JANERA, founded by Janera Soerel, curates conversations that explore the human dimension behind world affairs. We speak to a generation of active participants in our ever-changing world who are a mix of urban, educated, interested, and influential individuals. By successfully straddling the space between the online social media and offline live events, we occupy a unique position.
We have taken global subjects like Immigration, Transportation, Global Capitalism, and the Iranian Elections out of academic and activist circles making these subjects attractive and accessible to a larger audience. Our events have been held in different cities and streamed online on FORA.TV.
For our clients we design and produce programs which include high-profile fundraisers, provocative debates, smart salons, concerts, private screenings, and intimate dinners with world-renowned speakers.
Depending on the desires of the client, we enhance the intellectual with poetry, dance, art, and music. Our team also oversees the production of all media related to the events, including written reviews, photography, live-streaming, and video.
The Team
JANERA SOEREL, Program Director & Producer
Janera Soerel is a former investment banker who today works as an independent producer. She most recently served as the Program Director at the Urban Zen Foundation, created by fashion icon and philanthropist, Donna Karan. Janera is also a strike-team member of the global consulting company, The Foresight Group.
An economist by training, Janera previously worked in investment banking in Amsterdam and Milan. She also holds an MBA and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University. She thrives when developing and managing relationships as well as conceptualizing and executing ideas. Through her experiences, she has built a network across borders, cultures, and industries.
Born and raised on Curaçao by Surinamese parents, Janera lives in New York. She is fluent in English, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Papiamento (the local language from Curaçao). She spends her weekends outdoors surfing, hiking, or skiing. When in the city she enjoys yoga, live music, movies, and conversations at dinner parties.
HANNAH WALLACE, Editor
Hannah Wallace is a writer and editor who has been with JANERA for the past four years. Though her freelance work focuses on integrative medicine and food politics for outlets such as Vogue, the New York Times, and Body + Soul, she also writes about travel, food, and health for the Times, Travel + Leisure, T: Travel, Endless Vacation, and Real Simple Travel. Recent articles include a story about a Brooklyn high school class that visits local farms and sustainable butchers, and a story about the purported health benefits of kombucha tea. She is the food politics columnist at theFasterTimes.com.
After graduating from Mount Holyoke College with a degree in English Literature, Hannah came straight to New York City where she interned at Ms. magazine before joining a small literary agency as an assistant. Two years later, she happily joined the staff at Travel + Leisure magazine, where she remained as a fact-checker, editor and writer for 7 years, reporting on cities such as Dakar, Basel, Maastricht, Ljubljana, and Zurich. Born in Bromley, England, to American professors, Hannah is a dual citizen thanks to her father, who insisted on getting her a UK passport when she was still an infant. For more, visit her site or her column at the Faster Times.
JENNIFER MACFARLANE, Photo Editor
Jennifer is a Brooklyn-based photographer, humanitarian, yogini, meditation teacher, and aspiring Bollywood dancer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Glamour Magazine, Vogue India and New York Magazine.
Her childhood exposure to the complex cultures in the immigrant neighborhood where she was raised has had a great impact on her life. Growing up in wonderment among Caribbean, Filipino and Hassidic people sparked her desire to discover the mysteries of all that surrounded her. Photography has been her gateway into these worlds. She has spent years documenting life throughout the world with her camera.
She hopes that her subjects’ stories, told through her photographs, can begin to break down our boundaries between self and other, countries and cultures. Her work doesn’t end when she comes home from her overseas explorations. Her photography fundraisers for Tibet Fund and Architecture for Humanity have raised over $40,000 (and counting) for the communities she loves so dearly. For more: www.jennifermacfarlane.com.
ALLISON RAPSON, Press & Publicity Manager
Allison is an online marketing junkie, humanitarian, activist and big believer in the collective power of women. Growing up in a tiny rural town in Ontario, Canada ignited her insatiable hunger to understand diverse cultures and people and eventually lead her to New York City.
Working for NBC News, Bravo, iVillage and The Week Magazine instilled in her the profound impact of effective communication and reaffirmed her goal of amplifying the voices and stories that are all-too-often silenced. Allison’s professional aspirations are cemented in her life-long mission of using every communications medium available to raise up a global community centered around compassion and connectivity. Her heart is especially drawn to empowering the global sisterhood. For more visit Allison’s blog Women Rising.
ALLISON LEIGH DEFREES, Literary Editor
Allison Leigh DeFrees, our Poetry Editor and a regular contributor to the site, is a poet and immigration attorney. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature, and from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law with a J.D. Before concentrating in immigration law. Allison worked in entertainment law and general litigation. She also spent time as part of a punk band, wrote and performed in a variety of plays and films, bounced around in the avant-garde, and toured the United States as part of a puppet troupe. Throughout her varied past, poetry has maintained its place as her first love.
Our Partners
THE FORESIGHT GROUP
The ForeSight Group serves commercial clients, public agencies and philanthropists to leverage the achievement of major ambitions.
THE 24TH LETTER
The 24th Letter is a club without a permanent address. Members connect at exclusive pop-up mixers and salon-style events, and then continue their conversations on a coming mobile site offering original content and the means to interact with one another.
CULTURE PROJECT
Culture Project is dedicated to addressing critical human rights issues by creating and supporting artistic work that amplifies marginalized voices. By fostering innovative collaboration between human rights organizations and artists, we aim to inspire and impact public dialogue and policy, encouraging democratic participation in the most urgent matters of our time.
FORA.TV
Our channel is hosted on FORA.tv and we stream live through them as well.