Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Center presents author and philanthropist Jacqueline Novogratz

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By SABINA DANA PLASSE
Express Staff Writer

“The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World” by Jacqueline Novogratz. Rodale Books. $25.95. 272 pp.

Jacqueline Novogratz's book, "The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World" uses the unanticipated international journey of one article of clothing to explore what it means to live in a globally conscious way.

Novogratz will give a free talk entitled "Patient Capital for an Impatient World," which is about her efforts to solve global poverty on Monday, Aug. 10, at 6 p.m. at the Community Library in Ketchum. The talk is presented by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts. Admission is free and space is limited.

Novogratz's global awakening came about when she spotted a young boy in Africa wearing a sweater she'd given to Goodwill eleven years earlier, with her name still on the tag inside. Seeing her sweater in Rwanda was ample evidence of the world's interconnectivity and how our actions touch people across the globe even if we never know or meet them.

She will share anecdotes from her travels in Africa, India and Pakistan on her quest to understand and address global poverty. Novogratz is a venture capitalist who is trying to make a difference in countries where the average citizen lives on less than $4 a day. She is founder of the Acumen Fund, a nonprofit global venture fund that exemplifies a new form of philanthropy called "patient capital," which aims to make people self-sufficient.

  Senator Bill Bradley is among the public figures who have praised Novogratz's work and her book. "The stories she shares about the people she has met show the nobility of the human spirit and the breadth of the desire to stop suffering, to feed the hungry, to care for the sick, to empower the poor—in short, to make the world a better place," he said in a prepared statement.

For details, visit sunvalleycenter.org or call 726-9491, ext. 10.

Sabina Dana Plasse: splasse@mtexpress.com