Centering, Uplifting & Celebrating Brown Girls
Rosa Dolores Alverío born December 11, 1931, in Humacao, Puerto Rico, was the first triple threat I knew. She has earned the exclusive honor of being in the EGOT club, winning two Emmy Awards, A Grammy, An Oscar and A Tony. She is the only LatinX actor to do so thus far. She has been a …
Harriet Tubman escaped her enslavement in 1849. After fleeing to Philadelphia, she returned South and led hundreds for enslaved Black people to freedom via the Underground Railroad. Harriet served as a spy, cook and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War. Tubman is slated to be the first Black person on US currency in …
Born in 1944, Nancy Morejón is one of Cuba's most prestigious writers. Morejón came of age during the Cuban revolution and her work thematically speak of cultural resistance and Cuban nationalism. The Cuba National Literature Prize winner is also one of the first Cuban women to celebrate Blackness and Black womanhood in poetry. Mujer Negra (Black Woman) is …
The educator, administrator, community activist and Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm made history when she became the first woman to run for the Democratic Presidential nomination. She was also the first Black woman to run for President in 1972. She combated misogynoir from all sides, including national feminist organizations who encouraged her to seek the nation's highest …
Celia Cruz, "The Queen of Salsa" became an iconic Afro-Latina role model known the world over for her vivacious spirit. Her career, which began in the nightclubs of Havana in the 1940s, spanned several decades and boasted three Grammy Awards, four Latin Grammy Awards, The President's National Medal of Arts and countless lifetime achievement awards. Her legacy lives …
Singer, actress, model. Grace Jones hails from Jamaica and has spent her adult life pushing boundaries and defining her own. After taking the world by storm in 1970 as an international model, she soon became known as a singer, performer, actress and fashion icon. Unique. Bold. Trendsetter. Unapologetic. Grace Jones is the embodiment of living out loud. …
The High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone lived Black, proud, and out loud. She called her sound "Black classical music", which she created to provoke curiosity in the minds and hearts of Black people around the world. Ms. Simone wrote, played and sang passionately the struggles of Blackness and resistance during the Civil Rights Movement. …
One of the pioneers of feminism, Sojourner Truth was also the first proponent of intersectional feminism. She addressed the nuance between women's issues and those of Black people over a century and a half before Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the phrase. Born enslaved c. 1797, Truth fought and won a slander case where she was accused …
With style and grace, Michelle Obama reluctantly became the first Black First Lady of the United States. A brilliant and accomplished leader and public servant in her own right, she worked diligently to end childhood obesity and to advocate for military families while raising her own young family in the White House. Michelle served as …
Developing a love of truth, standing for civil rights, enjoying life itself and recording the experience, our matriarch became an inspiration. Maya Angelou’s words, spoken, on the printed page or reflected here, continue to promote self-examination, equality and friendship. Believing that “we are more alike than unalike”, Maya Angelou would be the first to say …
Brown Girls Out Loud 