Grace Lee Boggs

As I'm often a bit late for things, I just discovered an inspiring revolutionary woman.
Grace Lee Boggs.
I figure most people already know about this 99 year old woman.  But if you're like me, here's how I enjoyed learning about her...a PBS - POV production which won a Peabody Award.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365279681/
If that doesn't work, it's because it expires on May 24.  (This link goes to my PBS station, Triangle Park, and then I click on videos, then on "about to expire, see all") See, I told you I was pretty late to the party.

"Grace Lee Boggs, 99, is a Chinese American philosopher, writer, and activist in Detroit with a thick FBI file and a surprising vision of what an American revolution can be. Rooted for 75 years in the labor, civil rights and Black Power movements, she challenges a new generation to throw off old assumptions, think creatively and redefine revolution for our times."

Grace Lee Boggs with Grace Lee (filmmaker, no relation)

"Spending so much time with Boggs changed her, says filmmaker Grace Lee. She first met the activist in 2000 while making The Grace Lee Project, a movie about women sharing that name, and has been having conversations with her for more than a dozen years. She says Boggs’s unique views helped her figure out how to make this documentary, with its nontraditional approach that focuses on Boggs’s ideas as much as her biography."

Actually several of my most intelligent and activist feminist friends have mentioned her on Facebook, and I was too busy or had my head in the sand to find out about her.  They said last year on a Sunday morning at 7 am there was an NPR broadcast on the radio, and it was fantastic.  Mmmm, that's partly why my head was in the sand, the timing of it.

Even though you may not have time to see this fantastic documentary in 2 days, there are also some grass roots ways to view it.  She is in failing health apparently, and one site asks for donations to help her stay in her home in Detroit, by having viewings of the DVD of this video, with conversations, and it will be provided to those who make a donation.  Mmm, I might figure out a way to do that.

However, the request for donations as well as the video, came out in 2014.  I need to do some more research, or perhaps you might know more about the current status of Mrs. Boggs.  Her 100th birthday is June 27.


Today's quote:

People are like stained glass windows: They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross