HerStory: A Bad Bitch - Kelis, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu

To wrap up women’s history month, we are going to look into a question that we need to ask ourselves. Not only as women but the bitch inside of us all, the real question? What is a bad bitch? A bad bitch is a woman who can define herself without needing any input from society. A bad bitch is a woman who could care less of what people think of her image, but only what is coming across in her words. Making sure you understand who she is and what she is about. Such women include, kelis, lauryn hill, and erykah badu. Each woman at some point or other has been in the public eye and has put the middle finger up and went about her way.


Young harlemite, born Kelis Jones, better known as Kelis was first brought to the scene in 1998 with her album Kaleidoscope. Known for her wild untamed hair in her video debut “Caught Out There”; she made sure to catch the attention of everyone. Bright colored hair, holding her own, and didn’t need anything from anyone is what Kelis was about. She continued to make hit songs, like “Young, Fresh N’ New”, the infamous “Milkshake”, “Bossy” and the list goes on. In 2005 she married well-known artist Nas. She was still holding her own, married or not. Since then she had her baby and was playing the mother role. She has been missed since her last album in 2006. Don’t fret; she is to be releasing her album “Flesh Tone” this spring. The odd girl from around the way is definitely back with her song “Acapella” and in full effect.



We all remember when we first really saw Lauryn Hill. It was either when she first started with the fugees; the only female in the trio of rap/hip hop and mix of acoustic soul. If it wasn’t with the fugees, it was when she sang “Joyful, Joyful” on the all time favorite Sister Act 2. This is the same girl who was once booed off the stage of the Apollo Amateur Night at the age of 13.


Amazed I know. However, she sure did concur that stage. Hitting the stage with her album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The album had numerous #1 hits on the Billboard Charts. With singing and acting under her belt, she stayed on top. Playing by her own rules and not letting anyone get in her way. She then married Rohan Marley, son of Bob Marley. Not long after the marriage and five children with Rohan; she had released the MTV Unplugged 2.0 album. It wasn’t as successful as many of her previous albums. It was said that you could hear her breaking down over the live performance. Its no doubt about it that Lauryn is no longer the artist she once was. But it cannot be denied that she is still a bad bitch for all she had done with her music and for the community. An Essence Award for founding the Refugee Project, three awards at the 30th annual NAACP Image awards, and Ebony named her one of “100 + Most influential Black Americans”, among many other awards. Lauryn was a star still rising but at some point we all fall from the light a bit. I’m still in hopes that she will debut something crazy amazing to surprise us all.



Erica Abi Wright a.k.a. Erykah Badu, stepped onto the scene in 1997 with her album “Baduizm” , with her lead song “On & On” as #2 on the Billboard charts. Dreads that seemed to go on for days, almond shaped eyes that looked like they could read into your soul. She definitely brought a soulful touch into the music industry that hadn’t really been since the early 90’s. There were no words to described her style in music and fashion. Never cared much of what people thought, she brought her own fell and groove to the industry that was much needed. It seems as though every male who was brought into her presence changed his own style. Common Sense, now known as Common was one of her “victims”. She isn’t just an artist, she is art within herself. Willing to work with anyone and trying just about anything, she has bought hit after hit to the music game. With songs like “On & On”, “Tyrone”, “Bag Lady”, and “Honey” Just to name a few. Erykah Badu has made sure that no one could forget what she has contributed to the industry. She recently debuted her somewhat risqué video “Window Seat” from her album that released yesterday “New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh”.


(to catch the video, check out her website erykahbadu.com)


Erykah doesn’t need validation from anyone to say that she is definitely working her art, and well. She is a chameleon who will get under everyone’s skin one way or another. And she is a bad bitch for making it be known.


A bad bitch is a woman who can play in all spectrums of the court. Who aims to have everything and could care less what people think while she is doing it. Whether its manning the family front, being the number one designer, the musician that knows her craft or even the business end of it all. She is willing to do whatever it takes to be where she wants to be. She doesn’t need your ok, or say so to do it. A bad bitch is something we are and are still aiming to be. So with that ladies, I wish you a blessed Women’s History Year. We don’t need just a month to celebrate it; we can create it every day.

HerStory: Alice Paul

It seems as if America has an obsession with "bad girls". There are entire shows dedicated to women who spend the better half of their days fighting each other, getting wasted before noon and having sex with so-called celebrities to get media attention and material goods. However, what does a real bad girl look like? A real bad girl looks a lot like suffragist, Alice Paul.

Paul was born in 1885, a time when children were not allowed to speak unless they were spoken to and to a certain degree "proper" women followed that same rule. However, Alice was raised by Hicksite Quaker parents who believed in equality of the sexes. As a child she was taken to National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) meetings by her mother, Tacie Parry. Tacie was born into a wealthy family and her father, Judge William Parry was one of the founders of Swarthmore, a co-ed college. In later years Alice attended Swarthmore and graduated with a bachelors in Biology.

It was during Paul's time in Birmingham, England that she became steeped in the suffragist movement. While in Birmingham Alice met the English suffragist Christabel Pankhurst, the daughter of the radical Emmeline Pankhurst. The Pankhurst women were not known to back down. Their group of suffragists engaged in violent acts of disobedience including window smashing and rock throwing to bring attention to the suffragist movement in England. They were often carted away in cuffs. Paul was jailed on several occasions for smashing windows, thus giving new meaning to the saying a smashing good time.

Deeds not words.
Pankhurst faction suffragist motto

When Paul returned to the U.S. in 1910, she was determined to employ some of the tactics used by the English suffragists. Three years later she had the opportunity to draw major attention to the movement. Paul organized a women's march down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., which coincided with Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. What was supposed to be a peaceful event turned brutal quickly; male onlookers attacked the women while the police watched. Fortunately, the actions of the abusers had a positive impact on the movement -- the suffragists made headlines across the nation.



In 1916; after separating from NAWSA, Paul created the National Women's Party (NWP) where politicians regardless of party affiliation were held accountable for the disenfranchisement of women. The NWP staged demonstrations, picketed and participated in hunger strikes. These real bad girls found themselves in prison on several occasions. Paul and key members were arrested and thrown in jail after refusing to pay petty fines. Alice Paul served time in the Occuquan Workhouse in Virginia. During this time Paul and other women staged a hunger strike to protest the conditions of the prison. The hunger strike was met with such opposition that the suffragists were beaten and in Paul's case; forced into the sanitarium in an attempt to declare her insane. Well, there is a very thin line between insanity and genius -- with Paul bordering on the latter.

After much public outcry, the women found a supporter in Wilson, who called the suffragist amendment a "war time" act. In 1920, Paul picked up where Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cody left off as the 19th Amendment was passed. Interestingly enough, the last vote came down to the 24 year-old Harry Burn, who was asked to support the act by his very own mother.

The next time a young lady (or young man for that matter) asks you who or what a bad girl is, feel confident in referring them to Paul's story or any woman in the Ladies Lotto HerStory series. Then again, you can always point to yourself.

HerStory: A Tale of Two Coasts and 2 Amazing Ladies

We all love a little rivalry now and then, especially East Coast vs. West Coast. And to add a dash and a splash of Hip-Hop intrigue into the HerStory (Amazing Women!) month, I thought it might be nice to rap about 2 dope chicas from Hip-Hop that are changing the game of social activism from 'keeping it real' to 'making shit right!'

A little back story may be in order so you can really see what’s going on, and who the players are:

1. East Coast representative J-Love Calderon

2. West Coast representative Asia One

J-Love is my best friend since age 2, growing up in Denver, Colorado, we were inseparable, whether we were roller skating on Saturdays or having gigantic house parties at my mom’s crib when she was out of town. J was not going to be a regular white girl. She always identified more with Black culture, and Hip-Hop, and was the first female I knew of in Denver to start “getting-up” on the walls with her infamous ‘Act-One” tag. While I was an awkward and shy mixed kid, J-Love fit in with all crowds. While I loved middle school, and the motley assortment of Michael Jackson, Prince and Apollonia, and Led Zeppelin influenced heads, once high school started and the gang life of Bloods and Crips saturated our world, I opted out while J got down. From that point on we began our different paths, mine as a Bgirl and hers as a social activist fighting to end white privilege. We both used Hip-Hop as a tool for growth, whether it was with Zulu Nation, where we learned about the Nation of Islam and the 5 percent nation, eating clean food and why not to eat pork, knowledge of self, Egyptology, diversity, and respect for all peoples, Behold the Pale White Horse and Alien life.

I became one of the most famous Bgirls of the early 90’s, got down with Rock Steady Crew, and became an outspoken advocate for Hip-Hop culture and spokesperson for Bboys and Bgirls worldwide. J-Love graduate from San Diego State, went on the get her masters in New York, and became a social worker, and later a case worker and educator at El Puente High School in Williamsburg Brooklyn. We both worked on the event I created with the help of Jlove and Easy Rock, and the Universal Zulu Nation of San Diego, called the Bboy Summit. It was our tribute to the skills of Hip-Hop, the disciplines and disciples, to honor the Bboys and Bgirls, the original rockers of Hip-Hop. Jlove went on to author her first book, starting the nonprofit entitled “We Got Issues” and to create curriculum for educators that teaches tools of empowerment to people of color. While J-Love cruises thru the college circuit, motivating young people and lecturing on the concept of white privilege, and crusading for truth, justice and freedom, I tour around the globe, breaking, writing graffiti, teaching workshops, and producing events. We meet up periodically to get our dose of each other, and to laugh, love, and create together.

1. What are you doing now to change the game?

JL: What I am up to now is books and the publishing business; and producing TV and Film. That White Girl, the movie focuses on a white girl coming the age while grappling with race, graffiti, Hip-Hop, and gangs; and moving on some incredible TV projects (top secret for now), and my multi-media project 'Till the White Day is Done, in which the first initiative, LOVE, RACE, and LIBERATION curriculum guide (co-edited by myself and Marcella Runell Hall) drops this Women's Herstory Month. It is a guide for educators and activists to use in discussing the tough issues of race and white privilege in America.

Asia: Turned my for profit into a nonprofit called No Easy Props Productions that houses my after school program for youth called “Hip-Hop 101” where we teach multiculturalism, self-identity, physical education through Bboy/Bgirl dance, and art education through making graffiti inspired street wear; and the international annual event est. 1994, called “The B-Boy Summit”. I am also working on a TV show about Bboys and Bgirls, and a line of energy botanical teas for the Hip-Hop community.

2. Your life’s purpose?

JL: My life's purpose is dedicated to Truth, Love, and Freedom. I commit myself to building healthy tribe, creating community, righting wrongs, and loving completely.

Asia: To build a sustainable healthy Hip-Hop community, educated, empowered, and charged with the vitality of life to change the world with.

3. Who u roll with?

JL: My crews roll deep and wide. I am down with the Hip-Hop community and progressive activist community worldwide; TV and Film projects with my partners Johnny Sanchez, Heidi Miami, M1, MC Serch, Marla Teyolia, Byron Hurt Kamilah Forbes; and my best friend and business partner launching our new Hip-Hop Tea line is none other than the amazing Asia-One.

Asia: No Easy Props is my motto and movement! Zulu Kings and Kweens is who I rep with in the circles worldwide massive. The children of the world are all of my seeds, and I roll with the youth!

4. Why folks should follow you?

JL: My goal is bridging social justice with commercially viable people, products and experiences. I would love to expand my community with like-minded, creative women leaders who care deeply about peace and social justice, as well as creating innovative, artistic projects that show the world the depth and breath of women’s' power and potential.http://www.jlovecalderon.com

Asia: In order to demand more out of life, we must give of ourselves, each one doing our part collectively as a CommUnity. No more self-serving ego agendas. We want change and we are the change we want to see! www.asia-1.org

Well there you have it, 2 different phenomenal women, from different coasts, ambitious idealists that see the world thru the lens of Hip-Hop but are taking different pictures to create their story.

HerStory: Lisa Nichols

Lisa Nichols' life story isn't of the usual variety. There were no family connections, Ivy League colleges or having an easy time of it in general. She is, in her words "a little black girl from South Central." However, that little girl grew up to be the living, breathing inspiration for millions around the world. Her dedication to sharing her story and life lessons is what helps her connect to people from all walks of life. She isn't your typical self-help, motivational speaker.

Encouraging women to define themselves and helping them tap into the power within is her goal. She is passionate about women embracing who and what they are as a means to becoming who they want to be. "You think and speak your life into existence." What she promotes is so powerful, that men have been very vocal about her female-directed message. And it's true that anyone can apply her teachings to their life.

Lisa participated in the now-defunct "Starting Over"; helping women get past difficult points in their lives and recreate themselves. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show numerous times, as well as having taken part in the wildly popular, The Secret. Previously labeled the worst writer by her English teacher has ever seen, Nichols has published three books. We as women (and men) should be "non-negotiable" about ourselves and our goals. "Reject average and embrace extraordinary!"

"Be so sure that you have claimed what you want, that you have to say yes twice! Yes, yes!"

Learn more about Lisa and her mission at www.Lisa-Nichols.com.

HerStory: Zadie Smith

Authoress Zadie Smith came from, if nothing else, intellectually privileged beginnings. Born of Jamaica by way of northwest England, an inquisitive girl grew to be on of the most coveted wordsmiths of a generation. As a child she dreamt of becoming a musical movie actress alla Carmen Jones but, instead, tapped her way to Cambridge University to study English Literature. Here is where she started a short story that later expanded into what is now known as her first novel, White Teeth. This portrait of a multicultural life in London won her much acclaim as told through the lives of three ethnically diverse families. "I never attended a creative writing class in my life," she has cited. "I have a horror of them. Most writers groups moonlight as support groups for the kind of people who think that writing is therapeutic. Writing is the exact opposite of therapy. The best, the only real training you can get is from reading other people's books."

Zadie has set as a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University and lives in London with her husband, poet NicK Laird, and daughter, Irie. Speaking In Tongues by Zadie Smith

HerStory: Anthems

For years women have empowered themselves through music. From bad-ass rocker chicks, to those who are on the TLC tip we've come a long way from singing in genteel girl groups.

Check out the videos below.


Salt 'N' Pepa - None of Your Business


Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Are Made for Walking


The Runaways - Cherry Bomb

HerStory: Candice Han

Candice Han represents the every woman while still achieving total individuality. She is the public relations practitioner and brand-blending entrepreneur behind her company Pitchblend Media. Her client list includes top name music acts, visual artists and companies who shall remain nameless for privacy purposes.

Her specialty? Innovation and technology.

Her methodology?

“I make sure to stay ahead of the curve with all the on and offline technology that is constantly emerging so I know how to apply these tools for my company and especially for my clients,” says Han. “I understand the dynamic shifting of media and how that makes sense for companies and the arts & entertainment. I always make sure that my methods and the services I offer are top level, delivering ideas that have never been done before.”

Beyond nonstop output and pure productivity, Han contributes much more of the really real stuff to our world. After a DJ career, and a late-bloomer B.A. in Journalism and PR, she made her business dreams happen after struggling for years with self-doubt and insecurity. Her thriving company represents sacrifice, championship, persistence, self-love and confidence…in addition to a finely tuned social media compass and a reputation of campaign creativity that precedes her.

“I know there isn't anything I can't do or accomplish and that goes for everyone in this world. Fear is an illusion. Whenever you take risks, roll the dice and surrender to free fall, you will always land on your feet and win.”
- Candice Han

Herstory: Lynda Weinman

Lynda Weinman, a Web graphics and design veteran, wrote the very first industry book on Web design, Designing Web Graphics, in 1995. She is a prominent educator and the author of dozens of best-selling books. Weinman was a faculty member at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, in 1989, and has worked as an animator and motion graphics director in the film special effects industry.

Weinman has worked as a consultant for Adobe, Macromedia, and Microsoft, and has conducted workshops at Disney, Microsoft, Adobe, and Macromedia. She has been a keynote speaker, moderator, and lecturer at numerous design, animation, Web design, and computer-graphics conferences. Weinman and her husband Bruce Heavin co-founded lynda.com in 1995. (via Lynda.com)

Back in undergrad I took a class on how to build a website. This was waaayyy back when most people didn't know what HTML was and when frames were acceptable as the norm. One resource my teacher shared with us (Travis Smith of Variety.com) was LYNDA.COM. Went to Lynda for the web palette below which is a quick reference for changing colors in HTML (again, back when most people weren't using dreamweaver, etc).

The thing about Lynda is that she really is a pioneer in web based graphics and her website has massive reach and influence. Enjoy the resource she provides!

Check out: http://www.lynda.com

HerStory: Model Behavior

Models are known for being the tall slim women, with long gorgeous flowing hair, radiant skin, flawless features and legs for days. While the fashion industry thrives for the perfect look, I love and commend those who don’t and still stand out beyond the typical mannequin models. Two models that have always stood out, Omahyra Mota and Crystal Renn.

Omahyra Mota

Omahyra Mota, the bad ass model from the 90’s before the Agyness Denn’s even came about. Born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New York by the age of 10, this young model was soon signed to Boss Models 6 years later. Omahyra was known for her androgynous look. Gaped front teeth, edgy boy hair cut, and lip pierced was once viewed as abnormal was soon all over the billboards. Campaign model for Roca Wear to the catwalk for the late great Alexander McQueen, Fendi, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Nina Ricci to name a few. Omahyra, known for modeling both men’s and women’s clothes, was voted one of People Magazine’s 50 most beautiful people in 2001. Omahyra has made an impact within the fashion world, modeling and acting under her belt since ’04, who knows what else there is for Mota



Crystal Renn-

Model Crystal Renn first came to light at the age of 14 and was told to lose a third of her body weight. She did as she was told in the beginning of her career to fit in. She did the diets, ate properly, and went to the gym, all for the sake of fashion. Over time her body caught up and she had a health crisis causing her to rethink some of her habits. Gaining back 70lbs to get back to her normal body weight, she was officially noted as a plus size model. When coming back into the fast lane of the fashion life, she had gained back her original 40% body weight, which would make her a size. Since her come back, she has been able to be on even more magazine spreads, representing the plus size women. Some magazines include Italian Vogue, V magazine, and Harper’s Bazaar. Recently reporting for Glamour Magazine on New York Fashion Week 2010 on the fall collections, Crystal wishes to continue to her plus size career as well as making the world accept the plus size models even more.


Whats not to love about a model who wants to be more than just another pretty face, but a face and a story that's unforgettable.

Herstory: Emma Goldman

Goldman, above at an unemployed workers rally in Union Square NYC

Emma Goldman, born in to an impoverished Orthodox Jewish family in what is now Lithuania, emigrated to the US as a teen, has been described as—among other things—"the most dangerous woman in America". She was a staunch supporter of anarchism, a political philosophy most people know little about.

During her life, Goldman was lionized as a free-thinking "rebel woman" by admirers, and derided by critics as an advocate of politically motivated murder and violent revolution. Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues, including prisons, atheism, freedom of speech, militarism, capitalism, marriage, free love, and homosexuality. Although she distanced herself from first-wave feminism and its efforts toward women's suffrage, she developed new ways of incorporating gender politics into anarchism.

As an anarchist, Goldman championed numerous human rights causes, particularly the issue of free speech. Widely persecuted for her advocacy of anarchism and opposition to World War I, Goldman was active in the early 20th century free speech movement, seeing freedom of expression as a fundamental necessity for achieving social change. Her outspoken championship of her ideals, in the face of persistent arrests, inspired Roger Baldwin, one of the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Goldman advocated passionately for the rights of women, and is today heralded as a founder of anarcha-feminism, which challenges patriarchy as a hierarchy to be resisted alongside state power and class divisions. In 1897 she wrote: "I demand the independence of woman, her right to support herself; to live for herself; to love whomever she pleases, or as many as she pleases. I demand freedom for both sexes, freedom of action, freedom in love and freedom in motherhood.”

Goldman was also an outspoken critic of prejudice against homosexuals. Her belief that social liberation should extend to gays and lesbians was virtually unheard of at the time, even among anarchists. As Magnus Hirschfeld wrote, "she was the first and only woman, indeed the first and only American, to take up the defense of homosexual love before the general public." In numerous speeches and letters she defended the right of gays and lesbians to love as they pleased and condemned the fear and stigma associated with homosexuality. As Goldman wrote in a letter to Hirschfeld, "It is a tragedy, I feel, that people of a different sexual type are caught in a world which shows so little understanding for homosexuals and is so crassly indifferent to the various gradations and variations of gender and their great significance in life."

After decades of obscurity, Goldman's iconic status was revived in the 1970s, when feminist and anarchist scholars rekindled popular interest in her life.

Read Emma's writings here: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/

Via WIKIPEDIA

HerStory: Oprah Winfrey

There is no one else in the world with the power and credibility to cause such radical market swings and consumer price changes. Oprah Winfrey is the one person who by simply speaking the name of a product in print or on air has that very effect. And actually, the term “Oprah Effect” has been given to the guaranteed increase of sales that that occurs when a book is selected for her revered Oprah’s Book Club.

CNN, Time, and Life have all said that Winfrey is arguably the most popular and influential woman in the world. Life and USA Today deem her the most influential black person…not black woman, but black person…of her generation, and President Obama agrees.

To have such an impact is undeniably astounding. Although she starred in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple in 1985, Winfrey’s rise to the media mogul master she is today began most notably with the launch of her hour-long, nationally syndicated talk-how, The Oprah Winfrey Show, in 1986. Viewers and critics were shocked when Winfrey outshined the previously most popular tabloid talk show hosted by Phil Donahue. The public was instantly drawn in to Winfrey’s layman’s curiosity, sense of humor and above all, her empathy.

In the 90’s, Winfrey switched up the style of her show and began focusing less on tabloids and more on relevant issues including politics, spirituality, women’s health, gifting and home décor. She talked to celebs about charity work, health issues, substance abuse or any issues that were important to them, instead of the usual gossip-talk. Winfrey’s show also gave a voice to normal folks doing extraordinary things.

Hinging from her ridiculously successful talk show, Winfrey now publishes O, The Oprah Magazine and she’s co-authored five books. Oprah.com boasts more than 70 million page views, more than six million users per month, and about 20,000 emails each week. Winfrey also has her own XM Radio show, Oprah Radio. And along with such major accomplishments, this is a woman who is dedicated to charity work in the highest, most hands-on form.

On deck for Winfrey is her narration of Discovery Channel’s upcoming documentary series, Life, which airs this month. With her project No Phone Zone, she is campaigning something fierce to raise awareness for how dangerous it is to drive while texting, emailing, etc. Whether we love her, hate her, or only pay attention to her weight gains and losses, her complete takeover in the world of media deserves an LLady high-five any day.

HerStory: Tina Fey

Funny girl Tina Fey has taught us all just what it means to transform our awkward teenage awesomeness into grown woman swag. Joining the cast of the infamous and iconic Saturday Night Live in 2000 only after a three year journey to head writer and dropping 30 pounds on her own accord, Ms. Fey now dominates the comedic and entertainment scene once reserved for a gentleman's post.

Winner of several Emmy's, Golden Globes, SAG and Writers Guild accolades, Philly native Elizabeth Stamatina Fey graduated from the University of Virgina in 1992 and headed to Chicago where she joined The Second City improv troupe. Here she worked like a dog to fully immerse herself in the art of improvisation "like one of those athletes trying to get into the Olympics," as she puts it. "I was so sure that I was doing exactly what I'd been put on this earth to do, and I would have done anything to make it onto that stage. It was all about blind focus."

She now sits atop such smash hits as Mean Girls, Baby Mama, and the sitcom 30 Rock (loosely based on her experience as the head writer on the aforementioned SNL sketch comedy show). In 2001, Tina became Mrs. Jeff Richmond, 30 Rock composer and longtime love, and welcomed daughter Alice Zenobia in 2005. Who says we can't have it all?

HerStory: Zainab Salbi

Zainab Salbi is truly a woman's woman. Salbi, an Iraqi-American writer and social activist, is co-founder and president of Women for Women International. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, she came to the United States at the age of 19. Her experience with the Iran–Iraq War sensitized her to the plight of women in war worldwide. She has written and spoken extensively on the use of rape and other forms of violence against women during war. In 1995, President Bill Clinton honored Salbi at the White House for her humanitarian work in Bosnia.

Women for Women International was formed when Salbi and her husband Amjad Atallah, a Palestinian-American, were moved by the plight of the women of the former Yugoslavia, many forced into the now infamous rape and concentration camps. But they ran onto a road block when they realized that there were no organizations in existence to address the situation. Even though they were newlyweds, in lieu of a honeymoon, Salbi and Atallah launched an organization that created “sister-to-sister” connections between sponsors in the United States and female survivors of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They were greeted with an overwhelming response; a female survivor of the rape camps who had lost her husband and children during the war said, "I thought the world had forgotten us…."

Juiced by the success of their first endeavors, and with the continued support of other concerned individuals, they started Women for Women International with a tiny budget and a small team of dedicated volunteers. Since 1993, Women for Women International has supported women survivors of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Kosovo, Nigeria, Colombia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. It has assisted more than 243,000 women, distributed more than $80 million in direct aid, and trained thousands of women in rights awareness.

In addition to sponsorships, women can take advantage of microcredit loans. These loans (usually about $80 USD) allow women to start businesses in their communities, become independent, and care for their families (husbands included). It's a proven fact that when you invest in women and girls, there is marked progress. The rate of repayment for the loans overall are at 98%.

Zainab Salbi is a complete inspiration, and she's created a way for us ALL to participate in lifting up other women. Find out more about Women for Women International and get involved!

HerStory: Lauren Hutton

Lauren Hutton, the ambitious, bold trailblazer was born in Charleston, South Carolina on November 17, 1943.

At 66 years old she is still an icon for many. She doesn’t stop living life to its fullest and she embraces the inevitable natural aging process.

“Our wrinkles are our metals of the passage of our life... I don't think I will ever cut my face, because once I cut it, then I never know where I've been.”

What separated Hutton from other models and actress’ is that she made success for herself using a different approach - not adhering to the standards set of her time, in the 1960’s.

Hutton who is short by typical model standards and has gapped teeth made both of these things work for her. Eileen Ford wanted her to fix her nose and teeth, Lauren had no intention of either and knew there was good money in modeling and chose this path so that she could have money to travel the world.

One of Lauren’s first photo shoots, which would bring her success, was by the late Richard Avedon. “I was inexperienced so Avedon was having a hard time getting me to move naturally. Finally he stopped trying to shoot and asked me about myself. He asked where I came from, and I told him that I grew up in the swamplands in Florida. He asked me what I did there. I said, "We played in the swamps and jumped around." So I spent the rest of that day jumping. Three months later, Vogue came out with 14 pages of me jumping, gapped teeth included, as Avedon wouldn't let me put wax between my teeth like I usually did”.

After years in the biz, Lauren Hutton managed to get the first cosmetics contract that would set the standard for models for years to come…

Quote: “I saw a story on the front page of the New York Times about a baseball player, Catfish Hunter. He was the first player to get a sports contract. I remember his quote: "I've got to have a contract because I'm in a youth-oriented business." I thought, I'm in a youth-oriented business too. I was 30, the most famous model in the world, and I was the last of my era's famous models left. Verushka, Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy, they all had stopped. I read the article to my boyfriend and asked him how I could get a contract like that. He replied, "That's easy: refuse to do cosmetic ads." And that's what I did”.

Throughout Laurens many years of travel (35+ years) she has trekked from the Himalayas to Africa to the Amazon. Scuba-dived. Dog-sledded in Sweden and Alaska…she’s gone and lived with Pygmies. She says: “These experiences made my brain and my face change. I learned things other people weren't learning unless they were explorers or anthropologists. A million extraordinary things happened to me every single day on these trips. I slept in a sleeping bag on the ground, with no makeup, no mirrors, and companions who were wearing leaves and had filed teeth, and I read tons of books. I always came back to New York refreshed and chaffing at the bit. Also, I was never competitive with the other girls; it's self-defeating and makes you look ugly”.

In October 2005, at the age of 61, Hutton agreed to pose nude for Big magazine. "I want them (women) not to be ashamed of who they are when they're in bed"

Check out Lauren's makeup line: http://www.laurenhutton.com/

Herstory: Nikki Corvette

Girls like me were born to rock n roll - Nikki Corvette

You're So Young & Crazy - Nikki & The Corvettes

All this talk about The Runaways movie (the all female band led by Joan Jett), got me thinking about power pop and the amazing Nikki Corvette.

Nikki Corvette, hailing from Detroit, fronted the band, Nikki & The Corvettes back when women in music were more likely to play acoustic guitar & sing with a breathy whisper. Back then, Nikki didn't know she was inventing the girl rock & bubblegum punk genres (which really didn't take off until the 90's with bands like The Donna's & The Bobbyteens). "They had a sound somewhere between the Go-go's and the Ramones with bubblegum teenage libido maxed out with a dose of the Shangri Las. Led by a "new wave Betty Boop," to quote one review, this power group offered sounds and sex appeal. " states Punkmodpop.free.fr

Girls Like Me / Let's Go - Nikki & The Corvettes

Nikki's on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NikkiCorvette

HerStory: Janice Mirikitani

There are few places that are mine,

I claim them:
this ground once vandalized,
this blue silk sky where embroidered cranes kept vigil.
this opened cage of torn barbed wire,
this bowl of sand from Amache Gate.
I keep them like a rock in my shoe
to remind me
to mourn not for lost fathers,
to mend my own body
to wait not for men or marriage vows
...
I claim my place
in this line of generations of women
lean with work
soft as tea
open as the tunnels of the sea
driven as the heels of freedom's feet
taut-fisted with reparations.
...
Generations of yellow women,
gather in me,
to crush the white wall
not with the wearing of sorrow,
Not with bitterness or regret.
We crush the white wall
our voices released

(Excerpt from the poem Generations of Women by Janice Mirikitani)


A poet, activist, womanist, and community leader, Janice Mirikitani has been an icon for a generation of forward-thinking Asian American women. As a student at San Francisco State College in 1968, she was politicized and galvanized to action in a heady time of social unrest when groups such as the Black Panthers, Brown Berets, and Yellow Power sought self determination for their respective communities and demanded power to the people. It is within this movement that she found her voice, and summoned the courage to cast away the silence and shame that had up until then defined Asian American communities for too long. She spoke truth to power from her personal history as a Japanese American who experienced the injustice of internment during World War II and the aftermath of its effects on her family and community, and as a woman who knew all too well the pain of sexual violence.

In her writings, she dedicates poems to comrade sisters and war veterans, writes in remembrance of relatives lost, claims pride in ancestry, and speaks deftly and defiantly about racism, brutality, and the colonization of the mind. Her poems bear titles such as "We, the Dangerous," "Bitches Don't Wait," and "Sing With Your Body." She is a visionary who speaks in language that refuses victimization and instead chooses strength in the affirmation of self. Her language is electric, elegant, gorgeous– and at turns resilient, severe, defiant–proving that a woman, with the power of her words, can move mountains.

Hand in hand with her writing, Mirikitani's work as a community activist represents true strength, as she defines power by helping those in need improve their lives. For over 40 years, Mirikitani has created and directed programs and social services that empower women and youth within San Francisco's most marginalized communities as the Founding President of the Glide Foundation, and she continues to work for positive change.

For her commitment to social justice, for breaking the silence, for reminding us of how powerful we truly are, she is an inspiration to us all.

HerStory: Whatever You Give a Woman...

HerStory: Maya Deren

“Maya did things in the forties that other women didn’t do. Somehow we never got the idea that a woman could be a film director. It’s very difficult to conceive that something can be done if it hasn’t been done before. It always requires an innovator, a heretic. And Maya was a heretic.” - Hella Hammid

Maya was a heretic, but she wasn’t the first female film director, before her was Alice Guy Blaché, Dorothy Arzner, Germaine Delac. What makes Maya different than Ida Lupino or Leni Riefenstahl is that she didn’t conform to any system. She created her own system, working with her then husband, Czech documentary filmmaker Alexander Hammid (who she met through Katherine Dunham), she made her first short silent film in 1943, Meshes of the Afternoon, which she wrote, produced, directed, performed in and edited. (Meshes has been sited as an influence on David Lynch’s Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire.)

Maya would go on to write, direct, and edit and appear in most of her short silent films which would go on to influence early music videos particularly Herb Ritts: Madonna’s Cherish (At Land) and Janet Jackson’s Love Will Never Do Without You (A Study In Choreography for Camera).

Her innovated in camera editing techniques, use of double and triple exposure, camera speeds are still unmatched in modern cinema. She distributed all her own films and promoted them through lectures and screenings in the United States, Canada and Cuba. With Joseph Campbell she helped establish the first non-profit film foundation: The Creative Film Foundation. She recorded two albums of Haitian music and went on to write the definitive anthropological book on Haitian Voudon Divine Horsemen. Her published articles on film theory continue to be relevant.

What made Maya different and still important today is that she kept it real and pushed the envelope of what was possible. In a time of manufactured Rita Hayworths, Maya was all natural, natural hair, natural body, rebelling against the social, economic and political constraints of Hollywood. On her journey to becoming a filmmaker she studied journalism, English literature, poetry and dance and is known for her emphasis on collaboration. Her circle of friends, many of whom appeared in her films, included Anaïs Nin, Gore Vidal, Marcel Duchamp and more.

Her work in defining independent cinema is just as important as her work in the avant-garde, psychodrama and ciné-dance film. It is apropos that at Jonas Mekas’ Film Anthology Archives there is a screening hall named after her and that the American Film Institute used to honor independent filmmakers with their Maya Deren Award.

Dig Deeper: Maya Deren Experimental Films, In The Mirror of Maya Deren by Martina Kudlácek, Divine Horsemen by Maya Deren, Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde.

HerStory: China Machado

Just one look at this photo, and a viewer is captivated. As exquisite as her photographs, China Machado is stunning. Model muse of legendary photographer Richard Avedon, China Machado, of Portuguese and Chinese descent, became the first non-Caucasian model to ever appear on the cover of a Western publication (Harper’s Bazaar) in 1959.

A multiracial glamour with striking features, China’s image redefined the image of what a woman could be, allowing the world of fashion to begin relating to people other than it’s usual Caucasian base. When Avedon booked China for a photo shoot, the publishers of Harper’s Bazaar initially refused to run the photographs for fear that her look was too “different”, too alienating. Yet, one look at this infamous icon, and her elegance is unmistakable- the perfect union of grace and toughness that offers an alternative angle of a woman’s presence, an alternative angle of the kind of woman who was allowed to own the title of ‘glamour’.

More than a pretty face, China went on to be a force in the fashion world outside of her photographs. Though Harper’s Bazaar once objected to publishing her images, even they weren’t able to resist her prowess and asked her to be the fashion editor of the publication. She went on to be produce fashion TV shows for networks like NBC, runway shows around the country, and worked as a costume designer for several films.

“She had this incredible way that mixed elegance with nonchalance. Maybe it’s the sophistication of an era that will never happen again. That type of model, that type of photographer (Avedon),- there’s an incredible perfection. It doesn’t come close to those days, what we’re doing today in fashion.”- Francois Nars, of Nars Cosmetics

One look says it all. As Avedon and China prove, one photograph can say a million words.