Congratulations to Kathryn Xian, Honored by Soroptimist International!
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Kathy Xian, Founder and Non-Executive Director of the Safe Zone Foundation in Hawaii and GiRL FeST Hawaii and GiRL FeST Bay Area, was honored on Friday by Soroptimist International of the Americas for her work on human trafficking and sexual slavery. We were fortunate to have been able to attend the awards ceremony--and thanks to Kathy and Soroptimist for giving us the opportunity to share our human trafficking and modern-day slavery poems with them. We have added both orgs as links to our site, along with Polaris Project and Free the Slaves. Please learn more about the work they do to improve the lives of women and children all over the world.
Thanks also to all the wonderful women from Soroptimist who spoke to us after our performance and who even gave us gifts. I have to say this was a really special experience for us in so many ways. First of all, we had no idea there would be so many of yall! I mean, I knew that this is an international organization, but I had no idea there would be over 1500 of you at this event. When I walked into the Grand Hall Ballroom at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and saw all the tables, I was like "Oh, Shizzit!" Catzie's reaction was similar to mine. This was definitely the largest live crowd we've ever performed for. And when these 1500 women so graciously gave us a standing ovation, I almost cried. All of these women--from Brazil, England, Japan, Korea, Philippines, U.S. and more--are doing amazing and important work on behalf of women who are poor or abused, have been raped or trafficked, and that they listened to our poetry and responded so sincerely, really moved Catzie and me. After the protests and petition letters written against us this year and all the criticism we get, to have a multinational, multilingual, multigenerational group of women show us such heartfelt support really makes us feel as if what we do is worth it. We cannot express our thanks enough.
Special thanks to Lori Blair and Eva Matyskiela from Soroptimist and Kathy Xian for making it possible for us to be part of this event. And BIG UPS! to Kathy--for all the important work that you do and the wonderful person that you are.
Kathy Xian, Founder and Non-Executive Director of the Safe Zone Foundation in Hawaii and GiRL FeST Hawaii and GiRL FeST Bay Area, was honored on Friday by Soroptimist International of the Americas for her work on human trafficking and sexual slavery. We were fortunate to have been able to attend the awards ceremony--and thanks to Kathy and Soroptimist for giving us the opportunity to share our human trafficking and modern-day slavery poems with them. We have added both orgs as links to our site, along with Polaris Project and Free the Slaves. Please learn more about the work they do to improve the lives of women and children all over the world.
Thanks also to all the wonderful women from Soroptimist who spoke to us after our performance and who even gave us gifts. I have to say this was a really special experience for us in so many ways. First of all, we had no idea there would be so many of yall! I mean, I knew that this is an international organization, but I had no idea there would be over 1500 of you at this event. When I walked into the Grand Hall Ballroom at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and saw all the tables, I was like "Oh, Shizzit!" Catzie's reaction was similar to mine. This was definitely the largest live crowd we've ever performed for. And when these 1500 women so graciously gave us a standing ovation, I almost cried. All of these women--from Brazil, England, Japan, Korea, Philippines, U.S. and more--are doing amazing and important work on behalf of women who are poor or abused, have been raped or trafficked, and that they listened to our poetry and responded so sincerely, really moved Catzie and me. After the protests and petition letters written against us this year and all the criticism we get, to have a multinational, multilingual, multigenerational group of women show us such heartfelt support really makes us feel as if what we do is worth it. We cannot express our thanks enough.
Special thanks to Lori Blair and Eva Matyskiela from Soroptimist and Kathy Xian for making it possible for us to be part of this event. And BIG UPS! to Kathy--for all the important work that you do and the wonderful person that you are.
posted by Yellow Rage at
7/25/2006 10:27:00 AM
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