bold & beautiful women

[BIGGA HAITIAN-NEW ALBUM OUT NOW]

2007 Bold & Beautiful Women
In our annual tribute, we salute the strength, courage and wisdom of inspiring Black women

“One is rarely brave on one’s own,” says Dr. Maya Angelou, reflecting on what shapes a woman’s boldness. “We come up from the ground like trees. We have roots, and they determine how we will have the courage to do what we do in life.” The aspirations that drive the women you are about to meet are vastly different. Some are working to protect our children; others are securing our health and our self-esteem; others are defending our nation. What they have in common is a rooted sense of purpose that gives them the courage they need to press forward. May their boldness encourage us all



Credit: Ron Aira

A MOTHER’S LOVE

“They’ve chosen to stay out there and fight, knowing it’s an uphill battle and that some consider their actions controversial.” —Reverend Al Sharpton

Kadiatou Diallo, Marie Dorismond and Valerie Bell (from left)
When Marie Dorismond and Kadiatou Diallo heard about the shooting of Sean Bell, an unarmed Queens, New York, man who died last November on his wedding day in a storm of 50 police bullets, they rushed to the side of Sean’s mother, Valerie Bell. Both had lost their sons to police violence in New York—Amadou Diallo in 1999, Patrick Dorismond in 2000—so they understood her pain. The two attended Sean’s funeral and a protest march in the weeks following. Recently three of the five officers who fired at Sean were indicted on criminal charges. “My husband always said Sean would be famous,” says Bell, who held a 50-day vigil last winter to focus media attention on her son’s killing. “I never thought it would be like this.” The mothers are now bonded by their struggle against racial profiling and police brutality. Says Diallo, 48: “I draw strength from

[Menace II Babylon]

Have to be bold or they would remain stuck as history has not been just

[Mama Dorothy]

Give thanks for honoring these brave women who, through their suffering, had gained inner strength and bonded together to work toward spreading consciousness in the fight against Babylon downpression, out of control police power, and senseless brutality. There is no greater loss for any mother than to lose a child. Only a mother could know such pain and only a mother could gain the strength from that pain to work tirelessly for justice for those who were lost and awareness that such inhumanity must be stopped.

"They made their world so hard.
Every day we got to keep on fighting.
They made their world so hard.
Every day the people are dying.
It dread, it dread, it dread,
Dread, dread, what can I say, it dread,
It dread on dread ..."
(RNM)

[joanne keilah]

dear sistren we feel the pain too but i comend your courage to stand up and speak, we have to move past the pain, to stop mourning and further the dreams of these lost souls, like they say in the end evrything works out..if it hasn't worked out then it's not the end, like martin luther king RIP, it's years but whereva he is am sure he's smiling down on obama, knowing that he lost his life but he didnt lose his dream it stayed on and is about to be be realised, to all the fallen brethren,rest in peace and we who still walk the earth will keep the dream alive..because you didnt not die in vain...jah bless ya'll

[Bootsie D'Acosta]

Thank you for adding more flame to da fiyah. I am honored yet humbled to be a strong african/hawaiian woman. I am blessed and I hope all women feel the same. One Love
Always loving on all levels