Alissa Everett Photograpy

Drought in Turkana

Alissa — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:34:36 +0000

The Amazon….

Alissa — Wed, 04 May 2011 23:24:14 +0000

The Amazon… she is an immense, lush, sultry, sweaty, dangerous rainforest, and a powerful, vast, convoluted river which both gives and takes of life. Her forests cover over 1.6 million square miles and span the borders of eight South American countries. Her over 40,000 species of plants and trees produce more than 20% of the world’s oxygen and rivers carry more than one-fifth the fresh water in the world.

The Amazon is also home to over 300 species of mammals, 1,500 species of birds and 300 species of reptiles, with an average of 120 new species discovered each year. She is as impressive as inhospitable, and we humans cling to her shores in stilt villages to protect again the floods. Each year, when the rains come, her waters rise and fall with the rains, up to 30 feet, inundating thousands of square miles.

Right now is the time of flooding in the Amazon Basin, and last week I made my first visit to photograph and write a travel story for Traveler Overseas Magazine.

“Mother Soldier” wins third place in Gordon Parks photo awards

Alissa — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 06:09:57 +0000

Dakar

Alissa — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 17:43:09 +0000

Shortly after graduating from UCLA, I moved to Senegal, West Africa, to spend 27 months serving in the country as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was my first time in Africa and in a Muslim country, and at first, I was terrified. Our group of 68 volunteers became a community, in that bygone era of no cell phones, internet and email, and Senegal became our home. We assimilated quickly into the local culture, living with Senegalese families, eating local food, traveling on public transportation and speaking the local languages. We learned the joys of Africa – the music, dance, laughter and community – and the hardships as well – poverty, infant and maternal mortality, devastation by curable illnesses, and even our own vulnerability in a world with no harsh climate and no infrastructure.

I returned to the US a different person, older, much wiser, more confident and with a part of me now tied to a distant village in Africa, a way of life and a family who had taken me in as their own and loved me. I finally returned to Senegal last month after 12 years to visit my family and was welcomed with open arms. They had moved to a larger town, my brothers and sisters had grown up and had families of their own, and though the time had passed, I felt like I had never left. Here are some scenes of my latest trip.

Antarctica

Alissa — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 22:41:43 +0000

A land of snow, rock and ice, dramatic landscapes, unpredictable weather, and turbulent seas. I had always dreamed of visiting Antarctica, and yet, not until I saw her did I know that I would be back at any and every opportunity.

Moscow by night

Alissa — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:30:54 +0000

Words from the DRC

Alissa — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 01:15:59 +0000

Goma, DRC

Voix de la Paix took the project one step further, screening Pray the Devil Back to Hell to women leaders and holding a two-day workshop in Kinshasa, Goma and Bukavu. Abigail Disney, Leymah Gbowee and Alissa Everett traveled to the DRC to show PRAY to diverse women leaders such as nationally elected government officials, heads of women’s associations, church leaders, policewomen, soldiers and activists. It was the first time women leaders across all sectors of society had come together to discuss the state of their country, region and individual lives.

The women discussed the strengths and weaknesses of their current womens’ movements and created strategies for future growth. They also confronted prejudices within their own communities, as one slender, soft-spoken women in Kinshasa roared, “You women in civil society: you are doing violence to yourselves. You do not work together. You only look after your own interests. It is not until you stop the war of women on women that you will have any chance of ending the war at all. We must end this conflict and begin to work together!!”

Voices of Peace – the Workshops

Alissa — Mon, 10 May 2010 23:21:03 +0000

May is here and it is time. I will be holding workshops with Abigail Disney and Leymah Gbowee, from Pray the Devil Back to Hell. From seeing the film a year ago, proposing to Abby that we bring the film to eastern DRC, meeting with women leaders and holding preliminary screenings to see if the atmosphere was right, we are finally at holding workshops, strategy sessions really, with women leaders, activists, female politicians, police, army, humanitarians and journalists in Goma, Bukavu and Kinshasa.

If you don’t know this film you should. Click here for the trailer – Pray the Devil Back to Hell

It is a powerful, important documentary piece, not only on an under-reported women’s movement, but it is one of the first pieces of its kind to shine a true light on African women. Most media portray African women as victims, suffering, illiterate, dirty, barefoot, pregnant with a bucket of water on her head. This film shows the other African women, the intelligent, articulate, groomed women who are up to something in the world. These are true faces of African women with spirit, dimension, dignity and pride. They are strong and very able.

Me with Goma ladies from the “Voices of Peace” workshop.

Goma

Alissa — Wed, 05 May 2010 20:34:39 +0000

Despite my exhaustion after traveling some 48 hours, I head straight to the HEAL office where my meetings begin. Freddy, the guardian at the front gate greets me in his wife-beater from behind his mirrored sunglasses. At first glimpse of his shaved head and building muscles, one wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley, but then he breaks out in a smile, or maybe a handstand on his crutches and he remains forever seared in one’s memory. HEAL Africa is beginning to feel more like home than either New York or LA. Many of the HEAL staff are now friends, greeting me with surprised smiles, kisses and “when did you return?” or more telling, “were you traveling?”

Mama Virginie is the matriarch of HEAL Africa and my ally in contacting my invitees, ensuring their attendance and the proper protocol for the workshop. Not only does she hold a full time job at HEAL, but she is a widow, an active participant in her church, cares for five children, and created AMAVESA, an organization to help widows in Goma. Such are the women of the Congo.

Mama Virgine at the “Voices of Peace” Goma workshop.

The DRC Border Again

Alissa — Sat, 01 May 2010 21:31:44 +0000

11am and I am crossing the border from Rwanda into eastern DRC again. Faces are familiar and I joke about the constantly changing border policy with the woman who checks my passport. This time my $35 buys me a 7 day visa for Goma alone, stamped into my passport.

The border activity seems to pick up on each crossing, more women with merchandise moving to and fro, more foreigners without NGO affiliation speaking little French.. are tourists really coming to Goma?

The town is safe now, save for the growing number of homeless youth pickpocketing on the streets. Growing and changing, Goma is developing and modernizing. Civil war in the rural areas or not, the West is coming. Supermarkets have more products, new restaurants are opening and even a brand new club complete with swimming pool, day beds for lounging, two DJ booths, a restaurant and a bar. The goal is outdoor day club parties by this summer.

The driver from HEAL Africa picks me up, he brings my letter of invitation and procedures move smoothly. My first visit a distant memory of being stranded at the border after dark, having to be saved by Jo Lusi (HEAL Africa’s founder) in scrubs straight from the operating room.

Rather it is sunny and bright, and I am back for the next stage of my “Voices of Peace” project, the workshops. Workshops on women in peace-building with my carefully cultivated women leaders from each sector of society. We will have 30 women leaders in each Goma, Bukavu and Kinshasa, ministers, national assembly members, journalists, heads of religious associations, students, police, military, civil society and activists.

The women are coming together to watch the film, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, and spend a day and a half with its star, the Liberian peace activist, Leymah Gbowee, and its producer, Abigail Disney. The goals of the workshops are to provide a platform for conversation between women leaders, facilitate their creating unified goals of the women of the Congo that take them out of their divisions, and finally a strategy to fulfill them.