The poet Emily Dickenson once wrote a poem about the beauty of books and poetry that ended “How frugal is the Chariot that bares the human soul.” I had to memorize this for school when I was eleven years old.

Recently, I wrote and performed the poem below “Slam Poetry Style” for friends and Acumen investors. My sister and bro supported me in the creation of this. I hope you like it.

Click the arrow below to hear me recite it:

An Invitation
By Keely Stevenson

I am the dying hospice patient teaching others to honor life

I am a giggle

and the love all things chocolate

I am the heart that says "Let's March on DC"

I am the Palestinian who hates the US but loves MTV

I am the citizen against terror that thinks Iraq is the key

I am the book that must be burned

the echo of Jim's crow

the ape who prays to the flying spaghetti monster

and the twelve year old forced to kill, for diamonds?

I am the unskilled farmer that got his land back from the white man

the profit of risk and the punishment of failure

I am the discrimination that you pretend no longer exists

I am the choice between HIV treatment for myself or food for my kids

I am the ceiling that women keep hitting their heads upon while trading derivatives

I am the dignity in poverty and the courage in chemotherapy

I am the believer that is jailed for prayer

And the fear of disease born of one bite

I AM THE CHALLENGE

I am the challenge to make a difference in this world

and I am lost

but I am rolling up my sleeves to go to work

I am hope, I am proud

I AM NECESSARY

I am you and you are me.

Wishing everyone a very very special holiday season. Hope you are surrounded with good people, love, inspiration and relaxation.

As some of you know, I am a part of a six person Acumen Fund fellows team. It has been great getting a few notes from the other six Acumen Fund fellows who are in India, Pakistan, Kenya and the US. Here are some reflections:

:::David Lehr:::
“I am with drishtee.com, a very innovative for-profit company focusing on delivering services to rural villages in India by leveraging local entrepreneurs. Their current services are via kiosk-based entrepreneur working out of a physical location (perhaps a small storefront, or even out of their house). To expand the reach to rural residents who do not, or can not (due to physical distance or mobility issues) visit an actual kiosk, I am crafting a plan to leverage the rapid growth of mobile phone penetration in India.

It is a bit wild here in India, especially compared to China .... I do have constant fears of lice, malaria, diptheria, typhoid, Delhi belly, death by auto rickshaw, threats by the real estate goons that I mixed myself up in, and just the possibility of falling thru large
holes in the street. And besides, there is no toilet paper in the bathrooms, and no silverware in the restaurants - you figure it out, I can't.”

:::Eric Berkowitz:::
Eric is settling into his new life with his wife and eleven-month-old baby. He has begun work with BroadReach Healthcare, a global company leading transformational change in healthcare delivery, distribution, and financing. Founded in 2003, BroadReach builds and grows successful businesses in three primary areas of emerging market opportunity in healthcare: Global Health; Provider & Distribution Networks; and Consumer-Driven Networks.

:::Jocelyn Wyatt:::
I’ve spent almost 4 weeks at the Sustainable Healthcare Foundation (SHEF) and have worked on many different projects including the 2007 work plan, a drinking water and school screening program sponsored by Proctor & Gamble, a new franchise compliance evaluation process, and a proposal to the Gates Foundation for an in-depth program evaluation. I visited the field several times and have been totally inspired by the work our nurses and community health workers are doing. I’ve found life in Kenya fairly easy (or easier than India at least) and am enjoying the perfect climate and rolling green hills around Nairobi.

You know why Google has won all of our hearts and has a market cap of $151.8 billion, compared with Yahoo's $36.2 billion, eBay's $46.4 billion and Amazon.com's $17.6 billion? It is out there indexing bits and bobs of the world that we would have otherwise never been able to reach alone. In true Google fashion, the “.org” team (charitable arm of Google) has been indexing inspiration, knowledge and the power of social entrepreneurship in Africa this week. We spent two days together in Arusha. Visiting the field is something that not enough foundations do to inform their strategies and ensure their dynamism in coordination with community needs. I am a big believer in experiential learning: some of you may remember this from my recent post titled, “Today I applied for Food Stamps and an Abortion.” We are what we have lived. Our decisions are really a braid of our past experiences and values. We are lucky if we can design those experiences. It was great to see that Google.org is off on the right foot in this sense.
posted by keely stevenson

Two great opportunities for social leaders have deadlines next month. As a first-year participant in both programmes, I can honestly say that they are life changing-- thrilling even.

MBA Scholarship for Social Entrpreneurs
Each year, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship awards five full scholarships to individuals who wish to enter the one year full-time Oxford MBA programme. To qualify, you need a proven track record in social entrepreneurship and a clear vision for the impact the MBA can make to society. The deadline for the second round of admissions is the 12 January, 2007. Comprehensive admissions information can be found at:
http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/skoll/mba/MBA+Programme.htm

Acumen Fund Fellowship
Acumen Fund is currently seeking candidates for the Class of 2008 Fellows. The application for the program is due January 31, 2006 and you can find more information on the website: http://www.acumenfund.org/About/opportunity.asp Acumen Fund also offers internship opportunities over the summer in the New York, India, Kenya, and Pakistan offices.

I have barely slept these first few days—but they have been great days.

Day 1: Looked for an Apartment
Thanks to Divesh’s help, I got a cell phone and my apartment hunting landed me a nice place that is central, clean and managed by a woman named Happiness. That night, I had some tea in the hotel and started reading Jeffrey Sach’s book The End of Poverty, which was a recent gift from my friend Molly who I worked with in Peru several years ago. I was joined by Rustom, who had just flown in from New York. Rustom and I will be working very closely on this bednet project. He was central to the first investment deal that Acumen Fund made in AtoZ, and he is very passionate about this social enterprise space. He is quite entrepreneurial himself and should be an interesting person to work with.

Day 2: Got to Work in India or Africa?
As Rustom and I drove to the AtoZ factory, I tried to see the majestic mountain peaks of Meru (14,979 ft) and Kilimanjaro (19,340 ft), but they were hiding from me behind a few clouds. We went out to AtoZ’s new Olyset bednet factory being built- amazing! The nets start as tiny plastic blue pellets from Japan that get spun into thin strands, woven together with huge machines from China, cut and sewn up by local Tanzanian women and then quality checked by local women who ensure there are no flaws before stocking. This is an extremely complex process- the chemicals, the settings, the training, all have to be precise or else one mistake causes huge wastage. Including its new factory, AtoZ will employ nearly 4,000 people (mostly women near 20 years old) and produce over 7 million nets annually. They also produce textiles and plastic tableware such as bowls and packaging containers. Their expertise in plastics is why they were a perfect fit for the complex long-lasting insecticide treaded bednets.

AtoZ is a family business, and most of the senior management team at AtoZ is Tanzanian-Indian. There is a huge population of people with Indian ethnic ancestry here mostly because their ancestors originally came to Africa through interest in the spice trade via places like Zanzibar. Divesh is Indian and invited me to join his family at a wedding that night—wow- what a beautiful Hindu ceremony full of interesting traditions. In a room full of women wearing sparkling jewelry and bright colored saris, I watched the bride’s parents pour milk on the groom’s toe, the groom’s little sister rub something on his back with a bell sound to keep him awake, and the groom and the happy couple as they circled the fire pit, carried a coconut, and changed from white to red, complementing the beautiful henna designs. I even got to feed the bride sweets in the tradition of wishing that only sweet things to come to her life. Divesh’s family has wonderful personality and made me feel very welcome to their friend’s party. I did go to sleep that night wishing I had packed the fancy sari my friend Sujeet gave me 2 years ago and thinking: Am I in India or Africa?

Day 3: Rolling Up our Sleeves
Today we started to outline the project I will undertake this year (more on that later). In the AtoZ boardroom, I perused the pictures on the walls of people who have visited the factory—two Presidents of Tanzania, Bono, President of the Global Fund, US Ambassador, and now me ;-) … pretty impressive list. We began to dig into project planning and then took a break for lunch at a Chinese restaurant that is evidently the local favorite, Louie’s. I discovered that a block away from my new apartment is the standard place for wedding processions and pictures. Lots of people are all dressed up with music, singing in Swahili and dancing happily. It is quite a joy. Hakuna Matata

As I finished a leisurely walk on my new street, I wondered: how is it that women around the world are so good at balancing baskets on their heads and strapping large babies to their backs with just one small cloth? Impressive talents those.

Day 4: Lunch with Anuj
Today the CEO of AtoZ, Anuj, returned from a trip to China and we had lunch to discuss the project. Anuj was born in Kenya and is a phenomenal entrepreneur. His father founded AtoZ and he has run the company for nearly ten years. I spent the rest of the day analyzing some of the data on the effectiveness of a variety of distribution channels and preparing a presentation for the Google.org and Acumen teams who are coming to visit tomorrow.

Getting on the plane to Tanzania was bitter sweet. I was excited about the 8 month adventure ahead of me, but also sad that I would be leaving my sister, brother-in-law and friends in New York….and all for a strange city where I knew no one- Arusha.

On the plane ride, I scored a whole row of seats to myself as I watched the movie Gandhi (only after boring myself with Nacho Libre) and was reminded of why I work for social change (because its possible)…and ultimately, why I waved good bye to my family and friends.

On the layover in Amsterdam, I hopped on the internet to escape the smoke-filled airport cafes and decided to read the Arusha Times online newspaper where I found bittersweet headlines that went something like this:

Man murdered over cell phone dispute, but Caught by the Long Arm of the Law
Dar man brings Cholera Outbreak to Arusha
Independence Day Festival this Weekend

Amused because I had never heard anyone seriously use “long arm of the law,” I also found myself curious about the Independence Day celebrations. Evidently there are speeches and parades- most people have the day off work. A bit of history: Tanzania fell under German control in 1886, but was given to Britain after WWI. Present day Tanzania is the result of a merger between the mainland (previously Tanganyika) and Zanzibar in 1964, after both had gained independence.

I arrived in Kilimanjaro airport around 10pm and was met in the hotel by Divesh. Divesh is my new colleague at AtoZ, the company I will be working with on behalf of the Acumen Fund. Divesh has been managing the program which administers coupons that help the poor buy bednets at much cheaper prices ($3 rather than $6). Over a Coke, we chatted a bit about the culture and project and then he headed home so I could get some rest.

As I laid my head on the pillow to sleep, my mind was racing. I decided to name the gecko on the wall Fred. I was annoyed at the fact that I had been bitten thrice by mosquitoes already in such a short time and had forgotten to take the malaria meds. I also was thrilled that I was sleeping under a white net that cascaded around my bed like that of a princess…but thinking that the blue color nets made by AtoZ would be even more fun. Since the pole outside my hotel marked the exact center of Africa- midpoint between Capetown and Cairo- I wondered how long it would take to walk to Cairo from here and which animals I would encounter in the Serengeti along the way.

What were you doing in the last 30 seconds? Every 30 seconds a child dies of malaria unnecessarily. Crazy, isn’t it?

Malaria is one of the world’s deadliest diseases- killing three times more children than

HIV/AIDS. Malaria is an infection caused by a parasite and carried from person to person by mosquitoes. It is preventable and curable yet over 500 million people contract it per year and more than one million people die from it annually —most of them young children living in Africa.

Once contracted, you start to get a headache, feel hot with a fever and tired; you begin vomiting and have mostly flu-like symptoms. If not treated, you die.

There is no vaccine to prevent this.

The economic effects are huge, too. A Reuters report says that a single bout of malaria in Africa leads to a loss of around ten working days. Additionally, malaria can lead to loss of tourist revenue and international investment. The Roll Back Malaria Campaign reports that malaria has been estimated to cost Africa more than US$ 12 billion every year in lost GDP, even though it could be controlled for a fraction of that sum.

Prevention

You can take daily or weekly pills that reduce your chances of contracting malaria. I spent $1,400 on medication for the nine months I will be in Tanzania. I also sprayed my clothing with a repellent and insecticide that lasts 6 weeks even with several washes; these spray cans cost me about $55. If you make less than $2 a day (as many of the people in high malaria zones do), you certainly could not afford these options (which are not even full-proof), especially since you would have to use them not for months like I will, but for every day of your life. So what to do?

There are many ways to reduce the transmission of malaria. In fact, simple things such as using a bednet treated with insecticide have proven to reduce transmission by 50%. A more controversial activity is the spraying of DDT indoors. This has been banned for over 30 years sparked by the book, Silent Spring, which highlighted concerns for DDT’s effect on the environment. The WHO recently lifted the ban citing little evidence of major environmental harm (in comparison to the tragedy of malaria). Beyond finding a vaccine cure, other prevention methods proposed by scientists have even included genetic mutation of the mosquitoes which transmit malaria. To learn more about malaria and specifically the types of solutions being implemented to eradicate it, click here.

Seems so daunting.

So why should we care? Beyond the fact that our hearts hurt when we see a child dying an unnecessary death or we think about the loss of potential innovation and economic productivity from malaria ridden regions. Some scientists predict that in the US and Europe, a re-emergence of malaria will soon come about even though it is mostly eradicated now.

This is everyone’s problem.

What a wonderful adventure this will be…and malaria is certainly an important inspiration for action.

Image Source: REUTERS/IFRC/Marko Kok

I have been working with a team on an exciting new paper focused on risk capital for social enterprises. Tim Freudlich, Jim Fruchterman, Jed Emerson, Loren Berlin and I finally sent it to the publisher in draft format, so please feel free to read it at the link below and comment. Abstract:

“A growing and global landscape of successful social enterprises, with both nonprofit and for-profit structures, has fallen through a critical risk-taking expansion capital gap. They are in need of investment to grow – investment that takes on the risk of the enterprise. This specific kind of expansion capital cannot easily be pieced together from limited grants, conventional equity or ill-fitted debt. As increasing numbers of social entrepreneurs and mission-based financiers seek to enter the playing field, a question stands out: Can the sector develop new instruments and sets of stakeholder relationships to meet this challenge? This paper explores the risk capital gap and its needs, the existing landscape of players, and proposes some potential solutions. It is not meant to be prescriptive, but instead forms part of an ongoing and necessary conversation between the sources and uses of capital.”

Download our paper on xigi by clicking here.

As Acumen Fund Fellows, we showed up to work a few weeks ago and were handed another tough assignment. Just like our previous assignments of being homeless for a day or writing/performing a poem in front of hundreds of investors, this was once again true boot camp style experiential learning.

Our Homework: Raise $10,000 for Acumen Fund

Why?
To learn techniques for mobilizing resources and to get the courage and confidence to “make big asks.” It is something that we will have to do often in life as social entrepreneurs, so might as well start practicing.

How?
We are allowed to raise money anyway we can imagine as long as we do so in the next nine months. Don’t forget, these nine months will be spent working full time on other projects in developing countries…and most of us have never raised money before. Yikes!

So what did Keely do?
I had no idea where to start. First, I went to certain people at Acumen and tried to get some tips and some stories that make for effective ways to get people interested in the topic as a whole. Then, I came to a workshop on Social Edge titled “Why is it Hard to Ask for Money?” and listened to the advice, dug deeper into the resources shared. I was then walking in the park with my friend Sarah Caddick and we began to brainstorm ways to make this happen. We threw out ideas such as having people sponsor me with donations to Acumen Fund for every post to my blog or every meter I hike of Mount Kilimanjaro or every bednet I can distribute once I get to Tanzania. We really wanted to be sure that the fundraising efforts were also ways to spread the mission of Acumen Fund, even if people did not end up donating.

About twenty minutes into the walk Sarah says to me, “I think I will throw a party for you in my new apartment. I can invite some friends and they will be interested in hearing about how to support the exciting work you are doing.” Wow- what a generous offer, I thought.

Neither one of us had done this before.

That is really just the beginning—it gets even better. A few days later I meet her friends, Cynthia Joyce and Laurie Campbell, who are also excited about this and offer to co-host the party! What amazing women, no? They just met me and yet they reached out to their family and friends to help me reach my fundraising goal.

We had fun preparing the party invitation list and collateral…thinking about where in her apartment we could hang the bright blue insecticide-treated-long-lasting bednet. Sarah was especially good at being upfront and authentic in communicating to her invitees that this would be a cocktail party with the mission of raising $10K for Acumen Fund. Between Sarah, Cynthia, Laurie and I, we had a great group of people turn up. Most had never heard of Acumen fund.

With my heart racing and the blue bednet and 7 foot tall Acumen poster behind me, I performed a poem; Sarah and Laurie gave wonderful speeches which included a distinct ask for donations. We even had heartwarming words from current Acumen Fund investor, Lesley Goldwasser, who spoke of her roots in Africa and her belief in Acumen Fund’s approach to using markets to solve poverty. I felt so humbled that so many people came out to hear from me about my work. What a gift! When the party ended, I felt like doing cartwheels all the way home that night.

So, what did I learn?
1) set a goal you think is unreasonable
2) be authentic
3) be clear and be a storyteller—share opportunities as if they were stories
4) follow up is everything
5) take time to understand your networks and how they may see value in your work
6) people are generous when they believe in something

The best news is that I came very close to my $10K fundraising goal and met some new friends along the way.

So, not being afraid to ask: if you would like to support the Acumen Fund and my work this year with a tax deductible donation, you can donate online by clicking this link:
https://secure.ga3.org/01/acumendonation. If you do, please post a comment or email me to ensure I can add your gift to my goal and thank you personally with a note from Tanzania.

So, I did it and I am still alive to tell the tale (thanks to Sarah, Cynthia and Laurie…and all the wonderful donors!)

When Sara Olsen commented on my blog last month saying that she sometimes considered shaving her head as a test of the origins of her self concept and in protest of objectification, I could identify.

While my hair was drying at the salon the other day, I was reading Mistry’s novel, A Fine Balance. Ironically, the two main characters, Ishvar and Om, move from their native Indian village to a big city slum where they meet a man who collects hair for a living. On page 173, they ask him what people do with the hair when they buy it from him. His response:
“Many different things. Mostly they wear it… In foreign countries, they fear baldness. They are so rich in foreign countries, they can afford to fear all kinds of silly things.”

It reminded me of the essence of why I spend money on makeup, hair dos and nice clothes—conforming to the latest silly fears, resulting in the latest styles.

Is it because I am afraid of looking different? But then again, what is different? Is it because deep inside I believe that I won’t be considered attractive? Will it reduce my chances of finding a mate? I have heard that some scientists purport that basic animal-like attraction between humans is influenced by things like symmetry of features in one’s face or by one’s hip to waist ratio, signifying their health. We size each other up for our reproductive suitability, just as female birds do when observing colorful males. They proclaim to potential mates, that they are so successful that they can waste their energy on ordornment and exhibition.

Does that explain why people still buy fashion magazines and why the beauty industry is booming? Do we make such efforts for beauty to ensure that someone will find us a suitable match? Americans collectively spend $26 billion on beauty products, a number that is expected to climb to $30 billion in 2008. Compare this to the GDP of Bolivia which is only around $20 billion. The Environmental Working Group found that the average woman uses 12 products per day, and the average man 6. One woman in four uses at least 15.

My sister, Tanya, however says that these are misnomers, misunderstanding and misuses of evolutionary psychology (study of psychology stating that our behaviors and characteristics come from our prehistoric ancestors). She equates them with the horrors of when the bell curve the bell curve was used to scientifically legitimize racism. Often when a political agenda is the motive for science and the output is usually bad science. The need to couple and to procreate is a common thread shared in all cultures, however how does this need become corrupted and commercialized to prey on our fears? Each society has different norms of beauty and their own media channels for socializing to that end. Who is in control of shaping those norms or questioning those norms? Is it the consumers? Is it the corporations? Is it government?

This Dove campaign is an interesting example of where a corporation has stood up to question those norms (click the arrow below to view it).

In a reflection about how lucky we are to do work in social entrepreneurship, Jesse King and Jacqueline Novogratz pointed me to a wonderful story and song this week. It centered around a baccalaureate graduation speech in 2004 where Rev. Jim Wallis shared thoughts on faith, politics and culture. Jacqueline and Jesse knew the powerful street organizer (Lisa Sullivan) who Wallis refers to at the end of the speech for saying, “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!” Some of the speech is below and for the full text, click here.

“…I now believe that the real battle, the big struggle of our times, is the fundamental choice between cynicism and hope…. Hope is not a feeling. It is a decision….

"And the realities of our world are these: almost half the world, close to three billion people, live on less than 2 dollars a day; and more than one billion live on less than 1 dollar a day. And every day, 30,000 children die needlessly due to utterly preventable causes like hunger, disease, and things like the lack of safe drinking water - things we could change if we ever decided to. For the first time in history we have the information, knowledge, technology, and resources to bring the worst of global poverty virtually to an end. What we don't have is the moral and political will to do so. And it is becoming clear that it will take a new moral energy to create that political will.

"…The antidote to cynicism is not optimism but action. And action is finally born out of hope. Try to remember that.

"…One of the best street organizers I ever met was Lisa Sullivan. Lisa was a young African American woman from Washington DC, a smart kid from a working class family who went to Yale and earned a PhD. But Lisa felt called back to the streets and the forgotten children of color who had won her heart. With unusual intelligence and entrepreneurial skills she was in the process of creating a new network and infrastructure of support for the best youth organizing projects up and down the East Coast. But at the age of 40, Lisa died suddenly of a rare heart ailment.

Lisa's legacy is continuing though countless young people who she inspired, challenged, and mentored. But there is one thing she often said to them and to all of us that has stayed with me ever since Lisa died. When people would complain, as they often do, that we don't have any leaders today, or ask where are the Martin Luther Kings now? - Lisa would get angry. And she would declare these words: "We are the ones we have been waiting for!" Lisa was a person of faith. And hers was a powerful call to leadership and responsibility and a deep affirmation of hope.

Lisa's words are the commission I want to give to you. It's a commission learned by every person of faith and conscience who has been used to build movements of spiritual and social change. It's a commission that is quite consistent with the virtue of humility, because it is not about taking ourselves too seriously; but rather taking the commission seriously. It's a commission that can only be fulfilled by very human beings, but people who, because of faith and hope, believe that the world can be changed. And it is that very belief that only changes the world. And if not us, who will believe? If not you, who? After all, we are the ones that we have been waiting for.

What is really possible? The eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews says this:
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." And my best paraphrase of that for you is this: Hope is believing in spite of the evidence, and then watching the evidence change."

"...you are the ones we have been waiting for. Let's give Micah the last word - something to take away with you as you leave from this place and for every step of your journey. What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God."

Click to hear the powerful song: We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For.

Through the eyes of villagers in a border town in the Punjab area of India called Mano Majra, author Khushwant Singh paints a picture of the “Partition” of August 1947. The Partition is a historical reference to the time when India and Pakistan were created after the British rule. When the border lines were drawn, there were distinct religions associated: Muslims in Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs in India. It was a historical moment of great religious hatred, uprising and bloody violence. Throughout the book great detail about the characters’ relationships allows us to get close to a social, cultural and political understanding of the time.

Turning the pages, we witness the fairly peaceful lives of the villagers in Mano Majra impacted by the traumatic events of the national conflict. The Muslim villagers in Mano Majra are forced by the government to leave everything they know to get across the border to Pakistan safety. Trains back and forth over the border often arrived packed full of dead bodies- as a signal to the other side. This only fueled more retaliation for the conflict.

The book’s ending reminded me of a well known saying that my parents used to tell me in reference to Nazi Germany that went something like this:
First, they knocked on my door asking for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I was not Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up for me.

My friends and I did not agree on the final scene in the book, where they say Jugga (the village troublemaker) saves the train full of Muslims (including his pregnant girlfriend) that is about to be derailed before getting to safety across the border to Pakistan. I actually think the author never quite tells us who gave their life to ensure that the train got across safely. It left room for us to reexamine each character’s internal battle to stand up for what was right and also to draw parallels with our own lives. We all have it in us. Which of us would actually do it?

Omar is one talented tap dancer, but when you see his bright yellow suit and long hair bouncing around in your direction, you know to get off the stage. Although you touched the tree of hope, his dance interrupting your performance tells you that you are not the next Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday discovered at the Apollo Theater. That’s what I learned while sitting in the audience of a fun taping of Evening at the Apollo hosted by Whoopi Goldberg last month. I was also reminded that the Apollo is a phenomenal social enterprise and historical landmark.

I had the great gift of being hosted for a week in the house of the woman who manages the Apollo Theater- a warm, graceful and intelligent leader. With great pride, she shared with me all the exciting activities happening at the Apollo, which is considered the bastion of African-American culture and achievement. Built in 1914, the building is now what she calls “the quintessential example of both the cultural and economic pillar of community.”

As a social enterprise, the Apollo has both commercial operations and community services. One example of community services lies in the series of health fairs offered each year to educate Harlem residents about relevant health problems. In addition, The Apollo Academy is being developed as a multi-faceted program that exposes young people to various, non-performance career options in the arts and entertainment industries.

The commercial side of the Apollo, of course, is related to the performances there. These include TV show Evening at the Apollo which I mentioned earlier with Omar, concerts by the Temptations this month and Forces of Nature Dance Theater. Most importantly, this legendary venue has launched the careers of icons such as Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, James Brown and Lauryn Hill and continues to maintain its position as the nation's most popular arena for emerging and established African-American and Latino performers.

The Apollo Theater is a great example of a successful social enterprise, and I enjoyed getting a flavor of it.

Now here is a ruling that reminds me why we need more women on the bench. In any contract law, I assumed that we have the right to break the contract as long as we paid the financial consequences. If the argument goes that consent for sex is a contract, then why don’t we have the right to break it and be sued…instead of be raped. It's not as if I broke a contract for employment and the employer could physically force me to continue working...because I said I would type that document and started to....

Below is an excerpt from an online article of Feministing:

“An appellate court said Maryland's rape law is clear -- no doesn't mean no when it follows a yes and intercourse has begun. A three-judge panel of the Court of Special Appeals Monday threw out a rape conviction saying that a trial judge in Montgomery County erred when he refused to answer the jury's question on that very point.

The appeals court said that when the jury asked the trial judge if a woman could withdraw her consent after the start of sex, the jury should have been told she could not. The ruling said the law is not ambiguous and is a tenet of common-law.

So ladies, once it's in, it's in. Ain't nothing you can do about it. Changed your mind? Suck it up. He's hurting you? Oh, sorry--should have thought of that before. After all, it's not like your body is yours or anything.”

Click here for the full ruling.