(via Too Gallant: Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge)
Jane Avril’s flinchingly high kick on the poster for her Jardin de Paris performance is perhaps the most defining image of turn-of-the-century Paris. Even at the time, Avril credited the Toulouse-Lautrec designed poster with launching her career, and now it’s become one of the most widely reproduced posters of all time.
However most peoples’ knowledge of the enigmatic dancer largely ends here … The daughter of an abusive alcoholic courtesan, Avril (then Jeanne Richepin) fled home aged thirteen only to be incarcerated in a mental asylum.
She was diagnosed with Syndenham’s chorea, a condition characterised by the rapid, jerking movements of the hands and feet. At one of the balls held for hospital patients, however, she astounded her doctors and fellow patients with her dancing: Avril channelled her ailment into the medium of dance, explaining her infamous eccentric style and later earning her the nickname La Mélinite (after a powerful form of explosive).how come we never hear these stories? how come we are constantly erasing disability and people with disabilities lives from history? i was just having this conversation after actually having my jaw drop when i was in a room of art buffs who all claimed to know and love frida kahlo’s work and life… and were trying to DEBATE with me that she didn’t have disabilities.
Disabled people are erased from history because everyone knows that Glee invented the idea of disabled people with talent.
But seriously though this story is fucking awesome.
Bessie Coleman
(1892-1926)
AviatrixKnown to an admiring public as “Queen Bess,” Bessie Coleman was the first black woman ever to fly an airplane and the first African American to earn an international pilot’s license. During her brief yet distinguished career as a performance flier, she appeared at air shows and exhibitions across the United States, earning wide recognition for her aerial skill, her dramatic flair and her tenacity. But the thrill of stunt flying and the admiration of cheering crowds were only part of Coleman’s dream. Forced for a time to work as a laundress and manicurist to make ends meet, Coleman never lost sight of her childhood vow to one day “amount to something.”
As a professional aviatrix, Coleman would often be criticized by the press for her opportunistic nature and the flamboyant style she brought to her exhibition flying. However, she also quickly gained a reputation as a skilled and daring pilot who would stop at nothing to complete a difficult stunt. Unfortunately, Coleman would not live long enough to fulfill her greatest dream — establishing a school for young, black aviators — but her pioneering achievements served as an inspiration for a generation of African American men and women. “Because of Bessie Coleman,” wrote Lieutenant William J. Powell in Black Wings, “we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.”
Read more of Caroline B. D. Smith’s article here.
Photo: Bessie Coleman around the time of her French visit, c.1922 (Smithsonian Institution, Neg. ID #: 99-15415, scraped from this site.)
Hearts in my eyes, etc
Also, DEM BOOTS
Sometimes I come across things on the internet and I’m like “What is even going on here” and then I decide it may be more fun not knowing. Check out the chest holes in this armor and the ridiculous leafy protuberance on that sword.
I’m guessing this is a reliquary? Or something similar?
Either that or it’s something that will come alive to defend some castle in its greatest hour of need.
That sword is really boss.
What People drank in The Middle Ages and Renaissance
Water
Water was rarely drunk due to the difficulties in obtaining clean drinking water (typhoid and other water-borne diseases were highly prevalent). If water had to be drunk, spring water was preferred, as it was less likely to cause disease than river water or still water (pond water). Water was also believed to be bad for the digestion, as they believed that it would chill the stomach and hinder digestion of food.Wine
Wine was believed to be very good for the health, and was commonly drunk with meals as it was also readily produced in many areas in Europe, and easily transported and stored. Good quality wines were the most popular mealtime drink of nobility, although poorer people could sometimes afford low quality wines.Spiced Wines
Spiced or mulled wines were also enjoyed. These were used as an aperitif, or to clear the palate after a meal. Spiced wines were also believed to have medicinal qualities.Hippocras was a red wine which was flavoured with spices such as ginger, cinnamon, sugar, cloves, galingale or nutmeg. Claret was a spiced wine which was often made from a white wine, and was flavoured with cloves, nutmeg, mace, caraway, ginger, pepper and other spices.
Beers and Ales
Beer and ales were very popular drinks, although they were generally consumed by lower class people rather than the nobility (who generally preferred drinking wine).Beer was made from grains such as oats, wheat, barley or rye, while hops were not added to beer in England until after their introduction to England in 1525 (although they had previously been used in beer production in Flanders for several hundred years). Hops add a bitter taste to beer, so most medieval beers would have lacked the bitter taste of modern beers.
Ales could also be flavoured with spices, similar to spiced wines. These spiced ales were called �braggots�.
Mead
Mead is produced by fermenting a honey and water mixture. Mead could also be flavoured with various spices, either during production or immediately before drinking. Mead was considered to be an ideal drink for invalids by the physicians of the time.Cider and other fruit juices
Fruit juices were drunk as either fresh fruit juice, or were fermented to produce alcoholic drinks like cider or perry.Cider is produced from whole apples, while perry is produced from pears. Murrey comes from blackberries or black mulberries, while prunelle is made from plums. A more unusual fruit juice is made from ground and strained pomegranate seeds.
Milk
Milk was not popular as a drink for adults- its use was generally confined to young children. Kumiss, which is an alcoholic drink made from fermented mare�s milk, was popular in the Middle East, but was only drunk in European countries when recommended by a physician.Tea & Coffee
Tea & coffee were not commonly drunk in Europe during our time period. Herbal infusions were sometimes drunk for their medicinal qualities, but tea was not commonly drunk until after our time period. Coffee was extremely popular in the Middle-East, and was introduced to Constantinople in 1554, but did not become popular throughout Europe for another 100 years.
Wait, what does beer without hops taste like???
I have a bone to pick with Douglas Haig. He was the commander of the British Expeditionary Force from 1915 to the end of the first World War. He believed that more soldiers and ammunition would win the war when all it did was lead to the death of over 2 million soldiers. He refused to consider new tactics and technologies that could be used, and instead forced his soldiers to go ‘over the top’ (a tactic in which the soldiers would climb out of the trench and try to take the enemy’s trench with only brute force and poor weapons.) which also lead to the death of many soldiers. It was basically a suicide mission to go ‘over the top’. It also doesn’t ease my hatred of Douglas ‘The Butcher’ Haig that he commanded the regiments in the Battle of the Somme, in which every single one of the Newfoundland reigment was killed (a huge deal for me because I’m a strong Canadian nationalist), not to mention that it holds the record of the most deaths in British military history.
I just really don’t like this man.
[This submission is very dear to my heart - he came very close to being my ‘History Foe’]
I was gonna post Haig and then someone beat me to it…sort of.
Haig really can’t be blamed for sending guys over the top because that was literally how the entire war was fought. And, indeed, running into gunfire is how EVERY WAR is fought. Now, granted, there were other generals who did a much better job of modifying their tactics in order to reduce causalities and find more effective ways of taking enemy trenches but… ultimately everyone had to go over the top.
And, while he was fucking terrible when it came to tactics, he was actually pretty keen on new technology. He was a big proponent of the early development of tanks, which may or may not have been a good thing because early tanks were fucking awful.
I’ve watched this video maybe 20 times now.
Look at these fierce ladies performing this hula, transcending the expectations of the hula mu’umu’u. Look at this hula confronting ableism, re-telling the story of Manamanaiakaluea, not as a woman who had struggled, was pitied, and was restored. This is a hula about the grace and power of Hi’iaka and the strength and resilience of Manamanaiakaluea.
This is a hula about survivance.
“Pi’i Ana A’ama” - Kumu Hula Mark Keali’i Hoomalu
Rad. Rad rad rad. Also, OAKLAND!!!
everything about their movements says ‘power.’ their stance, so centered and close to the earth/floor. their bodies, so many of them powerfully and voluptuously built. the power of their movements, their endurance, the way they move with such control but such force. everything.
Your legs trying to do this … On fire you do this shit from your SOUL
ohh i need a hula halau for the lil one, asap. :*( why being away from her hawai’i is sad.
Wow.
Before Tuskegee, there was Bessie.
The world’s first licensed Black pilot. And, the first female pilot of African American descent.
“Brave Bessie”, as she was sometimes called, grew up on her parents farm along with her 12 siblings were she, from the age of 6, attended a school that was specifically for African American children. Her father left the family in 1901 hoping to have a better life in Oklahoma. Bessie worked on cotton fields with school to save up for the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston.
After the first semester she had to return home because of financial difficulties. When she was 23, she moved to Chicago to live with her brother and found a job as a manicurist. She knew that this was not what she wanted to do. When she heard the stories of French the female pilots De Laroche, Marvingt and Dutrieu, her became interested in becoming an aviator herself.
In every flight school she applied, Bessie was refused entry because she was either African American or a woman, or both. She started taking French lessons in Chicago and in November traveled to Paris to enroll in the École d’Aviation des Frères Caudon in Le Crotoy. In only 7 months she was the first black woman to complete an aviation pilot’s license. After realizing that the best way to make money as an aviator was by flying in the air shows, she took 2 more months of flight lessons near Paris and became a media sensation in the states where she was introduced as “Queen Bessie”.
(via aviation geeks)
Bessie. Fucking. Coleman.
Hell yeah.
Our real first gay president
The new issue of Newsweek features a cover photo of President Obama topped by a rainbow-colored halo and captioned “The First Gay President.” The halo and caption strike me as cheap sensationalism. I realize airport travelers look at a magazine for 2.2 seconds before moving on to the next one. I grant that this cover will probably get Newsweek a 4.4 second glance. I also understand that Newsweek is desperate for sales. Nevertheless, I doubt that the Newsweek of old, before it was sold for a dollar, would have pandered as shallowly.
The caption is a superficial way to characterize an important development of thought that the president — along with the country — has been making over recent years. It is also entirely wrong. Like the mini-furor a couple of months back about the claim that Richard Nixon was our first gay president, the story simply ignores that the U.S. already had a gay president more than a century ago.
There can be no doubt that James Buchanan was gay, before, during and after his four years in the White House. Moreover, the nation knew it, too — he was not far into the closet.
Today, I know no historian who has studied the matter and thinks Buchanan was heterosexual. Fifteen years ago, historian John Howard, author of “Men Like That,” a pioneering study of queer culture in Mississippi, shared with me the key documents, including Buchanan’s May 13, 1844, letter to a Mrs. Roosevelt. Describing his deteriorating social life after his great love, William Rufus King, senator from Alabama, had moved to Paris to become our ambassador to France, Buchanan wrote:
I am now “solitary and alone,” having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone; and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection.
Tl;dr Newsweek go fuck yourself. We’ve had a gay president before. Stop being a sensationalist piece of shit.