“My grandmother wove in me a tapestry that was impossible to unwind,” Vigo said. “Since then, I’ve dedicated my life to the sea, just as those who have come before me.”
Like the 23 women before her, Vigo has never made a penny from her work. She is bound by a sacred ‘Sea Oath’ that maintains that byssus should never be bought or sold.
Instead, Vigo explained that the only way to receive byssus is as a gift. […]
“Byssus doesn’t belong to me, but to everyone,” Vigo asserted. “Selling it would be like trying to profit from the sun or the tides.”
More recently, a Japanese businessman approached Vigo with an offer to purchase her most famous piece, ‘The Lion of Women’, for €2.5 million. It took Vigo four years to stitch the glimmering 45x45cm design with her fingernails, and she dedicated it to women everywhere.
“I told him, ‘Absolutely not’,” she declared. “The women of the world are not for sale.”
The government is trying to evict her after shutting down her free museum to showcase her work because she refuses their demands she tell her secret.
The link to her crowdfunding page is https://buonacausa.org/cause/chiaravigo
She needs to raise €85,000 by November 2018 or the town will evict her. She’s only raised €6,472. The page says that there is no goal bc anything they raise is a success but the article says she needs the €85,000 in order to own her home and not be evicted. Chiara Vigo is an amazingly talented Jewish women who deserves to stay in her town close to the ocean !!
Tag: awesome women
Hazel Scott playing two pianos at the same damn time with ease
Hazel Scott was a musical sorcerer and a civil rights hero. She:
- was admitted to Julliard at 8.
- was performing in top venues by 16.
- pioneered “swinging the classics” and made the equivalent of a million dollars a year doing it.
- was the first person of color to have their own national TV show.
- went to Hollywood but refused to be cast as a “singing maid.” Demanded and got control over her casting, her wardrobe, and how footage featuring her was cut.
- refused to perform in segregated venues and led charges for integration in several northern cities, notably Spokane.
She was brought down by the House Committee on Unamerican Activities, and has been largely forgotten. But she was a sorcerer, and a hero.
Let’s un-forget her.
“Girls don’t have to go through hell anymore to play hockey.”
3/3 retired players: Hayley Wickenheiser
For the first time, a woman assumes command of a Special Forces battalion
*screaming* YAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
For the first time, a woman assumes command of a Special Forces battalion
This kinda news makes my heart feel so warm 💕
Come through sis
god bless the girl warriors, the defenders of teenage laughter, the women who push themselves between fire and body; god bless the women witches who pull love like endless scarves, who pull together families, who magic dinners in ten minutes; god bless the science dragon-kin who come with their scales rippling, who tear down STEM fields and burn the patriarchy just by studying, who work their bellies raw only to be told they’re “naturally talented,” who are keepers of the late nights and coffees, who catch doctor mistakes but get lower pay, who double-shift without wincing; god bless the art queens, hair messy and creativity overflowing, who present ideas without apologizing, who carve raw their bones and put honest on display – god bless the avenging seraphim in the form of women, the quiet close-standing of one woman watching another in a train station, the silent knowing here-i-am glance of women when men are too rowdy, the steel of women protecting young girls, the fire of women who protect their trans sisters, the arc light of trans sisters leading the charge in standing up for women’s rights; god bless women, seen as weak, seen as relenting, taught to bow and beg and apologize – god bless every social justice fighter, every freedom bell ringer, every young lady who does not just shake chains but instead is using them to shatter glass ceilings. go forth and conquer. you’re all my heroes.
Lucy Lawless
Lucy FLAWLESS
“The rise to power of the imperial harem is one of the most dramatic
developments in the sixteenth-century history of the Ottoman Empire. From
almost the beginning of the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, who came to
the throne in 1520, until the mid-seventeenth century, high-ranking women of the Ottoman dynasty enjoyed a degree of political power and public prominence greater than ever before or after. Indeed, this period in the empire’s history is often referred to, in both popular and scholarly literature, as “the sultanate of women.” The women of the imperial harem, especially the mother of the reigning sultan and his leading concubines, were considerably more active than their predecessors in the direct exercise of political power: in creating and manipulating domestic political factions, in negotiating with foreign powers, and in acting as regents for their sons. Furthermore, they played a central role in what we might call the public culture of sovereignty: public rituals of imperial legitimation and royal patronage of monumental building and artistic production.” – Leslie P. Peirce. The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire.The women of ‘The Sultanate of Women’ in TIMS’s Magnificent Century & Magnificent Century Kösem
Steel Phoenix Studios 