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We the Women
We the Women
Rebecca by Kayla Alice http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaylaalice/ Middle Women Original
coolchicksfromhistory: Kang Tongbi (Kang Tung Pih) 康同璧, circa 1905. The daughter of a Chinese intellectual, Tongbi was the first Asian student at Barnard.  After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911,  Tongbi returned to China and became involved in feminist causes. Unlike many other women of her class, Tongbi’s feet had never been bound as her parents objected to the practice.  In Shanghai, Tongbi co-founded a Tianzuhui (Natural Feet Society) with a female doctor.  Tongbi also edited Nüxuebao (Women’s Education), one of the first women’s journals in China, and published a biography of her father Kang Youwei.  In the 1920s, she helped organize the Shanghai Women’s Association, which petitioned the Nationalist government in Nanjing for a new constitution under the slogan, “Down with the warlords and up with equality between men and women.”.
humansofnewyork: I loved her hair and her shawl—luckily the wind kicked in to highlight both.
humansofnewyork: Dear HONY, Hi, I’m a Columbia student and I’d like to tell you about the head of the classics department up here at Columbia in Morningside Heights. Her name is Gerry Visco and she doubles as a writer for the New York Post. She is the most eccentric, real, no bullshit, and indeed, CRAZY lady I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. Just google “Gerry Visco” to see what I mean. She goes around the city and hosts all sorts of alternative parties and writes about them. She has the most unique and loudest fashion sense of anyone I know. It’s crazy, you walk up the the 6th floor of Hamilton hall and enter her office and just see all of these bottles of vodka and weird knick-knacks all over the place. You see this huge iMac and this forest of pink hair strands flowing in every which direction behind it. This is her head. She curses, she yells, she calls people out, yet shes one of the nicest, and most honest people I’ve ever known. If anyone deserves to be on HONY, it’s Geraldine Winifred Visco. She is intertwined with the history of New York City. Name a famous New York celebrity, and she can tell you about some time back in the 70s or 80s when she met them. I don’t know how you’d catch her on the street though. I would suggest walking right into Hamilton Hall and going up to the 6th floor and just talking to her. She’d LOVE the attention.  -Jason Ravel
humansofnewyork: This woman wins the award for the most profound one-liner in HONY history: “May I take your photo? You look beautiful.”“OK, just make sure you can see the bag.”“Oh, I didn’t realize you were advertising something.”“Isn’t everything beautiful advertising something?”
humansofnewyork: Supah Stah
humansofnewyork: “So are you professional cheerleaders?” “Nah. She teaches yoga. I’m in sales.”