News - Look What She Did

Erin Aubry Kaplan on Ida B. Wells

By Jill Klein|2020-06-18T16:08:57-08:00June 18th, 2020|New Interview Announcement|

Ida B Wells. What a woman. Born in slavery she became one of the most famous women in America, a bold investigative journalist and outspoken activist for the Civil Rights of African-Americans and women, founding her own newspaper as well as co-founding the NAACP. Ida B Wells wrote about segregation and racial inequality, ultimately focusing her brilliant mind and fearless heart on the scourge of lynching, the unpunished murders of black men and women in America. She was viciously attacked for speaking out about “racial terrorism”, as she named it, but it didn’t stop her. In 2020 Ida B Wells was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her groundbreaking work and its legacy. Erin Aubry Kaplan tells us the story, beautifully capturing the spirit of this powerfully determined woman.

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Emily Goodman on Florynce Kennedy

By Jill Klein|2020-06-18T15:02:13-08:00May 12th, 2020|New Interview Announcement|

Florynce Kennedy was an outspoken feminist attorney, a Black Power activist and a daring human rights organizer who built alliances between oppressed groups that didn’t normally intersect. Flo Kennedy was “intersectional” long before the term was used. And she did it with great personality and flair. Judge Emily Jane Goodman tells the story of her charismatic friend who compelled many changes in laws and culture over the course of her long life, always using her voice and life force to organize people in the name of moving society toward fairness.

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Cat Oriel on Dolores Huerta

By Jill Klein|2020-04-09T14:16:21-08:00April 9th, 2020|New Interview Announcement|

Cat Oriel tells the powerful story of the one and only Dolores Huerta, an elementary school teacher who co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, and became a social justice warrior for over eight decades for the rights of workers, immigrants and women. Dolores has been honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was the first Latina inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She originated the phrase, “Sí, se puede.” Yes, we can. At 90 years old she’s still organizing, fighting for equal rights for all people. Cat’s personal account of meeting Dolores and carrying on her story will warm your heart.

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Jasmine Swift on Margaret Taylor-Burroughs

By Jill Klein|2020-03-23T19:31:01-08:00March 23rd, 2020|New Interview Announcement|

Margaret Taylor-Burroughs said “The color of skin is a minor difference… that has been stretched out beyond its importance.” Taylor-Burroughs spent her long life acting on that belief, bringing people together as an artist, educator and institution builder. In her paintings and woodcuts she depicted blacks, whites and mixed people doing everyday things together as equals– celebrating a child’s birthday, learning in a classroom— a lovely human vision, radical at the time. She founded lasting organizations— community centers, African-American art museums. She was unstoppable. Writer Jasmine Swift tells the story of this woman who held to her powerful simple vision of human equality and created a better world in that image.

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Aimee Liu on Carolyn Hall Young

By Jill Klein|2020-03-16T14:46:44-08:00March 16th, 2020|New Interview Announcement|

Poet/Author Aimee Liu tells us about the prolific visual artist Carolyn Hall Young, a painter/printmaker/graphic designer who lived and worked with cancer for decades, creating hauntingly beautiful work. When she became too weak to paint, Carolyn turned to digital arts, opening a door from her sickbed that would engage her with the world as never before. With an iPad Carolyn Hall Young created 1600 mobile art portraits of people all over the world, given freely over the internet, winning awards and the esteem of the art world, as well as the devotion of those she portrayed. Carolyn said, “You never know what you’re going to get to be grateful for.”

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Kate Rigg on Kartini

By Jill Klein|2020-03-06T17:16:44-08:00March 6th, 2020|New Interview Announcement|

Actor/comedian/writer Kate Siahaan Rigg tells the riveting story of a young Indonesian woman, Raden Adjeng Kartini, who changed the fate of girls in her country, though she died before age 25. Born into an aristocratic family Kartini had the advantage of learning to read, but this didn’t save her from the cultural practice of isolating girls before marriage. During her confinement she read widely and became a published author as a teenager, speaking out against polygamy and for the right of girls to be educated. Once married and allowed back into society, Kartini founded schools for girls, now called Kartini Schools. She was the first to speak up publicly for women’s rights in Indonesia and her birthday is still celebrated there as Kartini Day. Listen to Kate Rigg’s funny and emotional telling of this national heroine.

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Shelby Jiggetts-Tivony on Maggie Lena Walker

By Jill Klein|2020-02-19T20:02:47-08:00February 19th, 2020|New Interview Announcement|

Maggie Lena Walker was a powerhouse, a brilliant visionary bringing dignity to her community despite the soul-crushing circumstances of the Jim Crow South. An African-American in Richmond, Virginia at the beginning of the 20th Century she was the first woman, of any race, to found and become the President of a bank in the United States. Under her leadership the St. Luke Pennybank and its Benevolent Society helped hundreds of African-American families buy homes, start businesses and weather the financial crisis of the Depression. Shelby Jiggetts-Tivony tells the emotional story of this foremother of hers who lifted the fortunes of multitudes of African-Americans in the Old South, including Shelby’s parents and grandparents. Maggie Lena Walker’s legacy lives on still.

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Tanya Monsef on Mam-Yassin Sarr

By Jill Klein|2020-01-24T16:17:39-08:00January 24th, 2020|New Interview Announcement|

“I can keep going forward.” That’s the pledge Mam-Yassin Sarr has her students make each day at their school in The Gambia, West Africa. She founded Starfish International School to educate girls to be independent, entrepreneurial and prepared for higher education, breaking through traditional cultural and economic barriers. In a country where the average family subsists on $1 day, Starfish offers scholarships to girls for a world-class education focused on service to humanity. Business Consultant / Executive Coach Tanya Monsef tells the story of her friend and colleague the brilliant and determined Mam-Yassin Sarr, and how she came to discover her mission to empower the African women and children of her homeland.

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Susan Van Allen on Donatella Cinelli Colombini

By Jill Klein|2019-12-19T20:22:23-08:00December 19th, 2019|New Interview Announcement|

Donatella Cinelli Colombini changed the face of wine-making in Italy… after oh, say, a thousand years of male vintners. When Donatella inherited her family vineyard she broke with tradition, rather than have a husband manage the fields and the business as expected, she decided to run it herself. Shocking! And she chose to work with other women to do it. Marvelous. Writer and traveler Susan Van Allen tells the story of this trailblazing bella donna who always wears pearls and says the vines tell her what they need. Watch and enjoy!

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Clementine Bordeaux on Ella Deloria

By Jill Klein|2019-11-13T21:48:29-08:00November 12th, 2019|New Interview Announcement|

Doctoral student Clementine Bordeaux, a Lakota woman, tells the story of Ella Deloria, a brilliant Dakota ethnographer, educator, and linguist who had the vision not only to gather oral histories, myths, languages and evidence of her people’s culture before they were lost forever, but to tell their story from their own perspective. The books Ella Deloria wrote, Speaking of Indians and especially Water Lily, affected Clementine as a young girl on the Pine Ridge Reservation and sent her on her own life path. Among other things, the books teach “what it means to be a woman” and how to “keep the rules of kinship” with all people, including yourself. Powerful and relevant messages. Please watch the story of this visionary Native scholar who was far ahead of her time.

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