 Well, I'm excited about this panel. I've learned over the years that the best way to get anything done is to work with women. And if you notice, my staff are all very intelligent, talented women. But I think that the women in the industry is really an important evolution. Because unfortunately, most nightlife venues are designed around men and what men want. So I think there's a great revolution. I was just talking earlier. Now, I know when I walk into a restaurant that immediately you know it was owned by a woman. You just walk in the door and you go, oh, this is a woman-owned business. There's just something about what happens that makes things more accessible and sociable and comfortable. And I think that's what we're here to talk about is how these women are leading a revolution in the whole social economy. And so I'm going to turn this over to Ariel, who you've all heard from. And she's going to moderate this dynamic panel. Thank you, Jim. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much. Just want to make sure I don't fall off this stage. That would be really embarrassing. Thank you, darling. At first, we were thinking about different panels to have at RHI. And at first, everyone was like, we should do a women of the night panel. And I was like, that doesn't sound right. I was like, what? To a certain point, it's like there's so many women in the industry now. And should we really just always be doing these women-themed things or just accept the fact that women are everywhere doing great things? And then I thought about the women in my life and in this industry and who I've met over the last five years. And I'm like, we've got some pretty impressive women doing incredible things. And we just need to highlight who they are and what they're doing. But what I wanted to do is to assemble a group of women that I also knew were not only owners, operators doing stuff, but also activists who have been leaders in organizing. They're not just doing, running their own businesses, which are hard enough as it is, but also have been called to serve. And so, and we also have another woman in the audience who has done the same thing with the Brewer's Guild. But the women on this stage right now are owning, operating, doing, leading. And so, rather than having a bunch of questions and so forth, I wanted to just make space for them to sit and to speak and to share what they do on a daily basis within their own businesses and what called you to serve beyond your own front doors. And I'll just say one thing to Jim's point was it is true. I used to own my own club myself for 10 years. And there is a woman's sensibility. You do know that we pay attention to different things. It feels like a greater attention to different detail that, I think, maybe makes a place feel safer, softer, more welcoming. I don't know what it is, but there's something about a woman. So with that said, I will go down the line and let these incredible women introduce themselves, their businesses, and their calling. So Melba Wilson. I mean, OK, she needs no introduction, really. But Melba Wilson. Well, good afternoon, everyone. OK, wait a minute. I'm from Harlem, where there are over 300 churches. And today is Sunday, correct? OK, so we're going to bring a little bit of uptown downtown. So when I say hello, everybody, I want you to do like they do up in the Baptist Church. Hello, everybody. Hello, everybody. Happy Sunday, everybody. Happy Sunday, everybody. Andrew, let's pass around the offering blade, OK? My name is Melba Wilson. I am, as I like to say, born, bred, and buttered in the village of Harlem. And started out literally from the bottom. Now we're here. I had a dream in my community. And being from Harlem, at the time when I decided I wanted to open up Melba's, which was 2004, Harlem was a different Harlem than what you see today. 114th Street was one of the most notorious drug blocks. And I used to complain about it. I was on a flight one day. And I heard a flight attendant say, as I always have heard, in case of an emergency, put on your mask first. Heard it many times. But on this day, it was like an epiphany. I had an awakening. And I said, Melba, you can complain about what's going on down the street, right next to a school. Or you can do something about it. So my family hails from a very small town called Hemingway, South Carolina. So I grew up watching my mother, who was a stay-at-home mom, take my dad's paycheck. And he'd give her the paycheck to pay the bills. But every Friday, she would put a little something under the mattress. Anybody here know what I'm talking about? All right, we got some Southerners in the house. So I grew up doing the same thing every Friday when I got paid from be it Rosa Mexicano, Sylvia's, Windows on the Whirl. I would take a little something put under the mattress. On this day, I said, let me see how much money I have saved. Started counting, counting, and counting. And I had a master's small fortune, $312,000. You can clap for that, because there was a lot of money. Forget about 2004, even today. But I said, Melba, what are you going to do to change the community that you're born, bred, and buttered in, and the community that has poured so much into me? 114th Street, there also happened to be a space available. I said, I'm going to rent out this space. I'm going to turn it into my passion, which is a restaurant. And I'm going to employ people and show them that you don't have to go down that street or any street and sell drugs. You can come here, get a job, make a living. You can even own the place. And after the pandemic, I don't know. I might as well just give the keys away. But I decided to leave by example. And that was 18 years ago. We've had everyone from Harry and Megan, which have come last year, to the restaurant. DJ Collard, Katy Perry, everyone comes in. But the beautiful thing about that is that we take our advertising budget and we reinvest it into the community. If you go to Melba's today, you'll see that the Girl Scouts are out there today selling cookies. So we're always doing stuff. For seniors, we fed over 200,000 people during the pandemic. I'm also the first woman to be president of the New York City Hospitality Alliance. Thank you. I've been the president since 2019 and proudly sit on the board of City Harvest. God's love we deliver. But it's always about starting, starting something. And eliminating the four letter word, the F word in the room. Not that four letter F word. The other one, fear. Taking a chance. Taking a chance on us. And as women, especially in this industry, we've been told no so many times, Ariel, that I think we're pretty much immune to it. We've been told no, you can't do that because you're a woman. No, you can't do that because you have pink hair. No, you can't do that because you're too young. No, you can't do that because you're too old. So no, to us means we have to go around it, over it, under it, or through it, but that we have to get it done. My name is Melba. I'm a woman, born, bred, and buttered in the village of Harlem. Thank you. Amazing. I actually often found as a woman bar owner that my greatest superpower was being underestimated, right? It's really when people don't expect a lot from you is when you can get over on them and to really achieve. I just actually wanted to quickly just give a glimpse, because I wanted, as we go down the line, Melba Wilson, owner of Melba's great philanthropist, president of the Hospitality Alliance, Barbara Sibley, who owns La Palapa, a fantastic Mexican restaurant, but also a organizer of Let's Talk Women, and then Dianna Mora, owner of Friends and Lovers, but also the founder of New York City Nightlife United, and Megan Lagos, who also owns some day bar and also, through the pandemic, emerged a organizer and founder of Save NYC Bars, and Jen Lyon, for Mean Red Productions, who also, through the pandemic, was one of the founders and New York representative of Niva, Naiva. And so this is why I assembled these women, because first of all, I think the thread also of the pandemic, right? So that through this incredibly dark time was a catalyst for these women, who were already hustling, doing incredible things in their own businesses, found that opportunity to emerge and to lead an entire industry. And so I just wanted to give a picture of what's going on and why these women are here. And so with that said, Barbara, please give a little bit more background about your story. Thank you, Ariel, and thank you all. This is really an amazing opportunity just to be here to talk to you, because we're always so busy. It's just great to actually just be here and hear about it. In a nutshell, I would say, when I went to sign my lease for La Palapa 23 years ago, the building owner said, what if the girls can't pay the rent? It's 23 years, through 9-11, a couple of blackouts, a few hurricanes and a pandemic. I'm still paying the rent. On my third lease. So basically, yes, that's that all the time, right? And then people also don't expect that I'm Mexican, so they don't expect that I can speak Spanish. That's also of superpower, because when they're, tell your guy, firma me lo, just sign it. Like, no, no, that case is missing. So anyway, basically, so the main thing I would say is I've always been an advocate of women's organizations, because I've been impacted by it so, so strongly. I was a general manager. I opened venues. I opened, I was open bandit, I opened telephone bar for anyone who knows the, in terms of like businesses, you know, in the East Village, maybe like Melba's that were just groundbreaking. We had to turn the ringers off the phones, because all the Colombian drug dealers on 10th Street were using the pay phones as their stop. So we had to make it so they didn't ring, so that they wouldn't be just doing all their deals through those phone booths. In any case though, you have a sense when you're in the restaurant business that you are about community, and in New York, you are the living room of your community. You are on the ground floor. I always say that a lot of the problems in the city are that for many years, they're, you know, it's, we're being governed from the penthouse, right? No one is like a business owner on the ground floor, really dealing with their community. So I've always been an activist for women. I've been part of the New York Women's Culinary. Basically, I will join anything, anything, women's chefs and restaurateurs, the New York Women's Culinary, I live down this coffier, you name it, women in hospitality, United, Toklas, hello. I've been there on their advisory boards, because I think that it has to be said sometimes and always that we are here, and that we are a force, and it needs to actually be recognized. So I really appreciate Ariel, I appreciate that you invited us here. One of the most recent organizations that I've been involved in, which is very exciting, it's called Let's Talk Women, started in Chicago by Rohini Day, and it's now in 13, 14, just started in Detroit. And basically what it is, is it's women entrepreneurs, owners. So it's very different from all of these other organizations, which are wonderful, and I support, and I even support organizations in Mexico that bring interns and things like that. But this is very different to me. This is about being entrepreneurs and the very special skill set that is women entrepreneurs we have and need and exercise. It's really the most powerful organization I've ever been a part of. Over 700 women at this point, and I would say that I have incredible hope and it's really incredible to be part of an organization that is all about promoting the work that we do on a daily basis, promoting our own businesses. And it made me really think about it. Why do we always feel like, I mean it's great to be activists for outside of our community, but what is it about women that we need to have that excuse that we have to promote ourselves? You don't see that in other organizations or frankly with male owners. So that's really what we're doing now. And so open to any women business owners. It's very exciting and I think that we'll be seeing a lot because it's already national. So I thank you and just excited to be here. Thank you Barbara. Yeah it's been incredible to see when I've attended a couple of your events all these incredible hardworking driven brilliant women that their main purpose to your point is so easy as first to give and support outside outside but this organization supports each other within the industry and what do you need and how can I help you in dealing with the economic struggle, the emotional struggle and not apologizing for the vulnerabilities and not just having to be strong and being able to be there to support each other through shared experience, which I think is really important in what you're doing in that organization. So now to my next brilliant woman, Deanna Mora. Thank you, thank you for having me and I'm excited to be part of one of your last panels. I can't wait to squeeze you later so it's gonna be really fun. Anyway, I don't know what people know about me but- Speak real close into that so people can hear. I don't know what anyone knows about me but I set foot in my first club when I was 16 years old. That was limelight. Then I was frequenting tunnel. I went to every club you could imagine in New York City and then I went to college and once I started going back out again after post college I just realized, wow, it's just, it's fun but it's very much bottle service. And fast forward once I had a few shekels, I was like, I'm going to open my own space. I wanted to feel like old New York and so I did. And that's friends and lovers. We signed the lease in 2013, opened the doors on January 1st, 2014. And what we did differently was we really just focused on the neighborhood I knew and loved, which was Crown Heights. And then we focused on hiring people from that same neighborhood, which to me sounds pretty obvious but when you go to a neighborhood that's considered one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in Brooklyn, no one else is doing that. You don't see the reflection of yourself when you go into some of these other venues or these restaurants. So we kept to that. Fast forward, we were, cops were outside making sure we were safe, we were okay because the neighborhood was transitioning to now cops coming to raid us because they said, congrats, you're really popular now. And that was one of the scariest days of my life when 26 men in SWAT jackets walked in right when Stretch Armstrong was about to play his first song. And I'm like, wow, we've got someone great and he can't even play music. And they said, you don't have to close down in a venue. We're just gonna be in and out, give us a half an hour. I'm like, well, at 2.30, I'm closing down the venue not to mention my patrons loved us so much. They wanted to murder the cops. I'm like, okay, let me just protect everyone here. Shut it down. I also didn't know what was happening so I grabbed all the cash and put it in a bag and sent my sister home because she was working the door and said, I don't know what is happening. I may need you to bail me out tomorrow. I didn't know what a March operation was. I didn't know that this was normal and it shouldn't be normal but by the end of the whole meeting, they're like, well, you were on the list. I'm like, what is this list? And I got so angry that I just said you aft with the wrong biatch. And no, there's no list and this is not making sense. And that's when I was introduced to Ariel and Ariel really kind of informed me on what it all was about and that just sparked the activist fire in my belly and since then, I have not been able to shut up, right? I really just imagined because Barbara, they didn't know, like my parents are Puerto Rican and Costa Rica and I'm the first kid to go to college and I speak English fluently, but Spanish is my first language and I just sat there and I said, what about all those people that can't communicate clearly? What about all those people who, this is all their money, this is their life savings? This is meant to scare them and this is meant to just find them out of existence and I just was so upset about that and moving forward, working with Ariel, like a lot of the rules and the change that she's affected has been tremendous and making sure that these march rates don't happen and I just, that was my first fantastic and amazing experience working with Ariel. But now through COVID, when COVID came, that's when I started Nightlife United with a few other folks, mostly because we were terrified and kids that were working with me could not pay their rent, could not put food on the table and so I said, wow, we need to do something and this was also neighboring venues, like my friends who owned Ode Babel, they were like, what are we going to do because they were so small and felt like no one was listening to them and so part of what we did was started a coalition, fundraise so that we can help support the smaller businesses with spot grants. We focused on LGBTQIA and BIPOC owned businesses first and then that transition to also now be more worker focused. We still exist and a lot of what we're doing is ensuring that folks can really support themselves through change because we like to pretend that COVID's gone, it's not and what that means is seasonality when folks are used to making the most money ever, they're not because businesses are opting to close for two weeks for a month. So now during the holidays, these kids don't have money and so we gave out spot grants during Omicron and now we just gave out another round of spot grants for creators because we are now post COVID living through a renaissance of creativity. So being able to say, we know that you depleted all of your savings and you probably don't have what you want to be able to be creative, here's some financial security and come up with your next creative idea on us and respect that nightlife is much more than what some other people think it is, vomit on your shoes. It is the creative hotbed that really ignites New York City and that's why people come here and we need to keep that going and part of what Nightlife United is doing now is we're in the middle of structuring a curriculum which I'm very excited about for an apprenticeship program because now nightlife jobs should not be something that is disposable, we're not a disposable economy, we are not disposable people but we wanna create sustainable jobs, promote from within, create, give people the skills so that they can become managers so that they can become lighting techs, audio techs, it's better to just have that team formed from within because they're in it for the long haul and this is an industry that doesn't discriminate at least not today, right? You can get a job in nightlife no matter what your gender is, no matter what your immigration status is, it's one of the few industries that is the most amenable to just different types of people and personalities. I mean, that's it, I'm gonna stop talking. Thank you. Megan. Hi, I'm Megan Rickerson, I own Someday Bar in Boreham Hill, Brooklyn. We opened six months before COVID. I did the same thing, I put money under my mattress, actually I put it in like a tall bottle for 10 years to open my own place and I just had really horrific timing. But we opened, we got going, COVID hit, I let everybody go, like everybody else did, I learned how to cook food because I am a bartender turned bar owner not chef or line cook turned bar owner and I cooked food and I made cocktails alone for a very long time and didn't pay myself to make sure the business was there when, if and when the world reopened. I think the biggest eye-opener when all of this happened with COVID was, I called my dad sobbing after I let everybody go and was like, what are we gonna do? And he's like, don't worry, they literally can't do nothing as in AKA the government, whoever, surrounding. And then for a while it felt like nobody did anything and I kept looking around, I kept screaming at my wall and realized the wall wasn't gonna do anything. So I'm a baby in activism really because I mean my bar is about to be four in July. I was very content to open my business and be happy and live my life and advocacy wasn't a thing, not a thing I didn't wanna do but it just never was a thing that really was pressing. Now my life doesn't exist without it like 24 hours a day. So started Save NYC Bars with my friend Joanna who is this fantastic motivated actress that taught me how to speak. I would have been curled up in a ball three and a half years ago behind the stage. And now as you so eloquently said, I don't ever shut up. I'm sure a lot of people are tired of hearing me talk but we started Save NYC Bars because we realized that a lot of people that were coming in that were our regulars really wanted to support us but they didn't understand what that actually meant. We have four tables outside, someone comes and sits for two hours and orders one beer and they think that that's how they're supporting and we're like, yeah, it's great, a beer but there's only four tables and people are trying to sit that wanna keep spending money. So it was really about educating our guests on how to effectively support local because it's really easy to say but it's not always so easy to do and to create an empathy bridge because people were mad. My staff experienced violence, somebody threw a glass bottle at my bartender's head over a Vax card. We had to pay for security that we couldn't afford. So it was really trying to get people to understand what truly was happening because as an industry we're so good at faking it, right? I always say you're bartending, your boyfriend dumps you, you can't get your shift covered, you are on stage. People don't wanna really hear about your boyfriend dumping you, they expect you to serve and be happy and you're creating an experience where there's not a lot of space to take care of yourself and we're good at hiding and so we were really pushing for operators to be maybe don't open up your financials but explain how many cocktails you have to sell to pay your rent during COVID. I have to sell 40,000 beers to survive and just really try to bring it down to a level where people really get it because they don't know the margins that you run on, they don't understand and the only way that they're gonna understand is if you educate them and you do it in a way that they can relate to. So Save and We See Bars is now transitioning. We were this empathy bridge and right now we're kind of in limbo of what we need to be because we've always changed to be what the community needed so right now we're kind of acting as like an information vessel. Everything is changing with outdoor dining. Every time something is different we try to post, we're also trying to highlight businesses that need more business so we repost as much as we can. My whole eye-opening experience is this is like I said I'm a baby in activism but it doesn't really matter how long you're in it. I mean in the last three and a half years I opened a business, I co-founded an advocacy group, I'm on the Hospitality Alliance, I'm on the Mayor's Small Business Council, I just joined my local bid. And I'm looking at more spaces because I hate myself but I think it's just my biggest thing is not to be scared to look like you don't know what you're talking about because a lot of people don't. I would go into rooms and be like oh my God, you know who that is? I'm like nope I need flashcards. There are so many council people and it's intimidating to walk into that but it's like the biggest hurdle is walking through the door and the rest of it you just have to actually, you have to actually give a shit and that's basically the only requirement I think for advocacy and when it comes to my business, my boss that I worked for in Lower East Side for 10 years you know the thing I'll leave on is you know you can invest in fancy glassware and you can invest in a beautiful space but the only thing that's gonna reinvest back in you is your staff and your neighbors and it really doesn't take that much effort to be a part of community. I think people alienate themselves out of fear and it just like really takes like a hello to start a conversation so I urge everybody to just say hello and to call your local council member I was so scared to do that but that was like a huge thing, just being involved. So yeah. Amazing. Thank you. Ms. Lyon. Hi. Is it on? Yes it is. My name's Jen Lyon. I own Mean Red Productions. In my world I'm an independent promoter which means that I go into other people's venues and put on the show and I buy the talent and I sell the tickets and I staff the door and in my world it's like us which we're just very small independent promoters versus Live Nation and AEG and that's who we compete with every day and I represent NEVA which is the National Independent Venue Association and NEVA which is the New York Independent Venue Association and I just want to call out and say I was thinking because I'm at the end and I was listening to everyone's stories I think it's important to remember that this is not the norm like we do not have parity in any way in our industries. In my industry we're maybe at five-ish 10-ish percent female ownership, majority female ownership and hospitality you're 25-30-ish percent. This is so atypical and these stories are women's stories that are very different than men's stories and they are trailblazing in every single way, every single day and I think it's important to remember that because we can just get overcome and think, oh look, it's so great, right? Everything's fine, so easy. 300,000 dollars in the mattress, that was not easy. And that's a woman's story, self-funded, right? My background was I started as a waitress for Keith McNally, thank him very much for hiring me and then I went on to be a bottle service waitress which was very humbling in very many ways and I learned a lot about celebrities and back rooms and lots of fun stuff and finally I begged and begged and begged and got Serge Becker from Joe's Pub to let me book some bands and that was a game changer, begged, really begged. That place is important to me because there's a lot of gatekeepers in my story. There's always a lot of people who let you in or they don't let you in and in my industry there's a lot of people who didn't let women in which is why we're still very, because I think in my industry because there's so many different kinds of people who have to let you in, the venue owner, the agent, the artist, the manager, it's a little, we have a lot of people that please to get through so I think it's a little slower maybe than hospitality but I think we'll get there and it's from those experiences that's why I really joined Neva and said okay, like this has to be it. There has to be a way to improve process, to change the gatekeepers, to create equity, to find the path, to get the entire industry to look and say oh well we're putting on artists and these artists need equity, we have customers coming and they need to feel equity and great at the door so now I get to do fun things like I hire all female security teams and venues are shocked and are we safe with all women protecting us and I said well where's your mom because you're fine, right? And they have to be quiet because legally they can't say anything back to me, it's great. So with Neva, started by a woman, Dana Frank and Moose who's in the back who I just saw who's amazing and in New York City and thank you very much, those two folks started it and it was astounding, right? We had all these people who'd never talked to each other and very ordinary, often disenfranchised, independent business owners came together and said well, let's figure it out and what we did was we proved ourselves to the government and said we're valuable and we had this amazing statistic which was that for every dollar spent on a ticket, 12 dollars, it's like how many times have you heard this area? I'm so sorry, no, everybody needs to hear this, that's why we're here. This is during COVID, by the way, Neva, no, please. Yeah, during COVID, 12 dollars spent on a ticket, 12 dollars has spent in the community. So we had this amazing statistic and we were able to say, okay, well as venues we're doing something and we're changing our communities and the Bodega is making money because LPR is there and that pizza place and this, you know, so this is who we are and we had this stat and suddenly we could play ball with the rest of the industries, which was amazing and we got a lobbyist and did all the political things and in New York we became super important because Chuck Schumer's here and he's doing great these days and he's running stuff and we were able to organize 300 members in New York state and it's all different folks, Apollo and Blue Note and Barry Ballroom and Avant Gardener, all different kinds of people together to really lobby to get Schumer to help us with the federal government and what came from that is the Shuttered Venue operators grant and that was the largest arts grant in the history of the U.S. So that kind of kept us here, you know, and that's been an amazing project. So I think through seeing a large national organization come together, I do see that there's a positive future of more equity conversations, more and not just with women and men, right, with all different kinds of owners that need to come together and then also with the federal government and our local governments and being able to have real dialogues instead of hiding, which I think is what happens so much in New York City. When I watch a venue open, I generally know there are probably not telling the community board really what's gonna happen. Oh, we're just doing jazz shows on Friday and Saturday for five people. Meanwhile, you're gonna cram 700 people in there seven nights a week because New York is expensive and New York City is getting a lot of tax money from that venue cramming, you know? So we need a dialogue about how the money works and now in particular with this two AMs and the, oh, it's terrifying because New York's not trying to get cheaper, right? That's not happening. So I think we're in a lucky good place to be able to have better, healthier dialogues and healthier connections to what our economy is and what our abilities are. So we don't have to be shameful and hide anymore. I mean, there's just so much to unpack here. I mean, it's like I said, this isn't really about a women panel per se. I mean, this is really about kick ass, bad ass business people who because they're women have a very strong empathy not only for themselves, but for their community and for their industry and also a good, healthy amount of rage. I think that it takes to be activated when you see injustice anywhere to make it right. And I think we also have the catalyst of the pandemic, which most people in the hospitality industry, especially women, are in a constant survival mode for their own personal existence and it is inherently competitive. It is inherently patriarchal. And so if you want to make it, you have to think about yourself. And what the pandemic did was say, you will never survive without each other. And it created a whole new necessity for collaboration that took these incredible strengths of women and people in hospitality who are also inherently loving of people. This is not just about the dollar, this is about hospitality and creating experience and making people feel welcome and loved. And women do do that really well. So here we are obviously to Jen's point. This is a shining example of what I think is, we have made a lot of progress. I mean, back when I owned a bar in 2004, it was way even less than even when you were doing it, way less prominent. There is a trend, more visibility, more representation, more leadership, more mentorship, more organizing, will make it feel more possible. But now here we are post pandemic, great organizers, great women. I'm just curious like what you think, how do, where do we go from here? We have the alliance, we have let's talk women, we have save NYC bars, save nightlife, save national independent venue associations. Like it would be so easy to retreat, right? Okay, well things are, we're not faced with this, you know, mortality in a sense. We're not in a crisis for our very existence. How do we, not just as independent, I think for me what I would love to see is, how does all of these great individual organizations begin to collaborate maybe? Or what do you see for the future of activism in hospitality and where would you like to see it go from here? Well, that's a lot. I know, it's just so many issues. I'm not a great moderator either. No, you're amazing Ariel. But I think that we are in a crisis. Yes, I really do. I think when you look back, it was 150 years ago that women could not sit down at Delmonico's or any restaurant here in New York City, unless there was a man sitting next to them. We couldn't lunch by ourselves. April 20th marked the 150th anniversary that we as women were able to go into a restaurant or that we actually went in 20 strong and had lunch without a man being there. I think when you look at the fact that Roe versus Wade, where we are right now with the abortion pill, Roe versus Wade, I think that we do still have a long way to go. I am corrected. I forgot about all that. I'm sorry to bring it up. You're right, you're right. Okay, I'm back. But I think, but I do have hope. I do have hope because I know that we are doers. If you just look at our everyday lives, all of the women in this room, we get up in the morning. I know I get up at four every morning. You know, I take care of my son. A lot of us take care of our husbands, our wives, our spouses, and then we go to work, right? Even though we've already worked for five and six hours before we go out to work. We go to work for eight, 10, 12 hours. Then we come back home and we do this all over again. So we are deal makers and ceiling breakers. I think that when we look at where we are politically, the fact that we have so many women now in office and running for office, and it was women that elected the last president, okay? So I think that right now, we're sick and tired of being sick and tired. And we know that we have to make the change that we wanna see happen. And not just in this industry, the hospitality industry, the nightlife industry, but in this country. So I truly believe that the best is yet to come. I'm with you there. Let's go, let's give it up for that. 100%. I mean, we've been saying all weekend, you know that hospitality spaces are places where people gather, where people look out for each other, where we can share the ability to educate around harm reduction and equity. And now, if need be, politically continue to organize and to make sure that we are speaking with one voice. Imagine if every single successful bar, restaurant, club, all of the thousands of people, the mailing list, the people that you are able to communicate if they were able to be organized. I mean, it's an army. It's an army of change. So that's why being able to organize these organizations into one big voice towards something, I think is very powerful. What do you see, Barbara, for the future? No, I think it's true. And I think that we've had an awakening. I like to say, and you can all join me in Mexico, we do a lot of rituals, kind of Dia de los Muertos. I think we need to get a giant pit. And then we all need to pretend that we're filling it because we will always have that pit. All of us that have gone through these last three years, everyone always says, it's normal, isn't it great? You're so busy, I'm like, ha, yeah. So, but the thing is, is that we're awake and we are together. And I think that, like I said, we all support each other. I'm part of the Alliance, you know, from the beginning, I, you know, save New York NYC bars. I mean, all of the organizations are so critical because we, as I said, we are on the ground. We are on the ground floor. We are our communities. I can't say how many people would come by during the pandemic and say, you're still here. The, you know, there is, it's more than just like, oh, I want to go have a taco. It's, you know, we belong to our communities and they belong to us. And we feel that responsibility very strongly. And we do everything we can locally because we're obviously, we're, you know, if somebody needs to eat and they're in my place, they're gonna eat, right? But we also think very globally, and I'm with you, that, you know, we, the best is yet to come and we will. I mean, none of us are stopping any of the work that we started. If anything, we're getting more organized. I have a lot to say about this. Please do. I think we need to keep the dialogue two-way. We all started because we were hearing things on the ground. We have to continue to listen because the best people that will be talking to us are the community members, but also our staff. They're gonna tell us that they're working at another bar that's underpaying them. They're gonna tell us that they're working at this place and they're getting treated like this. But what about all of us getting together and normalizing equity at the workplace, normalizing inclusivity at the workplace, normalizing real business structures for new operators, for restaurant owners, because the old way isn't good and it's never been good, but it was tolerated and we need to erase that. It's, it's disgusting actually, you know, and I'm not okay with it. And if I continue to use my voice to change that, I will. And then the second part is, condos don't make neighborhoods. Restaurants make neighborhoods, venues make neighborhoods. We have such a significant impact on community that we cannot continue to let condos erase us because somehow that's allowed to happen and we need to change that. And what, for fake affordable housing. Right. Yeah, oh yeah. Not okay. That's the rage I'm talking about. Empathetic rage. This is probably just my PTSD speaking for me because of COVID, but there's a pretty significant part of me that always feels this alarm or fear that, you know, tomorrow another pandemic is coming. And I mean, it took me, I don't know, three months ago to finally deconstruct my partitions from between my tables that I had hidden in a back room to hide my shame that I was too scared to get rid of them. So when it comes to going forward, I think we need to recession proof, pandemic proof, everything proof our industry and not forget that just cause COVID is over, there could be something else. And I'm not saying to be scared of it, but I feel like so many people are reactive and it's like this happened and we're like, okay, how do we react to it? There are a lot of things that can come that can affect our industry and affect women, affect our staff and it's about being ready for them and, you know, not living in fear of the things coming but creating an industry that when something happens, we are organized, we're together, we already have, you know, a generalized plan, God forbid something weird happens, we don't know what to do, but like if we are already organized and we're already together, whether it's, you know, a taco shop or a cocktail bar, a beer bar, a brewery, you know, a thing that I realized because of the pandemic is our industry was so disjointed. So many rules didn't apply for some, but they applied for others. And so when trying to navigate the pandemic, you're like, don't even know how to help your neighbor because all right, well, they don't have a kitchen and I have a kitchen or, you know, well, how do we do this? And I just think that if we can figure out a way to really unite our entire industry, whether it's a fancy cocktail bar or it's a dive bar or whatever it is, that we're gonna be so much better prepared for whatever is coming at us because something is coming in like the least scary way possible to say that, but stuff is gonna happen. So we just have to be organized together and ready for it because that way we don't experience the pandemic, the way we did where we scrambled to figure out how to stay alive. We're already, we're alive, we're here, we're not going anywhere. Thank you, amazing. Yes. I think I really noticed recently that a lot of the power players in my industry and in hospitality seem to have sort of disappeared after they got their funding. And I feel that we have to normalize those in power doing the work and creating the equity and having the discussions and engaging. And in our industries, because we can kind of shrink and hide and go make a lot of money and we don't want, you're right, we don't want other, we don't know if you make money, do I not make what happens? So we become these little islands, but we haven't in our industries yet made that, Amore, a way that we need to operate, that those in power need to engage more deeply. In other industries, stockbrokers do that rich dude, he's like, he's really working, he's selling stocks and he's running, right? And he's working in the industry organizations. That is not happening in our industries. We got the grants and the funding and off, and I feel that I'm pretty spot on with this, that there was a lot of scuttering away and now we don't have access to that. So how do we normalize better business practice and that comes from calling things out, right? And it comes from all of us, this is great that all of us are sitting here, let's make this a normalized process. So it's not uncomfortable and it's not awkward. So that's my personal sort of mission. I'm not totally sure exactly how I'm gonna get there, but I'm in it to win it. As a organization, national organization, we now have a conference, which is super exciting because it's a platform where we can gently, lovingly address these ships that we see we need to have and that's great. In New York State, we're having a lot of discussions with our lobbyists now about how do we create a more direct line to equity? How do we get the Economic Development Corporation to create a grant to fund new venue owners or new arts organizations that are BIPOC or women owned? Just being very clear, like, hey, this isn't happening, can you help us do it? And making New York State accountable, which was very impossible, did not happen, almost minimally, minimally happened, I think, which was shocking because just to say, in so many other states, they did come to the table. California or, I mean, the majority of the states helped. New York State's doing really well from our industry. Why didn't they come to the table more? Like, what's happening there and what are we not doing to make sure they're listening now? I think we have so much work to do and we sort of learn the problems, right? And now I think a lot of us in here know, okay, how do we get there? So I think that's the work is creating a better practice in the industry. I mean, clearly, there's so much work to be done and we've been through so much, come so far. I think the hard part was the awakening, like you said. There, the pandemic was horrific, but in so many ways it was a course corrector, it was an awakener, an organizer, and it's helping to clarify all the issues that everybody knew personally and quietly and got them out into the open. And it's very local and it's very global and there's so many layers in between and that's why it's great to have organizations that are recognizing them, taking ownership for them, taking responsibility to organize. And I think we have to organize the organizers now in a sense, I mean, it's really going to take a military strategic plan. And I think perhaps that's the next step is trying to figure out how to really organize everyone in order to take this even further and to get more people on board and awaken more people. And not just here in New York, but we have people from all over the country, all over the world and that's what we're doing here today is to show how New York does it and hopefully inspire and also to learn. So with that said, I know there's a lot of people in the audience that also focus on a lot of women issues. Carly, I'm calling you out because I know you're probably like, well, what about women's safety and harm reduction and how are all of these women in business, in hospitality, I'm actually asking your question for you. Is there something specific maybe I didn't touch on knowing how much these issues mean to you? Oh, well, go ahead. Thank you. Yes, her point was it's not a women's issue to talk about women's safety. And it is a global issue we all have to, I just wanted to touch upon it because I know it is important to a lot of people the vulnerabilities, women are strong, there's also vulnerabilities that we have to address in the industry and I think part of that solution is having more women in the business who understand the nuance of how to do that. Five minutes, do we have any questions for these incredible activists and women in New York? Yes. Good afternoon, I'm Dawn Somerville from City of Philadelphia. First of all, I want to thank you all for sharing your experience and as change agents, because that's what you are in your spaces, what do you see as something immediately that needs to be done within the nightlife hospitality area or just in your business as women that you would like to see changed? And I think Jen, honestly, you probably answered it in your last response but would love to hear from each one of you quickly. Sorry men, this is about to win. What needs to be done immediately? What is like now, yesterday? Today, today? I mean, I think, do you want to go? I have an answer because I'm really passionate about this is in New York City, if you're in hospitality and you're under a certain amount of employees, you get paid $9 an hour because they think that your tips will raise you up to $15 an hour. Tips are considered gratuity because you did a good job. It should not be part or factored in. So I'm a small business, we do $15 an hour and if it's a slow shift, we do $150 for a shift pay which averages out to $30 an hour. Our goal is to make sure people have a living wage and we need to make sure that we can push that in New York City consistently and that should be immediate. But on the other side of that, what benefits can we get? Because it can't just be the burden to be a great operator has to also be rewarded through some type of a tax break. If I'm a good operator and I'm making sure people are doing things correctly and I'm on board, what's the 10% off my insurance policy? What's the 10% off of my local sales tax because I'm doing a great job and I'm a job creator? So I also wanna talk about that. We cannot eliminate the tip credit. I'm gonna say that right now. In Harlem, my employees make over $30 an hour and if we eliminate the tip credit, I'm gonna have to raise my prices, okay? If I raise my prices, less people may come into the restaurant. If less people come into the restaurant, I will no longer employ 52 people from my community. I have employees at Melba's that make well over six figures. Okay, and it is because they give great service. My price, I don't sell filet mignon. I do sell really good fried chicken. So we also have to keep our establishments open. So that's a very, very sensitive subject to a lot of people, but for me, if it's not broke, don't fix it. Now, of course, if with their tips, they do not average out to $15 an hour, then of course we have to supplement that and I'm definitely fine with that. However, I am not an advocate for eliminating the tip credit so I just wanted to speak to that. And it is a controversial topic and I think that it's best to be had by people from within the industry amongst themselves who understand this rather than have it to be imposed upon. And I think maybe that could be the next first most important thing that people who are organized can speak and maybe resolve within themselves. And I hope even though I'm not in the position of the director of the office of nightlife, my intention and hope in creating that position is that the next person will be that central point of contact as I hoped and tried to be throughout the last five years in coordinating, orchestrating, communicating, sharing of information that that is what a role of an office of nightlife can and should be in New York and in all of your cities being that central point of contact, that non-enforcement solution convener to help organize and make these incredible, powerful people, not just women, but people and organizers and women to help and support the great work that they're already doing from within. So with that said, thank you to my incredible friends and panel and to all of you. Thank you. Thank you.