Posts Tagged Women’s History

Episode 186: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Part One

Posted 6 September 2021 by
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Circa 1716 by Charles Jervas

For a woman who is not well known these days and who lived way back in the 1700s, it’s surprising that there’s enough of a story to fill two episodes…Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is such a woman! (more…)

Episode 177: Maya Angelou, Part Three

Posted 28 April 2021 by
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Maya at Elon University, 2012, Elon Universtiy via Flickr

Maya Angelou was a writer, poet, memoirist, civil rights activist, entertainer, director, producer, mom, friend…but she was most masterful at sharing her life with the perfect collections of words. We use the best ones we can muster to share her remarkable life story.

We wrap up our three-part series on Dr. Angelou beginning as Maya leaves Africa to headed back to the US and work for civil rights leader, and friend, Malcolm X ‘s Organization of African American Unity.  His assassination not long after her arrival sent her into both grief and a search for the next chapter in her life.

Writing. She felt led to be a writer, and the best place for that was back with her literary friends in New York. While there, she took an opportunity to work with her old friend, Martin Luther King, Jr…who was assassinated right before her first day.

But setbacks in life often lead to the perfect path. She threw herself into writing a 10-part PBS series, Blacks, Blues, Black! which lead, in 1969, the publication of her first autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

For the rest of her (long) life, she combined all of her life experiences, her gifts, her skills, and her wisdom and shared it with the world. She was a memoirist, a poet, a playwright, a songwriter, a performer, a lecturer, an educator…a grandmother…she loved and lost, and all along the way she captured her words in the perfect order projected by her strong personality (and often her unique voice) to leave her mark on our world.

1993 Clinton inauguration Courtesy Clinton Presidential Library

 

President Obama bestowing the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010 Courtesy White House

Maya Angelou died on May 28th, 2014 at the age of 86. No one can tell her story like she did, so we’ll leave you with Maya herself sharing a little of her words and wisdom.

 

 

Time Travel With The History Chicks

 

Books!

Not technically a book, but Maya Angelou: The Autobiographies from BBC is a six-part, audio dramatization of some of her work. Susan got it for one credit on Audible and had an amazing experience. You can learn more at THIS LINK TO BBC.

You can read every one of her perfectly chosen words in this massive tome: 

Not technically a book, but Maya Angelou: The Autobiographies from BBC is a six-part, audio dramatization of some of her work. Susan got it for one credit on Audible and had an amazing experience. You can learn more at THIS LINK TO BBC

The only detailed biography Susan could find but written before her death by Marcia Anne Gillespie, Rosa Johnson Butler, and Richard A. Long; foreword by Oprah Winfrey

 

Maya’s essays about memorable food in her life and the recipes- delightful! (And her fried chicken recipe is in here!)

 

More autobiographical essays with recipes for international dishes all based around her weight loss through portion control.

 

By Editors of Essence Magazine, essays about her.

 

Great series for kids, by Ellen LaBrecque

Web!

Here is a whole lot of information (and pictures) about the Rosenwald Schools like the one a young Maya Johnson attended: The Rosenwald Schools.

Short NPR interview in the last year of her life, and one where she talks about her time with Porgy and Bess.

There was some discussion about the pronunciation of her name, we went with Maya’s which we found here: Maya Angelou Explains Her Name.

Brain Pickings article about the daily routines of famous writers.

An article on the Quote Investigator site discussing the phrase “Churchillian Drift” coined by radio host, Nigel Rees of the BBC show Quote Unquote (so QI is fact-checking something the OG quote fact-checker said.)

There is a Maya Barbie…do we know what to think about this? 

Her estate maintains a website, there is some information, pictures, and a link to the Dr. Maya Angelou Foundation if you would like to get involved in her life’s work.

Some information (read: the opening of the hole Beckett fell down) the Hawaiian Jazz scene.

Maya’s obituary through a Caribbean lens.

Lift Every Voice and Sing lyrics and essay (from the Library of Congress, no less!)

“Summertime” from Porgy and Bess, Metropolitan Opera:

This makes sense if you listened to the episode, but we simply can not leave it out!

Caged Bird Songs, Maya’s own words with a beat, it may be an acquired taste.

 

Moving Pictures!

Maya’s first adventure in television occurred in 1968 when she wrote, produced, and hosted a 10-part PBS series Blacks, Blues, Black! The whole series is online HERE!

If you would like to learn about the incredible discovery that made our viewing (here in the future) possible, here’s an article about it: From The Archive

There are so very many interviews with her, if you start with this one, with her dear friend, Oprah, YouTube will connect you with maaaaany more.

PBS has an American experience about Dr. Angelou, it’s streaming on Prime through the PBS Documentaries subscription, but you may be able to find it elsewhere, here’s more information about that Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise.

And, finally, we want you to listen to Maya read and speak her own words, she left so many treasures for us.

 

We’re going to be in London in August and would love for you to join us for a Thames River Dinner cruise on August 7th, 2021! Get more info and sign-up here at Like Minds Travel

The first break song was A Fork Where a Fork Don’t Fit by James Harper, the second was Sonata Pathétique in C minor by Mario Ajero

End music: Press On by Loot

music used with permission by both iLicenseMusic and James Harper

 

 

Episode 174: The Bowery Boys and the Shirtwaist Strike of 1909

Posted 15 March 2021 by
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We have been talking with our friends Greg Young and Tom Meyers, The Bowery Boys, for years about doing a project together. This isn’t that, but it is a subject that a lot (A LOT) of people have requested of us. Because it’s a bit out of our focus, we thought there’s no one better than Greg and Tom, experts in New York City history, to tell you about the city’s early 1900s women’s protest movements and how they are tragically tied to the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. (more…)

Episode 173: Women of the Wild West, Revisted

Posted 2 March 2021 by
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First up: Calamity Jane

 

Belle Starr

 

And we end with end with Kansas City’s own, Annie Chambers

After spending so much time talking about the Harvey Girls and Fred Harvey, we got to thinking of their contemporaries (more…)

Episode 167: Charlotte Brontë, Revisted

Posted 7 December 2020 by
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A familiar portrait of  Charlotte, a chalk drawing by George Richmond in 1850. wikicommons

This week we’re revisiting our discussion of the life of Charlotte Brontë (entirely because we made a gamble and lost–explanation in the first minute of the episode.) Charlotte didn’t let her circumstances and the discouragement of others stand in the way of her goal of becoming a published author; she got knocked down over and over before she was able to present the world with one of the most beloved heroines in literary history. Along the way, we have a chance to talk about the lives of her literary sisters: Emily and Anne. (more…)

Episode 164: Wonder Woman, Part One

Posted 31 October 2020 by
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Little Ears warning: Parents may want to preview this episode, we discuss several adult themes including suicide, alternative lifestyles, and…” adult play.” 

We step back from reality (sorta) to talk about the many lives of Wonder Woman, her original creator William Moulton Marston, the women who originally inspired the superhero, and the creators who recrafted her to suit their own visions. It’s a heck of a ride. And there is a Little Ears warning–you know how cartoons often have adult themes and jokes that go right over the heads of little kids? We talk about some of Wonder Woman’s in these two episodes–oh yeah, two! There’s A LOT to talk about, her story begins in the early 1900s and hasn’t ended yet! (more…)

Episode 163: Belva Lockwood and Shirley Chisholm, Revisited

Posted 12 October 2020 by
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Belva Lockwood was the first qualified woman to run for President of the United States and she did it while suffragists were still battling for the vote in 1884 and 1888.

 

Shirley Chisholm was the first black woman to run for POTUS in 1972 and the first female nominee for the Democratic party.

 

This week we divide and conquer to give you a remastered two-fer of glass-ceiling crashing women in US politics. Beckett shares the life of Belva Lockwood and Susan talks about Shirley Chisholm in this mini-series of women who ran for the office of POTUS. (more…)

Episode 161: Q&A Three

Posted 15 September 2020 by
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It’s been over four years since we last stepped from behind the curtain to answer questions from the other end of the mic. We put out a call in our private Facebook group, The History Chicks Lounge for questions not answered in either of our two previous Q&A episodes…and the response was fast and overwhelming! Unless you like six-hour podcasts, there isn’t time to answer all those questions in one episode, but we narrowed down the list, combined some similar ones, and then threw some of our own into the discussion after we hit RECORD. (more…)

Episode 159: Empress Sisi of Austria, Part One

Posted 17 August 2020 by
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Sisi as a newlywed circa 1855 

Empress Sisi’s story often reads like a fairytale…usually because a lot of the coverage of her life is fiction. The basics do parallel those tales: a vivacious, beautiful young woman is chosen from all the lands as the love of the Austrian emperor. As a beloved Empress, she adds fresh energy to Viennese court while riding horses, maintaining her youthful energy, being a fashion icon, and raising a family.

But the reality behind that lovely facade is a little darker, a little sadder, and did not end in a “happily ever after.” (more…)

Episode 158: Marie Curie Double Episode Revisit

Posted 3 August 2020 by
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Marie, the real one, 1903

With the release of Amazon Prime’s new movie, Radioactive, we thought a revisit to Marie Curie’s real life was in order. Since Prime put her story into one movie, we thought it was fitting to combine both parts of our 2016 coverage into one episode. Think of it as an audiobook with several chapter breaks. For shownotes, recommendations, and links to the things we talked about in this double-episode, visit the original MARIE CURIE PART TWO (or PART ONE if you want to read her story from the beginning.)

 

 

 

Intermission song: Made of Stars, Xavier and Ophelia; End song: Marie Curie, The Crypts used with permission from MusicAlley

Break music: Awakening, Keri Newdingate, used with permission from iLicenseMusic