Welcome to A Little HerStory

A young friend, Liz, from Texas, shared this with me. I found it quite lovely and wanted to share it with you as we come to the end of celebrating Black History Month! Enjoy!!

We know her work, but do we know the talented woman who created it? Selma Burke was born on December 31, 1900, in Mooresville, North Carolina, the seventh of 10 children of Reverend Neil and Mary Elizabeth Colfield Burke. Her father was an AME Church Minister who worked on the railroads for additional income. As a child, she attended a one-room segregated schoolhouse, and often played with the riverbed clay found near her home. She would later describe the feeling of squeezing the clay through her fingers as a first encounter with sculpture, saying "It was there in 1907 that I discovered me.” Burke's interest in sculpture was encouraged by her maternal grandmother, a painter, although her m

Great recording of the song celebrating Harriet. In my opinion, the very best recording of this song that was ever made was by Bright Morning Star, with Charlie King, but they are not on Youtube. If you even have the opportunity to hear that recording do it, and the same goes for Charlie!

The Cosmic Dancer Be careful the words you use to describe who you are. Be aware of the speech you whisper deep inside yourself, like a witch casting spells. Your strength, your tenderness and hope is listening, is feeling those words. And over time, with each word, each sentence, each spell you cast into your heart, you weaken yourself from the very center. Remember that beautiful little child you were, remember that hopeful tender heart, you can come back to that place and allow the essence of it to grow, you can start whispering spells, good words, kind words, forgiving words until it grows and fills you up. Your inner voice, the one you have learnt to speak, is one of the main food sour

From Vanderbilt.edu The Black Female and the Harlem Renaissance It was during the 1920s that a "New Negro" came into being. With the end of World War I and the beginning of the roaring twenties, black Americans flocked from the rural South to the urban North in search of a better life. The capital of this new world had become Harlem, New York, and it was here that African-American life and culture experienced a rebirth during the Harlem Renaissance. The bulk of immigrants to Harlem consisted of intellectuals, writers, artists, musicians, and entertainers. This included the elite group of middle class black Americans described by W.E.B. Du Bois as the "Talented Tenth." This group, although un

From the New York Times, January 2020 by Dan Barry “She endured the horrors of the African American experience - lynchings, riots, and the Klu Klux Klan - and worked to ensure that they never slipped from collective memory.” Mamie Lang Kirkland died last month at her home in upstate New York. She was the mother of nine, the matriarch of another 158, a longtime saleswoman for Avon Products, and, at the time of her death, at 111, the oldest resident of Buffalo. That only begins to describe Ms. Kirkland. She was also the embodiment of the African-American experience of the 20th century, her life’s long journey altered repeatedly by the racial violence and bigotry coursing through the United Sta

Much of this information was gleaned from a tribute to her in "Black Past." Eliza Ann Grier was born enslaved in Mecklenburg, County North Carolina in 1864 but along with her parents, Emily and George Washington Grier, she was freed by the 13th Amendment to the US. Constitution in1865 when she was barely a year old. Grier eventually earned her M.D., becoming in 1898 the first African American woman to practice medicine in Georgia. Little is known of Grier’s early life beyond her growing up in Atlanta where she and her family moved in 1869. In 1883, nearly 20 years after her emancipation, Grier entered Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee with the goal of becoming a teacher. She earne

Some information gained from an interview with Journalist Farai Chideya who is a former NPR news host, author of The Episodic Career, and the journalism program officer at the Ford Foundation. I have been so very inspired by this lady. I hope you enjoy a little of her story. Please, watch the clip at the end. She is a truly awesome lady. “In my younger years, I aspired to changing the world. Then reality kicked in, and I settled for 500 square feet.” Betty Reid Soskin is the nation’s oldest park ranger and has received a number of accolades, including a presidential coin from President Barack Obama at the 2015 National Tree Lighting Ceremony. She also was named among Glamour Magazine’s 20

I frequently listen to a public radio station out of Denver, KVOD. They play classical music and often offer bits and pieces of musical history which I enjoy. When I first hear the music of this woman, I was stunned to learn of her background. Why had I never heard of her? The more I heard of her music the more I loved her. She was a prolific composer and quite worthy of note. I felt compelled to share her with you. Florence Beatrice Smith was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on April 9, 1887. Her father James was a dentist and her mother, Florence was a music teacher, school teacher and businesswoman. Despite the racial tensions of the times, the family did well and was respected within

I have always been fascinated by ancient Celtic lore. My roots are showing! Imbolic for me is a joyful time, a time of hope. We celebrate the coming of spring, of planting, of life! While we are still held deeply in winter's grip, spring will come. As I write this, a beautiful beeswax candle (a gift from a very dear friend) casts a gentle light across my desk. So, light candles, celebrate and have hope. Imbolc or Imbolg, also called Brigid's Day, is a Gaelic traditional festival marking the beginning of spring. It is held on 1 February, or about halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Historically, it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Ma