Herstory Printmaking Collective

BIOGRAPHIES

Amanda Gorman in her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” expressed the deepest feelings that many of us felt as we watched the 2021 Inauguration of President Joe Biden. She is America’s Youth Poet Laureate and more than that, she speaks her truth on issues that America has not been facing or adequately addressing. Her voice is important and essential to the United States that we aspire to be.  

Anni Albers, 1899 -1994, was considered the foremost textile designer of the 20^th century, credited with blurring the lines between traditional craft and art. She was also an adventurous graphic artist who took printmaking techniques into previously uncharted territory. She served as the head of the weaving department at Bauhaus in Germany, later moving with her husband Josef Albers to teach at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina. She was the first textile artist to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. She travelled all over the world, designed, made prints and lectured until her death in 1994.

Augusta Savage (1892–1962) was an African American sculptor, educator, community organizer, curator, mentor, activist, and leader. She was at the center of the Harlem Renaissance. Despite racism, sexism, and being stalked and harassed by Joseph Gould, she was committed to making a place for her work and that of her students. Although little of her work has survived, her students are among many of the better-known black artists today.  

bell hooks was a writer, activist, scholar, and educator who helped to redefine feminist discourse beyond the white middle class by making and holding space for the experiences of Black and working-class women. To her accomplishment, bell hooks, wrote and published over 30 books commonly known for addressing issues of “imperialist white supremacy capitalist patriarchy” wherein she calls on all people to fight the forces of oppression and domination. 

Clara Belle Williams, the daughter of sharecroppers in Texas and a homesteader in NM, was the first African American graduate of NMSU during segregation times. She took classes in the hallway listening and taking notes at the door. Belle earned a diploma but was not permitted to walk at her graduation. For over 30 years, she taught children during the day and their parents at night. Belle founded the Williams clinic in Chicago with her three sons, all MDs. A lifelong learner, she died at the age of 108. The NMSU English Department renamed a building in her honor. 

Claudia Sheinbaum is a Mexican politician, environmental scientist and was the first female mayor of Mexico City and its first Jewish mayor. She was the Secretary of the Environment from 2000 – 2006 and contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the United Nations. She has authored multiple books and hundreds of articles on the topic of energy and sustainability. She is a presidential candidate in Mexico’s 2024 national election.

Dagmar Llewellyn leads the Planning Group at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Albuquerque office, where she and her team use science and public engagement to plan for the impacts of climate change on our water supply, to help us continue to thrive in this arid landscape.  In an interview with Laura Paskus, she said: “There is no new normal. We talk about the flow of the Rio Grande relative to the ‘average’, or to the ‘normal’, but the challenge of climate change is that we’re losing the whole concept of normal, and now must learn to live in a climate, and with a hydrology, that is constantly changing.”

Deb Haaland is the first indigenous Cabinet Secretary in US history (it’s about time!). A woman from the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, she is a single mother, an environmental guardian who reminds us it is sacred, an advocate for the missing and murdered Native Americans, and a UNM Law School graduate. “I Believe Native Americans, women, and all of us deserve representation, and that we all need to fight with everything we have to make it so.” Deb Haaland       

Dolores Huerta, civil rights activist born 1930 in Dawson, New Mexico.  Huerta fought for equal rights for farm workers, immigrants, and women.  A recent quote of hers resonated with me deeply, especially in the current environment: “I personally believe that we should get rid of the word race,” Huerta said. “We only have one human race, so when we refer to other people by a ‘race,’ it’s really a misnomer because we only have one human race, it’s called Homo sapiens.”  

Emma Gonzalez (who uses the pronouns they/them) survived the February 2018 shooting at MSD High School in Parkland, Florida and became a very outspoken gun-control advocate. Gonzales is one of the organizers of March For Our Lives. They inspire me with the beauty of their clear and direct speech after having witnessed such a tragedy. I wanted to honor Emma Gonzalez and all that they stand for.  

Esther Chávez Cano was a businesswoman, writer, organizer, activist, and healer. In 1992 she founded the Grupo Ocho de Marzo, to oppose Mexico’s strict abortion laws. In addition, her advocacy brought international attention to the political cover-up of “femicide” (gender-motivated killing of women) happening in Juarez. In 1999, Chávez established Casa Amiga, a shelter for women who have experienced physical or sexual abuse. To this day, it continues to be part of a more significant movement in Mexico toward women’s rights and gender equity. “I learned to shout for those who couldn’t.” 

Fadwa Tuqan (1917 – 2003) was a Palestinian poet known for her representations of resistance to Israeli occupation in contemporary Arab Poetry. She has sometimes been referred to as the “Poet of Palestine”. Tuqan published eight poetry collections, which were translated into many languages. After the Six-Day War, Tuqan’s poetry focused on the hardships of living under the Israeli occupation. One of her best-known poems, “The Night and the Horsemen,” described life under Israeli military rule.

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón was born to a German father and mestiza mother in Coyoacán, Mexico City. During her rich and tragic life, she made nearly 200 paintings. These works depict her interests in politics, communism, science, nature, folk culture, and present themes around identity, postcolonialism, gender and race. Frida was constantly curating her own identity throughout her life, going as far as “changing” her birth year from 1907 to 1910 to match the beginning of the Mexican Revolution.  

Friedl Dicker Brandeis was an artist, educator and designer who studied at the Bauhaus School. While imprisoned by the Nazis in the Terezin Ghetto Model Camp, she taught children’s art classes. “Sometimes I felt like she was a doctor. She herself was medicine. Until today I cannot understand the mystery of her freedom. It flew into us from her like a current.” — Edna Amit (artist, student, survivor) Friedl was murdered, as were many of her young students, in the Auschwitz gas chambers. After the war ended, 5,000 works of art were found in suitcases and under floorboards.  

Georgia O’Keeffe is so much more than the paintings that she is known for. She is a woman of herstory standing fully in her power. In a history of photography class at UNM, I’ve learned that her husband Alfred Stieglitz photographed every square inch of her body in the fashion that photography normally objectified women with the lens. However, Stieglitz did not direct the narrative of the lens; in fact, O’Keeffe commanded the imagery, taking it from explicit objectification to empowered and visceral artistic expression. 

Greta Thunberg is a young Swedish activist; she has Asperger’s syndrome, and with her direct and fearless voice has inspired international youth strikes on climate change, fights for gun control, and battles for democratic representation. “How Dare You,” she cries to politicians and the world at large, “How Dare You” feed us fairytale images of a utopia built on endless economic growth, when it fact the greed and lies leave humanity and the planet in a ever-looming state of destruction.

Jane Goodall is renowned for her meticulous and long-term research on the chimpanzees of Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Her work contributed to our understanding of chimpanzees but has also been instrumental in conservation efforts, raising awareness about the importance of protecting wildlife and their habitats. Her tireless advocacy has inspired countless individuals to take action for a more sustainable and compassionate planet. 

Jeanie McLerie from Bayou Seco, many New Mexicans and beyond have enjoyed her music. Through a combination of instruments (guitar, banjo, fiddle, accordion, and mandolin) she and Ken Keppler got us on our feet jumpin’ to tunes from Louisiana Cajun, Hispanic, and Cowboy Folk cultures. Bayou Seco received the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2017. From museums to farmers markets, they continued to play at places we loved to go! Jeanie passed in July of 2024.

Jennifer Keelan (Chaffins) is a lifelong advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. She is portrayed in the mural at age of 8, during a 1990 demonstration in support of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). As part of a larger action 60 folks set aside their crutches and wheelchairs to crawl up the Capital stairs in Washington DC, dramatically illustrating governmental inaccessibility. Her age and determination caught the eyes of Congress and changed some minds. She is still doing this work, “Our family had been subjected to many forms of discrimination, because of my disability, our activism, our socio-economic status. My Mom is a single parent. It’s what made us the advocates/activists that we became.” 

Julia Hill Butterfly After surviving a nearly fatal car crash caused by a drunk driver, Julia and the Universal Spirit made sure to spend the rest of her sacred life doing something worthwhile. At the age of 19, Julia (now known by Butterfly to preserve her identity as an environmental activist) climbed up a two-hundred-foot redwood tree named Luna. She remained in Luna for two years, never touching the ground, enduring frostbite and harassment from loggers below and haters worldwide until the Pacific Lumber Company signed a treaty promising to preserve the tree.  She continues to be an inspiration for respect and peace, refusing to pay her taxes to the government via tax redirection sending this money to art programs, alternatives to incarceration, and community gardens.

Laura Paskus is the environment reporter for New Mexico PBS, where she produces the show, “Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present and Future.” Paskus has been writing about the Rio Grande since 2002, when she began her journalism career at High Country News. She has freelanced and worked for local, regional, and national outlets as a writer, radio producer, and television producer. Her book “At the Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate,” was published in September 2020 by the University of New Mexico Press.

Lucy Lippard is a well-known art writer, activist, curator, critic and a longtime resident of Galisteo, NM. She has had an important influence in the arts for over five decades. Her writings have supported the cutting edge in contemporary art, and she has been an articulate and outspoken voice for feminists, conceptualists, environmentalists, and the underrepresented in general. 

Guadalupe “Lupita” Vázquez Luna, born in 1987 in Chiapas, México, is a resilient activist and craftswoman. As a survivor of the Acteal massacre, she broke gender norms, pursued education, and became the first woman to lead Las Abejas, a pacifist civil society organization. Advocating for justice and indigenous rights, she confronted military presence in protests and aimed for political representation. Her inspiring journey is documented in the 2019 film “Lupita Que Retiemble la Tierra,” highlighting her roles as a mother, activist, and leader. 

Malala Yousafzai is a Pakistani-born activist who has risked her life, surviving a shot in the head by the Taliban, in her quest to give women access to education. By the age of 25 she published an autobiography “I am Malala”. She has been granted the Simone de Beauvoir Prize, the Nobel Peace Prize, and is the recipient of countless other awards. Malala co-created an international fund that partners locally in eight countries and advocates for girls becoming agents of change in their communities.

Margaret Randall is a feminist poet, writer, photographer, and social activist with over 150 books published. Es poeta, escritora, fotógrafa, militante feminista y activista social. Es autora de más de 150 libros de poesía, ensayo y historia oral. Born in New York City, she lived for many years in New Mexico, Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua, and spent time in North Vietnam during the last months of the U.S. war in that country. “As writers, I believe we must bear witness. Bear witness in our work to life as we know it, this beautiful life they are doing their best to destroy, erase, and make meaningless.” 

Odetta began singing her hybrid versions of spirituals and folk songs all along the east and west coasts in the 60’s and became known as the voice of the Civil Rights Movement. Her fame included appearances on prime-time TV and at the Outpost Performance Space in 2005. She was outspoken about racism and channeled her activism into her songs influencing generations of folk singers. She was awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President Clinton in 1999 and died in 2008.

Rachel Carson on the evening news. I remember stopping my play at the sound of her voice, a woman speaking clearly and intelligently on the evening news–a rare occurrence in the early 1960’s. Her book Silent Spring is considered a turning point in the environmental movement, a new perspective on human’s interaction with nature.  Her other books, including “The Sea Around Us” and “The Sense of Wonder” make the relationship between humans and nature more personal. In her words “In nature, nothing exists alone.”

Reagan Wytsalucy is a Navajo horticulturist. She is actively working to reestablish original food crops, counter food insecurity, increase resiliency, and perpetuate traditional cultural knowledge. The peach, or “Diné didzétsoh” in Navajo, has been an important food source for the Navajo and many Puebloan tribes of the Southwest for several hundred years. During the 1860’s the US Army forced tens of thousands of Indigenous people from the land and destroyed many of their orchards. Working with tribal elders, Wytsalucy is specifically looking at peaches as the first food crop to identify and bring back to Four Corners communities.

Rosa Guerrero, born in El Paso, began learning dance at the age of five years old. In third grade, she decided to be an educator and is a UTEP graduate. Guerrero founded the International Rosa Guerrero Folklorico Dance Group. Her multicultural dance programs have been performed around the country and featured in the lm Tapestry (1974). Among other honors, she forms part of the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. Her devotion to the art and culture of Mexican folk dance has kept the art alive for generations. “As a child, I was ashamed of my culture… being proud was almost an act of resistance.” 

Sabina Salazar was a leader in the 1950 Hanover, NM Empire Zinc strike. The strike was an intense fight demanding an end to discriminatory working conditions and the dual wage system of two-tiered pay, different for Mexican and Mexican American workers and their white coworkers. The strike gained national attention and support, after 8 months, an injunction prevented the Local 890 miners from picketing. The women rose up to defend the picket line and the men took on household chores. Salazar was one of the many arrested during the 15-month strike. Many women and children experienced multiple arrests and violence. The movie Salt of the Earth, made one year later, features the actual miners’ families. 

Sylvia Rivera was a trans Latina advocate for the marginalized. She fought against the exclusion of transgender people, especially transgender people of color. She was abandoned by her father, orphaned by age 3 and ostracized by her grandmother. She was living on the streets by age 11 and was a victim of sexual exploitation. After meeting Marsha P. Johnson, Rivera was inspired to help others. Together, they founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group dedicated to helping homeless young LGBTQ+ youth. She was actively involved in the Stonewall Inn uprising.

Tarana Burke is a lifelong activist and community organizer.  While doing this work she met many young women of color who were survivors of sexual violence and abuse. Being a survivor of sexual abuse herself, Burke identified with these young women. Burke began using the phrase ‘me too’ to promote the idea of “empowerment through empathy.” In 2017 people all over the world began posting the phrase on social media to align with the movement. Her work has further expanded and disturbed the silence around violence world-wide.

Violeta Parra was a Chilean composer, singer, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. With her charango, she played revolutionary and peasant songs She also wrote and composed in the tradition of the music she worked to keep alive. Her most well-known song is “Gracias a la Vida”. Violetta’s arpilleras (brightly colored hand-stitched textiles that tell a visual story) were shown at the Louvre in Paris.

Women of the Sun is a Palestinian group devoted to bringing about a change and transformation in the concepts of community peace, in order to build and empower Palestinian women in society. Women of the Sun seeks to create a solid long-term women’s movement, to spread cultural and national awareness, and the importance of community peace.

Women Wage Peace is a broad, politically unaffiliated movement, which is acting to prevent the next war and to promote a non-violent, respectful, and mutually accepted solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the active participation of women through all stages of negotiations. They function independently and work together.

¡Yo! We all have a part in Herstory–how we show up and what we do matters. This self-portrait is a reminder to start within; with what is inspiring to our own hearts and radiate that outward. It represents all women, and our ability to do amazing things.

Yoko Ono (born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York City in 1952 to join her family. “A dream you dream alone may be a dream, but a dream two people dream together is a reality. Whisper your dream to a cloud.”