#BlogsForWriters

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Women and Adversity: Lorraine Hansberry, Lesbian Playwright, Civil Rights Activist

Lorraine Hansberry speaking to an audience     Women and Adversity: Lorraine Hansberry, Lesbian             Playwright     Civil Rights Activist  My second post for Pride Month is another Chicagoan, playwright and civil rights activist Lorraine Hansberry. Her most popular play is 1959’s A Raisin in the Sun,  about racial discrimination against African Americans in Chicago. She garnered several…

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She was a..

She was a star.

The embodiment of golden light. 

It radiated from her soul, and everywhere she walked they knew. 

They knew she was love reincarnated into a physical form. 

It was in her smile. 

The smile that made you feel as if home could be anywhere she was. 

She was home to me, though it looked like she was forever searching for home within herself. 

But..doesn’t she know ? 

That the love radiating outside of her, warming everything she touched like cookies baking in the oven, like the warm tropical sun delicately laying its rays on the foliage below, was also coming from inside of her ? 

Doesn’t she know ? 

That her eyes twinkled like God had captured a piece of this immense galaxy and fit into those deep brown eyes that were moats of liquid gold.

Doesn’t she know that her soul is liquid gold ? 

Can she feel me staring at her ? 

She looks at me and smiles.

Fuck, it takes my soul. 

That smile.

God, doesn’t she know ? 

She must know,  that smile knows a secret about what she’s doing to me.

She standing in this field surrounded by wildflowers, flowers of every kind. The sun radiates off her and it’s like they’re exchanging this divine energy , because her eyes are closed now, like she’s become part of the sun.

Though her eyes are closed, I feel like she’s still looking at me wondering what I’d do. 

Wondering if I’ll join her. 

Her skin is powerfully brown and underneath deep red tones that shimmered like rivers on her skin in the sun. God made her gold, she was born with radiance. 

She must know.

I wanted her to know.

I walked up to her, and she opened her eyes and looked at me. 

“ I love you “ 

She smiled at me, that smile, she said “ I know.”

Then this beautiful creature pulled my face close to hers and kissed me.

My soul, my soul, my soul. 

It cracked as the warm chocolaty liquid gold of her love rushed through me, breaking every barrier I thought I had. 

Her love broke through. 

We fell to our knees and our kiss broke.

My soul was still cracking, I had joined her and I didn’t know what that meant until now. 

It meant that every piece of stone within my body had to come crumbling down, I was in love with her.

She held my face, and tears welled up in her eyes as she watched as my entire entity was washed in her love and divine grace.

Could this be it ? Could this be real ? Can I join her ? 

This process was painful, I felt as if these walls were apart of my physical being and she cut them down with a bulldozer of  immeasurable light.

Her love had no boundaries for my pain. 

The light began to shine through. 

I kissed her again, deeply , intensely, passionately until i lost myself within her. 

I wanted her to feel, what she gave to me.

That unconditional love.

That home. 

She pulled back from me, her eyes reflecting a dazzling luster of rainbow brown, smiling as if she had figured something out.

“ Once you fill your heart with love.  Home is wherever you want it to be.”

She was a lighthouse on a dark night. 

She was my home.

[joannmathews]

Women and Adversity: Virginia Woolf Novelist, Feminist, Lesbian June is Pride Month

Virginia Woolf: novelist, essayist (1927, from her collection) Women and Adversity: Virginia Woolf Novelist, Feminist, Lesbian June is  Pride Month Virginia Woolf  was a brilliant English novelist and essayist, known for her stream of consciousness technique. When she was five, she loved books and wrote letters. When she was 10, she began a family newspaper, which she wrote until 1895 when her…

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Women and Adversity: Weijia Jiang Vice President, White House Correspondents’ Association Senior White House Correspondent for CBS News May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Weijia Jiang, CBS Senior White House Correspondent (7/11/2018 Photo by Victor Ulloa on Weijia’s iPhone) Weijia Jiang (pronounced Wee⸍jah Jang) is a Chinese American journalist and vice president of the…

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Women and Adversity: Peggy Cherng Co-chair and Co-Chief Executive Officer Panda Restaurant Group, Parent of Panda Express May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Peggy Cherng Co-chair, co-CEO, Panda Restaurant Group (220px-Peggy_Cherng-wikepedia.jpg) Women and Adversity: Peggy Cherng Co-chair and Co-Chief Executive Officer Panda Restaurant Group May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month  Peggy Cherng is the impetus behind Panda Express, referred to as the McDonald’s of Chinese food. It is part of Panda Restaurant Group and has more than…

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Women and Adversity 2025, Welcome!

WELCOME TO WOMEN AND ADVERSITY . I began writing this blog in 2014 and have never failed to find women who have overcome obstacles and, as a result, have influenced other women to overcome their obstacles and improve their lives. My blog in will be no different. I have featured women from all walks of life and from all over the world. In 2022 and 2023 I wrote about women presidents and prime…

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Women and Adversity: Marlena Fejzo, Ph.D., Geneticist, One of Time’s 2024 Women of the Year

Marlena Fejzo, Geneticist (fw24-science-summit-ls-marlena-fejzo.jpg) Women and Adversity Marlena Fejzo, Ph.D. Geneticist One of Time’s 2024 Women of the Year   Pregnant women can thank Marlena Fejzo (Fay⸍zō), Ph.D. for connecting their extreme nausea and vomiting to genetics. Time magazine recognized her achievement and named Fejzo one of its 2024 Women of the Year. Forbes magazine named her in…

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Jacqueline “Jacqui” Patterson: A 2024 Time Woman of the Year; Received Time 2024 Earth Award

Jacqueline”Jacqui” Patterson; Time Woman of the Year; Time Earth Award (Headshot_Jacqui-Patterson-500×500-metgroup.com_-e1729715358301.jpg) Jacqueline “Jacqui” Patterson 2024 Time Woman of the Year Time 2024 Earth Award Climate justice activist Jacqueline “Jacqui” Patterson receives dozens of accolades for her dedication to helping underserved communities receive proper environmental equality. …

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Women and Adversity: Greta Gerwig Director of Barbie

Greta Gerwig, Director of Barbie at Barbie Movie Reception (headshot).jpg Women and Adversity: Greta Gerwig Director of Barbie Growing up I was never into dolls, although I had some, so when the movie Barbie came out, I didn’t run to the theatre even though Greta Gerwig directed it. She earned acting credits since 2006 and added writing and directing to her resume. I hesitated to feature an…

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Women and Adversity: Ada Limón U.S. Poet Laureate

Ada Limón, U.S. Poet Laureate (San Francisco by Christopher Michel, Cmichel67) Women and Adversity: Ada Limón U.S. Poet Laureate I thought I would feature Ada Limón, the 24th U.S. Poet Laureate, to highlight National Poetry Day, which this year is October 3. Poetry is a special kind of writing that activates people’s emotions and stimulates inspiration and motivation. Carla Hayden of the Library…

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Women and Adversity: Roberta "Bobbi" Cordano, President of Gallaudet University

Roberta “Bobbi” Cordano, President, Gallaudet University (USDA Photo by Ken Melton) Women and Adversity: Roberta “Bobbi” Cordano President of Gallaudet University I’ve reached into the 21st century to feature women changing people’s lives today, and I discovered Roberta “Bobbi” Cordano. She is the first deaf woman president of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. It is the school founded in…

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Elizabeth Magie Phillips, portrait from a poetry book she wrote. (Wikicommons Media) Women and Adversity: Elizabeth Magie Phillips Inventor of Monopoly Elizabeth “Lizzie” Magie was that rare woman in the 1800s who believed women could achieve as much as men even though they didn’t get credit for it. She was a woman’s advocate and bought an ad in a Chicago newspaper selling herself “to the highest…

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Liquid paper products Womens Museum.jpg, Photo: User FA2010 (From Wikimedia Commons) Women and Adversity: Bette Nesmith Graham Inventor of Liquid Paper Bette Nesmith Graham’s story is miraculous and what most people dream would happen for them. This Texas native dropped out of high school to attend secretarial school. She got a job at Texas Bank and Trust and worked her way to executive secretary…

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Women and Adversity: Josephine Cochrane Inventor of the Dishwasher Josephine Cochrane, Inventor of the Dishwasher Josephine Cochrane was that rare woman in the 1800s who flaunted her independent spirit. One example is the spelling of her name. She married William Cochran but decided to add an -e to her last name so it was spelled Cochrane. It is printed both ways in various publications. Her…

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Women and Adversity: Mary Anderson, Inventor of the Windshield Wiper

Mary Anderson, Inventor, The Windshield Wiper Women and Adversity: Mary Anderson  Inventor –Windshield Wiper Here is another story about a woman who was deprived of recognition for her invention because no company believed it was relevant. The windshield wiper! It is said that in 1902 Mary Elizabeth Anderson was in a streetcar on a snowy day in New York. She noticed the conductor would use his…

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Women and Adversity: Jane Addams, Lesbian Co-founder of Hull House in Chicago

Jane Addams Co-founder of Hull House, Lesbian (Bain News Service, Publisher) Women and Adversity: Jane Addams, Lesbian Co-founder of Hull House   To recognize June as Pride Month, I’m featuring famous women who were lesbians. I wrote a post about Jane Addams on this blog in 2018, but I hadn’t read anything about her being a lesbian. Growing up in the Chicago area, I knew she founded Chicago’s…