Coldplay, a word that carries meaning. It’s not just the name of a band, it’s the name of four incredible individuals that have been touching the world’s hearts since 1996. A band comprising the amazing members Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman, and Will Champion.

They have songs that carry meaning, kindness that carries value. And one of the best things about them is the effort they have been making for the sustainability of the world.

For their current world tour Music of the Spheres, a tour that’s been ongoing since 2022 and is set to end this September in 2025, they have been making feats in sustainability. From reducing CO2 emissions to creatively powering the stage in eco-friendly ways, this tour is something to take a look at and take notes from, because it teaches you that you can make art while also taking care of the world.

Here are some of the amazing ways Coldplay is leading a sustainable, eco-friendly tour:

Reducing CO2 Emissions

When making the announcement for the Music of the Spheres World Tour in 2021, Coldplay “pledged to reduce [their] direct carbon emissions (from show production, freight, band and crew travel) by at least 50%”.

In addition to working with partners and suppliers to decrease the impact of CO2 emissions, Coldplay partnered with DHL—the tour’s Official Logistics Partner—to reduce the impact of emissions from freight and transportation.

And you know what’s amazing? From the tour’s first two years, the band happily reported that direct CO2e emissions were significantly reduced by 59%, which is 59% less than their previous stadium tour in 2016-17, “on a show-by-show comparison”.

Kinetic Energy

In addition to reducing direct CO2e emissions, Coldplay’s tour is powering the stage in eco-friendly ways.

One of the impressive ways the band is doing this is via kinetic energy. Isn’t that cool?

They’re using kinetic dance floors which have been placed in specific locations around the stadium. When the fans jump up and down and dance, that physical action is converted into energy that helps power the show.

Not only this, but another form of kinetic energy the tour has is the installation of electricity-generating power bikes “so that fans can actively charge our show batteries”.

LED Wristbands

The LED wristbands fans wear at the show are actually reusable and made from 100% compostable, plant-based materials. The production of these wristbands has not only been reduced by about 80% through collection, sterilization and recharging them after each concert, but they also had an 86% average return and re-use rate.

Supporting Amazing Causes

For this tour, Coldplay has financially supported environmental organizations such as ClientEarth, The Ocean Cleanup, One Tree Planted, Climeworks, Project Seagrass and more.

Reforestation

To reduce their carbon footprint even more, Coldplay has supported several nature projects around the world, with a focus on reforestation, rewilding, conservation and soil regeneration.

By partnering with One Tree Planted, the band has been planting one tree for every ticket sold and via the proceeds of all their individual tee sales, according to One Tree Planted’s website.

In addition to this, by working with One Tree Planted, Coldplay has aided 21 planting projects across 17 countries.

Reducing CO2 emissions, powering the stage with kinetic energy, reusing LED wristbands, planting trees and supporting reforestation projects are just some of the many sustainability efforts Coldplay has implemented at the Music of the Spheres World Tour.

Not only are they an amazing band with incredible musical talent, they have a kind heart that cares for the world, one that encourages us to look out for and care for it, too.

To learn more about Coldplay’s eco-friendly tour, check out their Tour Emissions Update 2024 and Sustainability page.

L – Luxiders Magazine

JDC – Jacopo Di Cera

L: Your works “Fino alla fine del Mare” and “Il rumore dell’assenza” evoke powerful traces of photomaterism, emotion, brokenness and memory. Tell us more about them and what other themes come to mind when picturing these works?

JDC: “Fino alla fine del Mare” is a work born from the urgency of migration. It’s composed of close-up images of migrant boats abandoned on the shores of Lampedusa—objects that have carried lives, fears, hopes. Through the language of photomaterism, I integrate fragments of real material—salt, rust, wood—to transform documentary traces into abstract compositions. In this way, matter becomes testimony, and abstraction becomes memory.
“Il rumore dell’assenza” speaks of another kind of trauma: the devastating earthquake in Amatrice. The works are fragile, fractured, intentionally incomplete—each piece an echo of what was lost, and of what remains in silence. Both projects explore themes of rupture, survival, and the invisible residues of human presence.

L: The eco focused piece “Retreat” is not only a piece of art that ensures zero environmental impact with it being presented across 40 completely sustainable, upcycled monitors, it’s also a digital, infinite video loop of the events surrounding the tragic decline or “retreat”—if you will—of one of the world’s dearest glaciers, Brenva Glacier of Mont Blanc. Please describe the narrative and the motivation behind. 

JDC: The narrative unfolds vertically, like a glacier itself. 40 monitors, stacked and aligned like ice layers, show the slow collapse of the Brenva Glacier—a visual symphony where ice turns to water in endless loop. The structure itself becomes a metaphor: every monitor sold removes a segment, just as each year melts away a piece of the glacier. The motivation was to translate scientific data into an emotional language, to let people feel the loss, not just know it. It’s an elegy in pixels.

L: “Retreat” contains themes of sustainable awareness, tragic decline in association with the Brenva Glacier, and a sense of nostalgia. Is nostalgia always a recurring theme in your works?

JDC: Yes and No.—nostalgia is a lens that sometime is filtering the reality once I observe the world. But not in a romantic sense. It’s the nostalgia of what’s vanishing while we watch. A nostalgia for the future we’re losing. Retreat generates this kind of emotion. In my other social research, the lens are different: in “Sospesi,” in my zenithal photographs of summer and winter’s breath, there are more than 10 years of works so the “oldest” one are creating this kind of effect differently to the most recent. But I think it is a natural evolution of what a historical photo can generate vs a contemporary one.

L: If you had to share with the world words of wisdom when it comes to caring for the environment, what would those words be?

JDC: Don’t wait until something disappears to realize it was sacred. Learn to see the invisible before it’s gone.

L: In addition to sustainability being a powerful and inspiring part of your artworks, are there other mediums of art (such as film or literature) that also inspire you to create for sustainability?

JDC: Absolutely. Literature like the writings Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities remind me of the fragility of worlds, both real and imagined. Films like Leviathan or Anthropocene offer sensory experiences of ecological tension. But the more inspiring content is the reality.

L: What is one word that comes to mind when creating an artwork that brings together the worlds of art and nature?

JDC: Interdependence.

L: If you had to share with the world another set of words of wisdom when it comes to caring for the environment, what would they be?

JDC: Protect what we can not recreate. Not only for us but for all the generation will follow.

According to the OECD in 2022, it “estimated that on current trends the amount of plastic we produce will almost triple by 2060”. By then, humans will have developed over 42 billion tonnes of plastic, damaging the environment completely. This unfortunate news is due to plastic being used in wasteful ways. One of those ways is through packaging.

Some say the answer to plastic packaging is recycling, but is it, really? According to REUSE Foundation May 2025 Report “Where Now For Plastic Packaging?” , recycling is not the solution to combat plastic packaging.

For Reuse Foundation, they say the best way to solve the problem of excess plastic packaging is to reuse it. Approaching this solution “has the potential to reduce waste from plastic packaging by 90%”, which is awesome.

What’s not so awesome, though, is some companies are still not approaching reuse solutions for plastic packaging. Rather, they are focusing on disposable plastic packaging and “the illusion that recycling still works”. Despite the insistence to continue with these not-so-great solutions, a 2025 study from GoUnpackaged shows 68% of 2,000 adults in the UK mentioned they would include reuse in their “weekly shopping if the solutions were convenient”.

This means people want to reuse. And, sure, it may be challenging, but it brings so many benefits. In fact, according to Reuse Foundation, “many successful companies offer productions and solutions that shows reuse can be economically viable”. Therefore, while it sounds challenging, reuse is the solution to plastic packaging.

So far, the most principal effort when it comes to combating plastic packaging is from The Global Commitment, “a program conceived and led by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and The United Nations Environment Program”. The way that The Global Commitment combats plastic packaging is by making its use “more circular”. This is done “by changing its composition, promoting recycled content over virgin plastic and removing non-recyclable elements”.

While this solution for plastic packaging has potential, it does not completely solve the crisis of plastic. “The target effectively just encourages companies to do something of negligible benefit and perpetuates linear supply chains while claiming progress toward ‘circular’ solutions.” — REUSE Foundation.

What can we do, then, to take decisive action?

That’s why — for REUSE Foundation — reuse is the best solution right now for plastic packaging.

Highlight Image:
© Claudio Schwarz from Unsplash

All Images:
© Unsplash

Since 1972, Veuve Clicquot has recognized over 450 women in more than 20 countries with the Bold Woman Award. Born from the Maison’s 200th anniversary, the award continues to be a tribute to the esteemed Madame Clicquot, the Grand Dame of Champagne. She was an incredible woman who took over the Champagne House in 1805 at the young age of 27. Her qualities of passion, strength and intelligence led her to creating the first known vintage champagne, the riddling table process, and the first known blended rosé champagne. These contributions created drive and inspiration in the world, showing women that you can stand up for what you believe in and create the good you desire.

On June 5, 2025 in Reethaus, Berlin, an exceptional evening was created at the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman Award 2025. Two exceptional winners of the Bold Woman Award and Bold Future Award were named, and amazing finalists were also included.
Before we learn more about these winners, let us first take a look at what occurred on this fine evening:

First, around 100 guests were invited to the event. In fact, many notable guests from the business, media and culture industries were present: Jill Asemota, Maria Astor, Max Befort, Tanja Bülter, Bettina Cramer, Friederike Cromme, Nilam Farooq, Luise von Finckh, Saruul Krause-Jentsch, Kristina Lunz, Motsi Mabuse, Stefan Mentz, Soulin Omar, Stephanie Pfeil-Coenen, Yu Zhang, Vivien Wulf, Natalia Wörner, Dennenesch Zoudé.

And if things couldn’t get more exciting, the esteemed Host Jenny Augusta presented the award winners and led the evening very beautifully. The star chef Julia Komp also created a culinary delight for the evening by presenting an incredible modern and worldly cuisine experience.

Now, meet your winners for the Bold Woman Award 2025 and Bold Future Award 2025.

Bold Woman Award 2025 Winner

Miriam Wohlfarth – Banxware: 

Fintech pioneer, co-founder and co-CEO of Banxware, a Berlin-based company delivering embedded finance solutions for SMEs. Banxware now has over 40 employees and manages a fund volume of $32.6M. Wohlfarth also formerly founded Ratepay and paymentandbanking.com.

In addition to being a seasoned entrepreneur, Wohlfarth serves on supervisory boards such as Daimler Mobility AG and Freenet AG. She is co-author of the Spiegel bestseller Zukunftsrepublik and was named a LinkedIn Top Voice, “Person of the Year 2022” by Handelsblatt, and named as one of the 100 most influential women in business by Manager Magazin.

Bold Future Award 2025 Winner

Stephanie Pfeil-Coenen – Phaeosynt: 

Founder and CEO of Phaeosnyt, a biotech startup producing plant-based antibodies derived from diatoms. Having launched in 2021, the startup promotes sustainable and cruelty-free alternatives to animal testing. It also raised €1.7M to develop a vegan pregnancy test that can replace up to 80 mice per one liter of algae culture.

Prior to founding Phaeosynt, Stephanie worked in the fields of market research and sales. For her incredible work, she was awarded the Digital Female Leader Award 2024 in the Sustainability category.

Meet the exceptional finalists who were also included:

Dr. Estefanía Lang – Dermanostic:

Dermatologist and co-founder of Dermanostic, Europe’s largest digital dermatology clinic. Launched in 2019, it offers around-the-clock diagnoses and treated over 300,000 patients. It also raised $2.27M seed funding in 2022.

Astrid Reintjes – MissPompadour:

Co-founder and managing director of MissPompadour, which is an e-commerce leader for sustainable paints in the DACH region. It secured seven-figure seed funding from FURE Capital and won the Shop Usability Award in 2022.

Gülsah Wilke – 2hearts Community: 

Co-founder and managing director of 2hearts, a Berlin-based diversity tech platform. Wilke stands for diversity by supporting individuals with migration backgrounds through mentorship, networks and investment access. Her work specializes in leadership, innovation and equity in the tech industry. She is also a partner at DN Capital.

Vivien Wysocki – Saint Sass: 

Co-founder of Saint Sass, the Berlin-based brand empowering women with iconic statement tights. Notable for featuring empowering messages on the statement tights such as “Not Your Babe” and “Future is Female”, it is also a brand that supports initiatives such as the gender pension gap awareness via its “Retire Rich” campaign. Wysocki, in addition to co-founding Saint Sass, is also a media scholar and a seasoned entrepreneur.

The Jury

From the worlds of business, media and society, these 9 notable personalities chose one winner per category from a selection of three nominees for this year’s awards:

Stephanie von Bismarck – Founder, Digital Expert, Author

Zarah Bruhn – Bold Woman Award 2022 Winner, Founder of Socialbee

Horst von Buttlar – Editor-in-Chief, Wirtschaftswoche

Philipp Hartmann – Business Angel, VC Investor

Karen Heumann – Co-Founder of thjnk AG, Board Member, Investor

Thurid Kahl – CEO, Moët Hennessy Germany

Sibel Kekilli – Actress

Diana zur Löwen – Creator, Business Angel, Moderator

Nikeata Thompson – Founder & CEO of NT Agency, Host

The idea for her series “Outside the lines” came from her need to look at the positive side of her panic disorder. “I was in a dark place and wanted to get out. So I forced myself to look at it from a different perspective. What did it bring me? My senses were heightened because of my condition and although it was hard to deal with, it also seemed to make my life more beautiful. Everything was more intens, and this has impact on how I perceive my surroundings now.”

“Outside the lines” has a story as a hole, not every single photograph has a story on it’s own. With this series Anne Nobels shows that negative things that you can’t really controle can have positive effects if you are willing to look for them. “What you see in the images is the positive side effect my disorder has on me. It literally makes my surroundings look other-worldly”.

For this series she drove around in a 20 km radius from her house and looked for (mostly) untouched nature. Most images are made with a 10second timer, for some she used a remote control. When walking around she really listened to her gut and emotions and tried to translate what she was feeling into an image. The poses came naturally. Most of them are linked to an emotion. She hopes this series inspires others to see that what makes you vulnerable is what makes you human and if you are ashamed of that side, you are oppressing a big part of yourself. “That shame stands in the way of our happiness. We can’t be perfect, we can’t do everything we want and we certainly can’t do everything right. We all have boundaries and that’s ok. It’s good to test those boundaries and fail. It’s how you grow”.

Impact is the word that matters here. Cartier follows this perfectly. In its Cartier Women’s Initiative program, an entrepreneurial fellowship program that has been around since 2006, it exercises impact in the key business leaders it selects and awards. For this year in 2025, The Cartier Women’s Initiative is holding its Impact Awards Ceremony in May 22. To be held in Osaka, Kansai, Japan as part of the initiation of the Women’s Pavilion at World Expo 2025, the ceremony will award nine entrepreneurs – whom are former fellows of the program – across three Impact Awards Categories: Improving Lives, Preserving the Planet, and Creating Opportunities. The categories highlight all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Meet the winners of this year’s awards in more detail.

Preserving the Planet Category Winners

Tracy O’Rourke, a 2019 fellow:

Awarded for Vivid Edge, which provides medium and large corporations energy efficiency services that help achieve climate-saving goals and preserve the planet in many ways. In addition to installing energy efficiency assets such as rooftop solar panels in commercial properties, the business – according to Cartier – also “rents them out to the occupiers under a full-service model”.

Kresse Wesling, a 2011 fellow: 

Awarded for Elvis & Kresse, which transforms commercial and industrial waste into luxury designer goods and accessories. According to Cartier, in addition to donating 50% of its profits to charity, the company has – with its partnership with The Firefighters Charity – also “covered the cost of over 29,000 therapy sessions for firefighters”.

Kristin Kagetsu, a 2018 fellow:

Awarded for Saathi, which improves the lives of women in India by creating environmentally-friendly, natural and biodegradable sanitary pads made of locally-sourced banana fiber. Because Saathi uses sustainable material, the pads can also be converted into materials such as compost and biogas. According to Cartier, this could potentially “reduce even more [carbon] emissions in the future”.

Improving Lives Category Winners

Caitlin Dolkart, a 2019 fellow:

Awarded for Flare, a company which provides Kenyans subscription-based, life-saving and emergency-response services via the platform Rescue.co. Prior to the company’s launch in 2017, Kenyans struggled with receiving urgent access to ambulance transportation support. Now, however, Flare has helped immensely and – according to Cartier –  by the end of 2024, it “completed over 40,000 life-saving rescues and transfers”.

Namita Banka, a 2013 fellow:

Awarded for Banka Bioloo, a company which provides sustainable and water sanitation solutions throughout India, solutions which include biotoilets, biodigesters, and sewage treatment plants. In addition to installing 3,000 toilets for Indian Railways which –  according to Cartier – serve 10 million people who travel on these trains daily, the company also produced a biodigester technology that turns human waste into beneficial material such as compost.

Yvette Ishimwe, a 2023 fellow:

Awarded for IRIBA Water Group, which provides accessible, clean and affordable water for low-income communities in Africa. According to Cartier, “IRIBA has provided 517,412 people with safe drinking water and expanded across the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.” It also has a “core product” called Tap&Drink that is a smart water ATM which, when connected to sources of impure water, can purify and waive them “at a low cost”.

Creating Opportunities Category Winners

Rama Kayyali, a 2014 fellow:

Awarded for Little Thinking Minds, an edtech company that provides Arabic language-learning and reading platforms to make the language experience impactful for K-12 students across the MENA region. According to Cartier, in addition to the company’s impressive digital learning sites and personalized forms of learning, it also partners with notable Arab children’s book publishers “to offer high-quality, culturally relevant material”.

Mariam Torosyan, a 2023 fellow:

Awarded for Safe YOU, a mobile application and AI platform that provides emergency assistance, online resources and support for women suffering from gender-based violence. According to Cartier, Safe YOU now has 40,000 users and has addressed 18,000 alerts of violence. In addition to “enhancing existing solutions” to gender-based violence, the platform is also a “virtual safe space” for women, showing them they are not alone.

Jackie Stenson, a 2014 fellow: 

Awarded for Essmart, which connects and provides life-improving technologies and products to rural retail shops, FPOs, and farmer households in India. According to Cartier, Essmart “has positively impacted over 1.4 million lives” and “enabled over 125 million additional hours of productivity”.

These incredible women are paving the way for a better and brighter world, and their businesses are a beacon of hope for improved lives and a great sustainable future.

In addition to receiving a $100,000 grant, enhanced media visibility and enrollment in a year-long Impact Fellowship, the awardees will receive lifelong support from and access to the CWI community, showcasing the passion, dedication and unwavering support The Cartier Women’s Initiative has for its business leaders. The 2025 Awards Ceremony towards the end of this month is going to portray this hope, dedication and support when it honors the nine awardees, inviting more individuals to create with the honor and value of sustainability in mind.

Conversations with nature by Julian Charrière

In his artworks, Charrière introduces the mediums of performance, video, sculpture and photography. He travels to remote locations – from volcanoes to ice fields and radioactive sites – and questions the relationship between humans and nature.

“My work revolves around the concept of encounter – an intimate dialogue with places, biomes, and the environment. These moments are more than mere observations – they are a living exchange in which landscape and the present intertwine.” – Julian Charrière.

In his works, Charrière developed a series of photolithographs that depict coral reefs, a tribute to the Lutetian Sea which covered Champagne 45 million years ago. The photolithographs were colored with pigments from local limestone and ground color to intrinsically blend the past and the present. In another installation which will be on display at the Galerie 4 Rue Des Crayères in Reims in the summer of 2025, Charrière produced a work that reflects the early geological history of Champagne up to the threat of today’s coral reefs.

Between art and nature

Ruinart is addressing climate change challenges with novel approaches to viticulture and oenology. Their new Cuvée Ruinart Blanc Singulier is an example of this change, a sustainable expression of the Blanc de Blancs, a wine which combines tradition and modernity. The Champagne House is also committed to sustainability by building on the introduction of resource-friendly and second-skin packaging in 2020. Since then, Ruinart has dispensed with traditional gift packaging, using significantly less material.

Ruinart’s close connection to art also remains an integral theme. It collaborated with artists such as Tomás Saraceno, Nils Udo, and Eva Jospin to portray the relationship between humans and nature. Additionally, with the new Ruinart Brand Home that opened last year in Reims, France, located at 4 Rue des Crayères, visitors can also experience tradition, art and innovation up close.

The artworks created for Ruinart by Julian Charrière will be on display for the first time during the Berlin Gallery Weekend from May 1 – 4 of 2025 at the Ruinart Champagne & Art Bar in the PalaisPopulaire (Unter den Linden 5, Berlin). It will then displayed at Art Basel and Frieze Seoul.

At the opening night of the Ruinart Champagne & Art Bar, around 200 guests – many of whom were renowned actors and figures from the art world – experienced the unique combination of art and champagne culture. In this dazzling culinary scene, in addition to the impressive works of Julian Charrière, guests can also expect exclusive champagne masterclasses that bring the savoir-faire of Maison Ruinart to life.

We live in a time where young minds are more impressionable than ever, their perspectives shaped not only by parents, schools, and friends but by the voices blaring through their phone screens. Public personalities like Andrew Tate and Nigel Farage have carved out digital kingdoms, captivating the disillusioned, the angry, and the lost. These men (and others like them) sell a vision of hyper-masculinity wrapped in misogyny, convincing young boys that dominance equals power, that women exist to be conquered, and that aggression is the currency of respect.

It’s easy to dismiss them as just another rage bait influencer, but their reach is corrosive. The term incel (once an obscure internet label) is now used by children who are barely old enough to grasp its weight. Through YouTube videos, TikTok algorithms, and podcasts, their rhetoric seeps into the minds of boys at an age when they are just beginning to understand their own identity. And what are they being told?

That women are men’s property, incapable of loyalty, and should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted. That to be a “real man” means embracing the red pill, rejecting empathy, and viewing relationships as a battlefield where dominance must be asserted. That success is measured in body counts, submission, and the ability to control. The result? A generation being conditioned to believe that respect is weakness, that kindness is a flaw, and that women exist to be conquered rather than understood.

Violence against women has become a national emergency

It’s no coincidence that violence against women has become a national emergency. Recent data indicates that over two million women in England and Wales are victims of male-perpetrated violence annually, encompassing crimes such as stalking, harassment, sexual assault, and domestic abuse. Alarmingly, these offenses have surged by 37% over the past five years, with offenders getting increasingly younger.

Compounding this issue is the widespread accessibility of aggressive pornography. With explicit content just a click away, and often found before puberty, young individuals are exposed to depictions of sex that are transactional and violent, entirely lacking intimacy and mutual respect. This exposure distorts their understanding of sexual relationships, normalising aggression and force. Recognising the gravity of this influence, there have been calls to ban extreme content, such as pornography depicting strangulation. An independent review for the UK government recommended making such content illegal, highlighting the urgency of addressing the escalation of violent sexual material online. “The evidence is overwhelming that allowing people to view legal but harmful pornography like choking sex, violent and degrading acts, and even content that could encourage child sexual abuse, is having a damaging impact on children and society,” states Conservative peer, Gabby Bertin. “The law needs to be tightened with more proactive regulation of online platforms.”

Toxic masculinity, getting a prevalent belief

The consequences of this unchecked exposure are profound. We are witnessing the start of  . This mindset sustains a culture that diminishes respect and endorses violence towards others. Solving this crisis means enforcing stricter regulations, educating young people on consent and relationships, and reshaping a culture that refuses to tolerate misogyny.

This isn’t just about a single show or a handful of bad influencers. It’s about the way our digital world is shaping real-life behaviours, and the consequences we are now seeing unfold. Adolescence made me reflect on this more deeply, and I appreciate its willingness to confront these uncomfortable truths. But we need more than just one series tackling these issues – we need ongoing conversations, real change, and a collective effort to challenge the narratives that are warping young minds.

The beauty of storytelling is its ability to reveal what we often refuse to see. The best media doesn’t just entertain – it unsettles us, forcing us to confront the realities we choose to ignore. This isn’t just a fictional narrative – it’s happening. Right now. And if we don’t talk about it, we become complicit in it.

Poets are cultural workers who have made the writing of poetry his or her life project, passion, vice or tool of struggle and communication. Poetry is a weapon for liberation and the poet is a person that exudes sensitivity and uses their words as instruments of exaltation for all of the most beautiful things in the world. But they are also a vindicating force for justice when things start to go wrong.

A poet’s role is to raise awareness and to make human beings more humane and understanding of the injustices people face. Perhaps the power of poetry will one day become part of the exercise of power. In books, poetry can often be seen and felt in the streets, in murals, in trees, in newspapers—wherever. Any place can remind us that poetry and poets still exist.

Hilda Raz, a writer and teacher, is a poet well-versed in raising awareness for social issues. With her work, she has inspired younger generations to create and use poetry as their best weapon. Her work is marked by important events in her life such as the transition of her son, which was documented in Trans and What Becomes You, mother-son collaborations consisting of a poetry collection and a memoir, respectively.

Raz started writing when she was just a child. Her mother put a pencil in her hand (she was and remains left-handed) and she remembers the tactile pleasure of pushing and pulling it across the paper. While drawing wasn’t her strength, the letters and words she knew were more than enough to keep her enthralled.

Despite her vast experience in writing, Raz does not believe she is in a position to judge whether her writing has matured over time or not. “I’m a critic, but of other writers’ work,” she states. She finds inspiration in the most mundane things: news, nature, direct and observed experiences, reading, the life of our bodies, human folly, cultures, change. Her students have also continued to be an inspiration: “Their lives offer me hope as they go on, each one—in the classroom and out—to engage others: new life. A continuum.”

Throughout her life, Raz has found in writing a kind of therapy, especially during tough times. She reckons it has always helped her in mysterious ways. “Something about discerning patterns through the process of writing…” In her book, Divine Honors, we are introduced to her journey with breast cancer. She describes it as a collaboration between her body and her mind to heal. The poet wrote and wrote, again in an effort to document every external and internal event; to resist conventional scripts and find her own.

With only her words, she is able to express every little detail: “The sounds of words guide me, and the line breaks and form lead my words from one to another. Sentences in tension with syntax, too.” This does not detract from the fact that some things are simply difficult to write about: “I seem to write a book of prose with a book of poetry, so I’ll have to say that Trans and What Becomes You were the most difficult books to write. I was the parent of a trans son at the same time as I was a writer documenting and processing the experience. Not easy. Aaron was very generous and patient during this time.”

What Becomes You, written by Raz and her son Aaron, who began life as a girl named Sarah, is a conversation between parent and child. When writing the poems for Trans, Raz began to understand that the experience itself belonged to Aaron, but that she still had her own unique experiences as a mother, for she raised Sarah. This was the basis of their collaboration in What Becomes You: “We had to speak to each other, try to understand each other in new and challenging ways. The book took us 10 years to write. It has been reissued this year in a new edition—with new readers’ notes—from the University of Nebraska Press (2021).”

As a woman, Raz had to fight all the way. When she became editor of the literary quarterly Prairie Schooner, she made sure that their contributors were diverse in every way she could think of. “In those days, women writers were few and far between in the quarterlies. And I was one of a very few women editors of a major journal,” she states. Many women of her generation have documented that same reality and so she struggled and worked hard to make a place for herself and for other women in the lives of her colleagues, students and other writers, as well as within the industry.

In the near future she plans to continue with poetry; she already has the better part of a new book on her computer. Aside from that, Raz would like to collaborate with her son Aaron again on a new project. “He’ll be coming to New Mexico in a couple of weeks to discuss options.  And I’m an editor: part of the editorial staff of Bosque Press here in Albuquerque and Series Editor for the Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series at the University of New Mexico Press. These editorial opportunities to bring unheard voices to new audiences make me happy.”

Sophie Kietzmann grew up in Berlin and in Brussels and identify as non-binary and queer. This freelance photographer and specialize in fashion and beauty photography, gives visual representation to underrepresented individuals and marginalized communities.

Interview with photographer Sophia Kietzmann

How has your journey with photography been up to now? What gravitated you towards photography as opposed to other forms of art?

Photography has accompanied me all my life. I became obsessed with photography when I was seven years old because I was an only child and my Dad was a hobby photographer so it became this purpose giving toy to play with, I guess. I think photography gave me a neutral room from which to observe the world around me and it kind of put me in a position of lessened expectations for who I would be when I was the observer. I think that’s why I gravitated towards photography specifically.

Body representation and diversity play a big role in your photography work, something which is often missing in both the fashion and photographic industries. Why do you regard this as such an important aspect to include in your work?

Well, when I was growing up I was consuming so much photography and only later on in life really realized that I didn’t identify with the imagery I was seeing. That was based on no diversity, gender expression or sexual orientation but also body representation, for sure. I think like a lot of female raised individuals I grew up extremely criticizing my body and nit picking at it and, watching my mother do the same, it was always a topic. I think I only realized how narrow minded the beauty standards in my industry were when I finally started to see them shift in advertisements and stuff that I was seeing. Like, I remember the first advertisement I saw where women actually had body hair in it. It really influenced me.

You choose models which represent the message of your photographs. How do you go about finding people who fit your vision and how do you help them to express the message you want to communicate?

I work very closely with a couple of agencies that I find are really pushing diversity and that I think are reimagining the way that the casting industry works. For example, not putting models purely on two boards, that is just men or women. But I love seeing gender fluid boards or duos boards as well where they have models with similar looks. I think a lot of agencies try to just tick every box once and then they turn down everybody else that they already have someone similar representing. I generally look for models that I can see a little part of myself in or whose story I think deals with identity or a lack of visual representation for people like themselves as well. I feel I really connect with those people on a deeper level. One of my ultimate goals is to provide a platform and to hold space for those individuals to really show up as their powerful selves. So, I try to go off of intuition there and by holding space for them I think that really helps somebody fully show up as themselves and show up recognising that that is perfectly good enough. I think that is one of the most powerful messages that we can create.

You also create a lot of work surrounding the themes of sexuality and identity. Has photography and the positive impact of your work been helpful to you in accepting and embracing your own identity as a queer and gender fluid photographer?

I think it definitely has. I think the themes of sexuality and identity in my work pull from my own personal story of coming out and my own relationship with my gender expression. But I think it definitely goes both ways : the more visual representation I see of a broad spectrum of gender expression, sexual orientation and identity the more I think I step into that myself and allow myself to reincorporate so many faucets that I had shut out earlier in life because subconsciously it was communicated to me that it wouldn’t be accepted. I think that journey has definitely been very healing for me as well.

Do you think that issues such as gender fluidity and the beauty of imperfections are still taboo in today’s society?

I think we’re making great leaps towards that not being the case anymore but then again I also remind myself that, for example, my reality, my day to day life, the city I live in, where I come from are very privileged and kind of sheltered environments. I definitely do think I live in a bubble sometimes where it feels like oh I don’t need to incorporate my activism and these messages in my work any longer because everybody around me kind of is already so up to date and, you know, has incorporated these topics so seamlessly. Then I remember that the largest part of the world doesn’t look like that yet and that I could probably dedicate my whole life to that fight and that process and there would still be more work to do. I mean, I even see it in my own history, in my own background and my own family when I go back home. There’s still things that are such no-brainers to me that are still very foreign to even some of the closest people in my life. So, I wouldn’t say in my environment that I would title them as taboo’s, but there are so many places in the world where I would one hundred percent say that that’s the case.

When you first started taking an interest in photography, were there any artists or photographers who inspired you to take a more inclusive approach to your work? Are there any you look up to today or is this approach something that came naturally to you?

Well I think a lot of my approach was mainly influenced by my own personal story but the people that were a part of that experience really greatly influenced me. Starting with the queer, non-binary and trans people that I found myself surrounded by when I first moved to New York City. That is the moment that I came out as well and those were the people that really shifted my whole world perspective, I would say. I draw inspiration from so many different artists and photographers however, I think the inclusiveness of my work is more influenced by the community and also by the people in my personal life because those are the people that I hold the deepest connections to. They’re the ones that really make me go into depth when it comes to the bigger why of why I do what I do with photography. Those are the people that I think of and that I draw strength from in order to keep going.

Your approach to photography is fun, capturing true moments of happiness and confidence on set. Do you feel that your experience as a model yourself has impacted your approach when interacting with models on the set of your own shoots?

Absolutely! I’ve heard from a lot of my models that it’s really great to work with somebody that has stood in their shoes because it’s easier for them to trust me as I know what I’m asking of them. It’s also made it easier for me to guide them because I have an understanding and a certain vision and I think I’ve built some really great relationships through my modeling journey with some of the talent that I have in front of my camera as well. I think it’s given me an even deeper understanding of the nature of the position of the model and the perceived vulnerability from stepping into that position is something that you won’t fully understand until you’ve stood in it yourself.