Again, looking out at Lake Michigan, this Distant Memory reminds us Winter is fleeting. A slow peaceful time will give way to active bustle. It is hard to keep a vision consistent when there is active noise around us. We can get easily distracted.
Keep your vision in front of you.
This is one of my favorite views.
This is looking out over Lake Michigan.
In May we will all become visionaries, searching for the big picture.
The Last One. Flowers are coming next month!
Both of Bessie Smith’s parents died when she was young, because of that she did not get a formal education. To raise money for her family, she and her brother become street performers. Yet she was able to transform her life to become one of the biggest blues singers in the country.
She had to believe she could do it, in order to do it.
Tell yourself you are able. You can do it. Whatever it is.
A few years ago I did a photoshoot with costumes and the whole bit. I wanted to focus on women who had impacted history. This month I will focus on some of those.
This week I want to focus on music because it has its own life in the culture.
Empress of the Blues was one of the titles Bessie Smith was known for. She was born in 1894 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She started her career in 1912 traveling with Ma Rainey as a dancer. By 1923 she signed with Columbia Records where over the years she made over 160 recordings. She toured vaudeville and later did a show on Broadway. In 1929 she appeared in the movie, St Louis Blues. Her music dealt with the social issues of her day, Jail House Blues, Work House Blues, Prison Blues. She was injured in a car crash in 1937 where she later died from those injuries.
Under the encouragement mission, I sit projects like Queens of Freedom. In 2016, I got models, costumes and props so we could depict women who championed freedom as they knew it. Meet the Queens of Freedom. Bessie Smith, Betsy Ross, Madam CJ Walker, Rosa Parks, Sacagawea and Shirley Chisholm
I want to say Thank You for supporting the Queens project to Brenda Derrick. She will help me tell stories of women like Charlotte E Ray. She was born in 1850 and was the first African American attorney in the United States. She was the first woman to practice before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.
I want to say Thank You for supporting the Queens project to Bridgette Brown help me tell stories of women like Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, known as the “mother of the freedom movement” was a civil rights activist. She was part of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She was a secretary for the Montgomery Chapter of the NAACP and later received a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
I want to say Thank You for supporting the Queens project to Beverly Chapman Wyatt help me tell stories of women like Mary Tape, a Chinese American who believed all children should have access to public education. In 1885, she sued the San Francisco School District so her children would have access to a good education.
I want to say Thank You for supporting the Queens project to Crystal Browning. You will help me tell stories of women like Dolores Huerta who was a labor leader and civil rights activist. A former girl scout and teacher, Huerta co founded the Agricultural Workers Association which set up voter registration drives. She directed the United Farm Workers national boycott of grapes taking the worker’s plight to the public.
UPP Creative Media 