A GALA FOR SING FOR HOPE

POSTED: Nov 23.09

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Click here to view some photos of event

Don’t know who everyone shown here is but Dr Muhammad Yunus is the founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh whose work is lifting women out of poverty. He is now bringing his work to cities in the US. He is a Nobel Laureate. Dr Yunus’s daughter, Monica, is a co-founder of the non-profit and an opera singer. Billy Jean King was there as well as Martha Stewart whose nephew now works with this non-profit, “Sing For Hope”, which brings art—music, dance, actors, poetry– to children and to hospital patients who would otherwise be bereft of art. All the fine, professional artists donate their time and talent. The great Opera singer, Renee Fleming has been deeply involved with “Sing For Hope”’from the beginning. Composer Ricky Ian Gordon was on piano and Camille Zamora and Joshua Hopkins sang a piece from the opera, “Grapes of Wrath.” Ricky Ian Gordon has composed the opera that will be performed with a symphony orchestra one night only at Carnegie Hall the end of March. I will be the narrator. I agreed to do it as an honor to my father who immortalized Tom Joad in John Ford’s movie “Grapes of Wrath.”

click here for an article about the event: http://www.whomyouknow.com/2009/11/nightlight-sing-for-hope-gala.html
Whom You Know: NIGHTLIGHT: Sing for Hope Gala was a Resounding Success! Songs for Our Future led by Chair Eva Haller and Co-Founders Monica Yunus and Camille Zamora Honor Renee Fleming, Jane Fonda, Reynold Levy and Muhammad Yunus in an evening of Arts Activism in Action in Lincoln Center November 21st. Special Surprise Birthday Guest: Billie Jean King

Tags: Billie Jean King, Camille Zamora, Grapes of Wrath Opera, Muhammad Yunus, Renee Fleming, Reynold Levy, sing for hope, Sing for Hope Gala

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15 Responses to “A GALA FOR SING FOR HOPE”

Jason says:

November 23, 2009 at 4:52 pm

Hi Jane,
Glad to see you’ve updated your blog. Was getting worried. By the way, all my recent posts are ‘awainting moderation’! What have I done??? Did I overstep the mark at some point? Hope not.
Best regards
Jason

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Timothy Dougherty says:

November 23, 2009 at 5:16 pm

Sing for hope , very nice Jane and “Grapes of Wrath.”opera! that is interesting . Your so right ,your father did immortalized Tom Joad , that work did standout . I can’nt forget that John Ford was blinded in one eye was a great Irish American Director and film maker. Dr Muhammad Yunus , I have seen him on the news and had great working macro banking systems they were looking into that use in California also. Small loan could help many people , to bad it is too late for me.
good work a across the board Jane, hope all is well

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pam says:

November 23, 2009 at 8:28 pm

Wow – you stay busy for a lot of good causes. When is it that you rest? Or is that your secret, you don’t.

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Kelsey says:

November 23, 2009 at 11:43 pm

“Sing For Hope” just SOUNDS like it couldn’t be anything less than a WONDERFUL thing! I love the picture!

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millie says:

November 25, 2009 at 10:37 am

Looks like a fun time! Wishing you a Thanksgiving Day full of everything thankful xxx

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Bill says:

November 25, 2009 at 2:11 pm

Jane-

I have to tell you….after seeing a pic of you in the NY Post, where you comment you’re slowly falling apart….I showed it to a friend who is about your age with the same joint problems…and it brought such a smile to her face. It was like, well, if Jane Fonda can find humor in it….so can I. As Bette Davis once said….”growing old ain’t for sissies”.

Can’t wait to see you on screen again soon. The new film sounds like it will be great. I love that whole extended family theme. Take care.

Bill

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Stephen says:

November 25, 2009 at 4:22 pm

Hi Jane,

Because I am possibly one of your biggest fans, will you please someday talk about one of my favorie movies that you made: “Period of Adjustment”? I thought you were fabulous in that movie.

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lacey says:

November 26, 2009 at 1:10 am

Very nice aspect of your blog to publicize such charitable event news.

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Mary Jane Stone says:

November 26, 2009 at 1:08 pm

Nice to read such an uplifting story on Thanksgiving. I hope that you and your family and friends are having a great holiday.

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fahad says:

November 26, 2009 at 4:55 pm

wow jane i love so much i m from saudi arabia and you truly beauty goddess

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Peachy Deegan says:

November 27, 2009 at 9:09 pm

Thank you for posting this Ms. Fonda! We appreciate it and look forward to your next project.
Cheers
Peachy

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Leonidas Payne IV says:

November 30, 2009 at 2:21 pm

Just wanted to wish you– Jane Fonda– a happy birthday on the 21st. I hope all your loved ones are well and happy. At 72 you are still “in your prime”. I hope that when you reach 77–that’s my age–you will be as healthy and happy as you are today. I know you will be as sexy.

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Tim C. says:

December 1, 2009 at 11:25 pm

I didn’t know there was an opera called Grapes Of Wrath. I’ll have to see it if it ever comes by Ohio.

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Shailja Patel says:

December 2, 2009 at 3:16 pm

Dear Jane,

We met at the 2006 welcome reception for the Women’s Media Centre in San Francisco. Here’s the rave I posted on my blog about meeting three of my sheroes – you, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem.

http://shailja.com/news/newsletterblog/2006/09/robin-morgan-hugged-me-tonight.html

Before you support the Yunus / Grameen Bank model as “lifting women out of poverty”, I urge you to look at the serious critiques of microcredit, and Grameen Bank, from feminists and third-world economists.

For example, this excellent article by feminist economists, Susan Feiner and Lucilla Barker, on the website of the International Museum of Women:

http://www.imow.org/economica/stories/viewStory?storyId=3693

The key to understanding why Grameen Bank founder and CEO Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize lies in the current fascination with individualistic myths of wealth and poverty. Many policy-makers believe that poverty is “simply” a problem of individual behavior. By rejecting the notion that poverty has structural causes, they deny the need for collective responses. In fact, according to this tough-love view, broad-based civic commitments to increase employment or provide income supports only make matters worse: helping the poor is pernicious because such aid undermines the incentive for hard work. This ideology is part and parcel of neoliberalism.

For neoliberals the solution to poverty is getting the poor to work harder, get educated, have fewer children, and act more responsibly. Markets reward those who help themselves, and women, who comprise the vast majority of microcredit borrowers, are no exception. Neoliberals champion the Grameen Bank and similar efforts precisely because microcredit programs do not change the structural conditions of globalization–such as loss of land rights, privatization of essential public services, or cutbacks in health and education spending–that reproduce poverty among women in developing nations.

And this piece by financial journalist Gina Neff:

http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Micro.html

“But while the press and the global network of localists rave about the bank’s lending to “landless” women, the miracle dissolves on closer inspection. For example, Grameen rules insist that its borrowers own their homes – not unlike the assumption that shoeless women have bootstraps. Evidently Bangladeshi homeless women don’t count as the poorest of the poor. And unfortunately, Grameen borrowers are staying poor. After 8 years of borrowing, 55% of Grameen households still aren’t able to meet their basic nutritional needs – so many women are using their loans to buy food rather than invest in business. That’s a figure that the press fails to mention.”

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- Jane says:
  
  December 2, 2009 at 7:38 pm
  
  Thank you, Shailja, for this information. I will ceratinly look into it more than I have. xxx Jane
  
  Reply