This month the word is Defy. It means to confront with assured power of resistance; to challenge to do something considered impossible. In facing some of these fears, we change the world.
Affirmation
intersectionality
Art of the Month
Nannie Helen Burroughs meets us at the
intersection of gender, race, and profession. She was an educator, civil rights
activists, feminist, and businesswoman
Burroughs was born May 2, 1879, in Orange Virginia. Her parents were formerly slaves, and her
father was a farmer and Baptist preacher.
Her father died when she was young, so Burroughs and her mother moved to
Washing DC.
She attended high school in DC where she met Anna Julia
Cooper and Mary Church Terrell, who were suffragists and civil rights
activists.
After graduation she applied for a job with the District
but could not get one because her skin was too dark. This set in her the
determination to ensure women of her skin tone could improve their situation.
From 1898 to 1909 Burroughs went to work for the National
Baptist Convention in Kentucky. She was one of the founders of the Women’s
Convention and served as president for 13 years. She also found the National
Training School in 1908 that provided evening classes for women who had no
other means of education.
In 1908 she opened the National Training School. Her goal
was to uplift the race. The main themes
of the school was the three B’s: the Bible, the bath, and the broom.
In 1920 she wrote two plays, one The Slabtown District
Convention and Where is My Wandering Boy Tonight?
In 1928, Burroughs was appointed committee chairwoman by
the Hoover Administration for the White
House Conference 1931 Home Building and Ownership. She also spoke at
conferences.
She died in May of 1961
https://www.nps.gov/people/nannie-helen-burroughs.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nannie_Helen_Burroughs
Affirmation
Nannie Helen Burrough’s life exemplifies what determination looks like. She wanted to ensure that African American women and girls had access to education that could improve their lives. She worked through many different ways to provide that education, as a teacher, as an activist and as a businesswoman.
It reminds me that I can be determined about something, but it doesn’t mean there is only one way to get it done. Use all the paths to accomplish the goal.
Affirmation
Determination is not always that strong will to keep going no matter what. I think that is where people get tired and stop. At least that is where I get tired and stop.
Determination for me is that moment when you want to stop and you do a little bit more. Then you do a little bit more. Then you realize that you are almost done, so your go ahead and finish it.
So I do.
Art of the Month
Nannie Helen Burroughs meets us at the intersection of gender, race, and profession. She was an educator, civil rights activists, feminist, and businesswoman.
Burroughs was born May 2, 1879, in Orange Virginia. Her parents were formerly slaves, and her father was a farmer and Baptist preacher. Her father died when she was young, so Burroughs and her mother moved to Washing DC.
She attended high school in DC where she met Anna Julia Cooper and Mary Church Terrell, who were suffragists and civil rights activists.
After graduation she applied for a job with the District but could not get one because her skin was too dark. This set in her the determination to ensure women of her skin tone could improve their situation.
From 1898 to 1909 Burroughs went to work for the National Baptist Convention in Kentucky. She was one of the founders of the Women’s Convention and served as president for 13 years. She also found the National Training School in 1908 that provided evening classes for women who had no other means of education.
https://www.nps.gov/people/nannie-helen-burroughs.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nannie_Helen_Burroughs
Affirmation
She had worked hard for an education during a time it was a hard won prize for African Americans. When Nannie Helen Burroughs finished school and applied for teaching positions in the system that educated her, she was refused because of the color of her skin. Her dark brown skin would relegate her to jobs as domestic servants.
She was determined to not let that happen. She set out for a life where she could teach and help other women in her place have a different future. Her determination changed lives.
Art of the Month
Nannie Helen Burroughs meets us at the intersection of gender, race, and profession. She was an educator, civil rights activists, feminist, and businesswoman.
Burroughs was born May 2, 1879, in Orange Virginia. Her parents were formerly slaves, and her father was a farmer and Baptist preacher. Her father died when she was young, so Burroughs and her mother moved to Washing DC.
She attended high school in DC where she met Anna Julia Cooper and Mary Church Terrell, who were suffragists and civil rights activists.
After graduation she applied for a job with the District but could not get one because her skin was too dark. This set in her the determination to ensure women of her skin tone could improve their situation.
https://www.nps.gov/people/nannie-helen-burroughs.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nannie_Helen_Burroughs
Affrimation
This month the word is Determination. It means a firmness pf purpose; resoluteness. This process of establishing something exactly by calculation or research. In order to accomplish some things one has to be determined.
Art of the Month
Lois Mailou Jones (1905–1998) was an artist and educator. Her work can be found in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Muscarelle Museum of Art, and The Phillips Collection.
She is often associated with the Harlem Renaissance.
Jones was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Thomas Vreeland Jones and Carolyn Adams. Her father was a building superintendent who later became a lawyer after becoming the first African-American to earn a law degree from Suffolk Law School. Her mother worked as a cosmetologist.
Jones’s parents encouraged her to draw and paint using watercolors during her childhood. Her parents bought a house on Martha’s Vineyard, where Jones met those who influenced her life and art, such as sculptor Meta Warrick Fuller, composer Harry T. Burleigh, and novelist Dorothy West.
From 1919 to 1923, Jones attended the High School of Practical Arts in Boston. She took night classes from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts through an annual scholarship. Additionally, she apprenticed in costume design with Grace Ripley. She held her first solo exhibition at the age of seventeen in Martha’s Vineyard. Jones began experimenting with African mask influences during her time at the Ripley Studio. From her research of African masks, Jones created costume designs for Denishawn.
From 1923 to 1927, Jones attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to study design, where she won the Susan Minot Lane Scholarship in Design yearly. She took night courses at the Boston Normal Art School while working towards her degree. After graduating from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, she received her graduate degree in design from the Design Art School of Boston in 1928. Afterwards, she began working at the F. A. Foster Company in Boston and the Schumacher Company in New York City. During the summer of 1928, she attended Howard University, where she decided to focus on painting instead of design.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_Mailou_Jones
Affirmation
Curiosity is the thing that allows me to explore the world around me. It sends me in different directions allowing my art to experience the world in different ways. This past year I have explored new avenues of storytelling.
Jones was an artist, teacher, folk dancer, basketball coach and much more.
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