Martha Stewart...American Businesswoman,Writer,Television Personality,Former Fashion Model

Martha Stewart was born Martha Helen Kostyra on August 3, 1941, in Jersey City, New Jersey. Stewart rose to prominence as the author of books on cooking, entertaining and decorating. She then expanded her brand to include a magazine and television program, serving as CEO of Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Stewart resigned her post in 2002, following charges of insider trading of which she was subsequently convicted

Lifestyle guru and businesswoman Martha Stewart was born Martha Kostyra, on August 3, 1941, in New Jersey. The second of six children, Stewart grew up in Nutley, New Jersey, a working-class community near New York City. She worked as a model from the age of 13, appearing in fashion shows as well as television and print advertisements.

Stewart attended Barnard College in Manhattan, where she earned a degree in European and architectural history in 1962. While at Barnard, she met Andy Stewart, a Yale law student, and the two married in 1961. Six years later, after the birth of their daughter, Alexis, Stewart went to work as a stockbroker for the boutique firm of Monness, Williams, and Sidel. She worked on Wall Street until 1972, when the family moved to Westport, Connecticut.

After the Stewarts restored the 19th century farmhouse they had bought, Martha decided to focus her energy on gourmet cooking, having trained herself by reading Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She started a catering business in the late 1970s, and soon became known for her gourmet menus and unique, creative presentation. Within a decade, Martha Stewart, Inc., had grown into a $1 million business serving a number of corporate and celebrity clients.

Stewart expanded into the world of publishing with her first book, Entertaining, which became a bestseller and was followed in quick succession by such publications as Martha Stewart's Quick Cook Menus, Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres, Martha Stewart's Christmas and Martha Stewart's Wedding Planner. Her newfound fame took its toll on her personal life, as her marriage to Andy Stewart ended in divorce in 1990, after a bitter three-year separation.

In 1991, Martha Stewart, Inc., became Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc., with the release of her magazine, Martha Stewart Living. Stewart's lifestyle empire soon grew to include two magazines, a checkout-size recipe publication, a popular cable television show, a syndicated newspaper column, a series of how-to books, a radio show, an Internet site and $763 million in annual retail sales.
On October 19, 1999, America's most famous homemaker returned to Wall Street to see her company through its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. At the end of the day, the price of each of 72 million shares in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. had jumped more than 95 percent and raised almost $130 million. Stewart herself controls 96 percent of the voting shares in her company and is worth $1.2 billion.

In June 2002, Stewart again made financial headlines, this time for rumors of insider trading. Stewart was under investigation for selling hundreds of shares of ImClone Systems just prior to the Food and Drug Administration's refusal to approve the company's new cancer drug. The value of the stock dropped markedly after the FDA's announcement. Due to the investigation, Stewart resigned from the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange in October, just four months after she had joined.
In June 2003, a 41-page indictment charged Stewart with securities fraud, obstruction of justice,conspiracy and making false statements to prosecutors and the FBI. She pleaded innocent to all charges and stepped down as chair and CEO of her Omnimedia empire. In February 2004, a judge dismissed the securities fraud charge, but a jury found her guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and two counts of making false statements. Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and fined $30,000 that July. She served the first part of her sentence at a minimum-security prison in Alderson, West Virginia, in October 2004.

Stewart was released from prison on March 4, 2005, just after NBC announced she would host two new shows: a daytime talk and how-to show and a spin-off of the reality show The Apprentice produced by Mark Burnett and Donald Trump. Stewart finished her sentence by serving five months of house arrest at her home in Bedford, New York.

While Martha Stewart's version of The Apprentice failed to attract enough viewers, her self-titled syndicated daytime program has been on the air since 2005. The company she established, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, continued to grow in new directions. The business added several non-Martha Stewart publications, including Everyday Food and Body + Soul.

Stewart's syndicated show moved to the Hallmark Channel in 2010, but it failed to develop enough of an audience to sustain the expensive-to-produce program. Hallmark canceled the show in 2012 because of low ratings. That fall, Stewart launched a new series on PBS called Martha Stewart's Cooking School.
In 2013, Stewart found herself inside a courtroom once again. Her company was engaged in a lawsuit with the department store chain Macy's over a contract dispute. Macy's sued Stewart and its retail rival J.C. Penney over Stewart's plan to open Martha Stewart brand boutiques inside Penney's stores.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Stewart

http://www.biography.com/people/martha-stewart-9542234

Serena Williams...Author,Fashionista,American Professional Tennis Player,Holder of 29 Grand Slam Titles,Olympic Gold Medal Winner

Serena Jameka Williams was born on September 26, 1981 in Saginaw, Michigan. illiams began playing tennis at an early age, enduring daily two-hour practices with her father at age three. In 1995, Serena turned pro, and, along with her sister Venus, enjoyed a run of high-profile victories. In 2009, Serena was fined and placed on probation for allegedly threatening a lineswoman, but she quickly moved past the incident. After a series of health scares in 2011, Williams beat Agnieszka Radwanska at Wimbledon 2012, claiming her fifth Wimbledon singles title. At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, she won two gold medals, in women's doubles and women's singles—her first singles gold medal. In June 2013, Williams won her second French Open title against defending champion Maria Sharapova. She picked up another U.S. Open title that September.

The youngest of Richard and Oracene Williams's five daughters, Serena Williams, along with her sister Venus, would eventually dominate the sport at various times throughout her career, capturing 15 Grand Slam singles and 13 Grand Slam doubles titles.

Serena's father—a former sharecropper from Louisiana determined to see his two youngest girls succeed—used what he'd gleaned from tennis books and videos to instruct Serena and Venus on how to play the game. At the age of 3, practicing on a court not far from the family's new Compton, California, home, Serena withstood the rigors of daily two-hour practices from her father.

The fact that the family had relocated to Compton was no accident. With its high rate of gang activity, Richard Williams wanted to expose his daughters to the ugly possibilities of life "if they did not work hard and get an education." In this setting, on courts that were riddled with potholes and sometimes missing nets, Serena and Venus cut their teeth on the game of tennis and the requirements for persevering in a tough climate.

By 1991, Serena was 46-3 on the junior United States Tennis Association tour, and ranked first in the 10-and-under division. Sensing his girls needed better instruction to become successful professionals, he moved his family again—this time to Florida. There, Richard let go of some of his coaching responsibilities, but not the management of Serena's and Venus's career. Wary of his daughters burning out too quickly, he scaled back their junior tournament schedule.

In 1995, Serena turned pro. Two years later, she was already No. 99 in the world rankings—up from 304 just 12 months before. A year later, she graduated high school, and almost immediately inked a $12 million shoe deal with Puma. In 1999, she beat out her sister in their race to the family's first Grand Slam win, when she captured the U.S. Open title.

It set the stage for a run of high-powered, high profile victories for both Williams sisters. Over the next decade, Serena alone would win 23 Grand Slam titles—including 10 doubles championships with her sister, Venus Williams.

With their signature style and play, Venus and Serena changed the look of their sport as well. Their sheer power and athletic ability overwhelmed opponents, and their sense of style and presence made them stand-out celebrities on the court.

Proving to have much more than just tennis clout, Serena expanded her brand into film, television, and fashion. She developed her own "Aneres" line of clothing, and in 2002 People magazine selected her as one of its 25 Most Intriguing People. Essencemagazine later called her one of the country's 50 Most Inspiring African-Americans. She's also made television appearances, and lent her voice to shows such as The Simpsons.

In 2002, she won the French Open, the U.S. Open, and Wimbledon, defeating Venus in the finals of each tournament. She captured her first Australian Open in 2003, making her one of only five women players to have complete grand slam sets. The win also fulfilled her desire to finish off what she'd dubbed "The Serena Slam." In 2008, she won the U.S. Open and teamed with Venus to capture a second women's doubles Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Games.

But Serena has had her scrapes and losses. In 2003, her sister Yetunde Price was murdered in Los Angeles, California. Three years later, Serena seemed burned out. Bitten by injuries, and just a general lack of motivation to stay fit or compete at the same level she once had, Serena saw her tennis ranking slump to 139.

Serena credits her faith as a Jehovah's Witness, as well as a life-changing journey she made to West Africa for renewing her pride and competitive fire. By 2009, Williams had released a new autobiography, Queen of the Court, and won her place back atop the world's rankings, winning both the 2009 Australian Open singles (for the fourth time) and Wimbledon 2009 singles (for the third time). She also won the doubles matches at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon that year.

But not everything went smoothly. Williams made headlines in September of that year, when she blasted a lineswomen for a foot-fault called near the end of a semi-final loss to eventual champion Kim Clijsters at the U.S. Open. The profanity-laced outburst included finger pointing and, according to the lineswoman, an alleged threat from Serena against her life.

Williams downplayed what happened, refuting the allegation that she'd threatened the woman. But the incident did not go over well with the tennis viewing public, nor the U.S. Tennis Association, which fined her $10,000 on the spot. Two months later, she was placed on two-year probation and ordered to pay another $82,500 to the Grand Slam committee for the episode&mdashthe largest punishment ever levied against a tennis player.

By early 2010, however, Serena was doing her best to move past the incident, gearing up for the upcoming Australian Open. Sure enough, in 2010, she won the Australian Open singles and doubles matches, as well as her fourth Wimbledon singles championship.

In 2011, Williams suffered a series of health scares, after doctors found a blood clot in one of her lungs, which kept her away from tennis for several months. Following several procedures, including one to remove a hematoma, speculation rose as to whether Williams would retire from the sport. Her health had improved by September 2011, however, and Williams competed at the U.S. Open, beating Victoria Azarenka to place second overall in the singles tournament.

Several months later, Williams beat Victoria Azarenka again in the Wimbledon 2012 semfinals, 

and went on to defeat 23-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska in an emotional three sets at Wimbledon 2012, claiming her fifth Wimbledon singles title. Following the win, Williams rushed to her family in the stands, with tears in her eyes, and hugged them for several seconds. In a post-Wimbledon interview with ESPN, she was asked whether she thought she could top the win, and answered: "Are you kidding? The [2012] U.S. Open, the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon 2013."

Williams continued her winning streak to her next Grand Slam event. In September 2012, she beat out rival Victoria Azarenka to take the singles title at the U.S. Open. According to USA Today, Williams wasn't sure that she'd emerge victorious. "I honestly can't believe I won. I was really reparing my runner-up speech, because I thought, 'Man, she's playing so great.'"

By this time, Williams had captured 15 Grand Slam singles titles—surpassing tennis star Pete Sampras's record of 14 titles—as well as 13 Grand Slam doubles titles. "I would like to leave a mark," Williams once said about her standing in the tennis world. "I think obviously I will, due to the fact that I'm doing something different in tennis. But I don't think I could ever reach something like a Martina Navratilova—I don't think I'd ever play that long—but who knows? I think I'll leave a mark regardless."

In August 2012, at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, Williams defeated Maria Sharapova to take her first gold medal in women's singles. The next day, she and sister Venus won gold in women's doubles, against Czech Republic tennis stars Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. Williams is now a four-time Olympic gold medalist.

In June 2013, Williams took her second French Open title—as well as her 16th Grand Slam singles title—in a 6-4, 6-4 victory over defending champion Sharapova. "I'm still a little bit upset about that loss last year," Williams said in an interview with ESPN following the match. "But it's all about, for me, how you recover. I think I've always said a champion isn't about how much they win, but it's about how they recover from their downs, whether it's an injury or whether it's a loss."

Nearly one month later, Williams competed at Wimbledon, where she suffered a shocking loss (6-2, 1-6, 6-4) in the fourth round against German player Sabine Lisicki on July 1, 2013. The upset marked the end of a 34-match winning streak by Williams, a five-time champion. Of the defeat, Williams told Sports Illustrated, "I don't think it's a huge shock. [Lisicki] is a great player. Her ranking has no effect on what she should be. She should be ranked higher. 

She just has a super, super game to play well on grass."

At the U.S. Open, Williams made a strong showing. She knocked out her younger rival Sloane Stephens in the fourth round to advance to the quarterfinals. Williams had lost to Stephens earlier in the year at the Australian Open. Continuing her winning streak,she defeated Victoria Azarenka to clinch the U.S. Open title. It was the second year in a row that the pair had faced off in the finals.

http://serenawilliams.com/about/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/157634.Serena_Williams?from_search=true

http://www.biography.com/people/serena-williams-9532901

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serena_Williams

Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner...Author,Considered the Fastest Woman of All Time,Sports Magazine Editor and Contributor

Florence Griffith Joyner 1959-1998 was not alone among athletes in burning herself into public memory. But she was alone in her sport. In 1988 she burst into the spotlight, having transformed herself from the workaday sprinter who had won silver in the 200 meters at the boycott-thinned 1984 Olympics into the fastest woman in history. She ran the 100 in 10.49 seconds in '88, a world record that wasn't even approached for a decade. The sister-in-law of Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Flo-Jo won three gold medals at the '88 Games and set a world record of 21.34 in the 200. A decade later, long retired but still a vital personality, she died of a heart seizure. It wasn't simply speed that formed Flo-Jo's legend, but also style. She wore one-legged unitards and lace attachments when other women wore shorts, melding athleticism and glamour like no one else. Sprint coach John Smith recalls watching her run in '88: "That year she had the outfits and the nails and the name, and she was in the best shape of her life. Suddenly, she had everything figured out. It was beautiful to watch.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/siforwomen/top_100/11/

"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Griffith_Joyner#cite_note-2

http://www.florencegriffithjoyner.com/

Peggy Gail Fleming...American Figure Skater,1968 Olympic Champion in Ladies' Singles,Three-Time World Champion,Breast Cancer Survivor,Painter,Visual Artist,Winemaker,Author

Peggy Fleming's gold-medal-winning free-skate program at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, lasted just four minutes, but that was enough time, it turned out, to change everything. By bringing her new and captivating combination of athleticism and artistic expression to an international TV audience -- Grenoble was the first Winter Games to be televised live and in color -- the 19-year-old achieved a remarkable trifecta: She returned glory to a U.S. team that had been wiped out by a 1961 plane crash, turned a once staid sport into the Games' glamour event and set figure skating on a course of growing popularity in the U.S. that now rivals the NFL's.

Most important, perhaps, Fleming established a new standard for artistic elegance on the ice. Delicate and subtle yet unmistakably athletic -- she had played baseball and surfed in her youth -- Fleming flowed seamlessly through her elements, making even the most demanding maneuvers look easy.

In 1998, Peggy celebrated another victory: surviving Breast Cancer. Peggy’s cancer was detected early and she underwent surgery and radiation. She is a grateful survivor who became a spokesperson for Breast Cancer Awareness. After her recovery, she retired from the spotlight and ventured into winemaking, launching Fleming Jenkins Wines with her husband, Dr. Greg Jenkins. Together they ran a tasting room in their hometown of Los Gatos, California. Both retired from winemaking in 2011 to enjoy their own schedule and make time for painting, friends and family.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/siforwomen/top_100/19/

http://peggyfleming.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peggy_Fleming

Wilma Glodean Rudolph...American Athlete,Author,Activist,Humanitarian,Olympic Champion

Long before becoming the world's fastest female, Wilma Rudolph 1940-1994 beat her greatest odds by learning to walk on her own. As a child, Rudolph (the 17th of 21 children) was afflicted with polio, scarlet fever and double pneumonia and grew up wearing a brace on her right leg. To her doctor's shock, she removed the brace and walked unassisted at age nine. By 13 she was outracing neighborhood kids. By 16 she had qualified for the 1956 Olympics (she won bronze in the 4x100-meter relay). In Rome four years later she became a beloved figure when she won the 100 and 200 meters and in the 4x100. She never shied from a cause. She participated in sit-ins at whites-only restaurants, ran a community center and established the Wilma Rudolph Foundation, which sends schools tutors and books about American heroes, a category that surely includes Rudolph.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/siforwomen/top_100/8/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilma_Rudolph

Naomi Wolf...Author,Social Critic,and Political Activist

Naomi Wolf raises awareness of the pervasive inequities that exist in society and politics. She encourages people to take charge of their lives, voice their concerns and enact change.

Wolf was born on November 12, 1962,in San Francisco, to a Jewish family. Her mother is Deborah Goleman, an anthropologist and the author of The Lesbian Community. Her father is the Romanian-born gothic horror scholar Leonard Wolf. She attended Lowell High School and debated in regional speech tournaments as a member of the Lowell Forensic Society. Wolf then attended Yale University where in 1984,she received her Bachelor of Arts in English literature. From 1985 to 1987,she was a Rhodes Scholar at New College, Oxford.

Wolf’s landmark international bestseller, The Beauty Myth, challenged the cosmetics industry and the marketing of unrealistic standards of beauty, launching a new wave of feminism in the early 1990s. The New York Times called it one of the most important books of the 20th century. In her long-anticipated book, Vagina: A New Biography, she asks, “could a profound connection between a woman’s brain and her experience of her vagina affect her greater sense of creativity—even her consciousness?” She argues that this connection is not only real—and long-overlooked—but that it is fundamental to a woman’s sense of self.

Wolf’s New York Times bestseller, The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, is an impassioned call to return to the aspirations and beliefs of the Founders’ ideals of liberty. The New York Times called the documentary version “pointedly inflammatory.” Her latest book, Give Me Liberty: A Handbook For American Revolutionaries, includes effective tools for citizens to promote civic engagement and create sustainable democracy.

Her international journalism includes the investigative report “Guantánamo Bay: The Inside Story” for The Times of London, and as a columnist for Project Syndicate her articles have been published in India, Philippines, Egypt, and Lebanon. She’s a frequent blogger on The Huffington Post and writes cultural commentary for The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Harper’s Bazaar. Her TV appearances include Larry King Live, Meet the Press, The Joyce Behar Show, and The Colbert Report.

Wolf was a consultant to Al Gore during his presidential campaign on women’s issues and social policy. She is co-founder of The Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership, an organization that teaches leadership to young women, and The American Freedom Campaign, a grass roots democracy movement in the United States whose mission is the defense of the Constitution and the rule of law.

http://naomiwolf.org/biography/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Wolf

http://www.superscholar.org/features/20-most-influential-women-intellectuals/

Liza Lou...Installation Artist,Author,Editor and Cultural Icon

Liza Lou works not with paint, but with beads. Her most famous work is the one below Kitchen, which took five years to complete. It gave her tendinitis. It also upset all her art teachers. But in the end, she was awarded a genius grant for her work, and continues to work in beads now.

Born in New York City in 1969, Liza Lou first gained attention when her room-size sculpture, Kitchen was shown at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York in 1996. Begun by the artist when she was twenty, this ground breaking work - five years in it's making, introduced glass beads as Lou's primary art material and along with subsequent room-size sculptures and performances, established many of the social and political themes, such as women's issues, social justice and human endurance that continues to underscore her practice today.

In 2005, Lou founded a collective with Zulu artisans in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. While Lou does not borrow from the tradition of African beadwork, her recent sculpture and woven paintings are meditations upon process, the impossibility of perfection, and what Lou terms, 'the culpability of craft.'

Liza Lou has participated in numerous solo museum exhibitions internationally including Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah;Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Bass Museum of Art, Miami; Aspen Art Museum, Aspen; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo; Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica and Fondació Joan Miró, Espai 13, Barcelona. Lou has participated in numerous group exhibitions including the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Palais de Tokyo, Paris and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. She is the recipient of a 2002 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

Liza Lou, “Kitchen” 

http://www.lizalou.com/bio/

http://flavorwire.com/423765/24-powerful-works-by-contemporary-women-artists-you-should-know/13/

Carrie Mae Weems...Visual Artist,Author,Photographer,2014 BET Honors Award Recipient

Storytelling is fundamental in Carrie Mae Weems’s work. For three decades, Weems has created socially engaged, conceptual work in photography, video, mixed media and installation. Using narratives both personal and universal, Weems addresses what scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. calls “the complex web of gender, race, sexuality, class, family and community that catches us all.”

On April 20,Carrie Mae Weems is born in Portland, Oregon
She is the second child born to Carrie Polk and Myrlie Weems and is a Contemporary photographer. At the age of 16 she gave birth to her first and only child, a daughter named Faith C. Weems. Later that year she moved out of her parent's home and soon relocated to San Francisco to study modern dance with Anna Halprin at a workshop Halprin had started with several other dancers, as well as the artists John Cage and Robert Morris. She decided to continue her arts schooling and attended the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia. She graduated at the age of 28 with her BA in 1981 and an MFA in Photography from the University of California, San Diego in 1984. From 1984 until 1987, Weems studied folklore at the University of California, Berkeley. 

While in her early twenties, Carrie Mae Weems was politically active in the labor movement as a union organizer. Her first camera, which she received as a birthday gift from her then boyfriend,was used for politics rather than for artistic purposes. She was inspired to pursue photography only after she came across The Black Photography Annual, a book of images by African-American photographers. This book contained the work of photographers Shawn Walker, Beuford Smith, Anthony Barboza, Ming Smith, Adger Cowans, and Roy DeCarava, which Weems found inspiring. This led her to New York, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, where she began to meet other artists and photographers such as Frank Stewart and Coreen Simpson, and they began to form a community. In 1976 Weems took a photography class at the Museum taught by Dawoud Bey. She returned to San Francisco, but lived bi-coastally and was involved with the Studio Museum and a community of photographers in New York.

She is best known for creating installations using photographs, text, captions, and audio recordings. Weems'' work often confronts viewers with the issues of racism, identity, and gender and frequently explores these themes through the lenses of both personal and national history. Weems cites Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston as writers who had a significant impact on her interests and artistic style. In 1983,Carrie Mae Weems completed her first collection of photographs,text, and spoken word called,Family Pictures and Stories. The images told the story of her family,and she has said that in this project she was trying to explore the movement of black families out of the South and into the North, using her family as a model for the larger theme. Her next series, called Ain't Jokin', was completed in 1988. It focused on racial jokes and internalized racism. Another series called American Icons, completed in 1989, also focused on racism. Weems has said that throughout the 1980s she was turning away from the documentary photography genre, instead "creating representations that appeared to be documents but were in fact staged" and also "incorporating text, using multiples images, diptychs and triptychs, and constructing narratives." Gender issues were the next focal point for Carrie Mae Weems. It was the topic of one of her most well known collections called The Kitchen Table series which was completed in 1990. About Kitchen Table and Family Pictures and Stories, Weems has said, "I use my own constructed image as a vehicle for questioning ideas about the role of tradition, the nature of family, monogamy, polygamy, relationships between men and women,between women and their children,and between women and other women—underscoring the critical problems and the possible resolves."  She has expressed disbelief and concern about the exclusion of images of the black community,particularly black women,from the popular media,and aims to represent these excluded subjects and speak to their experience through her work. Other series created by Weems include: the Sea Island Series (1991-92),the Africa Series (1993),From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried (1995-96),Who What When Where (1998),Ritual & Revolution (1998),the Louisiana Project (2003),Roaming (2006),and the Museum Series, which she began in 2007.She currently lives and works in upstate New York.

In her almost 30 year career,Carrie Mae Weems has won numerous awards. She was named Photographer of the Year by the Friends of Photography. In 2005, she was awarded the Distinguished Photographer's Award in recognition of her significant contributions to the world of photography. Her talents have also been recognized by numerous colleges, including Harvard University and Wellesley College, with fellowships, artist-in-residence and visiting professor positions. She was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2013

Carrie Mae Weems: “The Kitchen Table Series"

http://radicalpresenceny.org/?page_id=379

https://www.artnet.com/artists/carrie+mae-weems/

http://carriemaeweems.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Mae_Weems

PAULA WHITE, pastor, teacher, author, international evangelist, inspirational figure, popular TV personality…woman of God.

Paula Michelle White was born on April 20, 1966 into a storybook life to an upper-middle class family in Tupelo, Mississippi, Paula's world shattered when, at the age of five, her father senselessly and suddenly died. The tragedy threw her family into dire straits, and her childhood became marred by poverty and feelings of abandonment, confusion, and betrayal. She experienced periods of abuse from the hands of strangers. As a teenage girl, Paula experienced deep feelings of shame and rejection. She coped by becoming an overachiever in school, winning the approval of her teachers, trying at every juncture to gain the approval of everyone around her. But nothing seemed to work. Around age 9, Paula’s mother remarried and the family moved to Maryland.

Once again, Paula’s world would change - this time for the better. At age 18, Paula was introduced to the Gospel, and became a Christian. The crushing weight of shame and rejection she’d carried as long as she could remember were gone. Paula held the Bible and said, “God, I don’t know you and I don’t even know myself. But I know the answers are in this book.” From there, her life began to transform radically as she studied the Bible and became involved in a local church. Then, she had a vision that she was to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.

Paula was moved by the plight of those who Jesus called “the least of these” and deeply yearned to touch those most in need. In the late 80s, she began ministering in the inner cities of Washington, D.C. By the early ’90s, she was in post-riot Los Angeles, sharing Jesus with children whose neighborhoods had been hardest hit by violence. In 1991, God called Paula to help co-found Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Florida - a ministry that went on to touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. In 2001, she founded Paula White Media Ministry to reach the world with the message God had given her: a message that would “transform lives, heal hearts, and win souls.” Paula White Ministries had become definite in form and started to grow.

Passionately devoted to outreach, the ministry began by supporting the local community, holding feedings and giveaways, and vigorously seeking innovative ways to reach those in need. Today, Paula White Ministries supports hundreds of local and international outreaches and spearheads global mission outreaches. Paula White Ministries provided food, clean water, clothing, toiletries and transportation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and supported ongoing rebuilding efforts. Just hours after the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Paula White Ministries worked through the orphanage in Haiti to provide food, clean water, and clothing, later providing tents as the masses continued to arrive during the rainy season, looking for help and shelter. The ministry provides ongoing, substantial support to many orphanages globally and is also a robust supporter of Feed the Children and Churches Helping Churches. Paula White was on the board for Safe Horizons non-profit organization, advocating for women and children who are victims of domestic violence. She partnered with Harlem’s Northside Center for Child Development, supporting their efforts to provide social services to underprivileged children and families.

Presently, Paula White Ministries is at work with its partners: building orphanages, schools, churches, clean-water wells, and feeding stations around the world; providing desperately needed medical care and ministerial training internationally; and organizing crusades, focusing on the most deprived areas, such as Haiti, Africa, and India.

Paula White continues to be an inspiration to millions around the world. She was featured as one of the five most innovative and effective church leaders of today in the book Holy Mavericks, Evangelical Innovators and the Spiritual Marketplace (Lee & Sinitiere, New York University Press). Her voice resonates loudly for the voiceless as she brings a message of salvation to the privileged as well as the destitute. Reaching beyond cultural and socioeconomic barriers, she fervently shares God’s transformative Word to touch the person within. Her message is for those seeking to discover their purpose in life, and designed to launch them into a destiny they could never have imagined. It’s obvious that "she understands, she’s been there, and she knows how to get out.” Her television program, "Paula Today,” reaches a potential viewing audience of 2.3 billion people worldwide, and she has been listed as one of the Top 50 "Most Influential Christians in America,” by The Church Report (2006).

Paula White received the 2011 Impact Leadership Award during the 5th Annual International Financial and Leadership Summit in Houston, Texas; the 2009 Humanitarian Award by the Trumpet Award Foundation; the 2007 Behind the Bench "Mind, Body Spirit Award” from the NBA Wives Organization; and the 2006 "Trailblazer Award” by Jesse Jackson and Rainbow Coalition. In 2008, she performed the Invocation for the 40th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee, and was a presenter at Maya Angelou’s 80th birthday tribute in Atlanta, Georgia. Paula White has received endorsements from T.D. Jakes, Joel and Victoria Osteen, General Colin Powell, Donald Trump, Joyce Meyer, Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson, Kim Kiyosaki, Ebony Magazine, and many others

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Today, as a much-in-demand speaker and proclaimer of the gospel, she continues to travel extensively to fulfill her mandated mission: transform lives, heal hearts, and win souls. Known for her profound and dynamic Bible teaching, she is the host of the nationally syndicated program Paula Today. Transcending socioeconomic and denominational barriers, her powerful message of hope resonates among people from every walk of life.

With a faith undaunted by the task at hand, this mother, humanitarian and beloved mentor is also the Senior Pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida, a non-traditional church with a multi-cultural mission whose membership ranges in the thousands. A gifted exhorter and motivator, the core of Paula’s message is “delivering spiritual truths that transforms lives”.

http://www.paulawhite.org/about/paula-white-ministries/paula-whites-story

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_White

Rev. Joyce Meyer...Minister,Author,Televangelist,Teacher

Joyce Meyer, born Pauline Joyce Hutchison; June 4, 1943, is a Charismatic Christian author and speaker. Meyer earned her doctoral degree from Life Christian University, in Tampa, Florida. Meyer has been given an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity by Oral Roberts University,  in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Meyer and her husband Dave have four grown children, and live outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her ministry is headquartered in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri.

Joyce Meyer is one of the world's leading practical Bible teachers. A New York Times bestselling author, her books have helped millions of people find hope and restoration through Jesus Christ. Through Joyce Meyer Ministries, she teaches on a number of topics with a particular focus on the mind, mouth, moods and attitudes. Her candid communication style allows her to share openly and practically about her experiences so others can apply what she has learned to their lives.

Joyce hosts a TV and radio show, Enjoying Everyday Life®, which broadcasts worldwide to a potential audience of 4.5 billion people. She has authored 100 books, which have been translated into more than 100 languages. More than 12 million of her books have been distributed free of charge around the world, and each year millions of copies are sold.

Joyce conducts close to a dozen domestic and international conferences every year, teaching people to enjoy their everyday lives. For 30 years, her annual women's conference has attracted more than 200,000 women from all over the world to St. Louis for specifically themed teachings by her and guest speakers.

Through her teachings, God has provided opportunities to meet the needs of the suffering and bring the Gospel in a practical way. Joyce's passion to help hurting people every day is foundational to the vision of Hand of Hope, the missions arm of Joyce Meyer Ministries. These outreaches around the globe include feeding programs, medical care, homes for orphans, and programs combatting human trafficking. In her hometown of St. Louis, Joyce and Dave, her husband, founded the St. Louis Dream Center (SLDC) in 2000. The SLDC serves the inner city through hands-on programs targeted at reaching the lost and hurting with the love of Christ.

Over the years, God has provided Joyce with many opportunities to share her testimony and the life-changing message of the Gospel. Having suffered sexual abuse throughout her childhood, as well as just dealing with the struggles of everyday life, Joyce discovered the freedom to live victoriously by applying God's Word to her life and in turn desires to help others do the same.

Joyce is and continues to be an incredible testimony of the dynamic, redeeming work of Jesus Christ.

http://www.joycemeyer.org/AboutUs/JoyceBio.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Meyer

Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry...Pastor,Actor,Educator,Community Leader,Author,Activist

The Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry hails from a family that has produced five generations of Black church leaders.  Currently National Presiding Minister of The House of the Lord Churches, he has previously served as Chairman of the National Black United Front as well as Founder and President of the African People's Christian Organization.  More than 50 years of involvement in church and community service has earned him the title, "The People's Pastor."

Rev. Daughtry's long career of activism began with the civil rights struggles in the 1950s working with Brooklyn CORE and Operation Breadbasket, and continued in the fight for community control of schools in the late 1960s. He subsequently helped to found several organizations, including Black Leadership 

Commission on AIDS, Alonzo Daughtry Memorial Family Life Services, which serves the community through innovative programming such as Families of Victims Against Violence, and Alonzo Daughtry Memorial Day Care Center, which provides early childhood education under the motto, "Nurturing and Educating the Leaders of Tomorrow."  He currently serves as Chair of National Religious Leaders of African Ancestry Concerned about Darfur.

Reverend Daughtry has previously served as Chair of the New York Citywide African-American Clergy Council, African American Clergy and Elected Officials, and the Association of Brooklyn Clergy for Community Development, which built and renovated more than 500 units of housing for low- and middle-income families in Brooklyn. 

His commitment to global human rights and self-determination has led Rev. Daughtry to travel and lecture extensively around the world, and he has participated in dozens of international conferences and conventions, including speaking at United Nations subcommittee meetings regarding South African apartheid, Cuba, the Middle East, and the state of U.S. civil rights.

Currently, Reverend Daughtry is one of a handful of community leaders working with Forest City Ratner Companies to build Atlantic Yards, a $5 billion complex that includes a 19,000 seat arena to house the New York Nets.  Daughtry was instrumental in the creation of the landmark Atlantic Yards Community Benefits Agreement that ensures delivery of a wide variety of services to the Brooklyn community, including a state-of-the-art health facility, an intergenerational center, and a community foundation as well as housing opportunities for low- and middle-income New Yorkers, construction jobs for minorities and women, and thousands of other employment opportunities.

Ordained to the Ministry in 1958, Reverend Daughtry was installed as the third National Presiding Minister of The House of the Lord Churches in October 1959.  His father, Alonzo, had served as the Church's founder and first Presiding Minister.  Daughtry has pastored the Brooklyn congregation since 1958.  In 2010, he established a Jersey City branch of the Church, and he also serves as pastor there.

In the field of religion, he has served in various capacities with the World Council of Churches; has studied and done research at the Theological Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland; and has been the preacher in residence at the Interdenominational Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. Rev. Daughtry has also lectured at Harvard University School of Divinity and at both Union and New York Theological Seminaries in New York City. Additionally, he was one of the principal lecturers at the 150th anniversary of the Virginia Theological Seminary and his lecture, “A Theology of Black Liberation: the Who, What and How,” was published in the school’s journal.

Rev. Daughtry is a prolific author. His book, No Monopoly on Suffering: Blacks and Jews in Crown Heights and Elsewhere, published by Africa World Press in 1997 with a foreword by Dr. Cornel West, gives a chronology of the building of a movement in Brooklyn which can serve as a guide for the empowerment of any people. His other books include My Beloved Community, published by Africa World Press, Effectual Prayer and Dear 2pac: Letters to a Son, published by Seaburn Press. Other publications to his credit include “Jesus Christ: African in Origin, Revolutionary and Redeeming in Action,” “South African Reader,” “Seize the Future,” “From Magnificence to Wretchedness: The Sad Saga of Black Humanity,” “Inside the Storm: A Report on the Uprising in Crown Heights,” and another work on Tupac Shakur – who joined his congregation at the early age of 11 – entitled, “A Seed Planted in Stone: The Life and Times of Tupac Shakur.” 

The pastor appeared in Spike Lee’s Mo’ Better Blues as the minister who married Bleak Gilliam (Denzel Washington) and Indigo Downes (Joie Lee).

Reverend Daughtry is married to Reverend Dr. Karen Smith Daughtry.  They have four adult children:  Leah, Sharon, Dawnique, and Herbert, Jr; and three grandsons, Lorenzo, Herbert III, and Myles.

http://holc.bluestatedigital.com/pages/presiding-minister

http://www.holnj.org/nationalpresider.html

Bishop Dr. Matthew M. Odum, Sr…..Pastor,Author,Community Leader,Committed Vessel of God

Dr. Odum is an alumnus of Savannah State College (now University) where he majored in English Literature. He also holds both a master’s degree as well as a doctorate from Covington Theological Seminary where his concentration was in African-American Religious Studies. Dr. Odum was consecrated a bishop in the Lord’s Church in June 2005 in Chicago, Illinois. An accomplished and gifted orator, Dr. Odum has traveled all over the nation, preaching a practical, powerful and provocative message that serves to convict, convince, and convert men and women into the Kingdom of God.

Dr. Odum has been extremely active in his native Savannah; serving on various boards and ministries, writing for a local paper, as well as carrying the torch of the gospel message to any that would receive it. He has been commended by the Georgia State House of Representatives at least twice for being an excellent spiritual and community leader. A lover of God’s people, he is a dedicated pastor and a staunch student of the Word of God.

March 2012 marked a significant milestone for Dr. Odum with the release of his first book entitled, “Mending Nets” [The Often Misunderstood and Undervalued Ministry of Reconciliation and Restoration]. In Mending Nets, Dr. Odum challenges the church to change its perspective on evangelism, if necessary-and complete the job to which God has called us.

Rev. Dr. Odum is married to Sis. Sheila J. Odum, and they are the proud parents of three children: Tiffanie, Brittanie and Matthew II; and the grandparents of one grandchild, Christian. He is the son of Mrs. Mary Lou Odum and the late Mr. Willie B. Odum.

Rev. Dr. Matthew M. Odum is the senior pastor of The Temple of Glory Community Church in Savannah, Georgia. For twenty-eight (28) years, Rev. Odum has served in the capacity of pastor/teacher and has guided this congregation to a greater appreciation for Kingdom excellence and integrity. Upon his arrival in 1985, the Temple of Glory (formerly Garvin Temple Baptist Church) was a congregation of 200 members. She is now an assembly of over 1800, and the Lord continues to bless the work of this unique ministry through the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit along with this committed vessel of God.

http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/Archives/19951996/leg/fulltext/hr68.htm

http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/Archives/19971998/leg/fulltext/hr915.htm

http://www.mmodumministries.com/matthew-odum