[Felicia Horowitz Introduction: Janice Mirikitani]
We talk about this bridge that connects and divides
And you know we can't do that without people who are committed, dedicated and really, truly understand and care about the causes and injustice
And in those causes
We have someone who is in our leadership of the volunteers who come here faithfully volunteering every other week
And she is very, very connected to the technology community
And she makes sure that bridging pillar by pillar continues to occur
And we are so grateful for her, because she is a Shero
She believes in what we do, she believes in the causes that we espouse and hopefully practice
And she herself practices it
Her husband Ben Horowitz is also involved
This wonderful series called GLIDE Talk
She has her own story, and she has her own passion
And it is my pleasure to introduce Felicia Horowitz
[Felicia Horowitz]
Over 50 years ago something amazing happened right here on the corner of Ellis and Taylor
Jan Mirikitani and Cecil Williams founded GLIDE
GLIDE has been a vessel for social justice helping people from all walks of life to reach their true potential without any prejudice or judgment
It doesn't matter here at GLIDE if you are gay, bisexual, transgender, in fact, even if you are straight we are willing to open up our hearts and accept you too
I’m excited to be here today with my friends Van Jones from CNN and Jim Gilliam, the CEO of NationBuilder
Their leadership has created modern day media and technology platforms that truly embody the spirit of GLIDE
To illustrate the impact of their work, I am inspired to share with you a true story, the tale of two people caught in "the struggle"
Have you ever met or known someone that had that “it” factor? That spark
When I was young there was a kid in my neighborhood, let's just call him Mike
He was my next-door neighbor and a childhood friend, he had that special spark, everyone loved Mike
He was witty, cute, smart and super charismatic
He was the one person in the hood that everybody knew was going to make it
Our neighborhood was a small, African American, working class community and the world didn’t expect much from us
Nobody outside of our neighborhood saw Mike’s spark
After years of not being recognized and feeling insignificant, although I could still see the fire burn within him
Mike slowly drifted to the sidelines of life and now my friend Mike is serving a life sentence in prison
Fast Forward to 2014, when I met a young man named Divine, that grew up in the roughest of neighborhoods in Providence, Rhode Island with his own unique “spark”
When he was 13, his mother became addicted to drugs and she could no longer support him and his younger brother
With no help and a family that needed him, he dropped out of school in the 8th grade to support them
He got the only job willing to hire a 13 year old kid, he became a street hustler and sold crack
Eventually, he added a second vocation, he became a rap artist
Through hard work and ambition, Divine succeeded in the streets and the microphone
However, his crack dealing landed him in prison, where he spent 10 years of his life
But when he returned home from prison, the world had changed dramatically
Technology had created the ability to connect with others beyond your neighbhood and show your spark
Divine embraced the technological change
He quickly jumped on Kickstarter, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook
Then one day, he sent a 'tweet' out into the Ether hoping that someone would notice
Someone did, and that someone happened to be my husband Ben
He saw the potential, he saw the spark
I recall Ben coming home from work super excited, I assumed it was about some newly discovered technology, like Virtual Reality, Crypto Currency, Drones or a brilliant entrepreneur he was going to invest in
Instead it was Divine’s Kickstarter to record a Rap album and he was going to put $500. on it
I responded by saying what, Ben you crazy?
But, after hearing Divine’s music and seeing his drive, I too saw the spark and decided to support his campaign as well
And that small bit of recognition was all that Divine needed to in the words of The Great Philosopher/rapper Drake, Divine went “zero to 100 n$gg@ real quick"
He released his album, was featured on Techcrunch, spoke and performed at the Women's 2.0 conference, and is currently enrolled in a program for ex-convicts that landed him in a classroom at Harvard University
His music and story touches people every day as he makes a positive impact in our community
One man's potential was lost, while the other's became reality
One faces life imprisoned while the other makes a vital contribution to society daily
The difference? Mike's had no platform, no hope, while thanks to the Internet, Divine's had a global audience
But isn’t it great to live in a time where hope has unprecedented reach and because of the information age we live in today 'hope' is now accessible to each and every one of us
