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Gitanjali Rao is an American inventor, author, social activist, and a STEM student and advocate.

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Gitanjali Rao is 17 years old and is a 12th grader at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Highlands Ranch, CO. She is researching at the University of Colorado, Denver in the Department of Cell Biology to find a solution for prescription opioid addiction using the latest in genetic engineering and created a colorimetry based app and device. This initiative received a world finalist's recognition in a Technovation Girl Challenge and a Health Pillar award by TCS Ignite Innovation challenge nationally. She introduced the device in TEDtalksNayibaat India.

She was previously named America's Top Young Scientist of 2017 by the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, with a patent-pending device to detect lead in water faster than any other current techniques. She is also the winner of a global Paradigm science challenge.

Gitanjali recently launched an anti-cyberbullying service based on AI/Machine Learning using Natural Language Processing in the community called "KINDLY" under Microsoft's guidance. She was awarded the eCYBERMISSION STEM in Action grant to implement the solution.

Gitanjali was recently honored as Junior Eureka Finalist by the Shanghai Media Group, where she solved a problem using AI for the first intergenerational care by creating a simple solution that understands the elderly and children's persona and helps staff members create and facilitate activities.

She is an active STEM promoter and is involved in promoting STEM-based activities in schools, clubs, and the community. She was selected as the National STEM Scout of the Year. She conducts innovation sessions weekly and has impacted more than 70,000 elementary, middle, and high school students by globally sharing her process and tools across four continents.

She was recognized as a 2019 Forbes 30 under 30 for science and the lead detection tool's invention. She is also an EPA Presidential award winner and is recognized as a Gloria Barron' Young Hero' Honoree for community impact.

Gitanjali has open-sourced her lead detector invention processor, her colorimetry-based algorithm for prescription opioid detection, and app code for the community. It has been used for other applications.

Some of Gitanjali's hobbies include playing the piano, Indian classical dancing and singing, swimming, fencing, and baking. She has been playing classical music for almost nine years. She shares her talent in playing piano in local assisted living centers.

Gitanjali is on the board of Directors for an organization called Children's Kindness Network that spreads an anti-bullying message and promotes the importance of kindness in all of us. She conducts workshops in elementary schools and hopes to educate children about kindness when they are still young.

Gitanjali has won awards for her writing in national and international contests. She published her first book at the age of 9, called "Baby Brother Wonders." Based on the story that won 2nd prize in the PBS national writing contest, the self-illustrated book described the world through her younger brother's point of view. Gitanjali has also won first place in the International Aviation Art Contest for the last four years at the state level, and her art is displayed at Nashville International airport. She was a "TIME for Kids" Kid reporter in 2018 and wrote articles bringing awareness to the Flint crisis. Apart from writing and art, Gitanjali is part of STEM Scouts and 4-H club and runs innovation and technology workshops for elementary schools worldwide.

She is a three-time TEDx speaker and a TED speaker apart from speaking in several girls' and global conferences and being a UNICEF panelist about the role of Youth to power the planet. Gitanjali was recently selected as a partner for Forbes Ignite Network. She is piloting a concept called Empathy Sharktank that helps in employee-employer engagement and staff development for start-ups and schools.

Gitanjali aspires to study genetics combined with computer science with product design. She is an avid problem solver and thrives in collaborating with organizations that promote innovation and creativity.

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Gitanjali Rao is 17 years old and is a 12th grader at STEM School Highlands Ranch in Highlands Ranch, CO. She is researching at the University of Colorado, Denver in the Department of Cell Biology to find a solution for prescription opioid addiction using the latest in genetic engineering and created a colorimetry based app and device.

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Gitanjali Rao - Science and human rights

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Meet TIME's First-Ever Kid of the Year | TIME

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Meet Miranda Wang - An honoree of The Explorers Club 50. Fifty people changing the world that the world needs to know about.

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Slush New Materials Showcase: Novoloop (Co-Founder & CEO Miranda Wang)

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Miranda Wang  - 2018 Young Champion of the Earth for North America

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Guerilla Girls and the Fight for Equality

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The Guerilla Girls, a feminist art collective, challenge sexism and racism in the art world with bold, humorous tactics and guerrilla-style activism.

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The Guerrilla Girls
Photo: George Lange

Well we don't know exactly who they are (because of their disguises), but we do know that they are all women artists who, since the mid-1980s, have been protesting against racism and sexism in the art world.

Guerrillas - NO not GORILLAS! This isn't a wildlife website! - are rebels who do disruptive, subversive things to make people aware of their beliefs. This is why the group decided to call themselves the Guerrilla Girls.

The Guerrilla Girls hide their real identities by calling themselves names of great women artists from the past like Frida Kahlo and Käthe Kollwitz, and by wearing masks when protesting or fly-posting their posters. (They were originally going to wear ski masks to hide their faces but when one of their gang accidentally spelt guerrilla wrong and wrote gorilla, they thought it would be funny to wear monkey masks instead. We think they look pretty cool!)

They are best known for the posters they create and put up in places where they shouldn't, like on walls next to art galleries.

The Guerrilla Girls use real facts and figures in their posters to make their point, they say they are 'fighting discrimination with facts'. But as well as facts they use humour to change people's minds. One journalist described them as 'quippy as well as lippy'.

Look at this poster:

It's a report card (like you get in school) where they have marked and commented on the performance of art galleries. One gallery is told that it is 'boy crazy' another that it is 'not paying attention'.

(Hahaha! You rock Guerrilla Girls!).

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Who are the Guerrilla Girls? | Tate Kids

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Well we don't know exactly who they are (because of their disguises), but we do know that they are all women artists who, since the mid-1980s, have been protesting against racism and sexism in the art world. Guerrillas - NO not GORILLAS! This isn't a wildlife website!

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Guerrilla Girls, Going and Going ... | The New York Times

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Hindou Ibrahim: Women’s leadership in Chad - Believe Earth

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Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, 33, is an indigenous woman of the Wodaabe, also called Mbororo, a pastoral people. Ibrahim is one of the founders of the Association of Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad a group fighting to defend the environment and the rights of indigenous people. Ibrahim was chosen to represent civil society during the […]

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XPRIZE Foundation Bio - Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim

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Environmental activist and member of Chad’s pastoralist Mbororo community, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim began advocating for Indigenous rights and en

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From Chad To The World, One Map At A Tim

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Climate change impacts our rights, by Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, Indigenous Rights Activist

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Olga Malinkiewicz ( Polish pronunciation: [ˈɔlɡa malinˈkjɛvit͡ʂ]; born 26 November 1982) is a Polish physicist, inventor of a method of producing solar cells based on perovskites using inkjet printing. She is a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer at Saule Technologies. She is the recipient of two European Inventor Awards (2024).

She started her studies at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw, where she obtained a Bachelor in 2005. She graduated from the Barcelona University of Technology in Barcelona in 2010. While still a student, in 2009 she started working at the ICFO Institute. In 2017, she obtained her PhD from ICMol - Institute for Molecular Science of the University of Valencia at the group of Dr. Henk Bolink, with a thesis on low cost, efficient hybrid solar cells. In 2014 she founded Saule Technologies, with private backing and turned down an offer of €1 million (US$1.3 million) for 10% of the start-up. The name of the company derives from Saulė, the goddess of the Sun in Baltic mythology.

During her studies, Olga developed a novel perovskite solar cell architecture allowing the fabrication of such devices at low temperatures, while retaining high efficiency. She has been granted with the Photonics21 Student Innovation award in a competition organised by the European Commission in 2014 for this achievement. She published an article on the subject in Nature Scientific Reports. In 2015 Olga was honored with an award in the Innovators Under 35 ranking, organized by MIT Technology Review for "developing a new technology that could spark a "social revolution" in renewable energies". In 2016, she was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta by the President of Poland Andrzej Duda for her "outstanding contributions to the development of Polish science". For her future science and business activities, she was distinguished by the American Chemical Society as one of the top women entrepreneurs in new technologies.

In 2021, she received the Lem's Planet Award in the technology category for her invention and commercialization of the printed perovskite-based solar cells. In 2024, as the first Polish woman scientist, she received two European Inventor Awards presented by the European Patent Office. The first award was granted in the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises category while the second one was in the Popular Prize category. Malinkiewicz and her team were recognized for "advancing solar energy technology with their cost-effective and environmentally friendly perovskite solar cells", which was described as a visionary idea and a technology that can change the world.

In 2015, she co-founded Saule Technologies (named after the Baltic sun goddess), along with two Polish businessmen. A partnership was signed in January 2018 with the Swedish construction company Skanska. The company is also looking for partnership with other companies operating in the Middle East. It is also working with Egis Group, a rigid plastics film producer, on the encapsulation of the cells.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Olga Malinkiewicz ( Polish pronunciation: [ˈɔlɡa malinˈkjɛvit͡ʂ]; born 26 November 1982) is a Polish physicist, inventor of a method of producing solar cells based on perovskites using inkjet printing. She is a co-founder and the Chief Technology Officer at Saule Technologies.

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Our annual list of the young dreamers, tinkerers, and innovators that are creating technology’s future.

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Kotchakorn Voraakhom (Thai: กชกร วรอาคม, born 1978) is a Thai landscape architect and chief executive officer of Porous City Network, a social enterprise that looks to increase urban resilience in Southeast Asia. She is also the founder of the Koungkuey Design Initiative, which works with communities to rebuild public spaces. She campaigns for more green space in cities and is a 2018 TED fellow.

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Kotchakorn Voraakhom: How to transform sinking cities into landscapes that fight floods | TED Talk

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From London to Tokyo, climate change is causing cities to sink -- and our modern concrete infrastructure is making us even more vulnerable to severe flooding, says landscape architect and TED Fellow Kotchakorn Voraakhom. But what if we could design cities to help fight floods? In this inspiring talk, Voraakhom shows how she developed a massive park in Bangkok that can hold a million gallons of rainwater, calling for more climate change solutions that connect cities back to nature.

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Discover Pr. Najat Aoun Saliba, Laureate of the 2019 For Women in Science Award

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Ana Mendieta and Her Influence in Earth Art

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Summary of Ana Mendieta

Ana Mendieta's short life was a study in displacement and its effects on a person's soul - both positive and negative. From her early years when she was separated from her Cuban family to become an adopted refugee in America throughout her adolescent years when she felt like an outsider growing up in the Midwest, the young artist felt an ever-present disconnection from the concepts of mother, place, identity, belonging, and home. For 15 of her 37 years, she explored this ache through her work, which was primarily performance, photography, and film-based. She aimed to jostle the nonchalance of people in ways that would provoke them to connect with each other more authentically, to understand that they were essentially one within humanity, and that the earth was the supreme mother to all. She wanted to pierce the veils of perceived difference in many spheres including gender, race, and geography and asked us to perceive our own indifference to more unsettling things within our midst such as prejudice and violence. The ongoing dialogue between her own body and the landscape regarding presence, absence, and the inevitable cycles within nature and life would come to be seen as an eerie foretelling of her tragic end when she fell from the window of an apartment building. However, Mendieta's impact remains, much like the images she made, stained in the psyche, asking us to consider the spiritual, ethereal, and physical connections present in our own thirst for being.

Accomplishments

Mendieta was a key figure in the Body art movement that emerged from the Performance art movement. Her sustained use of the body's simplified and often nude form to depict both presence and its opposite, absence is an essential component to her work whether denoting the human or the ethereal.

Mendieta is recognized as an important contributor to Land art, a movement in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked, taking the possibilities of art outside gallery confines. She used the natural environment as a perpetual setting throughout her career, most memorably in her earth-works such as Siluetas, which were created in various natural locations with particular meaning to the artist and adorned with elements indigenous to the areas.

Merging with the earth not only became a mark-making process for Mendieta, but also a metaphorical return to mother and ritualistic homage to a universally generic, feminine earth goddess. In the end, the land was perhaps her greatest collaborator, helping her express the body's place within the world and its relationship to nature.

Mendieta is also oftentimes connected with the Feminist art movement for her work on the fluidity of gender and the manipulation of her own body parts to blur the line between male/female identification. But also, she often embraced her own feminine spirit and feminine mysticism in her work, unapologetically and with copious amounts of joy.

The consistent use of blood and other organic material such as feathers, rocks, flowers, fire, and the earth reflect Mendieta's passion for religious ritual. She was especially inspired by the strain of Cuban Catholicism known as Santeria. Much of her artwork materialized as a sort of rite, orchestrated to articulate the perpetual cycles of life, death, womanhood, rebirth, and renewal.

Because of her early displacement from family and home and the trauma that produced in her early life, Mendieta became a lifelong champion of the marginalized or minoritized whether by racism, sexism, or geography. Much of the passion that went into making her work was stoked by a desire to have everybody recognize those considered "other bodies" and to accept humanity as one throbbing whole rather than a world of disjointed individuals.

Violence remains a mysterious ingredient in Mendieta's legacy. Themes of domestic violence, of turning a blind eye to violence, and forced participation in witnessing violence can all be found as a parallel strain to her more earth, feminine, nature-inspired pieces. Although never really answered, this preoccupation beats below the surface and has raised many questions over the years within fans, critics, and her own personal friends about whether or not Mendieta had personal experience of abuse especially, most poignantly, in regards to the way her life tragically ended.

Important Art by Ana Mendieta

Biography of Ana Mendieta

Early Period

Ana Mendieta was born in 1948 in Havana, Cuba. When she was a mere 12, she was sent to America along with her sister Raquelin as part of the Peter Pan operation, a government-sponsored project for Cuban children to flee Fidel Castro's dictatorship. The project conveyed over 14,000 minors to the United States between 1960 and 1962, operating under the radar out of fear that it would be seen as an anti-Castro political undertaking. The refugee sisters spent some time in Florida before being sent to Iowa, where they lived in foster homes and were enrolled in reform school.

The girls knew little English. They had only each other and their budding interest in art to help them cope with the harshness of their new school environment and the pain of being ripped from their family of origin. In 1966, the girls were reunited with their mother and younger brother. It wasn't until 1979 that their father was able to join them in Iowa, after having spent nearly two decades in a political prison in Cuba.

After graduating from high school Mendieta went on to study French and art at the University of Iowa. Although her early work consisted mostly of paintings, a shift would occur when she enrolled in Hans Breder's innovative and progressive Intermedia Art course. She wrote: "The turning point in art was in 1972, when I realized that my paintings were not real enough for what I want the image to convey and by real I mean I wanted my images to have power, to be magic." Her professor turned her on to the newly burgeoning performance art scene and groups such as the Viennese Actionists. She began to boldly experiment with using her own body and blood as a medium, and began incorporating aspects of live ritual from religions like Santeria into her work. This allowed her to more realistically portray themes of particular interest to her such as gender fluidity, cultural marginalization, and domestic violence. She experimented with body alteration in works where she changed the appearance of or manipulated the perception of her identity as female.

During this time Mendieta began a decade-long affair with her teacher who was 13 years her senior. Breder was a huge influence on the young artist in many ways. He drew her attention to the exciting potential in cross-disciplinary art. He utilized her as a muse, most notably in the piece La Ventosa (1971) where Mendieta lay nude on a beach holding a mirror while being overrun by waves. He documented many of her early performance pieces, and introduced her to contemporary artists such as Hans Haacke and Vito Acconci who would inspire her own work.

In the summer of 1971, Mendieta left Iowa to travel to Mexico for research. She was concerned with the painful remnants of her cultural displacement from Cuba, and would later call the trip a "going back to the source." This would also mark the beginning of Mendieta's commitment to, in her words, carrying out "a dialogue between the landscape and the female body" - a relationship between artist and earth that would come to assuage the pain of her early disconnection from mother and home like a universal womb.

Mature Period

In 1973, the on-campus rape and murder of University of Iowa student Sarah Ann Ottens led to some of Mendieta's most potent work. Shortly after the violent incident occurred, Mendieta created a piece in which her own body was used to provoke reflections within the college community about what had occurred in their midst. She smeared her naked body with cow's blood, tied herself bent over and faced down to a table in her apartment, and then invited unsuspecting students and faculty members to her apartment to "happen upon" the scene. A year later Mendieta completed Body Tracks, another piece reminiscent of a crime scene documented by a one-minute Super-8 recording. In it, we see Mendieta with her back to the camera with her arms outstretched into the shape of a V over her head in front of a blank white wall. Slowly, she proceeds to drag her blood covered hands down the wall to the floor before walking away, leaving two gory lines framing a shape from where the body has disappeared. Her work was becoming heavily reliant on the use of her own performing body as representative of other bodies marginalized by race, violence, and gender. In the summer of the following year, after having returned to Mexico, Mendieta created the first of her seminal series Siluetas - a body of work that would come to comprise over 200 pieces. Each piece consisted of Mendieta either physically laying on the ground and merging with the surrounding elements such as leaves and twigs, or using her body to make an imprint in the ground and then photographing the ensuing outline absent of her form. Mendieta would often accentuate these outlines dramatically with red pigment, stones, or other materials indigenous to the geography where they were made; sometimes she would light them in flames. The series was therapeutic for Mendieta in that it allowed her to reconnect with nature and feel rooted in place to the land.

In 1980 Mendieta returned to Cuba for the first time since she emigrated as a child, and over the next few years was able to return to the island on several occasions working as a tour guide for the Cuban Cultural Circle. During this time, Mendieta's longing for her homeland manifested not only in her artwork, but also crept into her writings:
Pain of Cuba
body I am
my orphanhood I live.

In Cuba when you die
the earth that covers us
speaks

But here,
Covered by the earth whose prisoner I am
I feel death palpitating underneath the earth.

The earth is invigorating
(it gives life) Life becomes
immortal when
it ends.

- Ana Mendieta, 1981

Shortly after receiving her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa, Mendieta moved to New York, where she met and befriended many female artists at the forefront of the feminist movement such as Mary Beth Edelson, Nancy Spero, and Carolee Schneemann. With Edelson's support Mendieta joined Artists In Residence Inc., the first gallery in the United States established solely for women. Mendieta also met her future husband, the Minimalist sculptor Carl Andre, at the gallery. After two years of active involvement in the A.I.R, Mendieta remarked, "American Feminism as it stands is basically a white middle-class movement." Her disenfranchisement with the movement also stemmed from its seeming limitations because although much of Mendieta's work was of a feminist vein, it tended to be of a more inclusive and life affirming variety than she was finding within the collective. Some of her most notable early pieces from college like Untitled (Facial Hair Transplant) (1972) had invited male participation into the feminist perspective as an ally. In 1982, when a dispute arose at A.I.R. over a collaborative piece Mendieta had made with Andre and submitted to the gallery, she resigned altogether from the organization.

A year later, Mendieta moved to Rome as part of the prestigious American Academy residency. While there, Mendieta began to shift away from performance art and started to create sculptures and drawings using natural elements - work for which she was awarded the Rome Prize in 1983. During this period Mendieta and Andre's relationship was on the decline, but in January 1985 they surprised their friends and family with news of a private wedding ceremony in Rome.

Death

A few months later, back in New York, Mendieta died suddenly and tragically by falling 33 floors from the window of the apartment she shared with Andre onto the roof of a deli. The indent her body created upon impact was an awful echo of the artist's fiercely original Siluetas works. In a verdict that divided the art world Andre was acquitted of committing second-degree murder even though neighbors of the couple had heard a woman's screams of "no" and Andre was seen with scratches on his face. Andre was quoted as saying the two had been arguing over the fact that he was becoming more successful than Mendieta, a fact that depressed her enough to commit suicide. Many leapt to defend the sculptor's career from enraged feminist circles, while Mendieta's friends, several of whom had spent time with her shortly before her death, maintained that she was incapable of killing herself. Mendieta's artwork was used in court proceedings to back up the claim that her death had been a suicide, an action Mendieta's loved ones denounced, claiming her "work was about life and power and energy and not about death."

The Legacy of Ana Mendieta

For a long time, Mendieta's highly publicized death eclipsed any attention being paid to her intensely important body of work. A recent surge of interest in her jolting performances, however, has turned a focus onto her work as being an important member of the displaced and abused women canon. Mendieta has inspired a book about her death written by Robert Katz, a feminist protest outside of the Dia Art Foundation's retrospective of Carl Andre replete with chicken blood and guts, and many of her own postmortem retrospectives. She has also influenced numerous modern artists, such as Ana Teresa Fernández, Kate Gilmore, Simone Leigh, Gina Osterloh, Antonia Wright, Nancy Spero and Tania Bruguera.

Mendieta's memory inspired several posthumous homages as well. Bruguera, a Cuban artist born in 1968, went as far as appropriating and restaging many objects and performances of Mendieta's, but re-contextualized in a Cuban setting. Her site-specific piece titled Homenaje a Ana Mendieta (1985-1996) symbolically relocated Mendieta into the history of Cuban culture, metaphorically bringing her back home. Nancy Spero, a longtime friend of Mendieta's, also recreated some of the artist's most iconic works, including Body Tracks for an exhibition at the Whitney Museum Biennial and her own performance Homage to Ana Mendieta (1991). Carolee Schneemann's Hand/Heart for Ana Mendieta (1986), was a multi-media piece based on a dream Schneemann had about Mendieta soon after her death in which Mendieta's hands were falling in empty space and forming hearts drenched in blood. In the performance, Schneemann etched heart-shapes into snow with her bare hands using paint, blood, ashes, and syrup.

Influences and Connections

Useful Resources on Ana Mendieta

Similar Art

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Ana Mendieta focused on the dialogue between her own body and the landscape regarding presence, absence, and the inevitable cycles within nature and life.

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Wangari Muta Maathai was a Kenyan politician and an environmentalist. An environmentalist works to protect the environment. She received the Nobel prize for peace in 2004....

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We want to build the ‘Simone Veil-Pact’ and put gender equality at the heart of the EU.

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Simone Veil ( French: [simɔn vɛj]; née Jacob; 13 July 1927 - 30 June 2017) was a French magistrate and politician who served as Health Minister in several governments and was President of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1982, the first woman to hold that office. As health minister, she is best remembered for advancing women's rights in France. From 1998 to 2007, she was a member of the Constitutional Council, France's highest legal authority.

A Holocaust survivor, of both Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen, she was a firm believer in European integration as a way of guaranteeing peace. She served as president of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, from 2000 to 2007, then subsequently as honorary president. Among many honours, she was made an honorary dame in 1998, was elected to the Académie Française in 2008, and in 2012 received the grand cross of the Légion d'honneur, the highest class of the highest French order of merit.

One of France's most revered figures, Simone Veil and her husband were buried at the Panthéon on 1 July 2018. Her eulogy was given by President Emmanuel Macron.

Early years and family

Simone Jacob was born in Nice in south-east France on 13 July 1927, in an atheist Jewish family. Her father André Jacob was an architect who graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Paris and went on to win the Prix de Rome for Architecture. In 1922 he married Yvonne Steinmetz, who had just passed her Baccalaureate and was about to start studying chemistry. André Jacob insisted that she abandon her studies upon marriage. The family moved from Paris to Nice in 1924, hoping to benefit from construction projects on the Côte d'Azur. Simone was the youngest of four siblings, Madeleine (nicknamed Milou) was born in 1923; Denise in 1924 and Jean in 1925. On her father's side, the family had come from Lorraine, on her mother's from the Rhineland region and from Belgium.

Simone's family was explicitly Jewish but non-practicing. "Being a member of the Jewish community was never a problem. It was proudly claimed by my father, but for cultural reasons, not religious ones," she wrote in her autobiography. "In his eyes, if the Jewish people were to remain the chosen people, it was because they were the people of the Book, the people of thinking and writing."

Deportation

When Germany invaded France and the Vichy regime came to power in June 1940, the family managed to avoid being deported, as Nice had been included in the Italian occupation zone. Asked not to come to school by its superintendent, Simone Jacob had to study at home. As the round-up of Jews intensified, the whole family split up and lived with different friends under false identities. Denise left for Lyon to join the resistance, while 16-year-old Simone kept studying and passed her baccalaureate exam under her real name in March 1944. The next day, as she was on her way out to meet friends and celebrate the end of her secondary education, she was arrested by the Gestapo. On the same day, the rest of the family was also rounded up.

On 7 April 1944, Simone, her mother, and her sisters were sent to the transit camp of Drancy, then on 13 April were deported to Auschwitz in Convoy 71. Simone's brother and father were deported to the Baltic states in Convoy 73, never to be seen again, and thus were assumed to have been murdered. Her sister Denise was deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp, which she survived, and after the end of World War II in Europe was reunited with Simone.

On 15 April 1944, Simone Jacob arrived at Auschwitz. She later wrote that she managed to avoid the gas chamber by lying about her age and was registered for the labour camp. In January 1945, Simone, along with her mother and sister, was sent on a march to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where her mother died of typhus. Madeleine also fell ill but, like Simone, was saved when the camp was liberated on 15 April 1945.

Return to France

Simone Jacob returned to France and started studying law at the University of Paris before going to the Institut d'études politiques, where she met Antoine Veil. The couple married on 26 October 1946, and would go on to have three sons, Jean, Nicolas, and Pierre-François. They moved to Germany, where they lived in the American occupied zone. In 1952, Madeleine Jacob died with her son in a car accident, after visiting Simone in Stuttgart. In 1956, Simone gave up working as a lawyer and instead passed the national examination to become a magistrate.

Political career

Ministry of Justice, 1956-1974

After graduating from the Institut d'études politiques de Paris with a law degree, Veil spent several years practising law. In 1954, she passed the national examination to become a magistrate. She entered the National Penitentiary Administration under the Ministry of Justice, where she held a senior position, being responsible for judicial affairs and improved women's prison conditions and the treatment of incarcerated women. In 1964, she left to become the director of civil affairs, where she improved French women's general rights and status. She successfully achieved the right to dual parental control of family legal matters and adoptive rights for women. In 1970, she became secretary general of the Supreme Magistracy Council (fr:Conseil supérieur de la magistrature).

Minister of Health, 1974-1979

From 1974 to 1979, Veil was a Minister of Health in the governments of prime ministers Jacques Chirac and Raymond Barre: from 28 May 1974 to 29 March 1977, Minister of Health; from 29 March 1977 to 3 April 1978, Minister of Health and Social Security; and from 3 April 1978 to 4 July 1979, Minister of Health and Family.

In 1976, Veil also helped to introduce a ban on smoking in certain public places and worked on the problem of medically underserved rural areas.

European Parliament, 1979-1993

In 1979, Veil was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in the first European parliamentary election. In its first session, the new Parliament elected Veil as its first President, a position she held until 1982. The archives concerning her term as President of the European Parliament are deposited at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence.

In 1981, Veil won the prestigious Charlemagne Prize, an award given to honour the contributions made by individuals to advancing the unity of Europe.

After the end of her term as President, in 1982, she remained a member of the European Parliament. She became Chair of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party until 1989. She was re-elected for the last time in the 1989 election, standing down in 1993.

Between 1984 and 1992, she served on the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and the Committee on Political Affairs. After standing down from these committees, she served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its related Subcommittee on Human Rights. Between 1989 and 1993, she was also a member of Parliament's delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, serving as its vice-chairwoman until 1992.

Return to French Government, 1993-1995

From 31 March 1993 to 16 May 1995, Veil was again a member of the cabinet, serving as Minister of State and Minister of Health, Social Affairs and the city in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Balladur. In the mid-1990s, she worked to help the disabled, HIV-positive patients, and mothers of young children.

Member of the Constitutional Council, 1998

In 1998, she was appointed to the Constitutional Council of France. In 2005, she put herself briefly on leave from the council in order to campaign in favour of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. This action was criticized because it seemed to contradict the legal provisions that members of the council should keep a distance from partisan politics: the independence and impartiality of the council would be jeopardized, critics said, if members could put themselves "on leave" in order to campaign for a project. In response, Veil said that she, the President of the Constitutional Council and colleagues had deliberated on the issue beforehand and they had given her permission to take her leave without having to resign. Being a staunch supporter of the European project, she believed others should not "ignore the historical dimension of European integration".

Later life and death

In 2003, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims. In 2007, Simone Veil supported presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. She was by his side on the day after he received 31 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential elections that year.

Simone Veil was the sixth woman to be elected to the Académie française, in 2008. She joined the Academy's forty "immortals", as the members are informally known, occupying the 13th seat, once the seat of literary figure Jean Racine. Her induction address was given in March 2010 by Jean d'Ormesson. On her sword, given to her as to every other immortal, is engraved her Auschwitz number (number 78651), the motto of the French Republic ( liberté, égalité, fraternité) and the motto of the European Union, Unity in diversity (Unis dans la diversité).

Veil died at home on 30 June 2017, two weeks before her 90th birthday. Her son Jean said at her public ceremony on 5 July, "I forgive you for having poured water over my head", in reference to an event where she had emptied a carafe of water over his head in disgust at what she considered to be his misogynist remarks.

On 5 July 2017, Veil was honoured with a national ceremony and military honours in les Invalides courtyard, after which she was interred next to her husband, who died in 2013, at Montparnasse Cemetery. The ceremony at les Invalides was attended by President Macron, Holocaust survivors, politicians and dignitaries. In his speech during the ceremony, President Macron announced the decision to rebury Veil and her husband in the Panthéon, which was done on 1 July 2018.

National honours

Foreign honours

The following is a list of honours and awards received by Simone Veil.

In 2005 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award in International Cooperation.

In 2007 she was awarded the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe.

In 2008 she won the Charles V Prize, awarded by the Fundación Academia Europea de Yuste in honour of "her acknowledged merits in the struggle for the advancement of women's equality."

In 2010 she received the Coudenhove-Kalergi Badge by the Europa-Union Münster.

2011 Schiller Prize of the City of Marbach

She was a jury member for the Conflict Prevention Prize awarded every year by the Fondation Chirac.

In 2018 she was the subject of a €2 commemorative coin, which design included her deportation registration number.

Honorary degrees

Princeton University (United States), 1975

Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), 1976

Bar-Ilan University (Israel), 1979

University of Cambridge (England), 1980

Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), 1980

Yale University (United States), 1980

University of Edinburgh (Scotland), 1980

Georgetown University (Washington, DC, United States), 1981

University of Urbino (Italy), 1981

University of Sussex (England), 1982

Yeshiva University of New York (United States), 1982

Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), 1984

American University of Paris (France), 1988

Brandeis University (United States), 1989

University of Glasgow (Scotland), 1995

University of Pennsylvania (United States), 1997

University of Cassino and Southern Lazio (Italy), 2006

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), 2010

The Simone Veil Prize

In 2018, the government of France established a prize in memory of Veil to honour people who fight for women's causes. The intent is to draw attention to efforts in promoting women's autonomy, education, participation in leadership roles, and freedom from violence and discrimination. The prize is awarded each year on 8 March, International Women's Day, with €100,000 to support work in the winner's area of concern. On 8 March 2019, the first Simone Veil Prize was awarded to Aissa Doumara Ngatansou, co-founder of the Association for the Elimination of Violence against Women (ALVF) in Cameroon.

In Spanish: Simone Veil para niños

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Simone Veil is arguably the one person most responsible for advancing women's legal rights in France during the twentieth century and now into the twenty-first century. She is certainly the one whose name comes up most often, each time the law that bears her name is mentioned-the law that she proposed and fought for in the French Parliament, the law legalizing abortion that went into effect on January 17, 1975. Today, even if women are not familiar with her numerous accomplishments, they remember her name every time abortion and other contraceptive rights are discussed.

Simone Jacob was born in Nice on July 13, 1927. Her father, André (b. Paris 1890-d. 1944?), earned a degree in architecture from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1913. In 1922 he married Yvonne Steinmetz (b. Paris 1900-d. Bergen-Belsen 1945), who had earned a baccalauréat in science and had intended to study chemistry but abandoned this plan upon marriage. The couple had four children: Madeleine (nicknamed Milou), born in 1923; Denise (b. 1924), Jean (b. 1925) and Simone. They moved to Nice in 1924 to take advantage of construction projects on the Côte d'Azur. Simone was educated at the city's lycée and completed her baccalauréat on March 28, 1944, two days before her arrest by the Germans. She has always feared that taking the test and giving her real name led to the arrest of her entire family. Yvonne, Milou and Simone were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and then to Bergen-Belsen. Only the daughters survived and were liberated on January 27, 1945. Denise, who had entered the French Resistance at the start of the war, was arrested and deported to Ravensbruck as a resistant, not as a Jew. Among the first to be liberated, she reached Paris by May 1, 1945.

As for André, he was deported, together with Jean, on May 15, 1944, in Convoy 73, which comprised 878 Jewish males who were taken from Paris-Bobigny to Reval, Estonia (present-day Tallin), with a stop in Kovno, Lithuania. Of these, only seventeen survived. No researchers have been able to determine what happened to André and Jean. One of the saddest details of André's fate is that he fought in World War I and was a staunch supporter of the French Republic, believing that patriotism and secularity were the most essential factors for progress for France. Simone has said that he raised his children to be proud of their nationality above all else; he believed that his fellow countrymen would never capitulate to Nazi demands to deport Jews.

In recent documentaries and interviews, Veil has talked about the humiliation and agony of those days, of her mother's courage and of her continuing grief over her mother's absence. Having succumbed to typhus in Bergen-Belsen, her mother was and has remained Veil's major role model. In her remarks following the screening of a documentary on her life's work at the 2005 International Women's Film Festival in Créteil, Veil displayed her characteristic charisma as she addressed the audience of various ages and backgrounds. Along with her work and achievements, the topic of the session was also "What future for feminism and women's rights in France?" In her speech, Veil first paid tribute to her mother, describing her bravery at all times and especially during the internment in Auschwitz. If death was a relief to her personally due to mental and physical exhaustion, she instilled passion and the will to survive into her daughters. When Veil is asked how she found the stamina to withstand the onslaught of vitriolic attacks during the debate on abortion, she repeats that she owes it all to her mother. Even today, some sixty years after her death, Veil's mother remains ever-present for her, with her: "I'm often asked what gave me the strength and will to continue the fight. I believe deeply that it was my mother; she has never stopped being present to me, next to me" (Ruth Hottell's translation).

Milou's sudden death in an automobile accident in 1952 was a powerful blow to Simone; because they had suffered through, and survived, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen together, then struggled through the unexpectedly difficult re-entry into French society, Milou was the only person with whom Simone could feel truly compatible and look to for support in difficult times-in her marriage, her career and her life in general.

Returning to studies after the war, Simone gained a diploma in law and political science, then decided to sit for the extremely competitive national examination to become a magistrate, which she passed in 1954. In October 1946 she married Antoine Veil (b. Blâmont, Meurthe-et-Moselle, 1926), who completed the program at the prestigious École Nationale d'Administration, which prepares students for France's highest political positions. After a successful career in public administration, he moved to private enterprise. The Veils had three sons: Jean (b. 1947), Nicolas (b. 1948) and Pierre-François (b. 1954).

Even with her mother's memory and her family's support (as well as that of then President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had just appointed her as Minister of Health), the days during the abortion debate in 1974 were immeasurably difficult. Much of the aggression was aimed personally at Veil and her family and smacked of antisemitism; it came from all sides, from members of the Parliament on the floor to anonymous letters to her office and her home. The most abhorrent remarks even compared the legalization of abortion to the Holocaust. The anonymous attacks included swastikas painted on her car and the elevator in her building and letters condemning her children to hell. At about the same time, Parliament also voted to ban laboratory experiments on animals for commercial purposes; during debate on that issue, certain members openly likened what they called the genocide of animals to the "genocide" of babies and to the genocide of Auschwitz. The worst comment she remembers from the time was one made by Jean-Marie Daillet, a député in Parliament, who asked if she would agree to the idea of throwing embryos into crematorium ovens. However, at the same time, and in the years since, many others have paid tribute to her, approaching her even in the street to thank her and tell her she will never be forgotten for all she has done. She cites an example of a man who came up to her in a shop near her home and said that "her" law has also meant great progress for men.

As crucial as the Loi Veil is, it would be a mistake to overlook Veil's other contributions to French society, particularly to those with no other champions for their cause. From 1946 to 1974 she held various positions through which she was able to further women's rights. For example, from 1957 to 1964, when she functioned as a penitentiary administrator, she noticed that, although the number of women prisoners was far lower than that of men and that they presented no significant discipline problems, the conditions of their incarceration were far more repressive. She therefore acted to improve the way they were treated. During the Algerian war, she succeeded in regrouping Algerian women prisoners together and enabling them to pursue an education. Her next appointment was as the director of civil affairs, a position in which she had a direct impact on French women's general rights and status. Among her achievements in this post were dual parental control of family legal matters, rights for mothers and their children by undeclared fathers and adoption rights for women. Next, at the Ministry of Health (1975 to 1979), she fought to end various forms of discrimination against women. Besides the highly visible Loi Veil, she strove in other ways to help women care for their families; for example, she was able to expand health coverage, monthly stipends for child care, maternity benefits, etc.

Having been the first female minister in the French government, Veil followed with a number of other "firsts." She left the health ministry in 1979 to run in the first direct-suffrage European parliamentary elections and became the first woman president of the European Parliament (with a set term of three years). She was elected to the parliament for further terms: as representative in 1984 and 1989 and, since 1984, also as its deputy president. From 1993 to 1995, she returned to the French government as under-secretary ( Ministre d'état) of Social Affairs, Health and Urban Issues. From 1997 to 1998 she was president of the High Council for Integration. In March 1998 she was named to the Conseil Constitutionnel (the highest legal authority in France and the judicial component in the governmental system of checks and balances, along with the executive and legislative branches) with her term due to expire in March 2007.

In thinking back upon her career, Veil underscores the personal symbolic aspect of having been first at so many things; in particular, she mentions the importance of a Holocaust survivor presiding over the European Parliament. In hypothesizing her parents' possible reactions, she is not certain her father would even have approved of the European Union since he remained very anti-German throughout his life. On the other hand, she feels certain her mother would have wished for the reconciliation and would have been very happy to see her daughter participate in it.

Along with her professional positions and accomplishments, Veil has been active in various groups and received high honors for her dedication. Among other activities, she is the president of the Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah and honorary president of the Foundation of Science and Culture in Europe. She has received awards from the Klein Foundation (Philadelphia, 1991), The Truman Award for Peace (Jerusalem, 1991), the Giulietta Award (Verona, 1991), the Atlantida Award (Barcelona, 1991), the Gold Medal from the Stresemann Association (Mayence, 1993), the Obiettivo Europa Award (Milan, 1993), the Henrietta Szold Award (Miami, 1996) and the Gold Medal for furthering the Health of All Peoples from the World Health Organization (1997). She has been appointed both Chevalier de l'ordre national du Mérite and Grand Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Among the numerous universities that have bestowed an honorary degree on her are Princeton (1975), the Weizmann Institute (1976), Bar Ilan University (1980), Cambridge (1980), Yale (1980), Georgetown (1981), Yeshiva University (1982), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1986), Brandeis (1989) and the University of Pennsylvania (1997).

When asked if she is a feminist, Veil says she does not consider herself a militant per se, mainly because she weighs all sides of an issue before acting whereas militancy requires serving a cause while glossing over its inconsistencies. But she does feel like a feminist in the sense of solidarity with women; she feels closer to women and influenced by them, no doubt as a result of her close relationship with her mother. Also, she feels more at ease with women, perhaps due to her internment. In the camp, she says, women helped each other in a generous, unselfish way, which was not the case with men. And she adds that the capacity for resistance of the so-called weaker sex was much greater. (See Les hommes aussi s'en souviennent.) Veil's own capacity for resistance helped her survive the camp; her unselfish desire to help others has brought better conditions for women and others who suffered persecution or disenfranchisement. Her career inspires awe at the extent of her contributions, especially given the obstacles she encountered and overcame, and she is remarkable for the openness, modesty and humility with which she fields questions and ponders the future of women in France, in Europe and in the world.

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Holocaust survivor Simone Veil was a pioneer in the French government and the European Union. As Minister of Health, she presented and successfully argued the law decriminalizing abortion in France. She was the first woman to preside over the European Parliament and the fifth woman to be interred in the Panthéon.

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"In the human heart there is an urge to destroy all. To destroy is to affirm one's existence in the face of and against everything." Artsper introduces you to 10 things you should know about revolutionary artist, Niki Saint Phalle.

Key Moments in Saint Phalle's Career :

1930: Niki de Saint Phalle, born Catherine Marie-Agnes Fal de Saint Phalle is born.

1948-1950: Works as a model for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and other French and American magazines

1950: Produces her first oils and gouaches.

1952: Has a nervous breakdown and discovers art as the cure.

1956: First solo exhibition of paintings in St. Gallen, Switzerland

1961: Produces her famous Tirs paintings.

1961: Invited to join Nouveau Réalisme

1967: Works with Tinguely on Le Paradis Fantastique, a commission from the French government for the French Pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal.

1975: Develops ideas for a sculpture garden in Tuscany.

1991: Awarded the 12 Praemium Imperial Prize, an award considered to be the equivalent to the Nobel Prize in the art world.

2002: Niki de Saint Phalle dies at the age of 71

1. Niki isn't her real name

Niki Saint Phalle photographed by Horst P. Horst, Vogue, (1950)

Born in 1930, Niki de Saint Phalle was originally named Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle. Her mother, Jeanne-Jacqueline Harper, was American and her father, André Marie Fal, was French.

2. She carried a huge secret

For most of her life, Saint Phalle carried a traumatising secret; she was raped by her father at just eleven years old. This horrific event destroyed all innocence harvested by the young artist, causing her to become an unstable and disturbed young woman. Despite her life being tainted by this abysmal secret, she only revealed it her book, Mon Secret (My Secret), in 1994 at the age of sixty-four.

3. Saint Phalle was a beautiful woman

In 1948, the artist was scouted by a modeling agency at the tender age of 17. "One day I was on my way to a dance, and I met a man who owned a modeling agency. He asked me if I'd like to become a model and I said yes." She was heavily encouraged by painter, Hugh Weis, and would go on to pose for some of the biggest magazines in fashion. Until the age of 25, Saint Phalle braced the covers of Vogue, Elle and Life, eventually abandoning modeling to focus on her artistic career.

4. Art saved her from depression

After travelling between France and the United States, the artist suffered a severe nervous breakdown. In 1953, at just 22, she was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Nice where she received memory-altering electroshock treatment. Heavily encouraged by psychiatrists, Saint Phalle devoted herself to art: "I started painting in the madhouse, where I learnt how to translate emotions, fear, violence, hope and joy into painting. It was through creation that I discovered the sombre depths of depression, and how to overcome it." It was during this tumultuous period that Saint Phalle launched her career as an artist; reconnecting with herself and overcoming her mental trauma through painting and sculpture.

5. Her Tirs paintings made her famous

Her first Les Tirs (the shots) exhibition took place in 1961, during which she fired shots of paint at her canvas, creating emotionally-charged explosions of colour. Saint Phalle's Les Tirs series not only made her famous worldwide, but also provided her with a vital outlet for her inner demons. Shooting at her canvas was for Saint Phalle a way to shoot at her father, society and all the difficulties she had encountered during her life.

6. Niki de Saint Phalle was a committed activist

Throughout her career, the artist was committed to campaigning against racial segregation, social injustices, AIDS and, above all, women's lack of rights. Later in her career, Saint Phalle discovered "a deeper, more feminine world." As a result, her art became an ode to femininity, both in sensual and empowering ways; criticizing conservative and traditional feminine values.

7. She is known for her Nanas

In 1965, she created her first Nanas, a slightly derogative French term for a young girl. These were large-scale sculptures inspired by the artist's close friend, Clarice Rivers, who was pregnant at the time.

8. She created a film

Niki de Saint Phalle in her film Daddy (1972)

An artist of many talents, Saint Phalle was simultaneously a painter, sculptor and film director. Her film Daddy, was pieced together using autobiographical materials that heavily criticized her family. In the film, Saint Phalle is seen attacking a figure reminiscent of her father; providing a channel for the anger and trauma experienced in childhood. She collaborated with Peter Whitehead, an influential filmmaker known for his forward thinking and sexually liberating films.

9. Niki de Saint Phalle created her own sculpture park

Inspired by Gaudi's Parc Güell in Barcelona, the artist created Le Jardin des Tarots in Capalbio, Tuscany. Her monumental structures were inspired by Tarot cards, resulting in huge ceramic, mosaic and glass figures. Some of the colourful sculptures are up to fifteen metres high and are habitable; providing Saint Phalle with her very own artist residency during the construction of the park.

10. She suffered from chronic respiratory failure

Niki de Saint-Phalle with one of her Nanas in 1967

For years, Saint Phalle worked with various materials that violated health and safety rules, inhaling incredibly toxic fumes on a daily basis. As a result, she suffered from inflamed lungs, which were gradually destroyed by the polyester dust produced from her sculptures. Her art simultaneously saved her and killed her; dying from respiratory failure in 2002, at the age of 71.

Important Exhibitions:

1956: First solo exhibition of paintings in St. Gallen, Switzerland

1959: Included in the group exhibition Comparison: Peinture-Sculpture at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

1961: First solo exhibition in paris at Galerie J with assemblages, tirs and a public shooting area.

1967: First retrospective Les Nanas au Pouvoir is held at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

1980: First retrospective to her graphic work opens at the Ulm Museum.

1992: The Kunst und Ausstellungshalle, Bonn organizes a large retrospective.

2002: The exhibition From Niki Matthews to Niki de Saint Phalle opens at The Sprengel Museum.

If you want to find out more about Niki de Saint Phalle's creative process...

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10 Things To Know About Niki de Saint Phalle - Artsper Magazine

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Known for her colourful sculptures of women, Niki de Saint Phalle is a well-known French artist. Here are 10 things facts about her.

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Audre Lorde ( born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 - November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist.

Her poems and prose largely deal with issues related to civil rights, feminism, illness and disability, and the exploration of black female identity.

Lorde was born in New York City on February 18, 1934 to Frederick Byron Lorde (known as Byron) and Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde. Lorde's mother was of mixed ancestry but could pass for Spanish, which was a source of pride for her family. Lorde's father was darker than the Belmar family liked, and they only allowed the couple to marry because of Byron's charm, ambition, and persistence.

The new family settled in Harlem. Lorde was almost blind. The youngest of three daughters (her two older sisters were named Phyllis and Helen), she grew up hearing her mother's stories about the West Indies. At the age of four, she learned to talk while she learned to read, and her mother taught her to write at around the same time.

As a child, Lorde struggled with communication, and came to appreciate the power of poetry as a form of expression. In fact, she describes herself as thinking in poetry. She also memorized a great deal of poetry, and would use it to communicate. Around the age of twelve, she began writing her own poetry and connecting with others at her school who were considered "outcasts", as she felt she was.

Raised Catholic, Lorde attended parochial schools before moving on to Hunter College High School, a secondary school for intellectually gifted students. She graduated in 1951.

While attending Hunter, Lorde published her first poem in Seventeen magazine. Also in high school, Lorde participated in poetry workshops sponsored by the Harlem Writers Guild.

In 1954, she spent a pivotal year as a student at the National University of Mexico. During this time, she confirmed her identity on personal and artistic levels as both a lesbian and a poet. On her return to New York, Lorde attended Hunter College, and graduated in the class of 1959. While there, she worked as a librarian, continued writing. She furthered her education at Columbia University, earning a master's degree in library science in 1961. During this period, she worked as a public librarian in nearby Mount Vernon, New York.

In 1968 Lorde was writer-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. Lorde's time at Tougaloo College, like her year at the National University of Mexico, was a formative experience for her as an artist. She led workshops with her young, black undergraduate students, many of whom were eager to discuss the civil rights issues of that time. Her book of poems, Cables to Rage, came out of her time and experiences at Tougaloo.

From 1972 to 1987, Lorde resided on Staten Island. During that time, in addition to writing and teaching she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.

In 1977, Lorde became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media.

Lorde taught in the Education Department at Lehman College from 1969 to 1970, then as a professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (part of the City University of New York, CUNY) from 1970 to 1981. There, she fought for the creation of a black studies department. In 1981, she went on to teach at her alma mater, Hunter College (also CUNY), as the distinguished Thomas Hunter chair.

In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherríe Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of color. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.

In 1981, Lorde was among the founders of the Women's Coalition of St. Croix. In the late 1980s, she also helped establish Sisterhood in Support of Sisters (SISA) in South Africa to benefit black women who were affected by apartheid and other forms of injustice.

In 1985, Audre Lorde was a part of a delegation of black women writers who had been invited to Cuba. The trip was sponsored by The Black Scholar and the Union of Cuban Writers. She embraced the shared sisterhood as black women writers. They visited Cuban poets Nancy Morejon and Nicolas Guillen.

The Berlin years

In 1984, Lorde started a visiting professorship in West Berlin at the Free University of Berlin. She was invited by FU lecturer Dagmar Schultz who had met her at the UN "World Women's Conference" in Copenhagen in 1980. During her time in Germany, Lorde became an influential part of the then-nascent Afro-German movement. Together with a group of black women activists in Berlin, Audre Lorde coined the term "Afro-German" in 1984 and, consequently, gave rise to the Black movement in Germany. During her many trips to Germany, Lorde became a mentor to a number of women, including May Ayim, Ika Hügel-Marshall, and Helga Emde. Instead of fighting systemic issues through violence, Lorde thought that language was a powerful form of resistance and encouraged the women of Germany to speak up instead of fighting back. Her impact on Germany reached more than just Afro-German women; Lorde helped increase awareness of intersectionality across racial and ethnic lines.

Lorde's impact on the Afro-German movement was the focus of the 2012 documentary by Dagmar Schultz. Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years 1984-1992 was accepted by the Berlin Film Festival, Berlinale, and had its World Premiere at the 62nd Annual Festival in 2012. The film has gone on to film festivals around the world, and continued to be viewed at festivals until 2018. The documentary has received seven awards, including Winner of the Best Documentary Audience Award 2014 at the 15th Reelout Queer Film + Video Festival, the Gold Award for Best Documentary at the International Film Festival for Women, Social Issues, and Zero Discrimination, and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Barcelona International LGBT Film Festival. Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years revealed the previous lack of recognition that Lorde received for her contributions towards the theories of intersectionality.

Early works

Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s - in Langston Hughes' 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was also politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements.

In 1968, Lorde published The First Cities, her first volume of poems. It was edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. The First Cities has been described as a "quiet, introspective book", and Dudley Randall, a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that Lorde "does not wave a black flag, but her Blackness is there, implicit, in the bone".

Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure as poet-in-residence at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addressed themes of love, betrayal, childbirth, and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde openly confirms her homosexuality for the first time in her writing: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all."

Nominated for the National Book Award for poetry in 1973, From a Land Where Other People Live (Broadside Press) shows Lorde's personal struggles with identity and anger at social injustice. The volume deals with themes of anger, loneliness, and injustice, as well as what it means to be a black woman, mother, friend, and lover.

1974 saw the release of New York Head Shop and Museum, which gives a picture of Lorde's New York through the lenses of both the civil rights movement and her own restricted childhood: stricken with poverty and neglect and, in Lorde's opinion, in need of political action.

Wider recognition

The release of Coal in 1976 established Lorde as an influential voice in the Black Arts Movement and introduced her to a wider audience. The volume includes poems from both The First Cities and Cables to Rage. Lorde followed Coal up with Between Our Selves (also in 1976) and Hanging Fire (1978).

In Lorde's volume The Black Unicorn (1978), she describes her identity within the mythos of African female deities of creation, fertility, and warrior strength.

Lorde's poetry became more open and personal as she grew older. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, Lorde states, "Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought... As they become known to and accepted by us, our feelings and the honest exploration of them become sanctuaries and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring ideas." Sister Outsider also elaborates Lorde's challenge to European-American traditions.

Her writings are based on the "theory of difference", the idea that the binary opposition between men and women is overly simplistic; although feminists have found it necessary to present the illusion of a solid, unified whole, the category of women itself is full of subdivisions.

Lorde identified issues of race, class, age and ageism, chronic illness and disability; the latter becoming more prominent in her later years as she lived with cancer. She wrote of all of these factors as fundamental to her experience of being a woman. She argued that, although differences in gender have received all the focus, it is essential that these other differences are also recognized and addressed.

Personal life

In 1962, Lorde married attorney Edwin Rollins, who was a white, gay man. She and Rollins divorced in 1970 after having two children, Elizabeth and Jonathan. In 1966, Lorde became head librarian at Town School Library in New York City, where she remained until 1968.

During her time in Mississippi in 1968, she met Frances Clayton, a white professor of psychology who became her romantic partner until 1989. Their relationship continued for the remainder of Lorde's life.

Lorde was briefly romantically involved with the sculptor and painter Mildred Thompson after meeting her in Nigeria at the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77). The two were involved during the time that Thompson lived in Washington, D.C.

Lorde and her life partner, black feminist Dr. Gloria Joseph, resided together on Joseph's native land of St. Croix. Lorde and Joseph had been seeing each other since 1981, and after Lorde's liver cancer diagnosis, she officially left Clayton for Joseph, moving to St. Croix in 1986. The couple remained together until Lorde's death. Together they founded several organizations such as the Che Lumumba School for Truth, Women's Coalition of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa, and Doc Loc Apiary.

From 1991 until her death, she was the New York State Poet laureate. In 1992, she received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle. In 2001, Publishing Triangle instituted the Audre Lorde Award to honour works of lesbian poetry.

Lorde died of breast cancer at the age of 58 on November 17, 1992, in St. Croix, where she had been living with Gloria Joseph. In an African naming ceremony before her death, she took the name Gamba Adisa, which means "Warrior: She Who Makes Her Meaning Known".

The Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, an organization in New York City named for Michael Callen and Lorde, is dedicated to providing medical health care to the city's LGBT population without regard to ability to pay. Callen-Lorde is the only primary care center in New York City created specifically to serve the LGBT community.

The Audre Lorde Project, founded in 1994, is a Brooklyn-based organization for LGBT people of color. The organization concentrates on community organizing and radical nonviolent activism around progressive issues within New York City, especially relating to LGBT communities, AIDS and HIV activism, pro-immigrant activism, prison reform, and organizing among youth of color.

In June 2019, Lorde was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn.

The archives of Audre Lorde are located across various repositories in the United States and Germany. The Audre Lorde Papers are held at Spelman College Archives in Atlanta. Held at John F. Kennedy Institute of North American Studies at Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität), the Audre Lorde Archive holds correspondence and teaching materials related to Lorde's teaching and visits to Freie University from 1984 to 1992. The Audre Lorde collection at Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York contains audio recordings related to the March on Washington on October 14, 1979, which dealt with the civil rights of the gay and lesbian community as well as poetry readings and speeches.

Interesting facts about Audre Lorde

Lorde was nearsighted to the point of being legally blind.

She wrote her first poem when she was in eighth grade.

Born as Audrey Geraldine Lorde, she chose to drop the "y" from her first name while still a child, explaining that she was more interested in the artistic symmetry of the "e"-endings in the two side-by-side names "Audre Lorde" than in spelling her name the way her parents had intended.

In 2014 Lorde was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display in Chicago, Illinois, that celebrates LGBT history and people.

The Audre Lorde Award is an annual literary award presented by Publishing Triangle to honor works of lesbian poetry, first presented in 2001.

In June 2019, Lorde's residence in Staten Island was given landmark designation by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.

For their first match of March 2019, the women of the United States women's national soccer team each wore a jersey with the name of a woman they were honoring on the back; Megan Rapinoe chose the name of Lorde.

In January 2021, Audre was named an official "Broad You Should Know" on the podcast Broads You Should Know.

On February 18, 2021, Google celebrated her 87th birthday with a Google Doodle.

On April 29, 2022, the International Astronomical Union approved the name Lorde for a crater on Mercury.

On May 10, 2022, 68th Street and Lexington Avenue by Hunter College was renamed "Audre Lorde Way."

Audre Lorde quotes

"Your silence will not protect you."

"When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."

"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."

"There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives."

"Pain is important: how we evade it, how we succumb to it, how we deal with it, how we transcend it."

"Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge."

"Without community, there is no liberation."

Poetry Books

Prose Books

Biographical films

A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde (1995). Documentary by Michelle Parkeson.

The Edge of Each Other's Battles: The Vision of Audre Lorde (2002). Documentary by Jennifer Abod.

Audre Lorde - The Berlin Years 1984 to 1992 (2012). Documentary by Dagmar Schultz.

In Spanish: Audre Lorde para niños

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Life Story: Audre Lorde - Women & the American Story

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The story of a poet who used her pen to expose injustices and fight for equality.

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Educational Videos for Students (Cartoons on Bullying, Leadership & More)

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Who is Audre Lorde? | Redefining Feminism

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A new HBO documentary brings into focus the political activism of Jane Fonda, a woman who has succeeded many times in reinventing her life.

Jane Fonda in Five Acts, which premieres on HBO on Sept. 24, features Fonda, now 80, as she grows from a young actor on the fringes of 1960s intellectual and social movements, to a political activist in her own right, with the power to spark real anger even in the President of the United States himself. (Richard Nixon's taped voice, disparaging Fonda, opens the movie.) The first four acts of the documentary are named for the men who exerted the most influence on Fonda's life, starting with her father Henry Fonda and continuing through her three husbands: Roger Vadim, Tom Hayden and Ted Turner. The last act is named for Fonda.

From opposing the Vietnam War in the 1970s to being a vocal opponent of President Trump's, Fonda has participated in some of the biggest activist movements of the last half-century of American history. And though she is best known for her controversial connection with the Vietnam War, she has extended her efforts to several other movements, including the fights for civil, women's and environmental rights.

Here's a look back at the actor's life as activist:

Jane Fonda in the '60s and '70s

Fonda was pregnant and living in France in 1968, where she at first stayed on the outskirts of rising social and political movements. But the influx of news about the war in Vietnam and civil rights demonstrations in the U.S. inspired her to return home and dive into activism.

During this period, Fonda drew government surveillance for her support of the Black Panthers through fundraisers in her home. She also campaigned on behalf of revolutionaries such as Angela Davis, whom she visited in prison in 1971.

Fonda also lent her efforts to a variety of Native American causes. When activist Bernie Whitebear led a Native group to occupy Fort Lawton in Seattle in response to the declining state of reservations in 1970, Fonda showed up and helped him to bargain for their rights. She showed solidarity when young Native Americans occupied Alcatraz in San Francisco from 1969 to 1971 by visiting the protestors.

It was also around that time that Fonda became involved in the movement to end the war in Vietnam. By 1970, she had already been arrested once on suspicion of drug trafficking after returning to the U.S. from an anti-war speaking tour in Canada - her mugshot, in which she raises a fist, has become an iconic symbol for would-be renegades.

This movement would bring Fonda her most famous, and infamous, moment as an activist.

Jane Fonda and the Vietnam War

In 1972, Fonda toured North Vietnam, where she spoke against U.S. military policy in the country. Through a series of radio broadcasts, Fonda appealed directly to American troops, asking them to consider their roles in the war. A recording of one of her messages played in the documentary reveals she begged military pilots to seriously think about their orders, claiming that the U.S. was intentionally targeting the dike system in North Vietnam, a strategy that would have created a risk of flooding and famine for the residents there.

"If they told you the truth, of what your targets really are," she said, "you wouldn't fight, you wouldn't kill. You were not born and brought up by your mothers to be killers. We must all try very, very hard to remain human beings."

Washington disputed the charges and argued that it was already American policy to avoid harming civilians as much as possible, and such messages to the military did not win Fonda any friends in the government back home. But what shot her to infamy was an image that dogs her even now. During the tour, a photo was taken of Fonda sitting on an anti-aircraft gun in Hanoi, making it look as though she were aiming at American planes.

The waves of outrage the photo prompted have never fully subsided. She earned the nickname "Hanoi Jane," and lawmakers at the time suggested her actions were treasonous and worthy of prosecution. To this day, the photo is brought up as a sign of Fonda's perceived lack of patriotism - amid a dispute between Fonda and Megan Kelly earlier this year, the TV host attacked the actor for her past as a Vietnam War protester, saying she treated the military badly during the war.

Protesters carrying signs protesting Jane Fonda's visit to Hanoi outside Howard Johnson's Hotel in Detroit during the time of the "Winter Soldier Investigation," Detroit, 1971. Bill Ray-Getty Images

Fonda has repeatedly apologized for the photo. In her 2005 book, My Life So Far, she takes responsibility for what happened, saying she didn't think about where she was sitting and how it would look until after the picture had already been taken. "It was my mistake, and I have paid and continue to pay a heavy price for it," she writes.

But the notorious picture was only one part of the work Fonda did for the anti-war cause. Footage in the documentary shows her meeting with prisoners of war, leading protests and speaking out against Nixon.

"It was a very tumultuous and polarized time," she says. "There was a lot of anger and blame. For myself, I didn't always know how to channel my anger in constructive ways."

The Actor's Activism

Apart from doing the work of a traditional protester, Fonda used her position as a performer to channel her rage into film during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Inspired by meeting Ron Kovic, a Vietnam War veteran who later became an anti-war crusader, and her work with other war veterans, Fonda made the movie Coming Home, about a woman, a wounded war veteran she meets and her husband, who is in the Marines.

"The studios didn't want to make a film about the war," she says in the documentary. "It took six years until we finally could get it made."

Fonda was also behind the film China Syndrome, in which she played a reporter who discovers that a nuclear power plant is masking safety hazards. Shortly after the film was released in 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred, showing the real-world implications of the subject of the film. Fonda further attempted to affect change with the movie 9 to 5, which she says she made for working women everywhere.

"We dealt with all the issues - sexual harassment, unequal pay, the importance of flex hours, the importance of childcare," Fonda says in the documentary.

Even Fonda's love of exercise made it into her activism. By the early 1980s, she was deep in the throes of organizing, along with her then-husband Tom Hayden, a prominent writer and activist. Hayden, who was trying to win a local election, had founded a leftist organization, the Campaign for Economic Democracy, and it needed money. Thus was born Jane Fonda's Workout, a massively successful home video that essentially funded Hayden's organization.

Jane Fonda's Recent Activism

In 2016, as thousands of people gathered for months to protest the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock, Fonda spent her Thanksgiving alongside the protesters. In a piece for TIME, she spoke of how that recent protest is a reminder that activism takes place within the context of work that has come before:

It has been 45 years since the Occupation of Alcatraz. At Standing Rock we are witnessing the flowering of the seeds that were planted there and, again, it is the youth who seem to be leading the way.

Two-time Academy Award winner Jane Fonda and Gasland Film director Josh Fox joined in the evening of Jan. 24, 2017, at Columbus Circle in New York City for a rally and march to Trump Tower in a massive peaceful protest after Trump signs orders to advance Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines. Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty Images

While Fonda's acting career has taken several turns throughout her life, her desire to effect change has remained. As her son, Troy Garity, says in the documentary's final act: "She won't stop. She's on a mission. This intent to do well keeps her demons at bay."

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A Brief History of Jane Fonda's Activism

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As a new documentary about her life shows, Fonda has participated in some of the biggest activist movements of recent American history.

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Looking at Jane Fonda's Decades of Activism and Protest - Jane Fonda Protest Arrest Climat

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On the living legend's 85th birthday, L'OFFICIEL explores the controversial life of the actress and activist and her legacy of protest.

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Learn Niki de Saint Phalle facts for kids

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Le sketchnote ou la prise de notes visuelles

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Niki de Saint Phalle: The Life, Art and Influences

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James Barry, médecin militaire travestie

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James Barry est un chirurgien militaire brillant, anti-esclavagiste, colérique et héroïque. Il a réformé les normes médicales sur trois continents, il a dirigé les hôpitaux du Canada et a même réalisé la 1e césarienne des colonies. À sa mort, sa servante découvre qu’il s’agissait… d’une femme.

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L'effet Matilda

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Les découvertes oubliées des femmes scientifiques, ou l'effet Matilda

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Marie Curie (November 7, 1867 - July 4, 1934) was a Polish physicist, chemist, and feminist. She researched radioactivity. She was the first woman professor at the University of Paris. She was also the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. One of her Nobel Prizes was in physics in 1903 and the other was in chemistry in 1911. Her Nobel Prize in physics was for her research on uncontrolled radiation, which was discovered by Henri Becquerel.

She died because of too much exposure to radiation in her laboratory. She had no protection against the effects of radiation.

Marie Sklodowska Curie, originally Maria, was born on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. She lived there until she was 22. Marie Curie was the fifth child in her family. Marie, whose parents were both teachers, was quite intelligent. She did, however, have a difficult childhood. Her older sister, Zofia, died of typhus in 1876 and her mother died two years later when Marie was ten.

As a young girl, Marie was interested in physics. She graduated at fifteen at the top of her high school class. Marie became a teacher so she could earn money to go to school in Paris, France. She also went to an unaccredited college in Poland. Eventually, she left Poland and went to France, living with her sister and brother-in-law, under the name "Marie." In Paris, she earned higher degrees and did important scientific work. Later, she founded the Curie Institutes in Paris and Warsaw.

Personal life

Even though Curie became a French citizen, she never lost her Polish identity. She graduated first in her class at the Univeristy of Paris in 1893. One year later, she earned a master's degree in mathematics. Later, she met her husband, Pierre Curie, at the Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry. One year later, they were married. They also started to work together on scientific discoveries. Marie and Pierre had their first daughter, Irene, in 1897. Their second daughter, Eve, was born in 1904. Pierre died on April 19, 1906, after he was hit by a horse-drawn wagon.

Physicist career

Marie and her husband created a theory of radioactivity (a term made by her and her husband). They found different ways to separate radioactive isotopes and discovered two new elements: polonium and radium. The term polonium was named after Poland, her home country.

In 1898, the Curies and Gustave Bemont discovered radium, one of the most radioactive and dangerous metals, when using a uranium ore. The ore gave off a lot of radiation, and the group decided that it was coming from more than uranium. Then, they found radium in the uranium.

Curie used her studies in radioactivity to develop a new treatment for cancer. These treatments used radioactive isotopes. Doctors today still use radiation therapy to treat certain cancers. During World War I, Curie used her research to develop portable x-ray machines, called " Petite Curies", to help soldiers on the battlefield.

Nobel Prizes

In December 1903 the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and Henri Becquerel the Nobel Prize in Physics, "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel." At first the committee had intended to honour only Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, but a committee member and advocate for women scientists, Swedish mathematician Magnus Gösta Mittag-Leffler, alerted Pierre to the situation, and after his complaint, Marie's name was added to the nomination. Marie Curie was the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize.

Curie and her husband declined to go to Stockholm to receive the prize in person; they were too busy with their work, and Pierre Curie, who disliked public ceremonies, was feeling increasingly ill. As Nobel laureates were required to deliver a lecture, the Curies finally undertook the trip in 1905. The award money allowed the Curies to hire their first laboratory assistant.

Following the award of the Nobel Prize, the University of Paris gave Pierre Curie a professorship and the chair of physics, although the Curies still did not have a proper laboratory. Upon Pierre Curie's complaint, the University of Paris agreed to furnish a new laboratory, but it would not be ready until 1906.

Fund raising

After World War I, Marie started to raise money for radiation research. She was invited to tour the United States to recommend and speed up her project of studying radiation. She sailed for the United States in 1921. She collected enough money and equipment for a new laboratory. Marie then started speaking at meetings to raise more money and became a celebrity. She also supported world peace by serving on the council of the League of Nations.

Near the 1920s, Curie and many of her colleagues began to suffer from symptoms of cancer. Curie began to lose her sight, and cataract surgeries did not help. Curie knew that the element ( radium) she discovered might have been causing the symptoms, but she did not want to admit it to herself or others.

In the early 1930s, Curie's health started to get worse quickly. Doctors diagnosed her with pernicious anemia. Pernicious anemia is a blood anemia that happens when someone is exposed to too much radiation. The doctors didn't tell the public or Curie herself what was going on.

On July 4, 1934, at 66 years old, she died in a sanatorium, a medical facility for long-term illness, in the French Alps. She was then buried next to her husband in Sceaux, France.

Marie Curie was known for her honesty and moderate lifestyle. Her contributions to science have changed the world as we know it today. She is still one of only four people (along with Linus Pauling, John Bardeen, and Frederick Sanger) to earn two Nobel Prizes.

Marie Curie quotes

"Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas."

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement."

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."

"I am among those who think that science has great beauty."

"You must never be fearful of what you are doing when it is right."

"Radium is not to enrich any one. It is an element; it is for all people."

"First principle: never to let one's self be beaten down by persons or by events."

Interesting Facts about Marie Curie

Marie attended Flying University, a college that (illegally) welcomed female students and had to change locations several times to "hide" from authorities.

She was the first woman in Paris to earn her doctorate degree.

Much of her lab work was done in her shed. A chemist named Wilhelm Ostwald described it as "a cross between a stable and a potato shed."

Five people in Marie's family accepted a Nobel Prize.

Marie's notebooks are now stored in lead-lined boxes because they are still radioactive.

Marie invented portable x-ray machines to help soldiers during World War I. The machines were called "petite Curies" (little Curies).

Commemoration and cultural depictions

As one of the most famous scientists in history, Marie Curie has become an icon in the scientific world and has received tributes from across the globe, even in the realm of pop culture. She also received many honorary degrees from universities across the world.

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences. Awards that she received include:

Entities that have been named after Marie Curie include:

The curie (symbol Ci), a unit of radioactivity, is named in honour of her and Pierre Curie (although the commission which agreed on the name never clearly stated whether the standard was named after Pierre, Marie, or both).

The element with atomic number 96 was named curium (symbol Cm).

Three radioactive minerals are also named after the Curies: curite, sklodowskite, and cuprosklodowskite.

The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellowship program of the European Union for young scientists wishing to work in a foreign country is named after her.

In 2007, a metro station in Paris was renamed to honour both of the Curies.

The sole Polish nuclear reactor in operation, the research reactor Maria, is named after her.

The 7000 Curie asteroid is named after her.

The Marie Curie Medal, an annual science award established in 1996 and conferred by the Polish Chemical Society, was named after her.

The Marie Curie-Sklodowska Medal and Prize, an annual award conferred by the London-based Institute of Physics for distinguished contributions to physics education, was named in her honor.

Numerous biographies are devoted to her, including:

Ève Curie (Marie Curie's daughter), Madame Curie, 1938.

Françoise Giroud, Marie Curie: A Life, 1987.

Barbara Goldsmith, Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie, 2005.

Lauren Redniss, Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, a Tale of Love and Fallout, 2011, adapted into the 2019 British film.

Marie Curie has been the subject of a number of films:

1943: Madame Curie, a U.S. Oscar-nominated film by Mervyn LeRoy starring Greer Garson.

1997: Les Palmes de M. Schutz, a French film adapted from a play of the same title, and directed by Claude Pinoteau. Marie Curie is played by Isabelle Huppert.

2014: Marie Curie, une femme sur le front, a French-Belgian film, directed by Alain Brunard [fr] and starring Dominique Reymond.

2016: Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge, a European co-production by Marie Noëlle starring Karolina Gruszka.

2016: Super Science Friends, an american internet animated series created by Brett Jubinville featuring Hedy Gregor as Marie Curie.

2019: Radioactive, a British film by Marjane Satrapi starring Rosamund Pike.

Curie is the subject of the 2013 play, False Assumptions, by Lawrence Aronovitch, in which the ghosts of three other women scientists observe events in her life. Curie has also been portrayed by Susan Marie Frontczak in her play, Manya: The Living History of Marie Curie, a one-woman show which by 2014 had been performed in 30 U.S. states and nine countries.

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In Spanish: Marie Curie para niños

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Lise Meitner (November 7, 1878, Vienna - October 27, 1968, Cambridge) was an Austrian-Swedish physicist. She had a very large role in discovering nuclear fission. She received her doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna in 1906. Her work with two other scientists discovered nuclear fission which influenced the discovery and creation of the atomic bomb.

Meitner was of Jewish descent and converted to Lutheranism.

Starting in 1907, Meitner worked with a man named Otto Hahn. She worked with Hahn throughout her entire career. Working together, they completed a lot of work in chemistry. Hahn won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, even though his work had been with her. The reason that she did not win the prize was that she was a woman. She did attend the ceremony though.

In 1914, Meitner volunteered as an X-ray technician in the Austrian army during World War I. Meitner was also the first female professor in Germany. She became a German professor in 1917. Throughout the 1920s, Meitner worked mostly on radiation. She won many prizes and awards. Around 1935, Meitner and Hahn worked together to learn more about uranium. The element Meitnerium is named after her. Later in Meitner's life, she had many discoveries that led to the creation of the atomic bomb. She worked to make possible the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima but she did not agree the atomic bomb.

Experiences sexism

An encyclopedia editor asked Meitner to write an article about radioactivity. He had read a paper she wrote about the physical aspects of radioactivity. The letter that she got was addressed to "Herr Meitner" (Mr. Meitner). She explained that she was female and the offer was taken away. Meitner followed gender roles later in her career. British physicist Ernest Rutherford visited Berlin Laboratory. During this visit, Meitner spent the day shopping with Rutherford's wife. Meanwhile, the men talked about work. Meitner also had lots of accomplishments. After working with Hahn and investigating behavior of beta rays, she received an appointment in the radioactivity apartment and invited Meitner to join him. Soon after, Max Planck asked Meitner to be an assistant professor and lecture at the institute for theoretical physics. Meitner was the first woman in Germany to be in her position. Many news reporters were drawn to her opening lecture.

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Images for kids

Physicists and chemists in Berlin in 1920. Front row, left to right: Hertha Sponer, Albert Einstein, Ingrid Franck, James Franck, Lise Meitner, Fritz Haber, and Otto Hahn. Back row, left to right: Walter Grotrian, Wilhelm Westphal, Otto von Baeyer [de], Peter Pringsheim [de] and Gustav Hertz

Former Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry building in Berlin. Badly damaged by bombing during World War II, it was restored and became part of the Free University of Berlin in 1948. It was renamed the Otto Hahn Building in 1956, and the Hahn-Meitner Building in 2010.

Meitner with students on the steps of the chemistry building at Bryn Mawr College in April 1959

In Spanish: Lise Meitner para niños

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Si elle a participé de manière décisive à la découverte de la fission nucléaire, seul Otto Hahn, son collègue, a été récompensé du prix Nobel de chimie en 1944. Juive, Lise Meitner (1878-1968) avait fuit le nazisme. Auparavant, elle dirigeait les recherches depuis les sous-sols de l'Institut de chimie de Berlin, la présence d'une femme dans les locaux étant alors inconvenante...

Si elle a participé de manière décisive à la découverte de la fission nucléaire, seul Otto Hahn, son collègue, a été récompensé du prix Nobel de chimie en 1944. Juive, Lise Meitner (1878-1968) avait en effet dû fuir le nazisme. Mais auparavant, elle dirigeait les recherches depuis les sous-sols de l'Institut de chimie de Berlin, la présence d'une femme dans les locaux s'avérant alors inconvenante...

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Cherchez la femme ! - Lise Meitner - L'ère de l'atome - Regarder le documentaire complet | ARTE

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Si elle a participé de manière décisive à la découverte de la fission nucléaire, seul Otto Hahn, son collègue, a été récompensé du prix Nobel de chimie en 1944. Juive, Lise Meitner (1878-1968) avait fuit le nazisme. Auparavant, elle dirigeait les recherches depuis les sous-sols de l'Institut de chimie de Berlin, la présence d'une femme dans les locaux étant alors inconvenante...

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Marie Curie - Scientist | Mini Bio | BIO

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Alice Guy

(1873-1968)

Alice Guy Blaché was the first woman filmmaker and director.

Mademoiselle Alice - 1907

She directed the Cabbage Fairy, in March 1896, considered to be the first ever fiction film by historians.

Hired as a secretary at 21, in December 1894, she rose within a few months to the post of director of Gaumont Film Productions. She not only directed but also supervised screenplays, castings, set designs and costumes. She hired Zecca, Cohl, Jasset, and Feuillade; in other words, she was in charge of the entire creative activity of Gaumont. Alice Guy met with all the important innovators of the time: Marey, Lumière, Demeny, as well as with Eiffel; she endeavored to put their discoveries into practice. She took advantage of mistakes made by her technicians, turning them into special effects: reverse shooting, fast motion, slow motion, masking and superimposition

She adapted a novel and an opera for the screen, applied color to her films, and in 1902, used the Demeny chronophone technique to add sound.

Postcards, posters starting 1904.

In 1905, she inaugurated the Cité Elgé by shooting The Esmeralda there.

In 1906, she made her first full length feature film The Life of Christ, a big budget production for the time, which included 300 extras.

In 1907, she married the cameraman Herbert Blaché Bolton, went to the United States, had two babies, and created two companies " The Solax" and "The Film Supply Co.". She had two studios built, directed an acting company called "The Solax Stock". She hired some girls from the Ziegfeld Follies and soldiers from the American Army as extras. She used close-ups, animals (tigers, 200 rats), boat explosions, car chases. She shot in the Sing Sing prison, and each month, directed one feature film and about ten shorts.

We have counted more than 600 registered films : comical, adventure, western, fantasy, fantastic, suspense, opera, mystery, documentary, war films, historical drama; from shorts to feature films, from black and white to color, from silent to sound, from The Life of Christ to Edgar Allan Poe ...

Madame Alice Guy Blaché

"It is odd to note that the Blachés, without planning it consciously, contributed to the creation and development of three famous American companies. The Film Supply Co., which became the Mutual, producer of the first big Chaplin films and Universal were both born from the break up of the Motion Pictures Distributing and Sales Co. The Metro Goldwyn Mayer, then still a modest New York company called the Metro Pictures, from its birth in March of 1915 until 1918, depended mostly on the distribution of films produced or directed by the Blachés. This was their modest and unconscious contribution to the development of a trust company." (Francis Lacassin, For a counter-history of cinema, p.42)

Alice's career ended in 1920. At this point, her films disappeared completely for more than 50 years only to reappear in 1972, four years after her death, a "Miracle of cinema". When she returned to Europe, under the pseudonym of Guy Allix, she wrote several tales for children

For more information you may contact :

"Les Amis d'Alice Guy Blaché" ("The Friends of Alice Guy Blaché")
PEETERS Thierry
8, rue des Pardenrières
04200 SISTERON
Tél. : 06 15 44 65 37
e-mail : mail.aliceguy@free.fr

Bibliographical References : (in French)

Autobiography of a pioneer of cinema (1873-1968)
Alice Guy. Presented by the Musidora Association (Nicole-Lise Bernheim/Claire Clouzot). Editions Denoël/Gonthier, Paris, 1976.

Alice Guy Blaché (1873-1968). The first woman filmmaker of the world. Victor Bachy. Institut Jean Vigo, 1993.

Women filmmakers or the triumph of will. Charles Ford. Editions Denoël/Gonthier, collection Femmes, Paris, 1972.

For a counter-history of cinema. Francis Lacassin. Institut Lumière/Actes Sud, 1994.

Documentary site Alice Guy

" Les Amis d'Alice GUY "
8, rue des Pardenrières
04200 SISTERON
Tél. : 06 15 44 65 37

Web sites on Alice Guy

How to find the films :

Bienvenue |Les Membres |Les Statuts|Les Biographies

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Les indépendants du 1er siècle - Biographie de Alice Guy

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Charlotte Perriand, (born October 24, 1903, Paris, France-died October 27, 1999, Paris), French designer known for iconic 20th-century furniture, such as the LC "Fauteuil Grand Confort" set of Modernist living-room furniture that includes a chair, two sizes of sofas, and an ottoman, one of many collaborations with Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret.

Early life and career

Perriand was raised in Paris, where her father worked as a tailor and her mother was a seamstress. During her childhood she traveled to the remote mountainous region of Savoy, France, where her paternal grandparents resided. Later in life, even though she lived and worked in and was inspired by the energy of the city, she would return to the French Alps to relax, ski, and enjoy the region's natural beauty.

Perriand's stellar drawing abilities caught the attention of her junior-high-school art instructor. At the urging of her mother, Perriand attended the École de l'Union Centrale des Arts Décoratifs from 1920 to 1925. There, under the tutelage of the school's artistic director, Henri Rapin (a talented and practicing interior designer), she thrived, and her work showed great promise. Years later she recalled Rapin's practical pedagogical approach and how it had disciplined her and helped her to move an idea from the drawing board to reality. In addition to attending courses, Perriand supplemented her education and fed her curiosity by enrolling in classes made available through large department stores that housed their own design workshops. She attended lectures by Maurice Dufrêne, the studio director of La Maîtrise workshop, located at the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris. Because of his association with the store, Dufrêne challenged the students with pragmatic applicable projects, the results of which could be used by the Galeries Lafayette. Perriand's schoolwork revealed her to be an adroit designer, and her projects were selected and exhibited at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. Dufrêne also chose her wall-hanging designs for display at the Galeries Lafayette; later that work would be machine-fabricated on a larger scale and used in other interiors designed by Dufrêne.

After graduation, greatly encouraged by Dufrêne and Rapin, who had advised her that she "had to show to get known," Perriand submitted her work to be displayed at numerous exhibitions. Her most-notable entry was in the year 1927 at the Salon d'Automne with her design Bar sous le toit ("Bar in the Attic"), an installation of furniture, finishes, and a built-in bar. With her use of materials such as nickel along with a bold design, Bar sous le toit revealed Perriand's preference for an aesthetic that mirrored the age of the machine and a break with the École's preference for finely handcrafted objects made of exotic and rare woods. With glistening surfaces, reflective metals, and blunt geometric forms, the upholstery design was devoid of patterns and warm materials such as wood or soft textiles. The project was a watershed moment in her career, as Perriand wholeheartedly embraced the use of steel-a medium previously used only by men-as her material of choice to convey newfound expressions of modern design.

Collaborations with Le Corbusier

Amid the sudden recognition and success of her work, she expressed some anxiety to a friend, jewelry designer Jean Fouquet, about pursuing the next project, for which she had no plans. At Fouquet's suggestion, Perriand read Le Corbusier's books Vers une architecture (1923; Toward an Architecture) and L'Art décoratif d'aujourd'hui (1925; The Decorative Art of Today), setting in motion her next endeavour: to work with the author, an innovative and revolutionary architect. She was "dazzled" by his writings; the latter book, which eviscerated the decorative arts and by extension her education, was in alignment with the new way in which she designed. By Perriand's account, when she arrived at his atelier with her portfolio in hand, seeking a position, he dismissively told her, "We don't embroider cushions in my studio." Not discouraged by his degrading comment, she invited him to the Salon d'Automne to view her work. Le Corbusier-recognizing a kindred spirit after seeing her Bar sous le toit design-hired her.

From 1927 to 1937 she worked in the atelier, later calling that experience "a privilege." Her charge and focus was on l'équipement intérieur de l'habitation ("the equipment of a modern dwelling") or furniture designed by the atelier, including the fabrication of the prototypes and their final production. She would contribute to the design of three iconic furniture pieces: the siège à dossier basculant (1928; "armchair with a tilting back"; also identified as LC1), the "Fauteuil Grand Confort" easy chair (1928; LC2 and LC3), and the chaise lounge (1928; LC4). Because of Le Corbusier's towering reputation, he is often given sole credit for the conception and design of the chairs. However, as with any highly collaborative undertaking, giving credit to any single individual is problematic. Perriand acknowledged that he had defined the framework of the overall forms of the chairs and provided design direction but averred that she had fleshed out the details, construction, and actual design with Pierre Jeanneret. In the 21st century the pieces are still sold by the Italian furniture company Cassina, which credits all three as the designers. Perriand's influence in the atelier extended beyond furniture and execution of the prototypes. In 1929 she was instrumental in designing the trio's vision of modern luxury, "Equipment for the Home," for the Salon d'Automne; it included an entire apartment, complete with a shiny kitchen and bathroom.

Collaborations with Jean Prouvé, visits to Japan, and Les Arcs

Soon after leaving Le Corbusier's atelier, she began working with Jean Prouvé-a designer who found his niche executing and designing metal objects such as screens and stair railings using the geometric patterns favoured by avant-garde architects. Prouvé was passionate about expressing his craft through contemporary means and materials; Perriand fully subscribed to that belief. With Prouvé's atelier flooded with projects for the French army during the war, Perriand designed military barracks and furnishings for temporary housing. When France surrendered in 1940, the team disbanded-but would reunite in the spring of 1951. She later recalled with great fondness her deep respect and friendship with Prouvé, noting his death as a "terrible loss" for her.

On the day the Germans arrived to occupy Paris, Perriand left France for Japan. About five weeks before her departure, she had received an enticing invitation from the Japanese embassy in Paris, requesting her expertise in industrial design for the Department of Trade Promotion, under the sponsorship of the Imperial Ministry of Commerce and Industry. In an effort to increase the flow of Japanese products to the West, the ministry was keen to place a foreigner on that task. Ostensibly, she was there to challenge the status quo among the Japanese artisans, designers, and architects. However, her own work was greatly inspired by the myriad experiences she encountered. Within about seven months of her arrival in Japan, she had requested (and was granted) an exhibition that was the culmination of her tireless and passionate research through which she engaged with artisans from traditional craftsmen to modern designers. Pervasive throughout the show was the use of natural materials such as wood and bamboo-a complete departure from the aesthetic that she had honed at Le Corbusier's atelier. Some Japanese, wanting to move beyond those materials, viewed the exhibition as somewhat primitive and unprogressive, since many of the objects were not suitable for mass production. Negative reactions did not deter her from returning to Japan in 1955 for a second exhibition, "Proposition d'une synthese des arts" ("Proposal for a Synthesis of the Arts").

Perriand continued to work with former colleagues such as Prouvé, Le Corbusier, and Jeanneret while establishing new ties with others such as Fernand Léger, Brazilian architect Lúcio Costa, and Hungarian architect Ernö Goldfinger. Projects varied as well as locations: design of unadorned rustic lodges in the French Alps (1938), kitchen prototypes for Unité d'Habitation in Marseille (1950) and Tokyo (1959), and commercial interiors for Air France in London (1958). Her final and largest project-the ski resort of Les Arcs in Savoy (1967-85)-united her work and the landscape she remembered so fondly from her youth. Those designs demonstrate the caliber, value, and longevity of Perriand's rich contribution to the profession.

Late life

In 1985 "Charlotte Perriand: Un Art de Vivre," a substantial retrospective of her distinguished work, was put on display at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. When asked about the exhibition, she bemoaned the weight of looking backward and uncovering "things [she had] left behind long ago...." She preferred to look ahead. Reinventing her design philosophy, accepting change, and being willing to experiment kept her work relevant and suitable for highly collaborative and productive exchanges. In 1998, the year before she died, she published an autobiography, Une Vie de création ( Charlotte Perriand: A Life of Creation).

Catherine Anderson

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Charlotte Perriand | Biography, Interior Design, Furniture, Chair, Japan, Book, & Facts

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Charlotte Perriand, French designer known for iconic 20th-century furniture, such as the LC 'Fauteuil Grand Confort' set of Modernist living-room furniture that includes a chair, two sizes of sofas, and an ottoman, one of many collaborations with Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret.

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Charlotte Perriand (1903 - 1999), French Designer and Architect

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Charlotte Perriand (1903 - 1999) was a designer and architect from France. Perriand’s designs are most commonly associated with furniture.

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Charlotte Perriand - Inventing A New World | Full Documentary

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Alice Ida Antoinette Guy-Blaché (née Guy; French pronunciation: [alis gi blɑʃe] ; 1 July 1873 - 24 March 1968) was a French pioneer filmmaker. She was one of the first filmmakers to make a narrative fiction film, as well as the first woman to direct a film. From 1896 to 1906, she was probably the only female filmmaker in the world. She experimented with Gaumont's Chronophone sync-sound system, and with color-tinting, interracial casting, and special effects.

She was artistic director and a co-founder of Solax Studios in Flushing, New York. In 1912, Solax invested $100,000 for a new studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the center of American filmmaking prior to the establishment of Hollywood. That year, she made the film A Fool and His Money, probably the first to have an all-African-American cast. The film is now preserved at the National Center for Film and Video Preservation at the American Film Institute for its historical and aesthetic significance.

Early life and education

In 1865, Alice's father, Émile Guy, an owner of a bookstore and publishing company in Santiago, Chile and Valparaíso, Chile, married Marie Clotilde Franceline Aubert. The couple returned to Santiago after the wedding in Paris. In early 1873, Marie and Émile lived in Santiago, with Alice's four siblings.

There was a devastating smallpox epidemic in Chile in 1872 and 1873. Émile and Marie Guy brought all four of their children back to Paris, where Alice was born. In her autobiography, Alice refers to this as her mother's attempt to make sure "her fifth child should be truly French". Her father returned to Chile soon after her birth, and her mother followed a few months later. Alice was entrusted to her grandmother in Carouge, Switzerland. At the age of three or four, Alice's mother returned from Chile and took Alice back to South America.

At the age of six, Alice was taken back to France by her father to attend school at Veyrier known as the Faithful Companions of Jesus on the French side of the Swiss border in Veyrier, France. Alice and her sister Louise were moved to a convent in Ferney a few years later and then brought back to Paris.

Alice's father died on 5 January 1891 of unknown causes. Following his death, Alice's mother got a job with Mutualité maternelle which was founded on 20 May 1891. Alice's mother was unable to keep that job and thereafter Alice trained as a typist and stenographer, a new field at the time, to support herself and her mother. She landed her first stenography-typist job at a varnish factory. In March 1894, she began working at the 'Comptoir général de la photographie' owned by Félix-Max Richard. Léon Gaumont later took over and headed the company.

Gaumont, France

In 1894, Alice Guy was hired by Félix-Max Richard to work as a secretary for a camera manufacturing and photography supply company. The company changed hands in 1895 due to a court decision against Félix-Max Richard, who sold the company to four men: Gustave Eiffel, Joseph Vallot, Alfred Besnier, and Léon Gaumont. Gustave Eiffel was president of the company, and Léon Gaumont, thirty years Eiffel's junior, was the manager. The company was named after Gaumont because Eiffel was the subject of a national scandal regarding the Panama Canal. L. Gaumont et C ie became a major force in the fledgling motion-picture industry in France. Alice continued to work at Gaumont et C ie, a decision that led to a pioneering career in filmmaking that spanned more than 25 years and involved her directing, producing, writing and/or overseeing more than 700 films.

Although she initially began working for Léon Gaumont as his secretary, she became familiar with myriad clients, relevant marketing strategies, and the company's stock of cameras. She also met a handful of pioneering film engineers such as Georges Demenÿ and Auguste and Louis Lumière.

Alice Guy and Gaumont attended the "surprise" Lumière event on March 22, 1895. It was the first demonstration of film projection, an obstacle that Gaumont, the Lumières, and Edison were all racing to solve. They screened one of their early films Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory, which consisted of a simple scene of workmen leaving the Lumière plant in Lyon. Bored with the idea of captured film only being used for the scientific and/or promotional purpose of selling cameras in the form of "demonstration films," she was confident that she could incorporate fictional story-telling elements into film. She asked Gaumont for permission to make her own film, and he granted it.

Alice Guy made her first film in 1896. Its original title may have been La Fée aux Choux (The Fairy of the Cabbages) or The Birth of Children, or it may have had no title at first. The scene Alice described as her debut effort does not match either the 1900 version of La Fée aux choux or the 1902 version, retitled Sage-femme de première classe which has been found in film archives. By comparing Alice's descriptions of her debut effort with the two films that are available for us to view, we discover differences that indicate there was a third film that came first. The 1896 film seems to be lost. However, multiple points of confirmation indicate that there were three different La Fée aux choux. A 30 July 1896 newspaper describes a "chaste fiction of children born under the cabbages in a wonderfully framed chromo landscape," and provides other details that confirm Alice Guy's description of her first film. "Before very long," Alice Guy reported in 1912, "every moving picture house in the country was turning out stories instead of spectacles and plots instead of panoramas."

From 1896 to 1906, Alice Guy was Gaumont's head of production and is generally considered the first filmmaker to systematically develop narrative filmmaking. She was probably the only female director from 1896 to 1906. Her earlier films share many characteristics and themes with her contemporary competitors, such as the Lumières and Méliès. She explored dance and travel films, often combining the two, such as Le Boléro performed by Miss Saharet (1905) and Tango (1905). Many of Guy's early dance films were popular in music-hall attractions such as the serpentine dance films - also a staple of the Lumières and Thomas Edison film catalogs.

In 1906, she made The Life of Christ, a big-budget production for the time, which included 300 extras. She used the illustrated James Tissot New Testament as reference material for the film, which featured 25 episodes and was her largest production at Gaumont to date. In addition to this, she was one of the pioneers in the use of audio recordings in conjunction with the images on screen in Gaumont's "Chronophone" system, which used a vertical-cut disc synchronized to the film. She employed some of the first special effects, including using double exposure, masking techniques, and running a film backward. During her tenure at Gaumont, Guy hired and trained Louis Feuillade and Étienne Arnaud as writers and directors and hired set designer Henri Ménessier and art director Ben Carré.

In 1907, Alice Guy married Herbert Blaché, who was soon appointed the production manager for Gaumont's operations in the United States. After working with her husband for Gaumont in the U.S., the two struck out on their own in 1910, partnering with George A. Magie in the formation of The Solax Company, the largest pre-Hollywood studio in America.

With production facilities for their new company in Flushing, New York, her husband served as production manager and cinematographer. Alice Guy-Blaché worked as the artistic director and directed many of its releases. Within two years, they had become so successful that they invested more than $100,000 into new and technologically advanced production facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Many early film studios were based in Fort Lee at the beginning of the 20th century. This made her the first woman to own her own studio and studio plant. It was mentioned in publications of the era that Guy-Blaché placed a large sign in her studio that read: 'Be Natural'.

In 1913, Guy-Blaché directed The Thief, the first script sold by future Wonder Woman creator William Moulton Marston.

Guy-Blaché and her husband divorced several years later, and with the rise of the more hospitable and cost-effective climate in Hollywood, their film partnership also ended.

In the late 1940s, Alice Guy-Blaché wrote an autobiography; it was published, in French, in 1976 and was translated into English a decade later with the help of her daughter Simone, daughter-in-law Roberta Blaché, and the film writer Anthony Slide. Guy-Blaché was tremendously concerned with her unexplained absence from the historical record of the film industry. She constantly communicated with colleagues and film historians, correcting previously made and supposedly factual statements about her life. She crafted lengthy lists of her films as she remembered them, with the hope of being able to assume creative ownership and get legitimate credit for them.

She was the subject of a National Film Board of Canada documentary The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché by director Marquise Lepage, which received Quebec's Gémeaux Award for Best Documentary. In 2002, film scholar Alison McMahan published Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema. Guy-Blaché is considered by some to have been the first female filmmaker, and from 1896 to 1920, she directed over 1,000 films, some 150 of which survive, and 22 of which are feature-length. She was one of the early women, along with Lois Weber, to manage and own her own studio: The Solax Company. Few of her films survive in an easily viewable format. In December 2018, Kino Lorber released a six-disc box, Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, in cooperation with the Library of Congress, the British Film Institute, and others. The first disc of the set is devoted to the films of Alice Guy-Blaché. It includes Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913), which was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2003. The 2018 documentary film Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, directed by Pamela B. Green and narrated by Jodie Foster, which opened at the Cannes Film Festival (Cannes Classics), deals with Guy-Blaché's life, career, and legacy.

Because of Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, many of Guy-Blaché's films were restored and preserved, and a pillar in her name will be featured at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

In September 2019, Guy-Blaché was included in The New York Times series "Overlooked No More".

As reported by Deadline in 2021, Pamela B. Green is developing a feature biopic about Alice Guy-Blaché.

Guy-Blaché was an early influence on both Alfred Hitchcock and Sergei Eisenstein. Hitchcock remarked, "I'd be over the moon with the Frenchman George Méliès. I was thrilled by the movies of D.W. Griffith and the early French director Alice Guy."

In his Memoirs, Eisenstein described an unnamed film he had seen as a child that continued to be very important to him. This film was identified as Alice Guy-Blaché's The Consequences of Feminism (1906) during the making of the documentary Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.

Personal life

Alice Guy-Blaché's marriage meant that she had to resign from her position working with Gaumont. The couple was sent by the Gaumont company to Cleveland to facilitate the franchise of Gaumont equipment. Early in 1908, the couple went to New York City where Guy-Blaché gave birth to her daughter, Simone, in September 1908. Two years later, Guy-Blaché became the first woman to run her own studio when she created Solax in Gaumont's Flushing studio. In 1912, when she was pregnant with her second child, she built a studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and continued to complete one to three films a week. On 27 June 1912, Reginald, her son, was born. To focus on writing and directing, Guy-Blaché took her husband into Solax in 1913 "for feature production and executive direction".

Shortly after taking the position, Herbert Blaché started a film company named Blaché Features, Inc. The couple maintained a personal and business partnership for the next few years, working together on many projects. In 1918, Herbert Blaché left his wife and children to pursue a career in Hollywood. Alice Guy-Blaché almost died from the Spanish flu pandemic in October 1918 while filming her final film Tarnished Reputations. Following her illness, she joined Herbert in Hollywood in 1919 but they lived separately. She worked as Herbert's directing assistant on his two films starring Alla Nazimova.

Alice Guy-Blaché directed her last film in 1919. In 1921, she was forced to auction her film studio and other possessions in bankruptcy. Alice and Herbert were officially divorced in 1922. She returned to France in 1922 and never made another film.

Alice Guy-Blaché never remarried, and in 1964 she returned to the United States to live in Wayne, New Jersey, with her older child, her daughter, Simone. On 24 March 1968, at 94, Alice Guy-Blaché died in a nursing home in New Jersey. She is interred at Maryrest Cemetery.

Accolades and tributes

On December 12th, 1958, Guy-Blaché was awarded the Légion d'honneur, the highest non-military award France offers. On 16 March 1957, she was honored in a Cinémathèque française ceremony that went almost unnoticed by the press.

In 2002, Circle X Theatre in Los Angeles produced Laura Comstock's Bag-punching Dog, a musical about the invention of cinema, and Alice Guy-Blaché was the lead character. The musical was written by Jillian Armenante, Alice Dodd, and Chris Jeffries. In 2011, an off-Broadway production of Flight premiered at the Connelly Theatre, featuring a fictionalized portrayal of Guy-Blaché as a 1913 documentary filmmaker.

In 2004, the Fort Lee Film Commission unveiled a historical marker dedicated to Alice Guy-Blaché at the location of Solax Studio. In 2012, for the centennial of the founding and building of the studio, the Commission raised funds to replace her grave marker in Maryrest Cemetery in Mahwah, New Jersey. The new marker includes the Solax logo and notes Guy-Blaché's role as a cinema pioneer.

In 2010, the Academy Film Archive preserved Alice Guy-Blaché's short film The Girl in the Arm-Chair. In 2011, the Fort Lee Film Commission successfully lobbied the Directors Guild of America to accept Alice Guy-Blaché as a member. She was subsequently awarded a posthumous "Special Directorial Award for Lifetime Achievement" at the 2011 DGA Honors. In 2013, Guy-Blaché was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

A square in the 14th arrondissement of Paris is named the Place Alice-Guy [fr] in her honor.

In 2019, The re-edited and expanded version of Eisenstein's memoirs, Yo. Memoirs by Sergei Eisenstein mention Alice's The Consequences of Feminism and its influence on Eisenstein.

In 2021, Yale University unveiled its new state-of-the-art screening room, named the Alice Cinema, after Alice Guy-Blaché.

In 2022, Rowman & Littlefield published a new edition of The Memoirs of Alice Guy Blaché, edited by Anthony Slide and translated by Simone Blaché and Roberta Blaché. This memoir contains a new introduction by Slide.

The Golden Door Film Festival gives an award named in her honor.

Selected filmography

These films were produced by Gaumont (1896-1907), Solax (1910-1913), or others (1914-1920).

La Fée aux Choux (The Fairy of the Cabbages; 1896)

Le pêcheur dans le torrent (The fisherman in the stream; 1897)

Le chiffonnier (1898)

Danse serpentine (1900)

Les Fredaines de Pierrette (1900)

Les chiens savants (1902)

Esméralda (1905) (based on the Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Une histoire roulante (1906)

The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ (1906)

Les Résultats du féminisme (1906)

The Game-Keeper's Son (1906)

Madame a des envies (1906)

La barricade (1907)

Fanfan la Tulipe (1907)

One Touch of Nature (1910)

The Sergeant's Daughter (1910)

The Pawnshop (1910)

Greater Love Hath No Man (1911)

Algie the Miner (1912)

Falling Leaves (1912)

A Fool and His Money (1912)

Making an American Citizen (1912)

The Girl in the Armchair (1912)

The Pit and the Pendulum (1913)

Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913)

A House Divided (1913)

Shadows of the Moulin Rouge (1913)

The Lure (1914)

The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1915)

The Vampire (1915)

The Ocean Waif (1916)

What Will People Say? (1916)

The Adventurer (1917)

The Empress (1917)

The Great Adventure (1918)

Tarnished Reputations (1920)

In Spanish: Alice Guy para niños

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Wangari Maathai: the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Who Planted Trees

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Olga’s story on the transition towards 100% renewable energy

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With her trailblazing breakthrough in #solarcells, Olga Malinkiewicz is proving that science can change the world for the better: http://www.sciencecanchangetheworld.org #BrightMindsChallenge

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Last week, she was arrested for a third time at a climate crisis protest in Washington D.C. For over 50 years, Jane Fonda has been defined by her activism just as much as her roles in hit films.(Via Brut Cannes)

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REPAINT HISTORY ™ on Instagram: “She said what she said! 🗣️ ——— Niki de Saint Phalle paired bold, jubilant, and cartoonish feminine forms with dark and disturbing material in her multifaceted artistic career. Throughout, she continually disrupted long-held conventions in art, and her iconoclastic approach to her identity and society at large made her an early and important voice to both the Feminist movement and the development of early Conceptual Art. Unlike many of her contemporaries who prioritized the idea behind the work of art rather than the aesthetic demonstration of the idea, Saint Phalle’s pieces were highly expressive, visually bold, and often playful - a style that celebrated aesthetics instead of interrogating its structures and conventions. She realized some of the most ambitious, immersive sculptural environments of the 20th century, and also made intensely personal, inward-looking work that reflected on her inner life and relationships. Saint Phalle’s broad influence is marked by the variety of contemporary cultural identities and communities that now ‘claim’ her as their own, including feminist, queer, and racial empowerment movements. 🎥: @grand_palais #nikidesaintphalle #quotesbywomenartists #dojacat #repainthistory #artgirlrising #wherearethewomenartists #womenartists #feminist #feministart”

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450 likes, 14 comments - repaint.history on October 3, 2023: “She said what she said! 🗣️ ——— Niki de Saint Phalle paired bold, jubilant, and cartoonish feminine forms with dark and disturbing material in her multifaceted artistic career. Throughout, she continually disrupted long-held conventions in art, and her iconoclastic approach to her identity and society at large made her an early and important voice to both the Feminist movement and the development of early Conceptual Art. Unlike many of her contemporaries who prioritized the idea behind the work of art rather than the aesthetic demonstration of the idea, Saint Phalle’s pieces were highly expressive, visually bold, and often playful - a style that celebrated aesthetics instead of interrogating its structures and conventions. She realized some of the most ambitious, immersive sculptural environments of the 20th century, and also made intensely personal, inward-looking work that reflected on her inner life and relationships. Saint Phalle’s broad influence is marked by the variety of contemporary cultural identities and communities that now ‘claim’ her as their own, including feminist, queer, and racial empowerment movements. 🎥: @grand_palais #nikidesaintphalle #quotesbywomenartists #dojacat #repainthistory #artgirlrising #wherearethewomenartists #womenartists #feminist #feministart”.

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Alice Guy-Blaché: Pioneer Female Filmmaker

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