This month’s Kickass Woman is Claudia Jones. Wielding a pen instead of a sword did not make this woman any less of a warrior, one who did battle in three countries in her short life and shared not only Black anger but also Black joy. Born in 1915, Claudia Vera Cumberbatch was born in Trinidad and Tobago, which was, at the time, a colony of Britain (it is now the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Claudia Jones→
I just got back from Yosemite National Park and was curious about its Kickass Women. Happily the National Parks website has a long list of Kickass Women in Yosemite including artists, explorers, rangers, and athletes. I encourage anyone interested to check out this list! For the purposes of this article, I’ve selected Ta-bu-ce, also known as Maggie Howard and as Tabuce. TW for racism, injury, forced removal, genocide, death. Many details of Ta-bu-ce’s life are … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Ta-bu-ce→
Tamara Lempicka (also known as Tamara de Lempicka) is having a well-deserved moment. Born in Poland in 1894, she was a painter who was famous during her lifetime for her portraits, her distinctive artistic style, and her personality. Lempicka led a dramatic life. Born Tamara Rosa Herwitz, she had a wealthy Russian-Jewish father and Polish-Jewish mother. They were baptized by the Polish Reformed Church in 1891 and Lempicka was also baptized in 1897. She married … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Tamara Lempicka→
It’s a busy season, but let’s all take a minute to celebrate Daisy Bates, the kickass leader of the Little Rock Nine and a lifelong activist. We must also celebrate the Little Rock Nine, a group of kickass students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Daisy was born in 1914. When she was three, her mother was raped and murdered by three White men. As she grew up and learned more details … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Daisy Bates and the Little Rock Nine→
Brace yourselves, Bitches, for a very abbreviated description of the life of Margaret Beaufort, one of the most Kickass Women in Tudor history, a period of time during which Kickass Women rather abounded despite their lack of legal rights. Here’s the basics. Lady Margaret Beaufort was born on May 31,1443. She was a descendant of King Edward III. Margaret became the sole heir of her father’s fortune in infancy and survived all manner of complicated … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Margaret Beaufort→
This month I’m doing something a little different. Instead of a long post about one person, I’m sharing a set of links about two different people. We don’t know how they would have identified themselves if they lived today. They might, if alive today, have thought of themselves as Kickass Women, or Kickass Men, or Kickass Nonbinary People, or, in Thomas(ine’s) case), a Kickass Intersex Person, or something different. What we do know is that … Continue reading Kickass People in History: Thomas(ine) Hall and Mary Jones→
Marlow Moss was an artist who defied conventional art rules as well as conventional ideas about gender and sexuality. Since she referred to herself during her life as “she,” I will do so here. However, critics today speculate whether today she might have defined herself as non-binary, gender-fluid, or transgender. Marlow was born Marjorie Jewel Moss in 1889 in London. She loved music, but a miserable attack of tuberculosis halted her chances of becoming a … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Marlow Moss→
This month we have two Kickass Women: Annie Montague Alexander and her partner, Louise Kellogg. Annie was born in the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1867. Her grandparents were missionaries and her parents were wealthy colonizers.. She went to school in Hawaii, California, and Massachusetts before going to Paris to study painting. Annie fully intended to become a professional artist, but she found that painting for too long gave her horrible headaches. She subsequently had the … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Annie Montague Alexander and Louise Kellogg→
Y’all, I am obsessed with this month’s Kickass Woman, Ynez Enriquetta Julietta Mexia. Born in Mexico, she didn’t become a botanist until she was in her fifties. She traveled all over the U.S., Mexico, and Latin America collecting specimens and discovering new plants and she usually traveled alone, wearing trousers and riding astride. And she did most of this in the 1920s and 1930s. A true badass. Ynez’s father was a Mexican diplomat to the … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Ynez Enriquetta→
This month’s Kickass Women was found in the pages of Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers by Lauren Burke and Hannah K. Chapman, illustrated by Kaley Bales. The book traces the connections between different authors and their common motivations for writing, and depicts some of the turning points in their lives. I had never heard of the author Edith Maude Eaton, who … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Edith Maude Eaton and Winnifred Easton→
TW: rape, racism, mob violence, murder, anti-semitism This month’s Kickass Woman is a woman of complex morals who, despite making a lavish living through crime, was adored in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. Stephanie St. Clair, known as Queenie, ran a numbers racket throughout the 1920s and 30s and kept control of it despite efforts of the Mafia and the Law to take her down. She was also a civil rights activist, who invested in … Continue reading Kickass Women in History: Stephanie St. Clair→
