Happy Random Birthdays!
For those of you who are the scholarly: 20th century philosopher Paul Ricoeur's birthday is today. Or said another way? His works are responsible for me having a dissertation that allowed many of us to have a phenomenological description with hermeneutics. Or, discussing Motown and Baby Boomers and the link to African roots and rituals with mythology was doable because of his works!
And let's not forget the African-American contralto Marian Anderson arguably the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall.
The incident placed Anderson into the spotlight of the international
community. With the aid of
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson performed a critically acclaimed open-air concert on Easter Sunday, April 9, 1939, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington, D.C. She sang before a crowd of more than 75,000 people
and a radio audience in the millions. Anderson continued to break
barriers for black artists in the United States, becoming the first
black person, American or otherwise, to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on January 7, 1955.
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