Ellen Dolly Peters

Ellen Dolly Peters, BEM (18 November 1894 – 1995) was an Afro-Montserratian teacher and trade unionist. Outspoken in her activism for improved conditions for workers, she was instrumental in the rise of William Bramble's political career and earned the title "king maker". For her contributions to labor, she was awarded the British Empire Medal and was awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice for her teaching and service to the Catholic Church.
Early life.
Ellen Dolly was born on 18 November 1894 in the now abandoned village of St. Patrick's, on the volcanic island of Montserrat, which at the time was a part of the British Leeward Islands, to Rosanna (née O’Garro) and Levons Elias Dolly. At the age of thirteen she moved to the Gages estate and began teaching at St. Augustine School. In 1912, Dolly married Abraham Peters and the couple moved to the village of Kinsale. While she continued to teach, she became involved in debating societies.
Activist.
In the 1940s, Peters' began speaking out about child labor, unsanitary living conditions, and racism. By 1946, when the Montserrat Trades and Labour Union (MTLU) formed, she joined the union and used her skill with debate to emphasize how the labor practices of the plantocracy abused the sharecroppers and workers on the island. Unlike many who were afraid to confront the economic ruling class, Peters relentlessly pursued fair labor practices and pay for workers and improvement in the conditions under which they worked.
Recognizing that her outspokenness and gender would preclude her from running for public office, Peters put her considerable influence behind William Bramble, who would become Montserrat's first Chief Minister, when Bramble challenged then leader of the organization, Robert Griffith in 1951. Peters sided with Bramble in the quarrel, as she saw Bramble as a man of action with a plan to propel the country forward and deal with class inequalities. Once Bramble attained leadership in the MTLU, he used the position as a springboard to political office and began vying for public office in 1952.
Peters campaigned hard for Bramble to be elected and was known to have written many of his most notable speeches. When he won the election, Peters was acclaimed as the "king maker" and in 1954 was promoted to general secretary of the MTLU. She served in that capacity until her retirement in 1968. When she retired, Peters began working as a youth counsellor for the Social League of Catholic Women. In 1980, she was honored with the Order of Merit from the Montserrat Allied Workers' Union. In 1983, Peters received the British Empire Medal for her work as a trade unionist and the following year, was honored with the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice for her services as a teacher and work for the church.
Death and legacy.
Peters died in 1995, the year that the Soufrière Hills volcano became active again. She is remembered as a champion of labor in Montserrat and is featured in an exhibit honoring politicians and organizers who played a crucial role in the development of the country at the National Museum, along with Griffith and Bramble.


Silvia Colloca

Silvia Colloca (born 23 July 1977) is an Italian-Australian actress, opera singer, cookbook author, and TV cookery show personality. She has published four cookbooks.
Life and career.
Colloca was born in Milan to Loredana and Mario Colloca. Her only major film role was in "Van Helsing", in which she played Verona, one of Dracula's brides. It received poor reviews but it was a Box office success. On 25 September 2004, at the medieval castle of Montalto in Tuscany, Italy she married the Australian actor Richard Roxburgh who played Dracula in that film. They have two sons, Raphael Jack Domenico Roxburgh born in 2007 and Miro Gianni David Roxburgh born in 2010, and a daughter, Luna Roxburgh born in 2017. The family currently reside in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Colloca is an opera-trained mezzo-soprano and worked as a musical theatre performer in Italy before becoming a film actress.
Silvia Colloca has won rave reviews by Australian press for her turn as Orfeo in Spectrum Now 2015 production of Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice", directed by Shannon Murphy. Diana Simmonds praised Colloca's performance in Stage Noise: "Orfeo's despair is gloriously realised by Colloca whose rich yet pure and powerful mezzo soprano and dramatic acting range are ideally suited to the decision to make Orfeo an ambiguous and androgynous figure. She projects all the strengths of masculine and feminine and unabashed emotion in the early scenes making the tragedy quickly tangible".
In 2016 Colloca premiered the role of The Queen in Opera Queensland's newly commissioned Opera "Snow White", performed during the Brisbane festival. Once more, Silvia Colloca's performance won the hearts of theatre goers and critics. The Sydney Morning Herald described Colloca's work as "Silvia Colloca is extraordinary as the mother – her sexiness and vulnerability wrap around each other beautifully through the piece and she easily navigates the highs and lows her character is gifted. Her eventual breakdown is a joy to watch".
Silvia is also credited as a producer, creator and writer of her shows.
In 2017 she started her own YouTube channel and a collaboration with Marion Grasby. Together they have created the highly successful show "Wok X Pot", which premiered in late 2018.
Television.
Made in Italy with Silvia Colloca.
"Made in Italy with Silvia Colloca", an Australian 10-part TV series, premiered on SBS TV in November 2014, coinciding with the publication of the book of the same name. Colloca took a film crew home to meet her Italian family, showcasing three picturesque regions of Italy, Abruzzo where her family is from, Marche, and Molise, using her mother's kitchen to present "cucina povera" (peasant cuisine).
Silvia's Italian Table.
"Silvia's Italian Table", an eight part reality and cooking series debuted on ABC on 6 October 2016. In each episode, Colloca invites a group of celebrities to cook and eat with her and engage in entertaining and intelligent conversation. Guests featured are Kathy Lette, Lisa McCune, Tom Gleeson, Magda Szubanski, Matt Moran, Ken Done, Sarah Ferguson, Merrick Watts, Claire Hooper, Amanda Vanstone, Pia Miranda and Ian Thorpe.


Ajitha Vijayan

Ajitha Vijayan is a Communist Party of India politician from Thrissur city, India. She is the seventh mayor of Thrissur Municipal Corporation.


Yolanda Pupo-Ortiz

Yolanda Pupo-Ortiz (born 1937) is an American Methodist minister. She was the first Hispanic or Latina woman to be fully received into the Southern New England Conference of the United Methodist Church when she joined its ranks in 1983.
Of partial Puerto Rican descent, Pupo-Ortiz was born into a family of Quakers, and was raised in Cuba; she converted to Methodism at the time of her marriage. She took degrees from Colegio Los Amigos and Seminario Evangélico de Teología, both in Cuba, and holds a master's degree from Emory University. During her career she has worked as a pastor and has served as associate general secretary of the United Methodist Church's Religion and Race Commission, and directed programs for Spanish-speaking students at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. She serves currently serves as a member of the clergy at Epworth United Methodist Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her translation of the hymn "Here I Am, Lord" has been published.


Gemma New

Gemma New (born 27 December 1986) is a New Zealand-born conductor.
Biography.
Born into a musical family, New began violin studies at age 5, and piano lessons at age 8. By age 12, she was playing in a youth orchestra in Wellington. As a teenager, she conducted the Christchurch Youth Orchestra. New attended Samuel Marsden Collegiate School, in Karori, Wellington, from 1991-2004.
New read physics, mathematics, and music at the University of Canterbury, from which she graduated with a degree in music. She later earned a graduate degree in music from Baltimore, Maryland's Peabody Institute.
New founded and directed the Maryland music collective Lunar Ensemble, with which she has premiered 26 compositions. New was assistant conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra from 2011 to 2016. In the 2014-2015 season, she was a Dudamel Conducting Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. For 2014, she was a Kurt Masur conducting fellow.
In May 2015, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra (HPO) named New as its next music director, the first female conductor ever named to the post. This appointment marked New's first music directorship. Her first performance in the post was in February 2016. In May 2017, the HPO extended New's contract as music director through the 2020-2021 season. In November 2020, the HPO announced a further extension of New's contract as music director through the 2023-2024 season.
In June 2016, New was appointed resident conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) and music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra. In September 2018, New directed the opening concerts of the SLSO's 2018-2019 season, the first female conductor ever to do so. She stood down from her St. Louis posts at the close of the 2019-2020 season. In October 2018, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra announced the appointment of New as its next principal guest conductor, the first female conductor to hold the title, effective with the 2019-2020 season.
In March 2021, the Solti Foundation U.S. announced New as the 12th recipient of The Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award.


Rosebud Benitez

Rosebud Benitez is a Filipina celebrity chef and the host of "Quickfire", a 10-minute television cooking show broadcast several times daily on GMA News TV (formerly known as Q), a sister station of GMA Network. The show is considered to be one of the most easily recognizable productions of the alternative network, with an offshoot bestselling DVD compilation of highlight episodes. Before "Quickfire", Benitez was part of the culinary group program "Ka-Toque", Q’s first-of-a-kind that spawned a whole new generation of broadcast cuisine productions and chef-hosts. Though wedged within a smorgasbord of equally sociable young chefs in "Ka-Toque", Benitez became the first in the group to be given a solo show and the only non-actor to be invited by GMA Artist Center to join its register of contract stars.
After graduating from the prestigious Center for Culinary Arts, Manila, Benitez (who has the nickname “Chef Mom”) has become a popular public culinary figure in the Philippines, gracing billboards for the food company Ajinomoto and achieving status as a most requested chef to conduct cooking demonstrations for corporate events and TV programs. She has hosted and presented several media and live events and has appeared as a guest in several TV productions of varying formats and genres. She has also been featured in lifestyle magazines, broadsheets, photo exhibits, and food blogs on wmn.ph; selected as one of the seven society women to represent the scent of S.T. Dupont Rose in Manila; nominated in the 2009 and 2010 PMPC Star Awards for TV; and honored as one of "People Asia"’s “Women of Style and Substance” for 2009.
Benitez lives in Quezon City with her children Katrina and Kyle.


Tanu Muino

Tanu Robertovna Muino (; ; born 7 December 1989) is a Ukrainian music video director, designer, stylist, photographer and film director. Known for her work on music videos of popular artists: Monatik, Time and Glass, NK (Nastya Kamenskikh), IOWA, etc.
Biography.
Her father is Robert Muiño, a Cuban national. In the 1980s, he came to Odessa on an exchange and stayed in Ukraine. Her mother is Ukrainian. Tanu has three brothers and a sister. Until the age of six, Tanu lived in Havana.
Career.
In 2016, she began collaborating with the Ukrainian singer Monatik. As of November 2020, Muino was the director of 14 Monatik videos.
In 2019, Muino directed the music video for "Small Talk" by American singer Katy Perry.
In 2020, she collaborated with Spanish singer Rosalía. She directed Monatik's musical "Rhythm," which was released on his YouTube channel in September 2020. In the fall of 2020, she directed the video for "Cotton Candy" by the British musician Yungblud. The video was shot in Kyiv on October 1.
In 2021, she directed the music video for Cardi B's song "Up" and the music video for Lil Nas X's song "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)".
Awards.
The record holder for the number of awards in the category "Best Video Clip" of the annual Ukrainian YUNA award (won three years in a row: in 2016, 2017 and 2018). Winner in the category "Music Video Maker of the Year" according to the M1 Music Awards (2018).


Jeri Lynne Johnson

Jeri Lynne Johnson is an African American female conductor. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, a professional ensemble in Philadelphia.
Childhood and education.
Johnson started piano lessons at the age of 4. Her interest in orchestral literature and creating large-scale music beyond the piano developed after attending a performance of a Beethoven Symphony when she was 7 years old.
She lived in several places during her youth, attended two high schools and graduated her senior year in Scottsdale, Arizona. Although Johnson did not have a formal music education in school, she had outside piano teachers. She then went on to study at Wellesley College in 1993 where she received a bachelor's degree in music and religion. At this all female school, she was inspired by women graduates such as Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright. She later received a master's degree in music history and music theory from the University of Chicago.
Early accomplishments.
Johnson attended the Aspen Music Festival in 1998 after winning the Jorge Mester Conducting Scholarship. She was the assistant conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia from 2000-2004. In 2005, she acquired the Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship, making her the first African American female to win an international award for conducting. Following these achievements, she had the opportunity to conduct orchestras from around the world, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Colorado Symphony, the Bournemouth Symphony, and the Weimar Staatskapelle. She was heavily influenced by her mentors of Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, and Daniel Barenboim.
Career.
Johnson is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra, established in 2008. Her orchestra received many grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and became the only organization in the United States to earn three grants from the Knight Foundation Arts Challenge. She is also the current cover conductor for the Delaware Symphony Orchestra.
Style.
Johnson has conducted music from a wide-range of genres. She has performed the works of many classical composers, such as winners of the MacArthur Fellowship. Johnson has also collaborated with many pop artists, including Jay Z, Alicia Keys and The Roots.
Composition.
In addition to conducting, Johnson has composed many multimedia works. She had the opportunity to perform her own commissions for the See Hear! concert series at Kimmel Center and the computer visual music ensemble of Arts in Motion.
Recognition.
Johnson has earned a 2009 Leeway Transformation Award, a 2010 Honoree in Arts and Culture for The Power Shift and a 2010 British American Project Fellow. She was named a 2010 Philly 360 Creative Ambassador by the Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corporation, a 2010 British American Project Fellow and a 2011 Woman of Distinction by the "Philadelphia Business Journal." Johnson has been recognized for her accomplishments on 20/20, the "Tavis Smiley Show" on NPR and on the NBC "Today" show alongside Marin Alsop and Joann Falletta.


Stacey Cunningham

Stacey Cunningham is a banker, and the 67th president of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). She is the second female president of the NYSE, but the first to hold full leadership of the exchange.
After interning with the NYSE during the 1990s, Cunningham became a trading floor clerk, continuing to work at the exchange until 2005. She took time off to complete a culinary training course, then working at the Nasdaq stock exchange as director of capital markets and head of sales for U. S. transaction services. In 2012, Cunningham rejoined the NYSE, and became the exchange's chief operating officer in 2015.
On May 22, 2018, Cunningham was appointed president of the NYSE. In November 2018, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.
Early life.
As a child, Cunningham had a strong interest in math and science in school. She later studied at Lehigh University, graduating in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering. She has five siblings and when she was young her father worked at a brokerage firm.
Career.
In 1994, while still a university student, Cunningham completed a summer internship at the NYSE. Two years later, she began working there as a trading floor clerk. At the time, Cunningham was one of the few dozen female employees on the trading floor – compared to over a thousand male employees. She spent eight years employed as a specialist for Bank of America.
In 2005, feeling frustrated with the lack of technological transition at the NYSE, she left the exchange and studied at the Institute of Culinary Education, working briefly as a chef at a restaurant.
From 2007 to 2011, Cunningham worked at the Nasdaq stock exchange, first as director of capital markets and then as the head of sales for U.S. transaction services.
Cunningham rejoined the NYSE in 2012. She served as the exchange's chief operating officer from 2015 to 2018. Her job involved handling the exchange's cash equities markets, relationship and product management, and internal governance services.
On May 22, 2018, at the age of 43, Cunningham was named the 67th president of the NYSE, taking over from Thomas Farley. Cunningham is the first woman to be appointed president of the NYSE. Although Catherine Kinney had been co-president of the exchange in 2002, the position had not entailed full leadership at the time, being firmly overseen by the CEO or chairman of the NYSE. In an interview with reporters, Cunningham said that she has handled working in traditionally male-dominated environments – such as stock exchanges or engineering school – by never showing any doubt about "whether or not I should be where I was.”


Sarah Owen

Sarah Mei Li Owen (; born 11 January 1983)
is a British Labour Party politician and trade unionist. She has served as the MP for Luton North since 2019. Owen is British Chinese, making her the first Labour MP of East Asian descent, and the first female MP of Chinese descent.
Early life.
Owen was born and raised in Hastings. Her mother's family is Malaysian Chinese.
Career.
Owen has worked in the public sector as a care worker for the NHS, a political assistant for Brighton and Hove City Council and a London Fire Brigade employee in the emergency planning department. Owen has also served as a political adviser to Alan Sugar and has worked on Labour's national small business policy.
In 2011, Owen was chosen as the Labour Party candidate for Hastings and Rye to contest the next general election. At the 2015 general election, Owen finished in second place with 17,890 votes, which was 4,796 votes behind the elected Conservative candidate Amber Rudd.
Owen was formerly a political officer for the trade union GMB and is currently a member of Labour's National Executive Committee. She is chair of Chinese for Labour.
In the 2019 general election, Owen was chosen by a panel drawn from Labour's National Executive Committee as the party's candidate for Luton North, rather than by the local membership, causing protests from some of them who felt that GMB had forced the candidate on them. Owen was elected with a vote tally of 23,496, which was a majority of 9,247 votes over the Conservative Party candidate.
On her election, Owen was appointed the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Lisa Nandy.
On 15 October 2020, Owen resigned as her position as PPS to vote against the proposed Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill, disagreeing with the Labour Whip to abstain.
On 14 April 2021, Owen announced that she was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rachel Reeves and was appointed whip
Personal life.
Owen gave birth to a daughter in February 2020. She has previously experienced miscarriages, a topic she spoke about through her union's newsletter for baby loss awareness.


Mira Spivak

Mira Spivak, née Steele (born July 12, 1934) is a former member of the Canadian Senate representing the province of Manitoba.
Born in Rivne, Ukraine (then in Poland), Spivak received a Bachelor of Arts, Honours Degree in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Manitoba.
She was appointed to the Senate on the recommendation of then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1986 as a Progressive Conservative (PC). She refused to join the Conservative Party of Canada when the PC Party merged with the Canadian Alliance in 2003 and subsequently left the Conservative caucus to sit in the Senate as an independent on February 3, 2004.
Spivak holds liberal views on most social issues. She allowed her name to be used on a full-page pro-choice advertisement that ran in the "Winnipeg Free Press" on October 11, 1989.
In 2006, she supported Elizabeth May in her successful campaign to win the leadership of the Green Party of Canada.
Spivak retired from the Senate on July 12, 2009, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. She is the widow of Manitoba politician Sidney Spivak.


Sandra Dorsey

Sandra Dorsey (born September 28, 1939) is an American film and television actress, she is also a theatre actress, director, writer and choreographer. She is best known for her role in the 1989 horror sequel "".
Life and career.
Dorsey was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Dorsey founded Dorsey Studios in 1977. Before her acting career, Dorsey was a teacher of acting and singing exclusively in New York City. She has also taught at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and in Emory University. she is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, Actors' Equity Association, The American Federation of Television and Radio Arts, the Dekalb Council for the Arts, The College Music Society, the Episcopal Drama Foundation, and The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She has also served as SAG president for the state of Georgia. In addition to her work at Dorsey studios, Dorsey has worked at the Bachelor of Arts, Oglethorpe University, Master of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance and the University of Georgia. She has also attended the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, and has studied extensively with the David LeGrant Actors Studio in New York. She has performed in five plays on Broadway in NYC, "Illya Darling" with Melina Mercouri, "Gantry" with Robert Shaw and Rita Moreno, "Drat! The Cat!" with Elliott Gould, "On the Town" with Bernadette Peters and Phyllis Newman, and "Mata Hari" with Pernell Roberts and directed by Vincent Minnelli. She played Franlein Kost in the National Tour of "Cabaret" directed by Harold Prince. Dorsey wrote and directed "Biba Revue" at Maxim’s in Chicago, she directed and choreographed "Amahl and the Night Visitors" in Atlanta, and was musical director for "An Evening with Rodgers and Hammerstein" at Emory University. She also directed the critically acclaimed "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris".
Dorsey began her acting career in 1976 when she appeared in the horror film "Grizzly". She then appeared in her second film "They Went That-A-Way & That-A-Way" in 1978 and the following year she starred alongside Sally Field and Beau Bridges in the classic film "Norma Rae". Dorsey's husband Joe Dorsey also made appearances in each of these films. Dorsey is best known for her role in the horror movie "Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland", alongside Pamela Springsteen and Michael J. Pollard. In the film, she played the role of camp owner Lily Miranda. Her and her on-screen husband (Pollard) Herman's character names were after "The Munsters" characters Herman and Lily Munster, and the other characters in the film were named after "The Brady Bunch". Her death scene, with her head being decapitated by a lawnmower, is perhaps the best death scene in the film. This was Dorsey's second time working with director Michael A. Simpson, as the first was in 1986 with "Impure Thoughts". In 1995, Dorsey played the role of Maxine in the Disney movie "Gordy", which was her final feature film to date.
Her television credits include "The Dukes of Hazzard". She has also appeared in several television films including "Passing Glory", with Rip Torn, "Frankenstein", with Parker Posey, and "Angel City", which again featured her husband, Joe working alongside her.


Margaret Hartman Markoe Bache

Margaret Hartman Markoe Bache (November 7, 1770 – May 28, 1836) was a printer and editor. Born in Saint Croix, then part of the Danish West Indies, she was raised in Philadelphia. Bache ran the "Aurora" newspaper with her first and second husbands, Benjamin Franklin Bache and William Duane. It survived attempts at its demise through the period leading up to the American Revolutionary War and became a leading newspaper in the United States, covering local, national and international news.
Personal life.
Born November 7, 1770 in Saint Croix, Margaret Hartman Markoe was the daughter of Elizabeth Hartman and Francis Markoe. Her parents had emigrated from Denmark to St. Croix, where they had a sugar plantation, Clifton Hill estate. After her father's death, likely in the late 1770s, she and her mother emigrated to Philadelphia. They lived in a large mansion of her uncle Abraham Markoe, who was a successful merchant. Shortly after they moved to Philadelphia, Elizabeth married Adam Kuhn, a physician. Her mother died in 1790.
Bache met Benjamin Franklin "Benny" Bache, an "eager suitor" in 1788. In November 1791, they married and she moved into 322 Market Street. In 1792, they moved to 112 High Street in Philadelphia. They had their fourth child, Hartman Bache, in September 1798. Benny contracted yellow fever about the same time and died on September 8, 1798.
Bache and fellow journalist William Duane, hired by Benny before his death, were married at the Christ Church in Philadelphia on June 28, 1800. They lived at 316 Market Street some time after their union. After 25 years of marriage, Bache told Thomas Jefferson in 1824 that she had the qualities of "a Roman matron".
Printer and publisher.
Bache worked with her husband operating the "Aurora" newspaper and his printing business. In the events leading up to the American Revolution, Benny's life became more dangerous as he delved into political controversies, like the Jay Treaty. Benny campaigned against the treaty across New England, during which Dr. Michael Leib, a family friend, ran their business. Considered among the Jeffersonian "radicals", they experienced slandering from the federalist press, and shunned by some, including family members. William Cobbett's newspaper, "Porcupine's Gazette" was particularly defamatory.
Following Benny's death in 1798, Bache became owner and operator of the newspaper and printing business. William Duane, who was hired to help run the business, was hired by Benny prior to his death. Although challenged by competitors, threatened strikes by the paper's pressmen and compositors, and attempts to buy off the "Aurora", it grew in coverage and in size. It was expanded to include more national and international news and became the "leading newspaper in the United States.


Mabel Balfour

Mabel Balfour was a South African trade unionist and an anti-apartheid activist. Balfour was first involved with the unions representing food and canning workers. After many leaders in the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) were arrested in the 1956 Treason Trials, she became part of the Management Committee in 1957. Balfour was considered good at keeping "the spirits of workers high during very difficult times."
Balfour was arrested in 1958 for her participation in the April Stay-At Home and sentenced to £20 or 30-days hard labor for "inciting non-white workers on the Rand." The punishment was eventually suspended. In 1962, she became the General Secretary of the African Food and Canning Workers Union (A-FCWU) in Transvaal. She was banned in 1963 and confined to house arrest in Roodepoort.


Chiquinha Gonzaga

Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, better known as Chiquinha Gonzaga (; October 17, 1847 – February 28, 1935) was a Brazilian composer, pianist and the first woman conductor in Brazil.
Chiquinha Gonzaga was the first pianist of "choro" and author of the first carnival march, "Ó Abre Alas" (1899). Her plays and operettas, such as "Forrobodó" and "Jurití", were a great success with the public because they used elements of Brazilian popular culture of the time.
Biography.
Early life.
Chiquinha Gonzaga was born in Rio de Janeiro, from a mestizo mother and a wealthy white father – after she was born her father became a marshal. Her godfather was Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias. For her mother, a mestizo and poor woman, the birth of Chiquinha was a very difficult, in part because of the risk that the father would not recognize the paternity of her daughter. Indeed, José Basileu, the military promising career, from a wealthy family, suffered from the pressure of his parents, who were against his marriage with Rosa. Despite these disagreements, he accepted the child as his daughter and married.
Like all girls of a military family in the 19th century, Chiquinha Gonzaga was very well educated. Her father, very strict with her education,prepared her for a successful future: a good marriage that would raise her to the category of "lady". She learned to read and write, do maths and primarily play the piano. Therefore, the music became her sole purpose in life. At age 11, she composed her first musical work, the song "Canção dos Pastores", in a Christmas celebration.
In Brazil in the late 19th century, women were often seen on a quasi role of slave; few dared to defy their parents and husbands; when that happened, they were quickly sent to reformatories and convents. However, since 1808 with the arrival of the Royal Family in Brazil, women began to circulate more in the streets, dancing in receptions, to come to parties at theater and opera.
Rio de Janeiro in those times was already turning into a metropolitan center, gradually growing according to the development of external trade. The usages and consumption were modified. The port of Rio de Janeiro became the financial and commercial center of the Empire, which were trading coffee, slaves and foreign goods that fascinated the new consumers. The city now had the appearance of a European city. Even with all these social changes, manners were not so advanced. For the young Chiquinha, nothing had changed, she always obeyed the orders of her father.
Mariage and family.
In 1863, at age 16, Francisca married Jacinto Ribeiro do Amaral, a young man of 24, official of the Imperial Navy. Francisca had received the gift of a piano from her father, as a wedding gift. Jacinto do Amareal was chosen by her father to marry Chiquinha even though she had expressed her disagreement with this arranged marriage. Unable to withstand the life on the ship where her husband served (and where he spent more time than with his family), his psychological and physical abuses and humiliation, because he did not agree that she would pursue a musical career, Chiquinha leaves her husband and asks for the divorce, a scandal at the time. She takes with her their eldest son, João Gualberto (born in 1864). Her husband, however, did not let Chiquinha take her younger children: their daughter, Maria do Patrocínio (born in 1865) and their other son, Hilário (born in 1867). After leaving her husband, Chiquinha was “declared dead and of unpronounceable name” by her father.
In 1870, Chiquinha moved to Minas Gerais with the engineer João Batista de Carvalho, with whom she had a daughter, Maria Alice (born in 1876). As Chiquinha could not accept his extra-marital betrayals, she splits and again loses a daughter. João Batista did not let Chiquinha keep Maria Alice.
In 1876 Chiquinha Gonzaga, 29 years old, lives in Rio de Janeiro with her eldest son, João Gualberto, to work as an independent musician and initiate her successful career as a pianist and composer.
In 1899, after decades dedicated mainly to her music, Chiquinha met João Batista Fernandes Lage, a young man full of life and talented musician apprentice. They fell in love but the age difference was too large and would cause more prejudice and suffering in the life of Chiquinha. She was 52 years old and John the Baptist, was only 16. Chiquinha adopted him as a son, in order to be able to live this great love. This decision was taken to avoid the scandals regarding her own children and the society of the time, and to not affect her brilliant career. For this reason also, Chiquinha and João Batista moved to Lisbon (Portugal) where they lived several years away from the acquaintances in Rio de Janeiro. At first, her children did not accept the couple, but soon they realized the importance of João Batista for Chiquinha's music and life. After a few years, the couple returned to Brazil without arousing any suspicions to be living as husband and wife. Chiquinha never admitted publicly her relationship with João Batista, which was only discovered after his death, through letters and photos of the couple.
She died beside João Batista Fernandes, her best friend, partner and faithful companion, her great love, in 1935, during the beginning of a new Carnival. She was buried in the cemetery of São Francisco de Paula, district of Catumbi, in Rio de Janeiro.
Career.
After separating from her husband, Chiquinha lived as an independent musician, playing piano in music instrument stores. She gave piano lessons to support her son João Gualberto, regardless of society critics because she was raising a child without a husband. She was devoted entirely to her music, which was very successful, as her career grew and she became very famous as a composer of polkas, waltzes, tangos and ditties. Chiquinha began to participate in balls and “"chorões"” reunions, normally reserved for men, where she met the flautist Joaquim Antônio da Silva Callado and started to play in his group, "O Choro do Calado", being the first woman to play in this group.
The need to adjust the piano sound to popular taste are the reason of Chiquinha Gonzaga's glory to become the first popular composer of Brazil. During this time she composed her first success, the polka "Atraente""", in 1877, “"composed by the piano, as an improvisation, during a ‘choro’ meeting"”. At that time, she was famous but highly criticized by the masculine society of her time. In 1884, she composed the waltz "Walkyria", considered one of her most beautiful waltzes.
After the success of her first printed composition, she decided to start to do vaudeville and revue. She composed the costume operetta "A Corte na Roça" in 1885. In 1911, her greatest success in the theater was the operetta "Forrobodó", that reached 1500 straight shows after the premiere - until today the best show of its kind in Brazil.
In 1900, Chiquinha meets the irreverent artist Nair de Tefé von Hoonholtz, the first woman cartoonist in the world, a bohemian woman from noble family, and they become great friends. Between 1902 and 1910, Chiquinha travelled through Europe, becoming particularly famous in Portugal, where she wrote songs for various authors.
Shortly after her return from Europe, her friend Nair de Tefé married the Brazilian president Hermes Rodrigues da Fonseca, becoming the first lady of Brazil. Chiquinha was invited by Nair de Tefé a few evenings at Catete Palace, the presidential palace, even against the will of Nair's family. Chiquinha was already very famous but very criticized by the society of her time. Once, in 1914, for the premiere of "Corta Jaca" at the presidential palace, the first lady joined Chiquinha on guitar, playing an excerpt from the song composed by the pianist. This episode was considered a scandal at the time, with public critics against the government, the life at the palace, the promotion and dissemination of music whose origins were in "vulgar" dances, contrary to the values of the aristocratic social elite. Playing Brazilian popular music in the palace of the Brazilian Government was regarded at the time as a violation of the protocol, which caused controversy in the upper echelons of society and politicians. After the end of his presidential term, Hermes da Fonseca and Nair de Tefé moved to France, where they remained for a long time. Because of this episode, Chiquinha and Nair ended up losing touch.
She was the composer of the famous operetta partition "Juriti" with Viriato Corrêa, in 1919.
In 1934, at age 87, she wrote her last composition, the opera "Maria".
Due to the popularity of her music, many people began to use her music and content without permission, and they were abusing her work as a musician this led to Chiquinha founding the Brazilian Society of Theater Authors, in 1917, which was the first society put into place to copyright and protect works by Brazilian artists.
At the end of her life, she composed music for 77 theater plays and was the author of about two thousand compositions in different genres: waltzes, polkas, tangos, lundus, maxixes, Fado, quadrilles, mazurkas, Choros and serenades.
Civic engagement.
Due her maternal origins and the many injustices experienced during her life, Chiquinha was a very active citizen and involved in all kinds of social movements that took place during her generation in Brazil, such as the abolition of slavery, with the Law Áurea of 1888 and the proclamation of the Republic in 1889. Many times, she has a leading position for the suffragist movement.
Tribute.
On 17 October 2018, to commemorate what would have been her 171st birthday, Google released a Google Doodle celebrating her.
In 1999, a miniseries titled Chiquinha Gonzaga was released, it comprised 38 episodes, and was based on her life as a teacher and composer.
In the Passeio Público of Rio de Janeiro, there is a herm in her honor by the sculptor Honorius Peçanha. In May 2012, law 12624 was enacted establishing the National Day of Brazilian Popular Music, celebrated on the day of her birthday, October 17.


Valerie Faris


Diane Keaton

Diane Hall Keaton (born January 5, 1946) is an American actress and filmmaker. Known for her idiosyncratic personality and dressing style, she has received an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and the AFI Life Achievement Award.
Keaton began her career on stage and made her screen debut in a small role in "Lovers and Other Strangers" (1970). She rose to prominence with her first major film role as Kay Adams-Corleone in "The Godfather" (1972), a role she reprised in its sequels "The Godfather Part II" (1974) and "The Godfather Part III" (1990). The films that most shaped her career were those with director and co-star Woody Allen, beginning with "Play It Again, Sam" (1972). Her next two films with Allen, "Sleeper" (1973) and "Love and Death" (1975), established her as a comic actor. Her fourth, the romantic comedy "Annie Hall" (1977), won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.
To avoid being typecast as her "Annie Hall" persona, Keaton appeared in several dramatic films, starring in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (1977) and Allen's "Interiors" (1978), and received three more Academy Award nominations for playing feminist activist Louise Bryant in "Reds" (1981), a woman with leukemia in "Marvin's Room" (1996), and a dramatist in "Something's Gotta Give" (2003).
Keaton's other popular films include "Manhattan" (1979), "Baby Boom" (1987), "Father of the Bride" (1991), "Manhattan Murder Mystery" (1993), "Father of the Bride Part II" (1995), "The First Wives Club" (1996), "The Family Stone" (2005), "Morning Glory" (2010), "Finding Dory" (2016) and "Book Club" (2018).
Early life and education.
Diane Keaton was born Diane Hall in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Dorothy Deanne ("née" Keaton; 1921–2008), was a homemaker and amateur photographer; her father, John Newton Ignatius "Jack" Hall (1922–1990), was a real estate broker and civil engineer. Keaton was raised a Free Methodist by her mother. Her mother won the "Mrs. Los Angeles" pageant for homemakers; Keaton has said that the theatricality of the event inspired her first impulse to be an actress, and led to her wanting to work on stage. She has also credited Katharine Hepburn, whom she admires for playing strong and independent women, as one of her inspirations.
Keaton is a 1964 graduate of Santa Ana High School in Santa Ana, California. During her time there, she participated in singing and acting clubs at school, and starred as Blanche DuBois in a school production of "A Streetcar Named Desire". After graduation, she attended Santa Ana College, and later Orange Coast College as an acting student, but dropped out after a year to pursue an entertainment career in Manhattan. Upon joining the Actors' Equity Association, she changed her surname to Keaton, her mother's maiden name, as there was already an actress registered under the name of Diane Hall. For a brief time she also moonlighted at nightclubs with a singing act. She revisited her nightclub act in "Annie Hall" (1977), "And So It Goes" (2014), and a cameo in "Radio Days" (1987).
Keaton began studying acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. She initially studied acting under the Meisner technique, an ensemble acting technique first evolved in the 1930s by Sanford Meisner, a New York stage actor/acting coach/director who had been a member of The Group Theater (1931–1940). She has described her acting technique as, "[being] only as good as the person you're acting with ... As opposed to going it on my own and forging my path to create a wonderful performance without the help of anyone. I always need the help of everyone!" According to Jack Nicholson, "She approaches a script sort of like a play in that she has the entire script memorized before you start doing the movie, which I don't know any other actors doing that."
Career.
1970s.
In 1968, Keaton became a member of the "Tribe" and understudy to Sheila in the original Broadway production of "Hair". She gained some notoriety for her refusal to disrobe at the end of Act I when the cast performs nude, even though nudity in the production was optional for actors (Those who performed nude received a $50 bonus). After acting in "Hair" for nine months, she auditioned for a part in Woody Allen's production of "Play It Again, Sam". After nearly being passed over for being too tall (at , she is taller than Allen), she won the part.
After being nominated for a Tony Award for "Play It Again, Sam", Keaton made her film debut in "Lovers and Other Strangers" (1970). She followed with guest roles on the television series "Love, American Style" and "Night Gallery", and "Mannix". Between films, Keaton appeared in a series of deodorant commercials.
Keaton's breakthrough role came two years later when she was cast as Kay Adams, the girlfriend and eventual wife of Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 film "The Godfather". Coppola noted that he first noticed Keaton in "Lovers and Other Strangers", and cast her because of her reputation for eccentricity that he wanted her to bring to the role (Keaton claims that at the time she was commonly referred to as "the kooky actress" of the film industry). Her performance in the film was loosely based on her real life experience of making the film, both of which she has described as being "the woman in a world of men." "The Godfather" was an unparalleled critical and financial success, becoming the highest-grossing film of the year and winning the Best Picture Oscar of 1972.
Two years later she reprised her role as Kay Adams in "The Godfather Part II". She was initially reluctant, saying, "At first, I was skeptical about playing Kay again in the "Godfather" sequel. But when I read the script, the character seemed much more substantial than in the first movie." In "Part II" her character changed dramatically, becoming more embittered about her husband's criminal empire. Even though Keaton received widespread exposure from the films, her character's importance was minimal. "Time" wrote that she was "invisible in "The Godfather" and pallid in "The Godfather, Part II", but according to "Empire" magazine, Keaton "proves the quiet lynchpin which is no mean feat in [the] necessarily male dominated films."
Keaton's other notable films of the 1970s included many collaborations with Woody Allen; although by the time they made films together, their romantic involvement had ended. She played many eccentric characters in several of his comic and dramatic films, including "Sleeper", "Love and Death", "Interiors", "Manhattan", "Manhattan Murder Mystery" and the film version of "Play It Again, Sam", directed by Herbert Ross. Allen has credited Keaton as his muse during his early film career.
In 1977 Keaton won the Academy Award for Best Actress in Allen's romantic comedy "Annie Hall", one of her most famous roles. "Annie Hall", written by Allen and Marshall Brickman and directed by Allen, was believed by many to be an autobiographical exploration of his relationship with Keaton. Allen based the character of Annie Hall loosely on Keaton ("Annie" is a nickname of hers, and "Hall" is her original surname). Many of Keaton's mannerisms and her self-deprecating sense of humor were added into the role by Allen. (Director Nancy Meyers has claimed "Diane's the most self-deprecating person alive.") Keaton has also said that Allen wrote the character as an "idealized version" of herself. The two starred as a frequently on-again, off-again couple living in New York City. Her acting was later summed up by CNN as "awkward, self-deprecating, speaking in endearing little whirlwinds of semi-logic", and by Allen as a "nervous breakdown in slow motion." The film was both a major financial and critical success, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Of Keaton's performance, feminist film critic Molly Haskell wrote, "Keaton took me by surprise in "Annie Hall". Here she blossomed into something more than just another kooky dame—she put the finishing touches on a type, the anti-goddess, the golden shiksa from the provinces who looks cool and together, who looks as if she must have a date on Saturday night, but has only to open her mouth or gulp or dart spastically sideways to reveal herself as the insecure bungler she is, as complete a social disaster in her own way as Allen's horny West Side intellectual is in his." In 2006 "Premiere" magazine ranked Keaton in "Annie Hall" 60th on its list of the "100 Greatest Performances of All Time", and noted:
It's hard to play ditzy. ... The genius of Annie is that despite her loopy backhand, awful driving, and nervous tics, she's also a complicated, intelligent woman. Keaton brilliantly displays this dichotomy of her character, especially when she yammers away on a first date with Alvy (Woody Allen), while the subtitle reads, 'He probably thinks I'm a yoyo.' Yo-yo? Hardly.
Keaton's eccentric wardrobe in "Annie Hall", which consisted mainly of vintage men's clothing, including neckties, vests, baggy pants, and fedora hats, made her an unlikely fashion icon of the late 1970s. A small amount of the clothing seen in the film came from Keaton herself, who was already known for her tomboyish clothing style years before "Annie Hall", and Ruth Morley designed the movie's costumes. Soon after the film's release, men's clothing and pantsuits became popular attire for women. She is known to favor men's vintage clothing, and usually appears in public wearing gloves and conservative attire. (A 2005 profile in the "San Francisco Chronicle" described her as "easy to find. Look for the only woman in sight dressed in a turtleneck on a 90-degree afternoon in Pasadena.")
Her photo by Douglas Kirkland appeared on the cover of the September 26, 1977, issue of "Time" magazine, with the story dubbing her "the funniest woman now working in films." Later that year she departed from her usual lighthearted comic roles when she won the highly coveted lead role in the drama "Looking for Mr. Goodbar", based on the novel by Judith Rossner. In the film she played a Catholic schoolteacher for deaf children who lives a double life, spending nights frequenting singles bars and engaging in promiscuous sex. Keaton became interested in the role after seeing it as a "psychological case history." The same issue of "Time" commended her role choice and criticized the restricted roles available for female actors in American films: A male actor can fly a plane, fight a war, shoot a badman, pull off a sting, impersonate a big cheese in business or politics. Men are presumed to be interesting. A female can play a wife, play a whore, get pregnant, lose her baby, and, um, let's see ... Women are presumed to be dull. ... Now a determined trend spotter can point to a handful of new films whose makers think that women can bear the dramatic weight of a production alone, or virtually so. Then there is Diane Keaton in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar". As Theresa Dunn, Keaton dominates this raunchy, risky, violent dramatization of Judith Rossner's 1975 novel about a schoolteacher who cruises singles bars.
In addition to acting, Keaton has said she "had a lifelong ambition to be a singer." She had a brief, unrealized career as a recording artist in the 1970s. Her first record was an original cast recording of "Hair", in 1971. In 1977 she began recording tracks for a solo album, but the finished record never materialized.
Keaton met with more success in the medium of still photography. Like her character in "Annie Hall", Keaton had long relished photography as a favorite hobby, an interest she picked up as a teenager from her mother. While traveling in the late 1970s, she began exploring her avocation more seriously. "Rolling Stone had asked me to take photographs for them, and I thought, 'Wait a minute, what I'm really interested in is these lobbies, and these strange ballrooms in these old hotels.' So I began shooting them", she recalled in 2003. "These places were deserted, and I could just sneak in anytime and nobody cared. It was so easy and I could do it myself. It was an adventure for me." "Reservations", her collection of photos of hotel interiors, was published in book form in 1980.
1980s.
With "Manhattan" (1979), Keaton and Woody Allen ended their long working relationship; it was their last major collaboration until 1993. In 1978 she became romantically involved with Warren Beatty, and two years later he cast her opposite him in the epic historical drama "Reds". In the film she played Louise Bryant, a journalist and feminist, who flees her husband to work with radical journalist John Reed (Beatty) and later enters Russia to find him as he chronicles the Russian Civil War. Beatty cast Keaton after seeing her in "Annie Hall", as he wanted to bring her natural nervousness and insecure attitude to the role. The production of "Reds" was delayed several times following its conception in 1977, and Keaton almost left the project when she believed it would never be produced. Filming finally began two years later.
In a 2006 "Vanity Fair" story, Keaton described her role as "the everyman of that piece, as someone who wanted to be extraordinary but was probably more ordinary ... I knew what it felt like to be extremely insecure." Assistant director Simon Relph later stated that Louise Bryant was one of Keaton's most difficult roles, and that "[she] almost got broken." "Reds" opened to critical acclaim, and Keaton's performance was particularly praised. "The New York Times" wrote that Keaton was "nothing less than splendid as Louise Bryant– beautiful, selfish, funny and driven. It's the best work she has done to date." Roger Ebert called Keaton "a particular surprise. I had somehow gotten into the habit of expecting her to be a touchy New Yorker, sweet, scared, and intellectual. Here, she is just what she needs to be: plucky, healthy, exasperated, loyal, and funny." Keaton received her second Academy Award nomination for her performance.
The following year, Keaton starred in the domestic drama "Shoot the Moon" opposite Albert Finney. The film follows George (Finney) and Faith Dunlap (Keaton), whose deteriorating marriage, separation and love affairs devastate their four children. "Shoot the Moon" received mostly positive reviews from critics and Keaton's performance was again praised. In "The New Yorker", Pauline Kael wrote that the film was "perhaps the most revealing American movie of the era", saying of Keaton:
Diane Keaton may be a star without vanity: she's so completely challenged by the role of Faith that all she cares about is getting the character right. Very few young American movie actresses have the strength and the instinct for the toughest dramatic roles — intelligent, sophisticated heroines. Jane Fonda did, around the time that she appeared in "Klute" and "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", but that was more than ten years ago. There hasn't been anybody else until now. Diane Keaton acts on a different plane from that of her previous film roles; she brings the character a full measure of dread and awareness, and does it in a special, intuitive way that's right for screen acting.
David Denby of "New York" magazine called Keaton "perfectly relaxed and self-assured", adding, "Keaton has always found it easy enough to bring out the anger that lies beneath the soft hesitancy of her surface manner, but she's never dug down and found this much pain before. Keaton's performance garnered her a second Golden Globe nomination in a row for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, following "Reds".
1984 brought "The Little Drummer Girl", Keaton's first excursion into the thriller and action genre. "The Little Drummer Girl" was both a financial and critical failure, with critics claiming that Keaton was miscast for the genre, such as one review from "The New Republic" claiming that "the title role, the pivotal role, is played by Diane Keaton, and around her the picture collapses in tatters. She is so feeble, so inappropriate." But the same year she received positive reviews for her performance in "Mrs. Soffel", a film based on the true story of a repressed prison warden's wife who falls in love with a convicted murderer and arranges for his escape. Two years later she starred with Jessica Lange and Sissy Spacek in "Crimes of the Heart", adapted from Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play into a moderately successful screen comedy. Keaton's performance was well received by critics, and Rita Kempley of "The Washington Post" wrote, "As the frumpy Lenny, Keaton eases smoothly from New York neurotic to southern eccentric, a reluctant wallflower stymied by, of all things, her shriveled ovary."
In 1987 Keaton starred in "Baby Boom", her first of four collaborations with writer-producer Nancy Meyers. She played a Manhattan career woman who is suddenly forced to care for a toddler. A modest box-office success, Keaton's performance was singled out by Kael, who described it as "a glorious comedy performance that rides over many of the inanities in this picture. Keaton is smashing: the Tiger Lady's having all this drive is played for farce and Keaton keeps you alert to every shade of pride and panic the character feels. She's an ultra-feminine executive, a wide-eyed charmer, with a breathless ditziness that may remind you of Jean Arthur in "The More The Merrier"." That same year Keaton made a cameo in Allen's film "Radio Days" as a nightclub singer. 1988's "The Good Mother" was a financial disappointment (according to Keaton, the film was "a Big Failure. Like, BIG failure"), and some critics panned her performance; according to "The Washington Post", "her acting degenerates into hype—as if she's trying to sell an idea she can't fully believe in."
In 1987 Keaton directed and edited her first feature film, "Heaven", a documentary about the possibility of an afterlife. It met with mixed critical reaction, with "The New York Times" likening it to "a conceit imposed on its subjects." Over the next four years Keaton directed music videos for artists such as Belinda Carlisle, including the video for Carlisle's chart-topping hit "Heaven Is a Place on Earth," two television films starring Patricia Arquette, and episodes of the series "China Beach" and "Twin Peaks".
1990s.
By the 1990s Keaton had established herself as one of the most popular and versatile actors in Hollywood. She shifted to more mature roles, frequently playing matriarchs of middle-class families. Of her role choices and avoidance of becoming typecast, she said: "Most often a particular role does you some good and Bang! You have loads of offers, all of them for similar roles ... I have tried to break away from the usual roles and have tried my hand at several things."
Keaton began the decade with "The Lemon Sisters", a poorly received comedy/drama that she starred in and produced, which was shelved for a year after its completion. In 1991 she starred with Steve Martin in the family comedy "Father of the Bride". She was almost not cast in the film, as "The Good Mother"'s commercial failure had strained her relationship with Walt Disney Pictures, the studio of both films. "Father of the Bride" was Keaton's first major hit after four years of commercial disappointments. She reprised her role four years later in the sequel, as a woman who becomes pregnant in middle age at the same time as her daughter. A "San Francisco Examiner" review of the film was one of many in which Keaton was once again compared to Katharine Hepburn: "No longer relying on that stuttering uncertainty that seeped into all her characterizations of the 1970s, she has somehow become Katharine Hepburn with a deep maternal instinct, that is, she is a fine and intelligent actress who doesn't need to be tough and edgy in order to prove her feminism."
Keaton reprised her role of Kay Adams in 1990's "The Godfather Part III", set 20 years after the end of "The Godfather, Part II". Keaton's character was now Michael Corleone's estranged ex-wife. Criticism of the film and Keaton again centered on her character's unimportance in the film. "The Washington Post" wrote, "Even though she is authoritative in the role, Keaton suffers tremendously from having no real function except to nag Michael for his past sins." In 1993 Keaton starred in "Manhattan Murder Mystery", her first major film role in a Woody Allen film since 1979. Her part was originally intended for Mia Farrow, but Farrow dropped out of the project after breaking up with Allen. Todd McCarthy of "Variety" commended her performance, writing that she "nicely handles her sometimes buffoonish central comedic role". David Ansen of "Newsweek" wrote, "On screen, Keaton and Allen have always been made for each other: they still strike wonderfully ditsy sparks". For her performance, Keaton was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.
In 1995 Keaton directed "Unstrung Heroes", her first theatrically released narrative film. The movie, adapted from Franz Lidz's memoir, starred Nathan Watt as a boy in the 1960s whose mother (Andie MacDowell) is diagnosed with cancer. As her sickness advances and his inventor father (John Turturro) grows increasingly distant, the boy is sent to live with his two eccentric uncles (Maury Chaykin and Michael Richards). Keaton switched the story's setting from the New York of Lidz's book to the Southern California of her own childhood, and the four mad uncles were reduced to a whimsical odd couple. In an essay for "The New York Times", Lidz said that the cinematic Selma had died not of cancer, but of "Old Movie Disease". "Someday somebody may find a cure for cancer, but the terminal sappiness of cancer movies is probably beyond remedy." "Unstrung Heroes" played in a relatively limited release and made little impression at the box office, but the film and its direction were generally well-received critically.
Keaton's most successful film of the decade was the 1996 comedy "The First Wives Club". She starred with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler as a trio of "first wives": middle-aged women who had been divorced by their husbands in favor of younger women. Keaton claimed that making the film "saved [her] life." The film was a major success, grossing US$105million at the North American box office, and it developed a cult following among middle-aged women. Its reviews were generally positive for Keaton and her co-stars, and "The San Francisco Chronicle" called her "probably [one of] the best comic film actresses alive." In 1997 Keaton, Hawn and Midler received the Women in Film Crystal Award, which honors "outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry."
Also in 1996 Keaton starred as Bessie, a woman with leukemia, in "Marvin's Room", an adaptation of the play by Scott McPherson. Meryl Streep played her estranged sister, Lee, and had also initially been considered for the role of Bessie. The film also starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Lee's rebellious son. Roger Ebert wrote, "Streep and Keaton, in their different styles, find ways to make Lee and Bessie into much more than the expression of their problems." Keaton earned a third Academy Award nomination for the film, which was critically acclaimed. She said the role's biggest challenge was understanding the mentality of a person with a terminal illness. Keaton next starred in "The Only Thrill" (1997) opposite her "Baby Boom" co-star Sam Shephard, and had a supporting role in "The Other Sister" (1999).
In 1999 Keaton narrated the one-hour public radio documentary "If I Get Out Alive", the first to focus on the conditions and brutality young people face in the adult correctional system. The program, produced by Lichtenstein Creative Media, aired on public radio stations across the country, and was honored with a First Place National Headliner Award and a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.
2000s.
Keaton's first film of 2000 was "Hanging Up", with Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow. She directed the film, despite claiming in a 1996 interview that she would never direct herself in a film, saying "as a director, you automatically have different goals. I can't think about directing when I'm acting." A drama about three sisters coping with the senility and eventual death of their elderly father (Walter Matthau), "Hanging Up" rated poorly with critics and grossed a modest US$36million at the North American box office.
In 2001 Keaton co-starred with Warren Beatty in "Town & Country", a critical and financial fiasco. Budgeted at an estimated US$90million, the film opened to little notice and grossed only US$7million in its North American theatrical run. Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote that "Town & Country" was "less deserving of a review than it is an obituary...The corpse took with it the reputations of its starry cast, including Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton." In 2001 and 2002 Keaton starred in four low-budget television films. She played a fanatical nun in the religious drama "Sister Mary Explains It All", an impoverished mother in the drama "On Thin Ice", and a bookkeeper in the mob comedy "Plan B". In "Crossed Over", she played Beverly Lowry, a woman who forms an unusual friendship with the only woman executed while on death row in Texas, Karla Faye Tucker.
Keaton's first major hit since 1996 came in 2003's "Something's Gotta Give", directed by Nancy Meyers and co-starring Jack Nicholson. Nicholson and Keaton, aged 65 and 56 respectively, were seen as bold casting choices for leads in a romantic comedy. Twentieth Century Fox, the film's original studio, reportedly declined to produce the film, fearing that the lead characters were too old to be bankable. Keaton told "Ladies' Home Journal", "Let's face it, people my age and Jack's age are much deeper, much more soulful, because they've seen a lot of life. They have a great deal of passion and hope—why shouldn't they fall in love? Why shouldn't movies show that?" Keaton played a middle-aged playwright who falls in love with her daughter's much older boyfriend. The film was a major success at the box office, grossing US$125million in North America. Roger Ebert wrote, "Nicholson and Keaton bring so much experience, knowledge and humor to their characters that the film works in ways the screenplay might not have even hoped for." Keaton received her fourth Academy Award nomination for her performance.
Keaton's only film between 2004 and 2006 was the comedy "The Family Stone" (2005), starring an ensemble cast that also included Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, and Craig T. Nelson. In the film, scripted and directed by Thomas Bezucha, Keaton played a breast cancer survivor and matriarch of a big New England family that reunites at the parents' home for its annual Christmas holidays. The film was released to moderate critical and commercial success, and earned US$92.2million worldwide. Keaton received her second Satellite Award nomination for her portrayal, of which Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote, "Keaton, a sorceress at blending humor and heartbreak, honors the film with a grace that makes it stick in the memory."
In 2007 Keaton starred in both "Because I Said So" and "Mama's Boy". In the romantic comedy "Because I Said So", directed by Michael Lehmann, Keaton played a long-divorced mother of three daughters, determined to pair off her only single daughter, Milly (Mandy Moore). Also starring Stephen Collins and Gabriel Macht, the project opened to overwhelmingly negative reviews, with Wesley Morris of "The Boston Globe" calling it "a sloppily made bowl of reheated chick-flick cliches", and was ranked among the worst-reviewed films of the year. The following year Keaton received her first and only Golden Raspberry Award nomination to date for the film. In "Mama's Boy", director Tim Hamilton's feature film debut, Keaton starred as the mother of a self-absorbed 29-year-old (Jon Heder) whose world turns upside down when she starts dating and considers kicking him out of the house. Distributed for a limited release to certain parts of the United States only, the independent comedy garnered largely negative reviews.
In 2008 Keaton starred alongside Dax Shepard and Liv Tyler in Vince Di Meglio's dramedy "Smother", playing the overbearing mother of an unemployed therapist, who decides to move in with him and his girlfriend after breaking up with her husband (Ken Howard). As with "Mama's Boy", the film received a limited release only, resulting in a gross of US$1.8million worldwide. Critical reaction to the film was generally unfavorable, and once again Keaton was dismissed for her role choices, with Sandra Hall of the "New York Post" writing, "Diane's career is dyin' [...] this time, sadly, she's gone too far. She's turned herself into a mother-in-law joke." Also in 2008 Keaton appeared alongside Katie Holmes and Queen Latifah in the crime-comedy film "Mad Money", directed by Callie Khouri. Based on the British television drama "Hot Money" (2001), the film revolves around three female employees of the Federal Reserve who scheme to steal money that is about to be destroyed. As with Keaton's previous projects, the film bombed at the box offices with a gross total of US$26.4million, and was universally panned, ranking third in the "New York Post" Top 10 Worst Movies of 2008.
2010s.
In 2010 Keaton starred alongside Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford in Roger Michell's comedy "Morning Glory", playing the veteran TV host of a fictional morning talk show that desperately needs to boost its lagging ratings. Portraying a narcissistic character who will do anything to please the audience, Keaton described her role as "the kind of woman you love to hate." Inspired by Neil Simon's 1972 Broadway play "The Sunshine Boys", the film was a moderate success at the box office, taking a worldwide total of almost US$59million. Some critics felt that Keaton was underused in the film, but she was generally praised for her performance, with James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" writing, "Diane Keaton is so good at her part that one can see her sliding effortlessly into an anchor's chair on a real morning show."
In fall 2010 Keaton joined the production of the comedy drama "Darling Companion" by Lawrence Kasdan, which was released in 2012. Co-starring Kevin Kline and Dianne Wiest and set in Telluride, Colorado, the film follows a woman, played by Keaton, whose husband loses her much-beloved dog at a wedding held at their vacation home in the Rocky Mountains, resulting in a search party to find the pet. Kasdan's first film in nine years, the film bombed at the US box office, where it scored about US$790,000 throughout its entire theatrical run. Critics dismissed the film as "an overwritten, underplotted vanity project" but applauded Keaton's performance. Ty Burr of "The Boston Globe" wrote that the film "would be instantly forgettable if not for Keaton, who imbues [her role] with a sorrow, warmth, wisdom, and rage that feel earned [...] Her performance here is an extension of worn, resilient grace."
Also in 2011 Keaton began production on Justin Zackham's 2013 ensemble comedy "The Big Wedding", a remake of the 2006 French film "Mon frère se marie" in which she, along with Robert De Niro, played a long-divorced couple who, for the sake of their adopted son's wedding and his very religious biological mother, pretend they are still married. The film received largely negative reviews. In his "New York Post" review Lou Lumenick wrote, "the brutally unfunny, cringe-worthy "The Big Wedding" provides ample opportunities for Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Susan Sarandon, and Robin Williams to embarrass themselves".
In 2014 Keaton starred in "And So It Goes" and "5 Flights Up". In Rob Reiner's romantic dramedy "And So It Goes", Keaton portrayed a widowed lounge singer who finds autumnal love with a bad boy (Michael Douglas). The film received largely negative reviews. One critic wrote that ""And So It Goes" aims for comedy, but with two talented actors stuck in a half-hearted effort from a once-mighty filmmaker, it ends in unintentional tragedy." Keaton co-starred with Morgan Freeman in Richard Loncraine's comedy film "5 Flights Up", based on Jill Ciment's novel "Heroic Measures". They play a long-married couple who have an eventful weekend after they are forced to contemplate selling their beloved Brooklyn apartment. Shot in New York, the film premiered, under its former name "Ruth & Alex", at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. The same year Keaton became the first woman to receive the Golden Lion Award at the Zurich Film Festival.
Keaton's only film of 2015 was "Love the Coopers", an ensemble comedy about a troubled family getting together for Christmas, for which she reunited with "Because I Said So" writer Jessie Nelson. Also starring John Goodman, Ed Helms, and Marisa Tomei, Keaton was attached for several years before the film went into production. Her cast was instrumental in financing and recruiting most other actors, which led her to an executive producer credit in the film. "Love the Coopers" received largely negative reviews from critics, who called it a "bittersweet blend of holiday cheer", and became a moderate commercial success at a worldwide total of US$41.1million against a budget of US$17million. Also in 2015 Netflix announced the comedy "Divanation", for which Keaton was expected to reunite with her "First Wives Club" co-stars Midler and Hawn to portray a former singing group, but the project failed to materialize.
Keaton voiced amnesiac fish Dory's mother in Disney and Pixar's "Finding Dory" (2016), the sequel to the 2003 Pixar computer-animated film "Finding Nemo". The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over US$1billion worldwide, the second Pixar film to cross this mark after "Toy Story 3" (2010). It also set numerous records, including the biggest animated opening of all time in North America, emerging as the biggest animated film of all time in the US. Keaton's other project of 2016 was the HBO eight-part series "The Young Pope", in which she plays a nun who raised the newly elected Pope (Jude Law) and helped him reach the papacy. The miniseries received two nominations for the 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, becoming the first Italian TV series to be nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards.
In 2017 Keaton appeared opposite Brendan Gleeson in the British dramedy film "Hampstead". Based on the life of Harry Hallowes, it depicts an American widow (Keaton) who helps a local man defending his ramshackle hut and the life he has been leading on Hampstead Heath for 17 years. The specialty release had a mixed reception from critics, who were unimpressed by the film's "deeply mediocre story", but became a minor commercial success. Keaton's only project of 2018 was "Book Club", in which she, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen play four friends who read "Fifty Shades of Grey" as part of their monthly book club and subsequently begin to change how they view their personal relationships. The romantic comedy received mixed reviews from critics, who felt that "Book Club" only "intermittently rises to the level of its impressive veteran cast," but with a worldwide gross of over $91 million, became Keaton's biggest commercial success in a non-voice role since 2003's "Something's Gotta Give". In 2019, Keaton starred in the comedy "Poms" as a woman dying of cancer who starts a cheerleading squad with other female residents of a retirement home. The film was a box office disappointment and was negatively received by critics.
Personal life.
Relationships and family.
Woody Allen.
Keaton has had several romantic associations with noted entertainment industry personalities, starting with her audition for the 1969 Broadway production of "Play It Again, Sam", directed by Woody Allen. Their relationship became romantic after they had dinner after a late-night rehearsal. It was her sense of humor that attracted Allen. They briefly lived together during the production, but by the time of the film release of the same name in 1972, their living arrangements became informal. They worked together on eight films between 1971 and 1993, and Keaton has said that Allen remains one of her closest friends.
Warren Beatty.
Keaton was already dating Warren Beatty in 1979 when they co-starred in the film "Reds". Beatty was a regular subject in tabloid magazines and media coverage, and Keaton became included, much to her bewilderment. In 1985 "Vanity Fair" called her "the most reclusive star since Garbo." This relationship ended shortly after "Reds" wrapped. Troubles with the production are thought to have strained the relationship, including numerous financial and scheduling problems. Keaton remains friends with Beatty.
Al Pacino.
Keaton also had a relationship with her "The Godfather Trilogy" costar Al Pacino. Their on-again, off-again relationship ended after the filming of "The Godfather Part III". Keaton said of Pacino, "Al was simply the most entertaining man... To me, that's, that is the most beautiful face. I think Warren was gorgeous, very pretty, but Al's face is like whoa. Killer, killer face."
Later thoughts on marriage.
In July 2001, Keaton said of being older and unmarried, "I don't think that because I'm not married it's made my life any less. That old maid myth is garbage." Keaton has two adopted children, daughter Dexter (adopted 1996) and son Duke (2001). Her father's death made mortality more apparent to her, and she decided to become a mother at age 50. She later said of having children, "Motherhood has completely changed me. It's just about the most completely humbling experience that I've ever had."
Religious beliefs.
Keaton said she produced her 1987 documentary "Heaven" because "I was always pretty religious as a kid ... I was primarily interested in religion because I wanted to go to heaven." When she grew up, she became agnostic.
Other activities.
Keaton opposes plastic surgery. She told "More" magazine in 2004, "I'm stuck in this idea that I need to be authentic ... My face needs to look the way I feel."
Keaton is active in campaigns with the Los Angeles Conservancy to save and restore historic buildings, particularly in the Los Angeles area. Among the buildings she has been active in restoring is the Ennis House in the Hollywood Hills, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Keaton was also active in the failed campaign to save the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles (a hotel featured in "Reservations"), where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. She is an enthusiast of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture.
Since 2005 Keaton has been a contributing blogger at "The Huffington Post". Since 2006 she has been the face of L'Oréal.
Keaton has served as a producer on films and television series. She produced the Fox series "Pasadena", which was canceled after airing only four episodes in 2001 but completed its run on cable in 2005. In 2003 she produced the Gus Van Sant drama "Elephant", about a school shooting. Of why she produced the film, she said, "It really makes me think about my responsibilities as an adult to try and understand what's going on with young people."
Keaton has continued to pursue her interest in photography. In 1987 she told "Vanity Fair", "I have amassed a huge library of images—kissing scenes from movies, pictures I like. Visual things are really key for me." She has published several more collections of her own photographs and served as an editor of collections of vintage photography. Works she has edited in the last decade include a book of photographs by paparazzo Ron Galella; an anthology of reproductions of clown paintings; and a collection of photos of California's Spanish-Colonial-style houses.
Keaton has also established herself as a real estate developer. She has resold several mansions in Southern California after renovating and redesigning them. One of her clients was Madonna, who purchased a US$6.5million Beverly Hills mansion from Keaton in 2003. She received the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Gala Tribute in 2007.
Keaton wrote her first memoir, "Then Again", for Random House in November 2011. Much of the autobiography relies on her mother's private journals, which include the line "Diane...is a mystery...At times, she's so basic, at others so wise it frightens me." In 2012 Keaton's audiobook recording of Joan Didion's "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" was released on Audible.com. Her performance was nominated for a 2013 Audie Award in the Short Stories/Collections category.
Acting style and legacy.
Keaton has been called "one of the great American actresses from the heyday of the 1970s", a style icon and a "treasure" with a personal and professional style that is "difficult to explicate and impossible to duplicate." Many critics have pointed to her versatility in starring in both light comedies and acclaimed dramas. "The New York Times" described Keaton as "remarkably skilled" at portraying Woody Allen's "darling flustered muse" in his comedies, as well as "shy, self-conscious women overcome by the power of their own awakened eroticism" in dramatic films like "Looking for Mr. Goodbar", "Reds", "Shoot the Moon" and "Mrs. Soffel". It also noted Keaton's ability to consistently reinvent and challenge herself on screen, having transitioned from "Allen's ditzy foil" to a "gifted and erotically nuanced character actress" and later "an appealing maternal figure... a woman's woman with a sexy edge."
Literary critic Daphne Merkin argued that Keaton remained more popular with audiences than her contemporaries because of her "friendly accessibility" and "charmingly self-effacing" persona, calling Keaton's most "steadfastly glamorous" asset her "megawatt personality, bursting out of her like an uncontrollable force of nature, a geyser of quirkily entertaining traits that fall on the air and lend everything around her a momentary sparkle." In "New York" magazine, Peter Rainer wrote, "In her "Annie Hall" days, [Keaton] was famed for her thrown-together fashion sense, and her approach to acting is, in the best way, thrown-together, too. Audiences love her because they identify with the women she plays, who are never all of a piece. Nobody can be grave and goofy all at once like Diane Keaton. In these fractious times, it's the perfect combo for a modern heroine." Famously self-deprecating, Keaton has been noted for her "wry sense of humor" and "eccentric gender-bending style."
Analyzing her on-screen persona, Deborah C. Mitchell wrote that Keaton often played "a complex, modern American woman, a paradox of self-doubt and assurance", which became her trademark. Mitchell suggests that Keaton made "Annie Hall" a "critical juncture for women in American culture. In this ism-infected age, Keaton became not just a star but an icon. Annie Hall, and with her Diane Keaton, presented all of the uncertainty and ambivalence of the new breed of women." Likewise, Bruce Weber felt Keaton's eccentricity—"an amalgam of caginess and insecurity" and a "note of comic desperation... her round-cheeked Annie Hall dewiness"—was her gift as a screen comedian. Keaton's Annie Hall is often cited among the greatest Oscar-winning performances in history: "Entertainment Weekly" ranked it 7th on its "25 greatest Best Actress Winners" list, praising her "loopy mannerisms, jazz-club serenades, and endlessly imitated fashion sense." After seeing her performance in "Looking for Mr. Goodbar", Andrew Sarris remarked, "Keaton is clearly the most dynamic woman star in pictures. And any actress who can bring wit and humor to sex in an American movie has to be blessed with the most winning magic."
When asked what made Keaton funny, Allen said: "My opinion is that with the exception of Judy Holliday, she's the finest screen comedienne we've ever seen. It's in her intonation; you can't quantify it easily. When Groucho Marx or W.C. Fields or Holliday would say something, it's in the ring of their voices, and she has that. It's never line comedy with her. It's all character comedy." Charles Shyer, who directed her in "Baby Boom", said Keaton was "in the mold of the iconic comedic actresses Carole Lombard, Irene Dunne and Rosalind Russell." In 2017 Keaton was chosen by the board of directors of the American Film Institute to receive the AFI Life Achievement Award, which Woody Allen presented.
Awards and honors.
Keaton has received various awards, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" (1977). She also received three more Academy Award nominations, for "Reds" (1981), "Marvin's Room" (1996), and "Something's Gotta Give" (2003). Keaton received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for "" (1994) and a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for "CBS Schoolbreak Special" in 1990. Keaton has received 12 Golden Globe Award nominations, winning for "Annie Hall" (1977) and "Something's Gotta Give" (2003). She has received four Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for her work in film and television.
Over the years Keaton has been received various honors for her work as an actress and fashion icon. In 1991, she received the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year award from Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatricals, which is given to performers who give a lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment. In 1995, she was honored by the New York Women in Film & Television association along with Angela Bassett, Cokie Roberts, Gena Rowlands and Thelma Schoonmaker. In 1996 she won the Golden Apple Award as the Female Star of the Year, sharing it with her "First Wives Club" co-stars Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler. She also received the 1997 Crystal Award at the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards in 1997, and the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards the Icon Award in 1998 along with Sigourney Weaver, Lucy Fisher and Gillian Armstrong.
Keaton won the 2004 AFI Star Award during the US Comedy Arts Festival. In 2005, she received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Hollywood Film Awards. She was honored with the Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute in 2007. In 2014 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Manaki Brothers Film Festival. That year she also received the Golden Icon Award at the Zurich Film Festival. In 2017 she was honored by the American Film Institute and was given a Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented to her by her close friend and frequent collaborator Woody Allen. Other who paid tribute to her included Steve Martin, Martin Short, Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Morgan Freeman, and Al Pacino. In 2018 she received a Special David at the David di Donatello Awards.


Caroline Winnett

Caroline Winnett is the Executive Director of the Berkeley SkyDeck startup accelerator at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a serial entrepreneur, civic activist, angel investor, advisor and board member of several startups, and a frequent speaker on startups, accelerators, women in business and consumer neuroscience.
Education.
Winnett attended Brown University as an undergraduate and got her violin performance degree in 1984 from the Indiana University School of Music.
In 1990, Winnett earned her MBA from the Berkeley Haas School of Business. In a 2018 interview, Winnett said that she created her own major in Entrepreneurial Operations because at that time there were no programs at Berkleley for entrepreneurs.
Civic activism and Berkeley landmarks.
Save Berkeley Iceland.
In 2008, Winnett was a founder and spokesperson for Save Berkeley Iceland, advocating for the preservation of the 67-year old Olympic-sized historical ice rink in Berkeley, California. She appeared on local "NBC News" to raise donations and also petitioned the city council. Winnett and the group were able to raise $50,000 and advocated turning the rink into a nonprofit, but in the end were not able to save the rink from closure.
SkyDeck signage petition.
In July 2017, Winnett successfully petitioned the Berkeley city council after a 10-month review process to approve signage on the tallest building in downtown Berkeley, formerly known as the PowerBar building or the Chase Building due to previous signage. The highly-debated building signage named the building "SkyDeck" after Winnett's nonprofit organization, the Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator located on the penthouse floor. Those opposed to the petition argued that the signage was "advertising" and not architectural, while advocates including Winnett argued that the name SkyDeck reflected the Berkeley spirit of innovation. In the end the SkyDeck Building petition was unanimously approved by the council.
Career.
NeuroFocus.
In 2006, Winnett co-founded startup NeuroFocus, a company that measures how consumers react to advertising using neurological measurements using EEG sensors. Nielsen Holdings acquired NeuroFocus in 2011.
UC Berkeley SkyDeck.
Winnett joined Berkeley SkyDeck as executive director in 2015, three years after its original founding as a mentoring space. As the new director, Winnett added staff and worked to partner with the resources already in place at Berkeley. With a colleague, Winnett helped to secure a $150,000 grant to build The Berkeley Startup Network platform so that startup resources at Berkeley would be accessible in one place. In a 2018 interview with "Xconomy", Winnett noted that the number of SkyDeck startup advisors had increased from 30 to 140, and that the penthouse accelerator had also taken over an additional floor of the high-rise building it was housed in, located next to Berkeley campus.
In Spring 2018, Winnett and SkyDeck raised a $24 million oversubscribed venture fund from investors Sequoia Capital, Mayfield, Sierra Ventures and others. Managed by Winnett's colleague Chon Tang, the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund began offering $100,000 each to startups in return for 5 percent ownership, beginning with a cohort of 20. In a 2019 blog, Winnett expressed a goal that the Berkeley SkyDeck Fund would bring $1 billion in revenue to UC Berkeley in the future.
Cal Performances.
Winnett also serves on the Board of Trustees for Cal Performances, a UC Berkeley performing arts organization.
Public Speaking.
Winnett was the opening speaker at the 2020 Taiwan-US Innovation Forum, and urged companies in the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic environment to "focus on the basics", "don't be afraid to change course", and "look for new opportunities". Winnett has also spoken at venues such as the Milan Innovation District and the Rhodes House at the University of Oxford talking about the future of work and innovation.


Florence Shoemaker Thompson

Florence Katherine Shoemaker Thompson Riney (October 30, 1892 – April 13, 1961) was the first female sheriff in the United States of America to carry out an execution. Rainey Bethea, the last man to be publicly executed in the U.S., was convicted of rape and sentenced to death by hanging in Daviess County, Kentucky.
Road to Sheriff.
Florence Shoemaker was born to Andrew Jefferson and Henrietta Fronie Shoemaker in Louisville, Kentucky. She married Joseph Everett Thompson on January 12, 1915 and had four children. Everett was sworn in as the sheriff of Daviess County on January 1, 1934. On April 10, 1936, Everett Thompson died of suspected pneumonia at the age of 42. After her husband died, Florence had no way to provide for her family. By law, the county judge needed to appoint a sheriff to finish Everett's position until someone else could be elected. The judge asked Florence to fill the vacancy (customarily known as widow's succession) and she accepted as a way to support her family.
Time as Sheriff.
Florence Thompson was sworn in the day after her husband's funeral. Through her time as sheriff she rarely wore a uniform, but would sometimes wear a badge on her dress. She generally did not perform arrests but would do so when no one was available. In her first few years as sheriff she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Public Execution of Rainey Bethea.
On July 25, 1936, just over two months into Thompson's term, Rainey Bethea was sentenced to death by hanging for raping Lischia Edwards. Because of the way the law was written, Bethea had to be returned to Daviess County to have the execution carried out and because Thompson was the sheriff at the time, it was her duty to carry out the execution. She was quite conflicted with the ruling and its impact on her role as sheriff and as a woman. She wanted to carry out her duties, but being a devout Christian was concerned about her standing with the church should she follow through with the hanging. Her friend and confidant, Father Albert J. Thompson, priest at an Owensboro church, assured her she could perform all of her duties, including the execution and remain in good standing with the church.
As news of the hanging got around, she was bombarded with reporters. They expected her to effect the actual execution, which would make her the first American woman to kill a man by court order. The journalists nicknamed Thompson as "The Hangwoman". She received many letters, some encouraging her to do the execution herself while others expressed distress at the thought of her carrying out the task. The secretary of the Louisville National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Bessie Etherly, wrote to the current Governor, Happy Chandler, concerned about the way the execution would take place. Governor Chandler wrote to Thompson requesting that she not make it a spectacle. He also included Etherly's letter with his. Thompson also received letters from people offering to carry out the execution for her. Thompson decided not to perform the execution herself. Thompson had asked each of her deputies if they would carry out the execution before offering the job to Arthur L. Hash, a former Louisville police officer and World War I veteran.
Thompson had forbidden all of her children from attending and had made arrangements for her children to stay at her friend Elmer Dyer's home. Death threats had been made toward Thompson's children. A FBI agent drove Thompson to the scaffold the morning of the execution, and she stayed in the car about 50 yards away then drove away soon after Bethea was executed. Hash was so intoxicated that when given the sign to pull the lever, he did not do it and ultimately, one of Thompson's deputies had to lean on the lever to open the trap door. A reporter for "The New York Times" wrote: "Ten thousand white persons, some jeering and others festive, saw a prayerful black man put to death today on Daviess County's 'pit and gallows'."
The "Chicago Sun" reported that Thompson fainted at the base of the scaffold, forcing Hash to perform the task. Some reported that the crowd was rowdy and unruly while others reported that the crowd jumped on the body and began ripping off the hood.
Because of these reports and the nature of the hanging, Thompson received multiple marriage proposals and death threats. One threat said that they already had Hash and that they were coming for her and her children next.
Wins Election in Landslide.
Thompson's appointment by the county judge did not run the entire length of her deceased husband's term, and an election was required to determine who would be sheriff for the remaining term. Thompson subsequently ran and was elected by a landslide. Thompson received 9,811 votes. Simon B. Smith, a competitor received two votes and Tom Gall, and another competitor received one vote. On November 3, 1936, Thompson was elected to carry out the remainder of her husband's term. Thompson did not to run for sheriff after her elected term, and Simon B. Smith was sworn in January 3, 1938.
Later life.
Thompson was appointed a deputy sheriff by Simon B. Smith and was in the position for nine years. In December 1944, Thompson married J. Carl Riney after his wife, one of Thompson's friends, had died nine years prior. Her Parkinson's continued to progress. In July 1959 Thompson was admitted to Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in Owensboro, Kentucky. On April 13, 1961, she died there at the age of 68. Her funeral was held at St. Stephen's Catholic Cathedral by Reverend Anthony Higdon. She was buried beside her first husband, Everett, in the Mater Dolorosa Catholic Cemetery in Owensboro.


Dorothy Evans (trade unionist)

Dorothy Evans (1893 – 22 September 1943) was a British trade union leader.
Born in Stockport, Evans was educated at Stockport High School, then studied at the University of Manchester. From 1918 to 1931, she served as general secretary of the Association of Women Clerks and Secretaries (AWCS), and through this was active at the Trades Union Congress, serving on the Standing Joint Committee of Working Women's Organisations.
In her spare time, Evans studied to become a barrister, and was called to the bar in 1925. Despite this, she remained a trade union official. Also active in the Labour Party, she stood unsuccessfully in the 1930 Paddington South by-election.
In 1931, Evans left the AWCS and became secretary of the National Association of Women Civil Servants. She died in 1943, following a long illness.