Currently Browsing: Tributes

Ethel Smyth: Trailblazing Composer & Committed Feminist

In honor of the USA’s 52nd annual Women’s Equality Day, I’d like to introduce you to Ethel Smyth, an English composer who is currently enjoying a revival of interest here in the UK.

It’s a wonder to me that Ethel’s name isn’t a staple in more households, not just in music, but also in written works, and very importantly, in connection with the Suffragette movement in the early 1900s.read more.

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Julia Reichert’s Historical Documentaries Make History

To celebrate the release of American Factory on this day in 2019, we’re taking a look back at its director Julia Reichert’s incredible career. 

Julia Reichert was an American filmmaker and activist. In the late sixties, Julia began her lifelong involvement with interviewing and storytelling, and with feminism.read more.

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Loretta Lynn: Celebrating an American Icon on July 4th

Today, FF2 Media begins a new tradition. In honor of July 4th—America’s Independence Day—we are naming our first “American Icon,” FF2’s annual tribute to an extraordinary woman artist who passed into history in the year preceding. Our first American Icon is Country Music Superstar Loretta Lynn shown above with President Barack Obama on the day she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (our nation’s highest civilian honor).… read more.

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Tribute to Trailblazing Performer & Civil Rights Activist Joyce Bryant

Joyce Bryant, who was a singer, dancer, and civil rights activist, died on November 20, 2022, in Los Angeles; her devoted niece, Robyn LaBeaud, was by her side.

With her sultry stage presence, Joyce rose to fame in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Her trademarks included silver hair and very tight mermaid dresses with daring necklines.… read more.

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The Life and Legacy of Punk Icon Vivienne Westwood

Vivienne Westwood, the fashion designer who blazed her own trail, bringing punk to high fashion, died on December 29th in South London at the age of 81. Her death was announced by her company, which did not specify the cause.
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“Just like Tevye, Sammy Dallas Bayes was a ‘girl dad.’”

In September 2022, Jan Lisa Huttner, author of Diamond Fiddler: New Traditions for a New Millennium (Why Fiddler on the Roof Always Wins), spoke with Barbara Bayes, the wife of Sammy Dallas Bayes, who sadly passed in May.

Jan Lisa Huttner: How did you and Sammy meet?

Barbara Bayes: Sammy and I met in 1985. I was a performer, dancing and singing in an industrial show for IBM.… read more.

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