Letter from the Editor
The Summer of 2021 The summer of 2021. Let’s just call it a mixed bag—so much to celebrate and so much to question. One moment, people are dancing in the street, and the next, we are brought back to the reality that life is evolving fast, and the learning curve is steep. It always has been—it was just easier perhaps to opt out of LIFE 101, ignore the required reading and head to the beach, next party, snooze the alarm. Now we are called to hold on to what works, and be ready to stay open to changes for the better. From how we go to a concert, how we shop, to what we eat: going back to basics is key—like just helping each other hand to hand. Being ready to embrace new ways of being is key too—like sending our children to school with a vaccination and a mask or watching billionaires shoot themselves into orbit. We have the choice of our opinion on these. For that freedom, we are very fortunate. Issue 2 of WeRiseUP Journal brings Voices, Visions, Creators and Connectors leading the charge on answering the question, “How do we live as one?”.
“How do we live together?”, was the question raised by curator Hashim Sarkis for the 17th Venice Biennale of Architecture. Hashim Sarkis is Dean of MIT’s School of Architecture and Design. His dialogue with Paul Miller points to the role of merging art and science to make the innovations necessary for a changing world.
The world is changing. Hats off to brands like Vuori, thriving as a consumer’s online-apparel-love-child, while holding fast to the integrity of an eco-conscious business model. 2021 is an energy-shifting advanced class. One minute I long for the lack of contrails, and the next I’m heading to a music festival to hear Eric Church sing his “Heart”’ “&”, “Soul” out with his heartfelt intention to mend the fences of his diverse audience through the vibration of music. Charlie Stuart Gay and his wife Daniella Hunter are food and wellness entrepreneurs, doing all they can to show us how humans can consume in new ways. Their example invites us to join them in more conscientious practices of nutrition and farming that can heal the body and help struggling geographical areas improve in both health and economy.
Really there is so much we can all do. I am always inspired by the people who take the risks and make the effort to lead the way—to activate. “How do we live as one? How do we live together?” These questions are not new, nor are vaccination fears and political unrest. History has always been a beautiful and frightening muddle of great intentions, leaps into new territory and fears of the unknown. What is new though, is the technology that allows us to have so much information in real time and to so specifically chart weather and temperature. We can never know what Planet Earth may choose to do next to find balance for herself, but we can be sure temperatures are warming, waters are rising, and species, including ours, are crying out for help. So— “What ya gonna do, what ya gonna do when they come for you?” I, personally, think the solution is going to be as mixed a bag as 2021. Here are some stories of inspiration in action. I am rooting for us. Keep your mind and heart on WE, and go be YOU. Try a new plant-based recipe, know what you are buying both in the news and in your shopping cart, stay curious and keep dancing. WRUJ Issue 2 is a conversation on currency. Currency is always a topic— from the currencies of Crypto, Love, Music, Art, Nutrition—your energy is your currency. How will you spend it?
OLIVIA Q. DAANE
SENIOR VP & PUBLISHER Alexandra Halperin was born and raised in Chicago Illinois. Her parents became part of the Midwest migration to the utopian community of Aspen created by Walter & Elizabeth Paepcke, and arrived as a child in the 60’s to this emerging community of mind, body and spirit, The Aspen Idea. After college Aspen became her destiny, when hired as the first woman in the history of the Aspen Mountain Ski Patrol. She has decades of experience marketing and publishing National titles. Alex was the founding Publisher of Aspen Peak Magazine for Niche Media. At Aspen Peak she created twenty yearly events to support local and National non-profit organizations. She is currently the Publisher of Cristina Cuomo’s, Purist in Aspen, a health and wellness magazine. Alex looks forward to years of creative collaboration as WeRiseUp stays ahead for the curve representing individuals who enact positive change in their communities, as a model to improve and change lives locally and globally. Working in collaboration with the team at WeRiseUP.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Olivia Q. Daane has served as the Editor of Elevated Luxury Life magazine and has worked extensively as a freelance writer with her writing being featured in Aspen Luxury Life, Elevated Luxury Life, Aspen Real Life, Opera Gallery art books and has recently co-authored and published “Power Lines” with Anthony Haden-Guest. Her featured subjects include Train, Steven Soderbergh, Lukas Nelson, Michael Franti, Tom Morello and Astro-physicist Lawrence Krauss. In addition, she is a painter (known for her butterfly series begun in 2008), art consultant and has over 15 years of successful brand management, gallery ownership and representation of her visual mediums including current representation in Opera Gallery, Aspen. Olivia’s niche is building content that can make a difference; sharing the incredible stories of people at the pinnacle or on their way within their lives and pursuits. Her recent appointments to the solutions committee for the Global Entrepreneurial Summit 2019-20 and Creative Industries Lab 2021 for the U.S. State Department are an example of her expertise in integrating diverse topics such as biomimicry, arts, design, science and tech through diverse contexts of human interactions across fields, disciplines and ideologies.
EDITOR-AT-LARGE Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, is a composer, multimedia artist, writer and entrepreneur whose work immerses audiences in a blend of genres, global culture, and environmental and social issues. Paul is the founding Executive Editor of Origin Magazine, which in its inaugural issue had over 50,000 sales. Additionally, his writing has been published by The Village Voice, The Source, and Artforum. Miller has collaborated with an array of recording artists, including Metallica, Chuck D., Steve Reich, and Yoko Ono. His 2018 album, DJ Spooky Presents: Phantom Dancehall, debuted at 113 on Billboard Reggae. His large-scale, multimedia performance pieces include “Rebirth of a Nation,” Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica, commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, written during his 2014 residency at Seoul Institute of the Arts. His multimedia project Sonic Web premiered at San Francisco’s Internet Archive in 2019. He was the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s The Met Reframed 2012-2013. Miller’s artwork has appeared in the Whitney Biennial, TheVenice Biennial for Architecture, the Miami/Art Basel fair, and many other museums and galleries.
FOUNDER, CEO & PRODUCER OF WeRiseUP Kate Maloney, PhD has been featured as a top entrepreneur in Inc Magazine and is an INC 500 company founder. Kate has founded, developed, grown and sold over a dozen technology companies over the last nine years, and has had eight company exits. She serves on several boards including as Co-Board Chair with John Mackey (Founder & CEO, Whole Foods Market) to bring conscious business and thought leaders together in a non-profit to solve some of the most serious problems facing the planet today. Kate holds a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and a Doctoral Degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Organizational & Financial Applications.
