Member Since: 8/23/2011
Posts: 11,596
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Praise for The Born This Way Foundation
The New York Times:
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Lady Gaga is on to something important here. Experts from scholars to Education Secretary Arne Duncan are calling for more focus on bullying not only because it is linked to high rates of teen suicide, but also because it is an impediment to education.
Yes, that sounds grandiose and utopian, but I’m reluctant to bet against one of the world’s top pop stars and the person with the most Twitter followers in the world. In any case, she’s indisputably right about one point: Bullying and teenage cruelty are human rights abuses that need to be higher on our agenda.
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The Huffington Post:
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The Foundation's aim is to celebrate individuality and empower youth -- and the MacArthur Foundation is pleased to be a partner in this ambitious endeavor. We share a belief in creating opportunities for kids to safely express themselves, develop their identities, nurture creative instincts and participate in solving problems in their own communities.
Deployed with the passion and reach of one of the most influential public figures in the world, the Born This Way Foundation worked with the MacArthur Foundation to identify three essential pillars to building a braver, kinder world
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CNN:
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Listen to Lady Gaga -- be kind, stop bullying
Today, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Lady Gaga is officially launching her Born This Way Foundation, which will inspire bravery and kindness in young people. As one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, Lady Gaga has repeatedly encouraged her fans to "be someone that nurtures." With her new foundation, she is poised to do much more.
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Slate:
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But what truly won me over to Gaga’s anti-bullying work was the video she made about her own experience of being bullied.
With candor that crosses the line into self-exposure—in a good way—Gaga describes being thrown into a trash can by a bunch of kids in high school. She remembers how she laughed nervously in some weak attempt to please her tormentors, and how other kids saw through this pose. Gaga didn’t tell her parents or other adults what had happened. Nor did she allow herself to think about it much either, until the experiences of her teenage fans forced her to. “I think it took me to get to know my fans and to see similar struggles in them to access that wound in myself,” she says to the camera. It’s believable and it makes me think she just might stick with this foundation thing.
The next question, then, is what the Born This Way Foundation will actually do. I spent the day at a launch event for the foundation at Harvard, and the answer is: They don’t know yet. But they’re taking a smart approach to figuring it out, by bringing together some of the best thinkers about kids and conflict.
Gaga has donated $1.2 million of her own money to the foundation, but her greatest contribution may be her star power.That power can accomplish a lot, as was clear in Cambridge on Wednesday.* She might not have been necessary to bring out the academics in attendance, but surely her cachet helped round up the unlikely combination of Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, and Kathleen Sebelius, who were also on hand. It was the best mix of high, middle, and low I’d seen in—pretty much forever.
But if Gaga’s edgy appeal has its limits, it’s also crucial for her crusade. She’s not trying to be mainstream, and that could be a good thing, if her foundation figures out how to deploy her at the right moments and in front of the right audiences. Gaga’s best moment of the day came in response to a question from a teenager named Zachary, who told her he was transitioning from male to female, and wanted to know what she would do to support programs that are already in place, “like the really strong Gay-Straight Alliance at my school.” Gaga said she and her foundation would do everything they could to support and learn from such efforts. “And by the way,” she added, with a melting smile, “You look great.”
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Boston Mayor Tom Menino:
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What Lady Gaga is doing really shows what type of person she is. The quality and character of the individual,” said Menino. “My grand kids called me this morning…‘Papa, papa, can we come with you?
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Oprah Winfrey:
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"I was recently with the great Gloria Steinem, who said that sometimes the only way you can get attention to a problem is to freak people out," Oprah said at the event." 'Break the form,' she said. You have to stop playing the game in order to change the content. Lady Gaga, with her music and her message and her own story, is breaking the form, and she is changing consciousness. She says that she wasn't put on earth just to sing songs; her passion is to be that force for good. The Born This Way Foundation is in line with so many of my core beliefs."
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