For the Ladies

LISTENING: to hotel lobby music aka sia
FEELING: excited to be in Italy!
SEEING: a neon green "21" sign at my hotel

I've just arrived in Milan, Italy. I'm here because I've been nominated for an award: The Inge Feltrinelli Award. Before being a finalist, I knew nothing about Feltrinelli, for whom the award is named. I live in the U.S. She was Italian. I've since learned a lot more about the famed photographer and publisher.

I learned that she got to hang out with the author Ernest Hemingway. I learned that her husband, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, whose surname she took, believed in Palestinian freedom. I learned that, like me, she loved to wear bright colors. Most importantly, I learned that she believed in the power of words and images to tell stories.

That's what her award honors. I'll know Friday whether I've won. Fingers crossed, but I don't need a victory to celebrate. I'm in Italy for the first time—haven't I already won?

I feel compelled to honor Feltrinelli's history—to honor the history of the women her foundation is uplifting. The story that caught their attention is my piece on how climate change is boiling the Southwest U.S. and the increased heat endangering migrants who pass through. That piece honors a few women: Adriana Carillo, who goes in search of migrants and their remains in the desert, and my mom, whose own struggle migrating to the U.S. has instilled an immense sense of righteousness in me.

Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and I'm raising a glass to the women sowing seeds to bloom the next generation's flowers.