Dee Poku-Spalding's: The Other Festival
Photos: Sam C. Long
When WIE founder, Dee Poku-Spalding, spoke to us about diversity in the workplace during our interview with her weeks before The Other Festival (the festival she created that featured an all female line-up of professionals in business and arts, and the first of its kind in NYC) I assumed by diversity she meant women. Women in the workplace, women entrepreneurs; women in a ‘man’s world.’However the diversity I saw at The Other Festival extended way beyond gender.
It was refreshing to be in a room full of women of varying races, religions, textures and fashions and it got me thinking how Anglo life in New York can be.Don’t get me wrong, I have travelled to many places, speak different languages and have relatives who don’t speak any English at all. But life in America can be quite ‘white.’ I was encouraged to see so many women from different cultures, communities and professions celebrate what being a woman truly is; the embodiment of power and beauty in whatever field you work and whomever you choose to be. And it perhaps gave me a glimpse into the scope of Dee’s larger vision of just what ‘other’ and ‘diversity’ mean as well. Here are some snaps from the event at Spring Studios.
