Saturday, December 6

Tag: through

Netflix’s ‘Self-Made’ miniseries about Madam C.J. Walker leaves out the mark she made through generosity
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TELEVISION

Netflix’s ‘Self-Made’ miniseries about Madam C.J. Walker leaves out the mark she made through generosity

The Netflix series “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker” brings to life part of a fascinating rags-to-riches tale I’ve been researching for the past 10 years. Walker, widely documented to have been America’s first self-made female millionaire, made her fortune building an Indianapolis-based beauty products company that served black women across the U.S. and overseas. Today it offers a product line through Sephora. Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer stars in the miniseries about the African American entrepreneur originally named Sarah Breedlove. Born shortly after emancipation in 1867 on a cotton plantation in Louisiana to a formerly enslaved family, she later adapted the initials and last name of her third husband – played by Blair Underwood in the series. The show imagines Wa...
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Spinster, old maid or self-partnered – why words for single women have changed through time
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LIFESTYLE

Spinster, old maid or self-partnered – why words for single women have changed through time

In a recent interview with Vogue, actress Emma Watson opened up about being a single 30-year-old woman. Instead of calling herself single, however, she used the word “self-partnered.” I’ve studied and written about the history of single women, and this is the first time I am aware of “self-partnered” being used. We’ll see if it catches on, but if it does, it will join the ever-growing list of words used to describe single women of a certain age. Women who were once called spinsters eventually started being called old maids. In 17th-century New England, there were also words like “thornback” – a sea skate covered with thorny spines – used to describe single women older than 25. Attitudes toward single women have repeatedly shifted – and part of that attitude shift is reflected in the nam...
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No fear: 13 random facts to get you through Friday the 13th
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SOCIETY

No fear: 13 random facts to get you through Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th can be spooky — if you’ve got paraskevidekatriaphobia. Both Fridays and the number 13 have a centuries-old tradition of being unlucky, according to Snopes, but the hubbub about Friday the 13th didn’t really get going until the 20th century. Here are 13 completely random facts about Friday the 13th to help you get through the day. 1. In 1908, a U.S. Senator from Oklahoma tempted fate by submitting 13 bills on Friday, March 13th. 2. You’re going to see a Friday the 13th at least every 14 months. That’s the way the math works. On the other extreme, there can be up to three Friday the 13ths in a year. (There are two this year.) 3. Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro was born on Friday, Aug. 13 in 1926. It didn’t appear to have affected his luck ... he lived to be 90 and survi...
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Making the Gun Violence Epidemic Visible Through Art and Activism
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IN OTHER NEWS

Making the Gun Violence Epidemic Visible Through Art and Activism

Two art projects explore the impact of gun violence, with a focus on mass shootings and police brutality. Leslie Lee calls herself an “artivist.” It’s a word combining art and activism, rooted in community and Latinx art from the late 1990s, but Lee says she was doing this work before it had a name. “I have always been interested in metaphor and content that addressed various social issues,” she says. A 71-year-old grandmother, Lee has made art professionally as a sculptor and painter for more than 50 years, and she says she’s developed the “tenacity required for large-scale projects.” In response to the October 2017 shooting deaths of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Lee established The Soul Box Project in Portland, Oregon, where she lives. Th...
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In Chicago, Police Violence Survivors Heal Through Song
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IN OTHER NEWS

In Chicago, Police Violence Survivors Heal Through Song

The Freedom Songbook workshop was designed to provide a creative safe space for survivors, and prevent isolation and other PTSD-related issues permeating Black communities. Over a slice of caramel cake on a Tuesday evening last month, Mark Clements shared his story with me. At the young age of 16, Clements was tortured into confessing to crimes he did not commit. He subsequently spent nearly 30 years in prison. “You know,” he began, settling back into his chair, “when I went to prison, sister, I couldn’t read that word right there.” He pointed to a bulletin board behind me. The word displayed was “love.” “As a kid, you go into the prison system naive,” Clements continued. “The [court] gave me natural life. So, you’re thinking that it’s not as serious as it is, but you beg...
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How to Travel at Home: Finding New Routes Through Our Daily Lives
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Journalism

How to Travel at Home: Finding New Routes Through Our Daily Lives

Many of us don’t look up from our smartphones long enough to notice what’s around us. Grandpa Schiffman joshed that he was taking us grandkids on an ocean voyage to Europe. The round trip on the Staten Island Ferry to the city’s farthest-flung borough and back to lower Manhattan took a little over an hour and cost a nickel, a bargain even in the late 1950s. While Europe would have to wait, New York Harbor was unusual enough for kids brought up in the asphalt jungle. There was a limitless bowl of sky above us, swift tides, salt-tanged breezes, even wildlife: cormorants diving headlong into the waves and seagulls snagging the chunks of baked pretzel we tossed them. There were boats too of all sizes—tugs and barges, a fireboat fountaining rainbowed streams of water, and an ocea...
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Journalism

Remembering Our History of Racial Injustice Through Soil

The Equal Justice Initiative is using soil to document the lynchings of more than 4,400 African-descended people between 1877 and 1950. In July 1898, a Black ice cream vendor by the name of John Henry James was accused of assaulting a White woman just west of Charlottesville, Virginia. He was dragged off a moving train by an angry mob, hanged from the branch of a locust tree near the train tracks, and shot multiple times. This past summer, 120 years later, John Henry James was taken on a pilgrimage from Charlottes­ville to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, which memorializes the victims of racial violence in the United States. James, symbolically represented by a jar filled with soil collected at the site of his lynching, ...
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The Obama Sisters Through The Years
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Journalism

The Obama Sisters Through The Years

It's been over eight years since Sasha and Malia Obama took office as the "first kids" of the United States. But the Obama sisters aren't kids anymore. Recently, Sasha and Malia turned 14 and 17, respectively. Following in the footsteps of their fashionable First Mom, the Obama sisters have become fashion icons on their own, transforming from cute tweens to sophisticated teens right before our eyes. Here are some great moments in Obama sister style through the years. Look out, Michelle—your girls are hot on your heels as the best-dressed ladies in America. Getty Images Read More: http://www.looper.com/4361/obama-sisters-years/?utm_campaign=clip Source: The Obama Sisters Through The Years
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