February is Black History month and I thought I would honor a woman
who crossed many hurdles during her 92 years.
Lena Horne was of mixed race and struggled to fit in on both sides.
She became a strong advocate for change in the civil rights movement.
Even dating back to WW2, when entertaining the troops for the USO, she refused to perform for segregated audiences or for groups in which German POWs were seated in front of African American servicemen", according to her Kennedy Center biography.
Because the U.S. Army refused to allow integrated audiences, she wound up putting on a show for a mixed audience of black U.S. soldiers and white German POWs.
Seeing the black soldiers had been forced to sit in the back seats, she walked off the stage to the first row where the black troops were seated and performed with the Germans behind her.
Lena Horne died in May of last year, leaving behind an amazing career as a singer and dancer.
One of her best known performances was that of the song "Stormy Weather",
but I thought I would post this lesser known performance.
Here she is with Kermit the Frog on Sesame Street singing
"It ain't easy bein' green"
I think it held a lot of deeper meanings for Lena as well.
"Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us." Roy Adzak
"Happiness...it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." Vincent Van Gogh
"It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility." Rachel Carson.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create." Albert Einstein
"Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul." Plato.
"Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without words, And never stops at all." Emily Dickenson
I am an artist trying to make a living doing what I love.Sometimes its photography, sometimes needle felting, sometimes painting. I live on a five acre hobby farm in a rural area 45 minutes from Victoria B.C. I was a letter carrier for Canada Post for 10 years and after too many commutes and a few successful craft fairs, I decided to take the plunge and quit to pursue a life in the "starving artist" category. The holistic success has been tremendous. Living and learning along the way about myself, the world, the business of selling your wares and how it all affects you. Its all good.To have the gift of living where I live, and being able to walk amongst the trees and moss is a joy in my life. You can view some of my creations through my etsy shop at www.farmlass.etsy.com
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