global collaborative

Images of Leadership: Graphic Recording of Women Activists

We (Mariah Howard – World Café and Shilpa Jain – Global Collaborative) are the producers of this pilot project. We started with three amazing and relatively unknown young women, who are at the forefront of imagining and creating a positive future: Rumbi Katedza (Zimbabwe), Valentine Giraud (Brazil), and Aysegül Güzel (Turkey). We interviewed them, graphically recorded their stories/insights/wisdom/practices, and are now sharing these learnings with a wide variety of networks and communities (through the World Café, YES!, Berkana, Other Worlds, Wiser Earth, Shikshantar, etc.)

A few notes about the values/construct of the project:

We wanted diversity and creativity. Not just geographically, we also wanted a diversity of issues represented: health, education, agriculture, water, energy, economies, ecology, etc. And, we wanted those who are working at the growing edge, the innovative, the creative. Those who are connecting their 'issue' with community/society, local wisdom, spirit and body, arts, policy, and more. We feel we've got a good start!

We are focusing on women, at least for this first round. Mariah's work on Intergenerational Women's Circles, and Shilpa's work on women social change leaders through a project of Other Worlds, have them both excited about looking at young women's contributions in creating the future. We feel women tend to be less visible in many efforts, and yet, they are often the engine and heart behind the scenes. They are seeing the whole and making sure their particular efforts connect to the bigger picture. We believe that women are at the growing edge of transformative movements worldwide; we want to find those women who are often quietly, but powerfully, leading the way...

We are experimenting with form. Graphic recording has been used for conferences, particularly World Café events, and has been an incredible medium by which to look at a conversation. We wanted to apply this form to an interview, to see if we could visually represent a person's story, visions, dreams, passions, questions, action suggestions, etc., around a particular issue area. Our aim was to create interactive maps — one for each person/context/issue — which capture these multi-layered insights.

We are limited. We have started small, with just three interviews/graphic maps. First, we also wanted to try this out as a pilot phase and see where it takes us. So, three seemed enough for a taste and a start. Second, we have some language limitations. We can do interviews in only English, Spanish, French and Hindi/Urdu, though are happy to work with a volunteer-translator if needed. Third, we had financial limitations. This project was supported by the Global Collaborative, so we worked on a small budget to try an experiment in something new. Our hope is that others will feel called and inspired to carry it on, to enable these maps and webs grow further.

Please check out these interviews and let us know what you think! Just link to a map and click on the various quotes and images to hear the voices of the interviewees. We hope you appreciate their insights as much as we do. Enjoy!

Rumbi Katedza (Zimbabwe)
Rumbi Katedza is a filmmaker, writer and mother who loves to travel, dream and create. She has lived in the USA, Japan, Italy, Canada, the UK and Zimbabwe. Rumbi has worked in film and video for over a decade, first in production management, then in distribution. She later moved on to become the Festival Director of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival. Rumbi now produces films and documentaries through her production company, Mai Jai Films, a company which is focused on pioneering a new generation of Zimbabwean films and filmmakers through creative co-productions and through the documentation of human interest stories and contemporary history. Mai Jai Films runs innovative projects like the community-focused Postcards from Zimbabwe, an audio-visual and life-skills training project for Zimbabwean teens, and a comprehensive Zimbabwean film promotion website, Zimbabwefilm.com.

Valentine Giraud (Brazil)
Valentine Giraud is a clown under construction, a butterfly by nature, a traveler by option, and a host of meaningful conversations by passion and vocation. In the heart of her work is her will to create spaces for people to be creative and spontaneous, to engage with one another, to manifest their full potential and to see beauty and possibilities in what is around us. For the past five years, Valentine has been working as an independent consultant, designing and hosting group processes within communities, social organizations and companies around the world, using deep-dialogue, participatory, co-creative and artistic methodologies. She is a co-creator of the Butterfly Connection Program and co-creator of the Hub Summer School Amsterdam 2010. She is currently based in the Netherlands. Webpage: valentinegiraud.wordpress.com/; Skype: tinegiraud; Blog: farfallinare.blogspot.com

Aysegül Güzel (Turkey)
Aysegül Güzel is a dreamer, thinker, listener, action taker, strategic and innovation consultant. She has worked in the fields of strategic planning and consultancy in Spain and Turkey. Right now, she is based in Istanbul, where she is trying to set up a Time Banking 2.0 and working as a freelance consultant for a social media agency. Aysegül is interested in alternative economies, gift culture, communities, social change and social technologies. She is writing a blog about social change and social technologies in Turkish and organizing NetSquared Istanbul monthly events around the same topics. Web page: www.zumbara.com, Skype: aysegul.guzel, Twitter: aysegulguzel, Blog: http://baskabirdunya.wordpress.com

General comments can be shared with Shilpa Jain and Mariah Howard