Schlagwort: people

afrikanwomen:

Waris Dirie is a Somali model, author, actress and human rights activist.

At the age of thirteen, she fled her family in order to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man. By chance, she was discovered by photographer Terence Donovan, who helped secure for her the cover of the 1987 Pirelli Calendar. From there, her modeling career took off, appearing in advertisements for top designers such as Chanel, Levi’s, L’Oréal and Revlon.

In 1997, at the height of her modeling career, Waris spoke for the first time with Laura Ziv of the women’s magazine Marie Claire about the female genital mutilation (FGM) that she had undergone as a child, an interview which received worldwide media coverage. That same year, she became a UN ambassador for the abolition of FGM.

In 1998, Waris authored her first book, Desert Flower, an autobiography which went on to become an international bestseller. She later released other successful books including Desert Dawn, Letter To My Mother, and Desert Children, the latter of which was launched in tandem with a European campaign against FGM. In 2009, a feature-length film based on Waris’ book Desert Flower was released, with the Ethiopian supermodel Liya Kebede playing her.

In January 2009, she established the PPR Foundation for Women’s Dignity and Rights’, an organization she founded along with François-Henri Pinault and his wife  Salma Hayek. Waris has also started the Desert Dawn Foundation, which raises money for schools and clinics in her native Somalia, and supports the Zeitz Foundation, an organization focused on sustainable development and conservation.

In 2010, Waris was appointed Peace Ambassador for the Year of Peace and Security by the African Union.

Waris has received many prizes and awards for her humanitarian work and books.

“Africa has to stop destroying itself. The pointless fights between families, clans or rebel groups have to stop. Without peace, there will be no future for Africa. Africa has to recognise its own potential. The people of Africa have to recognise the beauty of their continent and understand how they can benefit from the incredible resources their continent has to offer. The people of Africa have to stop waiting for help. Only the men and women of Africa can save their continent.”

bisexual-community:

The 16 most inspiring things about bisexual artist Frida Kahlo: Mexican painter Frida Kahlo was born 107 years ago today July 6, 1907. A feisty free spirit who blazed her own trail and inspired everyone around her.

Frida Kahlo is one of the most revered artists to come from 20th century Mexico. Her distinctive look and style are instantly recognizable and she has been called a diva, a muse and a feminist icon.

A force of nature perhaps best summed up by an art critic who saw one of her very first exhibitions and said: ‘It is impossible to separate the life and work of this extraordinary person. Her paintings are her biography.’

She fought through a great deal of adversity during her life. At the age of six she contracted polio, when she was 18 she was badly injured in a bus crash and later in life she suffered several miscarriages … Kahlo never lost her passion for life. She was well known as an extremely quick witted and sharp woman, always the centre of attention wherever she was. Her strength of character has made her an emblem of hope and determination for many.

Art historians usually focus on her relationship with fellow Mexican painter Diego Rivera (whom she married, divorced and then married again) and her affair with Communist leader Leon Trotsky. But Kahlo was bisexual, and made no secret of her affairs and relationships with women as well as men. Kahlo was linked with African American entertainer Josephine Baker, American painter Georgia O’Keeffe and Mexican singer Chavela Vargas.

Photographers were captivated by her beauty. She was a muse to photographer Nickolas Murray who loved to take her picture in her sumptuous Mexican clothes.

Her work has been exhibited in art galleries all over the world, her diary has been published and many authors have written biographies of her extraordinary life.The house she lived in is now a museum. ‘La Casa Azul’ is filled with trinkets and treasure collected by Kahlo during her life and is one of the biggest cultural attractions in Mexico.

She defied classification of her work. Art critics tried to label her as a Surrealist painter, which was very trendy at the time, but she defied this label, instead saying: ‘They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn’t. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.’

In 1938 André Breton, principal initiator of the surrealist movement, described Kahlo’s art as a “ribbon around a bomb”.