Posts tagged with "Andrew Yang"

360 MAGAZINE Swarovski encrusted bottle designed by Vaughn Lowery for NFT-VIP and minted on Solana

NFT-VIP

NFT-VIP is hosting its inaugural conference in the tech space to network their businesses, advance knowledge and engage intimately. In the recent past, similar NFT meetups have been held in multiple cities across America: Miami, New York City and Los Angeles. This year, NFT-VIP will be holding its series at Margaritaville Resort Time Square, June 19 – 22. 360 MAGAZINE serves as the official media sponsor of the episode.

As a rapidly growing digital industry, NFT-VIP has become a popular way for people to trade outside the conventional financial system. It continues to stimulate the development of a virtual economy based on digital strengths in various forms: music, art and fashion.

“The idea of using cryptocurrencies is not only a form of currency. Along with a deliverable channel, knowing that entities could be built on them and using them is mind-blowing,” states Julie Lamb, CEO of NFT-VIP. This is the first major 360 MAG Podcast promotion that will serve as the official launch. Interviewee Jefferson Noel is scheduled to speak on the NFT-VIP agenda. Other notable guests: Andrew Yang, Young Paris, Alex Alpert, Vaughn Lowery, Chris Carter, Genesis Johnson, postVerrone, Fanzo, Sal DiGuardia and FoodMasku.

Helen Indelicato, Julie Lamb, Sal Di Guardia, Vaughn Lowery are speakers at the NFT-VIP conference in nyc via 360 Magazine
Helen Indelicato, Julie Lamb, Sal Di Guardia, Vaughn Lowery will be on the NFT-VIP stage via ‘press panel’ Sun., June 19 at 2:30pm EST (click image for full agenda).

The NFT-VIP festival was fabricated with the unique digital identifier enthusiast in mind, providing a golden opportunity to intensify transmissions and interrelations. The number of leading brands and celebrities involved in this field is increasing exponentially with the world’s first and largest crypto collectibles market—OpenSea. With that, 360 MAGAZINE has minted and released a loveable Animal set.

360 MAGAZINE Animal Series NFT character, Lucky Lenox, coming soon under the direction of Vaughn Lowery
(Minting Lucky Lenox on OpenSea)

As a media partner, 360 MAGAZINE aims to liaise between NFT-VIP participants and disadvantaged business enterprises. 360 is determined to spread the word on NFT-VIP to countless cohorts: the elderly, women, racialized groups and the queer community. “We now coexist in a multi-generational society with multi-racial people who have multi-educational backgrounds and who possess multi-hyphen lifestyles. Our purpose here is to create an environment of inclusiveness and to further facilitate sustainable relationships beyond the metaverse,” Lowery shares.

During the engagement, 360’s Swarovski encrusted bottle, made in collaboration with Integrity Bottles and Good Vibe Gliders, will be forged on Solana with partial proceeds donated to a charity. 360, freshly announced pet NFT, apace with Reebok’s Looney Tunes footwear, will go to a handful of lucky guests with Best Tech Style. Additionally, in real time, the publication will interview the speakers in their ecletic enclosure with bean bags and a bejeweled e-bike.

NFT-VIP RECAP HERE.

About 360 MAGAZINE

360, an internationally acclaimed LA-based magazine, represents the celebration of societal change through racial and sexual ambiguity as a youthful popular culture and design journal. As a certified National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) business, it progressively supports various under-represented communities: women, POC and queer. Just last month, 360 was crowned Business of the Month.

Previous celebs on the cover: Saweetie, Demi Lovato, David Guetta, Sebastián Yatra, Will.i.am, Steve Aoki and Tyga. Infographics on the journal can be downloaded HERE.

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About Vaughn Lowery

Vaughn Lowery, the founder and president of the NGLCC certified, 360 MAGAZINE, has always strived for positive social change. Lowery is the executive producer of 360 MAG Podcast on AudibleApple and Spotify as well as a new NFT Animal Series on OpenSea. His self-help marketing memoir, Move Like Water × Be Fluid is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Walmart. He’s a graduate of Cornell University’s ILR School and grandson of the late Dr. Joseph Lowery–a leader of the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King as well as the minister at Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration.

Twitter|LinkedIn|TikTok

About NFT

According to Wikipedia, non-fungible token is a financial security consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain, a form of distributed ledger. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain, and can be transferred by the owner, allowing NFTs to be sold and traded.

NFT-VIP Agenda HERE.

Listen to NFT-VIP Speakers on 360 MAG Podcast HERE.

Reebok Best Style Tech Winners BELOW.

NFT VIP tech series in nyc media sponsored by 360 MAGAZINE
Sal DiGuardia, CEO of Crypto Radio Network at NFT-VIP in NYC via 360 MAGAZINE
CEO of NFT VIP Julie Lamb via 360 Magazine

JULIE LAMB

NFT-VIP: Bridge to Reality

Julie Lamb, the CEO, Founder, and Executive Producer of How-To with Julie Sue, is a problem solver, storyteller, digital content creator, and economy connector. She is a collector of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum and is passionate about helping brands build their identity using current tools and a highly selected network of virtual agents to develop the entrepreneurial capacity of brands. She has already collaborated with multiple popular brands such as iHome, Disney, KidDesigns, Hasbro, CES, KeaBabies, Michael Todd Beauty, and Crown Goose USA. 

Listen to Julie Lamb’s full conversation with Vaughn Lowery on the 360 MAG Podcast HERE.

While studying music, Julie went to Europe and started working on fashion collections. She finally settled in New York, where Julie has 30 years of experience working as a model. By highlighting the activity with Brunello Cucinelli on Saks Fifth Avenue, Julie mentioned that her creative confidence was greatly inspired after moving from a small Southwestern town to the Big Apple, New York City. 

Julie has long loved the worlds of tech, digital, and speed: ‘I like being able to share things digitally.’ At the forefront of the crypto wave in 2017, she bought Ethereum, a digital platform used to make smart contracts, allowing entrepreneurs to create decentralized applications, as in the case of Julie. 

Immersed in the realm of cryptocurrencies, the trailblazer supports projects like Non-Fungible Token (NFT). As a rapidly developing industry, NFT is becoming an increasingly popular way to buy and sell digital art, spanning industries like sports, music, fashion, film, games, etc. The annual NFT conference, held in multiple cities (including New York City and Los Angeles) around the United States, attracts hundreds of guests from various fields who speak about exponential growth and future trends in different verticals and how the digital landscape can incorporate this new tradeable product. 

As an NFT-VIP (in which 360 MAGAZINE will serve as one of the media sponsor), Julie’s mission is to shape the NFT industry into diverse communities made of global thought leaders who share like-minded values and beliefs. Last April, she attended the Miami NFT week and served as its Executive Producer, where she focused on igniting new dialogue amongst attendees and tastemakers on topics related to technology, creative installations, immersive art, and performance. Julie can be recognized as an economy connector for providing the space for several minority-owned businesses in this conference to discuss the present and future of the meta-universe and how it affects them. 

Although the attendance was underrepresented and some representative minority-owned businesses felt left out, Julie declared her conditional support for the voice of women and the LGBTQ community. Meanwhile, this kind of offline meeting takes highly digital products further into reality, narrowing the society’s discrimination against aging. In addition, she is fascinated by using Web3.0 and its implementation with artists in the fields of music, fashion, and the token economy.

An example of this is that the international brand Gucci has started a multi-directional exploration to embrace the digital world, which associates a luxury brand with emerging technologies through a series of avatar experiences; i.e. exhibitions of Gucci art, mini-games, and digital item purchases.

Julie is now preparing a private event in New York City with NFT VIP sponsorships from June 19th-22nd at Margaritaville Resort Times Square, owned by the real estate and investment firm Soho Properties. Surprise celebrities will be attending that directly tie in with her message and bring new inspiration to the community. Sponsorship opportunities available for this four-day event.

In the field of cryptocurrencies, that features multiple sponsors, will have an additional sponsor called the crypto coin concierge. They will cover the luxury travel for the most elite global clients in the world of cryptocurrencies and with payment through these. Julie tells us that her company has also partnered with iHeartRadio on Crypto Radio in the marketing industry.

Speakers:

Julie Lamb

CryptoMondays: Andrew Yang, Lou Kerner × TJ Stone

Article:

Andrea Esteban, Armon Hayes, Krishan Narsinghani, Vaughn Lowery

Resources:

Inter Creative Media

How-To With Julie Sue

Follow Julie Lamb:

LinkedIn

Twitter

Instagram

360 MAGAZINE named media sponsor for Julie Lamb's NFT VIP in NYC
Bitcoin via 360 mag

NFT-VIP × CryptoMondays

NFT-VIP Announces Exciting New Collaboration with CryptoMondays: Andrew Yang, Lou Kerner and T.J. Stone To Be Featured Speakers at NFT-VIP Event!

NFT-VIP announced today that CryptoMondays will be joining the four day event by hosting the World’s Largest Community Focus on Web3 Live Events at the Margaritaville Resort Times Square on Monday June 20. “NFT-VIP’s goal aligns with CryptoMondays’ desire to promote blockchain literacy and adoption amongst everyone. We are thrilled to be joining forces for the night” said Julie Lamb, founder of NFT-VIP. 

CryptoMondays was founded by Lou Kerner and it started out with a few passionate crypto enthusiasts and quickly grew to over 22,000 members spread across 67 cities with an exciting goal in mind: To onboard people to DeFi, Web3, and NFTs for everyone worldwide! 

In collaboration with CryptoMondays, NFT-VIP will host a fireside chat with Andrew Yang, businessman and political candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Lou Kerner and T.J Stone, the host of CryptoMondays NYC and serial entrepreneur.

Andrew Yang is the Founder and CEO of Venture for America, a fellowship program that places top college graduates in start-ups for 2 years in emerging U.S. cities to generate job growth and train the next generation of entrepreneurs.  Andrew founded Venture For America in 2011 with the mission to: Revitalize American cities and communities through entrepreneurship; enable our best and brightest to create new opportunities for themselves and others; and restore the culture of achievement to include value-creation, risk and reward, and the common good.

Lou Kerner has been focused on crypto 24/7 since seeing the crypto light on June 29, 2017. Lou also built crypto communities, including CryptoMondays, the largest crypto Meetup group in the world and is an active crypto blogger via Medium, now as part of Quantum Economics.

Lou is a partner at Blockchain Coinvestors, a crypto fund-of-funds and CEO of Blockchain Coinvestors Acquisition Corp., a SPAC focused on merging with a rapidly growing crypto company. They do 30+ one off crypto investments a year.

T.J. Stone is the Host of CryptoMondays NYC and a serial entrepreneur with a diverse background including media relations and real estate development. As the Co-Founder of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio, T.J. hosted several top-ten rated podcasts focusing on a wide range of subjects including comedy, technology and cryptocurrency. T.J. is heavily involved in the space and is known for interviewing the most unique and influential crypto personalities on the Official CryptoMondays Podcast, available on all podcasting platforms worldwide. WAGMI!

Don’t miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime! Tickets are extremely limited and may be secured at HERE.

For sponsorship information please contact 

Ali Al-Balaghi VP of Business Relations, email: a@nft-vip.io

*For additional information visit our website and follow us on Twitter

Politics illustration by Heather Skovlund for 360 Magazine

Eric Adams × NYC Term Limits

Eric Adams Refuses Pledge to Protect NYC Term Limits

If Eric Adams is elected New York City’s next Mayor, the city’s beloved 8-year term limits law could soon be out the door. Adams is the only major candidate who has refused to pledge to protect the existing 8-year term limit for mayor and city council.

The pledge reads: “I pledge as mayor to veto any legislation to repeal or lengthen the 8-year term limits to which elected officials in New York City are subject.”

Adams’ rivals in the Democratic primary, Maya Wiley, Kathryn Garcia, Andrew Yang, Shaun Donovan and Raymond McGuire all have signed the term limits pledge.

“As a New Yorker, I can’t believe Eric Adams won’t protect term limits,” said Howie Rich, Chairman of U.S. Term Limits. “The last time the council attacked term limits in 2008, it was a disgrace. We shouldn’t have to deal with another self-serving power grab.”

According to a recent poll, term limits remain a key issue for New York City voters ahead of the upcoming mayoral election. The citywide poll, which was conducted in December by RMG Research, found that 77 percent of voters say it is important that the next mayor of New York City protect and defend the city’s eight-year term limits law. Additionally, by a margin of 73 percent to 9 percent, voters say they are more likely to support a candidate for mayor who promises to protect the current eight-year term limit. RMG Research is owned and operated by Scott Rasmussen.

In 2008, the City Council—on the advice of then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and influencers such as future President Donald Trump—weakened term limits from 8 years to 12 years, allowing Mr. Bloomberg to seek a third term. The measure proved contentious and city voters restored the eight-year limit by a landslide margin in 2010.

New Yorkers have a long history of backing term limits referenda. In a 1993 initiative led by philanthropist Ronald Lauder, voters established eight-year term limits in an 18-point landslide. Then, in 1996, voters rejected a measure which would have lengthened the limit to 12 years. In 2010, voters restored the eight-year limit the Bloomberg Council had repealed. And in 2018, voters resoundingly adopted an eight-year limit for members of community boards.

U.S. Term Limits is the largest grassroots term limits advocacy group in the country. We connect term limits supporters with their legislators and work to pass term limits on all elected officials, particularly on the U.S. Congress. Find out more at U.S. Term Limits.

Kaelen Felix illustrates Ritchie Torres for 360 Magazine

TRAILBLAZER: CONGRESSMAN RITCHIE TORRES

By Elle Grant

January 3rd marked the commencement of the 117th Congress and the swearing of its newest members. For many, it marked the beginning of a new dawn. One that will be followed by the inauguration of TIME’s People of the Year, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. They will replace President Trump on Inauguration Day on January 20th. Yet several other remarkable individuals were elected this year and sworn in a bit earlier, solidifying the 117th Congress as the most diverse in American history. One of these representatives is a freshly elected Ritchie Torres, a 32-year-old politician serving the 15th congressional district in the Bronx, New York. Torres is the first openly gay Afro-Latino man elected to Congress, and one of two gay Black men that will serve in the 117th Congress, a distinction he shares with fellow New Yorker Mondaire Jones. 360 Magazine had the opportunity to sit down with Torres to discuss the story of his life, the issues he considers vital, as well as pick his brain for his thoughts on current events.

“I am a product of the Bronx,” Torres says of his childhood, “I spent most of my life in poverty.” Ritchie Torres was raised by a single mother, one of three children, in the Throggs Neck neighborhood of the East Bronx. He recalls the difficulty his mother had raising a family on minimum wage in the 1990s, as well as the awful conditions of the public housing he grew up in. Torres recollects these experiences with the soft yet fluid countenance that marked his speech throughout 360’s conversation with him. He floats between topics and memories with ease.

He recalls, with a rich sense of irony, the construction of Trump Golf Links as a child. “My life is something of a metaphor. I grew up right across the street of what became Trump golf course and actually something funny, is when the golf course was undergoing construction, it unleashed a skunk infestation. So, I often tell people I’ve been smelling the stench of Donald Trump long before he became President.” His own situation, compared with the government subsidized construction of the Trump Golf Links, deeply unsettled Torres’ image of society. He says collectively of his youth, “Those experiences shape not only who I am as a person, but as a public official.”

Such injustices prompted Torres to seek to become “The change that you wish the see in the world,” he says, quoting Mahatma Gandhi. He named public figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Ted Kennedy as role models. He got his start as a housing organizer and eventually took the leap of faith to run for public office, becoming New York’s youngest elected city official at age 25. He had “No ties to the machine. No ties to the dynasties of Bronx politics, but I was young and energetic. I knocked on thousands of doors,” he claims that kind of face-to-face contact won him that election. Torres then became the first LGBTQ+ official elected from the Bronx.

“I think it has several implications,” he says when asked what this early accomplishment meant to him. “I mean, first, we are all products of our identities and our lived experiences. Right? Who we are as people shapes what we do as policy makers. It is important to have LGBTQ policy makers in the room where decisions are being made. A wise person once said, ‘If you don’t have a seat at the table, then you are probably on the menu.’” Referring to his 2020 election win, he says “My election means that LGBTQ people of color, in particular, will have a seat at one of the most powerful tables, the United States Congress.” He calls the reality of his election both empowering and normalizing. “I am a symbol of possibility.”

“I met Mondaire for the first time four years ago,” Torres says of Mondaire Jones, U.S. representative of New York’s 17th congressional district. “I remember when I met him for the first time, we had a conversation about the lack of LGBTQ representation of color in New York state politics. And I never imagined that four years later, he and I would become the first openly LGBTQ Black members of United States Congress.”

Congressman Torres recognizes that his path, though marked with accomplishments, has not been one of only highs. Torres stands apart as a public official on the national stage who is open about the lows of his life and his struggles with mental health. When asked why he chooses to be so transparent, he says “I felt a deep sense of obligation to speak openly about my own struggles with depression in order to break the silence and shame and stigma that surrounds mental health.” He seeks to evolve, not perpetuate, the current ideas surrounding mental health. He hopes to show that “there is a way forward” out of difficult moments, which for him were struggles with substance abuse, the loss of a friend, and moments when he considered taking his own life. But seven years later, Torres was elected to city council. “I would not be alive today, much less a member of the United States Congress, were it not for mental health care which saved my life.” He aspires to send a message that “Recovery is possible. You can take an antidepressant, as I do every day, and find normalcy and stability” and achieve feats like being elected to Congress.

The 117th Congress is slated to be the most diverse in history. Torres says of this reality, “I think American is increasingly becoming a multi-racial, multi-ethnic inclusive democracy. We are witnessing the collapse of politics as an old voice network. I am part of a new generation of young leaders every bit as diverse as America itself. Congress is becoming what it always should have been, a miniaturization of America itself.”

Torres acknowledges the year 2020, monumental in many ways, as harrowing for his Bronx community. “COVID-19 has been a catastrophe for the city and the country, and the South Bronx has been the epicenter of COVID-19. The South Bronx had the highest rate of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality during the peak of the pandemic. And just as destructive as COVID-19 itself were the deeper inequalities that were brought to light.” He argued that the coronavirus exposed the deeper health inequalities, racial inequalities, and class inequalities laid bare by the pandemic.

These issues are at the forefront of Torres’ mind in thinking of his work as a legislator. When asked what he saw as the first step to rectifying the rampant racial injustice in the United States, he answered “the first thing is to bring greater accountability to policing in America,” an argument familiar to many Americans following the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd and their ensuing protests. As the Black Lives Matter movement swept the nation with greater momentum than ever before, cries for justice and defunding the police became common across the country’s cities. “Where there is no accountability, there will never be an end to police brutality” Torres says, being especially critical of qualified immunity in the United States.

Torres heads to Congress as a man with a mission regarding many issues. He himself declares “My great passion is affordable housing,” reflecting a long journey working continually in the housing sphere. He seeks to secure far greater funding for public housing in New York City and to expand the Section 8 program. The Section 8 program, also known as the Housing Choice Voucher program, created by an act in 1978, provides assistance to eligible low- and moderate-income families to rent housing in the private market. Torres says, “For me the surest way to stimulate the economy is to put money in the pockets of struggling families.” In order to do that, he believes the solution is an expanded child tax credit, which he describes as the single largest tax expenditure in America, yet he finds fault with a system that is “so regressive that it excludes a third of American families. Particularly the poorest families in America.” Torres’ passion shines through when he discusses the subject, detailing how this solution could slash childhood poverty by 40% in the span of the year. He calls its potential an absolute “game changer.”

Without question, affordable housing and tax reform are the first issues Torres hopes to address after being sworn in to the 117th Congress on January 3, 2020. “For me, the central mission of my life is to fight poverty in America. Racially constructed poverty in America. The South Bronx is said to be the poorest district in America and if we can make progressive policies work in the South Bronx, we can make them work anywhere.”

360 Magazine also had the opportunity to discuss a variety of current issues with Congressman Torres, one of which being the then impending Senate run-offs in Georgia. Following races too close to call in November 2020, Republican incumbent David Perdue is facing a challenge from Democrat Jon Ossoff. Additionally, GOP appointee Kelly Loeffler is defending her seat against Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock. The election is vital because it will determine which party will control the Senate. “The stakes are supremely important,” Torres says of Georgia. “As long as Mitch McConnell refuses to bring critical bills to the floor for a vote, there is a limit to what we can accomplish. For me, Mitch McConnell is the single greatest obstruction on the path to progress. Winning those two seats in Georgia are essential.”

Regarding the impending mayoral race in his home of New York City, as well as early polls that display former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang as the frontrunner, Torres is coy. “The mayor’s race is wide open. Anyone who claims to have it figured out is lying.” He goes on to affirm “It is full of more than one credible candidate.”

“To be clear, I never announced that I wasn’t going to be in the squad.” Torres says, referring to ‘The Squad‘ of United States Congress, composed of Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a fellow New Yorker, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. With new young progressive politicians like Torres joining the fray, claims of expanding membership are common. Torres, along with the aforementioned Mondaire Jones, as well as Congresswoman Cori Bush, Congresswoman Marie Newman, and Congressman Jamaal Brown are commonly referred to as impending members.

Instead, Torres clarifies, “I would never issue an announcement that I would not be a part of something. That would be an odd thing to do. Whenever I’m asked about the squad, I simply state that I’m my own person and I prefer to be judged on the basis of my own story and my own record, on my own terms.” He goes on to assert he is willing to work with “anyone and everyone in the service of delivering to the people of the South Bronx. That is my highest priority.” Torres is clear in this declaration that he is willing to work with more conservative members of his own party or the Republican party in hopes of progress.

On a future in politics, Torres affirmed his intent to serve the people in the moment and to “let the dice fall where they may” regarding the future. When asked what wisdom he would impart to a younger generation, Congressman Torres says “We are all only as strong as the support we have in our lives and be grateful for the supporters you have. The friends and family. I would not be here today if not for the friendship of people who believed in me more than I believed in myself. Know who those people are and value them and be grateful for them.”

Update as of 1/14/21, Congressman Ritchie Torres has formally endorsed former presidential candidate Andrew Yang for mayor of New York City. This comes just a day after Andrew Yang announced his campaign in a video titled ‘Why I’m Running,’ which features Torres in it.

Listen to 360 MAG Podcast with Congressman Torres HERE.