{"id":64584,"date":"2017-10-27T15:36:16","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T20:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=64584"},"modified":"2017-10-27T15:50:25","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T20:50:25","slug":"in-tough-times-influential-women-unite-to-inspire-one-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/in-tough-times-influential-women-unite-to-inspire-one-another\/","title":{"rendered":"In tough times, influential women unite to inspire one another"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Caroline Tanner<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

CHICAGO – \u201cEvery woman is a pioneer,\u201d rang loudly through the Chicago Theatre on October 24, during a night of honest talk between eight women on a couch, designed to portray a conversation you\u2019d have with your friends in your living room. Aimed at uniting public figures with fellow women, the traveling Together Live Tour<\/a> brought together 3,000 people, almost exclusively women, mostly white and young. A few men accompanied their dates, appearing to be fathers, husbands and boyfriends.<\/p>\n

The audience was first subjected to a live reading of love letters and text messages between a former professional athlete and a New York Times<\/em> bestselling author. It was reminiscent of a scene from a bad Lifetime<\/em> holiday movie, but audience members didn\u2019t seem to care, soaking up the real-life love story.<\/p>\n

Chicago marked the second-to-last stop of the national 10-city tour, in which influential women shared their personal stories of challenging times and struggles marked by growth. Speakers included authors, Olympians, actresses, social justice activists and entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

During a nearly four-hour conversation with each other and the audience, the panelists talked honestly and informally about various issues they\u2019ve all faced at one point in their lives and careers, including racism, sexual harassment, failure and the decision to speak up.<\/p>\n

Lincoln Park resident Alyssa Hannah, 16, attended the speech with her mom and said the idea of letting go of fear resonated with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stay in fear a lot,\u201d said Hannah, a University of Chicago Lab School student. \u201cThe idea of just doing it is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tour was co-founded by Jennifer Randolph Walsh, who runs the literary division of the talent agency WME.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Together Tour is the evolution of a collective dream — a fierce, intersectional, multi-generational gathering where you will hear from badass, earth-shaking, hilarious, authentic storytellers from across the globe,\u201d Walsh said.
\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
International soccer star Abby Wombach and author Glennon Doyle shared their real life love story on stage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The evening began with two-time Olympic gold medalist Abby Wambach<\/a> and her wife, author Glennon Doyle<\/a>, reading love letters they\u2019d written to each other since meeting in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have this one life, fight for love,\u201d said Doyle, an activist on women\u2019s and children\u2019s issues and author of the New York Times<\/em> bestselling book \u201cLove Warrior.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s when I stopped asking people for directions to places they\u2019ve never been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wambach recalled the night she first met Doyle at the\u00a0 2016 ESPY Awards. It came at a time of transition for Wambach, who announced her retirement from soccer in December 2015<\/a>, as the all-time leading scorer in international soccer history. Less than three months prior to meeting Doyle, Wambach was arrested in Portland on a DUI charge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFailure is the thing that people try to avoid the most, but it\u2019s the thing that we learn from the most,\u201d said Wambach, who is now focusing her career on \u201cfighting for equality and inclusion across industries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten-year Army veteran Jen Lee saw the show with his girlfriend. Lee, 31, who is originally from San Antonio, talked about the role men play in supporting women\u2019s empowerment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we need to be more open to talk about touchy subjects,\u201d said Lee. \u201c{As men} we don\u2019t need to be in charge all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Author and wellness expert Latham Thomas leads the audience in a group meditation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAre you breathing Chicago?\u201d asked Latham Thomas<\/a>, a celebrity wellness and lifestyle expert and author of the new book, \u201cOwn Your Glow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas led a group meditation, in which she invited the audience to close their eyes, sit on the edge of their seats and breathe deeply. After a few minutes, audience members were then encouraged to stand up and connect to one another by feeling the bra straps of the person standing next to them, holding on to one another to engage in a communal hum. Throughout the several-minute meditation, the room was silent other than Thomas chanting that \u201cwe are wired and nurtured to support one another and gather together because our lives depend on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly every audience member participated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis night is an opportunity to expand and become the best versions of ourselves,\u201d said Thomas. \u201cAs fully expressed dreams of our ancestors, united we rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to herself as a \u201cside-eye sorceress,\u201d New York Times<\/em> bestselling author and digital strategist Luvvie Ajayi <\/a>spoke about her struggle to come to terms with identifying as a writer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took me nine years to finally say I\u2019m a writer because that wasn\u2019t the plan,\u201d said Ajayi. \u201cI was supposed to be a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigerian-born Ajayi, who also serves as the executive director of the Red Pump Project, a nonprofit that educates women of color about HIV, encouraged listeners to do the thing that scares you, because you can run away afterwards and deal with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping my journey inspires other people to be boldly themselves,\u201d said Ajayi. \u201cEach giant leap gets slightly easier because if that\u2019s what\u2019s in your spirit, you\u2019ve got to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Chicago was the ninth city to host Together Live.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cInclusion is awesome,\u201d beamed 2016 Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad<\/a>, who was the first Muslim American female athlete to medal for the U.S. Olympic team at the 2016 Rio Olympics, as well as the first American woman to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab.<\/p>\n

Muhammad weighed in on Colin Kaepernick<\/a>, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback who has sparked criticism from President Donald Trump for kneeling in protest against police brutality during the national anthem at NFL games.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who tells you this is about a lack of patriotism is missing the point,\u201d said Muhammad. \u201cWe have to keep pushing forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representing the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), Lupe Gonzalo<\/a>, a migrant farmworker who works in Immokalee, Florida, shared her story in Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cI, just like 80 percent of women who have worked in the fields, have experienced sexual violence,” said Gonzalo, who is now “demand[ing] the right for women to work in an environment free of abuse,\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzalo spoke about the CIW\u2019s Campaign for Fair Food<\/a>, an alliance between farmworkers and consumers to enlist major food retailers, including McDonald\u2019s and Whole Foods, to sign Fair Food agreements with the CIW in an effort to end farm labor exploitation.<\/p>\n

In a one-on-one interview before the event, Gonzalo touched on how she was denied access to water while working in the fields and the physical abuse she and her fellow farmworkers endured in retaliation for attempting to drink water. She said that suffering sexual violence was not the exception, but the rule at the farm where she works, and noted similar treatment occurs at other farms.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether we have the power to create change,\u201d said Gonzalo. \u201cIt\u2019s time that women start working in a world where they are treated with dignity and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Three of the night\u2019s speakers are featured on screen. From left to right, human rights advocate Alisa Roadcup, columnist Jamia Wilson and author Luvvie Ajayi. (Caroline Tanner\/MEDILL)<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Caroline Tanner Medill Reports CHICAGO – \u201cEvery woman is a pioneer,\u201d rang loudly through the Chicago Theatre on October 24, during a night of honest talk between eight women on a couch, designed to portray a conversation you\u2019d have with your friends in your living room. Aimed at uniting public figures with fellow women, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":416,"featured_media":64588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,3516],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-64584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-winter-2017","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"\nIn tough times, influential women unite to inspire one another - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/in-tough-times-influential-women-unite-to-inspire-one-another\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In tough times, influential women unite to inspire one another - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Caroline Tanner Medill Reports CHICAGO – \u201cEvery woman is a pioneer,\u201d rang loudly through the Chicago Theatre on October 24, during a night of honest talk between eight women on a couch, designed to portray a conversation you\u2019d have with your friends in your living room. 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