While waiting to begin my interview with Elaine Madsen, I think about the qualities that make her such an exceptional new Editor-In-Chief for Felix Magazine. She is intellectually curious, culturally insightful, artistic, compassionate, politically astute, an enthusiastic mentor. The Aparecio Foundation that Felix Magazine supports was indeed founded to mentor teenaged girls from high school through college. Elaine knows what good mentoring can do to for a young woman’s confidence and prospects in the world. She went to college in the early years of her marriage and has often stated that her college assignments stimulated a more serious interest in the pursuit of a writing career. They also triggered a passion for poetry.
After her divorce, as a struggling single Mom with three young children, Madsen’s first job was in marketing and advertising. When she became a Director of Marketing, a door opened for her to Chicago’s independent film production community. She won an Emmy for her documentary film about the Chicago film industry: “Better Than It Has To Be.” Two of her children, the actors Michael Madsen and Academy Award nominated Virginia Madsen followed her into filmmaking and have been very successful in the film industry. I ask Elaine how today’s young women can pursue dreams, develop confidence and succeed in such an oscillating economic climate. She does not hesitate to answer.
“Every person has something of value that only they can contribute to the world, in any era. Young women always have to ask themselves what they like that they see beyond the physical image of themselves reflected in their mirrors.” She pauses. “On my 17th birthday, my Dad asked me what I wanted to do with my life. ‘Be a writer!’ I enthused.‘But first, you have to live long enough to have something to say….” he told me.
“He was right. My writing has evolved from my life experience.” She continued. “The most important training for me as a writer came after my divorce, when I took on the position of Marketing Director for a high-rise development company. For the first time, I had to write to spec and under deadline to meet client requirements. This taught me to respect the notion of an audience. Appreciating the perspective of others in the world is so important.”
I mention that the South African writer Nadine Gordimer, famous for fighting entrenched patterns of Apartheid in her country (and for winning the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature) – once said that writers write best about the world if they can describe the texture of life around themselves well.
Elaine responds enthusiastically. “The Aparecio Foundation and Felix Magazine want to encourage young women to do exactly that. To respect the Truth we see in the world by respecting the truth we see in ourselves. I have been a senior editor for several magazines in addition to my film career. I know that if you want to deepen the content of any publication, you have to broaden the perspectives it represents. That is my goal for Felix Magazine.”
Testament to this conviction is the documentary “I Know A Woman Like That” which Madsen directed and her daughter Virginia Madsen’s production company, Title IX Productions produced. Iconic film critic Roger Ebert, an early mentor of Elaine’s, once called it transformative.” I secretly wonder how a moving film about 16 woman over 65 who “step outside of limiting cultural stereotypes” as brilliantly as Eartha Kitt, Lauren Hutton, Rita Moreno, Maxine Hong-Kingston, Gloria Steinem and all the other amazing women in the film have done — can possibly not be transformative.
My favorite among the films’ culturally trailblazing feminine archetypes (and Elaine’s as well, I discover) is Lucille Borgen, the 95 year old competitive water skier who has to cut her interview short to hop on her water skis for that day’s competition. “We develop our natural strengths by frequently repeating activities requiring them.
Every woman has a moment when she has to step out of the confines of her life to claim her life. Felix Magazine and the Aparecio Foundation in particular want to help young women develop their natural strengths with an attitude of pride in the history of trailblazing suffragettes, civil rights workers and all of their grandmothers. That’s why the Aparecio Foundation values mentoring. ”
It is Elaine’s aim to encourage women to be their best at any age and to be lifelong advocates for the sort of cultural inclusiveness they want to experience themselves. Self Confidence and culturally critical thinking skills both derive from the combination of life experience and learning Elaine encourages in her poem “Elliot’s Phoenix,” (from her poetry book: “Crayola Doesn’t Make These Colors….”)
“…in Congo and Darfur, on the streets of New Orleans, From Baghdad, Teheran, Gaza and Telaviv, on the mean streets of L.A. Intolerance for differences spews forth to make committees…”
It is the mission of Felix Magazine and the Aparecio Foundation to support a tolerance for differences that produces culturally inclusive action, a cultural gift in and of itself. Elaine Madsen is an excellent choice to help shepherd such a goal.
Creative Credits
- Written by
- Leonora Francesca Flores
- Photography
- Nick Holmes
- Retouching
- Brianna Kish
