by Sarah Wyatt
- USA -

Years of hardship and backbreaking labor in the riot-stricken slums of Kibera in south Kenya have worn 18 year old Eshe Koome to the bone. A single mother of two, she walked out on her abusive husband and survived for two years as a daily wage laborer, loading vegetables and other goods for sale.

• Eshe is now able to earn a living wage at Kazuri. Photograph by Sarah Wyatt. •

Eshe's story captures in a nutshell how a group of formerly indigent, urban women operates a business for themselves. The Kazuri Bead Factory, located in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, is unique in that it is Kenya’s first visitors’ attraction of its kind, created for and by women. Founded by Lady Susan Wood in 1975, the company is known for its beautiful, hand-painted beads made from the authentic clay from the Mt. Kenya area. Kazuri (Swahili for “small and beautiful”), also produces a number of other goods popular with tourists including pottery, hand-beaded sandals and purses. The beads are often featured on three-dimensional art cards and can also be found in shadowboxes.

by Sarah Wyatt
USA

“The Arctic is not a wilderness or a frontier. It is our home. It is our homeland…Our entire way of life as we know it may end in my grandson's lifetime."

• The unprecedented melting of the polar ice caps threatens the Inuit way of life. Photograph by Ville Miettinen. •

Sheila Watt-Cloutier has been warning the world about the degradation and shrinking of the polar ice for years. She should know: she and her people, the Inuit, live in the Arctic. For them, the situation is far from academic. As she has said more than once, “It is a matter of livelihood, food, individual and cultural survival.” Some 170,000 Aleuts, Indians, Eskimos, Métis and other indigenous people live north of the Arctic Circle in Russia, Alaska, and Canada.

by Sarah Wyatt
USA

Danielle Malchoff, 17, was a two-time champion at the 2007 World Eskimo-Indian Olympics (WEIO), held July 18-21 in her hometown of Anchorage, Alaska. At first glance, Danielle looks like any average teenager – her pierced eyebrow and black fingernail polish both testaments to youth culture. But Danielle knows she also represents the historic culture of her ancestors, competing fiercely in the WEIO games even though she only began participating last year. An Athabascan and Aleut, Danielle says, "I grew up in the Native community, but still learned a lot about my culture by participating". "These games have been handed down from generation to generation. Each game has its origin and a functional purpose [in the culture]."

• Danielle prepares for the Alaskan high kick. Photograph courtesy of Sarah Wyatt. •

Danielle received her coaching for the one-foot high kick competition from the current record holder, Carol Pickett.

This specialty requires the athlete to jump off the floor using both feet, to kick a suspended object with one foot, and then land on the floor using only that same foot. This event originated from caribou hunting; a messenger kicked high in the air as a signal to the hunters that the animals were running near.

Danielle is a high school senior who is already taking college courses. During the summer she works at a Native heritage center, and volunteers with other local causes.

For Danielle, like so many of her peers, the sports events are not the only cultural activities in which she participates. "I am active in Native dance groups," she said. "I believe it’s vital for my generation to preserve our heritage."

by Sarah Wyatt
USA

The Dallas Convention Center was rocking last July. Some 42,000 Mary Kay consultants, many clad in red blazers, milled about, in attendance for the three-week national annual gathering known as Seminar.

• Mary Kay's Seminar Stage. Photograph by Elizabeth Hesse. •

"Feel the power of pink," the amplified music mandated as pyrotechnics illuminated the arena. The estrogen-infused crowd erupted as Newbury, their coiffed rock star and symbol of the Mary Kay dream, took the stage. Nearing her retirement, her 85,000 consultants had collected more than $11 million in commissions during her career. The company reported Newbury's retirement package guarantees her $8.5 million over the next 15 years.

by Sarah Wyatt
USA

She was a socialite. Or was she awkward, gullible, clumsy?

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Broadway veteran, Patti Cohenour as Florence Foster Jenkins in Souvenir. Photo courtesy of the Seattle ACT Theatre

Will the real Florence Foster Jenkins please stand up?

Stephen Temperley’s Souvenir recently made its West Coast debut at the Seattle ACT Theatre. Broadway actress Patti Cohenour stars in this affectionate valentine to tin-eared opera soprano, Florence Foster Jenkins (1868–1944), a real-life New York socialite who stunned concert audiences in the 1930s and 1940s with her unassailable self-confidence and unique interpretations of the opera repertoire.

by Sarah Wyatt
USA

Young playwright Sarah Ruhl continues to gain widespread recognition for her play, The Clean House. She is emerging as a powerful presence in the American performing arts. The acclaimed and affecting comedy by the MacArthur genius grant recipient explores four markedly different yet intimately connected women and their varied attitudes toward order and cleanliness.

Ruhl recounted in American Theatre, “I was at a party full of doctors. A doctor walked in and said, ‘It's been such a hard month. My cleaning lady from Brazil is depressed and I took her to the hospital and had her medicated, and she still won't clean. And in the meantime, I've been cleaning my house. And I'm sorry, but I didn't go to medical school to clean my own house.’ I was fascinated and horrified by the political and cultural implications of the speech, but also by how transparently the woman laid out her case. It became the first monologue in the play.”

by Sarah Wyatt
USA

In 2003, Palestinian activists mourned the passing of an American, a woman whose brilliance returns to life in My Name is Rachel Corrie.

The production is based on the writings of Rachel Corrie, the 23 year-old woman who was killed on March 16, 2003 by an Israeli Army bulldozer while she was protesting against the demolition of Palestinian civilian homes. This compelling story of a personal journey is told through Corrie’s own words from her journals, as assembled by British actor Alan Rickman, who also directed the London and New York productions, and journalist Katharine Viner.

The witty and poignant drama follows Corrie's rise from her middle-class upbringing in Olympia, Washington, to becoming an activist forever remembered. Ensconced in her beloved college apartment, the play opens with Corrie reflecting on the dizzying heights and emotional lows of her childhood, on her adventures as a college peace activist, and on her heartbreaking romance with another student.