Yeah, hi everybody as cadre was saying so nice to see all of you some so many familiar faces, right? We've been doing this for so long and It's just a vibrant community. So I was here yesterday for you guys were here yesterday. I Can tell you that you know, I was talking yesterday about enterprise architecture Sustainability and cloud compute and I can tell you that the presence here is massive, right? It's a lot bigger. So then yesterday so nothing But only positive things to say about that, right? That's why this community is so Exciting to work with right. So yeah, I'm Vlad Frazal. I've been working with OSDU since the beginning and actually if we think about OSDU on AWS right our OSDU data platform. We've been working with OSDU since before it started So thank you, you know for shell for the partnering with us So thank you Monica for the nice reference that you did before I really appreciate that, right? But that's the story of OSDU with AWS, right? We've been working with this since the beginning We're working now. We're committed and we will be working with OSDU in the near future, right? in the future to go and The beautiful thing one of the many beautiful things about OSDU is that you know as an open source project OSDU is the same everywhere, right? So I would like you to understand to know right and to emphasize that that everything that the forum develops Everything that the forum throw at us will take and we implement So if you're using OSDU somewhere else, it should be easy to use on AWS If advice versa, right? Because that's the whole thing and the whole purpose, right? So So what's the difference then, right? So if you're deploying everything Where is the difference, right? I think the difference on on everything is not on OSDU itself from a functional perspective It's on the services that are used to Build OSDU and to deploy OSDU to the be deployed around OSDU, right? So for example Using AWS services like S3. I do not want to get into much detail about that unless you want of course We can build some functionality is like Multi-tenancy this is something that we've been working For some time now and it's something that you know We are doing because we are a customer obsessed company. So we do what our customers are asking, right? And by the way talking about the features and functionalities We might debate when we'll be deploying which functionality, right? But that's because we listen to our customers So if you want that functionality deployed before or earlier come talk to us and we work with that, right? So we heard from our customers that you know, they wanted and in particular some partners They wanted multi-tenancy and a multi-tenancy with data isolation to the storage layer So we decided to develop that and we are leveraging S3 to facilitate that So another thing that is important that we heard from our customers and partners is the multi-region you heard before Right that the shell is working with multi-region. We are also working with multi-region. So by leveraging a Feature from S3 called multi-region access point that you know, it's it's just something that I love We can deploy a centralized catalog with Distributed storage anywhere in the world. So it doesn't really matter where you want your storage and of course there's Limitations here and there we're working to implement all of that, right? but we can deploy a centralized catalog with a distributed storage with Replication that you can control and manage anywhere in the world and I think that's just great, right? Because I'm so excited about that because this is something that our customers and partners have been asking, you know for a while Right. So another thing that is important. It's about ingestion Everybody or at least many of us Complain a little bit about you know airflow and I love I have a love-hate relationship with it But I think we all have right so we have an easy ingestion as well leveraging some of our partners and Leveraging again some services from AWS like lambda and server less We have an easy ingestion if you haven't heard come talk to us. We can show it to you how it works, right? So it's really easy to get your data inside of OSDU. So what else do we do? So Something else they're gonna say is we deploy OSDU the way that you want Right some customers want to deploy themselves and I say, okay Give me the installer and I want to deploy myself because I want to custom it because of my security standards Fine, we can do that for you. Other customers want OSDU deployed fully managed We do that as well. We have a fully managed software as a service OSDU that can be deployed anywhere in the world I think this is important in its key, right? So if you have a Your in-country restriction and you wanted to be deployed as a service in some power For example, we can do that for you if you wanted to be deployed in UAE We can do that for you right now, right? Managed deployed anywhere in the world including multi region and multi tenancy or if you want to do it Embedded This is something I would like to call your attention. What do I mean by that? Well, I was talking today And I spoke a little bit about you know the innovators dilemma yesterday Which what which is if you're familiar with that, you know, if you keep doing better what you're doing eventually you fail And that's crazy, right? So how do we avoid failing by doing better? I think this is the key is to disrupt So I think we are disrupting To some extent the way OSDU is deployed by offering a very low-cost Entry point for OSDU So if you are a partner or a small operator and you want to use OSDU And you're not you know, you're not willing to you know, put all that money on a large installation of OSDU Whatever all that money means, right? So you want a low-cost low-barrier entry point talking about, you know, the five Force of Porter as well, right? So if you want to lower the barrier of entry, we have an offering for that We have an OSDU that costs dollars an hour and I think that's great So put it all together. We have an OSDU that costs a low-cost low-barrier of entry Deployed everywhere in the world Managed with multi-tenancy support. So I think that's that's pretty cool, right? So what else do we have? Well, we have a fantastic AWS partner ecosystem and I wish I could say there's gonna be some news Hopefully in the following weeks But Kim would kill me and I will lose my job if I say but so we have a something new coming in the following week With a strategic partner with something low-cost You know for smaller operators in and forever whoever is interested, right? So I think that's really cool with our partner ecosystem, right? And it's a huge thing So together we have Christine here if you want to know more about that everybody knows Christine roads if you don't know I advise you to talk to her she can explain all of about our Partners we have created more than 40 proof-of-value projects integrating ISV solutions to OSDU by the way tomorrow We have a happy hour where we're gonna be launching a new program, right called launchpad with the OSDU partners and AWS where you can see into when workflows Implemented as a service Managed powered by our great partners 47 lining So if you know no more about that talk to me buzz his sitting over there So thank you me for being a such a strong partner, right? So and everybody else I hate to you know point to one is just you know We're thankful for all of you guys that are working with us and there's more and if you have a partner That is not here ask him why he's not leveraging OSDU on AWS, right? Especially what I'm saying that you can deploy manage anywhere in the world Low-cost any way that you want multi tenant multi region, right? So that's great And more right there's an aim more down there. So yeah So what else? Given that OSDU is the same Given that OSDU is you know from a functional perspective, right? It is the same What else can we offer besides all the functionality that already said so I want to tell you and talk about if haven't heard AWS has an integrated Energy portfolio, so if you want a solution and of course we have our partners We're not competing with your partners don't take me wrong, of course, right? So but if you want a solution that you want to talk about geology and geophysics or drilling and completions, right? Or if you want all the way to midstream downstream and even new energies, right? If you want a solution about micro grids or carbon Trading or offshore wind or whatever we have a lot of solutions Developed by AWS that we can deploy, you know on top and around of OSDU as well So put all of that together, right? We have OSDU. We have our Deploy all the functionalities We have all the things that we can all the functionalities that we can do leveraging OSDU and AWS services, right? We have all the solutions from the partners. We have AWS solutions as well I think that's a pretty powerful solution with resources available to you Right, so I want you all to know so with that We can do some pretty cool things with all of that. For example, there's so many cases that I want to talk to y'all But it's just I don't have time. We don't have time, right? We have we have the only 15 minutes here But one use case that I would like to talk about is the ultra-fast seismic data processing again That's something that we did leveraging AWS services leveraging lambda So instead of you know, we have this challenge this operator that you know was taking hours to convert from a large Seismic file so using lambda we were able to parallelize all of that and do you know for a very low cost, you know In a fraction of the time, right? We are talking about five cents here So how cool is that right that can process a terabyte size file for pennies, right? And you know a very low time by using parallel parallelization and serverless, right? So that's not one solution that I'm we're really proud of that Another solution that I would like to talk is our seismic interpretation using deep learning So image recognition is something that is not new of course, right? It's been up there for you know a long time So we use that and we have case of that where we use image recognition and other machine learning techniques To do seismic interpretation, right? So I'm not a geophysicist. I'm an IT guy but we have People that can talk about that and explain all of that how that's being done, right? This case in particular. It was a led by a Professional services, I think right came so yeah What else so another thing that we can do and again, these are just examples of stuff that we can do, right? And that we are already doing there's a lot more of the love to talk about so for example There's this yellow device there called monitor on You can plug that and put that on an equipment it will monitor vibration and Temperature and stream that data to the cloud you can combine that data with the West you and boom you get OSD you integrated asset management So this is one of the many possibilities that of stuff that we do So there's a couple demos that I I've been doing around to some customers where I'm using Low code no code machine learning to predict curves for curve prediction, right from well Well logs and that's something that you know, it's pretty good as well It's pretty cool to show and there's no coding at all You just drag and drop stuff and create your prediction models, right? There's another one that you can do using very low code with sequel services where you can create a machine learning model using sequel service I mean sequel commands, right a very low code and there's another one that I was doing with Yuri the other day and Yuri's another architect that working with us is sitting over there close to a Christine You wet we were taught we were showing a quick site queue quick site queue. You can ask questions using natural language So how cool is that right? So these are just some examples. I can talk for hours. Believe me On you know how much I can talk, you know about anything, but Basically, it's because we innovate The reason for this slide is We work and this is the truth, right? We work from what our customers want backwards from that so 90% of what we do on AWS is build What you tell us that matters to you like the features on OS do that are implementing, right? And the other 10% is from innovation that we decide to do like serverless for example Or or like, you know multi-region access point with S3 which allow it, you know the multi region to be implemented For OS do on AWS, right? So I think that's pretty impressive numbers, right to deploy 3,000 more than 3300 new features in a single year. It's just it's an amazing credible number, right? so Everybody has been talking about large language models. I know that this is a little bit techie For some of you guys, but I wanted to cover that so at AWS. We are focused on democratizing Access to large language models, right?  So think about the use cases You can create your own because this is something our customer asked me and the customer said hey, can I Train a machine learning model for me with my language with my knowledge and Deploy for myself because I want it to be proprietary to my company. Can I do that? Yes, you can So with a very again, this is important and I apologize for emphasizing But we believe that this is so important for OS do you to have something that can be deployed at low cost Anywhere that you are anywhere in the world, right? So that's what we're doing here And we have all the the the good stuff we have the hugging smiley face We have you know all the large models are out there. There's even one model if you've seen me doing some demos You've probably saw me doing a demo with Alexa, right, which is a It's interesting but it's a little bit limited, right? Because of the way we have to model for that demo in particular the way you have to model the Q&A is right the questions and answers but With this we can use something called Alexa teacher, right? Which is a model a large language model deployed with that You know many many parameters. I don't remember the name now I think it's 20 billion parameters or something like that for a fraction of the time at the cost, right? So there's a lot I can talk about that. So if you're interested on your your and again Your large language models deployed to you owned by you We have a solution for you and also And I promise I'm almost done with it. So don't get mad with me Anybody, but I'm almost done with it. So it's just that you know, there's so much we want to talk about And by the way, I'm looking to there is right now and I forgot to mention. I apologize that we also deploy on-prem So if you want to ask you on-prem, we have our partnership with IBM So we have Kim here and there is here So now we can work with you and deploy on-prem if there's no region There's no cloud presence there. Whatever the cloud provider is we can go there and deploy OSD on-prem, right? So anyway back to The AI and machine learning stuff. We have a program right now that we launched To support a startups, right? It's an accelerator for startups. So the link is over there down there You can if you're interested on that there's some funding for you, right on top of all the other funding that we provide So I think that's pretty cool because we're committed to that, right? so Anyway, I hope I made the case But if there's something in one final is live that I want to show you guys because if you don't believe me You don't believe me, right? Maybe you are looking say, oh, hey, who is that guy over there talking this thing, right? And and say that has little cost and that OSD you on AWS is so cool So let's ask someone else, right? I decided to ask, you know, chat GPT So I decided to ask hey chat GPT. Why should I use OSD you on AWS, right? So and this is a video, right? So why should they use and I might ask, oh, okay You should have asked why I should not use so call me bias, but I'm not interested on that question, right? I'm interested on this one. So why should I use OSD you and AWS and it's saying right there? So don't trust me trust chat GPT, right? It's saying Sustainability security and everything else, right? So thank you open AI for that. I agree with you, right? So So, yeah, that's all I had


not going to take too much of your time really do appreciate all the great work that you folks are doing I am the co-chair of the house renewable energy and energy efficiency caucus so it is a great privilege for me to be here you folks who wants to do all the work in Iowa we've got great people I think we have the renewable fuels folks here yes today beyond even the Renewable Fuel Association we do have a lot of solar we got a lot of wind we got a lot of great great energy being produced in Iowa that creates jobs and it's good for the environment it's good for the economy it's good all the way around I know you have a lot of challenges before you going forward but it's our job in Congress to make sure that we set the environment right for you that we have the right policies as I was talking to the solar folks here the investment tax credit we get that through the extension of that for example production tax credit on and on not there are all kinds of things at the federal level that we need to be doing to support this tremendous industry because what you folks do for our environment we do for jobs we do for our economy more generally and really quite honestly not to take anything away from Canada all right but but to keep America competitive that's what this is about as well folks so thanks so much I was told I had a minute to two minutes I think I'm about there and I really appreciate all the great things you're doing I'm gonna stop by and say hi to as many people as I can before I have to go to the floor thanks everybody thank you


music. It's all part of the music if I'm involved in it and I think it might even get worse for the weekends because we're moving on to more sophisticated equipment and that means more sophisticated mistakes people all about sure about a trend and you never know. I'm delighted to welcome Charlie McGinley to the programme and as I said to you just prior to that I'd break Charlie as the community engagement officer with the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland and it's an interesting project that we'd love you to have a listen to about. Charlie first of all you're very welcome. Thank you very much Paul and thank you to me as well so excited to be here. It's lovely to have you open thanks for coming up. You've went from sort of two different extremes. You were the deputy news editor of the Donegal News for a long time. I was. I was the deputy editor of the Donegal News. I spent almost over 30 years with the Donegal News and I decided to step away from that position and I suppose I was going for a new challenge and a new direction and fortunately this position arose with the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland. I think Alzheimer's is something that people can identify with. There's over 64,000 people in Ireland living with dementia and I was contacted by the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland and asked would it be interested and a work as part of a team. There's three of us in the team and the community engagement team. There are a large number of staff right across Ireland but there's three in the community engagement team. It's led by our national community engagement manager Catherine O'Leary and we also have another member there, Azul Kinsley and she's based in Cardo. Catherine's based in Wexford. So three of us there and we promote and raise awareness around the activities that the ASI has across the country. OK Charlie, 64,000 people. It's a lot of people. It is indeed. And once it's got the link then it's a lot of families here. Yeah just to give you some figures. I didn't suppose before I joined the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland I wasn't aware of these figures. There are 64,000 people living with dementia in Ireland and it's estimated that by in the next 25 years that will be over 150,000 people living with dementia. To give you a figure as well there are 11,000 new cases of dementia in Ireland diagnosed each year. So that equates to 11 every day in this country. It's a progressive illness. There's no cure. So to say really what we can do is do our best as an organisation and do our best as a society to support and help those people that are living with dementia. Yeah Charlie the figures you said there are 64,000 and then increasing to 125,000 without going into too much detail on the back bones of that. But why do you think that is? I'm curious genuinely here now just why do you predict an increase like that? Is there something happening here that is out of control or something? It's not out of control as such Paul. It's just the actual progression of the illness and I suppose diagnosis is now early diagnosis is going better as well. It really was essentially what it is. It's basically it's harmful protein in your brain.  It can affect your memory. It can affect your language, your speech. And I suppose the diagnosis has gotten much better. People's awareness around it has become much better. And I suppose that's where the figures and we have a research and policy committee who look at this and that's the figures that they projected now going forward. Obviously the illness was about years ago but we sort of just dignitise people as saying they're not there. Am I right in thinking that? You're absolutely right Paul. You know and in fact I would have heard that term myself used you know. I use the term now people living with dementia is the term that I use. But it would have been used in my own home as somebody elderly. It was not. Unfortunately now I suppose you know as awareness and supports a rollout across the country. The ASI for instance Paul and Jimmy has we have 40 daycare centres across Ireland. They provide therapeutic supports to people living with dementia. There's trained staff there to help them. And there was obviously then as well we have day care at home. We have home care as well. Like the ASI is the largest dementia pacific healthcare provider in the country. So we provide about 68% of the supports in the community across the country. We are registered charity but we're also a healthcare provider you know. So that's to give you some idea about what the ASI does. I know and that's great work Charlie. And like Charlie why is what way does what way you know? I suppose the given charity Paul we rely on a lot of funding from local communities. And thankfully they do support the Alzheimer's Society very very very very well. There's government funding as well for the supports that we provide in the daycare centres and home care and home care at home. But we again rely on donations as well and fundraising. And that's done by a group volunteers and friends of ASI across the country. Do you see this multimedia content that you're involved with? Tell us a bit about that. Yeah well this is one of the projects that the community engagement team has been working on for some time. Basically what it is, the virtual dementia hub is a free online resource for people living with dementia. It's a hub whereby it's a digital space in all the words which provides resources like music, poems, art, reading, games, lifestyle, activity packs. And I suppose for me I thought of Highland and I thought of people involved in Highland because you're very close to musicians and you promote musicians in a great way here. And you have done so for many many many years. And I thought was an opportunity just to maybe put up a call out there to musicians who may be interested in giving us or submitting some of their material. Fortunately, many artists across the country have already done so. The hub has won a national award. It won the Vigitru national award tech for good community award. Just back in November there's a national award. When does this particular project start? Well, the actual virtual dementia hub is really up and going since about July or August. So it's really a synthesis I suppose in many ways. But it's certainly made an impact. And talking to families and talking to people who have used the resource. It is a fantastic resource. That's where you that's where you get your feedback, isn't it really? That's exactly the families and that. Do you know, before we just go into that details, I see sometimes you watch documentaries and you see people that, you know, maybe for one reason or another, because of dementia, they know they could have played the piano next thing they can, they can play it or they can sing along and stuff, you know, and music has has a therapy in different ways, but it seems to work well with people dementia. It seems to bring them back into somewhere where they remember fondly or whatever. Yeah, it triggers the memory, Paul. Yeah.  And it can help them remember as well. It helps, it helps the cognitive therapy as well. It's lovely to watch. It's fantastic to watch it, you know. Without sounding patronising or condescending, as I say, and it's done through very, and I do, you know, I think, I don't think there's anybody who doesn't know somebody with dementia, you know what I mean? And you see that you see the smile in their faces open and it just stops in your tracks and makes you grateful for what you have yourself, you know. How can our listeners get involved or artists or whatever, cherry? Well, the number of ways you can do that. You can have a look at the dementia hub. It's www.virtualdementiahub.ie. And if any artist is out there who would like to submit any material, they can contact us at the community engagement at alzheimer.ie. Catherine O'Leary is our national manager and Catherine looks after the content. And really what we need is content in MP3 or MP4 format, because it's easier to upload to our system. And for that reason, that's what we ask, you know. Well, it's not a lot of these musicians now, you know, like some people send us, a lot of people send us music. And sometimes I say, you wouldn't send MP3. And I think there doesn't MP3. I couldn't send you an MP3. I wouldn't know what you're talking about. I do know what you're talking about. I don't know how to do it. But these people are really up to date with stuff they got. So any musicians or artists or poetry, poets or whatever, just we're always on the lookout for fresh content, songs, music, poems, reading, arts, word puzzles, whether you know, anything that that would help people, you know, to engage people living with dementia and also their families. This is obviously a resource that families as well can get some respite with as well. In terms of, you know, they can allow the person who's living with dementia to just engage in this activity for a period of time in a safe environment. And as I say, the figures are that there's over 180,000 people in Ireland who are currently or have been a carer for a family member living with dementia. So you can imagine, Paul, you know, in terms of, you know, the sort of benefits of resource like this to families. And I've spoken to a number of families who use this. And they speak very, very highly of the word and recommend it very highly as well. Well, listen, well, don't use, but they so they online digital space. What way does that work then? Is this this whole part of this is all part of this process that you're talking about here? Yeah, well, the the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland got together with the charity partner Visitu. It's a national partner. And we developed this hub. Again, it's again, it's a free bespoke digital space. In other words, it's basically a website that you tap into. And you can see it there. But if you're providing content, you have to go behind that and allow us to contact the community engagement team so that we can upload the content that you want to provide. That that's essentially what it is. And as I say, from our point of view, it's a very effective resource. And it's one that we're keen to promote. And I know that Highlands has done that for many, many years. And I'm sure, like Donegal, an array across the country, there's a vast array of talent, and it doesn't have to be a famous musician. It doesn't have to be a famous poll. It can be an up and coming artist. I just listened to one come up the road there, young fellow Matthew Wellard, you know, and we just want a variety of content that will help people to help themselves. Well, if we can help in an or small way, we will mention this and if anybody's listening and thinks they can contribute to this, we greatly appreciate it. You can contact them once again on virtualdementiahub.ie. And you'll get all the information there you want. Charlie, it's a it's a very interesting subject. It's a very common subject. And I'm sort of taking it back for the figures that you give us there. Unbelievable. But yeah, just in Donegal alone, Paul, I didn't mention that. Actually, in Donegal alone, the ASI here, there's 2,500 people. There's actually 2,451 people currently living with dementia in Donegal. And the ASI here, we have an office in Balboffet. We have two daycare centres and a home care centre as well. We have our daycare centres in Glendys and Guidore. And we have a daycare centre and daycare at home facility in Klahan. And we have also got dementia advisors in the community as well, John Thompson and Meena McGill, who are there to help families, you know, if somebody, you know, just to help with that early diagnosis, help provide support and health to families who have a loved one who's living with dementia. Well, we wish you well, as I say, anything we can do here at all. And do you know this, if there's any artists listening, and you know, you could do you could do a lot of good. You know, you'd be probably surprised at what you can achieve by doing this. And once again, virtualdementiahub.ie. And I'd love to hear from you. Do you acknowledge the people then that... Absolutely. We credit all the musicians, artists, poets who submit material. We credit them all. And so far, you know, just this week, I can't actually give a name, but a very, very high profile, renowned international singer has agreed to give us her work as well. And today as well, there was another local one as well, who I can't just give his name, but he's well known here in Hell Radio, and he's kind of agreed as well to give his material as well to us as well. Well done. So that's very hard. And you know, again, it's not all about the international renowned. This is, again, an appeal to just up and coming musicians or current musicians that are there that would like, or maybe have a friend or a family member who's living with Alzheimer's or not, who just feel that they would like to help a charity organisation. And this is a good way to do it. And it's a very effective way to do it. And I'm sure they will get a great benefit from it. It's a great idea, Charlie, and we wish you well with it. And you know, when this progress, as it progresses through time, feel free to come back to us or recommend somewhere to send you stuff. And because we're more than delighted to highlight it here and bring them up or whatever. You know, if they want a platform here as well, the door is open. So any artist, music song and poetry or whatever, just get in touch with virtualdimensionhub.ie.  Yeah, no, I just want to, on behalf of the Alzheimer's Society of Earned, I'd like to thank yourself, Paul, and Jimmy and everybody here in Highland for giving us the opportunity just to promote this resource. And just to wish all your listeners and your staff and management and all the diaspora around Ireland and abroad who tune in to Highland regularly almost on a daily basis, a very happy new year. And just to say if you're someone who's willing to help a charity, then just maybe think about the Alzheimer's Society of Earned as well. Absolutely. And as I say, Charlie McGinley here, the Community Engagement Officer with Alzheimer's Society of Ireland. Are you on Facebook, Charlie? I think if people just want to just drop by. Yeah, the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland have a range of social media channels. We're on, I think we're on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, are the main ones that we use. Sorry, Twitter as well, actually is one of our key platforms as well. But we're on all the social media channels. We have a dedicated communications team in Dublin who look after all that material for us. That's good. You have to be on top of them.  I'm not. Chickers is there for us free, you know, take full advantage of it. And it's grown every day. There's a new one coming out every day, Paul, you know, and that's just the way that the whole technology game has gone, I suppose. As it was, just from my background, as it was, I can remember the days when I actually came in with a manual typewriter. A manual typewriter now, Paul, is a thing of the past, you know. I think Tom Hanks is the only one with his MB, he used to collect them. And I suppose that's not that long, go all together. No, I know that. And you can just see how technology, and even I can see here in Highland, how, you know, the whole technology, the technology set up here in Highland as well, has progressed as well over the years as well. Yeah, you'd be left alone, Charlie, if you don't move with it, you know. Exactly. Well, you have to embrace it, you know, as part of society now. Less stressed with this job, Charlie, or is it? I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it, Paul. I'm enjoying it, you know. It's a new role for me, I suppose, in the early days. There was that bit of anxiety around it, in the sense that I didn't know a lot about the organisation, but fortunately, I have a very, a very good team. I have an excellent manager in Catherine O'Leary, who's very, very helpful, and is a counsellor as well in our team. And they have helped me to settle in, and they've helped me to relax in the role. And I'm really enjoying it. And as I say, we have a number of different projects that work on. We're also, we also have a dementia inclusive generation programme, which is actually working in schools. That's a national programme as well. So that's educating young people. Young people, which is very important. Get them young. Very, very important. Get them young, Paul, yeah. So we have now over 50 schools across the country now, who are working that programme. And we're now in the stages as well of rolling out a sporting memories programme as well, which is a reminiscence programme as well with sports organisations. It's great to work here, Charlie, and we wish you well and continue success with it. And you know what, keep in touch with us here because we'd love to see how you progress and say, if there's anything we can do, the doors open here to Monday night session. But once again, Charlie McGinley, the community engagement officer with the Alzheimer's Society, very much. It's been a pleasure. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. It's been a pleasure, Paul. Thank you, Charlie.


On Sunday, Joe Manchin appeared on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, and he seemingly expressed frustration with the Biden administration over their unwillingness to support a Ukrainian no-fly zone, i.e. support war with Russia, because that's exactly what that would lead to. And he even said that it was wrong to rule out a no-fly zone. But what he says here is completely reckless and insane. Nonetheless, we'll listen to what he has to say, and then I will tell you why what he's saying is madness when we come back. Look, you were on this Zoom with President Zelensky yesterday. Before I get into the details, just, you know, what was that like with him? What did he say to you guys? That was so surreal, but to have a person there on the front lines taking mortars every day and basically seeing his people being slaughtered and willing to withstand all of this and fight back and all he asked for was basically just help me. I'll fight my own fight. Just give me the tools to do it. And for us to hesitate, or anyone to hesitate in the free world, is wrong. And he said that. He said, listen, if your crane falls, then Europe may fall. Where do you want to stop? What does that mean for you?  Would you support doing this, which could trigger a white conflict? I understand that, but right now you don't signal to the nemesis of Putin. This is a Putin's war. This is not the Russian people's war. This is Putin's war and his quest for whatever it may be. But to take anything off the table thinking we might not be able to use things because we've already taken them off the table is wrong. I would take nothing off the table, but I would be very clear that we're going to support the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian president and this government. Every way humanly possible. Zelensky was very clear. He says, we don't need you to fight our fight. We don't need you to fly our planes or fly your planes into our war zone. We need the planes that we can fly ourselves and we have them on the border. You heard Secretary Blinken. That deal seems to be at least in motion. I think it's moving. I hope it's very clear. The trading of jets with the Poles in particular. Absolutely. We need to backfill that. Okay. Let me be very clear here. When somebody in the media asks a politician if they support a no fly zone over Ukraine, that's just the synonym for war with Russia at this point. And if we were to directly confront Russia by shooting down one of their planes, that's what would be entailed with the no fly zone that would immediately trigger World War Three. So this isn't some casual thing that we're talking about here. I don't think that media pundits should just flippantly talk about war with Russia by coding it in this more innocuous language, ostensibly innocuous language called no fly zone. Just say it's a war with Russia. Just ask if you support war with Russia because that's exactly what that is. And it's frustrating to see people in media mess this up time and again. And thankfully Chuck Todd, unlike other pundits, he actually implied, well, this could pull us into, you know, a greater conflict there, which it definitely would obviously. But at least he implied that it's more substantial than just, oh, you can't fly here. No, that means we directly confront Russia by shooting down their planes. And according to Joe Manchin, he wouldn't rule that out. He would not rule out war with Russia. He also said that you don't signal that you're not open to a no fly zone to the enemy because that would be bad. We want the enemy with nuclear weapons to think that we're crazy and we would be willing to shoot down their planes and trigger World War Three.  But if you're not convinced with what I'm saying about a no fly zone, let me break it down. We just covered this article last week on the program, but I'm going to read it again just because it's so important here. As Zach Bochamp of Vox explains, as the war in Ukraine gets bloodier, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly urged members of the NATO Alliance to close the skies. This appears to be a request for a no fly zone, deploying NATO aircraft to Ukrainian airspace in order to block Russia from using its airspace in support of the invasion. This is a catastrophic idea. Stripped of Kant, the US announcing a no fly zone in Ukraine would be an American declaration of war on Russia. The first major conflict between the two nations that, put together, control 90% of the world's nuclear weapons. A no fly zone is not a magical umbrella that prevents planes flying in a given area. It's a decision to shoot at planes that fly in a given area, explains Olga Ulaker, the International Crisis Group's director for Europe and Central Asia. To put in a no fly zone is to go to war. The Biden administration appears to recognize the risk. In a Thursday press conference, President Biden categorically ruled out direct US intervention in Ukraine. Quote, our forces are not and will not be engaged in the conflict with Russia and Ukraine. This effectively takes any meaningful no fly zone off the table and there is no sign the president will change his mind. Now this article was published at the end of February, but since then the Biden administration has been pressed by members of the media to support a no fly zone. They've asked and heavily implied that this is something that he should be doing, but thankfully they've resisted calls for an escalation. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki last week said, no, this is a terrible idea because this means a direct confrontation between the United States and Russia, between NATO and Russia. And I just feel like people in the Senate should get this. Joe Manchin should understand what he's calling for. To say I wouldn't take this off the table means you're signaling to Russia that we would consider going to war with them. This is a nuclear armed country. We don't need to pretend to be tough for the sake of being tough. We need to be very clear and deliberate with the things that we say and not be reckless. But that's what Joe Biden Joe Manchin is doing and thankfully he's not the president. Joe Biden is and Joe Biden is doing the correct thing here and I commend him for resisting calls to go to war with Russia because that's insane. Again, they have news as do we would be pretty devastating for the species if this were in fact to take place and Joe Manchin isn't the only idiot in the Senate to say something incredibly reckless. Lindsey Graham on either Friday or Saturday called for Putin's assassination, which to have a sitting US senator say this publicly. I mean, who knows how the Kremlin interpreted that I don't know if they take Lindsey Graham that seriously, but they need to be watching everything that they say currently. You're a member of the US Senate. When you call for war with Russia, that's not some small thing.  You have an immense amount of power. So for people like Manchin to say this or Lindsey Graham to say Putin should be assassinated. I mean, this is all possibly seen as a sign of aggression from Putin and we don't want to give them any reason to escalate because again, they have nukes and so do we. And as a species, we all have a common interest to want to survive. So unless Joe Manchin wants to go to war himself, wants to go join Ukraine if he cares that much, or maybe send his son or his daughter who was engaged in price fixing when she was the CEO of a pharmaceutical company.   And I just got to point this out. I mean, he's talking about war with Russia here and advocating for war with Russia or at least to be fair to him, not ruling war with Russia out, not taking it off the table. Except, how much would that cost? Let me remind you what he said in response to the $3.5 trillion price tag for Build Back Better when he was on Meet the Press back in September when negotiations were ongoing. So he was a hard no on spending $3.5 trillion to help people in the United States, but when it comes to war with Russia, he's not going to take that off the table. Does he have any estimate as to how much that will cost? Do we have a CBO score as to how much war with Russia will cost? Assuming we go to war with Russia and we survive a nuclear apocalypse, how much would that cost to rebuild society and humanity?   But his handler should be explaining to him, don't openly call for war or keep war on the table when you do interviews, because people hear this, Russia hears this, and this can be seen as provocation. I just wish that the members of the media who asked this question would stop coding war with Russia in this seemingly innocuous language, no-fly zone. Just call it war with Russia. Just call it direct confrontation with Russia because that's what it is. And characterizing it as anything but that is absolutely reckless. I'll say it again, to institute a no-fly zone is tantamount to a declaration of war with Russia. This is something that we absolutely cannot and will never support.


The island's chief medical officer, Dr. Sharon Belma George, in a recorded press statement said that in St. Lucia breast cancer is the number one cause of death in women and also the main cause of premature death in women. Most of these diagnoses she added are made in women from the age group 45 to 55 years. The risk of breast cancer according to Dr. Belma George is increased with several factors such as increasing age, obesity, harmful use of alcohol, family history of breast cancer, history of radiation exposure, reproductive history, tobacco use, and post-menopausal hormone therapy.  The symptoms of breast cancer can include a breast lump or thickening often without pain, the changing size, shape, or appearance of the breast, dimpling, redness, pitting, or other changes in the skin, the changing nipple appearance or the skin surrounding the nipple, abnormal or bloody fluid from the nipple. The treatment for breast cancer depends on the subtype of cancer and how much it has spread outside of the breast to the lymph nodes or to other parts of the body. The ministry is encouraging healthy lifestyles, regular screening and early detection as key to improving the outcome of the breast cancer diagnosis. It's with that in mind that the ministry throughout October will be intensifying its breast cancer awareness education program targeting the public and private sectors and schools. On Friday, staff at the ministry led by example by adorning in pink took a men's pink Friday, one of the activities for this year's observance of breast cancer awareness months. Workplaces and communities nationally will be invited to dress in pink or decorate their workstations in pink with a message to generate visibility and demonstrate the championing of the cause for breast cancer prevention. Another activity is the community outreach led by community nursing service. Each wellness center to dedicate one day of screening to community members and also decorate and showcase a display table throughout the month of October. The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Millennium Heights Medical Complex will be hosting a mini health expo in the lobby of the facility where all patrons and patients are to participate. Educational sessions will continue for the month of October at all wellness centers under the theme let's stand for her, check your lemons. The Bureau of Health Education and Community Nursing Service will conduct breast health sessions within secondary schools with a specific focus on girls, teaching the importance of knowing their breasts, identifying the changes in their breasts, how to conduct a self breast exam and loving and caring for their breasts. Another activity is Kick for Cure. Kick for Cure is a special event held during the month of October to launch the Veterans Football Championship. The event will be held on the denry playing field on the 21st and 22nd October. Under this activity, the Ministry of Health will be conducting screening and educational sessions with the patrons.  From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Early Affairs, Julia Peter reporting.


Alright, so we are now going to shift over to our panel discussion to talk about representation in fashion and I am very excited as we talk about representation of black Americans in contemporary fashion. I am excited to share with you three distinguished guests and so let me just go ahead and jump in and introduce them now. We are going to get into a conversation about what representation means for them, how they are kind of working through creating an impact or shift in the fashion industry and the larger culture when it comes to representation. So my guest service follows, Erin Rose Phillip gained fame on social media by noting the lack of representation of both trans women of color and persons with disabilities within the fashion industry. Represented by a community in New York she has emerged as a trailblazer determined to reflect her communities as a model. We also have Caroline A. Wenga who is the Chief Executive Officer of Essence, the number one media technology and commerce company dedicated to a global and multi-generational audience of more than 30 million black women in communities. She also holds a position of Chief Growth Officer for Essence Ventures where she leads the company's commitment to serving its community deeply via critical multi-platform content, digital and virtual offerings and cultural events. We also have Kennedy Carter who is a fine art and editorial photographer with a primary focus on black subjects. Her work highlights the aesthetics and socio-political aspects of blackness as well as the overlooked beauties of the black experience which involve skin, texture, trauma, peace, love and community. Thank you all for taking the time to join this discussion and as I've let you all know I'm just, it's such a privilege to have you all here and I know you have so much to say and we've got about 30 minutes. So I want to start off with each of you asking if you could describe where you grew up, what did experience look like, what did representation look like for you and how did it shape who you are today and we can start with anyone who ever wants to jump in. Hi everyone, thank you so much for having me. My name is Aeron Rose-Philip, my pronouns are she, her and I would be so happy to start off with this conversation. I grew up, I was born in Antigua and Barbuda, a small island in the Caribbean and I immigrated here with my mom and dad when I was three years old in search of medical attention being that when I was born I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and because there was limited resources in Antigua to take care of that we have to come to America to kind of figure that out and from then on when I was here I was enrolled in school as a baby and I had to stay here. Representation, trying to find representation throughout my life had been really, really hard up until I was older for many reasons being that I was young and trans, I am convinced that I was trans my entire life and there was no language for that so I had no language to even express myself or express myself to other people growing up especially as a young black girl of trans experience at that and also I was honestly predominantly around a lot of white people growing up and because of that that very much informed my experience in terms of like I never truly felt like I saw myself outside of my parents or my family from Antigua I never had enough blackness or black people in my life to enforce the fact that it's like okay to be black and it's okay to look and feel confident and secure and happily live within blackness. My parents instilled that in me but I didn't see that in the world around me and I think that if I did I would have been really good for me. Thank you. Kennedy, Caroline wants to build on that. I'm happy to go next and excited to be here with this panel. I think you know Kimberly you talked about being excited to be with us I think it's also exciting for us to be together because rarely do you see this group of people have the opportunity to sit in one conversation together so I'm excited to be here. My story is I'm Kenyan. I was born in Kenya on the eastern coast of Africa that is where I was born. I am a member of the Luya and Luo tribes and so for me my upbringing in Kenya was really related to how issues of aesthetic whether it be how tall we are, how dark our skin is, the language we speak, the clothing we wear, the decoration of the textile all of that had significant meaning because on that in my country on the continent right there are particular fabrics tied to particular tribes there are particular facial features tied to particular tribes right all of these things beyond your name and what you're called and so I grew up in Kenya where there were multiple tribes multiple languages all of these things but what was absolutely true about my upbringing in Kenya that I think is important for the conversation today was the important of aesthetic being a part of how you made your mark in the world right. It wasn't a opt in it was an opt like you can't opt out because you are born into tradition and culture based on your tribal affiliation or who you are just in general within the country that comes with it some expectations of what you wear when you celebrate what you wear when you're mourning what you wear when you're working what you wear when you're carrying your baby on your back which you wear right and so it was never a discussion of fashion it was a discussion of representing who you were and not doing that was almost in violation of who you are biologically because there was so much tied to how those particular aesthetics related to who you were tribally or within the nation originally. Now the interesting thing is transitioning over to the US at the age of 10 right and encountering then what was even more amplified westernized perspectives on what formal wear is on what business wear is on what casual wear is created a lot of dissonance for me to be honest because while we were colonized in Kenya by the British there were still some Kenyan traditions that remain coming to the US the westernization of dress was definitely a place of conflict for me and then I'm just in junior high where you know junior high is a gauntlet anyway everybody just needs congratulations for making it through but but we just it became this thing that had me confused until a few years ago I just decided to go back to representing what I knew but with a modern aesthetic that made it my own which is continuing to represent who I am culturally but having that sit with aesthetics that I dig that are modern that are architectural and finding the place where I would start to define what business dress meant what formal meant what I was going to wear when I was talking to people and I think that is probably where I found my piece thank you and I am going to want to circle back to seeing how you navigate that with business dress and how you we can we can talk about that Kennedy hi everyone thank you guys for having me and it is so great to be in conversation with all of you guys I'm extremely happy about it I grew up in the south that was born in Charlottesville Virginia which I consider Virginia to be the south I moved to Texas for a bit and then when my dad received a job at Duke I moved to Durham North Carolina and I still live here today I've been doing photography for the last five years I started when I was in high school and I think when I started and I was looking into I remember being in my sophomore year of high school and looking into I guess black women photographers that were making work especially in regards to just fashion photography in particular and I remember the only one I really was able to find at that moment was I believe her name is Shaniqua Jarvis I think that's how you pronounce me and so I just remember seeing that and then not having a lot of a point of reference but I think the thing about representation and I think the thing about progress is when it comes down to it you kind of just have to put the things that are missing in the world into the world and maybe even become that thing and yeah so after that research and continuing for a good deal of time I ended up going off to school I didn't like it that much and then I took a two-year gap year and I'm here so yeah beautiful and I have to ask and see you mentioned Shaniqua Jarvis I'm gonna ask the three of you is there anyone who as you were kind of growing up or at any particular point in your life who really kind of changed things for you in terms of what representation could look like and kind of inspired you and said oh okay you know and I'm curious if there's anyone or anyone's these are more people who may have just really kind of turned things around for you I think Carrie Mayweems off the bat that was the first black woman photographer or just yeah black woman a photographer that I was really into and loving her work so what was it about Carrie Mayweems work um I think how intimate it was how honest it was and how I guess she was honest about her experiences in domestic environments as well within her particularly that kitchen table series and so looking into that and then there were a couple other projects that I really liked a great deal by her that I just in blanking on at the moment but yeah I was really into her work when I was younger and you run was there anyone for you for me it was fk to be honest I remember coming across it for the first time when I was I think 13 years old she just released LP one her first album and I before I ever saw her music I was struck by her visual and the amount of agency she had over her look and how she wanted to portray herself as a black woman like she is so very much black and so not just proud but she takes it into her own hands her own narrative of what it means to her to be a black woman how her blackness is soft it's hard it's beautiful it's it has so many feelings that we evoke not through her does her aesthetic but music to see how the world's tied into other as well I was so inspiring to me as a young black girl a young black aspiring creative and she had become my beauty icon and a true role model for me were there any ways around that you find yourself kind of referencing that or even building off of that was there any certain look you've done or something where you were really going for it I literally got my nose piercing because of her I got my nose ring because of her I was so inspired by her look and how she felt so unabashedly proud of herself and proud to be herself and what that looks like for her I said you know you maybe want to be myself too it's beautiful Caroline who was it for you or what you or was it the series of things or was it an image that you saw in the past yeah I think you know for me I would say that as I mentioned in my opening it was the culture I grew up in right because so much of that just manifested in the way that we sat down and had a meal and visited with each other right just growing up in Kenya both in the city and in both of my parents' villages like it just was in front of you right so you saw all of these things and that's how you learned about it and so that definitely was inspirational it doesn't mean I was fully ready to own it but it was it was what I aimed for I think if I were to say when I came over to the US and having existed in Western culture what I would say in hindsight it's people like Grace Jones and the reason why I bring her up is because I think before I even knew why she was just intriguing to me there's an audacity to the way that she chose to exist that disregarded environment disregarded dress code disregarded anything and it wasn't to be disrespectful but I even think about something that I remember Willie Smith saying in one of the essence articles we did with him was this idea of like never being concerned about the onlookers who thought you were overdressed because even though you may not have adhered to whatever the dress code may be for your job or for your style or for what you do you will always be the best dressed in the room if you're authentic to yourself and I think that Grace Jones was one of those icons who just was like I'm coming and I'm here and how I showed up is how you get to consume me make a choice and I think that now as I look at where I am in life I definitely operate in that same mentality that she inspired even if I didn't know at the time that was which is I am going to decide how I want to show up and I will never show up in a way that is disrespectful of the venue or the event but I will also not feel restricted by what others are saying is appropriate there and I will wear what will do and I actually have a line that I use a lot about my style and I say I wear what I am I'm sorry I wear where I am and what I mean by that is I w e a r I wear w h e r e I am I wear where I am and that could be mentally that could be physically that could be emotionally that could be intellectually that could be a lot of different things but I check in with myself on how I want to show up in my aesthetic and that in and of itself is an activism around authenticity. Amen to that and I like how we're going you know where we're going with this idea of authenticity and audacity Caroline can you please give us some examples of how you have done this what are some looks what are some ways that you have shown up and felt completely seated in yourself but also still respectful of the environment what are some some looks. I think it's an interesting you know I'll try to talk about the looks but what I'll talk about is just kind of a series of moments and so I I did a 15 year career in corporate America and I would tell you that for the first 10 of those years I was rocking cardigans and New York and company and crap I didn't like because I thought that's what business we were supposed to wear and I hated my closet that I would wear to work. I hate cardigans no hate on people who love cardigans I don't like cardigans but I had like 50 of them because I thought that's what I was supposed to wear to work but I had this whole other closet that was actually me that I didn't feel like I could wear when I was at work but I'm spending more time at work than not at work and so I remember when I went into the job doing diversity and inclusion and I actually had this moment of dissonance where I was now in a role where I was supposed to be helping people be their authentic selves at work and I had done 50 different air styles in my life but never locks because I somewhere somebody had told me that locks are not appropriate in corporate America I'll remember who told me or when but I held it like it was truth right and so one of the things that I did when I got that job and was in a place of dissonance was I went home I had micro braids in my hair if you don't know what those are audience google it but I had micro braids in my hair and I cut them out at the knot these were fresh at the knot and went to the shop and said start my locks because I could not sit in the dissonance of saying that my job is to help people be authentic at work and I'm sitting here fair to change my hairstyle after I've had a successful 10-year career in corporation if target fires me because I started my locks then we were not at close anyway and so I came to work the next day deathly afraid deathly afraid of termination that's not an exaggeration because it was here in the here for the black woman in a lot of places corporate included was considered a career limiting decision depending on how you wore it it depending on what your career would be that's a provocation that's a provocation wearing your hair natural in that space absolutely like that is an act of activism there are dress codes out there the crown act had to be created because natural hairstyles for black women were considered to be things that made them unprofessional unsuccessful limited their growth and so I literally lived in fear for the whole week I thought everybody was talking about me every time my boss called me they were coming to fire me until nobody cared and the minute that I was in week three and nobody cared I was like okay I'm gonna hit him with the blue lipstick and then nobody cared again and then I was like are we doing this okay burning cardigans rocking things that are these funky aesthetics like what I have on starting the unicorn horn doing my glasses thing coming in whatever I want to wear when I'm called to speak on a stage putting on fabric that represents my continent and modern aesthetics starting to deliver on the things that make me feel dope when I'm engaging with people and that became then an act of activism in the corporate sector that I was just doing to feel comfortable so that I was freeing up the capacity in my brain and in my spirit to actually be excellent at what I was there to do and because I had been consuming that time with cardigans and stuff and walking around and stuff that I wasn't comfortable with I was limiting my capacity to be good in the minute that I liberated myself by wearing what I wanted to wear and being comfortable that if it changed a relationship with anybody that I was okay with that relationship going away the pursuit of my purpose was accelerated and that is what I would say is more important than a look it is the decision that came with operating in my authenticity accepting that the consequences may mean that some people don't want to be around me anymore but also feeling liberated in the capacity that was freed up to actually do what I was born to do because I wasn't worried about wearing something that made me uncomfortable Caroline I have to ask would you say well there's two things would you say though the the status that you had in those work environments enabled you to do that more so than say a black woman at a different level in that workspace so I will say yes and no and let me tell you why the yes part of that answer is yes I had gotten to an officer level in the in the C suite right and so yeah I made it there but actually if you think about psychologically what is different most people become more restricted as they go up because it becomes more risky to lose what you've gained self-preservation increases because now you're at the top you've got this big job you've got this big represent whoever you are right you've made it to the pinnacle and so the risk that comes with after the fight now given them a little bit of your authenticity actually becomes a threat to your life your career your success so yes there is something related to the privilege of functioning at the officer level but that privilege did not mean that I was not subjected to decisions changing and all of a sudden I no longer have potential because I'm wearing my hair natural what changed it for me was I had sponsors and people who helped to surround the attacks that came to my authenticity that were invalid that's actually what was more the difference for me because at my level in my job I had to live what I own that doesn't mean Target was interested in me doing that and so it had to be groups of other people across the company that had to play a role and go leave Caroline alone yes she wears whatever the hell she wants but it's not her new pay attention to her substance and by the way I kicked ass in my job and so where do you have a complaint and so it wasn't necessarily protective but what it was that I didn't do it for was inspirational to several other women and black people who weren't wearing their hair natural had been covering up and what we started to see not just because of me but as a part of that was women starting to come out and who they always wanted to be because now somebody had gone first or second or third and it inspired them to do the same thank you and so it took that that courageousness and just moving forward and offering that sense of protection for others and I want to ask you know you also get me thinking about something else it's very important for our viewers oftentimes and I also think about this when I work with students they see people at the top or this really great powerful proud place and they don't see the process you know they don't get to see everything that led you know the cardigan sweaters you know you get into that point you know they see star photographers star designers but they didn't see that struggle or or with artists up to that point and so Aaron and Kennedy I want to ask you um a little bit about the process or that journey and getting there because some people see you now and just you know or maybe you were always maybe you stepped into this from the beginning but what was that process like um and even kind of building off of what Caroline said did did it also depend on a little bit of protection or advocacy or a supportive family or an adopted family you know or a group of friends to really support you in that so you could really step into that self was it always what we're seeing here now in terms of your you know how you present yourself and how you feel today I am very connected to where I started from and the work that it took to get to the point that people consider me to be at right now and where I consider myself to be at right now um it did not happen overnight um I work as a model for um anyone that might not be familiar I work as a model I am now represented by community New York but um for a long time I was known being that um when I was 17 I was signed to elite model management as their first um as the first black trans disabled model ever signed to a major high fashion agency but represented or represented by a major modeling agency um I to say the least I worked a lot and very hard to get to that point and beyond especially being that um I am black trans and disabled where um to many people these these identities could not exist as something that is desirable beautiful um something to view as beautiful or sellable um and I started my modeling career myself I was not I was not at first scouted by an Asian or photographer I did it myself on twitter where I made a tweet when I was 16 about wanting to aspire to be a model and aspire to sign to an agency being that I had never seen anything like it before and for someone who prior to this tweet or anything who loves fashion so much I genuinely was a little disappointed that you don't see people with disabilities disabled people on the cover of rogue in editorials you don't see people in wheelchairs people with mobility aids represented in fashion you don't see black trans people represented in fashion black trans women represented in fashion behind or in front of the camera on set as makeup artists as hair artists you don't see that you don't you barely see black people in fashion as it is and I just have to sit and wonder why because you look outside on the street right and you see all types of different people you don't just see someone who is cisgender white able bodied and heterosexual and six feet tall you see all types of different people so how could this not exist in fashion when fashion is so crucial to the way people identify and see themselves and see themselves as beautiful or as trendy that's how you identify what's going on in style in modern style how could you miss that mark so I really felt compelled when I was 17 to take it there on twitter and kind of start that conversation and it worked where when I was 17 through that tweet I started out getting many odd jobs where I at first was doing retail um I made my intentions very known that I always want to be elevated to the place in high fashion where I want to be because I know high fashion is where it lacks the most visibility or the most representation the most tangible representation for my groups of people that I belong to I knew that for a fact and I started out in retail where I started doing jobs with clients such as h&m refinery 29 American Eagle and I was very very happy and honored to be in that space I was honored that anybody was listening to me at all and I was at that time I was not assigned to anyone I was doing this all myself I was a junior in high school I used to be in class um I had my computer on one side of the computer would be emails from the top of the screen to down on the screen that I had to answer I was filing w2s and then on the other side of the screen was school work and my teacher would get mad at me because I was trying to do two things at the same time in class like I was really that dedicated where I was working as I was in class I was trying to make everything work because I felt so compelled to become a model because I love fashion and I hadn't seen myself properly in it yet and by properly I mean I guess my end goal is that disabled models are walking like Versace Prada um Mew Mew black trans models are walking Versace Prada Mew Mew like I want to see everyone doing everything in a tangible way not just for singular soul moments I want it to happen in a way that is genuinely tangible and I knew I had work to be done back then so here I was 17 working working working working working and it honestly continued where press started to continue to come in because I had press writing about me at that point because I was getting a lot of attention from people and I was working a lot and very hard up until the summer but before the summer I I before the summer I was just I was just very in a space where I was like is this going to work out is this really going to work out and I wasn't sure but I kept going anyways because I knew that my time and space as a disabled person as a black trans girl um needed to be respected and seen because that's the old thing where it's going to work and the summer of 2018 um I was I was here in my room and I checked my email and elite model management expressed interest in signing me they were ready to sign me and I cried and I cried and I cried and I cried because I felt like I really did what I said I was going to do and people really listened to me and that was the start um the start is not all the finish when I was signed it was such an exciting time my life at elite I was very honored and grateful to take up that space and to be amongst such incredible women incredible figures in the industry but I'm not even going to hide this at like for a long time clients were very reluctant to work with me because of the fact that I am black trans and physically disabled they did not know how to accommodate they did not know how to go about that because it has not been seen in fashion and then accessibility is a whole other conversation where like fashion had not ever really considered or thought about accessibility as something to consider for a very very long time so my goal is to do runway and campaigns and magazine covers and a lot of the time these events these faces would not be accessible to my wheelchair at all these faces would have stairs or something that I can't get my wheelchair in so I can't be a part of it or you know the client simply does not want to take the time to accommodate and that was very difficult to navigate engage and try to wrap my head around being that I never saw myself as different from other models I just need the accommodation to make things work and for a long time I was in that space to kind of make things work then I started getting clients when I was 18 to when I was 17 to 18 I did magazine giving me my first job which was which was an editorial for them which was really really really exciting and I was so super honored to have that and then when I turned 18 that's when I really started working for the first time and it was very interesting to see how things started to work because I remember my first major job was for Sephora I had a Sephora campaign for Pride and that was so wonderful because I remember I used to be so concerned about accessibility and then I was in LA with Sephora and Luke Guilford the photographer took the time to take me on my wheelchair into the grass to take a shot and I felt like oh my god I feel so listened to and loved right now because people are trying to understand me and my body and how I can exist in fashion in a way that they don't think about in a way that's major that's elevated you know seeing people kind of start to think about accessibility and transness upon the presence of myself and other models like myself in this industry has been really amazing and you know from then on things started to slowly progress and grow and I just continue to especially use social media as a way of voicing my thoughts and opinions which people consider to be activism but I know in my heart that I'm just a Black girl and as a Black girl I have to speak on everything to make it happen and that's just how I think of it I don't consider myself an activist I think of myself as a model and I just I continued with everything that was going on and then last year have especially seen a lot of progress for me in my career being that last year was the height of the pandemic as well so it was really interesting where we were in the height of the pandemic and I was so scared everyone was so scared but I noticed that I had a lot of work going on from home where clients were starting to reach out and wanting to ask me more about what it is to be Black trans disabled in the industry but in a way that's not tokenizing in a way that's like let's book you let's really see you for who you are as a model let's uplift your talent let's show that you can sell clothes um and it's been really interesting where I started from where I'm at and um I now have nine covers to my name nine magazine covers and I have campaigns such as Moschino with Jeremy Scott um for the fall winter 21 season which I am so deeply honored and grateful to have even happened in any capacity Jeremy Scott is someone who is very close and near and dear to my heart because like he's really seen me for who I am as a model and talent and what I want to contribute and why I want to contribute that way and it really has been like an uphill back and forth I'm not going to call the battle because I love fashion and I love my industry and I think the battle is considering a fight and really I just want to be understood and taken seriously and I don't consider that a battle I consider that a back and forth and um I've also shot for Tyler Mitchell for Vogue Italia where you know these jobs that I used to think about before modeling because I used to dream these things are not dreams anymore and um I feel extremely connected to the fact that I started from where I came from because I made a tweet you know and people really genuinely listen to me and I'm so grateful for everyone that I've ever had the chance to work with and the people that I continue to work with and I'm just excited to see where it goes next thank you for that start that that is a beautiful journey and so I am glad that you were just getting booked and just in high demand and and I and I hope that that sustains before we go to Q&A there's so many more questions I had for you all I want Kennedy to just share also um just anything you know just in hearing what uh Aaron and Caroline had to say about their journey um does that call to mind anything for you Kennedy? I um I feel like I didn't really start doing anything that was I guess for commission well when I did start it was more so when I was in college and they were very small shoots like $25 shoots and it was getting strange for a little change I'm gonna be honest but it was getting real strange sometimes but I mean it kind of I feel as though everything that I shot even the small stuff even the graduation stuff I always figure out ways to use it as a point of reference for something that I've done in the future I think everything that I do will always be something that is a point of reference in the future so I'm that's pretty much just how I'm taking it now I think even I don't know just even making work in the south and being an artist that's based down here I have not seen many photographers especially fashion photographers making work out here and it didn't start until like recently and I mean I think a lot of people felt as though they had to go to these places where it was for example like New York or LA where there is a fashion industry or consistent productions that are happening so the fact that I was able to make the work that I am now and um honestly just keep I don't know just making the work that I am now is really great to me I think sometimes even thinking back on to last year and what Erin said about how her biggest year was pretty much during like a pandemic I think the same happened for me and I think on that British Vogue shoot quite often about where I would be had that not happen because it ended up being what catapulted me into the spot that I am now so it's like okay this is amazing but if I didn't get this job with the person that I ended up shooting which is Beyonce where or what work would I be making now and I mean on the on the low it's kind of scary but it's also amazing that those doors are opening um the way they are and people can make the work that they want to from anywhere so. Thank you before we go to Q&A though there's one more thing I have one more question I want to ask Caroline um because I just can't end our conversation without touching on this but the role you have stepped into now Caroline in essence as we've been talking about now that the power of image making and advocacy when it comes to representation what are your motivations and intentions and hopes now as this leader in essence? I mean this is this is my favorite question um as as it is um something that I feel fully honored to have had the opportunity to do right when the opportunity came forward it was one of those where you just go you talking to me like this like me what right like it's one of those where you just you have that these aren't the kinds of jobs where you go maybe next year right these are these are once in a lifetime type opportunities and so in the in the opportunity that I have to serve my focus will be in a couple of places as it relates to who essence is and who it serves it's the place 31 million black women call home what we will ensure is a part of continuing it being around for another 50 years as it has been for 50 years is focused in a couple of areas the first of those is we will continue to reposition the black woman as the CEO of communities the CFO of communities the chief wellness officer communities the chief stylist the chief design because what has happened to the narrative about black women with the exception of the last year or so is that we became unintentionally thought about as a deficit or a charity or a group to help or a group to support versus what we actually are which is the catalysts of culture what we do others do where we go others go as we go so does the world whether that's about politics whether that's about fashion whether that's about voice whether that's about influence whether that's about innovation with right we are at the lifeblood of that because we are influential within our homes but also with the people that live in our homes and then those people interact with communities that influence and then those communities interact with other communities and if 2020 hasn't told the world the impact of black people then they just don't want to hear it and black women in particular and so also standing guide and guardian against the narrative that chooses to try to position the black woman as a charity case or a deficit will be something you will see essence continue to speak loudly against and then we will reposition ourselves around culture equity and celebration and that's not about things that are not already true but this is about spotlight and strengthening how the black woman is already living and doing culture this is about ensuring she has the acumen and resources to meet her goals because it doesn't that she doesn't have any it's just that because of the power that she owns systems of limited access so we're going to dismantle those right and then celebrating our achievements big and small in gatherings and stories but also on platforms and together and I think aron gave a great example of like what the pandemic has given as an opportunity to celebrate more of how you can live and so we really are focused on that and so the brand has been around for 50 years and we fully intend for it to be around for 50 more but what we will do is redefine what partnering with that community of 31 black 31 million black women means and if you are not going to be in an intimate authentic focused on her relationship then you don't want her and we're not going to give you access to her so that's really what we're going to be driving and we're going to continue to do it in a multi-generational inclusive way we're going to continue to look to connect the total global black diaspora which is where the power will get unleashed and we'll do all of that in the spirit of joy celebration culture and slate that is who we are Caroline Wang everyone chief executive officer of essence so we are going to pivot we just have a few minutes left and so we're going to just jump into these questions here okay I want to um so this one we have here you are navigating so one question is you are navigating so much as a diverse professional and leader in workplaces how does Caroline balance finding her voice and feeling confident as her authentic self like here's the really quick answer to that question it's non-negotiable so the transition to living out my authenticity in every way shape or form is the foundation that's where the question starts so my professional career is not the first thing Caroline is and Caroline and what it means for Caroline to be healthy Caroline and what it means for Caroline to be at her best Caroline to feel safe and nurtured and energized is where everything starts and then once that is at its place of health we negotiate the pieces of other things that come in so if it's a tough day I might end the day at three o'clock right because if I go till five I might not be okay and so it's actually the other way around and I'll give you an Audrey Lord quote that really encompasses how I think about self-care and by the way I have an actual self-compassion plan that lays out the things that are have to be true for me to stay at health that I share with my peers and my team because I'm bad at it and they help me adhere to it so if anybody wants to see that let me know and I will send you my self-compassion plan but here's the quote caring for myself is not an act of self-indulgence it is an act of self-preservation and that is political warfare. Audrey Lord. And we have another question for you Caroline. Caroline you touched on appropriation historically appropriation has always been problematic how do you see addressing this in a way that it becomes a teaching moment? Here's the thing I think calling out where things are not happening the way they're supposed to be is of utmost importance I think that what what becomes critical is what is your intent when you call it out and are you willing to help fix it or you just want to blast people and it just depends on what you're there because you can choose to sit in a position of when appropriation takes place you observe it see it experience it you call people out you can choose to do and you can choose to end it there but my position is if all you're doing is calling it out then you're not helping it not happen again you're just shaming somebody into what they did my preference is yes address it but address it in a way that teaches the person or the entity as well as those that may be influenced by them why this doesn't happen what better would have looked like and how to change it for the future because then we start to redesign the system versus just shame the people that design the system so for me appropriation and anything else like that is a place where we have a conversation about what happened how did we get here we address the things that are non-negotiable we help design the things that need to be different and we actually put that back in the limelight in the right way so that people learn and we start to address the systemic trauma and start to create success where it should be beautiful we have one last time for one last question um which is a few minutes left and this is for everyone um someone asks can we touch on the ways the conversation of colorism can be introduced and focused on an amplification of black features and the tendency for it to be viewed as divisive so so however any of you read that question um so futurism colorism any thoughts about that i would love to hear like what kennedy has to say living in the south on this one okay that was a layered question so go through read it one more time i'm trying to like because i also and so however i guess since we have a few minutes left however you kind of took it can we touch on the ways the conversation of colorism can be introduced and focused on an amplification of black features and the tendency for it to be viewed as divisive or just yeah how can we also address colorism there's also big conversations of featureism too with certain privileges um like how did it make sure black features are represented when you're doing your photography i mean casting i think if anything it's heavy within casting and when i'm put in a situation where i am able to see the models that are coming in first and view the deck beforehand being honest about what needs to be included whether that's varying in skin tones body types um and accessibility as well um what can we do in order to like erin said make this body of work or whatever we're producing and putting out into the world resonate with people so they feel like it looks like them and i think that's really all that it's about i think there are methods and ways of having conversations but at at the end of the day it's really about when you're in these spaces what are you doing in order to i guess use the weight of your privilege and the weight of what you have in this space in order to make things happen and not just talk about it and it takes that diverse representation though behind the camera we need photographers who look like you to advocate for that um because this issue is rampant in the fashion industry and if we do not have enough diverse photographers especially black photographers advocating for this we're just going to see the same images over and over so your work is so important um so i'm being told we only have two minutes left so um i guess we'll close out here i just want to thank each each of you for your brilliance and your presence just being here um to our audience thank you i hope you got something out of this um Kimberly can i say one thing can i say one thing i just have to be honest to it shout out to Sukena this is a black on yes black designer Sukena he's fantastic out of new york sorry i just hadn't shout out support black businesses the name one more time Sukena s u k e i n a he's a fantastic kind of avant garde senegalese artist uh and designer and i absolutely adore him just hadn't shout out the black designer thank you and one more time you were saying your compassion what was it called in case anyone's interested my self-compassion plan so email me at um caroline at wonglewoman.com or cwonga at essence.com and we will send you uh my self-compassion plan which is the way in which i put things in place to help keep balance and help beautiful and we can follow you at if anyone just looks up your name where can where's the best place to follow each of you caroline wonga woman just wonga woman whatever social it is it's wonga woman wonga woman aron where can where can folks find you my instagram is aron filib a a r o n triple underscore three underscores p h i l i p beautiful kenby are you on social where can we or where can we find you where's the best place where you're preferred way to find your way my preferred way is my instagram my instagram name is internet bby perfect thank you all um this is a beautiful conversation we could have just gone on and on um and thank you all for listening


The study examined the effects of organically modified clay nanoparticles on the molecular relaxation behavior of a molten blend of polylactic acid, PLA, and polybutylene adipocotoreftalate, PBAT. The nanoparticles were added in varying concentrations and three mixing strategies were employed to control their localization within the blend. Small amplitude oscillatory shear, SAOS, and stress growth tests were conducted to determine how the nanoclays interacted with the polymer components and their influence on the molecular relaxation behavior. The results showed that the presence of the nanoparticles had a significant impact on the molecular relaxation behavior of the blend, particularly when they were localized in the PLA phase. This was attributed to the degradation of PLA, coalescing of PBAT droplets, and the resulting changes in the viscosity of the blend. This article was offered by Mnofa, M.C. Husey, P.J. Kao, and others.