Mary Jane Seacole

Mary Jane Seacole (1805 – 14 May 1881) was a mixed-race British nurse. Born in Jamaica, she operated boarding houses in Panama and Crimea while simultaneously treating the sick. Seacole was taught herbal remedies and folk medicine by her mother. Always of a nomadic disposition, on hearing of the terrible conditions of the Crimean War and certain that her knowledge of tropical medicine would be of use, she travelled to London and volunteered as a nurse. Although an expert at dealing with cholera, her application to join Florence Nightingale's team was rejected.

She then borrowed money to make the 4,000 mile journey alone. On arrival she distinguished herself, treating the wounded on the battlefield. On many occasions treating wounded soldiers from both sides while under fire whereas Florence Nightingale and her nurses were based in a hospital in Turkey. Following the cessation of hostilities in 1856 she found herself stranded and almost destitute, and was saved from penury by the Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces Lord Rokeby who organized a benefit.

Seacole was lauded in her lifetime, alongside Florence Nightingale, but after her death was forgotten for almost 100 years. Today she is noted not only for her bravery and medical skills but as "a woman who succeeded despite the racial prejudice of influential sections of Victorian society"
Her autobiography, Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (1857), a vivid account of her life and experiences, is one of the earliest autobiographies by a black woman.

http://schools-wikipedia.org/wp/m/Mary_S​eacole.htm

AWU post and comments at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1762285090578&set=o.343338393054&type=1

Gabrielle Giffords

The Awesome Woman this week is Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot point blank in the head on January 8, 2011 while conducting one of her Congress on Your Corner events with her constituents. According to today's Washington Post, she could be released as soon as Friday from the hospital to a rehabilitation facility.





more links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabrielle_Giffords

http://giffords.house.gov/

Gabrielle Giffords

The Awesome Woman this week is Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot point blank in the head on January 8, 2011 while conducting one of her Congress on Your Corner events with her constituents. According to today's Washington Post, she could be released as soon as Friday from the hospital to a rehabilitation facility.

Christina Taylor Green

Christina Taylor Green, 09/11/2001 - 01/08/2011, is the Awesome Woman of the Week. Christina served on her school council and was participating in a political event when she was murdered during an assassination attempt on her Congreswoman, Gabrielle Giffords. Christina was also the only girl on her Canyon Del Oro baseball team. She loved horses.

AWU post at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_343338393054&view=permalink&id=10150233085553055

Majora Carter

The Awesome Woman of the Week is Majora Carter (born October 27, 1966), an environmental justice advocate and economic consultant from the South Bronx in New York City. While she was in graduate school pursuing a Fine Art degree she visited... her family home in the Hunts Point neighborhood, which for a time had the distinction of being the poorest Congressional district in the United States. Carter was "pulled by her dog into a weedy vacant lot strewn with trash at the dead end of Lafayette Avenue. As the pair plowed through the site they ended up, much to Carter’s surprise, on the banks of the Bronx River." (Landscape Architecture Magazine)

She organized a community effort, obtained funds from the Forest Service for river-access restoration and Hunts Point Riverside Park was developed. Following this success Carter moved forward into a career that revolves around identifying and developing small-scale projects that provide jobs, boost the local economic engine, and improve the environment and quality of life.

In 2001 Carter founded Sustainable South Bronx, "a non-profit organization that champions hope and opportunity for our community and other urban communities with innovative programs that improve both our economy and our environment," (http://www.ssbx.org/) where she served as executive director for seven years. In 2007, she secured funding for the 2007 groundbreaking of the South Bronx Greenway, which will bring 11 miles of bike and pedestrian paths to this urban community.

Since then Carter has moved on to make appearances in a variety of venues, to produce radio and television programs, and to author papers on environmental issues that affect impoverished communities. She is also a gutsy activist. When carrying the Olympic torch in San Francisco during the 2008 Summer Olympics opening, she pulled out a small Tibetan flag, causing members of the Chinese torch security escort team to pull her out of the relay and San Francisco police officers to push her into the crowd on the side of the street.

Carter has received numerous awards and honors -- among other distinctions she is a 2005 MacArthur Fellow and recipient of New York University’s 2007 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award for Humanitarian Service. She has served on New York Governor Elliott Spitzer’s Energy and Environment Transition Team and the Clinton Global Initiative’s Poverty Alleviation Panel.

This TED Talk given by Majora Carter in December 2010 is worth spending 18 minutes on. 




She presents inspiring examples of green entrepreneurs who are Doers, real Problem Solvers who have designed solutions to local economic/environmental problems, all with a social-justice twist. She shows the way to actually effect change in our world, against the odds: "How the hell did a poor girl from the South Bronx get here? Imposter syndrome aside, statistically speaking, I really shouldn’t be here."

AWU post and comments at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1804806280183&set=o.343338393054

Madeline Kahn

Today's AWU WOD is Madeline Kahn (1942–99), actress and singer. The bold, offbeat comedienne had dozens of different voices, all of them funny. She was born in Boston and educated at Hofstra University to teach speech therapy while she also prepared for an opera career. Her finest years came in Paper Moon (1973) with Ryan O'Neal, which was followed the next year by Mel Brooks's outrageous Blazing Saddles (1974) as Lili Von Shtupp, a cabaret singer who was obviously based on Marlene Dietrich's performance in Destry Rides Again (1939). She was so delightful in both that Madeline was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in both movies. She often appeared in 'Mel Brooks'' films. Tragically, on December 3, 1999, Madeline died of ovarian cancer in New York, a disease from which she suffered for about a year while she was a cast member of "Cosby" (1996). The accomplished stage and screen actress was just 57.

There is nothing better than laughter to get through difficult times, my dad taught me that. He exposed me to so many wonderful comedians and he was pretty funny himself, but he had a soft spot for Madeline. She was a comic genius and I never get tired of watching her! She died 6 months after my dad. I hope they are both laughing in Heaven celebrating his birthday. <3

Wilma Mankiller

Today's AWESOME WOMAN is Wilma Mankiller (November 18, 1945 – April 6, 2010), American Indian activist and chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1985 to 1995. Mankiller grew up with her 10 siblings on a land allotment in Oklahoma, in squalid poverty.

In the 1960s Mankiller lived in Oakland, California, with her husband, had two daughters, and attended college. In 1969 she joined the Native American activist movement and participated in the 19-month-long occupation of Alcatraz Island. The stated intention of the Occupation was to gain Indian control over the island for the purpose of building a center for Native American Studies, an American Indian spiritual center, an ecology center, and an American Indian Museum. After the occupation was forcibly ended by the U.S. Government, Mankiller volunteered for five years for the Pit River Tribe.

In 1977, Mankiller divorced her husband and moved back to Oklahoma with her daughters, in hopes of helping her own people and began an entry-level job for the Cherokee Nation. By 1983, she was elected deputy chief of the Cherokee Nation, and when the chief took a position in Washington D.C. in 1985, she became the first woman to assume the role of Chief of the Cherokees.

Contrary to the traditional inclusion of women in tribal leadership, the Cherokee nation at the time was a very male-dominated power structure. Wilma Mankiller worked within that structure to achieve great progress for the tribe. She spearheaded community development projects such as tribally owned horticultural operations, plants that got defense department contracts, and building a hydroelectric facility. She leveraged U.S. policies to gain every possible advantage for her tribe, and paved the way for the government-to-government relationship the Cherokee Nation has with the U.S. Federal government. During her 10-year stint as Chief, she created reasons for Cherokee people to rejoin their Nation, and increased the population from 55,000 to 156,000.


Mankiller lived through a near-fatal car accident and multiple grave health problems. Largely due to health reasons she resigned as Chief in 1995 and became a teacher at Dartmouth College. Upon her passing in April, 2010 from pancreatic cancer, President Obama said:


"I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Wilma Mankiller today. As the Cherokee Nation’s first female chief, she transformed the Nation-to-Nation relationship between the Cherokee Nation and the Federal Government, and served as an inspiration to women in Indian Country and across America. A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she was recognized for her vision and commitment to a brighter future for all Americans. Her legacy will continue to encourage and motivate all who carry on her work. Michelle and I offer our condolences to Wilma’s family, especially her husband Charlie and two daughters, Gina and Felicia, as well as the Cherokee Nation and all those who knew her and were touched by her good works."

AWU post and comments at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1664846661280&set=o.343338393054&type=1