Jamaican chef Norma Shirley built a reputation in the U.S. serving “New England food with Jamaican flair” at her Massachusetts restaurant in the late 1970s. But as she told Essence magazine, “It’s my dream to open another restaurant in Jamaica where Blacks would be the majority clientele.”
Sonia Boyce became the first woman of African descent to represent the U.K. at the Venice Biennale in 2022, the year she turned 60.
Founder of “Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet” (MoBBallet), which “preserves, presents, and promotes the contributions and stories of Black artists in the field of Ballet, illustrating that they are an integral part of dance history at large,” in 2015.
American dance educator, choreographer, dramaturg, and scholar, and an activist working to deconstruct the hierarchies of dance.
In 1990, Hattie Canty was elected the first African American, first woman, and first guest room attendant to be president of the Las Vegas Hotel and Culinary Workers Union Local 226, a role in which she improved conditions for tens of thousands of workers.
The first African American to win an Oscar
In 2017, 63-year-old Tanzanian-British artist Lubaina Himid became the oldest artist to win the acclaimed Turner Prize, as well as the first woman of African descent.
1800s Jamaican nurse and businesswoman
“Stagecoach Mary” Fields may seem like an unconventional mail carrier by today’s standards, but the gun-toting, hot-tempered, six-foot-tall Mary was exactly the right person to protect her cargo in 1890s Montana.
Despite—or perhaps because of—her phenomenal talent, singer Darlene Love was held back for years by producer Phil Spector, who relegated her to background singer roles.