Meet Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Black Woman Who Invented That Rock And Roll Sound

Meet Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the black woman who invented that rock and roll sound 

You know what’s sad, before I even read this article I was ready to refute this because I grew up believing Chuck Berry created Rock and roll. It’s said how so many knew of this great woman yet none spoke on her greatness.

I also discovered Big Mama Thornton, who’s another hugely influential early inventor of rock and roll — I’m pretty sure Hound Dog was originally popularized by her, before Elvis stole it.

Love Sister Rosetta Tharpe! #BlackGirlMagic

A few of her performances:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeaBNAXfHfQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9bX5mzdihs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR2gR6SZC2M

Also I heard she was bisexual…

Happy Black History Month! 

Please reblog this even if you don’t care

They’re trying to erase the existence of the rape victims of Japanese soldiers in World War II because they think the reminder of their crimes might make Japan a little bit cross

Duterte, the absolute coward, is more worried about women criticizing him than actually honoring the women this country needs to remember

Please don’t let these women be silenced.

Story of my life people. You know what’s real ? The struggle.

Happy Pride Month ♥

Ian McKellen  says that all gay people should be trans allies

Sir Ian McKellen urges gay people to be better allies to the transgender community.

The legendary actor and Stonewall co-founder joined It’s a Sin star Olly Alexander for a special LGBT+ History Month talk on TikTok on February 25, Pink News reports. 

Sir Ian said: 

“I do hear people – gay people – talk about transgender people in very much the same terms as people used to talk about your common or garden gay.

“The connection between us all is we come under the queer umbrella – we are queer. I quite like being queer actually.

“The problems that transgender people have with the law are not dissimilar from what used to be the case for us, so I think we should all be allies really.“

This is not the first time the actor has stood up to transphobes. 

Speaking to lifestyle magazine Attitude, the veteran star talked about how happy he was about Elliot Page coming out as transgender. 

He felt “so disappointed” with himself for not recognizing the struggles that the then-teenage actor could have been facing when they worked together.

The actor talked about why it is important to be honest with oneself.

Top photo from The Talks.

A.C. Strip has long understood the significance of the diary his older brother kept as they fled the Holocaust with their parents. He turned it into a self-published book that he gave to his brother as a 90th birthday gift.

But Strip never considered the diary to be an important historical document. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is making him rethink that.

Strip’s brother’s journal is one of more than 200 diaries written by Holocaust victims and survivors the museum hopes to digitize and make available to the public with the help of its first crowd-funding campaign. The museum is seeking $250,000 for the project and will begin soliciting donations through Kickstarter on Monday, the birthday of the most famous Holocaust diarist, Anne Frank.

Read More: Here

Do you know what this is? This is The Heart from Auschwitz.

An act of defiance. A statement of hope. A crime punishable by death.

On December 12, 1944, locked inside Auschwitz, Polish teenager Fania turned twenty. After spending a year in a concentration camp, Fania didn’t expect her birthday to even be remembered - but her best friend, Zlatka, risked everything to make her a birthday present, a paper heart. 

Simply making the heart - or carrying it - could get either of them killed.

The heart was signed by many of their friends, bearing notes in Polish, German, French, and Hebrew that announced "When you get old, put your glasses on your nose, take this album in your hand and read my signature again,“ and “Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!” It was an act of great sacrifice and love for a friend.

Less than 40 days later, they began the Death March from Auschwitz to Ravensbruck, and from Ravensbruck to freedom. Fania carried the heart under her arm the whole time. And survived.

Fania donated the heart to the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Center in 1988, where it is a featured piece of their exhibit. You can read more about the story of Fania and Zlatka Meg Wiviott’s Paper Hearts, coming September 2015.