BAMBOO AND BARBED WIRE

Karen Day is a journalist prone to dangerous enthusiasms. As a photographer, filmmaker and writer, she makes a habit of ignoring the punitive warnings of military dictators, Christian and Islamic fundamentalists, the most recent Republican administration and her four children. Consequently, her career includes house arrest in Myanmar, lunch with Dr. Anthrax in pre-war Baghdad, fashion reprimands from a warlord in Kandahar and happy hour with the Dalai Lama in Manhattan. She graduated from the University of Colorado with a BFA and a healthy dose of skepticism toward authority. Wary of overly-earnest appeals from rock stars, politicians and Sally Struthers, her professional pen and camera focus on the human element in every story, whether the subject is war-torn refugees or Hollywood celebrities. A member of the SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS and REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS, she has reported on Afghanistan, Cuba, Iraq, Myanmar, Rwanda and South Sudan for numerous national publications, including NEWSWEEK “O”, ELLE, MOTHERJONES.COM, BODY AND SOUL and the LOS ANGELES TIMES. Her independently-produced news features from Iraq have aired on NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, CNN, and BBC. Day is co-producer and host of the award-winning television series on PLUM TV, WOMEN WITH A CAUSE and the documentary film ETHICS AND THE WORLD CRISIS: Conversations With The Dalai Lama. She is co-writer of the book SEAL: THE UNSPOKEN SACRIFICE, about the Navy’s elite Special Operations Forces. A profound addiction to political optimism inspired this blue girl in a red state to create the billboard campaign BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE promoting a beyond-bipartisanship movement in Idaho. Criss-crossing political divides, she worked as the media producer for Governor Butch Otter in 2010. In 2011, Karen partnered with MARIE CLAIRE magazine and founded AFGHAN WOMEN'S JUSTICE PROJECT www.awjp.org , which continues to raise awareness and funds to provide literacy teachers and defense attorneys for Afghan women and children imprisoned for moral crimes. Between trips to Afghanistan and the produce aisle, Day produces documentaries and writes children's books which are harshly edited by her nine-year-old son. When not in war-zones or behind a camera, this mother of four shares an Idaho farm with chickens, turkeys, horses, barn cats and YETI, the dog.
www.karenday.net