... On Bree Newsome [day 13]

The other day's profile shed light on Hedy Lamaar who was a figure from relatively recent history. But women's history is made every day and so instead of stepping into the way back machine we're going to get contemporary with a quick profile on Bree Newsome.

Pictured here: A face you'll likely see in history textbooks one day

Most folks I know didn't know anything about Ms. Newsome until her brave act of defiance in climbing a flagpole in South Carolina to remove the confederate flag from atop the state building but that wasn't even close to her first taste of activism. 

Brittany (Bree) Newsome describes herself on her site as an artist, director, producer, singer, songwriter, consultant, speaker and activist. Clearly she walks in the footsteps of other African American women who, out of necessity were forced to wear many hats and wear them well. She attended the prestigious Trisch school of the arts and her film work has always slanted toward social justice revealing a woman of conscience and political thought. 

Being a female filmmaker insterested in horror and science fiction, Bree is noted as having said she felt that merely being herself grew into an act of defiance stating that she, "just became aware that simply being myself was an act of defiance... the space that exists for many of us, as a young black girl, is so extremely limited so that you really can't go very far without being an activist, without being in defiance of something." 

For the next generation I expect this pic will carry much the same significance as any with Dr. King or Malcolm X.
And for that we should rejoice. 

Historically speaking, many movements for radical social change have been started and organized by women. The civil rights movement for example, though it predominantly has male faces in our minds, had a vast number of women as its formative organizers and strategists as well as activists. Bree Newsome follows in their footsteps. A prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement the above attitude would eventually be what led Bree, along with a fellow activist to stage the removal of the confederate flag that catapulted her into national prominence. Bree continues to be a font of wisdom and well thought out discussions on race, gender, social justice and more. It's rare that one so clearly sees the waters of history swirling around someone and even rarer that it's obvious that's what's going on but such is the case with this amazing and courageous woman. If you aren't following her on Twitter I highly recommend you do. It's an educational experience and a front row seat to a mind you don't often get. 

And that's a wrap for today. I know it was a short one but there's so much more this person has yet to do since she's only 30. The places she can go and the things she still has time to accomplish almost boggle the mind. That is the danger of picking contemporary people. A similar problem can arise with Malala who I already spoke about this month. Alright. So far we've talked about a fair few women who've rocked in one way or another. Tomorrow we'll discuss a woman who literally ruled.

http://www.breenewsome.com/#!about/c13dn

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2015/06/28/who-is-bree-newsome-why-the-woman-who-took-down-the-confederate-flag-became-an-activist/

http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2015/06/here_s_everything_we_know_about_bree_newsome_who_removed_the_confederate.html

As an added bonus, here's a link to her Twitter page. 

https://twitter.com/BreeNewsome