TCCL Celebrates: Women Award Winners

This Women's History Month, we are celebrating some of the powerful, inspiring women who have received awards on behalf of the library.

Click to learn more about the American Indian Writers Award and the Sankofa Freedom Award.

Learn more about the Circle of Honor Award HERE.

Anita Hill holding the Sankofa Freedom Award — Anita Hill holds the Sankofa Freedom Award.

Anita Hill – 2020 Sankofa Freedom Award winner

Find books to check out by Anita Hill HERE.

“Anita Hill became a public figure in 1991 when, as a University of Oklahoma law professor, she leveled sexual harassment charges against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Hill's subsequent televised testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee galvanized many women who had never paid attention to the issue of sexual harassment, focused national attention on that issue, and divided Black people, many of whom believed Hill should not have attempted to derail the advancement of a fellow African American. In spite of her testimony, Thomas won approval. Hill, who was met with both praise and harsh criticism for coming forward, continued her academic career and later published a book about her experience in the controversy.”

The excerpt above is from her biography in the African American Experience database. Find it at www.tulsalibrary.org/research/databases/a, then log in with your last name and TCCL card number to search for Anita Hill and explore resources.

Laura Tohe – 2019 American Indian Writers Award winner

Find books to check out by Laura Tohe HERE.

“Navajo wordsmith Laura Tohe made her mark in the literary world in 1999 with the publication of No Parole Today, a collection of stunning memoir-inspired prose and poetry recounting her days at an off-reservation boarding school. Since then, Tohe has published numerous stories, poems and essays in countless literary journals and collections, contributing to a growing body of literature chronicling the Native American experience. Tohe holds the notoriety of writing the lyrics for the first-ever oratorio based on an indigenous creation story. Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio debuted in 2008 in a production by the Phoenix Symphony, prompting a ten-minute standing ovation after its premiere and selling out its second night.”

The excerpt above is from a biography available in the Biography in Context database. Find it at www.tulsalibrary.org/research/databases/b, then log in with your last name and TCCL card number to search for Laura Tohe and explore resources.

Log in to the American Indian Experience database with your last name and TCCL card to search for Laura Tohe and watch her read her poem "The Big Rectangle" from the anthology Sister Nations at the Library of Congress, 2003. Tohe served as poet laureate of the Navajo Nation during 2015–2019.

Iyanla Vanzant – 2018 Sankofa Freedom Award winner

Find books to check out by Iyanla Vanzant HERE.

“Popular self-help guru Iyanla Vanzant triumphed over much adversity in her life and uses her experience to provide insightful, no-nonsense advice primarily to women, especially African Americans. She is the author of many self-help books and memoirs--of which five were New York Times bestsellers. Her titles sold more than eight million copies and were translated into 23 languages. Known as an engaging public speaker and television personality, Vanzant was a one-time regular on The Oprah Winfrey Show and had her own shows, including Iyanla and Iyanla: Fix My Life. “

Susan L. Taylor – 2014 Sankofa Freedom Award winner

Find items by and about Susan Taylor HERE.

“Susan L. Taylor has played a principal role in the development of Essence magazine for over three decades as a writer, editor, and quintessential face of the magazine's brand. She is well-known for her column, "In the Spirit," one the magazine's most popular features that she wrote for 27 years. Taylor is also an author, penning four books. ... As editor-in-chief emeritus of the magazine, Taylor remains active as a popular lecturer and advocate for African American social causes and personal empowerment.”

Pearl Cleage – 2010 Sankofa Freedom Award winner

Find books to check out by Pearl Cleage HERE.

“Author and playwright Pearl Cleage works hard to capture the truth about African-American experiences, especially those of African-American women. Cleage built her reputation as a powerful feminist writer first with plays and essays before expanding her writing to novels. She achieved widespread acclaim for her play Flyin' West, which became the most produced new play in America in 1994. Yet Cleage's greatest recognition soon came from novels: a form she thought she'd ‘never write’ as she remarked on her Web site. Her first novel What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey and she picked it for her television book club in 1998, introducing Cleage to an enormous, international audience.“

Nikki Giovanni – 2008 Sankofa Freedom Award winner

Find books to check out by Nikki Giovanni HERE.

“Nikki Giovanni is an African American poet who is known for expressive and emotional writing on love, loss, family, gender, racism, activism, and revolutionary perspectives. She was one of the most celebrated poets of the Black Arts Movement during the 1960s and 1970s.”

Leslie Marmon Silko - 2005 American Indian Writers Award winner

Find books to check out by Leslie Marmon Silko HERE.

“Leslie Marmon Silko is a Laguna Pueblo poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, and photographer. Known previously for her short stories and poetry, Silko's place in Native American writing is permanently assured by her innovative first novel, Ceremony (1977). Silko is one of the earliest Native authors to celebrate the mixed-blood American Indian as a source of power and a symbol of the future of the Native peoples. Her works have met with a varied critical response for their inventive and often controversial addressing of issues pertaining to Laguna culture and the dilemma of race in the United States.“

The excerpt above is from her biography in the American Indian Experience database. Find it at www.tulsalibrary.org/research/databases/a, then log in with your last name and TCCL card number to search for Leslie Marmon Silko and explore resources.

Joy Harjo – 2001 American Indian Writers Award winner

Find books to check out by Joy Harjo HERE.

“Joy Harjo is a Muscogee Creek, poet, writer, musician, and teacher. Her poetry is noted for emotional and mythic intensity in describing and connecting oral tradition to contemporary society, with a focus on identity, justice for the oppressed, and a relationship between landscape and history. Harjo's poetry challenges the contemporary Western concepts of linear time and history with the oral traditional concept of the "spiral" memory of storytelling, which emphasizes the cyclical nature of history and human lifecycles. Harjo became the first Native American to hold the title of U.S. poet laureate in 2019.”