- Kimberley Guillemet
Lauryn Noelle Hill was born on May 26, 1975, to parents Valerie Hill, an English teacher, and Mal Hill, a computer and management consultant. She grew up in South Orange, New Jersey. From an early age, Hill was fascinated by music. At age 13, she appeared as a contestant on Showtime at the Apollo. With the support of her parents, she pursued singing and acting professionally in her early teens, appearing on local television and auditioning for film roles in nearby New York City.
In high school, she formed the hip hop group The Fugees with Pras Michel and Wyclef Jean. While serving as a songwriter, lead vocalist and rapper for the group, Hill continued to pursue her acting career. At age 17, she played a recurring role on the daytime television drama As the World Turns. The following year, she appeared in a prominent singing role in the feature film Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. Hill excelled academically and earned admission to Columbia University. In her freshman year after The Fugees signed a record contract, Hill left Columbia to concentrate on her performing career.
The Fugees released their first album in 1994, and their second, The Score, in 1996, which was an immediate sensation upon release, shooting to the top of the Billboard 200 and the R&B charts. The album included three hit singles; the biggest was Lauryn Hill’s version of “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” a ballad made famous in the 1970s by singer Roberta Flack. The song went to Number 2 on the U.S. Singles chart (Number 1 in Britain), and brought the group a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance of the Year. In its first year of release, The Score sold six million copies.
In 1998, Hill produced and released her solo debut, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. The album topped the Billboard 200 chart for four weeks and the Billboard R&B Album charts for six weeks, ultimately selling 19 million copies. Of the five singles released from the album, “Doo Wop (That Thing)” debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard charts. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, Hill broke a number of records, becoming the first woman to be nominated in ten categories in a single year, and the first woman to win five trophies in one night: Album of the Year, Best R&B Album, Best R&B Song, Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best New Artist.
By the end of 1999, two years into her solo career, her record sales and touring had earned her an estimated $25 million. In addition to her own performing schedule, she served as co-producer of Carlos Santana’s Supernatural, and won a second Grammy Award for Album of the Year. She is the only female artist to win the Album of the Year award in two consecutive years.
At the height of her success, Lauryn Hill surprised the music world with her decision to withdraw from performing and seclude herself with her growing family.
Outside of her performance career, Hill is a dedicated activist. She founded an organization dedicated to serving underprivileged urban youth called the Refugee Camp Youth Project. The organization raises money to send children from Hill's native New Jersey to summer camp.
In 2012, Hill faced personal and professional tumult which resulted in criminal charges being filed against her. These past challenges notwithstanding, Hill has displayed tremendous grace and resilience. She is often regarded as one of the most influential musicians of her generation. In 2021, she was among the inaugural nominees for the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.
This text is excerpted from: https://achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/, https://www.hiphopscriptures.com/lauryn-hill, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lauryn-Hill and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauryn_Hill.
- Kimberley Guillemet
― India.Arie
In the words of the prolific India.Arie,
“There’s hope
It doesn't cost a thing to smile
You don't have to pay to laugh
You better thank God for that.
Stand up for your rights
Keep shining your light
And show the world your smile.”
At the beginning of each new year, humans have taken to setting resolutions and new goals that they wish to accomplish in the coming 364 days. As the year wears on, however, we often find that we have not accomplished all that we set out to achieve, at least not at the rate we expected. I think that over the last two years, it’s been more and more challenging to hold on to the optimism that each new year brings. For many of us, life feels harder; things seem more complicated now than ever.
It is true that with each passing year, living becomes more layered, more complex, and more nuanced. But no matter what issues we face, we always have a choice. We can choose hope. We can choose to look forward to the next day with optimism, gratitude and faith. I choose hope every day, even on the days when it feels easier not to.
I remember many people in my lineage who faced horrific circumstances, and could’ve given up or opted out of trying, but they didn’t. I am grateful that they did not because had they done so, I would not be here.
I choose hope because I think of women like our World Changer of the Month, Elizabeth Taylor, and how easy it would’ve been for her to give up after her husband, small child, mother and sister-in-law died. But she did not. She believed in the possibility of a brighter tomorrow. She chose hope.
So as we begin the year 2023, let’s remember that there is always hope. Let’s commit to choosing it every day.
- Kimberley Guillemet
Elizabeth Austin Taylor was born in Kansas in 1874 to William Austin and Ellen Frye Washington, both recently freed from slavery. By 1891, she had moved to the Utah Territory, and married William Wesley Taylor. The couple began a family and by 1895 also began a newspaper, the Utah Plain Dealer. This weekly newspaper existed to serve and inform the small Black community of the territory. From the outset, Ms. Taylor worked as compositor, setting type for the newspaper, and her husband served as the editor.
Mrs. Taylor established the Western Federation of Colored Women, an organization she developed to address the economic, social, and family concerns plaguing Black women in America. Its membership drew from women across 13 states. Mrs. Taylor said that the goal of the Federation was to “bring and bind our women together in a helpful way.” As its president, she led the Federation in supporting Black women and their families through social opportunities, charitable work, and The Western Women’s Advocate newspaper.
In July 1904, Mrs. Taylor organized a conference at the Salt Lake City Council Chamber for the Federation's members that drew Black women together from throughout Utah and the American West. The Federation received acclaim from the Utah governor Heber M. Wells and Salt Lake City mayor Richard P. Morris. In response, Mrs. Taylor said: “I am truly proud of this movement; being a race woman I have looked with sorrow upon the condition of our women for many years and I believe that the colored women should stand together more than any other class of civilized women in the world..”
Mrs. Taylor and her husband were early members of the mainstream Utah Press Association (UPA) and the Western Negro Press Association (WNPA). The couple traveled widely throughout the western United States in an effort to gain social and political equality in Utah for African-Americans.
When her husband became ill and died in 1907, Mrs. Taylor shouldered his duties as editor and publisher of the Plain Dealer. She continued to put the paper out through 1909 or 1910, while caring for her household and children William, Myrtle, Leonard, Thelma, and Booker T. During that time frame, she also cared for her mother and sister-in-law during their final illnesses, and her infant child, Leonard, who died as an infant.
Mrs. Taylor continued with her activism after her husband’s death, traveling to annual conferences and speaking regularly. In 1909, she delivered a speech at the WNPA conference titled, “Is There a Future in Journalism for Negro Women?”
Mrs. Taylor and her family also helped establish the two major Black churches in Salt Lake City in the 1890s: Trinity African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and Calvary Baptist Church. Both are still in existence. Mrs. Taylor led children’s groups, participated in the literary society, and was a member of the Queen Esther Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star.
Mrs. Taylor’s energy and charisma brought, bound together and elevated Black women in the Western part of the United States during a time when they were plagued with state-sanctioned discrimination.
One of her greatest triumphs was seeing her daughters graduate from college and work as teachers. Mrs. Taylor died at her daughter’s home in Owensboro, Kentucky, on March 22, 1932.
This text is excerpted from:
https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/bios/elizabeth-taylor/, https://www.utahwomenshistory.org/bios/elizabeth-taylor/ and https://womenarise.lib.byu.edu/panel/7-learn-more/.
