World Changing Women – Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in 1931 in Ohio, where her parents had fled to try and escape the racism of the south. Her name, Toni, comes from her baptismal name, which she […]
World Changing Women – Vivian Malone
Vivian Malone is a key figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. You may not recognize her name, but chances are you’ve seen her picture or heard about the events that made her famous. Vivian was the first black woman to attend the University of Alabama in 1963. The Governor at the time, George Wallace, […]
World Changing Women – Claribel Alegría
Claribel Alegría, born Clara Isabel Alegría Vides, is an exceptionally talented writer and journalist from Nicaragua and El Salvador. She began composing poetry when she was six. She would dictate her poetry and her mother would write them down for her. She was inspired by Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke and […]
World Changing Women – Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno, born Rosa Dolores Alverío in Humacao, Puerto Rico, is an amazing actress, dancer and singer. She is among the greats of our time; the recipient three lifetime achievement awards and nearly twenty other awards. Her illustrious career has lasted over 70 years and she’s still rocking it. She is the first latinx person […]
World Changing Women – Sojourner Truth
Born Isabella Baumfree in 1797, she escaped slavery with her daughter in 1826. Until 1806 she lived with her parents as a slave in New York, but when the slave-owner died the family was separated and Sojourner was purchased and sold three times before she ended up in West Park, New York under the ownership […]
World Changing Women – Maria Tallchief
Maria Tallchief (Elizabeth Tall Chief) is a trailblazer in the dance world. She was the first indigenous woman in America to become a prima ballerina and was one of the first world renowned prima ballerina from America. She was a part of the Osage Nation and passed away in 2013 at the age of 88. […]
World Changing Women – Bana and Fatemah Alabed
Welcome to World Changing Women, today we are exploring the story of Bana and Fatemah Alabed. Bana and Fatemah Alabed are a mother/daughter pair living in Aleppo right now. For the past three months they have been using Twitter to show and expose what is happening there. They live tweet through bombings and issue pleas […]
World Changing Women – Benazir Bhutto
Benazir Bhutto was the 11th Prime Minister of Pakistan and was the first woman to be the democratically elected head of state for a Muslim majority country. She is half Pakistani and half Iranian Kurdish and has three younger siblings. She attended Harvard and Oxford, studying philosophy, politics, economics, international law and diplomacy. She was […]
World Changing Women – Fannie Lou Hamer
Fannie is the first of many, many women I am going to be covering in a new blog series I’ve just started called World Changing Women. Every Wednesday from now until the end of 2017 (probably longer still, but I’ve only planned up until then so far) I will be featuring extraordinary women who have […]
World Changing Women – Harriet Hemenway
I love interesting women in history, especially when they make a positive difference in the world. I can’t even remember now where I heard about Harriet Hemenway, but she is a badass who championed for the abandonment of using birds as a fashionable accessory. It may seem of little consequence, but this is coming off […]