BLACK WOMEN JUDGES MAKE HISTORY IN HARRIS COUNTY TEXAS

feeling rebloggy

While a record number of women are projected to win House seats in Tuesday's midterm elections, a local judicial race in Houston, Texas brings even more great news: All 19 black women who ran for various judicial seats in Harris County won their races last night, marking the single biggest victory for black women in the county's history.

~Cosmo 

Read More: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a24787624/black-women-harris-county-judicial-race-midterms-2018/?fbclid=IwAR1UGPwJfG1FRhkONXpjnCMyG-OjE4oe0KAVcESVknO28mTvkzel7p5ezw8

TWENTY DOCUMENTARIES ON BLACK WOMEN

DOCUMENTARIES ARE CHEAP AND EASY HISTORY

Please find a few to watch

SOURCE: SHADOWANDACT.COM

1 — “Free Angela & All Political Prisoners” (2013)

2 — Another Shola Lynch film, “Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed” (2004)

3 — “Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992” (2012)

4 — “Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai” (2008)

5 — “Beah: A Black Woman Speaks” (2003)

6 — “Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun” (2008)

7 — “Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth” (2013)

8 — “Moms Mabley: I Got Somethin’ to Tell You” (2013)

9 — “Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess” (2015)

10 — “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise” (2016)

11 — “T-Rex” (2016)

12 — “A Ballerina’s Tale” (2015)

13 — “Iron Ladies of Liberia” (2007)

14 — “The Real Shirley Bassey” (2001)

15 — “Life’s Essentials with Ruby Dee” (2014)

See descriptions of each one here: 
http://shadowandact.com/2017/03/28/15-documentaries-about-black-women-to-watch-as-womens-history-month-comes-to-an-end/

MORE DOCUMENATARIES

16-  Nina Simone:  "What Happened, Miss Simone?"  (Netflix)

I had already put the "Strong Black Woman" stereotype away as far as being something I aspired to. But this really put the nails in Strong Black Woman's coffin for me. I highly recommend watching this one.

17-  Ruby McCollum: "You Belong To Me"  (Amazon Prime)

Though this documentary is far from perfect. I might buy it to add to my black history collection.  

 

McCollum's story takes place during a period not talked about too much in Black History books except for the Black Renaissance. But it would have been better if black women had total control of producing it. I stopped and started it a few times to make sure I had a full picture of what was happening during the police investigation.  However, you'll get the full picture of what happened after this black woman killed a white doctor in a southern town in the 1950s if you know your black history and can read between the lines. You'll also have a better understanding of what black women were/are going through between the end of slavery to the end of The Civil Rights Movement and beyond.

McCollum's son speaks about his mother, in very sexist terms, at the very end of the documentary. But his attempt to defend (the white doctor or his father or men in general)  doesn't take away from the story that's told.  (Last seen on Amazon Prime)

18- Fannie Lou Hamer - "This Little Light Of Mine" (???)

(I've seen a very short documentary on Hamer. I'm pretty sure this is not it. It looks like it's been praised quite a bit and is being sold to schools. If your kid says they're showing it at their school, make sure you go "visit" that day because it's expensive if it's not on Netflix or Hulu.)

19-  "All Jokes Aside: Black Women In Comedy"  (New From VH1)

This features a host of talented ladies—including Martin’s Tichina Arnold and Insecure‘s Yvonne Orji—discussing how they deal with racism, sexism and the lack of representation in the industry. - 
http://people.com/tv/black-women-in-comedy-documentary-vh1/

20- "Venus and Serena"  (NETFLIX)

"Ever since Venus and Serena Williams started playing in tennis tournaments, they've provoked strong reactions - from awe and admiration to suspicion and resentment. They've been winning championships for over a decade, pushing the limits of longevity in such a demanding sport. How long can they last? In Venus & Serena, we gain unprecedented access into their lives during the most intimidating year of their career. Over the course of 2011, Venus grappled with an energy-sapping autoimmune disease while Serena battled back from a life-threatening pulmonary embolism. Neither Venus nor Serena let their adversities hold them back. They drew their greatest strength from each other."

  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2376024/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

How Washington ranchers are learning to cope with wolves, with lessons from Uganda

He was driving out of the valley one night when a deer ran across the road.

“And these three large German shepherds ran across after the deer,” he says. “And I’m thinking, ‘Those aren’t German shepherds, those are wolves. … Those are wolves! Can you believe it?’”

A month later, the return of wolves to the area really hit home. Johnson was out with his dogs when one of them — Lance — disappeared.

“Lance went off on his own and by the time I realized he was gone, it was too late,” Johnson says, his voice cracking and his eyes tearing up. It was the first animal he’d lost to a wolf.

That night, Johnson saddled his horse and grabbed his gun. “I was going to kill every wolf in the Teanaway,” he says...."

Then came an animal lover from Uganda. Carol Bogezi is a researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle. She came up with a way to save rancher's pride and profits and the wolves lives.

Bogezi eventually sold the white ranchers on the idea that they should market their meat as "wolf friendly" and sell it a premium. That way they could use less lethal but more expensive ways to keep the wolves away and also not take charity from the state.
Read the original story here:https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-02-24/how-washington-ranchers-are-learning-cope-wolves-lessons-uganda?


SMART, COMPASSIONATE, 
BLACK WOMEN ROCK THIS WORLD
thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com

MICHELLE OBAMA TAKES HER SEAT IN THE CIRCLE AT A WASHINGTON DC SCHOOL

FEELING REBLOGGY

We Love Michelle 

because 

Michelle Loves Us

When former first lady Michelle Obama walked into a D.C. high school classroom, the stunned students erupted in tears. One student even darted out of the classroom to regain her composure before she could sit next to her. Obama, who still lives in Washington, made a surprise visit Tuesday to Ballou STAY High School to speak with 14 students for two hours. Upon arriving, she hugged each of them before taking her seat in the circle

She's still working on her REACH HIGHER initiative. Her commitment to students isn't over just because her husband isn't in the white house anymore.
She stayed for two hours and talked about the struggle and life goals.

Ballou High School Photo From Facebook

READ MORE

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/michelle-obama-surprises-dc-students-talks-struggles-and-life-goals-for-two-hours

SHE STEPPED UP TO TELL THE TRUTH TO POWER AT WORK

Feeling Rebloggy

 Kim Voeks said, 

KIM VOEKS, LAWYER

     "You know I have a big mouth. But that doesn't mean I believe people are listening. Sometimes they are.

     Over a year ago I bitched on Facebook about how I was treated as I entered courthouses. There were two, specifically, that I had problems with. In spite of the fact that I've been in practice for over twenty years in the same courts, I would be stopped and security screened every time I came in the door. Now, if everyone was subject to the same search, I'd be fine. And in some courts, everyone is. But in these courts, I would watch white lawyers breeze through the door, without so much as a howdy do, while I, someone the same deputies had seen the day before, had to put my stuff through the x-ray machine and had to clear the metal detector.

     Interestingly enough, recently, things have changed. In one of those courts, the white deputy who worked the door, retired. His replacement? A black deputy, who is always happy to see me and is friendly.

     In the other court, my bitching got back to a judge. I can't say she was happy about me bitching. However, the following week, the troublesome deputy was gone and the two that remained, now greet me at the door and say "C'mon in." I'm sure it was an uncomfortable conversation for the judge and she probably doubted what I was saying was true. But she fixed it.

     Dealing with racism isn't comfortable. Especially not for those of us experiencing it. But stepping up to it isn't impossible. I feel better about the court and the judge. (Now, if we can just get to disparate sentencing .....)"

READ MOREhttp://thankherforsurviving.blogspot.com/2017/02/willing-ourselves-to-tell-truth-to-power.html

SAVANNAH STATE UNIVERSITY BECOMES FIRST HBCU TO WIN NATIONAL CHEERLEADING AWARE

Feeling Rebloggy

Savannah State University’s cheerleaders just made history in the world of competitive cheer.

 The 12-woman, one-man squad earned the first place title at the CheerSport Nationals in Atlanta on Sunday, making them the first team from a historically black college and university to win this national cheerleading title. 

“We are very excited, ecstatic, just a feeling that you can’t explain,” senior cheerleader Morgan Moore told Savannah’s WJCL. “It’s indescribable, it’s just a great feeling to know that we’ve made history at our school.”

~Huff Post 

Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/savannah-state-first-hbcu-cheerleading-award_us_58ac5620e4b07028b70411fe?

FROM TONI MORRISON ON HER BIRTHDAY

Feeling Rebloggy

3. “Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” - Beloved

4. “It’s a bad word, ‘belong.’ Especially when you put it with somebody you love … You can’t own a human being.” - Song of Solomon

7. “Love is never any better than the lover. ” - The Bluest Eye

8. “She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it’s there, because it can’t hurt, and because what difference does it make?” - Song of Solomon

11. “You’re turning over your whole life to him. Your whole life, girl. And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can’t value you more than you value yourself.” - Song of Solomon

~BUZZFEED.COM

Read More Toni Morrison Quotes:  https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliapugachevsky/impossibly-beautiful-toni-morrison-quotes?utm_term=.gaQXGvqlg#.iiYyL0v4G

* * * * * 

Toni speaks on refusing to privilege white people in her novels

MAIN BLOG AT: blackchickrocked.blogspot.com

DANAI GURIRA's TREE OF BLACK LIFE ON HER BIRTHDAY

You may recognize Danai Gurira from the Walking Dead. But she's a playwright that's just had an all black female production on Broadway too. Her play "Eclipsed" has been produced on a number of stages and Uzo Aduba (Orange Is The New Black) was in one of the older productions.

Lupita Nyong'o, Danai herself, and Akosua Busia (Nettie in The Color Purple) gave her enough star power to get this production on Broadway while also giving Nyong'o herself some much needed visibility. Nyong'o was in the last Star Wars, but you couldn't see her at all due to the costuming and make up. But now Nyong'o and Gurira both are due to be The Black Panther, due in theaters by 2018.

Saycon Sengbloh, of Eclipsed, has gone on to be in Shonda Rhimes' Scandal.  Lupita's rising visibility (and income) is allowing her to take more steps toward getting Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's AMERICANAH into movie theaters.

Danai Guirira has said that her goal is to get more black women working as actresses, directors, and the like and also telling more black women's stories. Guirira is well on her way. 

* * * * *
Some of her work is listed below. I've actually seen both Eclipsed and In The Continuum. I expect great things from her. Other black women's careers will be based on her work. Those question marks in her tree will be replaced with photographs of other actresses, directors, and playwrights one day

ECLIPSED 
(Award Winning Play. Multiple productions. Most Recently On Broadway 2016)


NY TIMES REVIEW

The women depicted in Danai Gurira’s soul-searing “Eclipsed,” which opened on Broadway at the Golden Theater on Sunday, have lost just about everything. Their dignity, their freedom, their families, their hope. Perhaps most disturbingly, they have lost their own names, or rather tried to forget them.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/theater/review-in-eclipsed-a-captive-lupita-nyongo-is-captivating.html

* * * * *

Why Hillary Clinton and Beyonce 
Should See 'Eclipsed' on Broadway
(AN INTERVIEW WITH PASCALE ARMAND)

Eclipsed, Danai Gurira’s heartbreaking play about women conscripted into sex slavery during the Liberian civil war at the beginning of the 21st century, isn’t like anything else on Broadway at the moment.

It may have star power — with Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o in a pivotal part and Gurira, who's also known to many for her role on The Walking Dead [and Akosua Busia most famous for The Color Purple] — but it is relentless in its depiction of the brutality of war and how women are treated.

This is not a light evening of entertainment.


This year’s theater season could be seen as a direct rebuke of Hollywood’s #OscarsSoWhite fiasco, [with Eclipsed, The Color Purple, Shuffle Along, and Hamilton all featurings multi-ethnic casts.]  But Eclipsed is also making history as the first all-female, but all-black production in Broadway history.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/why-hillary-clinton-and-beyonce-should-see-eclipsed-on-broadway-20160325


THE CONVERT
(2015)

From prodigiously talented playwright Danai Gurira (Eclipsed, In the Continuum) comes The Convert; winner of the 2011 Stavis Award and Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. In 1895 in the region that would become Zimbabwe, a girl is forced to choose between her family’s traditions and the Christian faith and Western values she has embraced. Born in the U.S. and raised in Zimbabwe, Gurira’s unique perspective and distinctive voice have created a compelling new play filled with humor and compassion.

http://www.mccarter.org/theconvert/


Two Women, One Story 
IN THE CONTINUUM
(from 2006)


The two-woman show In the Continuum began as a graduate school acting project. Now the off-Broadway show has been named one of the ten best plays of the year by The New York Times.

Nikkole Salter and Danai Gurira, who met at New York University, are the play's authors and actresses. Both play black women with HIV, as well as other characters. Salter is Nia, a teenage African-American girl. Gurira is Abigail Murambe, a newsreader for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. She's pregnant with a second child and having marital problems.

The material sounds grim, but Times drama critic Charles Isherwood says it's anything but a depressing experience.

"It's not a dirge. It's not a lecture," he says. "It's not preachy at all."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5202209

SHONDALAND PICKS UP LUVVIE AJAYI BOOK called I'M JUDGING YOU for CABLE SERIES

FEELING REBLOGGY

Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers’ Shondaland, along with ABC Signature Studios, have acquired rights to Luvvie Ajayi’s debut book titled “I’m Judging You: The Do Better Manual,” with plans to develop it into a cable TV comedy series.

Here’s an official summary of “I’m Judging You”: With over 500,000 readers a month at her enormously popular blog, AwesomelyLuvvie.com, Luvvie Ajayi is a go-to source for smart takes on pop culture. ‘I’m Judging You’ is her debut book of humorous essays that dissects our cultural obsessions and calls out bad behavior in our increasingly digital, connected lives. It passes on lessons and side-eyes on life, social media, culture, and fame, from addressing those terrible friends we all have to serious discussions of race and media representation to what to do about your fool cousin sharing casket pictures from Grandma’s wake on Facebook. With a lighthearted, razor sharp wit and a unique perspective, I’m Judging You is the handbook the world needs, doling out the hard truths and a road map for bringing some “act right” into our lives, social media, and popular culture. It is the Do-Better Manual.”

~ SHADOWANDACT.COM

Read More: 
http://shadowandact.com/2017/02/07/shonda-rhimes-picks-up-rights-to-develop-luvvie-ajayis-book-im-judging-you-as-a-cable-tv-series/

ROSA PARKS AT THE DARK END OF THE STREET

Feeling Rebloggy 

Long before Rosa Parks was hailed as the “mother of the civil rights movement,” she wrote a detailed and harrowing account of nearly being raped by a white neighbor who employed her as a housekeeper in 1931.

The six-page essay, written in her own hand many years after the incident, is among thousands of her personal items currently residing in the Manhattan warehouse and cramped offices of Guernsey’s Auctioneers, which has been selected by a Michigan court to find an institution to buy and preserve the complete archive.

Civil rights historian Danielle McGuire said she had never before heard of the attempted rape of Parks and called the find among Parks’ papers astounding.

It helps explain what triggered Parks’ lifelong campaign against the ritualistic rape of black women by white men, said McGuire, whose recent book “At the Dark End of the Street” examines how economic intimidation and sexual violence were used to derail the freedom movement and how it went unpunished during the Jim Crow era.

“I thought it was because of the stories that she had heard. But this gives a much more personal context to that,” said McGuire, an assistant professor of history at Wayne State University in Detroit. Her book recounts Parks’ role in investigating for the NAACP the case of Recy Taylor, a young sharecropper raped by a group of white men in 1944.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/29/rosa-parks-essay-rape_n_912997.html

BOOK PROMO
AT THE DARK END OF THE STREET

Rosa Parks was often described as a sweet and reticent elderly woman whose tired feet caused her to defy segregation on Montgomery’s city buses, and whose supposedly solitary, spontaneous act sparked the 1955 bus boycott that gave birth to the civil rights movement. The truth of who Rosa Parks was and what really lay beneath the 1955 boycott is far different from anything previously written. 

In this groundbreaking and important book, Danielle McGuire writes about the rape in 1944 of a twenty-four-year-old mother and sharecropper, Recy Taylor, who strolled toward home after an evening of singing and praying at the Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Alabama. Seven white men, armed with knives and shotguns, ordered the young woman into their green Chevrolet, raped her, and left her for dead. The president of the local NAACP branch office sent his best investigator and organizer--Rosa Parks--to Abbeville. In taking on this case, Parks launched a movement that exposed a ritualized history of sexual assault against black women and added fire to the growing call for change. 

ZORA NEALE HURSTON

From ZoraNealeHurston.com 

"Zora Neale Hurston knew how to make an entrance. On May 1, 1925, at a literary awards dinner sponsored by Opportunity magazine, the earthy Harlem newcomer turned heads and raised eyebrows as she claimed four awards: a second-place fiction prize for her short story "Spunk," a second-place award in drama for her play Color Struck, and two honorable mentions.

The names of the writers who beat out Hurston for first place that night would soon be forgotten. But the name of the second-place winner buzzed on tongues all night, and for days and years to come. Lest anyone forget her, Hurston made a wholly memorable entrance at a party following the awards dinner. She strode into the room--jammed with writers and arts patrons, black and white--and flung a long, richly colored scarf around her neck with dramatic flourish as she bellowed a reminder of the title of her winning play: "Colooooooor Struuckkkk!" Her exultant entrance literally stopped the party for a moment, just as she had intended. In this way, Hurston made it known that a bright and powerful presence had arrived. By all accounts, Zora Neale Hurston could walk into a roomful of strangers and, a few minutes and a few stories later, leave them so completely charmed that they often found themselves offering to help her in any way they could.

Gamely accepting such offers--and employing her own talent and scrappiness--Hurston became the most successful and most significant black woman writer of the first half of the 20th century. Over a career that spanned more than 30 years, she published four novels, two books of folklore, an autobiography, numerous short stories, and several essays, articles and plays." "

And we wouldn't know who she was if Alice Walker hadn't dug her work up and started having it redistributed to the masses (us). 

* * * * *

Most days I am sure I would have loved to have had Zora Neale Hurston as a friend.

There are other times when I'm not quite sure.

“I am not tragically colored.

There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it.

Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less.

No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.” 

The thing I am sure of is that I probably never would have left her presence without something worthwhile to think about and consider. She was uniquely herself in so many ways no matter what anybody else thought.

That makes her great all by itself. 

If you haven't read  her book "Their Eyes Were Watching God," you're missing a major piece of your education.  This book is a classic of Black American Literature. 

Read More:
http://www.zoranealehurston.com/about/index.html

ON BEING A HAPPY BLACK FEMINIST THAT LOVES MAKE UP AND HIGH HEELS

Among a whole bunch of other things

CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
AUTHOR

STORY TELLER

FEMINIST

COMEDIAN (? )

This video's a hit because she tells stories with humor.  You don't have to watch. You can just listen as you go about your business. She's that good.

Adichie's thank you 
to Michelle Obama 
TO THE FIRST LADY WITH LOVE
http://blackchickrocked.blogspot.com/2017/01/to-first-lady-with-love.html

HIDDEN FIGURES BARBIE DOLLS

Hidden Figures Barbie Dolls don't exist yet.
But they should.

An instagram account called "A DOLL'S WORLD AFTER ALL" re-creates pop culture moments with dolls that are barbie sized, from what I can tell. And the image below was created by this instagram account.  

The thing is, I'm thinking why don't we ask instead of wish. Why don't we ask Mattel to make these as part of their Barbie collection.

Can you imagine giving your daughter or your niece a doll based on a woman that's a math genius? Can you imagine having tiny little girls that are 5 or 6 years old thinking that want to be a computer genius, engineer, or rocket scientist when they grow up--before they even know what a computer genius, engineer, or rocket scientist really is? 

Whichever little girl you're thinking of right now? She's going to be needed in a STEM job 20 years from now, especially if she's black. 

According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), African American women and girls comprise a little more than 6% (N=19,730,247) of the total U.S. population, 14% (N=861,642) of female students enrolled at four-year institutions, and 10.4% (N=19,160) of female graduate enrollment in STEM fields....

While the 10.7% figure for Bachelor’s degree and 13% for Master’s is encouraging, the percentages obscure some fields (such as mathematics), where African American female degree attainment is 800% less than degree-attainment levels for white females!   Similarly, graduate school (and the subsequent advanced degree) is critical in preparing scientists to engage in high-level research and development, but also in forming professional networks.  These networks may not only help to open doors for careers in industry (such as those in Silicon Valley), but for opening doors to careers across all sectors. 

http://www.scientistafoundation.com/scientista-spotlights/why-so-few-african-american-women-in-stem-part-ii-by-the-numbers

I just donated money to an outfit that encourages black teens to go to college for engineering. Apparently the numbers for black people in these fields are way down.

Despite having repeatedly read that a larger percentage of black women earn degrees than white women and black men, both sometimes, there are a lot more white women and black men in STEM jobs than black women. 

So we have to do something. That first thing we should probably do is inspire out little girls.

You have to dream it 

in order to achieve it, 

no matter what IT actually is.

And playing with dolls 

has always been

a large part of a girl's dream cycle.

Why not start her dreaming 

of being a genius that changes the world?

DebLynn

First step? Ask Mattel to make Hidden Figures Barbies. Since we're dreaming and inspiring dreams we should have the dolls look like the movie characters That means that Octavia Spencer doll is gonna have to a bit more curvy

I couldn't figure out who to write at Mattel. So I just wrote the people who handle the press. If you're feeling energetic and optimistic, why not write to Mattel yourself at  press@mattel.com.

The more people that lean on them to make the dolls the better. The more people that lean on them the more convinced Mattel will be that there's a market for these dolls.

Or is there a black barbie-type doll maker that you think can do it better? 


Dream it
Work at it
Achieve it

Write Mattel or call them.

Happy New Year!

HIDDEN FIGURES is due to come out to theaters in wide release on January 6th. Sometimes a movie is cheap and easy history. Go see it! Then try a find a book on the three black women that won the space race for The United States 

AN INSPIRING WOMAN: TESS ASPLUND OF SWEDEN

Feeling Rebloggy

"Tess Asplund of Stockholm, Sweden was named one of this year's most inspiring women by the BBC for facing down 300 neo-Nazis marching through a town in central Sweden."

To see more work by photographer David Lagerlöf, visit his website at http://www.fotograflagerlof.se/

"Asplund, who was protesting the march with fellow anti-racist activists, says that her decision to step in front of hundreds of neo-Nazis was a spontaneous one: "I don’t think I even thought about it really, I just jumped out... I was angry so I stood and did a ‘Nelson Mandela fist." "

~A Mighty Girl

http://www.amightygirl.com/

Home of The world's largest collection of books and movies 

for smart, confident, and courageous girls.

Read More Of the "Mighty Girl" Write Uphttps://www.facebook.com/amightygirl/photos/a.360833590619627.72897.316489315054055/1190241341012177/?type=3&theater

An older article from The Daily Mail of the U.K.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3571113/The-moment-one-brave-woman-stands-300-Nazis-refuses-let-pass-Activist-s-defiant-gesture-fascist-march-Sweden.html

NY TIMEShttp://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/12/03/woman-who-faced-off-with-neo-nazis-named-one-of-years-most-inspiring-by-bbc/

GWEN IFILL: THE GRACEFUL INTERRUPTER DIES AT 61

Feeling Rebloggy

"With her appointment in 1999 [she came] to lead what was then called “Washington Week in Review,” she became one of the first black women to preside over a major national political show."

Judy Woodruff, a co-anchor on PBS News Hour said: “She didn’t mind telling anyone when she thought they were wrong, on camera. She kept it respectful. She was one of the most graceful interrupters I have ever seen.”

She did not let a lie just float when she did  interviews. A Peabody Award Winning Journalist, she made sure she tried to get to the truth whenever she was on screen. She moderated two vice presidential debates.

"A preacher’s daughter, Ms. Ifill (pronounced EYE-ful) grew up in a home where the church was paramount but familiarity with the news of the day was essentially a second religion. The Ifills gathered nightly to watch network newscasts, and the children were expected to be conversant in the major events of the civil rights and Vietnam War eras.

Because of her father’s low pay, she noted at one time that she was probably the only Washington journalist covering the Department of Housing and Urban Development who had also lived in federally subsidized housing." 

Read More: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/gwen-ifill-journalist-who-became-staple-of-public-affairs-tv-shows-dies-at-61/2016/11/14/2ae4c106-aa91-11e6-977a-1030f822fc35_story.html

I didn't realize how much she meant to me until she was gone. I missed her this election season. I thought she was just on vacation or something.
I hope to find a book about her life, her beliefs, and how she seemed to maintain her sense of self and push forward someday. Being able to interrupt someone gracefully in certain situations seems like an important life skill for members of an oppressed group. 

In the video below, President Obama offers condolences on Gwen Ifill's passing.

DANAI GURIRA, A PLAYWRIGHT BUILDING ONE BLACK CAREER AT A TIME

You may recognize Danai Gurira as an actress from the Walking Dead. But she's also a playwright that's been working for more than 10 years. She just had an all black female production on Broadway. Her play Eclipsed has been produced a few times on a few different stages and Uzo Aduba (Orange Is The New Black) was in one of her older productions.

Lupita Nyong'o, Danai herself, and Akosua Busia (Nettie in The Color Purple) gave her enough star power to get this latest production of Eclipsed on Broadway while also giving Nyong'o herself some much needed visibility. Nyong'o was in the last Star Wars, but you couldn't see her at all due to the costuming and make up. But now Nyong'o and Gurira both are due to be The Black Panther, due in theaters by 2018.

Saycon Sengbloh, of Eclipsed, has gone on to be in Shonda Rhimes' Scandal.  Lupita's rising visibility (and income) is allowing her to take more steps toward getting Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's book, Americanah, into movie theaters.

Danai Guirira has said that her goal is to get more black women working as actresses, directors, and the like and also telling more black women's stories. Guirira is well on her way. 

* * * * *

Some of her work is listed below.

I've actually seen both Eclipsed and In The Continuum. So, I expect great things from her. Other black women's careers will be based on her work. Those question marks in her tree will be replaced with photographs of other actresses, directors, and playwrights one day













ECLIPSED 
(Award Winning Play. Multiple productions. Most Recently On Broadway 2016)


NY TIMES REVIEW

The women depicted in Danai Gurira’s soul-searing “Eclipsed,” which opened on Broadway at the Golden Theater on Sunday, have lost just about everything. Their dignity, their freedom, their families, their hope. Perhaps most disturbingly, they have lost their own names, or rather tried to forget them.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/07/theater/review-in-eclipsed-a-captive-lupita-nyongo-is-captivating.html

* * * * *

Why Hillary Clinton and Beyonce 
Should See 'Eclipsed' on Broadway
(AN INTERVIEW WITH PASCALE ARMAND)

Eclipsed, Danai Gurira’s heartbreaking play about women conscripted into sex slavery during the Liberian civil war at the beginning of the 21st century, isn’t like anything else on Broadway at the moment.

It may have star power — with Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o in a pivotal part and Gurira, who's also known to many for her role on The Walking Dead [and Akosua Busia most famous for The Color Purple] — but it is relentless in its depiction of the brutality of war and how women are treated.

This is not a light evening of entertainment.


This year’s theater season could be seen as a direct rebuke of Hollywood’s #OscarsSoWhite fiasco, [with Eclipsed, The Color Purple, Shuffle Along, and Hamilton all featurings multi-ethnic casts.]  But Eclipsed is also making history as the first all-female, but all-black production in Broadway history.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/why-hillary-clinton-and-beyonce-should-see-eclipsed-on-broadway-20160325


THE CONVERT
(2011 - 2015)

From prodigiously talented playwright Danai Gurira (Eclipsed, In the Continuum) comes The Convert; winner of the 2011 Stavis Award and Edgerton Foundation New American Plays Award. In 1895 in the region that would become Zimbabwe, a girl is forced to choose between her family’s traditions and the Christian faith and Western values she has embraced. Born in the U.S. and raised in Zimbabwe, Gurira’s unique perspective and distinctive voice have created a compelling new play filled with humor and compassion.

http://www.mccarter.org/theconvert/


Two Women, One Story 
IN THE CONTINUUM
(from 2006)


The two-woman show In the Continuum began as a graduate school acting project. Now the off-Broadway show has been named one of the ten best plays of the year by The New York Times.

Nikkole Salter and Danai Gurira, who met at New York University, are the play's authors and actresses. Both play black women with HIV, as well as other characters. Salter is Nia, a teenage African-American girl. Gurira is Abigail Murambe, a newsreader for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corp. She's pregnant with a second child and having marital problems.

The material sounds grim, but Times drama critic Charles Isherwood says it's anything but a depressing experience.

"It's not a dirge. It's not a lecture," he says. "It's not preachy at all."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5202209