Multicultural Women’s History

EVE: Equal Visibility Everywhere
www.equalvisibilityeverywhere.org
One of my passions is taking road trips in search of women’s history. Over the years, I’ve photographed many landmarks to women from street signs to statues to gravestone, and, although I’ve found more landmarks to women than I expected, I’ve also found many, many, many more to men, which, is not to say, that we should remove those, but that we should add more to women. That said, I am delighted to link to Equal Visibility Everywhere, a brand-new (March 2010) not-for-profit dedicated to achieving gender parity in the symbols and icons of the United States.

“Pioneer Women in Sculpture”
http://pioneerwomen.blogspot.com
For almost twenty years, I've set off on women history road trips to photograph monument, markers and memorials to historic women.  This is fascinating blog with terrific photos and insightful commentary.

National Women’s History Project
www.nwhp.org
The web site of the group that led the successful campaign to have the month of March declared National Women’s History Month. This site has something—resources, information—for everyone. Check it out year around, not just in March.

“New Jersey Women’s History” (NJWH)
http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/njwomenshistory/
Every state should have a web site like this one (full disclosure: I was a member of the NJWH Project Task Force and the NJWH Website Expansion Project).  It is loaded with images and document. There’s an E-Classroom with lesson plans for elementary, middle school and high school students, etc. It is easy to navigate.

Reading and Writing

Politifact.com
www.politifact.org
Wondering who has got the facts straight in American politics? Check out this 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning fact—checking project of the St. Petersburg Times. The “Truth-O-Meter” scorecard separates fact from fiction on a scale from “True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True, False, Pants On Fire.”

The Komisar Scoop
www.komisarscoop.com
Reports & analysis by award-winning investigative journalist Lucy Komisar,

Women’s Enews
www.womensenew.org
Women’s Enews bills itself as “Coving Women’s issues/Changing women’s lives.” It does that and more, which is why I check it everyday.

“PEN American Center”
www.pen.org
One of my professional organization with a particularly informative web site, e,g, the audio archive has “A Tribute to Chinua Achebe.”  There is a page of “Prison Writing, a new series of online correspondence between children’s and young adult book writers and illustrators, and petitions in support of free expression, etc.

“International Children’s Digital Library”
http://www.icdlbooks.org
A terrific web site that offers scores of books in many languages. An entire book is available to read online or downloaded A fabulous resource, I send all my students to this site.

Years ago, I discovered that mysteries and international thrillers were the best genres in which to find women authors who create strong, resilience, self-sufficient women. Here are four of those authors (all of whom have strong nonfiction credentials!):

www.gaylelynds.com
www.margaretcoel.com
www.jacquelinewinspear.com
www.deborahcrombie.com

“Jen Robinson’s Book Page”
www.jkrbooks.typepad.com/blog
Her subtitles tells why I like her blog:“Promoting the love of books for children, and the continued reading of children’s books by adults.”  She’s fun and interesting to read.

“Speaking Out”
Lee Gutkind
www.leegutkind.com/blogs
Gutkind writes eloquently and passionately about the art, craft, ethics, and morality of writing creative nonfiction.  I am a longtime subscriber to the journal he founded and still edits: “Creative Nonfiction” (www.creativenonfiction.org)

"Wonders & Marvels"
www.wondersandmarvels.com
A blog for people who read and write history and historical fiction. It's edited by Holly Tucker, Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University and author of Blood Work: A Tale of Murder and Medicine and Scientific Revolution, the subheading says it all: "A Community for Curious Minds who love History, its Odd Stories, and Good Reads"

"Release Your Writing"
www.releaseyourwriting.blogspot.com
An interesting and useful blog by Helen Gallagher, author of Release Your Writing: Book Publishing Your Way and Blog Power & Social Media Handbook.