wonder women

Not enough can be said about the women who birthed, inspired, and influenced us. We proudly stand on their amazing shoulders in an expansive world - large vistas unimpeded til the far horizon. 

Skateistan is open six days a week and offers single gender classes
with boys and girls separate.

Enshrined goddesses of awe and wonder - famous or not, colorful or not - each distinct and all unique.

Here is a very short list, with more to come for sure. 

The eternal bonne vivant, Virginia Moreno. 

Virginia R. Moreno photographed in the book 'Six Women Poets'
(Photo from E. Lolarga)

"I refused for so long to be published in the daily papers or Sunday magazines where my poem of only 4 lines and 12 words, let us say, would be placed between Tampax and hemorrhoid ads. And after so placing the poem, they expect the poet to wait two or three months to be paid for it, or not at all. I can give away more easily my last bowl of rice, my head of hair. It’s only rice, it’s only hair. But pieces of my life are not for waste.”—Virginia R. Moreno quoted by editors Edna Z. Manlapaz and Marjorie Evasco in Six Women Poets (Manila: Aria Edition Inc., 1996) 

The poet-playwright died on the early morning of Aug. 14, 2021. Until the end, I would associate her with the good life, and then some. When death came, I imagined it to be like the gentle lover of her poetry. ~ Elizabeth Lolarga, The Diarist.ph

Ha'a Keaulana, daughter of Brian Keaulana and granddaughter of legendary Buffalo Keaulana

Paul Nicklen Photography - June 7, 2016, Waianae, HI

Ha'a carries a 50-pound boulder while running across the sea floor to train for surfing. Her father teaches surfers that they should train for a four wave hold down in case of a wipeout in big surf. At 13-second intervals between waves, that means about a minute of being held down. It is one thing to hold your breath in a swimming pool for a minute and it something completely different to swim down 30 feet, pick up a huge rock and then run as hard as you can for a minute.

Thanks to her lineage, community and training, Ha’a is a true water woman from Makaha. Hawaiians have saltwater running through their veins and epitomize what it means to be connected to the sea. Shot on assignment for National Geographic with Cristina Mittermeier Photography.

Kathy Hochul, new governor of New York

Kathy Hochul - 57th Governor, New York State

“I agree with Gov. Cuomo's decision to step down. It is the right thing to do and in the best interest of New Yorkers. As someone who has served at all levels of government and is next in the line of succession, I am prepared to lead. . . .The promise I make to all New Yorkers, right here and right now, I will fight like hell for you every single day. I will travel the state to meet you, to listen to you and assure you that I’ve got your back. I am prepared to lead."

New York’s Lt. Gov Kathy Hochul, will take over from Andrew Cuomo when he resigns toward the end of August.

Daisy Mora, Columbian cable runner.

Photograph: Christoph Otto

The sense of flight, the little boy crammed into a sack and the look of anxious concentration on the girl's face suggest something sinister. In fact, this is the school run, Colombian rainforest-style.

For Daisy Mora, her brother Jamid and the children of 11 other families who live on the forested slopes of the Rio Negro valley, 60km south of Bogotá, this is the only way to get across the canyon to school. Steel cables 800m in length are strung 400m above the canopy between Daisy's hamlet and the slope opposite. 

She attaches the sack containing her brother – he is too young, at five, to make the crossing alone – and herself to a pulley, knotting the ends of a hemp rope to create a seat. A branch in the shape of a wishbone forms a crude brake, which slows them to around 50 miles an hour. The entire journey takes 60 seconds. ~ Hannah Booth, The Guardian

Laci Green, sex educator and YouTube personality. 

Laci Green homepage image

Most know me as the creator of Sex Plus!, YouTube's most popular sex education series, as well as the host of the Indirect Message podcast. After graduating from UC Berkeley, I produced award-winning educational series for Planned Parenthood, Discovery Channel, Snapchat, and MTV. I am a seasoned public speaker and have had the honor of speaking at over 150 schools and conferences. In 2018, HarperCollins published her first book, Sex Plus: Learning, Loving, and Enjoying Your Body. Laci's CV/Portfolio

Skateistan Girls, in war ravaged Afghanistan skateboarding is paired with education initiatives.

proud skater girls - image ©Hamdullah Hamdard-Kabul-2014

The non-profit boasts an unlikely student body made up of 40 percent girls in one of the world's poorest and most conservative countries seems a strange place to set up a skateboarding school. The Australian founders of Skateistan who built it from small-time project to award-winning international NGO, say it has proved a remarkably successful way to reach out to marginalized children, particularly girls.

Women can't ride bicycles in Afghanistan, but skateboarding is novel enough to be open to women and has attracted them in droves to the Kabul school where classes are free, and at the back of the skating section are neat changing areas and classrooms where children can study everything from basic literacy to advanced computing when they put down their boards and take off their helmets.

Founder Oliver Percovich started out with just three skateboards and a dream in 2007, but has since made Kabul his permanent home and dedicated his life to Skateistan. ~ Daily Mail Reporter