Paola Gianturco, author-photographer, has documented women’s issues in 62 countries for seven powerHouse Books. Grandmother Power: A Global Phenomenon (2012) won four first place literary awards in categories as diverse as multicultural nonfiction and women’s studies. Wonder Girls: Changing Our World (2017) won seven literary prizes: gold and silver awards in categories as diverse as women’s studies, multicultural nonfiction, social change, and leadership. Women Who Light the Dark, the third book in the triptych (2007) described the work of women activists.
Paola’s images have been exhibited at the United Nations, UNESCO, The US Senate, The Field Museum/Chicago, The Museum of the African Diaspora/San Francisco, The Norton Simon Museum/Pasadena, The Grand Rapids Public Museum, and more. She lectures internationally, presented a TED talk in Dubai, and has been a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, NPR, and Voice of America programs among others. Paola serves on the advisory boards of two nonprofits: Rise Up Together (which empowers girls to advocate for policy change), and The WISE Fund (Women Invested to Save Earth). In 2013, Paola was listed among “40 Women to Watch Over 40,” and in 2014, Women’s e-News named her one of 21 Leaders of the 21st century. In 2017, the YWCA inducted her into the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame.
Paola’s newest book, “COOL: women leaders reversing global warming,” will be available for purchase at the gallery through
The Depot Book Store.
The author’s royalties from her book all go to The Women’s Earth Alliance https://womensearthalliance.org to provide seed funding for women around the world who are starting organizations that will help reverse global warming. Paola and her granddaughter and co-author, Avery Sangster, interviewed and photographed women activists, politicians, corporate executives, scholars, heads of grassroots groups, and presidents of organizations.
These women leaders are based in 10 countries: the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Tanzania, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, and Hong Kong.’’ In COOL you will meet:•
Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney, Australia, who’s vowed to reduce city government emissions by 70% by 2030. Already, she’s made Sydney the first Australian city to be declared carbon neutral.
• Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit activist, who sees her indigenous people as climate change sentinels for the world, and levers their observations, experience, and knowledge of the Arctic to benefit people everywhere.
• Fifteen thousand Sri Lankan women who raise and plant “miracle trees,” mangroves, which sequester five times more carbon dioxide than tropical trees in the Amazon Rain Forrest.
• Nelleke van der Puil, Vice President of Materials at LEGO, who is developing plastic made with plants instead of oil, which is transforming her company’s products.