It’s what we in “the biz” call the busy season. It starts with the U.S. Open tennis, followed by VMA’s, Fashion Week, TV premieres... For those of us in the entertainment industry, our inboxes are flooded with invites and events. October takes a turn towards the more meaningful with Breast Cancer Awareness and, while all worthy, the sheer volume lends itself to us becoming a bit desensitized. We’re jaded New Yorkers, industry vets, if we’ve been to one charity event, we’ve been to them all. Last Thursday, at the WeWork Global Headquarters in New York City, promised to be something similar. Even though I was moderating the panel, I told people it was no big deal, didn’t encourage friends to come, downplayed the significance. It was part self-deprication and self-preservation and part expectation management.
And, it started out rather rocky.
As with any live event, there were little last-minute fires and change-ups, my mic pac dropped, broke, gave ear-piercing feedback, I left out half of what I was going to say...
Then, something special happened.
As I introduced one of the panelists, Emily Keeton, Global Head of M&A at WeWork and breast cancer survivor, she asked the audience to stand. Then, raise their hands if they currently had cancer. Several people did so. They were told to keep their arms up. She then asked people if they were cancer survivors. More hands. Finally, she asked us to raise our hands if we knew and loved someone who had or has breast cancer. And the whole room was on their feet with their arms in the air. It was a powerful sight. She then asked us to embrace one another as we took a moment for those we lost. She called it an “old school Pentecostal” move. I call it magical.
In that moment, the entire evening shifted. Suddenly, we were all connected. In our history, in our humanity, in our fight. We were all there for the same reason. Not the cocktails or the snacks, free book or goodie bag. We were there because we loved and, in many cases, lost. We were there because it was community that got us through. And will continue to.
In addition to Emily, the panel was comprised of Dr. Eleni Tousimis, a world-renowned surgeon and oncologist from MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Hillary Black, a WeWork member and co-founder of Kay and Black Talent Management and also a breast cancer survivor and Clarke Adams, a Morgan Stanley Executive and the husband of the late Lisa Boncheck Adams, a noted breast cancer blogger and advocate.
It’s rare that these things work as well as they did that evening. The combination of hearing personal stories from Emily, Hillary and Clarke, told in simultaneously touching and humorous accounts, and the digestible information from Dr. Tousimis (1 in 8 women battle breast cancer, if you have a family history, you should get screened before 40, etc.) made for both feel good and actionable takeaways.
But it was my personal connection that made it all the more poignant for me. I discovered that evening that Clarke and his wife also attended my alma matter, Franklin and Marshall College and lived in Lancaster, PA. This only deepened the bond for me. As a mother and blogger, who often writes extremely personal pieces and has received my fair share of criticism and backlash, I could already relate to Lisa. Still, I don’t know if I could ever be as brave as she was, blogging intimate details of her battle with breast cancer, a conversation she had with her daughter about death, how she’d like to be referred to and remembered when she was gone (she also penned very practical, necessary articles like how to create a medical binder and tips on what to do when health insurance denies your claim) ...
As I asked Clarke my prepared questions, ones I’d rehearsed dozens of times days before, I was overcome with emotion. I looked to the audience for assurance. We were all crying. Even Clarke, a buttoned-up business man, choked up during his caretaker confessional. Ever the gracious guest, he, likely sensing my impending breakdown, offered up a perfectly timed and executed joke that got us all through it. And that’s what we did throughout the remainder of the sixty minutes or so: cried, laughed, held hands, hugged, cried some more.
We all know WeWork connects people professionally. What was abundantly clear after that evening is that they’re even more successful in their endeavor to be an ecosystem of empathy and human connection. They’re bringing people together, on a variety of fronts and, in this technological age, and given what’s going on in the world today, that humanization is more important than ever.