Dreams Come True: MILCK On Her Music, Activism and Power Up Concert Performance

“I learned quickly on that my dream of being a singer wasn’t what my immigrant parents wanted for me. Making art for a living was for them not a reality-based decision,” says Connie K. Lim, whose professional name is MILCK; it’s her first two initials and her last name backwards.

But she did make her dream happen in a very big way, her using her power and voice in an enormously successful global musical career, activism and presence in the social justice equity movement and advocacy for truth and personal power. MILCK performs in person at Take The Lead’s Power Up Conference & Concert, “Lead Your Intention,” August 26 on Women’s Equality Day.

Applauding Good Work: Activists Advocating For Women, Girls Across Generations

The first Chicago Foundation For Women award went to Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2005, at the age of 72, when she was a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Since then, 125 women leaders have been honored, and this year, 17-year-old Azariah Baker, Youth Leader of A Long Walk Home, won the Vanguard Award.

“I have been encouraged by so many women in my life and am so thankful,” says Baker, an artist and activist, senior at George Washington College Prep High School, who is attending Spelman College in the fall. “You see women here doing everything in their fullness. My work is an ode to my Black experience.”

The Future Is NOW: Black Leader Leads Organization Into Intersectional Future

The future looks beautiful to Christian Nunes, MBA, MS, LCSW,  president of the National Organization of Women, the 57-year-old organization built from the grassroots to address gender inequality at the height of the civil rights movement.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Fierce Urgency of Now” — Updated for 2022

Issue 189— January 17, 2022

I honestly can’t believe that my column on January 18, 2021, recognizing Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday barely struck the alarm it deserved.

How could I not have drawn brightly the profound contrast between Dr. King’s exhortations to Civil Rights movement activists to hold nonviolent protests and last year’s January 6 violent breech of the Capitol?

The SumGloria FeldtJanuary 17, 2022Martin Luther King, Racial Equity, gender equality, Activism, Voting Comment

Rethinking Britney: Protection or Patriarchy

Issue 170 — June 28, 2021

My weekly zoom with women friends who have been staying in touch through the pandemic recently focused on how hard it is to get old ideas and solutions out of their heads when a new and better one has been proven more effective.

The examples mostly came from the world of science and medicine, starting with Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis who was hounded out of the medical profession in the 19th century. Dr. Semmelweis observed that simply washing hands after treating other patients could significantly reduce maternal mortality. Despite a growing body of scientific papers that backed up his theory, most physicians refused to change their traditional practices, and eventually had Semmelweis committed to an institution where he died.

The SumGloria FeldtJune 28, 2021Patriarchy, Mental Health, ActivismComment

How long until justice? Juneteenth symbolizes both question and answer

June 18, 2021

Growing up deep in the heart of Texas, I learned in (segregated) school that Juneteenth was a big celebration day for Black people because it marked the date on which the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, finally reached Texas on June 19th, 1865.

This date, when federal troops arrived in Galveston to take control of the state after the Civil War, at last ended the egregious practice of legal human slavery in the United States.

Pride or Rainbow-Washing? Why Leaders Need To Be True LGBTQ+ Inclusive Allies

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month and while the rainbows seem to be everywhere—even in the new 346-piece “Everyone Is Awesome,” rainbow-colored Lego set—the workplace is not often a safe, welcome and fair place for LGBTQ+ employees.

It’s called “rainbow-washing.”

Frida Kahlo and Her: Author Shares A High Profile Life of Invisible Disability

Being the poster child for a movement or a cause is usually a metaphor, meaning that you embody the mission of an organization. For award-winning author, educator and disabilities justice advocate Emily Rapp Black, it was literally who she was.

In 1980, at six years old Black was chosen as the poster child for the March of Dimes, because a congenital birth defect resulted in her left leg being amputated. Her latest book, the critically acclaimed, Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg, explores Black’s ideological connection with the iconic Mexican artist who suffered from polio as a child, and later a leg amputation, using a prosthetic limb.

8 Ways to Be an Effective Leader for Change

Issue 132 — June 22, 2020

I first learned about the power of organizing to make change when I was about 15 years old. In the small town of Stamford, Texas, where I lived at the time, there were two short order restaurants in town. One was called Son’s City Pig and it had indoor tables with juke boxes where we kids could sit and kibitz, as teenagers do. And as teenagers were inclined to do, we created various fads. One was eating our French Fries with mustard. OK, I admit I started that one.

The owner of Son’s became annoyed that we were consuming so much mustard. He began charging us two cents for each little paper cup of mustard. We decided this was terrible injustice. Most of us just groused about it.

Girls, Young Women Take The Lead With Power To Change The World

“In a century from now, in a history text book, I want 2018 to be known for the year that teenagers rocked the nation,” writes “Kyra,” a student on Twitter with 71,000 followers.

Particularly in the past few weeks, young women are expressing their power to influence policy, behaviors, laws and attitudes toward gun violence, as well as continue to shape positive social movements to change the futures for girls and women.

Changing the Power Par...Michele WeldonMarch 2, 2018Activism, Change, girls, Michele Weldon, women leadersComment

14 Next Steps: Women in Leadership Transforming Action Into Change

What’s next for women leaders in all spheres of business, entrepreneurship, policy and non-profit organizations who want to see change and movement regarding women’s rights as human rights?

Marching Into Action: Take The Lead Strategically Leading The Way Forward

What began as the Women’s March on Washington blossomed last week into the largest protest in U.S. history, one day after the presidential inauguration of President Donald Trump.

EventMichele WeldonJanuary 24, 2017Activism, Leadership, Michele Weldon, Women's March on Washington, womens movementComment

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