By Kathy Y. Wilson

Photo By Jymi Bolden

Angela Leisure CityBeat's 2001 Person of the Year and the only reason why the city didn't burn, baby, burn last April embodies the proverb that says we must affect a reedlike stance in times that try women's souls. We break when we stiffen. Reeds bend but don't fall down. Just like Leisure.

Zaha Hadid The internationally renowned architect designed a new home for the Contemporary Arts Center, striking a big-league architectural stroke in a city that half-heartedly claims to love the arts. There's now a hole at Sixth and Walnut streets. But watch what grows.

C. Denise Johnson, Jan-Michel Lemon Kearney and Andrea Carter Owner of Drumbeat Communications, co-owner of Sesh Communications and Herald staff writer, respectively, these three women take seriously the power of words. In so doing they set straight the skewed representation of Negroes in the news, all the while chipping away at the stale foundation of a medium manipulated mainly by white men.

Victoria Straughn Bitch. Loud mouth. Troublemaker. Firebrand. Galvanizer. Potty-mouthed orator. Zealot. Sista. Angela Davis-esque. Outspoken. Not to be fucked with. Hellion. Scrappy. Right on. And a bag of chips.

Condoleeza Rice Party lines are for telephones. This high-post Negress is closer to the president than his briefs, and I ain't talking about memos. The national security advisor so far hasn't brought shame and degradation on the office, her family or her people. Wish we could say the same for her boss or his predecessors.

Laura Gentry Someone has to help keep Jazz afloat in this God-forsaken town -- might as well be a chick. Gentry, a medical bean-counter by day and Jazz 'ho by night, manages and produces Jazz musician Mike "Shorty Bop" Wade and promotes and produces headlining Jazz shows from here to Dayton.

Miep Gies This 93-year-old humanitarian still lives in the Netherlands a train ride away from where, in 1942, she agreed to hide Otto Frank and his family from Adolph Hitler. She takes all visitors and answers all mail. And, yep, she says she'd do it all over again.

Barbara Lee A Democratic congresswoman from California's Ninth Congressional District, Lee cast the lone vote against President Bush's post-Sept. 11 use-of-force resolution. In her solo denial of Bush's "blank check for war," Lee let the bandwagon pull off without her.

Katha Pollitt A columnist for The Nation, Pollitt is that rare breed of female columnist. She doesn't think, write or emote with her estrogen, breasts or crotch. Enough said.

Sharon Watkins Forever known as the Enron whistleblower, she put an end to a male-dominated, orgiastic multi-billion dollar breakdown that sent the fellas jumping like rats from a sinking ship. It might be years before the entire truth is revealed. Can you say "higher moral code?"

Toshi Reagon/ Me'Shell NdegéOcello Two black lesbians -- one big, one little -- are responsible for reversing the commonly held image of black women in music as bitches, 'hos and money-grubbing chickenheads. Now run and tell yo' mamma 'bout that.

bitch The magazine, not the woman. "Feminist response to pop culture" is its subtitle, and in a style somewhere between a zine and the hungry days of Utne Reader it lays it down on black women in sci-fi, black intellect bell hooks, indie filmmaker Cheryl Dunye and black metalhead feminists. And it ain't even a black magazine. Ain't that a bitch?

E-mail Kathy Y. Wilson

Your Negro Tour Guide (April 25, 2002)
Your Negro Tour Guide (April 18, 2002)
Your Negro Tour Guide (April 11, 2002)
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