Gloria Steinem Biography

On March 25, 1934, Gloria Marie Steinem was born in Toledo, Ohio, to Ruth and Leo Steinem. Until 1946, little Gloria and her mother drove around the country in a trailer with Leo, who sold antiques door to door. Ruth homeschooled her daughter, since they were never in one place long enough for Gloria to enroll in school full time. The year Gloria turned eight, though, her traveling lifestyle ended – her parents got a divorce, and Gloria went to live with her mother in Toledo. Gloria’s early years were anything but carefree; the young girl faced the enormous responsibility of caring for her mother, who suffered from chronic depression. Eventually, when she was a senior in high school, Gloria moved to Washington, D.C. to live with her older sister. The next year, she entered Smith College, which she graduated magna cum laude in 1956. Gloria’s lifelong devotion to activism may have been catalyzed by her first post-college experiences; after commencement, Gloria traveled to India, where she studied for the next two years. In India, Gloria first became aware of the need for social change across the globe – as she observed during her time on the subcontinent, “America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people.” Once Gloria returned to the states, she put her newly developed social conscience to work by beginning a career in journalism. In 1960, she became the assistant editor of Help! magazine. She also did freelance work for several different publications. She wrote her first major investigative piece, entitled “A Bunny’s Tale,” about the experiences she had working as a waitress at a Playboy “gentleman’s club” for three weeks. The article was published in Show magazine in 1963. In it, Gloria exposed the sub par working conditions of the club – “bunnies” were underpaid and badly treated by customers. Her work after this became more overtly political and focused on women’s rights in particular – she wrote an article for Esquire about the way contemporary society forced women to choose between getting married or having a career, and in 1971, along with Bella Absug, Shirley Chrisholm, and Betty Friedan, she founded the National Women’s Political Caucus. A year later, Gloria created and began to serve as editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine, which looked at modern political and social issues from a feminist perspective. Over the next few decades, Gloria participated in the formation of several important feminist organizations, including the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Voters for Choice, and Women Against Pornography. Additionally, Gloria published several bestselling books, including Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, a collection of her essays (which includes “A Bunny’s Tale), and Marilyn: Norma Jean, a biography of film icon Marilyn Monroe. Although Gloria’s personal life has not always been free of challenges – her husband, David Bale, died only three years after they married, and she has suffered from both breast cancer and a rare nerve disease called trigeminal neuralgia – the 73-year-old activist is still a vigorous political force. She has not let personal tragedies slow her down; Gloria continues to be a role model for young women across the country and around the world.

Sources:
http://www.gale.com/free_resources/whm/bio/steinem_g.htm
http://www.britannica.com/women/article-9069551
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Steinem
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/1995/11/gorney.html

Colette: Historical Context

Colette: Historical Context
By Natalie Allen

Colette’s life spans the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century, a time of immense change, tumult and development for Europe and the rest of the world. In France, the Dreyfus affair divided the country and exposed deep-rooted anti-Semitism in the society. The country emerged as a major colonial power in Africa and Asia, a development accompanied by economic growth but also by a great number of polemics concerning the notions of “Civilization,” “Self” and “Other.” The nation lived through the hardship of the two World Wars and the Vichy regime. These latter events touched Colette very personally. Maurice Goudeket, her third husband and a Jew, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941 and taken into a detention camp. It took Colette seven weeks of relentless efforts to win his release.
The early 20th century ushered in an era of glamour but also of darkness in French society. The “Belle Epoque” revealed itself as an era of brilliance and style, of but also of boredom, perversity, and depression. Poverty was rampant and the misery of working class women contributed to a flourishing prostitution industry. At the same time, more and more people were beginning to question traditional social norms. A greater number of women were living independently in urban centers. Experimentation with sexuality and homoerotism increased, and developments in contraception allowed women a greater sexual freedom. The feminist movement continued to grow.
In literary and artistic circles, the first half of the twentieth century was an era marked by a rich array of new movements and the development of the avant-garde. A newfound interest in the unconscious, exemplified by Freud, was omnipresent. Marcel Proust combined social and psychological analysis in his masterpiece In Search of Lost Time, and surrealism exploded as an esthetic movement thanks to writers like André Breton. In the arts, cubism, fauvism, Dadaism, and other schools questioned traditional modes of representation in an effort to re-think and re-work the notion of art.
Taking these major currents into consideration, we might observe that Colette was a writer both of and “out of” her era. An independent woman working in the arts, her existence defied the social norms of the past and marked her as distinctly “modern.” Yet, though she was a model of “feminine liberation,” Colette consistently rejected the title of “feminist.” This aversion to labels and classifications also becomes significant when we place Colette’s work in the context of her era. Colette’s writing certainly reflects many of the preoccupations of her time. She seeks continually to explore the unconscious, and experiments with new strategies of representation, in particular, new ways of representing the self. However, in contrast to her masculine counterparts, Colette avoided ascribing to any particular ideology or set of esthetic standards. She never attached herself to a specific movement or “ism,” but sought rather to paint a portrait of the “daily lives of women.” It is certainly revealing that Colette, without question France’s preeminent female writer during the first half of the twentieth century, worked in such isolation.

References: see previous

Second Assignment

This is just a reminder that your second assignment is due this Saturday, March 16th.

Bio for Christiane Amanpour ** needs work**

Christiane Amanpour can truly be defined as an international woman. Born on January 12, 1958, in London to a family of mixed heritage, her mother a British woman and father an Iranian airline executive, Christiane Amanpour moved almost immediately with her family to Tehran. Having lived a privileged life in Iran, Christiane traveled back to the United Kingdom at age eleven to study at a number of prestigious girls schools. Her familyfled Iran following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and Christiane moved further west, to the United States, to study journalism at the University of Rhode Island.
After graduating summa cum laude from the University of Rhode Island with a bachelor of arts in journalism, Christiane worked at a local radio station in Providence, R.I., first as an electronic graphics designer and eventually as a reporter, before securing her first job at CNN in 1983. Christiane’s began her career at CNN as an assistant on the network’s international assignment desk in Atlanta. In 1989 her was relocated to a post in Frankfurt, Germany where she covered the dramatic revolutions taking place in Eastern Europe at the time.
Notably it was her coverage of the Persian Gulf War that transformed her and her fellow network from a position of relative obscurity to that of a household name. More and more did her assignments and investigations take her to the depths of war, a feat for which she has gained much respect and acclaim. Early examples such courageous war zone coverage include her reporting from the Bosnian War, Yugoslavia at the break-up of the Soviet Union, and Mogadishu, Somalia, as U.S. troops landed during Operation: Restore Hope.
In 1998, she married James Rubin, in who at the time worked as spokesman for the US State Department. The two of them had a son, Darius John Rubin, in 2000. The family currently resides in London; Christiane is based there as CNN’s Chief International Correspondent and Rubin works for Sky TV.
Yet Christiane, never slowing or fearing away, seems to grow continuously in her resolve. Her recent work with CNN is as fierce, daring, and timely as ever. In 2005 Christiane reported from the Tsunami-hit Sri Lanka as well as the hurricane-devastated Louisiana. Christiane covered the 2006 London terrorist attacks, the first democratic elections in Iraq, the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI. She continues to cover the conflict in Darfur and growing anti-American animosity in Iran. In her stories she has proven to never shy away from disaster and yet simultaneously always find the human heart in such conflicted places.
Christiane has received many prestigious awards due to her outstanding journalism, including two George Foster Peabody Awards, two George Polk Awards, a Courage in Journalism Award, a Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival Gold Award and the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. She helped CNN earn its first duPont award in 1985 with her contribution to the four-week series, ‘Iran: In the Name of God’. In total Christiane has also won nine Emmy awards, including one in 2002 for her documentary ‘Struggle for Islam’.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Bio

Born June 19th, 1945 in Rangoon, Burma, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to a politically influential family in Burma’s transition to independent rule. Her father was a nationalist leader who was deeply involved in the independence movement, but was assassinated before the formal transition from British colonialism to independent rule in 1947. She received an English education at Catholic schools in Burma. In 1960, her mother, Khin Kyi, became politically active and was appointed Burma’s ambassador to India. Aung San followed her mother to India where she further educated at the Lady Shri Ram College, part of the University of Delhi. Aung San graduated from Lady Shri Ram in 1964, after which she continued her studies at Oxford University, earning a B.A. in politics, philosophy and economics and graduating in 1967. After graduation she went to New York City to continue her studies and work at the United Nations. In 1972 she married Englishman and scholar of Tibetan studies, Michael Aris; a year later they welcomed the birth of their first child Alexander, in London. Five years later Aung San give birth to her second son, Kim. The family resided in England where Michael was a professor of Tibetan and Himalayan studies at Oxford. In 1988 she returned to Burma to care for her ailing mother. Aung San’s return to Burma is in the midst of a political upheaval. The socialist leader had stepped down and calls for democratization spread through the country. A military junta filled the power vacuum to the horror of democracy advocates. One of Aung San’s inspirations Gandhi, led to her non-violent approach in the struggle for democracy, and along with others, founds the National League for Democracy. In the following year of 1989, Aung San is placed under house arrest for the first time. The military government offered her freedom as an exile without the possibility of returning to her homeland, an offer that forced her to choose between being close to her loved ones and her country. In 1990 the military junta gave in to external pressure to hold elections and the National League for Democracy won decisively, meaning that Aung San would become Prime Minister. The military refused to respect the outcome of the elections despite international outcry and Aung San was again placed under house arrest. In 1991 she won the Nobel Peace Prize, which her son accepted on her behalf, and used the $1.3 million dollar prize to establish a trust for the health and education of the Burmese. In 1995 she was released from house arrest and allowed to leave her property, but knowing that she cannot leave Burma or she will not be able to return. Michael Aris was diagnosed with prostate cancer and the government refused to give him an entry visa, separating wife and husband during Michael’s illness and death in 1999 (on his 53rd birthday). Although no longer under house arrest, Aung San was constantly prevented from meeting with her party supporters, and she was again placed under house arrest in 2000. Aung San was then released from house arrest in 2002 due to UN negotiations with the government of Myanmar, but in 2003 her caravan was attacked by an armed government sponsored gang. She fled the scene, but was apprehended and imprisoned. After undergoing a hysterectomy later that year she was again placed under house arrest, which was meant to end in 2006, but the government has extended her release indefinitely.

Mother Teresa--biography

When looking at the latter half of the twentieth century, Mother Teresa is certainly among the most well-known and highly respected women in the world. Born in Yugoslavia in 1910, Mother Teresa was a humanitarian who graciously devoted her life to looking after the poor, the sick, the dying and the outcasts of our society. Her accomplishments were both extraordinary and selfless—she founded her own Order (Missionaries of Charity), established a home for the dying, as well a leper colony, authored books, and in 1979 she received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Although Mother Teresa died in 1997 at the age of 87, her work continues through the different projects she started throughout her lifetime. She was undoubtedly a beacon of hope whose tireless faith and devotion to humanity touched the lives of many people. Mother Teresa’s body may be dead but she remains a unique and immortal legend. She remains inspirational to many because her life is proof that happiness and serenity life in boundless giving and caring, rather than worrying about one’s own material comfort and security.

At the age of twelve, while attending a Roman Catholic elementary school, Mother Teresa recalled that she knew she had a vocation to help the poor. As a result, she decided to train for missionary work, and at the age of eighteen she joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with a mission in Calcutta. After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where in 1928 she took her initial vows as a nun. On May 24, 1931, she took the name of "Teresa" in honor of St. Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth-century Spanish nun.

From 1929 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School for Girls in Calcutta, but the suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on her that in 1946 she received permission from her archbishop to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poor in the slums of Calcutta. In 1948 Pope Pius XII granted Mother Teresa permission to live as an independent nun. After studying nursing for three months with the American Medical Missionaries in the Indian city of Patna, she returned to work in Calcutta.

In 1952 Mother Teresa began work for which the Missionaries of Charity has been noted ever since. She opened the "Nirmal Hriday (Pure Heart) Home for Dying Destitutes" in Calcutta. To fill the home, she and her fellow nuns gathered dying Indians off the streets of Calcutta and brought them to this home to care for them during the days before they died. A true demonstration of Mother Teresa’s selfless love.

Expanding her loving devotion in the mid-1950s, Mother Teresa began to help victims of leprosy. Under Mother Teresa's guidance, a leper colony was established on a plot of land near the city of Asansol, which was donated by the Indian government—it was named Shanti Nagar (Town of Peace). In 1965 Pope Paul VI placed the Missionaries of Charity directly under the control of the papacy (the office of the pope). As a result of its success, he also authorized Mother Teresa to expand the order outside of India. Centers to treat lepers, the blind, the disabled, the aged, and the dying were soon opened worldwide, including one in Rome in 1968.

Mother Teresa has fifty relief projects operating in India: these comprise work among slum-dwellers, children's homes, homes for the dying, clinics and a leper colony. The order has also spread to other countries, and undertakes relief work for the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Continually expanding, the order has also established itself in Italy, Great Britain, Ireland and the United States.

Mother Teresa’s life work and dedication can be summed up by the following excerpt from her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech:

"I choose the poverty of our poor people. But I am grateful to receive (the Nobel) in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, of the crippled, of the blind, of the lepers, of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared-for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone."

Works Cited:

- Mother Teresa: A complete Authorized Biography by: Kathryn Spink

- Faith and Compassion: The Life and Work of Mother Teresa by: Ragu Rai, Navin Chawla

- Mother Teresa: In My Own Words by: Mother Teresa, Jose Luis Gonzalez-Balado

- A Simple Path by: Mother Teresa, Lucinda Vardey

Colette: a biography

Colette (1873-1954): a biography
By Natalie Allen

In a studio photograph taken in 1909, Colette sits wrapped in a white cloth atop a wooden table. Legs stretched out, her right hand resting above her forehead, she turns her eyes downwards. Her short thick hair frames her striking angular features, and her figure radiates both a pensive serenity and an intense, explosive vitality. She is a young woman becoming her own.
Colette’s unusual and exhilarating journey began in a small village in the Burgundy region of France. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, who would later be known simply as “Colette,” was born in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye to a former Captain father and a strong, modern-minded mother. As a child she spent her hours in gardens and with music, and grew to be an accomplished pianist. In her early years, Colette claims, she never thought of writing. But in 1893, at the age of 20, Colette married Henry Gauthier-Villars, or “Willy,” a notorious Parisian writer and music critic, and suddenly found herself thrown into the literary scene of the French capital. Willy soon discovered his wife’s natural talent and decided to take advantage of it. In 1900, Claudine at School, Colette’s first novel, appeared in Parisian bookstores under Willy’s name. The text, which chronicles the adventures of a provincial schoolgirl with a particular eye for the erotic, became both an immediate scandal and a sensation.
After her divorce in 1906, Colette further shocked bourgeois society by launching a career as a music hall girl. She performed at the Moulin Rouge, danced on stage half naked and in exotic costumes, and traveled throughout France on tour. Colette’s experience as a performer and a divorcée awakened her consciousness to a number of social problems in Belle Epoque France. The poverty, illness, and depression of artists, the hardship but also the liberation of living independently as a woman, would later become major themes in Colette’s writing.
Writing was, of course, Colette’s primary endeavor, and she was as prolific as she was talented. During the course of her lifetime she wrote over (50) novels, in addition to short stories and plays. Her most famous work, Gigi, later took shape in both theatrical and cinematographic form. A journalist as well as an author of fiction, Colette was one of the first women to report on WWI from the front lines, and she also covered some of the greatest legal trials of her era. She rose to the position of literary editor at Le Matin, a major Parisian newspaper, and wrote columns on a wide variety of subjects, from fashion to unemployment and domestic violence. Later in her life, Colette tried her hand in the cosmetics business, opening a beauty salon and her own line of products.
Once a marginalized artist, Colette rose to prominence in some of the most prestigious cultural institutions in France. In 1945 she was elected to the Académie de Goncourt – an organization that had long excluded women from its ranks, and in 1953 became an officer of the Legion of Honor. Colette, a woman who had once said: “death doesn’t interest me, not even my own,” was the first French woman to receive a state funeral.
Today, we know Colette best for her fiction, most of which is strongly autobiographical in nature. Though she was a celebrity and wrote stories that seemed like chronicles of her own life, Colette remained a deeply enigmatic figure. Consciously constructing her image in the public spotlight, she resisted revealing her “true self,” and it is only through the careful juxtaposition of Colette with her characters that we can begin to sketch out her portrait. She was, by any account, a woman of extraordinary vigor and fierce individuality with a strong abhorrence for convention. She loved animals, particularly cats, and the landscape of the (Burgundian) countryside. She had a taste for exercise and physical fitness, but she also rejected growing diet trends and standards of thinness for women; she relished food and reveled in the voluptuousness of her body. Her three consecutive marriages did not preclude her from taking lovers, and she had amorous affairs with both men and women. The most famous of these intrigues, Colette’s romance with Bertrand de Jouvenel, her second husband’s teenage son, was rendered particularly provocative by the fact that Colette’s novel Chéri, written just a few years earlier, had depicted a parallel scenario. The “coincidence” led Colette to cite the Oscar Wilde’s phrase: “what one writes, comes to pass.”
In a photograph taken around 1950, near the end of her life, Colette stares intensely ahead. Arthritic, (deaf), and nearly blind, she wears heavy made-up and wraps her neck in a luxurious scarf. Her expression still exudes its characteristic fire and astute intelligence. Colette was, as biographer Judith Thurman puts it, a “Nietzschean without knowing it.” Her life was one of affirmation and continual rebirth. Her once vigorous body deteriorating, Colette never lost her mental prowess, and continued to be active and productive until her end. It is this relentless, singular passion that continues to inspire us today.

Selected References:
- Colette, Oeuvres Complètes, Paris, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1986.
- Flieger, Jerry Aline, Colette and the Fantom Subject of Autobiography, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1992.
- Pichois, Claude and Alain Brunet, Colette, Paris, Editions de Fallois, 1999.
- Thurman, Judith, Secrets of the Flesh: A Llife of Colette, New York, Afred A. Knopf, 1999.
- Many thanks to Professor Elizabeth Ladenson, PhD Columbia, for her help and suggestions.

Amy Goodman--biography

First draft: (about 700 words)

Amy Goodman has been characterized, somewhat wryly, somewhat reverentially, as “beaming from some alternative left galaxy.” She can certainly be considered a major icon of the leftist movement, but—as her scores of fans swell in ranks each day and her news program reaches an ever-growing audience—she is acquiring a legion of admirers from all colors of the political spectrum. Goodman is a journalist, author, activist, pacifist, and host of the radio and television program Democracy Now! A figurehead and fervent proponent of the independent media, she dives headlong into stories and controversies that no one else dares to tackle or even raise.

Born in 1957 in Bayshore, New York, Amy Goodman is the descendant of Hasidic rabbis and the daughter of peace activists. In 1984, she graduated with a degree in anthropology from Harvard University. Living with her parents on Long Island, contemplating graduate school in biochemistry, she happened to one day discover the “peace and justice” radio station WBAI, Pacifica Radio’s station in New York City. "I was just completely shocked by this place I stumbled on. It was just raw. It was all the beauty and horror that is New York in all of its myriad accents. And I said, What is this place?" She proceeded to spend ten years as producer its evening news show. Her radio program Democracy Now, which she co-founded in 1996, currently airs on approximately 300 stations in North America and has been hailed as “probably the most significant progressive news institution that has come around in some time" by professor and media critic Robert McChesney.

Democracy Now! is an independent news outlet that effectively represents what Amy Goodman stands for: purveying and spearheading the power of dissent. Goodman embraces those points of view that have been shunned, overlooked, and excluded by the mainstream news media, embraces those groups of people that have shunned, overlooked, and excluded. Her overarching philosophy concerns the right of the listener and the responsibility of the journalist: her listeners have a right to know what other media sources do not tell. The calling of the journalist is to “go to where the silence is”, hold those in power accountable, engage in unembedded reporting and refuse to let issues pushed aside by corporate networks fade from public consciousness. Media, for Goodman, should “build bridges” and “dignify life” by allowing the individual to tell her story. The perspective of the silenced and the victimized must mercifully come to light. Working with community bookstores, radio and television across the country, Amy Goodman is at the forefront of a movement to oppose media consolidation and the engulfing of public airwaves by the corporate elite by building up a stronghold of diverse media outlets.

A recipient of journalism’s highest honors, including the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting and the George Polk Award, Amy Goodman has investigated human rights violations in such countries as East Timor, Nigeria, Haiti, and Peru. In 1991, during a trip to East Timor, she and a fellow journalist were nearly killed in a massacre of at least 271 Timorese. Professedly one of the most horrifying moments of her life, Goodman was able to escape by virtue of what she speculates to have been her American passport. That single moment that laid bare the grim realness of war seems to have a pivotal moment in her career, tied to her activist style of journalism that has garnered both praise and censure. Amy Goodman's indie-media celebrity status has all but flourished in recent years. She is currently touring across the country to promote two books she has co-authored with her brother, David Goodman, including the New York Times bestseller The Exception to the Rulers. Using the opportunity to speak against the homogeny of corporate media and to raise money for community broadcasters, she pumps her fist at the end of her speeches and proclaims her mantra “Democracy Now!” She seems not to be an author promoting a book but the leader of a groundbreaking movement, a movement to create a public forum in which people can speak freely, a diversity of voices are represented, and “a democratic media serving a democratic society” is thrust into the forefront.

Sources used:

www.wikipedia.org

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050523/ratner

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0506-22.htm

http://www.yesmagazine.com/article.asp?ID=1183

http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Amy_Goodman.html

A Recap of our meeting

The date of our upcoming exhibition is set for September 10, 2007.

In preparation, each one of you is expected to research 2 women featured in the triptych. Because some of you had originally expressed interest in the same women, make sure to post your 2 selections by next Saturday to avoid duplicating searches.

Based on the poster template provided here, your findings will be divided into four columns, or three areas of biographical research and one personal essay. These columns, under headings of Biography, Context, Contribution, and Reflections, Discovery will run 500 to 700 words in length and will correspond to four separate assignments for each one of the women selected. The columns' contents are to be organically meshed.

Your research will also include finding two quotes per woman for display in your poster presentation. One of these will be chosen for the companion book to the triptych.

1st & 5th Assignments: BIOGRAPHY – This column should consist of an overview of each woman’s life based on your own interpretation and analysis of the basic facts, events, influences and anecdotes that shaped her life. But really, you are telling a story. Make it a compelling one. Your lead will be important in setting a first tone and in engaging the reader.

Due dates: March 3rd (1st woman)
April 28th (2nd woman)

2nd & 6th Assignments: CONTEXT – This column should define the period in which the woman lived and worked. Consider all aspects: historical, political, cultural, intellectual, social and economic. Think in terms of a global stage. “Context” will inform both the women’s biographies and their contributions.

Due dates: March 17th (1st woman)
May 12th (2nd woman)

3rd & 7th Assignments: CONTRIBUTION – This column should be about the women’s impact and legacy through their accomplishments. Questions to think about: What impact had society on these particular women? How did their cultural, economic and political background affect their development, their actions? How did they advance various issues/causes in their own field, time, and for future generations? What motivated them to take risks, to challenge the status quo, to contribute to their time? How did these women impact the lives of their contemporaries? Were they aware of being role models, of paving the way for generations to come? What did they sacrifice to achieve their goals? How can their contributions help change the course of peoples’ lives in the future? These questions and the answers they yield will inevitably help you choose the most defining quotes.

Due Dates: March 31st (1st woman)
May 26th (2nd woman)

4th & 8th Assignments: REFLECTIONS, DISCOVERY – This column must be a personal, reflective essay on your experience of having researched these extraordinary women and should include a justification for your quote selections. If you wish and as discussed at the meeting, you could also present a part of an interview you conducted, a song analysis, a poem, or whatever else your discovery has inspired you to write.

Due Dates: April 14th (1st woman)
June 9th (2nd woman)


For those of you leaving before the final deadline, you must turn in your work at least a week early so that we can review it and edit it before you go. Your poster presentation has to be perfect for display.

Your contribution to the mission of this project matters. You will be proud of your accomplishment.

And remember, Smart Women make a difference!

Progress Report - Gloria Steinem

I have to be honest – my interest in Gloria Steinem was partially piqued because of a made-for-TV movie I saw on Lifetime once, entitled “A Bunny’s Tale.” It stars Kirstie Allie as Gloria Steinem when she famously went undercover as a Playboy Bunny at the magazine’s New York club in order to write an expose about the deplorable working conditions bunnies had to put up with. I had heard of Steinem before, of course, but this movie fascinated me; I couldn’t believe it was based on a true story. Of course, when I found out more about Steinem, I was even more interested in her - I greatly admire her for her contributions to feminism, including the creation of Ms. Magazine and cofounding the National Women's Political Caucus.

During the course of my research on Gloria Steinem, I have had the opportunity to actually read the essay she wrote after going undercover at Playboy, entitled “I Was A Playboy Bunny.” It can be found in an anthology of her writing called “Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions,” which contains essays and articles Steinem wrote between the 1960s and the 1990s. Even the Playboy article, which is the oldest in the collection, sounds surprisingly fresh and modern, which is a testament to Steinem’s dynamic writing ability.

I’ve also done extensive research on Steinem online, checking out various websites that have biographies of her and discuss her role in the feminist movement. The online research has led me to several pithy quotes, like “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off,” and “At my graduation, I thought we had to marry what we wished to become. Now you are becoming the men you once would have wished to marry.” However, I have yet to come across one perfect quote that I think best encapsulates everything that Gloria Steinem was and is – an entrepreneur, a witty writer and speaker, and a feminist revolutionary.

There’s one quotation from the preface of “Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions” that may come close – “Indeed, backlash itself is a tribute to success; the dangerous but inevitable result of turning the majority consciousness toward equality, thus turning the former anti-equality majority into an irate minority that still thinks it can dictate what is legal and even what is normal.” This might be a little too long, though; I’m going to keep reading through this book and others that she’s read. Maybe I’ll find the right quotation in something more recent. Butler Library probably has old issues of Ms. archived, so they would probably be a good place to quote-hunt (I'm also just interested in what the magazine looked like back then). I’ve also been thinking about going over to Barnard and asking a Women’s and Gender Studies professor if he/she has any ideas of where I could look.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey

Michelle: Your efforts at discovering the woman behind the public persona are yielding insightful results. Oprah’s passionate interests and commitment to education, learning, philanthropy, and the African-American cultural experience - as you have established - are not only what make her who she is at the core but they also fuel her public persona. Honoring her roots, embracing her blackness are another source of her inner strength and power. Sure, Oprah’s public persona is the face she presents to the world when she works but is it really what defines her?

Of the quotes you posted, the first 2 are excellent choices and perfectly suited to our project. Both are revealing and define Oprah inasmuch as that they speak to the core values outlined in your report. Although it is difficult to choose between the 2, I may be partial to the 2nd quote because, with that statement, Oprah is both bringing up the rear in a long line of extraordinarily courageous women and a leading figure in the empowerment of generations to come.

Of interest to all: An exhibition on slavery and the many ways it shaped New York is currently on view at the New York Historical Society. Find the time to see it! Its title: New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War.

Excellent report Michelle!

Progress- Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is arguably one of the most influential icons of the world. As a woman, I have always admired Oprah Winfrey because her life journey truly epitomizes the "American Dream"; It is thanks to Oprah Winfrey that many people like myself have never lost hope about what can be accomplished in one’s life. From her childhood in the prejudice and impoverished South to her status as the first Black American billionaire, her accomplishments are limitless. Despite harsh criticisms and efforts to break her down, Oprah has become one of the most influential voices because of her philanthropic, educational and social efforts and her commitment to heal the world through culture and morality.
Researching Oprah’s life has proved be quite a difficult task (simply because Oprah has touched every aspect of American popular culture) but I am dedicated to researching her not so much as a television host, an actress or a philanthropist but more so as a woman and a human being. Undoubtedly, Oprah’s public persona defines her but her passion for books, slavery and the black women who paved ways for her are some of the things that make Oprah who she is outside of the spotlight.
The two books I’ve read thus far are "Oprah Winfrey: A Biography" by Helen S. Garson and "Oprah Winfrey Speaks: Insight of the World’s Most Influential Voice" by Janet Lowe and Oprah Winfrey.
These quotes are the ones that caught my attention. These quotes are helping me understand Oprah:
1."The fact that I was created a Black woman in this lifetime, everything in my life is built around honoring that. I feel a sense of reverence to that. I hold it sacred. And I am always asking myself the question ‘What do I owe in service of having been created a Black woman."

2."I have crossed over the backs of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Madam C. J. Walker. Because of them I can now live the dream. I am the seed of the free, and I know it. I intend to bear great fruit."

3. "I am what I am because of my grandmother. My strength. My sense of reasoning. Everything. All that was set by the time I was six."

(Oprah has always given praise to the pioneers of the African-American community who positively shaped her life. It is with the courage and strength of people like Sojourner Truth and her grandmother that Oprah was able to persevere. She lives her life knowing that she has a responsibility to be a positive role model just like those who were role models for her.)

4."Blackness is something I just am. I’m Black. I’m a woman. I wear a size 10 shoe. It’s all the same to me."

5. "I always feel if you do right, right will follow."

(Oprah refuses to frame herself; She consistently tries to escape social and political constraints and she takes pride in knowing that the broadness and righteousness of cultures and morals are the key to understanding her success.)

I'm currently looking for more books and people that can help me further my research.

Mother Teresa - Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday

Research seems to be going really well and it sounds as if your conversations with Boston ministers provided you with valuable leads.

Considering Mother Teresa’s significant contribution and impact as a humanitarian around the world, your decision to explore the notion of her humility makes perfect sense. The power of humility as it relates to faith (religious or other) and as a social value is what I assume you are referring to here. If not, clarifying your thought will be crucial to helping you select and justify your quote selections ultimately, so think about it. For some insight and historical perspective on the subject, I recommend you read Mary M. Keys’ paper A "Monkish Virtue" outside the Monastery: On the Social and Civil Value of Humility.

Set aside the short prayer you found inspiring as you may want to include it in your final poster display.

The same goes for the work you have already done on Billie Holiday. You should consider posting and using the musical analysis you wrote on her songs as part of your poster presentation. Also, would you be able to put Strange Fruit and What a Little Moonlight Can Do on our blog? We could all hear them. In fact, those songs could also be part of our installation when the time comes to exhibit.

Great work Ngozi, congratulations!

Progress

Dear All -
Last semester I posted translations and analysis of two Colette quotes that I thought would be promising for the book. I'm now working on biographical research in order to write a more substantive justification for my choices. I'll send a full reflection in the next few days!
best wishes to all - Natalie

Mother Teresa and Billie Holiday

Mother Teresa has always been a person that I have greatly admired for her tireless work, the love and caring she gave to the poor and sick. Mother Teresa’s body may be dead but she remains a unique and immortal legend. She remains inspirational to many because she is everlasting proof that happiness and serenity lie in boundless giving and caring, rather than worrying about one’s own material comfort and security. The one word that comes to mind which I think best describes her is: humility. Therefore, I will be focusing on that concept when finalizing some quotes that I think capture her true essence.

Some Parish priests that I spoke with other winter break recommended many resources from Catholic Digest, Boston Catholic Television (BCTV), EWTN, and other catholic organizations. I found a short Prayer for Mother Teresa, and while I won’t post it on this blog, I hold it dear to my heart because of its genuine motivation. This prayer also highlights Mother Teresa's daily commitment (I can bring it to our next meeting).

After talking with some Eucharistic ministers at the archdiocese of Boston (Cathedral of the Holy Cross) I was told to research/review a visit and interview that documented Mother Teresa’s visit with the Franciscan community of Cincinnati in 1981. The information that I’ve discovered regarding that event is monumental for many reasons, but mostly because Mother Teresa held St. Francis of Assisi in great reverence (almost like a role model).

Along with the textual resources that I have reviewed, I have also watched the video Everyone, Everywhere where Mother Teresa candidly discusses many vital issues like “Who Are the Poor,” “How Do We Love,” and some of her own “Encounters”. Overall, I look forward to finalizing some of her strongest words.

At the simplest level, Billie Holiday was a phenomenal artist and woman. Even seen in the first record that she ever recorded—Holiday introduces innovative, artistic interpretations that place her skills and technique above par. Though she lacked the voluminous strength of predecessors like Bessie Smith, Holiday’s voice had a large impact that didn’t have to be measured in projection. However, running alongside her musical success was Holiday’s incessant struggle with drug and physical abuse. It’s very interesting/ironic to see how modern black female artists want to claim the shining/redeeming qualities of Holiday, but not the negative legacy of her drug abuse. My research around the infamous Billie Holiday has led me to a somewhat problematic standstill. Did the tragedies of her life affect her voice in the long run? Or was her vocal genius independent of her troubling experiences? With further research I hope to reach relatively conclusive answers. To help with my analysis I’ve been reviewing Farah Griffin’s latest book entitled With Billie. I’ve also reviewed Griffin’s essay on Billie and literature in the latest big box of complete works from Sony. There’s also a portrait of Billie’s experiences in Malcolm X’s Autobiography.

Since I’m a huge fan of jazz, and an admirer of Holiday’s music I have also written a musical analysis of two songs that I think isolate one of the most striking aspects of Holiday’s work: her ability to renew our attention by eschewing or complicating the expected emotional tenor of a song. The two songs I used were her first recording of Strange Fruit and What a Little Moonlight Can Do. I definitely recommend that everyone listens to those two songs alongside the lyrics—they’re both phenomenal!

I have a diverse collection of resources that will provide me with some of Billie’s most poignant words. One of the jazz professors at Columbia, Robert G. O’Meally, also recommended that I read a related novel entitled Corregidora by Gayl Jones. Though this book isn’t a direct biography of Billie Holiday, Jones tells a story that highlights female relationships to music and society (using conversational moments with a poetic cadence). I really enjoyed this book on so many levels and I think her words will help me draw correlations to Holiday’s musical career and life struggles.

Quotes and Progress Report

Rosa Luxemburg
Julia is quite right – there is a plethora of quotes readily available, easily accessible on line and in such reference books as The Quotable Woman.

However, to make an informed decision on a final selection of quotes for each of the women selected for research, it is essential to dig deeper into the search, below the surface. My last post addressed this specifically. Please read it carefully and remember that quotes are the end result. In fact, let me suggest that quotes be left aside for now.

Write a portrait of the women you are researching taking into account that politics, events and people shape lives, actions and times historically. These women are/were visionaries, pioneers, intellectuals, creators, scientists, leaders, fascinating women from all over the world, from all walks of life who broke barriers, explored, challenged, rebelled, fought – often at a cost to themselves – to advance the human condition, not to mention those liberties and rights we take for granted today. What better way to measure their accomplishments than to understand the road they have traveled.

Julia: The historian Blanche Wiesen Cook wrote a compelling biography of Eleanor Roosevelt in 2 volumes that I recommend you read. It was published by the Penguin Group under the Viking imprint.

Of interest to all, there is an instructive online exhibition on The History of Women and Education in America at The National Women's History Museum. Visit it, read it, it will be enlightening.

Reports are past due! Please post your progress. Note that I will be looking for substance in this next report.

Eleanor Roosevelt

I've been looking through a ton of Eleanor Roosevelt quotes (they are very easily available from multiple sources), and given her attitude toward life, which I believe she demonstrated in her private and public lives, I have narrowed it down to these three:

"A woman is like a tea bag -- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water."

"I could not at any age be content to take my place in a corner by the fireside and simply look on."

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences."

All three of them demonstrate her commitment to living a full life, her love for knowledge and the force with which she fearlessly exerted in her political projects.

progress

Hope you all had a very good break! After several weeks of e-mailing and waiting, I have finally been able to contact the outreach director of Democracy Now , a radio program hosted by Amy Goodman. I arranged to meet with him--and hopefully Amy Goodman!--in the near future. In the meantime, I am working on developing questions that I want to pose to Amy Goodman. Since I assume our interview time will probably be brief, I want the questions I ask to be concise yet well thought out. I am excited to interview a famous journalist and hopefully this meeting will be very informative and enrich and advance my research on her.

~Veronica

Hi, everyone! Just wanted to wish all of you a happy New Year and say that I'll be posting a progress report shortly. I hope everyone's having a good break!

On Reporting your Progress

Amy Goodman for Veronica

It took 2 years of living with close to 400 women in my head before I was able to make the first mark on canvas and begin my final selection process.

In the past three months, you have selected and begun research on one or several of the women represented in Leading the Way: A Tribute to Women of the 20th Century. A few of you have even suggested some quote options for our project.

Given that you are due to post an update before your next term begins, let me guide your next progress report. At this point in your research, I am curious and would like to hear about your discoveries. Specifically, what you are learning about the women you chose to study. I would like to hear about your impressions, your insights and would like to know whether they are starting to come to life for you.

As mentioned previously, finding the quotes is the easy part. And while they can provide valuable insight into the character of these women, let us not forget that they are the end result not the process. Getting to know these women and understand the value of their contributions to our collective history is really what this internship is at the root.

Whether you are posting a progress report or a quote presentation, assume that your audience has never heard of these women and present your findings accordingly.

Again, let yourself be guided by the project’s mission : "To instruct, inspire and increase awareness of women’s essential contribution to our societies past and present ".