution is intended to provide program support and scholarships that will increase enrollment for first-generation and underrepresented graduate students in the RISE program.

The RISE programming is doing exactly what it is designed to do creating a sense of belonging and engagement for underrepresented and first-generation students and introducing them to the University of Arkansas, said Curt Rom, interim dean of the Graduate School and International Education. By helping the participants establish strong relationships, make professional connections on campus and create a sense of place, we are also seeing increased retention and graduation rates for those who participate.

RISE, developed in 2018 to increase diversity among the graduate student population at the U of A, is led by Laura Moix, director of graduate student support. The weeklong program is for 18-20 promising new graduate students from historically underrepresented populations during the transition to graduate education.

The Hearst Foundations funding will allow the RISE program to accept 10 additional students per year in future cohorts, provide financial support for participants to continue in the program during the academic year and extend program-specific offerings beyond the initial week throughout the students first academic year.

We are proud of our long association with the university, said Paul Dino Dinovitz, executive director for the Hearst Foundations San Francisco office. The Hearst Foundations seek transformative initiatives such as this and are pleased to be a partner in the RISE program. Efforts designed to improve access and ensure success for students are more important now than ever before.

RISE participants share in activities focused on self-empowerment, professional development, academic skills and personal growth, while creating a community between friends, mentors, advisers and supporters for their career at the U of A.

Expanding the program is an important part of the Graduate Schools strategic effort to create a more engaged culture and climate of appreciation for diversity and inclusivity.

In the fall of 2020, 22 percent of U of A graduate students were from racially underrepresented populations. This percentage is strong compared with other SEC institutions, whose diverse graduate enrollment ranges from 17 to 21 percent in a typical year.

The increased funding from the Hearst Foundations will allow RISE programming to expand the sense of belonging that minority graduate students experience by participating in the program.

RISE partners with numerous groups for its programming. These include the UofA Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation; student Counseling and Psychological Services; University Libraries; the School of Art; the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; the Jane B. Gearhart Full Circle Food Pantry; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; and employees from UofA departments including Communication, Gender Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, and African and African American Studies.

The Hearst Foundations initially invested in engineering education diversity at the U of A in 1991, when they awarded their first grant to support doctoral fellowships for female and minority engineering students. The organization also provided endowment funding to the College of Engineering to support the Women In Engineering program and additional financial gifts to the Engineering Career Awareness Program scholarship fund.

About the Hearst Foundations:The Hearst Foundations are independent private philanthropies operating separately from the Hearst Corporation. Since their founding in the 1940s by William Randolph Hearst, the Foundations have awarded more than 20,000 grants to nonprofit organizations and institutions in the fields of education, health, culture and social service.

About the University of Arkansas:As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than$2.2 billion to Arkansas economythrough the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the top 3% of U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity.U.S. News & World Reportranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world atArkansas Research News.

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Hearst Foundations Gift Aimed to Expand RISE Program - University of Arkansas Newswire

JERSEY CITY, N.J. | Professor and author Ilyasah Shabazz, the daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz `71, will be the keynote speaker on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 when New Jersey City University (NJCU) holds its 33rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration. The event, sponsored by NJCUs Lee Hagan Africana Studies Center, will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Due to the recent rise in COVID-19 cases, the event will now be held in a virtual format for the general public, rather than in-person on campus. Attendance is free by registering in advance at https://njcu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_SlO2nS2vRumlC9icLUKBhA.

Following the keynote remarks by Shabazz, there will be a question-and-answer session with the audience as she is interviewed by moderator Dr. Natoschia Scruggs, the director of the Hagan Center.

Shabazzs mother, Dr. Betty Shabazz, is a distinguished alumna, having earned a Bachelor of Arts in Health Education and School Nursing from NJCU, then known as Jersey City State College, in 1971.

Ilyasah Shabazz is an award-winning author, educator, and producer. She has authored five historical novels and has served as project advisor for the PBS award-winning documentary film, Prince Among Slaves. She is co-chairperson of the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. In her work to preserve the legacy of her parents, she has dedicated herself to institution building and intergenerational leadership development with the tenets of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Ms. Shabazz has furthered her community impact with the City University of New Yorks Office of Academic Affairs, where she created curriculum to encourage higher education for underserved, inner-city high school dropouts. She has worked with the Office of the Mayor in Mount Vernon as Director of Public Affairs & Special Events. She founded and produced a young adult development program aiming to provide insight on social justice and encouraging personal empowerment. As president and founder of Ilyasah Shabazz Enterprises, she produces a variety of forums dedicated to power, possibility, and sovereignty.

Ms. Shabazz is a member of the Soar Higher Cabinet Committee for the State University of New York at New Paltz; a member of the Advisory Council for the Equal Rights Amendment Coalition; a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; and serves as a Trustee for the Harlem Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Shabazz holds a Master of Science in Education and Human Resource Development from Fordham University and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from SUNY-New Paltz. Currently, she is an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, where she teaches Perspectives on Justice in the Africana World. Grounded in the commitments of her parents, Ms. Shabazz emphasizes empowerment and inclusion in her teaching and scholarship.

About NJCU: New Jersey City University is an institution of higher learning with an audacious goal: the development of our students, our city, our communities, our state, and the world beyond. We are a game-changing force for our students and their families. Whether our students are enrolled in one of our 50 undergraduate, 28 graduate or three doctoral programs, NJCU provides an affordable, diverse environment, and an exceptionally supportive facultyall of which prepares them to be critical thinkers in a global landscape.

Were also changing the game for our city, our communities, and our state. As the educational anchor institution in Jersey City, weve established partnerships to ensure the areas growth directly benefits our students and community members. We seek to improve the lives of everyone in the Garden State, whether creating a home for the arts, bringing educational programs to K-12 students, offering bachelors degrees in partnership with community colleges, or providing professional development opportunities for adults.

At NJCU, were not just educating minds, were nourishing souls and lifting communities. Were changing the game.

http://www.NJCU.edu

Contact: Ira Thor, Senior Director of University Communications and Media Relations | ithor@njcu.edu | 201-200-3301

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Ilyasah Shabazz, Daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz `71 to be Keynote Speaker January 19 at NJCU's 33rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr....

One could argue that the world has been stuck in BAD MODE for a few years now.

Granted, its not all bad: for many, including Hikaru Utada, its also been a time of reprioritizing relationships, taking internal inventory and doing the hard work of self-care. That process has resulted not only in new music from the Japanese-American singer their first album in four years, BAD MODE, is out Wednesday (Jan. 19) on Milan Records/Sony Music Masterworks but in significant personal revelations along the way.

Hikki the nickname affectionately adopted by their fans first soared to staggering heights of stardom in Japan in 1998, at the age of 15, with the self-penned, co-produced singles Automatic and Time Will Tell, followed by their record-shattering 1999 debut First Love, which remains the bestselling album in Japanese history. Their imagery-rich songwriting style paired with an ever-evolving sound blurring elements of R&B, pop, rock, jazz and electronica resulted in millions of records sold over the years. Myriad contributions to movie, TV and video game soundtracks included, among their most beloved work, the themes for the Kingdom Hearts franchise, including Hikari and its English version, Simple & Clean.

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In the mid 00s, they traded omnipresence in Japan for relative obscurity in the United States, returning stateside for a new challenge: an electro-experimental English opus. Exodus, one of the earliest major label crossover efforts for an Asian pop star, spawned the Billboard U.S. Dance Club Songs chart-topper Devil Inside, which appeared in Queer as Folk.

Exodus was not a major commercial success, nor was R&B-heavy 2009 follow-up This Is The One, but a pioneering feat nonetheless especially at a time when popular acts hailing from Asia were still largely absent from the U.S. charts, and before social media and streaming allowed for greater access to global entertainers. Still, Exodus would go on to enjoy fan-favorite status, and its liberated spirit would even inspire the BAD MODE sessions nearly two decades later.

The notoriously low-key singer, who spent much of their life traveling between the U.S. and Japan, now finds their home and heart stationed in London, preparing the release of their latest record. While steeped in R&B melodies reminiscent of their early era, BAD MODE is among their most electronic endeavors in years from the dazzling One Last Kiss, to self-empowerment dance-pop anthem Find Love, to Somewhere Near Marseilles, which plays like a 12-minute extended remix.

Its a notable shift for Hikaru, who speaks of getting sonically very weird again following 2016s Fantme, a moving meditation on life and loss, and the introspective follow-up, Hatsukoi, two years later. Although the multi-talented musician is often solely responsible for composing their own music, a few key guests supply additional flourishes, including PC Music maestro A.G. Cook as well as British producer Sam Shepard (better known as Floating Points), pushing the tracks and the artist into new musical territory. Theres also one particularly surprising collaborator: their 6-year-old son.

BAD MODE is also the first record since Hikarus headline-making Instagram Live last year, during which they came out as nonbinary. The brief announcement seemed impromptu, but was actually anything but and was just as quickly met with an outpouring of global love and support. Fittingly, BAD MODE is all about love and support too, especially and crucially for oneself.

In a candid conversation, Hikaru spoke to Billboard about their new record and accompanying concert special, identity, navigating fame at a young age, and improving all forms of their relationships.

BAD MODE is an unexpected title. What does the term mean to you?

Its a weird mixture of English and Japanese, actually. I know it doesnt make a lot of sense in English. It doesnt really either in Japanese. Its a modern thing, more with the youth. In Japanese, when you take the English word bad, like Oh, it gives me the bad, it means that it gets me depressed, or gives me bad vibes. So bad is short for bad vibes. The way Ive used it in the song is the opposite of feeling amazing and being in a great situation. Its, in a nutshell, being a little bit depressed, or just going through a bit of a low period.

Is that how you would describe the period of making this album?

It wasnt the overall feeling in the period I was making the album, but we all have dips. Ive been depressed and great, all those things. At the time I wrote the song, as human beings, we were all going through a difficult time with the pandemic.

Also, in personal ways with my close friends and family, there were a lot of things that made me want to be supportive. What does it mean to be a good, supportive friend, or family member, or partner, or lover, or whatever relationship you have with another person? That song was me thinking about, What would I want from someone? And how can I do that for someone else? Ultimately, that was the answer. How can I be independent and have a good relationship with myself so I can improve my relationships with those around me?

In a Q&A last year, you explained that on previous albums, your music was inspired by your relationships with others, but that this album was shaping up to be more about a relationship with yourself.

Yes. In the time I made the songs on the album, I was really focusing on working on the relationship with myself, self-love and just the whole. I love RuPaul, and Im such a big fan of RuPauls Drag Race. Its so inspiring and moving. The main message being: if you cant love yourself, how are you going to love somebody else? Amen! I was just thinking, Yes! That is it, exactly.

So, its safe to say Drag Race helped inspire this album?

Yes.

Do you have any favorite queens?

I began watching from the first season. So many of them are good well, all of them are really good. But something thats been fresh in my mind is the UK series, and Bimini Bon Boulash. She just really stood out to me. I wish shed won. I related to the growth. I get excited when I feel myself growing or opening up or discovering something about myself. I feel like I saw that during that season with her. I think thats why I felt very personally involved.

It feels like the right time to mention this: a decade ago, I wrote about coming out through the music of Exodus. You shared it in one of, I think, your first English tweets, and said it gave you some insight into the reason for the high count of your gay fans. First, I want to say thank you for that

No, thank you for that.

I was wondering if you had thoughts on how your music has resonated with the queer community.

Yes. When I noticed I seemed to have a lot of queer fans, it just seemed natural to me. I didnt find it surprising. It just made sense. Theres a sense of being an outsider, or not being able to be yourself, which is horrible. Fearing that you wont be accepted the way you are. I relate to that a lot. It makes me happy when I hear that my loneliness, or my sense of being an outsider, is something that can be shared. We can feel that together.

I also dont think youve discussed your Pride stream announcement much further yet, and wanted to give you the opportunity to do so.

I didnt know the word nonbinary until probably not even a full two years before that. When I came across the idea of it in Japanese, theres this expression, fish scales fall off of your eyeballs. (Me kara uroko ga ochiru.) Its a weird expression, but thats exactly what I felt. Its a moment of eureka, or shock, almost.

When I was with boys, I felt like I was trying to be a boy. When I was with girls, I felt like I was trying to be a girl. Nothing felt completely natural to me. There was a bit of forcing myself somehow in social situations, or seeing my own body and every time thinking, Oh, what? Wellokay. But when I brought up things like that with people I trust, it was always like, Oh well, youre this kooky artist. I never met anyone who said, Oh my God, I know what thats like. I just thought it was a me thing. To know there were loads of people out there feeling something similar, it was the most validating experience Ive ever had. It just changed everything my relationship with the world and myself but it wasnt anything I felt I needed to tell everyone.

Time went on. I saw people with big platforms saying, This is the least I can do. Visibility is so important. I was really feeling that. I thought, Okay, what have I got to lose?

The Instagram Q&A coincided with that. I usually notice a theme in the questions. A lot of people were asking or the ones that stood out to me, maybe about being gay, not being able to come out, feeling guilty because they have a partner but cant tell the rest of the world. There were a lot of people saying, After trying so long to be liked by everyone, I no longer know who I am. I felt those were connected issues. It made me think, What can I do?

The urge to do what I could was growing, but I was still really scared to say it officially. I thought, Wow, its scary for me, and I dont even have to worry about getting fired over this or losing family support. I know all my friends and family will be fine, and Im still really scared. All Im scared of is losing some kind of public image some people I dont even know might have. Thats silly. If I say it, it might have a positive effect. At the end of the day, I was just being honest, so what harm could it do?

But it was still scary. I remember shaking a bit before saying it. I was like, Ill just try to say this casually as I can, but I really needed to have my big teddy bear Kuma behind me. [laughs] I had to go off social media for a while after that, because the reaction was quite intense, especially in Japan. But Im really happy that I said that Im nonbinary. It was a good decision. All the love and support was really amazing.

It was an incredible move, and I think it inspired many people. As you said, the visibility does matter.

Thank you.

When it comes to social media, you tweet life observations here and there, and on Instagram, you share objects you find. There was also a time you did blog updates. What is your relationship to social media now? Are you looking at it?

Im not very active on it. I just dont feel the need to be. Often, I think, Oh, I should be advertising about work-related stuff, or mention that I have an album coming. I do more of that on Twitter, but I like just sharing the stuff I see.

I really like finding things. Theres a sense of being lost, something that was left behind. It makes me imagine the person or thing that has lost this thing that I found. Both ends. Im serious. I found another plaster bandage on the ground today and got really excited. I took a photo. I so look forward to posting it on Instagram. Ive just come to point where Im like, Ugh, Im crap at using it as a promotional thing, but its okay.

As long as it sparks joy. Most people have a negative relationship with social media. I think its interesting what insights we do get into your personal life on the album. On Not in the Mood, is the little voice there your son?

Yeah. Its my son. I was working on the track at home in this room, and he just walked in and sat on my lap and I said, You want to listen? He was listening to it, and said, Oh, how about this? And he began singing his idea. I was like, Oh yeah, thats good. You want to put that down? And he stood on my chair, sang into the mic properly with headphones on. It was really nice, so it made it into the song.

I didnt use it just because its my son. I told him I cant promise you itll be in the song, but it might make it. When I played him the final product, I was like, See? You sound amazing. Youre in the end. Its the best part. Hes like, Yeah. I think that my part should be more in the other choruses too, like an echo to your singing.

Wow! So hes got the musical ear already.

Yeah. He has ideas. I love that hes fearless, and that hes confident and expressing himself.

How aware is he of the Hikaru Utada legacy?

He is aware of it. He came to my tour in Japan at the end of 2018. He saw the dress rehearsal, and one show in Tokyo, and one in Osaka. He remembers that pretty well and knows my songs. He says that Im his favorite singer. I just [smiling] Aww. But he listens to other stuff! I dont just make him listen to my songs! No, no other artists! [laughs]

But its really cool. He says he wants to be a singer. And a scientist. And a football player and an explorer. He knows Im a singer. If we go somewhere, like were at the hairdresser and hes getting a haircut, hes like, Yeah, I want to be a singer. My moms a singer, too. I feel really lucky that he can see the stuff Ive made and hes proud of me.

Thats so sweet. If you debuted today at the same age you did then, do you think it would have been easier?

It would be more difficult, probably. It was difficult enough at that point, just having the loss of privacy and having paparazzi all around. Being a teenager is hard. Being 14 is a difficult time. Youre so sensitive. Your brain is still changing. You dont know who you are yet. You dont need all these people adding lenses that are not even yours to your own view of yourself. But thats what happens when you get famous. It hurts to be misunderstood. I think you can learn ways of letting it affect you less, but I dont think its possible to be completely immune to the hurtfulness that comes along with being misunderstood. Or the loneliness.

Im glad I just had tabloids and paparazzi. It was the dawn of this whole Internet age, and those forums. I was 15 and I came across a forum that said, The lets-talk-st-about-Hikaru Utada forum. Fked up. It was just so unnecessary. Looking back, Im grateful, because it helped me understand early on that its so not personal. They just needed someone to talk st about. I was visible and readily available. If you seem successful, its easy for people to think, Look at how great that persons doing. I hate that person. It had nothing to do with me. It taught me how to separate it from myself. It could have been anyone famous.

You live in London now, where you recorded a special concert showcase premiering at the same time as this record. Can you talk about preparing this, the set list choices, and how the overall experience was for you?

I didnt really know what to expect going into it, but it turned out to be a really special and intimate performance. I loved the closer interaction I got with everyone involved in the project because it was a small team compared to a tour, and I think the great, warm vibe we had going from rehearsals allowed me to share more intimate sides of my creative process during the performance.

And the band look and sound amazing. Its so nice to be able to see so much of what theyre doing and all their gear, etc. Originally, we thought of doing the entire album but not all the songs were done in time for the show. Im glad we got to throw in some songs from the past because of that though both from Exodus. They seemed to fit in with the feeling of the new material and it was a fun challenge.

There are some songs that have been huge hits and major milestones in your career. But when you look back, are there specific records or songs that youre personally particularly proud of, and why?

If I have to pick something, I would say Exodus, because I can appreciate how bold I was, and it still sounds weird and fresh and exciting to me and Fantme, which marked the beginning of a new chapter of my life as an artist and as a human being. They were the most honest and courageous Id allowed myself to be up to that point.

I would compare the new album to Exodus in ways. Was it a conscious decision?

I was listening to more clubby, dance-y stuff. That sounds like a really unprofessional way of expressing that genre. [laughs] Yeah, I was into house music quite a lot around when I made Find Love. There were new artists I discovered, like Moodymann and Glenn Underground, that I got really into. I think if you listen to Glenn Undergrounds May Datroit, youll see the influence on Find Love.

With the two albums before BAD MODE [Fantme and Hatsukoi], they were experimental to me in the sense that I used a lot of live instrumentation, which was a great learning experience. I was lucky. There were these great musicians I had access to. It was about trusting other people and letting something happen that was not entirely under my control. I could make a demo and give instructions in some ways, but then you have to trust them and roll with it and see what happens. It was a nice way to build confidence and feel a bit more grown-up about everything.

After two albums like that, I knew I wanted to do something sonically very weird again. I wanted to go back there. I thought back on Exodus and felt a similar feeling, like a liberation happening within myself. I just wanted to let it happen, with more electronic sounds that I built from zero.

I got some great help on this album. It was really cool collaborating with Nariaki Obukuro. Ive been working with him for some time on his stuff, too. And A.G. Cook and Floating Points such a blessing. I feel so lucky I got to meet them and work with them. Theres a friendship as well. Making new friends who I can also make really interesting stuff withthats been really cool.

Youve always been hands-on with production. When do you finally say, Okay, actually yes, its time to collaborate?

To me, making music has always been really private. Its my safe space that came out of necessity, almost. So its been a lot of just me, and needing to feel alone and safe to get into it. I havent really collaborated that much, mainly for that reason. Its been difficult to share that space and open up. But I did, even on songs I basically did most of the tracks on. I wanted some outside help when it got technical so I could say, This is the thing Ive laid down, but I want to change the sound to something a bit more like this. That just made more sense to me.

It was finding people that were just cool and flexible. Maybe also me being more secure, so I could tell them what it is that I want. I think I got a lot better at it. Before, I couldnt really explain that to someone. Working with musicians gave me a great deal of practice in verbally explaining what direction I want the song to go. Ultimately, music is a shared language. At the same time, theyve helped me socially and musically.

This is also the first time youve had Japanese and English versions of multiple songs on one album.

I stopped placing restrictions on myself. Why not have both English songs and Japanese songs in one album? I live and breathe in both languages, and looking back, it feels weird that I thought I had to separate those sides of myself.

Is there something new youve learned about yourself in making this record?

I learned that I am a person with love. I was always scared that I dont know what love is, that theres something wrong with me, and the feeling that people talk about seemed elusive and mysterious. I still dont think I experience love as a feeling.

Ive come to my own idea of love, which is that for me, loving someone means committing to do my best to always make the other person feel loved, no matter what theyre going through. And Ive been trying to do that for myself, too. Working on songs about self-love, self-esteem, and being there for someone, like Find Love, PINK BLOOD and BAD MODE, were a part of my journey in getting where I am now.

What does success look like to Hikaru Utada in 2022, and has your definition of success changed over the years?

Success. Wow. I dont think anyones ever really asked me that before.

I think of my favorite quote from this Japanese poet and novelist, Kenji Miyazawa. No one knows what true happiness is, least of all me. But no matter how hard it is, if you keep to the path you deem to be true, you can overcome any mountain. With each step in that direction, people come closer to happiness, said the lighthouse keeper, comfortingly. I agree, said the young man, closing his eyes as if in prayer, but to reach the truest happiness, one must make their way through many sorrows. Night on the Galactic Railroad.

I dont really believe in the concept of success. I think its just an idea that exists in our minds. I also dont believe in failure, because whatever you do now can change the meaning of something that happened in the past. Something you thought was a failure, you could look back on and realize, Oh, that got me here now and I feel successful, or vice versa. I think it just depends on what moment youre looking back on. Its an interpretation, and it always changes. Thats whats great about doing stuff and continuing to do stuff. The only failure is if I were to give up trying. And so, I suppose a successful year for me would mean a year of continuing to try. Trying, learning, and growing.

Original post:

Hikaru Utada Returns, With BAD Mode & A Better Sense of Self - Billboard

Six months ago, American Hospital Dubai graced Arab Health 2021 with an impressive stand Shape of the Future. Breaking the barriers of the conventional exhibition, the stand justified American Hospital Dubai as the centre of medical excellence.

A year later, here we are once again ready to be propelled right into the future of healthcare. American Hospital Dubai will execute another immersive stand.

Over the course of the year, the medical giants have only looked forward. They have been consistent in their relentless pursuit of exploring new avenues of technology that continue to aid towards the progress of the human-health relationship. Justifiably so, the stand at Arab Health 2022, exemplifies the evolution of healthcare, technology, and the power of experiential through the Pillars of Evolution.

This year, we will be showcasing American Hospital Dubais breakthroughs in key disease fields, says Sherif Beshara, Group CEO of Mohammad & Obaid AlMulla Group, the holding company of American Hospital Dubai.

Our centres of excellence in cancer, diabetes, cardiology, orthopaedics, and neuroscience have been path-definers in treatment efficacy and transformative medicine, leading the fields with evidence-based care delivered with the highest values of patient-focused care. These dedicated centres are leaders in their field owing to our commitment to providing the best and latest treatment methods and application of medical discoveries.

The stand is a manifestation of the grit of the scholars and medical professionals of American Hospital Dubai to always go above and beyond while keeping the synergy between man and machine at the core of the healthcare experience. A key theme this year is healthcare transformation, and American Hospital Dubai truly understands the value of transformation.

To completely know the importance of transformation, we must first know who the change will benefit and then work to make that happen, explains Beshara. These imperatives alone define the purpose of transformation. The reality is that myriad influences have shaped todays patient: greater access to information, self-empowerment through technology, redefined expectations from healthcare entities and a reshaped view of personal wellness and safety due to the pandemic.

These have had an inalterable impact on patient attitudes and outlook. We are witnessing a new era in the urgency for healthcare entities to move beyond diagnosis and treatment and speed towards prevention and prediction. So, any form of transformation in healthcare must ultimately be patient focused. The shift must be from service-provider focused operations to customer-intended facilities and performance, and relook process, approach, and values.

This year the purpose was also to emphasise the evolutionary advantages of integrating technology into the field of medicine. The feats of American Hospital Dubai have been mammoth and certainly complex. Hence, there was a strong possibility that their achievements could get lost in translation.

Lets face it, comprehending extended medical terms isnt everyones cup of tea, and add revolutionary technology to the mix, youre looking dead in the eye at a rather tedious high-school science lecture right after your lunch break. Nobody wants that.

And that was the driving thought that led to the execution of the Pillars of Evolution. The holistically crafted stand is set to be immersive, interactive, and educate the visitors in a manner that is easy to decipher without compromising on the magnitude of their achievements.

This is made possible through multifaceted activations powered by modern event technology. Heres an insight into what can be expected once set foot into the Pillars of Evolution:

The Holo-Lens: A mixed reality activation that immerses you into a 360 educational experience of American Hospitals Oncology department.

Object Recognition Table: A live x-ray performed on a display mannequin provides an in-depth insight into the surgeries conducted across three major departments Cardiology, Neurology, and Orthopaedics.

The Robotic Arm Surgery: The Robotic Arm, the star activation of last years stand, makes another comeback. This time, evolved, depicts a more accurate representation of the pioneering robotic surgeries introduced at American Hospital Dubai.

Swipe and Show: An interactive screen activation that allows you to learn more about stem cell therapy and in-vitro fertilisation. Made easy to comprehend with infographics and video graphics.

RFID: Through the use of RFID-activated tags, the activations showcase how doctors and medical professionals can easily navigate the services at American Hospital through their newly digitalised operations system. An initiative that was executed through a collaboration of American Hospital Dubai and the engineers at Siemens.

Venturing into the Pillars of Evolution is en-route once again to set the tone for exhibition stands across the region. While perfectly showcasing American Hospital Dubai as the trailblazers of medical evolution, it also allows all of us to truly embark on an immersive journey in witnessing the impact of the experiential.

The purpose of healthcare is one-pointed: it is all about delivering patient satisfaction and encouraging preventive health, says Beshara. Everything we do to achieve that aim is deserving of constant scrutiny of approach, ethical impetuses, practical methodologies, repurposing values, and empowering healthcare personnel to be the flag bearers of a healthier future for humanity. American Hospital Dubai will embody all these values at the Arab Health 2022.

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American Hospital Dubai to emphasise the advantages of integrating technology into medicine - Gulf News

At one point in her life, Kathleen Ralls feared her true passion would delay her progress.

I sometimes wondered, Would my interest in slant towards female sports be a negative for me as I tried to advance in the [Massachusetts Daily] Collegian?

But since the start of her journalism career, her appreciation for womens athletics has been a driving force in her work. Now editing her first book for publication, Ralls has epitomized her passion for writing about women in sports as she prepares to publish a book which centers on female athletes and their stories, and the relationship between sports and female empowerment.

In 1998, Ralls sat in the office of the Collegian, editing articles, covering beats and completing daily tasks that other sports editors past and present have done. After starting as an English major when she arrived on campus at the University of Massachusetts, Ralls quickly switched to journalism her sophomore year. As her dedication to the paper grew, so did her progress within the section.

Upon arriving at UMass in 1997, Ralls, a Chelmsford native, prided herself in being a multi-sport athlete her entire life. After hearing about the Collegian, she immediately wanted to begin writing about sports. Unlike the teams she had played on most of her life, her teammates at the Collegian were predominately male; thus Ralls found herself not only gravitating more toward the few women involved with the sports section, but also providing coverage for the less popular womens teams.

It was fun for me to make friends and find other women who are as passionate about sports, and writing, Ralls said of her time at the paper.

The summer before her senior year she interned at the Lowell Sun, mainly covering golf along with other various sports in the area. The paper continued to use Ralls as what she described as a Western Mass sports resource, and allowed her to write stories and cover sports for the Sun throughout her senior year.

With a light schedule her senior year, Ralls began carefully selecting activities and beat coverage that catered to her interests. A retired field hockey player herself, she stepped back onto the field in a coaching role at Amherst High School.

In fact, that was one of the things that the other sports editor said was, Dont you want to cover UMass football? and I was like, No, I would rather coach high school field hockey than cover football, Ralls said with laughter.

That theme continued following her graduation when the Sun offered her a three-day-a-week gig writing for them, working the phones but still having the freedom to focus on coaching. Eventually, upon realizing that she had a lot of time on her hands, she began substitute teaching which turned into a new chapter of her life.

At the age of 22, Ralls recognized that her experience at the Collegian could help get her a free masters degree which is when her journey at American University began.

Again her love for sports drew her to a second job, working in the sports information department while getting her masters degree in teaching. The university recognized her strength in writing and requested her help on writing website features and media guides. The common thread of writing as a profession that came to fruition at UMass, continued.

And the theme of women in sports continued as well.

Flash forward to 2015, after a spending 15 years as a high school history teacher and coach of various sports, Ralls was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. She moved to Oslo, Norway and served as a roving scholar of American Studies while her husband remained in Lowell, Massachusetts.

I came back home and thought if I can do this Fulbright which was just an amazing experience, I traveled to 50 different schools across Norway that year and taught about American culture that maybe teaching wasnt the end-all-be-all for me. And thats when I pursued the PhD.

Ralls career path continued to change as she began to build a life centered around work that involved her true passions and interests.

Initially, I was going to pursue research on civics education, because I was a high school history teacher for 15 years, Ralls said. But two-and-a-half years into my program, I have one course left before I started the real like dissertation research.

I realized that what I was really passionate about wasnt civics education, compared to my love of female sports and empowerment.

Then it was off to Ethiopia to play catch-up on nearly two and a half years of research time she had lost when studying civics education.

Ralls research question was one she could have asked herself a decade prior sitting in the basement of the Student Union wondering if her interest would stunt her professional development and ultimate career goals.

Do girls who participate in sport perceive greater voice empowerment as a result?

For Ralls, the answer is yes. Ralls believes her participation in sports as both an athlete and as a sportswriter helped her become more confident in using her voice.

My dissertation successfully passed, and I published some academic articles. But the academic articles are pretty dry because thats what they are, Ralls said. I realized I wanted to pursue it on a more personal level, this idea of female empowerment and leadership and sports.

Ralls came across a program called the Creator Institute, which is run by a Georgetown professor and walks participants through the steps of writing a book. In May of 2021, she began the program and is now in the second stage of editing her book.

For some journalists, writing a book is a short- or long-term goal. For Ralls, it was neither. As a lover and appreciator of feature stories during her time at the Collegian, things began to feel similar when she stepped into an authorial role from a book perspective versus a journalistic lens.

Each time Ive done different kinds of writing, whether its journalism with UMass or the Lowell Sun, or work as an SID, or the dissertation academic writing, every time Ive learned how to stretch my writing Ralls said. There is a lot to learn about writing, which is actually really exciting for me.

The book features 12 different women who hail from various professions, backgrounds, ages, etc. Ranging from lawyers, nurses, teachers, coaches, prison workers and professors, Ralls felt like every conversation she had for the book was reminiscent of writing a lengthy feature story.

Being able to think about the stories that they shared with me, their personalities, their voices, what Ive learned about them on social media for some, and trying to pull that all together, and be fair, [] accurate, [] knowledgeable, and [] interesting is a really big challenge Im finding with this book but its really exciting as well.

It wasnt about how much money each of the women made or how well-established they were in their respective professions it was just experience. Whether with women from the Middle East, the United States or Africa, the conversations were all created around her central idea: sports and its influence on female empowerment.

The central idea of Ralls life became the central idea for her book, and after years of exploring, she now has a clearer path than ever before: getting her book published by May 2022 and turning her love for feature writing and womens sports into an inspiring read for lovers of sports across the world.

Lulu Kesin can be reached at [emailprotected] or followed on Twitter @Lulukesin.

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A Collegian alumna's journey of unfolding the relationship between sports and female empowerment - The Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Social dramaBalika Vadhu 2 on Colors TVLaunched in August 2021, this show is a reboot of the long-running social drama series by the same name. Season 2 was announced with an aim to bring about a change and reignite conversations to eradicate child marriage custom from society. The nayi Anandi is now grown up and pursuing her graduation, inspiriting all girls out there.

Identity issuesApna Bhi Time Aayega on ZEE5A daughter can surely make it big in life if given the opportunity. This show tells the story of Rani (Anushka Sen), who is raised by her father to believe that sky is the limit for her. With her fathers constant encouragement, Rani achieves a place she rightfully deserves and establishes her own identity, rising above her roots.

Strong willNima Denzongpa on Colors TVThe show highlights the everyday struggles and prejudices faced by Nima (Surabhi Das). A simple girl from a middle-class family who moves to Mumbai and gets married with the love of her life. But little does she know that the city of dreams is about to turn into her worst nightmare. After a divorce from her husband, she takes the responsibility of bringing up her three daughters single-handedly.

Defying stereotypesDhadkan Zindaggi Kii on Sony Entertainment TelevisionWomen of today are a force to reckon with! With this concept, this show traces Dr Deepikas journey, who continues to defy stereotypes in her personal and professional life to fulfil her dream of becoming a successful surgeon. The show stars Additi Gupta in the lead role.

Family responsibilityThoda Sa Badal Thoda Sa Paani on Colors TVThe show revolves around Kajol (Ishita Dutta), who take over family responsibilities and fathers debt-ridden business, after he passes away. A clear example of gone are the days when girls were just a paraya dhan and boys were considered as the familys breadwinner!

Against all oddsBarrister Babu on VootThe story of this show is about Bondita Das, a child bride. Her husband fights the oppressive and patriarchal society to educate her to become a barrister. Educated and empowered, Bondita takes on social evils while also tackling obstacles in her personal life. The show went off air from Colors channel last year, but is streaming on Voot now.

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On National Girl Child Day, here's a look at some shows that talk about women empowerment - The Tribune India