International Women's Day — LeCircles

This year the United Nation (UN) has decided to have its annual theme for International Women’s Day as “ I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s right”.

If we spoke about Anna May Wong, Hattie McDaniel, Florence Lawrence, Ella Fitzgerald, Simone de Beauvoir or Madam C.J. Walker would you know who these people are and what they shared in common? We’ll let you know — despite all odds — these iconic women accomplished milestones that seemed fairly normal for their male counterparts.

Women’s Strike for Equality (1970), 5th Avenue NYC, USA. Photo credit: Fred W. McDarrah/Getty Images — editing: LeCircles — Women’s Strike for Equality (1970), *5th Avenue NYC, USA.* Photo credit: Fred W. McDarrah/*Getty Images* — editing: *LeCircles*

For us at LeCircles we decided we would bridge generation of inspiring women in order to not only showcase that women’s right isn’t just our societies’ sporadic “quirk” — but mainly so to highlight that Women’s Right is a constant battle worth fighting for — given that women have always come through in our societies. It may perhaps be a Man’s World but it would definitely be nothing without a Woman. Please pardon us the James Brown’s reference but we felt like it was so fitting.

In light of our introduction, we chose to serve you this blogpost with three literature of powerful women that have challenged the status quo and advanced women’s rights or should we say people’s rights. Obviously this list isn’t exhaustive. This is our selection at LeCircles and we encourage you to look into other prominent women that have done so much for the cause.

Please contact us if you’d like further material or simply like to join our special event end of this month in honor of International Women’s Day.

Enjoy the three pieces of literature we chose for you and bear in mind that any woman that wakes up and gets to take the challenge of accomplishing herself, her aspirations, her dreams or her goals is the true super woman! March 8th or any other day of the year we believe in acknowledging women’s rights & their essential contribution to society.

Ps: Thank you to all women making LeCircles’ magic work.

“Ode à la femme!” Our three pieces of literature:

Still I Rise

BY MAYA ANGELOU

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise.

Maya Angelou. Photo credit: Corbis/Getty Images — Maya Angelou. Photo credit: Corbis/*Getty Images*

Your Soul

By RENÉE VIVIEN

Your soul is a thing exquisite and fragrant

that opens slowly, silently, trembling,

and that, filled with love, is surprised to be loved.

Your soul is a lily, divine and white.

Like a breeze from violet-filled forests,

your sigh cools the despairing brow,

and one learns from you a muted bravery.

Your soul is poetry, and song, and night.

Your soul is coolness, your soul is dew,

Your soul is the benevolent gaze of morning

That revives shattered hope with a word…

Your soul is the final mercy of destiny.

Renée Vivien. Photo credit: Alamy — Renée Vivien. Photo credit: *Alamy*

By FRIDA KAHLO

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.”

“I tried to drown my sorrows, but the bastards learned how to swim, and now I am overwhelmed by this decent and good feeling.”

“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.”

Frida Kahlo. Photo credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images — Frida Kahlo. Photo credit: Hulton Archive/*Getty Images*

Josephine Baker. Photo credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images — Josephine Baker. Photo credit: Hulton Archive/*Getty Images*