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The Production Department’s calendar-of-events whiteboard today.
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Laura Egley Taylor
Then a miracle occurs . . .
post-holiday return to work
January 3rd, 2011Tags: today is hard, white board, whiteboard, work
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women at work: just another day at the office
November 15th, 2010
In which Laura and Mel (staff photographer Melyssa Holik) shoot hot drinks for Jan-Feb, spill cinnamon while trying to sprinkle a fancy pattern on the surface of one of said drinks, and, absent a vacuum cleaner, discover that effective traffic cones can be hastily constructed out of paper when circumstances demand.
Meanwhile, Managing Editor Melissa Chianta, who might have thought she was going to get some editing—or even some managing—done today, finds herself agreeing to go for an impromptu manicure in order to better serve as outdoor mug-hugging hand model for the hot drink photography team.
(Yes, these are the women with whom I work. And, yes, I am very lucky—and very grateful.)
Stay tuned for the results of the trio’s efforts!
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Photos: 1) Mel’s self-portrait (this shot made the cut for her photo-a-day project); and 2) Melissa takes a break from work to show off her manicure (while still holding on to the tools of her trade in the other hand)
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Tags: cinnamon, melissa chianta, melyssa holik, spill, traffic cones
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honoring midwives . . . and Peggy!
November 2nd, 2010
Last month Peggy (Mothering editor and publisher Peggy O’Mara) and I were in Los Angeles for the ICTC Black Midwives and Healers Conference. While in the area, we also took part in another midwifery-related event a short drive away: a gathering at Golden Bridge Yoga Studio in Hollywood to honor local midwives for National Midwifery Week.
Peggy had been invited to speak but didn’t really know much about the event, only that she had been asked to give a brief talk about midwifery. As it turned out, Peggy was invited there not just to speak—but to receive an award for her efforts over the last 30 years on behalf of midwives around the world! It was a lovely surprise.
Birth advocate and talk show host Ricki Lake (cover girl for our January-February 2008 issue), who also participated in the event, blogged about it here this week. (Ricki’s documentary, The Business of Being Born, has rapidly made its way into the canon of must-see birth films of the 21st century.)
Also honored was Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), sponsor of the revolutionary Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services for the 21st Century Act.
Another familiar face in the crowd was a longtime Mothering contributor, pediatrician Jay Gordon (who happens to have a piece coming up in our Jan-Feb issue).
A new friend of ours was there, as well: birth photographer Anna Verwaal, whom we had just met the week before in Santa Fe, when she stopped by the Mothering office to show the staff her work. Anna was at Golden Bridge to present a slide show of some of her photos of midwives in action—a very moving presentation that left many in need of a hankie. A maternal child health nurse, certified lactation educator, and doula as well as photographer, Anna has combined these roles to create profound images that capture the emotion of the birth experience. You can see some of her photos here.
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Photos: Actress and midwifery advocate Carrie-Anne Moss presents Peggy with the award; Carrie-Anne and Peggy participate in a Blessing of the Hands ceremony led by Andrea Bendewald honoring midwives; and Peggy joins the celebratory circle of midwives following the Blessing.
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Tags: Andrea Bendewald, Anna Verwaal, Blessing of the Hands, Carrie-Anne Moss, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, doulas, Golden Bridge Yoga, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Maximizing Optimal Maternity Services for the 21st Century Act, midwifery, midwives, Peggy O'Mara, Ricki Lake
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scenes from a conference, part 3
October 14th, 2010More photos from the 7th International Black Midwives and Healers Conference in Long Beach, California, which I attended last weekend with Mothering publisher and editor Peggy O’Mara (see her latest reflections on the conference here).
The view from my sixth-floor room at the conference (it was held at the Long Beach Hilton). It felt very NOT Santa Fe. . .
An appreciative audience applauds Saturday’s “Brazen Women” panel of presidents of health organizations. That’s Peggy (Mothering editor and publisher Peggy O’Mara) in the bottom left of the frame.
Loretta Ross, president of SisterSong, responds to a question from the audience, as Jocelyn V. Sargent, program officer of the W.K.Kellogg Foundation, and Kathryn Hall-Trujillo, president of Birthing Project, USA, listen. At the far right is Shafia Monroe, president of the International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC).
Another shot of the audience during the presidents’ panel discussion.
Kathryn Hall-Trujillo, president of Birthing Project, USA (left), smiles during a moment of levity.
Michelle-Nicholle Calaresco, the first multi-cultural director of the Doulas of North America (DONA), talks about the powerful potential of social networking
Tags: 7th International Black Midwives and Healers Conference, Birthing Project, California, ICTC, International Center for Traditional Childbearing, Jocelyn V. Sargent, Kathryn Hall-Trujillo, Long Beach, Loretta Ross, Peggy O'Mara, Shafia Monroe, SisterSong, USA, W.K.Kellogg Foundation
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scenes from a conference, part 2
October 14th, 2010
Well, shoot. This is a little embarrassing. I was at the 7th International Black Midwives and Healers Conference last weekend, and fully intended to post regularly throughout the days we were there.
But then my laptop died and was sent back to Apple twice to be repaired. It wasn’t fixed in time to go to the conference, so our Mac whiz, Tim Nagy, lent me a loaner. Now, I don’t mean to sound like an ingrate, but it’s kind of like having a pedal-powered computer. Big and slow and a lot of work to do anything. I couldn’t get it to stay online at the hotel where the conference was held—though nobody else seemed to have problems. (Photo at right shows my trying to check the weather online on the loaner laptop before heading out to run before the conference started.)
I was then back in Santa Fe briefly and am now visiting my folks in North Carolina. (I should clarify: in Southeastern North Carolina. In the swamp. Where phone signals and high-speed internet are idealistic but iffy propositions.)
All of that to explain why I’m only just now posting additional photos from the conference (in this post and the next). And, since I’m not at home, I don’t have all my notes about who’s in these photos, so I will add that later. Meanwhile, you can read more about the conference at Peggy’s (Mothering‘s editor and publisher, Peggy O’Mara) blog.
So, for now, here are a few scenes from the conference.
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meanwhile, back at the conference
October 9th, 2010What a fabulous experience it is to be here with Peggy (Mothering Editor and Publisher Peggy O’Mara) at the Black Midwives and Healers Conference! Yesterday was packed full of adventures, remarkable stories, fascinating people, and today promises to be more so. Internet connection is really spotty here, and I’ve got to run to the next session, so I’m going to post these photos while I’m connected and will add caption and background info when I can!
Meanwhile, Peggy has posted about some of the folks we’ve been meeting. Check out her blog here.
It is really moving to travel with Peggy (pun NOT intended). We had just finished lunch when a woman came over to Peggy and said “I know you! Or I feel like I know you, like I’ve known you for years. . .”, adding that she had been reading Mothering for many, many years. It’s like Peggy has dear friends all over the world whom she just hasn’t yet met. (The woman was Makeda Kamara, a certified nurse midwife from the Boston area, pictured above with Peggy.)
After a couple of intense and thought-provoking workshops on Friday, I was ready for lunch. I was feeling a little brain-dead and had hoped there wouldn’t be any program because I just wanted to catch up with Peggy and relax over our meal. But there was a keynote speaker, Ronald David, and I quickly forgot how tired I was because he was spectacular. A pediatrician and Episcopal priest, his research area of interest while a lecturer at the Kennedy School was “women’s health as it is defined and affected by patriarchal politics and power.” He had the whole room riveted. . .
Above: another delightful (and really funny) new friend, Sherri Tauheed, stops with Peggy for a photo.
Attendees listen as JayVon Muhammed talks about the high infant mortality rate in the Black community.
Derah Baskin demonstrates how women in Ghana wear their babies on their backs.
I’m glad I caught the session presented by JayVon Muhammed, owner of SistaGirl Midwifery and executive director of Urban Midwifery, Inc. (Urban Midwifery provides midwifery services, workshops, education, and other services to Black women and women from underserved/poor communities.) In addition to being a powerful speaker, JayVon is the author of several books written for women and girls, including Baby Mamas, A Midwife’s Guide to Ending the Epidemic.
Derah Baskin answers a question about babywearing.
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Tags: 7th International Black Midwives and Healers Conference, California, conference, Long Beach
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and now for something completely different
October 8th, 2010
No,
you’re right. That doesn’t look like Santa Fe. And right now this doesn’t look like my usual day-to-day life. Peggy (Mothering Editor and Publisher Peggy O’Mara) and I just got in to Los Angeles— after an adventure-packed day of travel and good company—to attend the 7th International Black Midwives and Healers Conference.
I’ll be trying to blog, though I still don’t have my beloved laptop back. (I’m using a hand-cranked PowerBook from the Victorian era, on loan from our Mac guy) (I joke, but I’m very grateful. It’s an extra computer he just happened to have on hand, and it’s way better than not having one at all.) It’s been a struggle to keep Safari from crashing, but I might be able to make this work. . . Stay tuned.
Photos of the last of the light in Long Beach, which we caught from the Budget rental car parking lot, where in trying the Fast Break option, we were unnerved to learn that we could have our pick of the cars in our designated area. Four or five cars, each with a set of keys on the dash. Hard not to feel like we were doing something illegal, as we picked one out, tossed our luggage in the back, hopped in, and drove away. . .
Tags: 7th International Black Midwives and Healers Conference, Budget, ICTC, Long Beach, Peggy O'Mara, rental car, travel
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when production deadline exhaustion meets ADHD Month
September 29th, 2010
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Mel (a.k.a coworker and fellow production person Melyssa Holik): . . . and then do that with them; so what do you think?
Laura: I’m sorry Mel; I just blitzed out. . . . Could you say that again?
Mel: Oh, that’s OK. — Sorry, let me finish this Pringle. — It is ADHD Month, you know. Ha! I was just thinking how Pringles can look like ducks’ beaks if you try to talk with one hanging out of your mouth. . . . So what did you need?
Laura: Sorry, let me just finish this email to. . . Um. . . so. . . what?
Mel: What did you need?
Laura: Oh. . .well. I think . . .what?
Mel: You asked me something?
Laura: Oh, yeah. . .I don’t remember. . . . I think I just wondered what you said?
Mel: Oh, that. . . (laughs) I have NO idea!
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Photo taken with my phone downtown last week is my attempt to illustrate the state of my brain right about now.
Tags: adhd, deadline, melyssa holik
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company’s coming!
August 11th, 2010
Our Mothering.com team is made up of folks who live around the globe.* And they’re coming to visit us here at the Mothership. . . tomorrow.
So we’ve spent some time today sprucing up around the office—and for those of us in the Production Department, that has meant straightening up, cleaning out, throwing out, and doing things we’ve been meaning to do a long time, like hanging up that white board—the one that we rely on to know what day it is. . .
Tonight, as Mel and I were finishing up, about to head out the door, we realized again how blank our cinderblock walls are. (Our part of the office is in what once was a furniture warehouse.) The quick fix? Double-stick tape and large printouts of color swatches from the palette we use for the magazine. We’re thinking we might be onto something.
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*Seriously: our web master (though we prefer the term web mama), Cynthia Mosher, lives in Saudi Arabia.
Photo below kind of gives the gist of the paletted walls. (And, yes, the white board really does say “Today is Lazy Day and Healthy Cheetos Day.” It was one of those doubly exciting days.)
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Tags: cleaning up, cynthia mosher, melyssa holik, palette, Saudi Arabia, white board, whiteboard
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homemade soda, anyone?
July 18th, 2010
To shoot our July-August Peggy’s Kitchen section, an article by Cynthia Lair on do-it-yourself soda, Staff Photographer Melyssa Holik and I spent the day at the El Rey Inn, a favorite “staycation” getaway spot of mine and Tim’s, right here in Santa Fe.
The El Rey is pretty special: a Route 66-era inn tucked away just off the main drag behind white adobe walls and surprisingly lush—for the desert, I mean—gardens. Mothering Editor and Publisher Peggy O’Mara and I thought it would provide a casually elegant, summery background for the soda shoot. And it was really lovely. . .
Here are a few behind-the-scene shots from the day.
Above: The opening spread of the article, a lineup of syrups and fruit teas, mixed by Mel in preparation for the shoot.
Below: 1) Mel lines the bottles up along a wall conveniently situated beneath a skylight and above a stairway; 2) You can see that the rooms were being cleaned while we were there—oh, the glamour of the photo shoot . . . 3) We had to have a poolside photo in an article about summer drinks! 4) Mel sets up the last shot before the wind blew the placemat (and the drink) off the table; 5) I liked how cool and inviting this photo was, and wanted to show at least a hint of the Spanish-style architecture of the El Rey; and 6) Mel sets up that shot.
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Tags: behind the scenes, cynthia lair, El Rey Inn, melyssa holik, Santa Fe, soda, soft drinks
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