May 12, 2010, New York, NY - Ruby Veridiano (www.rubyisill.com) is a writer, speaker, arts educator, VJ/media personality, and most recently was announced a candidate as head blogger for Alicia Keys’ women empowerment campaign “I Am A Super Woman” (www.IAAS.com). The search is powered by Monster.com, and consists of four intense rounds of selection. The top ten quarter candidates will be flown to New York City to meet the Selection Committee for another round of interviewing. On May 26th, 2010, three semi-candidates will be flown to London, England to see Alicia Keys live in concert at the KCA Blackball and have a face-to-face interview with Alicia. On June 21st the Head Blogger will be announced on IAAS.com.

My entire career as a writer and an artist has been devoted to representing a strong female voice that could inspire and uplift women. By offering universal truths, I strive to be the bridge that unites all women together, offering them a space to let their ambitions take flight. Because of this, I know that partnering with Alicia Keys for “I AM A SUPERWOMAN” is the perfect opportunity to unite fellow sheroes across the world. – Ruby Veridiano

As a candidate, Ruby’s chances of getting into the top three spot will partly be dependent on the support of her fans and community.  By rating and leaving comments on Ruby’s blog entries, the judges will be motivated to keep Ruby through to each round.  Ruby’s profile on IAAS can be viewed here: http://www.iamasuperwoman.com/users/rveridano

An active member of the community, Ruby works tirelessly to create opportunities that will help women (and men), find their own “super powers” within, and embrace their full potential. The access to have a platform that will be heard by thousands of people through IAAS, is a responsibility that Ruby is ready to take on with pride and excitement.

For up to date info on Ruby’s progress in the interviewing process you can check twitter.com/rubymsuniverse

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About: Ruby Veridiano is a writer, speaker, arts educator, and VJ/media personality, born in Manila, Philippines, and raised in the Bay Area.  Through her writings, workshops, and video projects, she aims to create an empowering space for women in media.  From the beginning of her career as a spoken word poet with iLL-Literacy (www.ill-literacy.com), Ruby has traveled throughout the United States and Europe, inspiring young people to reach their full potential. Her self-published book of short writings and poems “Miss Universe”, was released in 2008, and scheduled for a re-release in the near future. Ruby is currently exploring the “Glamourbaby Trails” of Brooklyn, NY, and developing a curriculum for a girls club, with the organization Lit World (www.litworld.org), that will be launched in New York high schools this summer (2010). For more info visit www.rubyisill.com

About: IAAS (I Am A SuperWoman) was founded by Alicia Keys to ignite super women with empowering content, delivering vibrant and optimistic news, opinion, and entertainment at a supersonic pace. IAAS will give powerhouses everywhere one source to connect with each other–and the world. For more info visit www.IAAS.com

Yup, Ruby is ready to get back on the road! She’s settled into NYC, and now we’re gonna bring it worldwide! We’re focusing on workshops, event hosting, and key note speaking engagements, as well as re-publishing her book “Miss Universe”!

Quick update – I’ve taken on the role as not just her Publicist, but her Booking Manager too! (I quit my day job for a reason folks, lol)  I got to spend some time with Ruby in NY a few weeks ago, which helped us get into work mode and plan out 2010, we’re very excited, can you tell?

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT BOOKING RUBY CHECK HERE

“In our obsessive wish to arrive, we often forget the most important thing, which is the journey.”  – The Pilgrimage, Paulo Coelho

Working with iLL-Literacy for the past two years has been a blessing and an amazing journey.  I often get on them about not taking the time to reflect on their accomplishments,  but hey, I can’t knock the hustle and the never ending determination to maximize their potential as artists, educators, and entertainers, which often leaves minimal time for reflection.

So let me take you through iLL-Literacy’s journey in 2008 and give you a brief summary of what was accomplished, the lessons learned in the process, the achievements, and what my role was in the adventure.

- “iLL-Literacy” name and logo legally trademarked 
- iLL-Literacy experiments performing with a live band and writing songs as a collective
- Dahlak (and I), negotiated (our first!) licensing deal with mycypher.com
- Ruby releases her first published work “Miss Universe”
- Dahlak releases mixtape “Live From The Boondocks – Commencement, A Kanye West Tribute”
- Ruby has earrings designed for Miss Universe by MADE Jewelry
- Ruby’s first feature on the cover of a magazine (OAKBOOK)
- Ill-Literacy tours nationwide on the “Natural Electricity” Tour

hmmm…. I might be forgetting some things, but considering I took a personal hiatus for more than half the year working with ANY clients, I must say that iLL-Lit did quite well with minimum help from Papa Lo. 

I want to highlight one particular accomplishment which actually began back in 2007 when I first signed on with iLL-Lit.  The first thing I did as their PR manager was to help them trademark their name and logo.  This process takes about a year, and we really couldn’t have picked a better time, because early 2008 iLL-Literacy was sent a cease and desist letter from another group with a similar name.  To make the long story short, iLL-Literacy was proactive and thorough with their paperwork and now legally own the name and logo “iLL-Literacy”!

For me personally, if I don’t ever get them on the cover of Fader Magazine, or a clothing sponsorship with Creative Recreation, or help them get booked on a stage at SXSW, at least I did help them secure their brand and gave them peace of mind, that no one can take away the name they have worked so hard to build. 

As an independent artist, the smartest thing you can do for yourself is to make sure you OWN all your work.  From your name, your logo, website, lyrics, beats, etc., legally owning all your work should be the first step you make when you’re ready to really make this a lifelong career.  The process is time consuming and can be very confusing, so you have to be serious about yourself and your art, or else you’re just wasting a lot of time and money.

Overall, 2008 was a good year for all of us, we worked hard, we played hard, and we continue to push each other in our careers and personal relationships.  Every year there is progress, which is a positive sign that independent artists DO NOT need a label to be successful.  What is needed, is strong management skills, open communication, accountability, organization, and a dope graphic designer (thank you soooo much Adriel!).  It is a team effort, a community effort, and although there are struggles, there is comfort in knowing that compromising yourself and your work is not a factor in the success.  I’m not saying, that getting signed is a bad thing, but you are definitely going to be trading off some freedom for luxury.   But why trade in your freedom, when you can have your cake and eat it too…

MISS Crew is hosting a poetry contest for Ruby’s Miss Universe book – prizes include a copy of Miss Universe and a pair of MADE Jewelry’s Miss Universe earring.

All you have to do is submit your own poem for a copy to win Miss Universe and the earrings.  The only requirement is that the poem cannot be longer than 1 page in length.  Ruby herself will read all the poems and choose the lucky winner.  Put those thinking caps on and get to writing!   All entries must be in by Sunday, December 21st, midnight PST.  Send your entries to misscrewcontest@gmail.com.  May the best poem win! – misscrew.com

When you produce a contest, make sure it’s worth every one’s time, and that there is value in it for everyone involved, these things can be more trouble than they’re worth if you don’t really think it through.  Common sense – but some folks don’t have that.  And you probably don’t want to invest in this kind of promo if you don’t have a fan base yet (FYI).

looking forward to the winning poem… I should submit one anonymously and see if Ruby likes it, haha!

www.misscrew.com
www.madejewelry.com
www.rubyisill.com

When Ruby and I put together the marketing and PR plan for the release of her book “Miss Universe“, who knew it would include an exclusive earring designed by one of our favorite independent designers?!

Creating additional product to sell with the release of your own project will only enhance sales and branding, not to mention the cross promotional opportunities!  Keep in mind it’s important that the brand and product you go with make sense to your image and fan base.

With that said, check out MADE Jewelry’s  new collection “That Girl“, which includes the Miss Universe Earring!  MADE is currently the only online retailer where you can cop the book, and they even put together a special combo package so you can save a few bills when you buy both.

retail $44

retail $14

I’m already picking out a few pieces I need to buy myself for my bday and xmas

ps. fellas if you want to buy your special lady (mom, sister, significant other, friend, etc) something she’ll really love, go to MADE Jewelry’s site NOW before they sell out!

www.madejewelry.com
www.rubyisill.com

Just finished getting the thank you gift bags ready, now time to get myself dolled up for tonight!

The Natural Electricity Tour lands in San Francisco Sunday, October 26, 2008 – Featuring iLL-Literacy with the Hi-Life’s and The Getback.  As the Bay Area’s very own intergalactic Hip Hop, spoken word, funk band – iLL-Literacy will take you on a journey through the Milky Way evoking the spirits of James Brown, Parliament, and Janelle Monae, are you ready to ride…?!  

When Ruby was deciding on the design of her book cover, she used her network to get in touch with a talented artist from Atlanta (via Brooklyn), Fahamu Pecou. He graced the cover of Ruby’s poetry and short writing book Miss Universe, with his skills on canvas, and here we are just a few weeks away from the Miss Universe launch date!

The timing has been perfect to start building up the buzz and press opportunities for Miss Universe with Fahamu’s San Francisco gallery opening, which is actually tonight! 

TIP – timing is everything when you’re promoting your project!  Which means communication is even more important! You want to make sure that all the different people, companies, promotional plans, etc. you have in place work together, and build up to the highlight of your release date.

I’m putting a timeline and checklist together for album/project releases, makes my life easier to be organized.

Here’s The list I came up with so far in regards to what promo materials you should have ready BEFORE (like two months before), the album is released: 

            – promo mix (top 5-7 songs from album mixed by a DJ for media promo)
            - social networking profiles current and consistent (myspace, facebook, imeem)
            - blog up and running, consistent with profiles
            - press photos
            - bio
            - one sheet
            - Industry Quotes for one-sheet
            - album promo copies (set aside minimum 100 to give away to press, industry folks, DJ’s etc)
            - music video(s) - 
            - radio edits of singles
            - promo flyers (for blog and album)
            - business cards

 Am I forgetting anything??  Holler.

ps. Ruby’s “Miss Universe” coming soon…