Featuring a Dynamic Slate of Speakers and Awards Presentations Honoring Dr. Jane Goodall and Margaret Cho for their Humanitarian Work

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2021 / The Passionistas Project hosts its 2^nd annual gathering of female activists, speakers, and storytellers to share their stories of women's equality and provide action items for attendees to go out and make the world a better place for all. The Passionistas Project Women's Equality Summit is a three-day virtual event held from Friday, August 20 through Sunday, August 22.

Sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington founded The Passionistas Project in 2018 to create media opportunities for women's voices and stories to be heard and amplified. After a successful launch of the Woman's Equality Summit in 2020, they've announced the slate for this year's event. With a lineup of storytellers, entrepreneurs, activists, creators and artists sharing their stories of equality, the summit will include live panels, presentations and conversations with challenging but vital discussions about prevalent gender issues and equality. To inspire women to achieve their dreams in a safer, more accessible world, The Passionistas Project is empowering women to continue moving forward, share their knowledge and pursue their passions through awareness and community support.

The 2021 Summit will also culminate with honoring Dr. Jane Goodall and Margaret Cho with the Passionistas Persist Awards, recognizing their achievements and pursuing positive changes in the world.

"We have been inspired by Dr. Jane Goodall since we first saw photographs of her with the Gombe chimpanzees in National Geographic as young girls," said Nancy Harrington. "We heard her story and knew we could do anything we set our minds and our hearts to. We are thrilled and honored that our hero is accepting the 2021 Passionistas Persist Icon Award."

“We have always admired Margaret Cho as a pioneer in stand-up comedy and on television,” said Amy Harrington. “And we have looked to her as a guiding light in the world of activism on critical topics of equality for LGBTQIA+, AAPI, and feminist issues. There is no one that better represents the spirit of The Passionistas Persist Humanitarian Award than Margaret Cho.”

Actress, comedian, disability rights activist and summit producer Selene Luna will present the award to Margaret Cho, followed by an intimate conversation between the two friends.

The Passionistas Project sets out to bring women from across the world together to hear important stories and inspire them to be agents of change in their communities. The Passionistas Persist Humanitarian Award recipient Margaret Cho said, “It's really incredible to be rewarded for what I think is everybody's job-activism, being aware, and understanding that the world is really an unequal place. We need to figure out a way to try to normalize equality.”

In an interview produced by The Passionistas and Karen Herman, Passionistas Persist Icon Award recipient Dr. Jane Goodall says, “It's as though there's a disconnect between this clever brain, which can do almost everything, anything, and the human heart, where we poetically seek love and compassion. And I truly believe only when head and heart work in harmony can we attain our true human potential.”

The Passionistas Project Women's Equality Summit 2021 will include live panels featuring:

• Call the ADA: Producing-partners Cara Reedy and Selene Luna are on a mission to create a space that ensures equity in the entertainment business, allowing artists with disabilities an equal platform. Reedy and Luna will screen Call the ADA, a segment from the variety show they've created, followed by a discussion that explores the need for an intersectional feminist movement.
• Her Legacy: Women & Wealth (Presenters: Nekei Lewis and Kimberly Gilgeours): A conversation about women and finance and how you can create a legacy by understanding finance literacy wealth strategies.
• 19, 20, 21: COVID-19 and Its Effects on the Classes of 2020 and 2021 (Moderator: Meredith Struewing) Recent female college graduates share their experiences about graduating into a pandemic-filled life and the obstacles they're undergoing to find their evolving definition of success as women.
• Expanding the Gender Equity Conversations to Include All Women (Moderator: Gabrielle Claiborne, Panelist: Jessie Jacobson) - You will hear the personal stories from women of different lived experiences and intersections from the perspective of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, etc. Through these stories, you will learn about their marginalized experiences, as well as the common threads that connect ALL of us, regardless of our differences, and how we can leverage our uniqueness to advocate for a more inclusive and welcoming sisterhood.
• Kitchen Table Talk in the AAPI Community (Moderator: Sara Ku) - Five women of diverse backgrounds discuss issues impacting AAPI communities.
• Stop Jewish Hate (Moderator: Dana Kaplan) - Jewish: a religion, a culture, a nationality. Microaggressions occur daily towards humans collectively, and as a collective, we must take radical personal responsibility to listen and learn about prior and current day experiences in order to hold space and rich awareness around what and how we can change our current paradigm. *Being Jewish is not an age, a gender, or a race."

In addition to the live panels, guests will also have an opportunity to experience:

• Passionistas Profiles - an evening of personal stories of equality followed by a Q&A with moderator and storyteller Cara Reedy and Andrea Briscoe, Kimberly Gilgeours, Elle Johnson, Nekei Lewis and Kim Roxie, who will share their experiences as Black women.
• LUNAFEST® - a short film festival featuring an all-documentary lineup of seven short films by women filmmakers, sharing new perspectives and lighting a fire in the industry.
• Twenty+ Expert Presentations - free on-demand presentations that will cover topics ranging from financial independence, fighting for social justice, engaging in graceful revolution, feminist ideals, feminine energy skills, microaggressions, disability rights, setting boundaries, voter suppression, and much more
• The Virtual Marketplace and Pay It Forward Portal - visitors can shop, learn about, and support female artisans, women-owned businesses, and organizations with missions to empower and improve life for all women.

A portion of the Passionistas Project Women's Equality Summit proceeds will go to The Goodall Institute, Roots & Shoots, Michelson Found Animals, Chicken & Egg Pictures and Girls Inc.

The Passionistas Project Women's Equality Summit 2021 will be held virtually from Friday, August 20, through Sunday, August 22. Early bird ticket prices for presentations and entertainment events are $25. Early bird weekend passes are available for $39. Scholarships are available for those who cannot afford to attend, and ticket buyers are encouraged to Pay It Forward and fund an extra ticket so someone else in the community can attend.

For registration, complete schedules, and more information, please visit https://bit.ly/2021EqualitySummitTickets. To learn more about The Passionistas Project, visit https://www.thepassionistasproject.com/.

ABOUT THE PASSIONISTAS

Sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington founded The Passionistas Project out of a deep desire to empower women around the world. Both co-founders walked away from high-profile jobs in Hollywood to work together. Amy was the Vice President of Visual Effects and Post Production for all feature films at Warner Bros, working on movies like 'The Matrix' and 'Space Jam.' Nancy left the ad agency where she created Academy Award campaigns for Miramax. Now Amy and Nancy shine a light on the positive stories of women on The Passionistas Project Podcast. They have conducted more than 60 one-on-one oral histories for The Interviews for the Television Academy Foundation, including in-depth conversations with Cindy Williams and Penny Marshall, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ed O'Neill, Danny DeVito, and more. At the Emmys and other press events, Amy and Nancy have chatted with many stars including Lily Tomlin, Laverne Cox, Deepak Chopra, Carol Burnett, and many others. They have also produced interviews for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame including a sit down with Mick Jagger. They were handpicked by OWN to be part of the VIP digital press corps covering 'Oprah's Lifeclass' during Winfrey's tour of the U.S. and Toronto. Amy and Nancy founded The Passionistas Project in 2018 and through their podcast, subscription box, and events, they strive to inspire women to follow their passions and join forces in the fight for equality for all. For more information, go tohttps://www.thepassionistasproject.com/about.

ABOUT DR. JANE GOODALL

Dr. Jane Goodall's landmark study of chimpanzee behavior at Gombe Stream became the foundation of future primatological research and redefined the relationship between humans and animals. In 1977, Dr. Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute - widely recognized for innovative, community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa. In 1991, she founded Roots & Shoots, the global environmental and humanitarian youth program dedicated to taking action to make the world a better place for people, animals and the environment.

ABOUT THE JANE GOODALL INSTITUTE

In 1977, Dr. Jane Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute, which continues the Gombe research and is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. The Institute is widely recognized for innovative, community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa.

ABOUT ROOTS AND SHOOTS

Dr. Jane Goodall founded Roots & Shoots with a group of Tanzanian students in 1991. Today, Roots & Shoots is active in more than 60 countries and since its inception has greatly impacted participants of all ages in over 100 countries, all of whom take action to make the world a better place for people, animals and the environment.

ABOUT MARGARET CHO

As a trailblazing comedian, actress, musician and activist, Margaret Cho has five Grammy Award nominations and one Emmy nod for her groundbreaking work on '30 Rock.' Rolling Stone magazine named Margaret one of the 50 Best Stand-Up Comics calling her 'the sort of funny, sex-positive feminist and LGBT activist younger comics continue to look up to.'

ABOUT MICHELSON FOUND ANIMALS

Dr. Gary Michelson started Found Animals in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, establishing the first free pet microchip registry to help every lost pet find their way home. In the 15 years since, Found Animals has continued to identify important problems facing pets and people, and develop real-world, scalable solutions to help them thrive. Their programs span social enterprises, impact investments and thought leadership initiatives that champion pets at every point they intersect with our society.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Amy & Nancy Harrington, Co-Founders
The Passionistas Project
info@thepassionistasproject.com
818-406-9077

SOURCE: The Passionistas Project