Speakers Table

by Guest Plate

Live at The Hamilton This Summer

July 19, 2018

Check out the hot bands coming to The Hamilton Live this summer. Chatham County Line this Saturday!  For the full schedule, click here.

The Hamilton Live is located at 600 14th Street NW.


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Help Georgetown's Wingo's

July 10, 2018

On Tuesday, June 26th the ever popular carryout Wingo's in Georgetown had an accidental fire that started in the kitchen and spread throughout the two-story restaurant rendering the space gutted and unusable. The fire also damaged English Rose Garden florist next door.

While insurance will cover damages to the building and subsequent repairs, it does not cover the wages of the 24 Wingo's employees. 

The goal here to raise funds for rent, groceries, childcare, and other basic needs for the Wingo's staff. This does not go towards the building, repairs, or the owner, but to the cooks, cashiers, and delivery drivers who make Wingo's the special hole-in-the-wall restaurant that DC knows and loves.

 

Any donation helps. Wingo's will be opening a new location soon and will be providing work for everyone at the Georgetown location. Between now and then, a contribution will make a world of difference for the staff. 

 

To donate, visit GoFundMe.


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Trailblazing Ambassador Sparkles at Global Gender Event

June 26, 2018

By Kelly Sherretts

Ambassador Vlora Çitaku of the Republic of Kosovo made a special appearance at the recent Gender360 Summit in Washington, DC., to express her concerns on violence against girls and women. A former refugee and Georgetown resident, Ambassador Çitaku has broken through many glass ceilings as one of the first women ambassadors ever to represent her region in the United States. A former member of Parliment and Minister of European Intergration in Kosovo, Çitaku said: "There are still too many challenges; women are still considered exotic creatures in government."

Ambassador Çitaku with CARE's Besnik Leka (Photo by: Beth Solomon) Ambassador Çitaku with CARE's Besnik Leka
Çitaku spoke to a packed room hearing from panelists from around the globe.They convened to discuss the role gender development has on violence.

A friend of Ambassador Çitaku and panel member, CARE project coordinator Besnik Leka discussed CARE's Young Men Initiative in Kosovo. He asked the 120+ audience members to guess which emotion boys were most comfortable expressing, according to scientific research. They guessed it fairly quickly: "anger." The conference goers had more trouble guessing which emotions boys have the least comfort with. The answer, Leka told the audience, is "fear." 

"All males can benefit from sharing emotions," Leka said. 

Other panel speakers agreed with Leka including Preston Mitchum, from Advocates for Youth. "We really wanted to look at creating a world were all young people are included, all the sexual orientations, gender identities, and diversitites can really center the full range of rights." 

The panel: (Photo by: Kelly Sherretts ) The panel: "Transforming Harmful Social Norms: Advancing Positive Masculinity"
All heads turned when another point of view was considered. USAID executive Yolande Miller-Grandvaux dicussed the role of women supported by ISIS and Al-Qaeda. Miller-Grandvaux said that ISIS and Al-Qaeda are, in some ways, futher along than the United States when it comes to empowering women. "The women are given a voice that they never had before, and in that sense they are the most powerful human beings in a context where the men are in the front lines." 

Melanie Yahner, a panel speak from Save the Children, emphasized the importance of getting a head start on transforming social norms. "We know that these gender norms start to form at birth." 

The Gender360 Summit, where the panel discussion took place, was hosted by FHI 360, a nonprofit organization emphasizing a holistic approach to human development challenges. 


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