Friday, February 20, 2009

Cut It Out! Recognizing Great Black Women during Black History Month


bell hooks

(September, 1952 -)


Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by the pen name bell hooks, is an American author, feminist, and social activist. Her writing has focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination. She has published over thirty books and numerous scholarly and mainstream articles, appeared in several documentary films and participated in various public lectures. Primarily through a postmodern perspective, she has addressed race, class and gender in education, art, history, sexuality, mass media and feminism. (more)

Source: wikipedia.org

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Cut It Out! Recognizing Great Black Women during Black History Month


Marian Anderson

(February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993)

Marian Anderson was an America contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. She possessed a rich and vibrant voice with an intrinsic quality of beauty. Most of her singing career was spent performing in concert and recital in major music venues and with major orchestras throughout the United States and Europe between 1925-1965. Although she was offered contracts to perform roles with many important European opera companies, Anderson declined all of these, prefering to perform in concert and recital only. She did, however, perform opera arias within her concerts and recitals. She made many recordings that reflected her broad performance repertoire of everything from concert literature to lieder to opera to traditional American songs and spirituals.

An African-American, Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid twentieth century. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall. Their race-driven refusal placed Anderson into the spotlight of the international community on a level usually only found by high profile celebrities and politicians. (more)

Source: wikipedia.org

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Friday, February 6, 2009

Cut It Out! Recognizing Great Black Women during Black History Month


Nina Simone

(February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003)


Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone was a fifteen-time Grammy Award-nominated American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil rights activist.

Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is generally classified as a jazz musician. Simone originally aspired to become a classical pianist, but her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles besides her classical basis, such as jazz, soul, folk, R&B, gospel and pop music. Her vocal style is characterized by intense passion, a loose vibrato, and a slightly androgynous timbre, in part due to her unusually low vocal range which veered between the alto and tenor ranges (occasionally even reaching baritone lows). Sometimes known as The High Priestess of Soul, she paid great attention to the musical expression of emotions. Within one album or concert she could fluctuate between exuberant happiness or tragic melancholy. These fluctuations also characterized her own personality and personal life, worsened by bipolar disorder with which she was diagnosed in the mid-1960s, but was kept secret until 2004.

Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, the biggest body of her work being released between 1958 (when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue) and 1974. Songs she is best known for include "My Baby Just Care for Me", "I Put a Spell on You", "I Loves You Porgy", "Feeling Good", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", Sinnerman", "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", "Ain't Got No/I Got Life" and "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl".

Her music and message made a strong and lasting impact on culture, illustrated by the numerous contemporary artists who cite her as an important influence (among them Mary J. Blige, Elkie Brooks, Alicia Keys, Jeff Buckley, John Legend, Lauryn Hill and Peter Gabriel. (more)

Source: Wikipedia.org

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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Cut It Out! Honors Black History Month

In honor of Black History Month we wanted to highlight a few of the women who have made an impact on Black History in America. We will be continually posting throughout this month. Here is our first woman of honor:

Hallie Quinn Brown
(March 10, 1850 - September 16, 1949)


Educator, lecturer, clubwoman, reformer

Daughter of former slaves, Hallie Brown grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Chatham, Ontario. She graduated from Wilberforce University in Ohio and taught in schools in Mississippi and South Carolina. In 1885 she became dean of Allen University in South Carolina, and studied at the Chautauqua Lecture School. She taught public school in Dayton, Ohio, for four yeas, and then was appointed lady principal (dean of women) of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, working with Booker T. Washington.

From 1893 to 1903, she served as professor of elocution at Wilberforce University, but served on a limited basis as she lectured and organized, traveling frequently. She helped promote the Colored Woman's League which became part of the National Association of Colored Women. In Great Britain, where she spoke to popular acclaim on African American life, she made several appearances before Queen Victoria, including tea with the Queen in July, 1889. She also spoke for temperance groups and represented the United States at the International Congress of Women, meeting in London in 1899. She took up the cause of woman suffrage and spoke on the topic of full citizenship for women as well as civil rights for black Americans. In 1925 she protested segregation of the Washington (DC) Auditorium being used for the All-American Musical Festival of the International Council of Women, threatening that all black performers would boycott the event if segregated seating were not ended. Two hundred black entertainers did boycott the event and black participants left in response to her speech. (more)

Source: About.com

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Monday, February 2, 2009

Made You Look!!

Random Photos of Summer 2008

Cut It Out! Girl, Tirinda rocking a "My Name Is NOT Shawty! Tee...with Dave of De la Soul at Rock the Bells (DC).

Tirinda with Mase of De la Soul at Rock the Bells (DC).



Brooklyn We Go Hard! TastyKeish donning an orange CIO Logo T-Dress...

Are you a Cut It Out! Girl?!
xo