Posts Tagged ‘Women’

Two rich days of solo travel in Halifax August 10, 2023 No Comments

In this travel letter about two days in Halifax, I share about the roles of Viola Desmond and Carrie Best in the fight for civil rights in Canada, and about Pearleen Oliver who fought for Black nurses to be accepted into nursing schools in Canada. I describe my visits to the Black Cultural Centre and the former city of Africville, both of which are well worth visiting. I mention Faith Nolan, a Canadian folk and jazz singer-songwriter of mixed African, Mi’kmaw, and Irish heritage who works to prevent the erasure of Black experiences and contributions in Canada.

Inner Peace Inner Power: Insights of Women Leaders March 9, 2023 No Comments

I need to take time to check in with me, rather than just rush around doing things in the world. Some ask: Is self-time selfish? I know that when I introspect, I am more centred and grounded in who I am and what I’m about. I can be more present, listen better, and be more useful in the world that way.

From Kenya to the USA: Visiting family and friends and learning his/her/ourstory September 4, 2022 27 Comments

In this letter from Nairobi, Kenya, I share pictures and stories from a month of travels to six states in the USA, beginning in Ocean County, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and continuing to magical Brooklyn, New York. In Virginia, friends and I visit Emancipation Oak at Hampton University and “Hearth Memorial to the Enslaved” [...]

Is Decolonization More Than a Buzzword? August 14, 2022 No Comments

Through a “tour” of sessions of the April 2022 African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) conference, Kathryn Toure tries to show that decolonization, more than jargon or a mere buzzword, is a process in progress.

Journeying through his/her/ourstory: From Florida to Kansas City October 2, 2021 11 Comments

Does knowing history change history? In the form of an illustrated letter to family and friends, I take the reader on a journey through time. Determined curiosity leads me to encounters that reveal what I was not taught at school. I believe we become more humxn when we connect: with those who came before, with [...]

Covid Stories from East Africa and Beyond: Lived Experiences and Forward-Looking Reflections January 15, 2021 No Comments

Coronavirus happened and is still with us. Its impact has been far reaching, and many lives have been deeply disrupted, even lost. Africans have sought to cope with it in various ways, including giving it names of derision, names of defiance, and names that point to a determination to overcome it. In one of Kenya’s [...]

African American Women in the Suffrage Movement: Then, Now, and Forever July 14, 2020 No Comments

Kansas City, Missouri, July 11, 2020 – Clay County African American Legacy (CCAAL) Inc. and the League of Women Voters of Kansas City/Jackson-Clay-Platte counties co-organized a panel discussion on African American Women in the Suffrage Movement. Originally planned as an in-person event with a brunch in March 2020, due to covid19, it was held on [...]

Immigrants We Get the Job Done February 2, 2017 No Comments

At a recent Women’s March in Kansas City, at Washington Square Park, I saw a woman holding a sign saying “Immigrants We Get the Job Done.” I have found this to be true, especially ever since I graduated from the University of Kansas in political science and started my professional life working in refugee resettlement [...]

Crafting Effective Strategies April 25, 2016 No Comments

The A. Philip Randolph awards were distributed on April 15, 2016, at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center and Museum in Kansas City. In the 1920s and 1930s, Randolph helped organize America’s porters and maids working on the Pullman railroad cars and created the first African-American-led labor union. Many Pullman maids and wives, daughters, and sisters of Pullman porters were members of the Ladies Auxiliary which shaped “public debates over black manhood and unionization, setting political agendas for the black community, and crafting effective strategies to win racial and economic justice.”

Promotion and self-promotion: Women may fail to win chairs because they do not cite themselves enough September 19, 2013 No Comments

ONE of academia’s deficiencies is that, though its lecture halls and graduate schools are replete with women, its higher echelons are not. Often, this is seen as a phenomenon specific to the sciences. A report published in 2008 by America’s National Science Foundation, for example, found that in most fields of science and engineering male [...]