What made you want to work with SheGives?

For one thing, I care deeply about being engaged in and supporting my community: philanthropically, politically, and socially. I grew up with a mom who – having never completed a traditional degree – noticed a problem in her community and did something about it. A slew of sexual assaults on young women prompted her to start Girls LEAP around our kitchen room table. I saw the hard work and deep relationship-building that went into growing the organization  into the institution it is today, and saw from the inside how the support of giving communities like SheGives made all the difference to my mom, especially in those early days. That experience shaped a belief I still hold dear: when women come together to make change, watch out. SheGives is a community I would love to be a part of one day because I believe we can make a greater difference together. I want my contributions – be they financial or beyond – to be part of an overarching vision for the future of Boston and the next generation of women who can shape it.

 

What causes are near and dear to your heart?

My mom had me stuffing envelopes for Girls LEAP pretty much since she figured out all it took was food to lure me into volunteering. Since then, I’ve worked for organizations supporting women and girls in so many different capacities because I believe that our families, communities, and civil society is stronger when women are able to contribute. I have served as a legal advocate, a mentor, a volunteer, and a donor – from helping women remain in their homes (and not evicted due to the behavior of a domestic abuser) to taking groups of young girls in Seattle rockclimbing! Specifically, right now I’m really interested in how the digital divide will impact social services and people struggling to get out of poverty. Everyone has a phone, but having no access to or literacy with a computer is hugely problematic for people who are trying to secure childcare, apply for a job, or even access certain services. How will we create new infrastructure to meet that need?

 

What book (or movie, or song, or any piece of art) had a tremendous impact on you?

Such a tough question! As a former English major, so I’m a sucker for a good book (and a well-timed English major joke), and am a movie nerd. What comes to mind most immediately, though, is a book by a local author named Caroline Knapp. Caroline wrote for The Boston Phoenix and struggled with both addiction and an eating disorder. Both serve as a frame for her incredibly astute work “Appetites,” which is a memoir about so much more than alcoholism or anorexia. It’s about what women are told we should desire and what we shouldn’t, how we deal with conflicting desires in a world that encourages us to judge one another for the choices we make. It’s absolutely beautiful, and filled with quotes from folks across generations about the challenging relationship women have with hunger in its many forms. I think for me it articulated how tricky the terrain still is for women in the workplace, in families, in relationships, and how our society is so rigid in opening up new possibilities.

 

Who would be invited to your ideal dinner party?

Gosh, I want to impress you guys so much, there is no way this can end well for me. Actually, after learning about it in college, I finally got to see the Judy Chicago “Dinner Party” at the Brooklyn Art Museum recently, and I have to say a lot of those incredible women would make my list! Working in the field of dialogue and conflict transformation, I would love to see the Tunisian Dialogue Quartet in action and learn from their efforts to create a pluralistic democracy. But I have to say, I like a dinner party with a good laugh…so I would have to throw in Gilda Radner to mix it up.

 

What excites you most right now?

I have recently started a grad program in Civic Media at Emerson College, which looks at how new media and technologies can help to build stronger civil societies and democracies in particular. I am excited to meet potential community partners to work with this coming year!

 

With a degree from La Varenne Ecole de Cuisine in Paris, the Seattle-born Ana Sortun begun her career, when Sortun was still cooking what most people think of as typical Mediterranean food. People loved it. While at Casablanca, a friend invited Sortun to study in Turkey.

Eager to learn, she accepted. (“I imagined flying carpets and genies,” she says wryly.) When she arrived Sortun’s host and friends presented a potluck of sorts. “I tasted 30 amazing dishes from these women’s family repertoires,” Sortun remembers. “I was stunned at how rich and interesting yet light everything was.”

That trip was when she learned that in the Mediterranean, spice is used to create richness, depth and flavor without heaviness. She also experienced the mezze style of eating, which is to have many tastes of mostly vegetable-based dishes before reaching a protein course. “Chefs always focus on flavor and appearance,” says Sortun, “but few think about how one feels after eating a long meal.”

Upon her return to Boston, she wanted to fuse her newfound love of Eastern Mediterranean spices with her passion for using only the best ingredients. The result of this union was Oleana, which opened in Cambridge in 2001. A mere four years later, Sortun won a coveted and prestigious James Beard Award.
Sortun’s commitment to locally grown food took a turn for the personal when a farmer selling spinach turned up at the back door of Oleana one day. “I knew then that I would marry him,” Sortun says. Since 2006, Siena Farms has been providing the restaurant with most of its fresh, organic produce. It is owned and farmed by the chef’s husband, Chris Kurth, and named after the couple’s daughter.

In August of 2008, Sofra was born. This Middle Eastern bakery, café and retail shop offers flatbread sandwiches, mezzes, prepared foods and baked goods. It has received both local and national press; Food & Wine, Metropolitan Home and Gourmet have all featured it as a place not to miss.  In 2013, Sortun opened yet another door for Chef Cassie Piuma, with the opening of Sarma in Somerville.  Sarma is a restaurant & bar where food, drink and music come together in a vibrant celebration of the good things in life. Modeled after the traditional meyhanes of Turkey, the menu is a large selection of small, seasonal plates ( meze ) that are designed to be shared. The flavors represent the Mediterranean and encourage food-friendly cocktails, craft beers or a glass of wine from a small but carefully selected list.

We are already salivating for Ana’s upcoming ShePartakes Sugar + Spice lunch on Wednesday, April 27th at noon. Tickets are still available for purchase here.