Welcome to Black History Month. In order to celebrate, we offer this smashing cover image of Shonda Rhimes on Ms. magazine.
Ms. Rhimes has been a Hollywood scriptwriter since 1994. Her credits include a documentary about Hank Aaron, another about Dorothy Dandridge, and one about Britney Spears’ debut. From there she went on to write the sequel to Disney’s movie “The Princess Diaries”.
Her current work includes being head writer and executive producer of three popular TV shows: “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Scandal”, and “How to Get Away with Murder”, all of which are aired the same evening on ABC. There has not been a producer to “own” a single evening of hit-network television since Norman Lear in the late 1970s.
To get a good sense of her work, take a look at her entry on IMDB:
E! celebrates Rhimes’ TV domination
In 2015 Rhimes published a book about recent year of decision making, called “Year of Yes”.
Link to Amazon page for “Year of Yes”
FIT doesn’t have a copy of this book in our library, but it’s a bestseller, so your local library should have plenty of them if you are interested in borrowing it.
Ms. magazine
Ms. magazine was launched in 1971 as a sample insert in New York Magazine. Despite derision from the traditional newspeople, the 300,000 issues of that New York Magazine sold out nationwide in a week. It generated 26,000 subscription orders, and was introduced as in independent magazine in 1972.
Ms. …….. More than a magazine, a movement
The idea behind Ms.was and is to create a news source focused on women and written from a woman’s point of view. The magazine was founded by sociopolitical activists Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes, and continues it’s political and liberal point of view. Ms. magazine is also one of the few regular sources of cutting edge information on women’s health.
The magazine has changed publishers several times, which allowed it to stop printing ads in 1991. This decision has given Ms. freedom from advertisers’ control over content. Ms. has won various awards for its general excellence in journalism and its fearlessness in discussing uncomfortable issues such as domestic violence, abortion, sweatshops, LBTG issues, and date rape. It continues to feature articles by and about people at the forefront of industries, politics, and social activism of many sorts. Contributors have included Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Susan Faludi, Wanda Sykes, Senator Hillary Clinton, (Shonda Rhimes, above), and Queen Noor of Jordan.
Stop up on the 6th floor and take a look!