Vanessa Selk: Cultural And Educational Exchanges Between France And Florida

Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Vanessa Selk with us. She is the cultural and education attaché, which means the head of the Miami office of the cultural services of French Embassy in the USA. As such, she organizes and promotes cultural and educational exchanges between France and Florida through art festivals, film festivals, music concerts, and academic or literary workshops. In particular, she founded and directs the Tout Monde Festival, the first Caribbean contemporary arts festival in Miami. So welcome to the show.

Thank you very much, Tyler Wagner.

Of course, grateful to have you here. Awesome to be chatting with another Miami local. We got a beautiful sunny day today, so let's jump in. The first one I got for you, Vanessa, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Hmm, the best story is probably linked to theater. It's when, as theater director, I brought together people who had no connection to each other whatsoever. They were just there for a project, for a theater play, and bringing together those different people with different backgrounds, different origins, different visions, And then making a joint project all together and being, you know, on scene, on stage together with one message, which is we can do it and we have something to share with you. And sharing it with the public in the moment, this was really a beautiful experience, which is actually a broader image for, I think, the world in general, because it's a way where we try to connect with people we maybe don't know who are foreigners. But in the end, if we adapt and, you know, all work on it, and talk the same language, uh, in different languages actually, uh, then we can actually create something beautiful. And this is for me the power of arts in, in general. It's creating something beautiful by connecting people, um, to the end of the world, in other places in the world.

I love it. Thank you for sharing that with us. Um, the next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

So my expertise in industry, well, rather organization. So it's a public organization, it's the French Embassy's cultural services. And the most valuable information I think is that our events, cultural events that we organize throughout the year in Miami and in the region, is that it's high quality events because they're curated with renowned curators or programmers, selected artists, from Paris and the Caribbean, and that those events are free because our goal is to make culture and arts and education accessible to all. So I think this is very important information for all.

And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.

Excuse me, can you repeat?

Uh, yeah, your best piece of like overall business advice. So not necessarily like industry specific, like maybe gear it towards, you know, like how did you get involved in all these things? Like what would you recommend to somebody maybe just stepping out into the business world?

Okay, probably it's just listening to people and learning. When I arrived in Miami 2 years ago, so I did not know the city pretty well. I didn't know all my colleagues and cultural partners such as museums, art galleries, but also theaters and even schools. Schools and universities. So I think the best advice that I was given that I would also share with others is just like to go outside. Don't stay behind, you know, don't stay in your office, don't stay behind your computer, just get out of there and just talk and meet with people and listen to them, listen to them. And so you learn and grow. And this is how I, I built my network here. I met with beautiful, amazing people, really interesting in all fields with a high knowledge in every field, in the arts and in the education.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

My younger self, being patient. Coming from, I was in New York before, before moving to Miami. And there, the rhythm of, of, of work and life in general was pretty hectic and pretty intense. And sometimes maybe stressful. And I kind of kept it with me by coming to Miami and trying to have the same rhythm here in terms of, professional but also personal relations. So it's kind of maybe a little bit intense. So I would— what I was taught is to really kind of calm down, being patient, and adapt to the rhythm of others.

And kind of going a little bit down a different path, but in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

What is the key to what? Pardon?

The key to happiness.

The key to happiness is to, I think, is to just to accept things that happen to you and take them as an opportunity, whatever it is. So even if at some point you may have the impression that it's something negative for you or which makes you feel frustrated or angry or whatever, but everything happens for a reason. So I believe when you see it, as an opportunity for change, to improve or go into another direction or, um, yeah, overcome yourself and your fears. And in particular, I think get out of your comfort zone. Um, I think this is the key to happiness. It's just seeing things as an opportunity for something else, something new and something maybe magical.

And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Well, I might be a little bit subjective here because I'm working right in it. It's actually by Édouard Glissant. It's The Relation of Poetics and it's the Tumon chapter. So it's about— this is why we call the Tumon Festival the Tumon Festival. So it's a reference to this philosophical concept by Édouard Glissant, who was a poet, a philosopher, an author from Martinique, who was, and who invented this concept to kind of share a vision of a world where the questions of identities, territories, roots are totally overcome and overwhelmed because for him, an identity is not something which is linked to a root, a place, or a language. It is rather linked to an experience and to sharing and to connections and people and places you go through your whole life. So your identity is not, "I was born in that city and I learned that language and I grew up here," but rather, this is a tiny part of our identity and then it evolved through the ages. And this is why I feel this book is so strong in terms of what it has to share as who we are today and not being stuck in one place and what we call our identities.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

Oh, it's still Édouard Glissant. So he says, "Opening up to the Caribbean is opening up to the world." And I think this is really interesting for two main reasons. That first we believe maybe we tend to forget that the Caribbean is actually really like an international region. It's more often seen from a touristic point of view. So you have nice beaches and it's so tropical and exotic. And I think we should overcome this vision. And it's a really international region because it is linked to different continents. Europe from its history, but also from the political structure. I mean, Europe is still linked, including through France and the Caribbean, is linked to the Americas. It's also from history linked to Africa. It has influence from Asia. So it's, it's a very, very international region, not in terms of expatriate or diaspora, but just by the people living there who have these experiences within their ADN, DNA. And I think This is one reason to look differently to that region. And so they have this universal spirituality and thoughts and philosophy, and we should listen a little bit more. So I think, yeah, this is why I like this quote. It's kind of looking into something which appears to be maybe smaller than other regions, but which is so rich and diverse. And but this I think this works, and this is the second reason, this works for everything. And we're looking at, so sometimes something which seems smaller or hidden or less known has so much power and universal, universality in it.

Thank you so much for coming on. The last one I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?

So we have, of course, our website is frenchculture.org and specifically for Miami, then you just franceculture@es/miami. So you have everything about French culture in there. We're very active also on social media. So on Facebook, it's, uh, it's quite a recent page. So, uh, please join us and like our events and come. It's, uh, French Embassy's Cultural Services Miami. And we're also very active on Instagram. Um, it's French Culture Miami. So I hope to, to have, uh, yes, new interests here and sharing events and experiences in, in Florida, Puerto Rico, and neighboring islands.

Amazing. Thank you again for hopping on.

Thank you very much, Tyler Wagner. The podcast you just heard was made using Anchor. Ever thought about making your own podcast? Anchor makes it really easy for anyone to get started. It's a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, and distributing podcasts. Best of all, it's 100% free. Sign up now at anchor.fm/new. That's anchor.fm/new to get started.