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Women Who Inspire News Anchor Maria Hinojosa

Christina Knight — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 21:10:20 +0000

I am inspired by two very different kinds of women. Women who on the surface appear to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, yet their strength and resilience is much the same. There are the women that as a journalist I meet every day who seem powerless but who in the face of poverty, violence or tradition, never give up no matter the odds. These women realize that they do have a voice, and do have power, and they never back down. And then there are exceptional women like Michelle Bachelet and Sonia Sotomayor who are firsts, who speak openly about how difficult and lonely it can be to be trailblazers, yet they too own their power and lead with humility and strength. These women keep me grounded.

Journalist Maria Hinojosa is an anchor on PBS’ “Need to Know”. Hinojosa is also the anchor and executive producer of NPR’s “Latino USA,” and PBS’ “America by the Numbers with Maria Hinojosa.” She is founder and president of the Futuro Media Group, a public media nonprofit in Harlem, NY, and the former anchor of her own Emmy Award-winning talk show “One on One” from WGBH/La Plaza.

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Dancer Wendy Whelan on Who Inspires Her

Christina Knight — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 15:47:36 +0000

The one woman who has continued to inspire me as an artist and human being is Marie Cecile Gibson. She was my ballet teacher in Louisville, Kentucky, from the age of 11 to 14. By the time I was 14, she had arranged for my audition to the School of American Ballet and subsequently helped facilitate finding a local benefactor to pay for my education at a New York private school — something my parents could never afford. She herself had been a ballet student at the Paris Opera Ballet School and went on to dance professionally for the great choreographer Roland Petit. As a teacher, she has impacted many lives, besides my own. For the past 20 years, she has cultivated and dedicated her life to creating NOBA, New Orleans Ballet Association, which has provided over 35,000 free dance classes to the community. Over 80 percent of the students who attend these free classes are at federal poverty level in New Orleans and 90 percent are African-American. She created a community “Nutcracker” production providing roles for 300 children, adults and even senior citizens. She has taught me the power of generosity built into artistry, and how hand in hand, those two ideas can actually change the world we live in.

Wendy Whelan is a principal dancer at the New York City Ballet. Watch an NYC-ARTS segment about the School of American Ballet and learn more about New York City Ballet’s history and repertoire on American Masters and NYC-ARTS.

Photo by David Michalek.

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City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn on Who Inspires Her

Christina Knight — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:32:58 +0000

As president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Cecile Richards fights to protect and promote women’s health, reproductive rights and sex education with a goal to create a healthier and safer world for women. Her lifelong commitment to women’s rights, public service and social justice has earned her a rightful place as a nationally recognized progressive leader. I admire Cecile because although her opinions and views may not always be popular, she stands by them. She doesn’t back down from what she believes in and she never forgets who she’s fighting for. Her achievements are a direct result of what can happen when you hold on to your convictions and follow that up with a lot of hard work and steadfast determination. She is a woman I greatly admire and I continue to be inspired by her.

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Mariane Pearl on the teacher who believed in her

Christina Knight — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:35:06 +0000

When I was 9 years old, I lost my father to a violent death. At the time, people thought children needed to be spared from their own reality and I was left with an enormous gap in my heart, longing to know what had really happened to him. Fortunately that same year, I met the only teacher in all of my schooling years that truly believed in me. She also seemed to be the only adult around who seemed to understand that children needed to feed their souls and nurture their self-esteems as much as they required food. We never talked about my dad but each time I wrote an essay for her class I could see how eager she was to read it and how thoughtfully she wrote her comments. Her attention was a source of joy that made me want to be kind to everyone.

Before the end of the year, I wrote her an essay about how I had befriended a dog in the neighborhood. Her owner would let me walk with her around the block and during one of our tours, I told them both about my father’s passing. “Why are you confiding this to a complete stranger?” The neighbor asked. “Well,” I said, “isn’t death a complete stranger anyway ?” When my teacher gave me back the essay, I saw her hazelnut eyes shining, from pride or from tears I couldn’t tell. That is the day she took my face in both her hands and told me in a hoarse voice: “You, my girl, will become a writer.” I have never forgotten her. Her name was Odette.

Mariane Pearl is a journalist and author. “In Search of Hope” (Powerhouse books) is a collection of profiles of extraordinary women around the world.

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Director Pam MacKinnon on Liz Swados and Anne Bogart

Christina Knight — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:11:29 +0000

At age nine I saw Liz Swados’ “Runaways” on a trip to New York City with my father. I was young for the material but so taken by it. I still own the cast album and can sing its songs, while images of the production continue to haunt me. I always loved that it was created by a woman, who, like me, was from Buffalo, NY.

Almost 15 years later, having just dropped out of a Ph.D. program in political science to become a director myself, I assisted Anne Bogart. I crashed her auditions, and she welcomed me into the process. Rehearsals were eye-opening lessons in company building, the physical nature of theater and story-telling as well as pure curiosity and commitment. She expected a lot from everyone but never more than what she, herself, gave. It was a production of Clare Booth-Luce’s “The Women.” We all dug into the text, while reading widely from feminist literature and listening to Cole Porter songs. Anne’s rehearsal hall was an early classroom. I am very grateful.

Pam MacKinnon’s recent works on Broadway include Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (2012) and Bruce Norris’ “Clybourne Park” (2012). Watch Pam MacKinnon discuss the inspirations and origins of “Clybourne Park” on NYC-ARTS.

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Ray Suarez tribute to Jane Holmes Dixon | Women in the Church

Christina Knight — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 04:20:06 +0000

Since I’m now in my mid-50s, I can really say I’ve grown up right along with the women’s movement. As a reporter, I’ve had a front seat as women have fought to attain the place in society that was always their due.

One place you might think of as different from the corporate boardroom, the anchor desk, or a presidential debate, is the altar. In my lifetime I’ve watched as women moved from one side of the altar, kneeling to receive communion or demurely waiting to kiss the groom, to take their place as clerics, as empowered to preach and teach as their brothers, husbands, fathers and sons.

So it was with sadness and shock that I heard of the passing of Bishop Jane Holmes Dixon early on Christmas morning. She was the second bishop in the Episcopal Church of the United States, the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The news that women would be allowed ordination rocked the Episcopal Church when I was a teenager. Holmes Dixon, in her early 40s, headed to seminary to become one of the first women priests in the American church. At a time when many Episcopalians were not sure they could accept a woman presiding at Communion, baptizing babies, or running congregations she plunged right in. She was, by all accounts, a success as a pastor.

I have been lucky to live in an era of outstanding, barrier-busting women. There are no shortage of women my daughters can look to, and see a possible version of their future selves. When Holmes Dixon became a bishop she had to clear many of the same hurdles she faced as a parish priest, but in a magnified way. Would the people of her diocese, men and women, accept a woman wearing the mitre and carrying the crozier of a bishop?

Some conservative parishes openly rebelled. Even decades after women became priests there were many who had a hard time watching a woman in procession down the center aisles of their churches carrying the authority of a bishop. In business, in politics, in many walks of life women getting ahead was fine in the abstract but tougher for some to handle in real life.

Aware that her own behavior was watched far beyond the borders of the Diocese of Washington, Bishop Jane did not back down. Her authority was not hers alone, but represented an important threshold question for the future of women in the church.

It certainly helped that she was a good teacher, a strong preacher, great with kids, approachable and warm. In her life and work she was one of a generation of women that shattered the association of so many jobs with “men’s work.” As my own daughter heads off to seminary to begin training for the priesthood I am thankful for the life of Jane Holmes Dixon.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Ray Suarez is Senior Correspondent of PBS NewsHour.

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Ann Temkin on Anne d’Harnoncourt’s work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Christina Knight — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:31:38 +0000

The memory of Anne d’Harnoncourt, the legendary director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will always serve as a guide to me in my work as a curator of modern art. Until her premature death at 64 in 2008, she inspired and nurtured countless individuals to become better curators, donors, artists, and art appreciators. Primarily she did this by example, as a gracious leader with limitless energy for and commitment to the institution and people around her. As a young curator in Philadelphia I had the extraordinary privilege of learning by working with her every day.

Anne valued integrity, in art and in people, above all else. In an era in which the art world has had more than its share of commercialism and cynicism, she remained an unshakable idealist while not at all naive. Ever optimistic, she never let a setback discourage the continued pursuit of a goal, no matter how gargantuan the political or financial obstacles might have appeared.

In this economic landscape, the demands made of an art museum can seem extremely complicated, and the way to navigate through them labyrinthine at best. For me, Anne’s example is that things can remain very simple. She believed deeply that great art could enrich, and even change, anyone’s life, and that it was a museum’s job to be the place where that could happen.

Anne d’Harnoncourt and the Perelman Building are the subject of a WHYY Arts & Culture “Experience” episode from 2008. Ann Temkin is The Marie-Josee and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art and has spoken about its works of art on NYC-ARTS Curator’s Choice segments.

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Gale A. Brewer, inspired by Ruth W. Messinger

Christina Knight — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 21:26:30 +0000

My hero is Ruth W. Messinger, who is the former New York City Council Member, Manhattan Borough President, and now president of the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). In my own thirty-plus years of public service, no one has been more intelligent, dedicated, compassionate and effective, shown such unwavering integrity, or believed so deeply in our capacity to heal the world. On the challenges of the eighties and the nineties—HIV/AIDS, homelessness, illegal evictions, waterfront access, neighborhood preservation, maintaining mom and pop businesses, and property tax reform—Ruth’s ideas led the way. Today, her passion and ideas have made the AJWS a force for First-world food reform, Third-world micro-economics, and child sustenance. Her incomparable stamina, compassion, and spirit continue to touch millions of lives, and she is a living inspiration to us all.

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Sarah Schulman on Audre Lorde | Share Your Story

Christina Knight — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:52:18 +0000

One of the women who has had an enduring influence on my thinking is my college professor from Hunter College, Audre Lorde. In addition to being a writer, doer, lover and public intellectual, she was a great teacher. One day Audre told us to take out our notebooks and said, “Write this down! Write this down!…That you ‘can’t fight City Hall’ is a rumor being spread by City Hall…Write that down.” That insight has given me strength many many times in my life and I have shared it with my students as well.

The POV documentary A Litany For Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde premiered on PBS in 1996. Sarah Schulman teaches English at the College of Staten Island.

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Dr. Joyce Brown, President of FIT on Rosa Parks

Christina Knight — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 17:44:51 +0000

I remember as a youngster being impressed by the story of Rosa Parks. She was not loud; she was not hostile; she was not seeking fame or glory. She simply acted on her deeply held belief that she had a right to a seat on a bus and quietly defied those who would deny her that right. By the sheer force of her inner strength, she changed the world. I have learned from her example. She taught me that if we trust our own convictions and persevere in the face of opposition, we can prevail.

Rosa Parks’ involvement in the Civil Rights Movement is the subject of a Religion & Ethics episode and an interview by PBS News Hour’s Gwen Ifill with Jeanne Theoharis, author of “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks.” Born and raised in New York City, Dr. Joyce F. Brown is the first woman president of the Fashion Institute of Technology.

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