Month: March 2009

art, history, music, opera

My Year of Hopefulness – Honor: The Voice at Carnegie Hall

Christa Avampato

Last week, I had the pleasure of watching the final performance of Honor: The Voice at Carnegie Hall. Curated by Jessye Norman, the show featured 6 young opera singers, 4 pianists, and an evening of traditional opera pieces, spirituals, and pop/Broadway numbers. The festival exists to “celebrate the African America cultural legacy”.

The set up was simple and elegant – a grand piano, a pianist, and a singer on a bare, shining stage. No microphones. The talent radiating from the stage was so pure and overwhelming that I had to physically prevent my mouth from hanging open. The power and emotion of the music in those voices on the Perelman Stage filled the Stern Auditorium and then some.

My friend, Chris, who runs the international education program at the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, explained to me that this festival exceeded all expectations. The audience was much more multi-cultural than usual and the sales were impressive. On a Monday night, the auditorium was packed and as I looked around, I could see every race, every age range, and an even mix of men and women. That festival brought together a community of diversity rarely seen at most New York institutions. Inclusive and diverse, it was representative of our city’s population – in other words, exactly what an audience should be.

And you might wonder what on Earth a white girl like me from a small rural town in upstate New York is doing at a place that celebrates the African American cultural legacy. I wondered, too. I love the music that was presented and the diversity of my city, though do I really belong here? Do I have the right to celebrate and honor a legacy that is not mine? Was I welcome?

According to Jessye Norman, the answers are yes, yes, and yes, because this legacy actually is my legacy. It is every American’s legacy. In her signature, elegant manner, I had the great fortune to hear Ms. Norman speak about the festival and its importance, not just to African Americans, but to all of us. If we live in America, then the history of African Americans is our history and we have not only the right but the obligation to pay tribute to it. The feeling of inclusion, respect, and admiration in that auditorium was undeniable. I am honored to have had the opportunity to bear witness to the performance and to the inspiration it provided for all of us within its reach.

At the end of the performance, the audience cheered and applauded with great energy and Ms. Norman looked on with pride. Her performers, however, would not let it go at that. They brought her to the center of the stage, applauding, hugging, and kissing her. You could see and feel their gratitute to this great talent standing before all of us. Through my loud applause, I hope she knows that I am grateful to her, too.

apple, books, business, economy, government, politics

My Year of Hopefulness – The Age of the Unthinkable

Christa Avampato

In 1997, Apple launched a campaign with one simple message “Think Different”. 12 years ago it was inconceivable how necessary to our survival those two words would be in 2009. Joshua Cooper Ramo, an analyst and former Foreign Editor of Time, takes this Apple campaign slogan and sprints with it, full speed ahead, to help us understand where we are and what we’ll need to do to pull ourselves together. His new book, The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New Global Order Constantly Surprises Us and What to Do About It, is a beacon for those who have been looking for straight-talk about our current economic crisis and how you and I, everyday people, can move forward.


Ramo pulls from historical examples to show how people in the midst of a situation leading to their demise never saw it coming. Gorbachev is an eloquent example. He opened up the U.S.S.R. a bit at a time, and then the momentum of change was so strong, so pronounced, that Gorbachev had no choice but to let go of the reigns he had gripped tight for so long. Is the state of our economy, and the CEOs who have long prospered under the old rules of our financial system, any different?

In this dark situation it can be hard to see any cause for hope. Ramo suggests that while this might be the darkest moment in our world’s financial history, it is also the moment of greatest possibility. We have the opportunity to wipe away every preconceived notion we have about how we do business, how we live life, how we create, how we inspire, how we dream. 

“Ahead of us is the invigorating possibility of discovery and reinvention.” With that simple sentence, Ramo encourages us to question every assumption about ‘how it must be done’. The days of cookie-cutter policy, politics, and business are over. If we are going to craft a new, brighter future, it will take all of our courage to challenge ourselves, our families, neighbors, co-workers, and leaders. It is time to toss aside common assumptions in favor of grander, more creative, and courageous plans and actions. 

Never before has it been so possible to create a world that we want to live in. It’s as if we have a blank canvas staring at us, daring us, to invent something extraordinary. The only question now is do we have the confidence to build something from nothing. Can we take up the paint brush and with wide, vibrant strokes imagine a new future and commit to bringing it to life?  
career, Examiner, technology

NY Business Strategies Examiner: UpMo, an on-line tool to rev up your career

Christa Avampato

With the tough economy, a lot of companies are curbing their career development and continuing education programs. Everyone’s busy schedules grow busier everyday as they’re asked by their senior leaders to do more in every area with less of every resource. But you can’t allow your career, no matter track you’re on, to be brought to a halt. So who can help you help yourself? Meet UpMo


For the full article, please click here. 
Junior Achievement, New York City

My Year of Hopefulness – Enjoy the View

Christa Avampato

Junior Achievement visited my company this week as part of a job shadow day. I volunteered to be part of the welcoming committee, greeting the students at our auditorium on the 26th floor. I was escorting the first group when they stopped short at our picture windows that look out over New York Harbor. Even though the day was overcast, the view was still breathe-taking. Governor’s Island, the Statue of Liberty, the promenade, and Colgate Clock. 


I remember the first time I went to the auditorium myself almost 8 months ago and I had that same feeling of awe, watching life go on down below as if no one could observe it. It changes perspective to climb up above the bustling harbor and watch the world go by. We are a very small part of this much larger world. I was overwhelmed by how beautiful New York is, and how peaceful it looked from that vantage point. 

Somehow looking out I was able to feel that perhaps the situation of our country will be improved with the latest proposals from D.C. Maybe we will come out of this, burned a little bit, but not to an irreparable degree. And honestly, I think we need a little burning to keep us from being too comfortable, to keep us honest, and to keep us striving. We are no doubt in the midst of a vast correction. I cannot imagine that New York City, nor our country-at-large, will ever be the same. We will be better, stronger, more creative, more open-minded, and of richer character than we ever have been before. 
education, Ethics, Junior Achievement

My Year of Hopefulness – Find Another Way

Christa Avampato

After last week’s class on ethics topics in newspapers, I was getting back to the curriculum. Or at least I thought I was. Some of the students felt badly about not bringing in a story the week before. One student in particular, Starling, loves to talk. He loves raising his hand and de-railing conversations with wacky questions. On occasion I ask him to please make his questions relevant to the topic at hand. He loves questions that start with “What if…” Most of the time, I take his questions and we run with them because I’ve found that they lead somewhere that helps the class laugh a little while we explore this very serious topic of Ethics.

Today, Starling came into class with a topic he really wanted to talk about: Chris Brown and Rihanna. Given that the news converge and messaging to teenagers on this topics has been atrocious, I took full-advantage of getting to discuss this topic openly with teenagers. The entire class could lay out every detail of the case. What was startling is that almost everyone, male and female, looked at the case from Chris Brown’s POV. No one really considered Rihanna beyond being an object of Chris Brown’s actions. They hadn’t considered how they’d feel or what they’d do if they were Rihanna. She went back to him, her choice. She loves him. He “took her back.” What else could there be to consider?

We had 5 minutes remaining in the class after laying out all of the details and a lot more that could be said. I had only one chance, very brief, to communicate the message that I wanted them to hear, at least once, from an adult. “Did you hear Oprah’s comments on the situation?” Blank stares. “She said, “Love doesn’t hurt. And if someone hits someone once, they will hit them again.” It is never okay to hit anyone unless you are physically protecting yourself. Ever. Violence is not a solution, and it has no place in personal relationships. Ever.”

“Even if she was yelling at him in the car about how he was cheating on her?” Starling asked. “Even if he told her she needed to shut up or he’d punch her?”

“Yes, Starling. Even then.” I said.

He looked at me, with a mix of suspicion and confusion. And I realized that at least for one student, I got through to him to suggest that there is a different way out of conflict than violence.

education, Junior Achievement

My Year of Hopefulness – Ethics in the News

Christa Avampato

During my second Junior Achievement Ethics class, I realized that students weren’t reading the newspaper regularly. All of the events that we watch and analyze every day at my job didn’t exist in the students’ world. Now more than ever, Ethics is making front page news every day and I wanted to give them a real world view of why Ethics is important and how it’s used and considered outside of the classroom.

As an assignment, I asked each of them to bring in some type of news article, on any subject, that had to do with Ethics. I was very excited to see what they’d bring in. And then we got to class and most students said they forgot and didn’t bring in anything. Right off the bat, we needed to improvise.

I asked them to consider what news stories they’ve heard about that might involve Ethics. Crickets. And then one lone student, Bernard, raised his hand timidly and said, “I think I know one.” Bless Bernard.
The students had just had a snow day, the first one in 5 years in New York City. Bernard was concerned about the idea that some cities are saying they don’t have enough money to plow and salt roads to keep their citizens safe during storms. “Isn’t that an issue of ethics?” he asked. “Isn’t a city supposed to do everything it can to keep people safe? If someone dies in a car accident because the road wasn’t plowed, isn’t that the city’s fault?”

I love Ethics for one simple reason: the problems are messy and complex. Rarely is there a clear answer that everyone agrees on. Our class began to discuss city budgets and trade-offs they make in areas like education, public safety, healthcare, welfare, services for the homeless. We talked about taxes and philanthropy. We talked about city versus state versus federal government and the roles of each, especially in times of economic crisis.

The students left with many more questions than they had answers, as did I. I thought they might be frustrated by the lack of clarity in Ethics. Instead, they wanted to talk more. They are very confident in voicing their opinions and beliefs. While they often disagree with one another, I have yet to see any kind of disrespect of someone else’s opinion, which is more than I can say for most adults I talk to about situations involving Ethics. My high school kids gave me hope that maybe their generation will be much more adept at making sound Ethics decisions than the painful follies being committed today by the generation in charge of our financial institutions.

books, community service, philanthropy, volunteer

NY Business Strategies Examiner: The Idealist.org Handbook to Building a Better World

Christa Avampato

This week I had the pleasure to interview Russ Finkelstein, Associate Director of Action Without Borders / Idealist.org. Russ was the driving force behind a valuable resource just published by the Penguin Group. The Idealist.org Handbook to Building a Better World is a book for anyone who wants to make a positive impact in the world. Whether you have never volunteered before or are a seasoned nonprofit professional, this book is filled with advice and guidance on the world of philanthropy. With info on areas ranging from board service to volunteer groups to in-kind donations, this book is a must-have for anyone interested in getting involved in service.


For the full story, click here.
health, healthcare, home, movie, news, newspapers, social change, television

My Year of Hopefulness – Mr. Ayers and Mr. Lopez

Christa Avampato

I’ve been developing a habit of reading and listening to inspirational stories. I need to keep my courage and strength up in these tough times. We all do. On Sunday, I watched 60 Minutes because President Obama was speaking. I planned to shut off the TV and go through some of my weekly reading that had piled up as soon as President Obama’s interview was complete. Instead, I spent the remainder of the hour glued to the TV, getting to know Mr. Ayers and Mr. Lopez. 


Meet Mr. Lopez, a columnist for the LA Times. A good guy whom you imagine might be your neighbor, a fellow parent at your child’s school, if you’re lucky he’d be your boss or colleague. Now meet Mr. Ayers, a homeless man in LA. He suffers from the disease of paranoid schizophrenia. And he is a brilliantly gifted musician. Cello, violin, and trumpet. Gift enough to be admitted to Julliard. Gifted enough still to keep up with the LA Philharmonic whose members now rehearse with and provide lessons to him when he visits them at the concert hall. 

After his first year at Julliard, Mr. Ayers went home and began showing signs of his illness which was rearing its ugly head inside his wonderfully gifted mind. As a last ditch desperation move, Mr. Ayers followed the advice of psychiatrists and subjected her son to electric shock treatments. It is a barbaric treatment that was at one time, not all that long ago, accepted as a viable tool to manage the disease. Instead, it sent Mr. Ayers into a downward spiral from which he has never returned. 

Mr. Lopez and Mr. Ayers met three years ago. Mr. Ayers was playing his cello in a park as Mr. Lopez roamed the streets trying to come up with a story for his looming deadline. What struck Mr. Lopez in addition to Mr. Ayers’s virtuosity, was that he wasn’t playing in the park for money. He was just playing his cello for himself. Mr. Lopez would learn that Mr. Ayers played to forget, to chase away the frightening effects of his schizophrenia. He needed to, wanted to drown out his deepest, darkest concerns. Thus began a 3 year friendship that continues and flourishes so much that it caught the attention of Universal Pictures and has been turned into a movie, The Soloist, featuring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr. The movie will open in theatres on April 24, 2009.  

My father was a clinical psychologist so I know a bit about diseases like paranoid schizophrenia. I can tell you that it is a heartbreaking disease to see and experience up close, and it is even harder to see the strain the disease places on families and loved ones of the person who has the disease. To hear the story of Mr. Ayers, to hear his incredible musical gifts mixed with his equally incredible demons, we have to believe that in all people, regardless of circumstances, there is good and not-so-good. 

It was a reminder to me that too often we cast aside the mentally ill in this country as if they have nothing to offer society. They are hidden away, forgotten, ignored. Their basic needs like healthcare and shelter too often go unfulfilled. In our society, they have very few vehicles to raise their voice, to come together, to stand up, and to be counted. Let’s hope that The Soloist is not just another feel good story at the box office but that it actually raises awareness that inspires action. On the movie’s website, there are links to help you get involved in the efforts to end homelessness and help those with mental illnesses.   

To read the 5-part series written by Mr. Lopez about Mr. Ayers, click here.

The above photo depicts Mr. Nathaniel Ayers playing the violin. I found the image at: https://christaavampato.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/1865563850_9f4c68c464.jpg?w=300
economy, Fast Company, future

My Year of Hopefulness – Embracing the Future is Our Only Choice

Christa Avampato

In Robert Safian’s letter to the editor in Fast Company this month, he closed with a very poignant, short paragraph that was hopeful and also a mark of tough love delivered in an empathic way. We have been spending the past 18 months with a “whoa is me” attitude. The economy is awful. We’re afraid. We’re in a death spiral downward. What are we going to do???


It’s okay to hide under the bed for some amount of time after the dark days arrive. No matter how scared or uncertain or confused we are, we have to eventually come back into the light. We have to start living again, even if the kind of life we live going forward is dramatically different than the way we lived before. 

Robert’s assessment is very clear and strong:
“These are dark days, no question. And unpredictable events, from natural disasters to fiscal meltdown to 9/11, can often make things look darker. But the unexpected can also be our friend, our ally, as long as we maintain hope and embrace our uncertain future. After all, we have no choice.”

He’s right. We don’t have the option to stay hidden away, hoping and praying for better days. We are going to have work hard, very hard, for them. And better days doesn’t mean the days we used to have. All we can do is embrace what we’ve got to look forward to, whatever that is.   
Africa, economy, entrepreneurship, investing, Kiva.org, money, philanthropy, social entrepreneurship

My Year of Hopefulness – Kiva.org

Christa Avampato

I’ve given up on opening my 401K statements. The news is just too depressing. Given our current economic state, I’ve been searching of where to put my investment money. Where will it do the most good, for me and for the companies I choose to invest in. When I look at the Dow 30, I don’t have a lot of faith in many of those institutions to reinvent themselves. Some of them have remarkable potential. Most of them have to accept that they have a very tough realization to come to terms with – in the words of Darwin, “Change or die.”


The investments that are intriguing to me these days are in entrepreneurs, particularly those in developing nations such as Rwanda. I just placed my first investment in an entrepreneur in Ghana through Kiva.org. I lent $25 to a woman named Agnes Cobbina for a 7-month term. She owns a hair salon and she wanted to borrow $375 to expand her business. With 14 other lenders, I completed Anges’s loan goal. What was remarkable is that I clicked on several different entrepreneurs and by the time I got to the “lend to” page, their goal was already completed. In the 10 seconds that it took me to read a bit about them, someone else had stepped in to help! One loan is made every 14 seconds through Kiva.org. 

Some people might think of this as a charitable donation rather than a loan. Nothing could be further from the truth. 99% of those who receive loans through organizations like Kiva.org pay them back in full. How many U.S. investments can say that these days? And not only am I confident that I will receive my money back; I know that I helped someone help themselves through this loan. I am empowering Agnes, providing her with a dignified way to grow her business and support her family. 

I’m thrilled to be able to participate with Kiva.org. But I want to do more. I’d be willing to take part of my investment money and provide it directly to an entrepreneur in a country like Rwanda for a return. What an amazing thing it would be to combine the idea of Sharebuilder with that of a Kiva.org. Could this be a new paradigm for global investment?