MySpace


MySpace.com | rss | sign in
Russell Simmons

Russell Simmons


Last Updated: 6/15/2009

Send Message
Instant Message
Email to a Friend
Subscribe

Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 51
Sign: Libra

City: New York City
State: NEW YORK
Country: US
Signup Date: 8/10/2006

Blog Archive
[Older      Newer]
 /  / 
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 

Current mood:  focused
Category: Parties and Nightlife
On November 19th, I will be co-hosting an event with David Blaine at Greenhouse in NYC. We're having a big auction to benefit education programs in Africa.
It's going to be really big!

If you want to find out more about the event, go to http://www. arteknyc. com/ecards/diamonds/

If you would like to bid on some of the jewelry up for auction, check out Charity Buzz here.
http://dg08. charitybuzz. com/viewLots. do

Lastly, to find out more about the Diamond Empowerment Fund, take a look at our website at http://www. diamondempowerment. org/diamonds-give-2008/
1:02 AM 
6 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Wednesday, June 25, 2008 
Host unlimited photos at slide.com for FREE!

9/25/08

In South Africa this week for my work to grow the Diamond Empowerment Fund (D.E.F.), a non profit I co-founded last year to support educational empowerment programs in African nations where diamonds are a natural resource.

Traveled to Sun City, a couple of hours from Johannesburg at the invitation of the Diamond Trading Company (DTC) to speak to the Sightholders about diamonds for good and how they can get involved in supporting greater opportunity for young Africans through access to higher education. Varda Shine, the Managing Director of the DTC and a D.E.F. Board Member, gave us this important platform for D.E.F.'s cause and goals of getting the international diamond jewelry industry on board. FYI, the Sightholders are 78 companies from all over the world that have the exclusive opportunity to buy diamonds directly from the DTC, so having a chance to speak with these people was a very good step for this movement.

Festus Mogae, the former President of the Republic of Botswana also spoke and delivered a great keynote about the karmic response to giving already in motion. He believes the greater focus on philanthropic, social and economic empowerment efforts by D.E.F. and other programs lead by the Sightholders is leading to better opportunities for everyone. Botswana is the undisputed worldwide leader in how diamonds can build a nation and empower its people so when he speaks I listen closely! He just joined D.E.F.'s Advisory Board which is a great new development for us.

Now in Johannesburg, where I just spent the day with the students of CIDA and the Maharishi Institute and their founder Taddy Blecher. CIDA is D.E.F.'s first named beneficiary of our fund raising efforts, and the Maharishi Institute is a new school that I got to see for the first time today. The original CIDA organization (Community and Individual Development Association) started 20 years ago teaching free transcendental meditation for disadvantaged communities. CIDA City Campus and CIDA Foundation College launched ten years later as a low-cost method to combine consciousness learning methods with higher education/business degree programs, vocational
programs, and student service to the school and to the community as fundamental principles. CIDA became the first essentially free college in Africa. When I was introduced to CIDA in 2006 by Jennifer Oppenheimer after meeting her at the Clinton Global Initiative, I found a beautiful school with 1,500 students who were practicing yoga and meditation as a balance to their academic studies. The combination was magic to me - and the proof was in the success CIDA students had in getting jobs that helped them to support not just themselves but often their extended families. CIDA needed help to grow a $35 million endowment for sustainability and to pursue long term strategies for continued growth. I've focused my energies on this goal and over the past year CIDA and Maharishi have received gifts from De Beers, Anglo American, and other individuals in the diamond jewelry industry of more than $9 million. This is a good start but there's so much more to that needs to be done.

The expansion of the CIDA organization is now the goal, with two linked educational institutions that will provide the opportunity to serve 33% more students, and offer a broader range of options for students: from CIDA City Campus becoming a more academically rigorous business university, to the Maharishi Institute, and Foundation College focused on foundation courses and vocational education preparing students for university-level studies, while combining service to the school/community and consciousness based principles on a daily basis. Was interested to learn the Foundation College will become an "eco-campus" beginning in 2009 with a focus on sustainability in every aspect of their curriculum.

After being with the Maharishi Institute students today practicing
transcendental meditation together and speaking with them about their lives and where they want to go, I am more inspired than ever. I believe that if we can take the good instincts of the industry that more must be done to empower Africa, and we can build on it, we can make something very good happen here. D.E.F.'s off to a good start one year into the game, but this is a long distance run and I am not satisfied, we have not done enough. As we work together and each of us gains comfort in their own seat we can give more. Those of us who have had success in the world will never know true success until we achieve a balance of what we need to keep for ourselves and
what we can give as our gifts to humanity.

O.K. Gotta go, it's time for the 17 hours in the air back to New York City.

With great love all things are possible.

Russell

Host unlimited photos at slide.com for FREE!
12:24 PM 
19 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Wednesday, June 18, 2008 
The D.E.F. PSA is called "Diamond Empowerment for Africa's Future":

Paste this link to your web browser:

http://www.jwtwo.com/tyfetch/06_17_DEF_AKnott/
or
http://www.jwtwo.com/tyfetch/06_17_DEF_AKnott/Diamond_Empowerment_for_Africas_Future.mov
9:26 PM 
5 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Thursday, June 05, 2008 

7:19 PM 
4 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Thursday, June 05, 2008 
RUSSELL SIMMONS DELIVERS POWERFUL AND THOUGHTFUL JCK KEYNOTE ADDRESS FOCUSING ON TRANSFORMING THE DIAMOND INDUSTRY THROUGH  GIVING BACK TO AFRICA
DIAMOND EMPOWERMENT FUND(TM) ANNOUNCES NEW BOARD MEMBERS


 (Las Vegas, NV)- June 4th, 2008- Jewel and gem lovers, retailers, and suppliers from across the globe all convened at the Las Vegas Sands Convention Center in the Venetian Hotel, for the annual JCK trade show.

On the morning of May 30, Russell Simmons struck a chord with the packed audience of industry leaders during his Keynote Address, moderated by industry titan Martin Rapaport. During a passionate pre-Keynote speech, he talked about his mission to inspire and transform the diamond industry and focus the industry's collective sight on Africa. "Our goal should be to be the best extractive industry we can be," Simmons emphasized. "When you see through a transparent diamond, you should see an empowered Africa."

Simmons shared his personal journey from thinking that diamonds and fur were "harmful and wasteful luxuries" to realizing that the power diamonds have in helping Africa help itself. His meeting with Nelson Mandela in December of 2006, when Simmons made a trip to Botswana and South Africa to see what good diamonds were already doing there, inspired him to take action. Mandela convinced him that "diamonds unlike fur---are dramatically different and can have a great effect on Africa."

Simmons then created the Diamond Empowerment Fund(TM) in 2007, whose mission it is to raise money for education programs in African countries where diamonds are a natural resource. The Green Bracelet, composed of malachite beads and a rough diamond, created by Simmons Jewelry Co., has already raised over $300,000 for D.E.F. in just one year. That money is going towards an endowment for D.E.F.'s first beneficiary - the CIDA City Campus, a visionary business college in Johannesburg where 3300 student yogi's do everything but teach and take what they learn back into their impoverished communities. Simmons wants to secure the school's future and hopes to replicate its program in other parts of Africa

D.E.F. also made a splash at JCK at the very popular, Simmons Jewelry Co.-hosted cocktail party to further spread the word about D.E.F.'s mission throughout the industry. D.E.F. also created an information and inspiration table at the official JCK kick off event.

The year old organization announced three new board members to its ranks: Edward Hrabak, Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager of Sterling Jewelers Inc. will join the members of the Governing Board. In addition Former Botswana President Festus Mogae and Hedda T. Schupak, Editor-in-Chief of JCK Magazine, have been elected to the Advisory Board.

The Diamond Empowerment Fund Board currently consists of Sally Morrison, President of the Governing Board and Director of the Diamond Information Center, New York; Phyllis Bergman, President of Mercury Ring Corporation, New York/New Jersey; Dr. Benjamin Chavis, President and CEO of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network; Linah Mohoholo, Governor, Bank of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana; Scott H. Rauch, President of the Simmons Jewelry Co.; Jaci Wilson Reid, Managing Director of Westin Rinehart, Washington, D.C./New York and Varda Shine, Managing Director of the Diamond Trading Company, London. Ellen Haddigan, is the Executive Director of D.E.F.

Emphasized Board President, Sally Morrison, "We are thrilled to welcome these new members whose involvement signals a widening and deepening basis of support across the whole industry."
 
About the Diamond Empowerment Fund:

Founded in 2007, The Diamond Empowerment Fund® (D.E.F.) is a non-profit international organization established by the individuals and businesses in the diamond and jewelry industry committed to the empowerment of communities and countries where diamonds are a natural resource.  

For more information about D.E.F. visit www.simmonsjewelryco.com and www.diamondempowerment.org.

To purchase a Green Bracelet, go to www.simmonsjewelryco.com.



7:17 PM 
8 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Monday, April 28, 2008 
I don't know what implications a guilty or not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell case has on our society.   I only know for certain that we need more sensitivity training as part of the police curriculum.  I also believe a more intimate dialogue must be promoted between police and communities.  This process could change the perception by some  in the hood who view the police presence as an occupying force when they could or should see them as a security force working for the people.

Peace and Blessings
Russell
3:49 PM 
15 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 

Hello Friends,
Come out and listen to our panel of Professionals and Entertainers as they share their personal stories and the mistakes they've made with their own finances, as well as the difference between the bling fantasy of videos and the realities of life.

WHO: Russell Simmons, HSAN CEO/President Dr. Benjamin Chavis ; HSAN Executive Director Valeisha Butterfield; MC Lyte; Melyssa Ford; Bad Boy recording artist Cheri Dennis; Host of BET's "106  Park" Terrence J;  DJ Drama; Gorilla Zoe; Power 98's Tone X; President of the Urban League Central Carolinas Patrick Graham and the Grass Roots Investment Group's Ryan Williams.

WHAT: the Hip-Hop Summit's "Get Your Money Right" Financial Empowerment International Tour

WHERE: Johnson C. Smith University's Brayboy Gymnasium at 100 Beatties Ford Road in Charlotte, NC

WHEN: Saturday, April 26 from 1:30-3:30pm. Doors open at 12noon. Red Carpet from 12noon-1:30pm. PRESS CHECK IN AT 11:00am.
5:42 PM 
2 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 

NATIONAL HIP-HOP TEAM VOTE SUMMIT IN PHILADELPHIA MAKES AN IMPACT



Today, the Hip-Hop Research and Education Fund (HREF) released information garnered from the Pennsylvania State Board of Elections, which verified that the hip-hop generation will make a clear difference in the outcome of the Pennsylvania primary. Dr. Benjamin Chavis, President/CEO of the Hip-Hop Research and Education Fund, stated, "The fact that over 70% of the 218,923 new voters that have registered since January 2008 across the state of Pennsylvania are  between the ages of 18-35 years old clear;y verifies the power of the young voter who will participate in tomorrow's Pennsylvania primary and determine its outcome.  Based on our on the ground feedback in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Erie, Chester and throughout the great metropolitan area of Philadelphia, we are certain that, beginning early tomorrow morning, we are all going to witness the largest youth voter turnout in the history of the state. This will happen, to a large extent, because of  the enthusiasm and vitality of the hip-hop generation who view the Pennsylvania presidential primary as a once in a life time opportunity to show that young people throughout Pennsylvania do care about the quality of life issues addressed in the campaign. And, more important, hip-hop voters want to make a difference and want to help shape the future of  what political change looks like from the perspective of young voters."

The prediction from HREF comes in the wake of yesterday's successful mobilization of 7,000 18-35 year olds who attended the "Hip-Hop Team Vote: Turn Up the Vote" Summit at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.

On one of the last crucial days leading up to the important Pennsylvania primary, HREF, PowerPac and The Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN) brought together Russell Simmons, T.I., Ciara, Flo-Rida, Lil Mama, Chrisette Michelle, Styles P, Lil X, Gorilla Zoe, Green Lantern, BET's "106  Park" star hosts Rocsi and Terrence J, Latino hip- hop/reggaeton stars Alexis y Fido, O'Neal McKnight, Emily King and NAACP National Director, Youth and College Division, Stefanie Brown to address topics that resonate with young people in the upcoming election such as education, the economy, healthcare and the war in Iraq.

Russell Simmons, hip-hop entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist declared at yesterday's Summit, "Voting is an act of empowering oneself and the masses are witnessing the importance of the youth vote." Addressing the crowd he stressed, "You are going to make the critical difference!"

Kirk Clay, Sr., National Field Director, PowerPAC, declared, "The Summit was an amazing way to show how youth can come together to inspire us and demonstrate the power they hold in their hands. I am sure this will have a resounding impact across the college and high school campuses in Pennsylvania."

T.I. emphasized, "I personally know the value of having the right to vote and it being taken away from you. This is the most important election of our lifetime. Focus on what you can do to help make the change. Everyone here has a voice-- Do your part!"

As one of the youngest female rappers on the stage, Lil Mama especially appealed to young, new voters, emphasizing, "I came out of the hood and I know that if we want to improve these communities, all of us must go out and vote in record numbers."

Ciara focused on education as one of the priority issues concerning young people in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary and presidential election. Her strong and clear message to the audience was, "Don't just talk about it, be about it! You can be part of making a difference."

Flo-Rida said, about the upcoming election, "Here's the chance to make your children's children's world a better place."

Stefanie Brown, National Director, Youth and College Division, NAACP addressed the Summit and stated, "The NAACP is encouraging a massive youth voter turnout. Civic engagement is an important responsibility."
3:25 AM 
0 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Friday, April 18, 2008 

Hello Friends,
Come out and listen to our panel of Professionals and Entertainers as they share heir personal stories about the mistakes they've made with their own finances along the way, and the difference between the bling fantasy of videos and the realities of life.

WHO: Russell Simmons, HSAN CEO/President Dr. Benjamin Chavis ; HSAN Executive Director Valeisha Butterfield; MC Lyte; Melyssa Ford; Bad Boy recording artist Cheri Dennis; Host of BET's "106  Park" Terrence J;  DJ Drama; Gorilla Zoe; Power 98's Tone X; President of the Urban League Central Carolinas Patrick Graham and the Grass Roots Investment Group's Ryan Williams.

WHAT: the Hip-Hop Summit's "Get Your Money Right" Financial Empowerment International Tour

WHERE: Johnson C. Smith University's Brayboy Gymnasium at 100 Beatties Ford Road in Charlotte, NC

WHEN: Saturday, April 26 from 1:30-3:30pm. Doors open at 12noon. Red Carpet from 12noon-1:30pm. PRESS CHECK IN AT 11:00am.

5:42 PM 
5 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate
Friday, April 18, 2008 
Hello Friends!

I'm out there promoting "DO YOU!" this week as it will be re-released on Thursday in paperback! I will be at the following raio shows and venues in the coming weeks and i'd love your support!

Wed. April 9th:
9am-11am EST - MTV RADIO

12pm-12:30 EST-  VOICE OF AMERICA RADIO NETWORK "Hip Hop Connection"

1:30pm-2:30 EST- THE BIG IDEA WITH DONNIE DEUSTCH on CNBC

3:00pm- 3:30 EST-  Interview with TIME.COM about my book and my endorsement of BARACK OBAMA

8:30pm- 8:45 EST- The "BEV SMITH SHOW" on AMERICAN URBAN RADIO NETWORK

Thurs. April 10th:
7:00am-7:30 EST- The "ED LOVE SHOW" on WWPR- POWER 105FM (New York)

8:00am- 9:00 EST- Interview with BUSINESSWEEK.COM

9:30am- 10:00 EST- "URBAN JOURNAL" on XM SATELLITE RADIO

11:00am- 11:15 EST- "OPRAH and FRIENDS" on XM SATELLITE RADIO

Peace and Blessings,
Russell
2:41 PM 
9 Comments
(Add Comment) |
Translate