Women empowerment has taken on a new face over the past few years that very few, myself included, can explain. However, so many women have been champions of change and trailblazers in their own respective industries, so much so, that I had no idea who Glamour mag would honor at their annual “Women of the Year” awards.
Well, on Monday, the recipients began rolling out, and the names are pretty newsworthy. Supermodel Gigi Hadid, the two women who facilitated the historic Women’s March, actress Nicole Kidman, astronaut Peggy Whitson, late-night host Samantha Bee, congresswoman Maxine Waters, Syrian refugee and education activist Muzoon Almellehan, Dior Creative Director Maria Grazia Chiuri, “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins, and of course, the key to my heart, singer and style star Solange Knowles.
The gala, which will be held in Brooklyn, New York, Nov. 13th (anyway I can get in there, you think?) will celebrate these amazing and diverse changemakers, who reflect this “tumultuous and electric year for women,” said Glamour’s former Editor-in-Chief, Cindi Leive. Throughout the month of December, you’ll see each one of these amazing women on a cover and spread of the magazine, and I honestly couldn’t be more excited to shine and bask in the magic of what it means to be your own person and embrace your own skin as Solange has so effortlessly done.
A look at Aunty Maxine and Solange, aka, our Class of 2017:
“Vastly more women turned out for the march, not just in Washington but the marches around the world, than anyone expected,” Leive told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “There were so many hundreds of women who were involved in the organization and planning of these marches, but 27 key leaders and organizers really devoted the lion’s share of their time between Election Day and Inauguration Day.”
The honorees are:
Bob Bland, Tamika D. Mallory, Linda Sarsour, Paola Mendoza, Carmen Perez, Sarah Sophie Flicker, Janaye Ingram, Ginny Suss, Emma Collum, Cassady Fendlay, Lisa Harps, Mia Ives-Rublee, Rabbi Barat Ellman, Toshi Reagon, Sophie Ellman-Golan, ShiShi Rose, Caitlin Ryan, Jenna Arnold, Nantasha Williams, Alyssa Klein, Mariam Ehrari, Meredith Shepherd, Tabitha St. Bernard-Jacobs, Breanne Butler, Mrinalini Chakraborty, Brea Baker and De’Ara Balenger.
AUNTY MAXINE
At 79, We know her as Aunty Maxine, where she coined the infamous “reclaiming my time,” and honey, what time she has helped us all reclaim.Waters earned Glamour’s lifetime achievement award.
“Most young people really became aware of her over the course of this year because she’s been very vocal, very outspoken, standing up to members of the administration, but she’s actually had an incredibly inspiring lifetime of achievement,” Leive said. “This is a woman who grew up without all that much and decided that she would go back to college in her 20s, after having worked at the phone company, and then worked as a community coordinator for Head Start. She wasn’t born into politics or anything like that. She really made her own career.”
SOLANGE
“She’s such a fantastic and inspiring example of somebody who has always chosen not to do things the easy way,” Leive said. “Her sister is Beyonce. She could have become a pop star in any number of ways but she decided to really focus on her own personal vision of art.”
Part of her goal for her album was to reclaim and change her own narrative, she said, “whether it was people challenging who wrote what on my album, whether it was about some editor commenting on my hair in a story or someone feeling like they were entitled to space in my life. I needed to unfold, reveal and discover my truth.”
In her profile, she continued on to speak the freedom she felt telling her truth and the women who have helped her come to the point of being comfortable expressing who she is.
“When I think about my evolution, I think of my mother; she has been the force of womanhood through my entire life, and I cannot thank her enough for all the sacrifices she made for us to exist as we exist today. I also credit pioneers like Grace Jones, Erykah Badu, and Kelis, who have done the work and shared a wealth of information. Merely existing every day as a black woman in this country is a form of activism. Cardi B is an activist; she’s my feminist icon.
“For so long this idea existed that as Black women, we could not be multifaceted and nuanced. I’m excited I get to be this complex, complicated, loud, vocal, flawed woman and still be worthy of recognition. It only makes me want to keep evolving. Keep standing. Keep fighting to make sure my body is my body, my mind is my mind, my story is my story.”
Who are you most excited to see honored at this year’s gala?
