2021
Hello ,
Monday next, is International Women's Day. The theme this year: A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change. You can find out more here...
We're asked to consider how we will help forge a gender equal world, and given three suggestions.
Celebrate women's achievement.
Raise awareness against bias.
Take action for equality.
To join the celebration, follow hashtags #ChoosetoChallenge and #IWD2021. I'd love to know if you are doing anything special to mark International Women's Day. Please hit reply and tell me how you #ChoosetoChallenge despite your busy life and many commitments. I know you do!
I'm raising awareness against bias and celebrating women's achievement in the arts. Read on to meet female Hollywood director, a NYT best-selling woman author, and, of course, books, books, books!
Celebrating Women's Achievement in the Arts
Dianne Houston was the first and only African-American woman nominated for an Oscar for a film she wrote and directed. Her name may not be familiar, but, it is in the credits of television series and movies that you may have seen or heard about.
Dianne Houston moved to New York City at 16 to become an actress. Frustrated by the lack of opportunity for black women on stage, she decided to write her own plays, and earned a fine arts degree in theater direction from Howard University.
Her first play, The Fishermen, was produced in 1977, and is regularly staged by African American theatre companies, remaining in production every year since its publication in 1980.
After working in the theatre world, Dianne turned to film. She revamped a forgotten Harlem Renaissance story, writing and directing the short film Tuesday Morning Ride.
The Academy nominated it for Best Live Action Short Film in 1996. When Dianne arrived a the fancy luncheon for all the nominees, she ran into trouble. The valet refused to let her park her car, insisting the parking spaces were "for nominees
only."
Not sure how she resolved that issue, but Houston went on to a successful career writing and directing features and television productions. Her script for Surviving Compton won a nomination for the 2017 Writer's Guild Award. Series she directed for small screen include Empire, NYPD Blue
and Crossing Jordan.
Now, take a look at this book!
This past weekend I heard the author speak at a social studies conference. I can't do justice to everything she said that inspired me, educated me, and made me want to read her books. But I'm sure the hope she embodies can be found in their pages.
Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes has built an amazing body of work including acclaimed novels for adults and books for young people. Her most recent, Black Brother, Black Brother is a powerful story of two brothers, one who presents as white, the other as black, and what happens to them at an all-white, east coast, prep school.
It's doesn't go well for one of the brothers. But Donte finds his way when he tries out for
the school fencing team. Facing up to the school bully and and confronting racial prejudice, Donte finds hope and his own voice.
Imagine being the mother of those biracial boys. The story is not about the author's family, but she and her white husband do have two sons, one that presents black, and one white.
She writes another twist on the topic in one of her books for adults, Douglass’ Women.
Hailed as a masterpiece of historical fiction, the story deals with the conflicting passions of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and two women — one black, one white — who loved him.
Dr. Rhodes's Louisiana Girls trilogy for middle grade readers connects three heroic girls from across history. Lanesha, Sugar, and Maddy, each live in Louisiana in a different historical time of crisis. And they each find courage in the face of
overwhelming adversity.
From Dr. Rhodes website, "Steeped in the folklore tradition of the American deep south, this trilogy celebrates the power of friendship and family, and demonstrates how anyone with enough strength in their heart can change the lives of those around them."
From the publisher: Imagine a world where your phone is too big for your hand, where your doctor prescribes a drug that is wrong for your body, where in a car accident you are 47% more likely to be seriously injured, where every week the countless hours of work you do are not recognized or valued.
If any of this sounds familiar, chances are that you're a woman.
Kirkus Reviews:
"In clear language, the author builds a strong case for greater inclusion with this thoughtful and surprisingly humorous view of institutional bias and gendered information gaps. While some readers may suggest that equality has arrived and gender no longer matters, this book, which should
have wide popular appeal, is a solid corrective to that line of thought."
Booklist:
“A diligently researched and clearly written exposé.”
Goodreads:
If you are not made angry by this book you have no humanity left. But the solution is often also painfully simple. We need to listen to women. We need to place them in positions of power. We need to involve them in decision making processes that impact them. I know, radical ideas, but we
might as well start big and work down from there.~Trevor
That wraps it up for my newsletter celebrating International Women Day. As always, send me your book recommendations and feel free to share your thoughts.
One final word, a huge thanks to the CC Mellor Memorial Library in Pittsburgh, PA, for suggesting a month's worth of kids books for Women's History Month, and for recommending my Fannie Never Flinched as the read for March 2nd.
From Publishers Weekly:
Over six brief chapters, Farrell deftly places Sellins’s story within the larger context of immigration and industrialization at the time.
Stitched blue-denim illustrations on the endpapers color coordinate with blue-tinted archival photographs of immigrant workers at sewing machines, in mines, and in company towns. In a nod to Sellins’s work as a seamstress, images of buttons, gears, and stitching help frame each spread.
Readers interested in the history of workers’ rights shouldn’t miss this entrée to the subject.
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To find out more about my books, how I help students, teachers, librarians and writers visit my website at www.MaryCronkFarrell.com.
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