Celebrate Women's History 2021 - Gertrude of Nivelles

by Dick Mac

Gertrude of Nivelles was born around 628, in Landen, Kingdom of Austrasia (present-day Belgium), and died on March 17, 659. 

During this time in history, marriage was used to forge political alliances.  Gertrude was asked at 10-years-old if she wanted to marry a prince.  She was adamant in her refusal and she was not forced to marry. When her father and brother died, she turned to a monastic life.

Gertrude gave her life to charity and abstinence and was in her early thirties when she died. It was written that she was "exhausted by a life of charity, fasting and prayer" at the end of her short life; and that "because of too much abstinence and keeping of vigils . . . her body was sorrily exhausted with serious illness."

Christianity was not widespread in Gertrude's time and she was a participant in the earliest days of of evangelism and the development of monasteries as cities began to grow in Europe. Against the wishes of the local royal family, she and her mother established two monasteries, one for women and one for men. Eventually, they relocated to Nivelles and at 24, she took over the running the monastery there. 

To be canonized as a saint, one must have performed at least two miracles.  

The first miracle attributed to Gertrude was a miraculous vision at the altar of the martyr Pope Sixtus II (referred to as the "Vision of the True Light") where a flaming sphere illuminated the entire basilica.

The second miracle is called the "salvation of the sailors" and it is said that when a ship at sea foundered, and the sailors called out to pagan gods, one cried out to Gertrude who immediately quelled the storm.

She was canonized and her feast day declared by Pope Clement XII in 1677. 

St. Gertrude of Nivelles, O.S.B., is the patron saint of Nivelles, travelers, gardeners, and her grace is requested to ward-off mental illness, rats, and mice.  In more recent times, because of a painting of her cradling a cat, she is also known as the patron saint of cats.

I chose to write about Gertrude today, March 17, 2021, not because of my personal religious beliefs, any endorsement of churches, or a belief in miracles, but because this day is generally reserved for the celebration of a man: St. Patrick, a Roman slave raised in Ireland.  During Women's History Month, it is important to acknowledge that women played a role in the establishment of Christianity, for better or worse, and that they rarely receive any credit for their work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_of_Nivelles

Image credit:

by a Flemish painter - Unknown source, Public Domain

Celebrate Women's History 2021 - Sojourner Truth

by Dick Mac

Sojourner Truth was born enslaved as Isabella "Belle" Baumfree in Swartekill, New York, around 1797 and died in Battle Creek, Michigan, on November 26, 1883 of unknown causes, attended by her daughters. She was about 86 years old. She was an abolitionist, orator, and women's rights activist. 

The State of New York abolished slavery as of July 4, 1827. Her captor promised to free her the year before, but changed his mind, claiming that she had not been productive enough to earn her freedom. She continued working to satisfy her obligation, and late in 1826, she escaped with her infant daughter, Sophia, sadly leaving her other children behind because they were not legally freed in the emancipation order which maintained they were bound servants until they reached their twenties.

A family in New Paltz, New York took her and her baby in, and offered to buy her services from her captor for the remaining year of her enslavement. He paid $20 and she and Sophia lived with that family until the New York State Emancipation Act was approved a year later.

Truth learned that her 5-year-old son Peter had been sold illegally to an owner in Alabama. With the help of the her new friends, she took the issue to court and in 1828 and won, making her the first black woman ever to file suit against a white man and win. Peter was returned to her and she learned the awful truth that he had been badly abused by his captors. 

She gave birth to 13 children, most of whom were born into slavery and taken from her.

During this time, Truth had a religious awakening and she moved to New York City with Peter and worked as a housekeeper. Her spiritual awakening led her to a life of charity and activism.

Peter took a job on a whaling ship, but when the ship returned to port years later, Peter was not on board. He was never heard from again, and the story of his loss is unknown.

In 1843, Belle Baumfree changed her name to Sojourner Truth and began traveling the country speaking about abolition and women's rights. At the 1851 Ohio Women's Rights Convention she delivered her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech.

She settled in Massachusetts in the 1840s and continued her activism there until 1857, when she moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, and rejoined a religious community that was working on the abolition of slavery.

During the Civil War, she worked diligently to recruit black soldiers for the US Army.

Bravery is a word that barely describes Sojourner Truth. She stood up to be heard and counted in a country that saw her as less-than-human, and her eloquence forced the ear of all to hear her. She never backed-down and she lived fearlessly.

Sojourner Truth is a hero.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth

Watch "Ain's I A Woman?" performed by Pat Theriault:

https://youtu.be/XilHJc9IZvE

Photo Credit:

Randall Studio

Celebrate Women's History 2021 - Anita Hill

by Dick Mac

Anita Faye Hill was born in Lone Tree, Oklahoma, on July 30, 1956. She is a lawyer and educator. She attended Oklahoma State University and received her law degree at Yale. She is currently a professor at Brandeis University whose work focuses on social policy, law, and women's studies. She held positions at both the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Hill came forward during Clarence Thomas' undeserved nomination to the United States Supreme Court, in 1991, to expose the sexual harassment by him that she endured at the DOE. She was condemned by men across the country, Republican and Democrat alike. 

Hill maintains that Thomas asked her out socially many times during her two years as his assistant, and when she refused he began conversations about sexual acts such as gang rape and bestiality while bragging about his own sexual prowess and penis size.

She put up with this harassment because she believed, as we are taught, that if she did her best work, her career would progress and she would be out of this situation.  This thinking almost always results in more abuse and a dead-end, and Hill learned this the hard way.

During the Congressional hearings, witnesses waited to testify on her behalf and due to the actions of now-President Joe Biden, they were never heard. Hill readily agreed, and took a polygraph test, but the men in Congress suddenly took the position that polygraph results cannot be relied upon. Of course, Hill's polygraph results supported her accusations. Thomas did not take a polygraph test. 

Thomas claimed racism was at the root a "campaign" against him, because he was a "conservative." His supporters claimed Hill  was delusional or had been spurned, leading her to seek revenge. These are standard tactics men use against women to this day.

In 1993, male supremacist hack David Brock wrote a book levelling charges that he eventually recanted.  Brock is the worst kind of human being: profiteering off the suffering of another, knowing he is lying, and knowing that he can recant at a later date with no consequences.

Thomas maintains to this day that Hill was acting as an operative for pro-choice liberals fearing that he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Another example of a powerful man covering-up his bad, even criminal, behavior by pretending he is a victim. This makes Thomas the most disgusting kind of perpetrator.

Men have been silencing women's accusations of sexual harassment for thousands of years, but since the latter half of the twentieth century, it is even more egregious because all men know it is wrong, no longer have the excuse of ignorance, and continue to abuse their power.  Even on the left I heard men say that if Hill had remained silent, Thomas probably would not have been approved because he was totally unqualified for the position. All this proves is that men, like a pack of animals, always stick together to protect the privilege they believe is their right. 

Anita Hill stood up against male supremacy and the most powerful men in the world and was reviled for it. Anita Hill is an American hero.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Hill

Photo credit:

Gage Skidmore

Celebrate Women's History 2021 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg

by Dick Mac

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (nee Joan Ruth Bader) was born March 15, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, and died on September 18, 2020, in Washington, D.C.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the associate justice of the United States Supreme Court who had the most significant cultural impact on American society, not just because of her interpretations of Constitutional Law, but her presence as an American woman in the workplace and in the media as a lawyer, mother, and intellectual. During her tenure, she became known as Notorious RBG, a moniker that paid homage to her toughness and resilience, as well as comparing her to another tough Brooklyn superstar, Chris Wallace, the rapper known as Notorious B.I.G.  The significance of RBG being held in the same esteem as Biggie Smalls speaks to the level at which she transcended all cultural and socio-political boundaries.

Ginsburg was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1993, by President Bill Clinton. She was the second woman Justice and the first Jewish woman Justice. She earned her bachelor's degree at Cornell University, started law school at Harvard and transferred to Columbia, back in New York City, where she graduated first in her class. She was an unwavering advocate for gender equality and women's rights, as well as voting rights and the rights of indigenous people, and as a lawyer won many arguments before the Supreme Court. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

On the Supreme Court, her arguments in dissent of findings were often as significant as those in which she sat with the majority. For example, her dissenting opinion in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., inspired the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act signed into law in 2009 which cleared obstacles to employees making pay discrimination claims.  

Her support of abortion rights was persistent and she condemned the tactics and methodology used by anti-abortion activists in Congress to reach conclusions, questioning the veracity, the basic accuracy, of their arguments. She had a keen eye for the way in which laws were written, especially when they were being presented as protecting women's health when they were in fact written to restrict access to abortion.

In her personal life, she married Martin Ginsburg after graduating law school and is survived by him, a son and a daughter. Despite her battle with cancer, she did not retire from the bench and attempted to hold on until the then-current president left office so her successor could be appointed by a person with some understanding of jurisprudence.  Unfortunately, she died before the 2020 election, and she has been replaced on the bench by a young religious fanatic who will work over many decades to undo the remarkable progress made by Americans in the second-half of the twentieth century.

RBG embraced her role in popular culture, took very seriously her job as a Justice, and she is the most important face of American jurisprudence. The world died a little bit on the day of her passing. Her legacy is remarkable and it is up to all of us to ensure that we as a society do not erase the hard work done by RBG and her colleagues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Bader_Ginsburg

Watch this video of a discussion between RBG and NPR's Nina Totenberg:

https://youtu.be/dK-Q4-8fuWI

Photo credit:

Supreme Court Photographer Steve Petteway

Celebrate Women's History 2021 - Ann Richards

by Dick Mac

Dorothy Ann Richards (née Willis) was born in McLennan County, Texas, on September 1, 1933, and died of cancer on September 13, 2006.

Richards was an politician who came to the national spotlight while the Democratic State Treasurer of Texas who delivered the rousing keynote speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Two years later, she was elected the Governor of Texas and is the last Democrat to hold that office since. She was an outspoken and unapologetic feminist, who was a brilliant thinker with an edgy intellectual wit.

She raised four children while building her enormously successful career. In 1980, she sought help for alcoholism and lived the remainder of her life as a sober person.

As governor, Richards faced the economic slump in Texas with revitalization programs that showed growth for Texas while the rest of the nation's fortunes were shrinking. Her efforts to reform the Texas bureaucracy resulted in a half-billion dollar savings (back in the days when a billion dollars was a lot of money).

She reformed the prison system by establishing recovery programs for inmates living with addiction and alcoholism. She promoted the control of semi-automatic guns. She also instituted the first Texas Lottery as a way to finance schools, which were a key issue for her.

To her detriment, she re-instituted laws that criminalized homosexuality, in spite of the fact that her campaign platform included a promise to repeal those laws.

After leaving electoral politics, she remained active in political and cultural campaigns including the development of "Austin City Limits" and the "SXSW Music Festival."

The Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin has been renamed to "Ann Richards Bridge."

A few years after her death, the one-woman show "Ann: An Affectionate Portrait of Ann Richards" began performances staged in San Antonio, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Eventually, the show was reworked and re-titled "Ann" and enjoyed a run on Broadway followed by a national tour.

Although still reviled by conservatives, Ann Richards became a no-nonsense American hero. She was smart, funny, hard-working, effective, and larger than life. The world was a better place when she was in it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Richards

Watch Ann Richards' wonderful speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention: 

https://youtu.be/wtIFhiqS_TY

Photo Credit:

Kenneth C. Zirkel

Celebrate Women's History 2021 - Yoko Ono

by Dick Mac

Yoko Ono Lennon was born on February 18, 1933, in Tokyo, Japan. She is a multimedia and performance artist, singer, songwriter and peace activist. She is the widow of English singer-songwriter John Lennon, who was murdered in 1980.  Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York in 1953 to live with her family, where she became involved with the Fluxus group. 

Her early works that have stood the test of time include "Cut Piece," performance art where attendees were invited to cut away her garments; and her book "Grapefruit."

During her marriage to John Lennon, she became an activist for peace and women's equality. The couple famously spent their honeymoon staging a Bed-In (a take-off on the popular cultural phenomenon of a "Be-In") at a Toronto hotel to raise consciousness about peace and war. They were joined by artists, musicians, and journalists across the socio-political spectrum. The song "Give Peace A Chance" is a product of that work.

She was reviled for her relationship with Lennon, and misguided people (both consumers and media professionals) treated her miserably. Much of the baby boom generation still dismisses her, talks of her derisively, and are completely closed-minded about her talent, her impact on Western Civilization, and respond only with racist, misguided pettiness when they discuss her. The couple was so dogged by media hatred of Ono that they fled London to take-up residence in New York City.

The couple formed Plastic Ono Band, with a core of Klaus Voorman, Jim Keltner, and Eric Clapton, often joined by some of the era's most influential musicians. Yoko recorded the album "Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band," a companion release to "John Lennon Plastic Ono Band" which was the starting point of her ongoing decades-long solo music career.  Her album "Approximate Infinite Universe" is grossly under-appreciated and should not be ignored. Her song "Death Of Samantha" has been covered by many artists.

The biggest disappointment of her recording career has to be the "Some Time In New York City" double-LP she recorded with Lennon. It is a collection of deeply political songs performed and produced brilliantly. It was released in 1972, as the world was fatigued by the Vietnam War and the media exposés of military suppression throughout the free world. America was ready for dance music and Yoko was still delivering a vital message of peace and justice. It was the couples' worst-selling record.

Her later works include "We Are Plastic Ono Band," which she formed with her son, Sean Lennon, and bandleader Yuka Honda. Like the original Plastic Ono Band, the new iteration has featured many of this era's most influential musicians and performers. A show by WAPOB in Brooklyn included Bette Midler, Paul Simon, Scissor Sisters, Ween, Sonic Youth, and others.  The show ended with a reunion of the original POB Clapton, Voorman, and Keltner with Sean Lennon. Recent collaborations also include records released with Iggy Pop and RZA (Wu-Tang Clan). Ono continually delivers new variations on important themes in her music and her art.  

Her "Wish Tree" was installed at MoMA, in New York City, for a period of time. Viewers were invited to write a wish on a tag and tie it to the tree. Its popularity was another huge success in Ono's efforts to restore humanity to every facet of human life.  The "Imagine Peace" Tower, a memorial to John Lennon and his desire for world peace, is installed on Viðey Island near Reykjavík, Iceland. I hope to see it one day.

The best story (fact or fiction matters for nothing) about Ono's influence on popular music is that John Lennon was riding in a car when a B-52s song came on the radio. When he heard it, he insisted the car pull over, and he called Ono from a pay phone to tell her there was a band on the radio singing exactly like her.  The band subsequently explained that Ono was a huge influence, and she has appeared on stage with them.

Yoko Ono is one of the smartest, most influential artists and activists of two centuries.  There is no denying her impact on history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Ono

http://imaginepeacetower.com/

See Yoko discussing "Imagine Peace" and "Wish Tree" along with the dedication of Imagine Peace Tower: 

https://youtu.be/oLTp11aWn-o

Photo credit:

By Marcela Cataldi Cipolla

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89647987

Celebrate Women's History 2021 - Marla Gibbs

by Dick Mac

Why we don’t celebrate Marla Gibbs the way way we do Betty White?? pic.twitter.com/7JneXKQ5E4

— Free Spirited🇭🇹💨🍃 (@StephLDV) February 28, 2021

That Tweet came through my feed last week, and I didn't know the answer. So today I present Marla Gibbs.

Marla Gibbs (born Margaret Theresa Bradley) was born June 14, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois. She is an actress, comedian, singer, writer and television producer.

Gibbs started her career in the in blaxploitation movies (a term I find more and more disquieting each time I see it); but is best known for her role as Florence Johnston, George Jefferson's maid in the hugely popular and successful primetime television show "The Jeffersons" (which enjoyed an 11-year run).  She received five Emmy nominations in that span. 

She also appeared in television roles on 227, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Touched by an Angel, Judging Amy, ER, Southland, The Hughleys, Station 19, and her own short-lived Jefferson's spin-off, Checking In. Her film credits include The Meteor Man, Lost & Found, The Visit, The Brothers, Madea's Witness Protection, Grantham & Rose, and Lemon. A more complete filmography can be found at IMDb (see below).

Her awards include 8 NAACP Image Awards, and the Essence Woman of the Year. 

For two decades she owned a jazz supper club in South Central Los Angeles, and she released several albums as a singer.

Reading about her long career, I wonder how much more attention she would receive if she was a man, especially if she was a white man. Her comedic skills, singing voice, and acting abilities are top-notch, yet we never hear of her.  It is not as if she was slotted into one industry: singer, television actress, movie actress, and entrepreneur, show that this is a dynamic, talented woman who in our society has been relegated to the second class. 

This has to stop. We need to celebrate the women of the world. Learn about Marla Gibbs.  Talk about Marla Gibbs. Ask why she isn't celebrated by late-night talk show hosts and social media barons.

IMDb entry: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004958/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marla_Gibbs

Watch Reel Urban News interview: https://youtu.be/KT8w3SlOwz4

https://twitter.com/StephLDV/status/1366158107852869640

Photo credit:

John Mathew Smith - www.celebrity-photos.com

Celebrate Women's History 2021 - Judy Chicago

by Dick Mac

Judy Chicago (f/k/a Judith Sylvia Cohen) was born on July 20, 1939, in Chicago, Illinois. She is a feminist artist, educator, and writer. Her parents were progressive. Her father was a labor activist whose employment was hindered by the insanity of the anti-Communist witch-hunts of the 1950s. Her mother had been a dancer and instilled in her children a passion for the arts.

Judy Chicago attended UCLA, where she became politically active in the NAACP as its corresponding secretary. She moved from LA to New York City in 1959, and returned to Los Angeles and completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in 1962, and her MFA in 1964.

Early abstract works represented male and female sexual organs, and were controversial for the time and the school.  Her first show was at Rolf Nelson Gallery, in 1965. Her political position during this time of her life was to eschew labels that categorized her art and, thus, although invited, she did not participate in the 1968 "California Women in the Arts" exhibition.

I first learned about Judy Chicago in the late 1970s, when her piece "The Dinner Party" toured and I saw it installed at the Boston Cyclorama. The work is a triangular dining room table with 39 place settings, each representing a female mythical character or woman from history. The place settings start as simple, almost naïve pieces and become more dimensional and dynamic as the timeline progresses.  The Dinner Party is a significant piece of feminist art, in my view, perhaps the most significant piece of feminist art in the world.  It is now part of the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum, and I highly recommend a viewing.

Judy Chicago is one of the most important artists in history and has taught or been in residence at Vanderbilt University, Western Kentucky University, Duke University, University of North Carolina, Indiana University, College of St. Catherine, California State University - Fresno, UC - Irvine, and the UCLA Extension Program, among others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judy_Chicago

https://www.judychicago.com

The Dinner Party at Brooklyn Museum: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party

Watch a discussion of The Dinner Party: https://youtu.be/aNMnHlwoLc0

Photo credit:

Donald Woodman - Megan Schultz

Celebrate Women's History 2021 - Ti-Grace Atkinson

by Dick Mac

Ti-Grace Atkinson was born November 9, 1938, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is an author and theorist whose writings and activism in the early days of the National Organization of Women (NOW), in New York, defined the foundations of American radical feminism.

In the years before her political activism, she earned a BFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, helped found the Institute of Contemporary Art, and worked as an art critic. She then moved to New York City where she earned a Ph.D. at Columbia.

As a member and president of NOW-NY, her radicalism was met with skepticism when she defended the theories presented in the "SCUM Manifesto," whose author, Valerie Solanas, shot New York artist Andy Warhol. In 1968, Atkinson left NOW because it would not confront issues like abortion and marriage inequality. That same year she founded The Feminists, an active radical feminist group.

She wrote several pamphlets on feminism, and advocated lesbianism as a political action. Many of her pamphlets and speeches are collected in the book "Amazon Odyssey." The book can be difficult to find, but it is an amazing look into the nascent stages of radical feminism, and I highly recommend it.

One of her speeches, delivered at Catholic University, is infamous because Atkinson discussed the Catholic Church of profiteering off the Virgin Mary. Her talk so disturbed Patricia Buckley Bozell, the sister of William F. Buckley, that Bozell leapt to the stage and slapped Atkinson across the face during the speech (further proof that conservatives are the most dangerous people in the world). Bozell posited, in that insane way that radical Christian conservatives always do, that Atkinson's clear and concise presentation was "an illiterate harangue against the mystical body of Christ."

Atkinson has continued her activism as a private citizen and a lecturer at schools as diverse as Pratt Institute, Case Western University, and Tufts University.

Learn about Atkinson, she is one of the people helped shape the progressive and meaningful America that conservatives are destroying.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti-Grace_Atkinson

See Atkinson greeted by Judy Chicago and a cheerleading squad at Cal State Fresno, in 1971: https://youtu.be/4cKCYvWz77A

Photo Credit: Janna Giacoppo

Celebrate Women's History 2021 - Andra Day

by Dick Mac

Contemporary women are establishing America's history today and I will start this month's women's history posts by celebrating Andra Day.

Andra Day was born Cassandra Monique Batie on December 30, 1984, in Edmonds, Washington, and hails from San Diego, California.

She is a singer, songwriter, and actress who yesterday was awarded the Best Actress (Drama) Golden Globe for her magnificent, breathtaking portrayal of Billie Holiday in the movie "The United States vs. Billie Holiday."

Her 2015 album "Cheers to the Fall" reached #48 on Billboard 200 charts and was nominated at the 2016 Grammy Awards as Best R&B Album. The single "Rise Up" was nominated for Best R&B Performance.

She has worked with Stevie Wonder, Common, and Lenny Kravitz, has appeared in television commercials, and is building an impressive collection of awards. Her records have received critical acclaim, and her concerts are regularly sold-out.

Andra Day is becoming a major force in the American entertainment industry, and I expect her to be a massive influence on women's roles in the entertainment industry.

If you have neither seen nor heard her, please purchase her music, get a concert ticket and watch her movie.

Andra Day is the future of American entertainment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andra_Day

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4sN284Diw1JCy8i7fDCHhg

Andra Day's acceptance speech at the 2021 Golden Globes: https://youtu.be/MFh8IgXeleM

Andra Day mashes-up Notorious B.I.G.'s "Big Poppa" and Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On": https://youtu.be/9OyCd__Ty9E

See the Dick Mac (alive!) reference to Day in a Black History Month post about The Future: 

http://dickmacalive.blogspot.com/2021/02/celebrate-black-history-2021-future.html

Photo credit:

Warner Bros. Records - Warner Bros. Records, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=100614947