It's kind of interesting how this blog is working out. Women come across my facebook page, my twitter feed, my radio. Margaret Sanger was in an interview with Mike Wallace which was on NPR recently because of Wallace's passing. Someone on facebook recently quoted bell hooks, so I used her that day, Camilla Vallejo came across my twitter feed. If I were a betting person, I'd bet that these are not just mistakes...that they are part of the interconnected web of all existence...yadda, yadda.... Today's Acquaintance, Arundhati Roy, came across facebook today from my friend, Karen Leslie Hernandez . I love it when names that I don't recognize pass through my day. I'm betting that you like it, too, because that's when I get the most hits here on the website: when I post the more obscure names. So here's some information about Arundhati Roy: She is an Indian novelist. She won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and has also written two screenplays and several collections of essays. Her writings on various social, environmental and political issues have been a subject of major controversy in India. Arundhati Roy was awarded the 1997 Booker Prize for her novel The God of Small Things. The award carried a prize of about US $30,000 and a citation that noted, 'The book keeps all the promises that it makes.' Prior to this, she won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay in 1989, for the screenplay of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones.In 2002, she won the Lannan Foundation's Cultural Freedom Award for her work "about civil societies that are adversely affected by the world’s most powerful governments and corporations," in order "to celebrate her life and her ongoing work in the struggle for freedom, justice and cultural diversity."In 2003, she was awarded 'special recognition' as a Woman of Peace at the Global Exchange Human Rights Awards in San Francisco with Bianca Jagger, Barbara Lee and Kathy Kelly.Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May 2004 for her work in social campaigns and her advocacy of non-violence.In January 2006, she was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, a national award from India's Academy of Letters, for her collection of essays on contemporary issues, The Algebra of Infinite Justice, but she declined to accept it "in protest against the Indian Government toeing the US line by 'violently and ruthlessly pursuing policies of brutalisation of industrial workers, increasing militarisation and economic neo-liberalisation.'"In November 2011, she was awarded the Norman Mailer Prize for Distinguished Writing.She is also an accomplished activist working in these areas: Supporting Kashmiri seperatism, working against the Narmanda dam project, speaking against India's nuclear weaponization, criticising Israel's war in Lebanon, and many other political commentaries, including the May 2003 speech she delivered entitled "Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free)" at the Riverside Church in New York City. In it she described the United States as a global empire that reserves the right to bomb any of its subjects at any time, deriving its legitimacy directly from God. The speech was an indictment of the U.S. actions relating to the Iraq War. In June 2005 she took part in the World Tribunal on Iraq. In March 2006, Roy criticized US President George W. Bush's visit to India, calling him a "war criminal".So far, she has published 15 books, and has given many speeches and interviews. You can find out more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arundhati_Roy
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It seems more than appropriate to talk about the woman that all of college sports is talking about right now. Pat Summitt. The Naismith Coach of the Century. The coach who has won more games than any other college coach. The only woman on Sporting News' 50 Greatest Coaches of all time. Pat Summitt has won more NCAA basketball games than any other coach in any division, including both men and women, and is one of only three college coaches overall (in any sport) to win more than 1,000 games. She has never had a losing season. Pat Summit wins. It's what she does. And the whole basketball world wants to know if she will make it back to the University of Tennessee to coach another year. Last year, Pat Summitt released the sad news that she is struggling with early onset Alzheimer's. Few people know how this has affected her coaching overall, yet ESPN has taken the liberty to speculate wildly during the recent televised playoffs. Then again, ESPN has never been known for its compassion. Pat Summitt is a legend. She has the legendary stories to go right along with the moniker. Stories of washing the team's uniforms herself and driving the van to away games. That was back in the day, of course. Back in the day when women's basketball was in its infancy. Back in the day when women's basketball wasn't even a NCAA sanctioned sport. Of course, Pat was just padding her numbers back then :) You don't become the coach who has won more than anybody else without a little sweat and grit and hard work. You don't create a formidable dynasty of basketball in a year or two. Pat Summitt is women's basketball. She had a hand in making the game what it is today. She was the one pushing for a full-on sport that used the whole court, not just half, that played with five players instead of six. She helped the University of Tennessee manage the funding of women's sports by working together with the then more-profitable men's teams. She was asked twice by Tennessee to coach their men's team, but she has stayed with the Lady Vols throughout her career. Pat Summitt cares about her team. 45 of her players have gone on to become head coaches. Every single one of her players has received a degree. Pat Summitt was the first female coach to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated Magazine, and one of very few women who grace its cover sans a swimsuit. There is so much more to Pat Summitt than I could ever cover one short blog post. Her webpage is here: http://www.utladyvols.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/summitt_pat00.html A link to her foundation is here : http://patsummitt.org/ You can follow her on twitter if you wish. @patsummitt Lend your own spirit to the multitudes who pray for her return to the court next year. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
There are a few young 'uns on my list who may possibly be thinking about having children. That is what made Ina May Gaskin jump to the forefront of my 365 project. Ina May's book, Spiritual Midwifery, changed everything-for me, for the world, every-thing. I only wish I had read it before my kids were born, not after. There's a book out there that every "expecting" mom gets whether she likes it or not. The title is something like What to Expect when you're Expecting. That book? Complete Rubbish. Make a nice art piece out of that book and then go and get Ina May's books and read them. Have your spouse read them, too. Ina May is truth. All others pale in comparison. Ina May Gaskin was born in Iowa, the daughter of a farmer and a schoolteacher. Her maternal grandparents ran a Presbyterian orphanage. In the 1970's she began a commune in Tennessee known as The Farm and with other midwives founded The Farm Midwifery Center which was one of the first out-of-hospital birth centers in the United States. After reading Ina May's books on birthing, I realized that some of the reasons our world is so messed up has to do with the actual beginning of our time on this planet: with how we are birthed. Birthing metaphors are there in all disciplines of study if we look for them. Actual birthing is possibly the most powerful human act. Therefore, Ina May's work and activism is groundbreaking. It is indeed a counter-cultural and revolutionary feminist act to take one of our most sacred abilities as women out of the hands of the male dominated medical establishment. In 1977, Ina May published Spiritual Midwifery. In 1987, she published Babies, Breastfeeding, and Bonding. In 2002, Spiritual Midwifery was re-published. In 2003, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, and in 2005, Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding. By taking back the power of women's natural abilities to carry and labor children, Ina May is known for her abilities to draw on the power of women's bodies without the need for medical intervention. Her own techniques in assisting childbirth, especially The Gaskin Maneuver, also called all fours, a technique to reduce shoulder dystocia is not only used at The Farm, but is now used by the medical profession at large. Ina May has lectured extensively on midwifery, and continues to do so today. She has won numerous awards for her work, including an Honorary Doctorate from Thames Valley University in London, and was co-winner of the 2011 Right Livelihood Award. If you have never heard of Ina May Gaskin, you should definitely check her out. Her books are easy to read and understand, and are highly recommended by me. I honestly think any human being--both male and female-- should read her books before or while beginning a family. I am sure those books will change your life, just like they changed mine. |
DawnWomen's history geek, mom, lesbian, theologian, dreamer. Archives
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