Showing posts with label Hero. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hero. Show all posts

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Sheldon Kennedy!!!!


W00T!

Yesterday was the big day!

Sheldon Kennedy came to town! It was amazing.

I'm still trying to process it all, but it was amazing to spend the day with him and Wayne McNeil, the other co-founder of Respect In Sport.

We didn't know what to expect when we met with the two of them, but they were definitely down to earth and very, very cool guys.

You had no misapprehension that Sheldon is a Prairie boy when you talked to him.

He said 'give'er' a lot.

Oh. And the best part?

This conversation:

Shannon (my RISE team member): So Sheldon, what did you think of Oprah?

*Sheldon has been on The Oprah Winfrey Show 3 times

Sheldon: (deadpan) She's a bitch.

GOOD GOD I LOVE HIM.

Sigh.

More pics to come.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Big, Huge, AMAZING NEWS!



Mark your calendars.

November 19th, 2007 A.D.

This is the day that Jessie gets to hang out with one of her heroes...Naomi Klein.

Yes, you read that right. Naomi Klein.

Alan Leschied will be playing host to Naomi Klein when she comes to UWO for a book thing for her latest work, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism".

By now, I may have lost some readers...so let's back up.

Who exactly is Naomi Klein?

In short, she's a brillant woman. She's a journalist, writer, film maker, and intellectual.

And I get to have dinner with her.

She wrote a book called "No Logo: Taking Aim At Brand Bullies" in 2000. It was published shortly after the WTO summit in Seattle and was met with great excitement from those in the activist community. You say "No Logo" in a crowd and people instantly know what you're talking about. This is a book that changed MY life.

I was but a budding activist when the book dropped into my lap. At the time I wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen come fall of 2001, when I started my first year of university. Naomi Klein's book opened my eyes about some stuff I had never really thought about. If you haven't read this book, or even heard about it, you must go out RIGHT now and find out about it. If you don't get yourself a copy at least visit the website: www.nologo.org. I might even credit her book (partially) to the reason I majored in globalization (being the anti variety, not the pro).

It's a thought provoking piece on the branding that drives capitalism.

Sweet bliss.

Besides Naomi Klein's own accomplishments (and there are a lot) she's surrounded by amazing people.

She's married to Avi Lewis, who hosted "counterSpin" on CBC for a while, after a stint as the political analyst at MuchMusic (love him). And her mother-in-law is Michele Landsberg, an amazing feminist journalist (Toronto Star, Globe and Mail). And her father-in-law is STEPHEN LEWIS.

Maybe she can adopt me.

So, I get to hang out with her, have dinner with her and pelt her with my questions.

I'm so frigging excited.

Saturday, December 09, 2006