Meals on Wheels, Women's History Month

Today for Women's History I would like to share a little background about Meals on Wheels and though I know all of you have political fatigue at this point, it's more important than ever you keep showing up. Don't stop with the letters and calls and protests. Read the news, IT IS WORKING. We have City Caucuses happening the first week of April, do you know that?

And if for no other reason to care about Meals on Wheels: if you're one of those people posting about punching Nazis here you go-

The first idea of Meals on Wheels came during the Blitz in 1943. The Women's Volunteer Service started taking food to people who couldn't leave the city but whose homes were destroyed by bombings. They then started to bring meals to servicemen, and after the war, they recognized the need to start caring for the homebound elderly and injured service people.

In 1954 Doris Taylor MBE created the first official Meals on Wheels program in Port Adelaide, Australia serving its first 8 elderly clients. The first program in the US started in Pennsylvania.

It is now the largest and oldest National organization with more than 2 million volunteers. You can visit the site here: http://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org Learn more and donate if you can. If you have a few minutes to drop a phone call or note to a representative, please do that as well.

Somayya Jabarti, Women's History Month

Somayya Jabarti is the first woman editor-in-chief of a Saudi Arabian national newspaper, Saudi Gazette. She was promoted from Deputy Editor in chief in 2004 of the only two English publications in the Kingdom. She has also been Executive Editor, Managing Editor and Deputy Editor-in-chief all of which were first-time positions for a Saudi woman. In a field dominated by men and a country where women are not even allowed to drive this was a huge step forward. Most especially since she has published hundreds of articles about equality. She also works at a paper where most of the women are journalists and who tend to be overqualified for the positions they hold. She planned the first Women's Media Forum in Saudi Arabia in 2006. You can read some of her writing here: https://english.alarabiya.net/authors/Somayya-Jabarti.html

Doreen Valiente, Women's History Month

For the Spring Equinox and the celebration of Ostara (see also: https://wicca.com/celtic/akasha/ostara.htm) Doreen Edith Dominy Valiente (4 January 1922–1 September 1999) was an English Wiccan who was responsible for writing much of the early religious liturgy within the tradition of Gardnerian Wicca. An author and poet, she also published five books dealing with Wicca and related esoteric subjects. Considered the mother of Modern Witchcraft she had her first spiritual experience at the age of 9. At 15, she left school and refused to go back and began to explore fully the history of witchcraft. At the time it was growing because of the need for feminism, green politics (as the Wicca and pagan religions play a big part in the movement to bring attention to caring for the planet) and individual freedoms such as being pro-choice. She fought to keep Witchcraft legal as it was set to be barred in the UK(again) as recently as the 1950's. She accumulated the largest collection of known witchcraft and pagan relics and artifacts in the world currently on display in Brighton. There is evidence to suggest she was also a spy during WWII and had a reputation for being very good at keeping secrets and as such she worked as a translator at Bletchley Park during World War II. Learn more here: http://www.doreenvaliente.com

Other Sources:

Wicca

Modern Witchcraft

Huda Sha‘rawi, Women's History Month

Huda Sha‘rawi (Arabic: هدى شعراوي‎‎ - June 23, 1879 – December 12, 1947) was a pioneering Egyptian feminist leader and nationalist(which means something different in this case from what we are witnessing now in the US).

Forced into her first marriage at 13 and later into a harem in which she was not allowed to leave her home without accompaniment, she used her education to make herself more independent.

In 1910 she opened a school for girls to educate them beyond basic skills that were expected of women. 
She organized protests against British rule, was the founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union, the founding President of the Arab Feminist Union, and was Vice-President of the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship in 1935.

Her most famous act is as follows: 
Sha’rawi made a decision to stop wearing her veil in public after her husband’s death in 1922. This was revolutionary behavior in a time when women were fully covered except in the fields in the country.
In March 1923, Sha’rawi founded and became the first president of the Egyptian Feminist Union. After returning from the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Congress in Rome she removed her face veil in public for the first time, a signal event in the history of Egyptian feminism.

An note that interested me on the Pro-Choice Washington Blog as run by NARAL: Quick PSA on headscarves: It is important — especially for Western feminists — to understand that women who wear headscarves do it out of their own volition and comfort. People like Huda helped them win that freedom. To say that wearing a headscarf signifies oppression is not only inaccurate, it denies women their agency if they do choose to veil. The now infamous “Veil Ban” law in France is a testament to the damage that misunderstandings around perceived vs. actual oppression can cause. Read more about her here: https://afrolegends.com/…/huda-shaarawi-egypts-great-feminis

Clara Barton, Founder of the Red Cross, Women's History Month

Clarissa "Clara" Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was a nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a field nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and patent clerk.

She worked for several years as a teacher, even starting her own school in Bordentown, New Jersey in 1853. In 1854 she moved south to Washington, D.C. From 1854 to 1857 she was employed as a clerk (the first woman to work there)in the Patent Office until her anti-slavery opinions made her too controversial. 

She joined up with the Union Army and would organize able bodied men to take food and supplies to help care for other soldiers and Confederate prisoners. When supplies where low she would solicit help by messengers and newspaper ads. 

She tended to wounded overseas as well during the Franco-Prussian War and out of the first Geneva Conventions the International Red Cross was born. She began using the Red Cross to help when natural disasters occurred such as the Johnstown Floods and forest fires that would devastate farms and homes. At the age of 76 she traveled to Cuba during the Spanish-American war to tend to the wounded.

A month before he was murdered President Lincoln appointed her as General Correspondent for the Friends of Paroled Prisoners, meaning she would find missing soldiers information and pass it on to their families. By the time she died, she and her team had uncovered the information and matched it to the families of over 22,000 soldiers and others lost during the war. She was proposed to three times in her life and never married. Read more about her work here: http://www.historynet.com/clara-barton

**My mother who was a nurse named my sister Clara and she is now a pharmacist, med-student and intern on a synthetic blood project

Additional sources:

Red Cross

bio.com

civil war.org

Phillis Wheatley, Women's History Month, World Poetry Day

Phillis Wheatley(1753-1784) was the first African American, the first slave, and the third woman in the United States to publish a book of poems. Kidnapped in West Africa (believed somewhere in Senegal) and transported aboard the slave ship Phillis to Boston in 1761, she was purchased by John Wheatley as a servant for his wife. Phillis quickly learned to speak English and to read the Bible. 
She published her first poem in 1767 and her first volume of verse, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, in 1773. She traveled to London to be treated for a medical aliment and learned she had a great many admirers there. She was eventually freed from slavery and married another freed slave. The Wheatleys and her husband died and she was left to support herself, dying in poverty alone in her thirties. Her last manuscript which was never published has not been located. Read more about her here: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/phillis-wheatley

Catherine Dior, Fight Like a Girl, Women's History Month

Today's Woman from Women's History comes from a story I stumbled across many years ago when I briefly studied fashion design. It's proof that you never know where you will find true bravery.
Catherine Dior, sister to one of the most famous fashion designers in the world Christian Dior, (1917–2008) was a member of the Polish intelligence unit based in France during World War II. In July 1944 she was arrested and tortured to give up names of her fellow fighters which she never did. She saved many lives by this feat. And as such was deported to the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp. She was freed in 1945. She eventually testified in a trial of fourteen people responsible for the office of the Gestapo in Paris. She also publicly distanced herself from her niece Françoise Dior after the niece married Colin Jordan, a Neo-Nazi leader.

Her awards included the Croix de Guerre, the Combatant Volunteer Cross of the Resistance, the Combatant Cross, the King's Medal for Courage in the Cause of Freedom (from Britain), and being named a chevalière of the Légion d'Honneur.
It's good to remember these women in light of what is happening. Since apparently some Nazis did not learn the lesson in the first place being reminded how many millions of women are ready to smack their asses down again is rather important. 
I am rather loathe to link to the Daily Mail but they actually do have a pretty good article about her here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/We-salute-Miss-Dior-story-sist…

Sources: 

Jezebel.com

Telegraph UK

Jin Xing, Women's History Month

Today's post is a completely amazing story. One of my favorites thus far. Jin Xing, born August 13, 1967 in Shenyang, Liaonin is a Chinese ballerina, modern dancer, choreographer, actress, and owner of the contemporary dance company Shanghai Jin Xing Dance Theatre. She is the host of the Chinese television show The Jin Xing Show. She can speak Chinese, English, Korean, Italian and French. Jin was the first transgender woman in China to receive the government's approval to undergo a sex change, and she is also one of the first few transgender women to be officially recognized as a woman by the Chinese government. She is a married mother to three adopted children and is apparently worth almost $2 billion dollars. Hollywood Reporter is a bit of a silly rag but they have a great article and interview with her here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/…/meet-oprah-china-who-hap…

Other sources: 

CNN.com

Huffington Post

Alice Coachman, The First African-American Woman to Win Gold

Alice Coachman (November 9, 1923 – July 14, 2014 Albany Georgia) was the first African-American woman to win a gold in the Olympic Games in 1948 (high jump competition) and the only American woman to medal at all that year. She bested her opponent (the favorite to win) with only one jump. Because she was a woman and a person of color she was not allowed to use sports facilities and would train barefoot on dirt roads. She won 25 National titles before retiring at the age of 25. She stopped at the peak of her career as she had accomplished everything she wanted to achieve. When she arrived in England for the games she was shocked to discover she had many fans there due to the racism she experienced in the south in America. Upon retuning after the games she was given a party by Count Basie and met President Truman. But when she went home it was another story.

Coachman was treated almost as a nonperson on her homecoming to Albany, Ga., forced to use a side door of the auditorium where she was being honored. The mayor refused to shake her hand. She would receive gifts and flowers anonymously because people were afraid of the repercussions of being proud of a woman of color. She spent most of her life in education, speaking for youth programs and founded the Alice Coachman Foundation for helping former Olympic athletes with problems in their lives. Read more about this amazing and very humble human: Alice Coachman

Sources:

NY Times

Wikipedia External Links List

Bio.com

Georgina-Djuka Tesla, Women's History Month

Georgina-Djuka Tesla (born Djuka Mandic, 1822 - April 4,1892) was born in Tomingaj, Croatia. You may have heard of her son. What you might not know however is: When her mother went blind at 16, Duka as she was known, raised and cared for her 7 younger siblings. She was illiterate but could memorize and recite Serbian epic poetry. She invented many labor saving devices and tools to run their family's farm and was a gifted craftsperson most especially in embroidery. A bag Tesla carried his whole life that she made him is on display in Belgrade. She had five children and Tesla credited his mother for his own inventiveness and believed her to possess a special intuitiveness that helped him and many others throughout their lives. He was quoted as saying, “My mother was an inventor of the first order ……she invented and constructed all kinds of tools and devices and wove the finest designs from thread.” He believed that she would have done even more with her life if women had been given the same access to education and resources as men. Read more about her life here: http://www.bio-orthodoxy.com/…/georgina-djuka-tesla-1822-18…

Dolores Huerta, Women's History Month

Dolores Huerta has worked to improve social and economic conditions for farm workers and to fight discrimination. To further her cause, she created the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA) in 1960 and co-founded what would become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta stepped down from the UFW in 1999, but she continues her efforts to improve the lives of workers, immigrants and women. Born in New Mexico in April 10, 1930, Huerta co-founded the nation’s largest farm workers union and was the first woman in U.S. history to organize and lobby on behalf of migrant workers. 

On September 16, 1988 Huerta was distributing brochures to a crowd outside San Francisco’s Union Square hotel, where the then Vice President George Bush was making a speech. When police came to break up the crowd, Huerta endured a hail of blows from a police baton. Her injuries included six broken ribs and a pulverized spleen. She required more than a dozen blood transfusions.

She has been the recipient of many awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom. 

A link to her foundation: http://doloreshuerta.org/dolores-huerta/

An additional link to a brief time-line on the History of Women in the Labor Movement. On the United Healthcare Workers site: http://www.seiu-uhw.org/archives/20663

See also: bio.com

From March 9th: Rebecca Lee Crumpler, Women's History Month

On the anniversary of her death let us remember Rebecca Lee Crumpler the first African-American Female Physician. Born in 1831, Rebecca Lee went to medical school at a time when women of color were often denied access to even the most basic level of education. She may have been drawn to the medical profession from watching her aunt -who raised her- provide care for neighbors and others in need. By the 1850s, Crumpler had followed her aunt’s lead, becoming a nurse in Massachusetts. She went on to enroll at the New England Female Medical College in Boston.

After earning her medical degree (which there was apparent reluctance to give her her earned degree) in 1864, Crumpler started out practicing in Boston. She moved south to Richmond, Virginia, after the end of the Civil War to provide much needed care for freed slaves. She later returned to Boston where she wrote A Book of Medical Discourses, a two-volume work on health care based on her experiences as a doctor. Read more here: http://www.blackpast.org/…/crumpler-rebecca-davis-lee-1831-… Including that there is now a society in her honor that helps young African-American women pursue careers in the medical field.

Sources:

Wikipedia External Link List

Info on Pinterest 

blackpast.org

Yma Sumac, Peruvian Icon Women's History Month

Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo was born in Cajamarca, Peru, September 13, 1922. She grew up in Peru—in a family she described as being descended from the Incan emperor Atahualpa (the government eventually supported this to be true)—and began performing in Lima before moving to the United States in 1946 where she embarked upon a singing career as Yma Sumac.

Her vocal range spanned four octaves and is rumored to have been up to five. She appeared in a Broadway Musical in 1951 and in films.

Her album Voice of Xtabay quickly sold 500,000 copies, and was No. 1 on Variety’s best-seller list at the end of 1950, surpassing albums by Bing Crosby and Ethel Merman, she would fetch $25,000 a performance in Las Vegas (at the time an unheard of number).

She was awarded the Order of the Sun by the Peruvian government in 2006. Performer Dita Von Teese cites her as a muse frequently. She passed away in LA at the age of 86. *It was impossible to pick a photo of her as they are all beautiful. Visit her website here: Yma Sumac News

Sources:

bio.com

NYtimes.com

Fay Presto! Women's History Month (getting caught up)

Fay Presto is a British trans woman who is known as a magician and a member of The Inner Magic Circle(there are only 300 members of the society which is the highest level of magic in the world).

This is the stage name of Letitia Winter born Oliver Winter May 17, 1948.

Skilled in the difficult art of close-up magic, Presto won the title of The Magic Circle Close-up Magician of the Year 2012. (BTW the Magic Circle only used to allow men in-1991). Fay Presto has performed at her ongoing show in London's West End for over 15 years having started working in local restaurants. She is an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ youth as well as a supporter of Dreamflight (similar to Make a Wish Foundation). She has performed for many celebrities and oh NBD the Queen of England 5 times. *I want to write a biography of this person!!!! Visit her website here: Fay Presto

Emmy Noether, Women's History Month

Amalie Emmy Noether 23 March 1882 – 14 April 1935 was a German mathematician known for her landmark contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics.

Those who have studied her theorem believe it to be the backbone of modern physics. 

She struggled with getting recognition because she was female and Jewish. She was given an "unofficial associate professorship" only to lose it because she was Jewish at the rise of Nazi power and as such, she fled to the US to work. She published papers under male names in order to get them out. 

She was described by Pavel Alexandrov, Albert Einstein, Jean Dieudonné, Hermann Weyl, and Norbert Wiener as the most important woman in the history of mathematics.

As one of the leading mathematicians of her time, she developed the theories of rings, fields, and algebras. In physics, Noether's theorem explains the connection between symmetry and conservation laws. I find myself wondering for approximately the one millionth time if we had spent less time on prejudice, how much further along would the human race be at this point in history? Read more here: Emmy Noether

Sources:

NY Times

Wikipedia External Link List

Smithsonian Magazine

Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Women's History Month

María Amparo Ruiz de Burton (1832–1895) was the first female Mexican American writer to publish two novels in English in the United States, and while they both feature romances between Mexicans and Americans (she married a white solider which caused a great deal of strife for her), the narratives denounce U.S. colonialism and Anglo-American racism. She was also the first published Mexican American writer after the war with Mexico (1846-1848), English was her third language after Spanish and French. For a time her work was lost but is since being studied and is believed to be one of the precursors to the Chicano Literature movement. (She also put together the Don Quixote de la Mancha: A Comedy in Five Acts: Taken From Cervantes’ Novel of That Name 1876) 
You can purchase one of her books here: Who Would Have Thought It?

Sources: 19th Century Literature

Germ Magazine

Wikipedia External Links List 

Adelaide Herrmann, The Queen of Magic

Adelaide Herrmann (1853–1932) was a well-known American magician and vaudeville performer billed as "the Queen of Magic." She was married to Alexander Herrmann, another magician. They performed together until his death at such time she worked with another family member. As that did not work out she re-invented the show and went out on her own.

Adelaide was one of the few magicians to perform the notorious Bullet Catch stunt, which had been an infrequent feature of her husband's act. It was said that, because of the potentially dangerous trick's reputation (it had previously killed 12 men), she couldn't bear to watch her husband perform this act.

However, on January 19, 1897, a month after his passing, she stood in his place in front of a large firing squad at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. Surviving publicity material describes her as catching six bullets fired at her by local militiamen.

It is thought she is the only woman in the world that had performed this stunt at the time.

She performed well into her 70's before passing away at 79.

Read more at: The Queen of Magic

Sources also include: 

Genii Magazine

Bust Magazine

Women's History Month

I've been looking up extraordinary women this Women's History Month and sharing them on my personal Facebook page. A few days later it has occurred to me to share them here as well!

Patsy Takemoto Mink December 6, 1927 – September 28, 2002 was an American politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii. Mink was a third generation Japanese American and member of the Democratic Party. She also was the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.

Mink was the first non-white woman and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress. She was the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii, and became the first Asian American to seek the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in the 1972 election, where she stood in the Oregon primary as an anti-war candidate. From 1978 to 1981 Mink served as the president of Americans for Democratic Action.

Mink served in the U.S. House of Representatives for a total of 12 terms, representing Hawaii's first and second congressional districts. While in Congress she was noted for co-authoring the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act (which states that you cannot discriminate for financial assistance or educational opportunities-if you're a woman who went to college, there's a good chance you have her to thank for it, she was turned down by every medical school she applied to). She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously but the page on the White House site has been removed. A link to her Foundation.

Sources: 

NOW

The Patsy Mink Foundation

Wikipedia external links

Refining My Shop

As I am working to prepare for Geek Craft Expo I've been checking out new ways to display the things I make:

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I'm really loving my new card backs from Homegrown Gems. She made me exactly what I asked for and I am waiting on an even more special grouping......woohoo....more soon....

The Bear and The Nightingale

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is not a new story necessarily. 
Girl is the outcast of a family. Mother dies, father marries new and awful stepmother. Girl is strong-willed and "impossible." Stepmother resents any attention she gets over her own daughter. Vampires, sirens, demons, a hypocritical and awful priest who uses religion to do terrible things. Ignorant peasant community, the word witch is thrown around a lot. Becoming allies with something that is supposed to be evil. You know the story.
What makes this book remarkable is the delivery. 
It is beautifully written and uniquely crafted. Using old words and ideas in a modern way but still telling a fairy tale from the past. And one rooted in Russia's rich and deep folklore. 
Vasya, our heroine, is easy to root for as is her siblings. Including her half-sister despite the wedge the stepmother tries to drive between them. You can clearly picture the land, the winter and what it feels like to see the summer light. The author gives voices to some of the animals which adds an extra layer to the story. The horses in particular with their indifference and skeptical help remind me a lot of the cat in Coraline. 
Moscow is now a larger than life city but to read what it used to appear as to people is compelling and fascinating. The author clearly spent time studying Russia's past. 
I really enjoyed this story and had a very hard time setting it aside in the couple of days I read it. I am looking forward to Vasya's next adventure with the Frost Demon. 

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