Author: Maria Dintino

Breaking the Bronze Ceiling: One Inspiring Public Sculpture at a Time!

Breaking the Bronze Ceiling: One Inspiring Public Sculpture at a Time!

Posted by | Aug 4, 2020 | ,

We have entered a monumental month: August 2020. August 26, 2020, is the centennial of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which guarantees women the right to vote. On May 19, 1919, the 19th amendment proposed to the Constitution extended the right of suffrage to women. The article reads: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” On August 18, 1920, the needed 36th state (Thank you, Tennessee!) signed on to the amendment and it was officially certified a...

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A Tipping Point: Open Spaces in Our Public Places

A Tipping Point: Open Spaces in Our Public Places

Posted by | Jul 21, 2020 |

My sister Theresa and I started this website, Nasty Women Writers, three years ago, our goal being to highlight feminist women writers, artists, and activists, many of whom have been marginalized, silenced, and erased. Last year I wrote a post about Dr. Tererai Trent (The Awakened Woman: Remembering and Reigniting Our Sacred Dreams), an incredible woman from Zimbabwe who wrote the book The Awakened Woman. Occasionally my sister and I will follow up on a woman we’ve written about to see what’s happening, if there are any new projects they may be working on, or any updates in general....

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Austin Channing Brown: Leading Conversations About Racial Justice

Austin Channing Brown: Leading Conversations About Racial Justice

Posted by | Jun 23, 2020 | ,

Scrambling to educate myself after being faced with the realization of what I don’t know and of the ways in which I am complicit in racism, I came across a name:  Austin Channing Brown. Brown is the author of a must-read book, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, published in 2018. I also heard she hosts a web series called The Next Question. My stack of books growing and my arms and eyes in need of respite, I decided to listen to an episode. What I discovered is an incredible resource: a space to...

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Sonya Renee Taylor: The Map Back to Ourselves

Sonya Renee Taylor: The Map Back to Ourselves

Posted by | Jun 9, 2020 |

You say you want a revolution? You’ve got what it takes to make it happen. You’ve got a body and that is a place to start. A while back I was scrolling on Facebook when I came across a post by Brene Brown. A fan of Brown and her work, and moved by the message, I liked it and shared it. Moments later a friend informed me that the post was not written by Brene Brown, rather by Sonya Renee Taylor. I googled Taylor, since I had never heard of her. I am forever grateful for this discovery. By...

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The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton (2019)

The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton (2019)

Posted by | May 26, 2020 |

This is remarkable: the stories of over 130 courageous women and their contributions in one book! In the introduction, the authors, Hillary and Chelsea, are clear about their motive: “Power has largely been associated with – and defined – by men since the beginning of time. Yet women have painted, written, created, discovered, invented and led for just as long. It’s simply that their work is more likely to go unrecognized – sometimes for centuries. We believe it is past time for that to change”(ix). Not delving too deeply into any one woman’s story, they remind us that if...

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Zora Neale Hurston: Hiding Places

Zora Neale Hurston: Hiding Places

Posted by | May 5, 2020 |

In 1942, writer, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston rented a room on the second floor of a house in St. Augustine, Florida, and during this time revised her memoir, Dust Tracks on a Road. This two-story house sits about a mile west of downtown and today is in need of significant repair. Last November 2019, an article ran on the front page of the St. Augustine Record about a local artist who had painted a mural of Zora Neale Hurston on the house. Artist Mychal Duffey explains that she drives by the house regularly and always thinks of...

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Untamed by Glennon Doyle (Published in 2020)

Untamed by Glennon Doyle (Published in 2020)

Posted by | Apr 21, 2020 |

Reading Glennon Doyle’s latest book, Untamed, is a like attending a protest. A protest where we might chant, Rip ‘em up, rip ‘em up! Rip up the memos! Not sure what the memos are? Read Doyle’s book to find out and more importantly, to begin freeing yourself from their crafty grip. Memo, according to Dictionary.com, is short for memorandum which means “a short note designating something to be remembered, especially something to be done or acted upon in the future; reminder.” Doyle says, “For a long while I contorted myself to live according to a set of old memos...

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Margaret Fuller’s Cenotaph: “A well-worn path” American (1810-1850)

Margaret Fuller’s Cenotaph: “A well-worn path” American (1810-1850)

Posted by | Mar 24, 2020 |

With a few hours to spend in Boston before a recent flight, I decided it was time to make the pilgrimage to the Mount Auburn Cemetery to visit Margaret Fuller’s monument or cenotaph, as it’s often called. A cenotaph is basically an empty tomb and Margaret’s is empty because her body was never recovered from the shipwreck in which she drowned off the shores of Fire Island, New York in 1850. For those of you who don’t know, Margaret Fuller “was an American journalist, editor, critic, and women’s rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movement. She was the...

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Temple Grandin: “I Can Picture It Perfectly”(American b. 1947)

Temple Grandin: “I Can Picture It Perfectly”(American b. 1947)

Posted by | Mar 9, 2020 |

I have fallen for another remarkable woman, a woman in a western-style shirt and a bolo tie. Writing these posts, my sister and I continually fall head over heels for the women we read and research, women whose contributions are undeniable. Temple Grandin’s life journey, from a three-year-old who did not speak to a seventy-two year old still traveling the country talking about autism and the humane treatment of farm animals, is one worth exploring. What you stand to learn on both fronts is amazing. Driven to constantly open doors in her own life, Temple Grandin has opened doors...

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