Category: Women

  • When Anita Florence Hemmings applied to Vassar in 1893, there was nothing in her records to indicate that she would be any different from the 103 other girls who were entering the class of 1897. But by August 1897, the world as well as the college had discovered her secret: Anita Hemmings was Vassar’s first…

  • Berlin marks Black History Month but the struggle goes on Deutsche Welle 2012-02-16 Anne Thomas Berlin has become more diverse and the situation for Afro-Germans has improved, but it’s still hard to get a job or an apartment. Black History Month highlights the challenges faced by over 2 percent of the population. A black Portuguese…

  • Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 Third World Newsreel 2012 84 minutes Germany English/German with English Subtitles Dagmar Schultz 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of Audre Lorde’s passing, the acclaimed Black lesbian feminist poet and activist. Throughout the 70s and 80s, Lorde’s incisive writings and speeches defined and inspired the women of color,…

  • Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story Third World Newsreel 1997 28 minutes Germany German with English Subtitles Maria Binder A moving documentary about the life and untimely death of Ghanaian-German poet, academic and political personality May Ayim. Ayim was one of the founders of the Black German Movement, and her research on the…

  • Searching for a new soul in Harlem Gender News The Clayman Institute for Gender Research Stanford University 2012-02-27 Annelise Heinz, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History Stanford University Allyson Hobbs on passing and racial ambiguity during the Harlem Renaissance Harlem in the 1920s is known for its creative outpouring of art, music, and literature.…

  • Hybrid Identities and Adolescent Girls: Being ‘Half’ in Japan Social Science Japan Journal Published Online: 2012-01-19 DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyr053 Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu Stanford University Hybrid Identities and Adolescent Girls: Being ‘Half’ in Japan, by Laurel D. Kamada. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2009, 272 pp., (hardcover ISBN 978-1-84769-233-7), (paperback ISBN 978-1-84769-232-0) I hated it when I was little…

  • Claudia Unterweger – Austria’s first black News presenter Afro-Europe: International Blog 2012-02-18 ©ORF (Ali Schafler) Claudia Unterweger (39) is the first black TV News presenter in Austria. She was born to an African-American father and an Austrian mother. Since February 2011 she is one of the News presenters of “Zib-flash”, a program of the Austrian…

  • Portrait of Crimean War Nurse Mary Seacole Acquired by National Portrait Gallery artdaily.org 2012-02-12 Mary Seacole by Albert Charles Challen, 1869. ©National Portrait Gallery, London. LONDON.- The only known painting of Mary Seacole, the black Victorian nurse regarded as one of the most significant figures to emerge from the Crimean War, is to remain at…

  • Obituaries: Fredi Washington, 90, Actress; Broke Ground for Black Artists The New York Times 1994-06-30 Sheila Rule Fredi Washington, one of the first black actresses to gain recognition for her work on stage and in film, died on Tuesday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Stamford, Conn., where she lived. She was 90. The cause…

  • Looking White, Acting Black: Cast(e)ing Fredi Washington Theatre Survey Volume 45, Issue 1 (2004) pages 19-40 DOI: 10.1017/S0040557404000031 Cheryl Black, Associate Professor of Acting, Theatre History/Theory/Criticism University of Missouri, Columbia In October 1926 a leading African-American newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier, featured adjacent photographs of two young women with a provocative caption: “White Actresses Who Open…