People

Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia, the eighth and last child of Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker, who were sharecroppers. When Alice Walker was eight years old, she lost sight of one eye when one of her older brothers shot her with a BB gun by accident. In high school, Alice Walker was valedictorian of her class, and that achievement, coupled with a "rehabilitation scholarship" made it possible for her to go to Spelman, a college for black women in Atlanta, Georgia. After spending two years at Spelman, she transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and during her junior year traveled to Africa as an exchange student. She received her bachelor of arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1965. Alice Walker was active in the civil rights movement of the 1960's, and in the 1990's she is still an involved activist. She has spoken for the women's movement, the anti-apartheid movement, for the anti-nuclear movement, and against female genital mutilation. Alice Walker started her own publishing company, Wild Trees Press, in 1984. She currently resides in Northern California with her dog, Marley. She received the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for *The Color Purple*. Among her numerous awards and honors are the Lillian Smith Award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rosenthal Award from the National Institute of Arts & Letters, a nomination for the National Book Award, a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, a Merrill Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Front Page Award for Best Magazine Criticism from the Newswoman's Club of New York. She also has received the Townsend Prize and a Lyndhurst Prize.

Alice K. Wolf is the State Representative from the 25th Middlesex District in Cambridge. She was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1996 after serving the people of Cambridge as Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Councillor and School Committee Member. Representative Wolf's priorities include education, equal rights for gays and lesbians, affordable housing, health care, immigrants rights, gender equity, and serving her constituents. Representative Wolf has received numerous distinguished honors and awards including the 2007 Byron Rushing Freedom of Religion Award from the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry; the 2006 Massachusetts Family Planning Association Leadership Award; the 2005 Champions of Children Award from Massachusetts Advocates for Children; Citizens for Public Schools Activist for Public Schools Award in 2005; and the 2005 Early Education Leadership Award from the Massachusetts Association of Community Partnerships for Children. Born in Austria, Representative Wolf came to America at the age of five with her family, fleeing the Nazi regime. She earned a B.S. from Simmons College and later an M.P.A. from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2001, she received an honorary Doctor of Education degree from Wheelock College.

Alicia Anstead is Editor-in-Chief of *Inside Arts* magazine, a national magazine on the arts presenting industry. For two decades, she reported on arts and culture for *The Bangor Daily News* in Maine, and has been published nationally in newspapers and magazines, including *The New York Times*, *American Craft*, *Art New England* and *Down East*. She was a National Arts Journalism Program Fellow at Columbia University and the inaugural Arts and Culture Fellow at Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism. In addition to working as an independent arts consultant, Alicia teaches journalism, and is moderator and contributor to the "Office for the Arts" Blog at Harvard.

Alicia Erian is the author of a short story collection, *The Brutal Language of Love*. Her work has appeared in Playboy, Zoetrope, Nerve, The Iowa Review, and other publications. *Towelhead* is her first novel.

Alicia is a graduate of Northeastern University; holds a J.D. from the Suffolk University Law School; and received her L.L.M. in International Law, with a Specialization in the Protection of International Human Rights from The Washington College of Law at American University. Alicia has worked on issues of human trafficking since 2006, when she joined the staff of The Protection Project at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (JHU-SAIS) in Washington DC. Alicia has worked on a variety of human rights issues, focusing on child sex trafficking in both domestic and international contexts and other forms of violence against women. Currently Alicia is co-instructing a distance-learning course on international human rights law and is engaged in extensive research on the reintegration of formerly trafficked women. Alicia guest lectures at local Universities and is active in supporting various social causes in Boston and beyond.

**Alicia Garza** is someone who believes that black communities deserve what all communities deserve — to be powerful in every aspect of their lives. That’s what drives Garza as an innovator, strategist, internationally recognized organizer and writer. In 2018, she founded the Black Futures Lab, which works to make Black people powerful in politics. Alicia's writing and work has been featured in Time, Mic, Marie Claire, The Guardian, Elle.com, Essence Magazine, and The New York Times. She has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2017 Sydney Peace Prize with Black Lives Matter co-founders Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi; Fortune Magazine 2016 World’s Greatest Leaders; and she was a member of the 2016 Tribunal of the US Black Women’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission held at the United Nations.

Alicia E. Goranson is a local Boston author. Her writing appears in the anthology *Pinned Down By Pronouns* and *Other Magazine*. Her first novel *Supervillainz* is the co-winner of the 2005 Project QueerLit award, and is available from Suspect Thoughts Press. She reads all across the country.

Alicia Partnoy is a human rights activist, poet, college professor, and translator. She was taken from her home on January 12, 1977, by the Argentinian Army and imprisoned at a concentration camp named The Little School for three and a half months. She was moved from the concentration camp to the prison of Villa Floresta where she stayed for six months only to be transferred to Villa Devoto prison in Buenos Aires. She spent two and a half years as a prisoner of conscience, with no charges. In 1979, she was forced to leave the country, coming to the U.S. as a refugee with her daughter where they were reunited with her husband in Seattle, Washington. In 1985, she published her story of what had happened to her at The Little School. She is currently a professor of modern languages and literatures at Loyola Marymount University.

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Critically acclaimed actress Alicia Silverstone is best known for her roles on stage and screen. Her numerous film credits include *The Crush*, *Batman & Robin*, *Beauty Shop*, Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Shakespeare's *Love's Labour's Lost*, and the iconic blockbuster *Clueless*, among others. In 1997 Silverstone produced and starred in *Excess Baggage*, featuring Benicio del Toro and Christopher Walken—making her, then, the youngest producer of all time. Silverstone’s stage work includes performances in *The Graduate* (on Broadway, alongside Kathleen Turner), the David Mamet-directed production of *Boston Marriage* (Los Angeles), Mamet’s *Speed the Plow*, and most recently, Donald Margulies’s *Time Stands Still *(directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan). Among her television portrayals are leading roles in three of Aerosmith's best known videos (including "Cryin’" which was voted Best Video of All Time by MTV), a Golden-Globe nominated performance in the NBC series *Miss Match*, and an Emmy-nominated performance in the hit animated children's show *Braceface*, for which Silverstone provided the voice of the main character and served as executive producer. The series earned a Genesis Award, an Environmental Media Award, and a Prism Award nomination. Silverstone has long been a vocal advocate for environmental causes and was recently awarded a "Heart of Green" award by the Hearst corporation, which recognized her pioneering work in helping "green go mainstream." Silverstone is continually asked to offer environmentally friendly fashion, dining, entertaining, and lifestyle tips to leading media outlets. Her first book, *The Kind Diet: How to Feel Great, Lose Weight, and Save the Planet*, will be published by Rodale in October 2009 and features recipes and advice which speak to the fact that, what's good for the planet is also good for the body.

Alim Qasimov and his daughter Fargana exemplify the explosive artistic energy that results when a powerful musical model ignites the spark of young talent. "To be a musician, there has to be a fire burning in you," explains the elder Qasimov. "It's either there or it isn't. I'm convinced that if young people have this spark--call it inspiration, call it spiritual fire -- they can perform any kind of music. It could be pop, folk, or classical, but whatever it is, they'll stand out." Fargana Qasimova's talent gravitated naturally toward the music she heard from her father: Azerbaijani classical music, known as mugham, and the repertoire of popular bardic songs sung by ashqs--singer-songwriters who might be considered modern-day troubadours. Mugham may be performed in a purely instrumental form, but the performance medium most favored among Azerbaijanis is the voice. Vocalists typically perform the lead role in a trio that also includes tar and kamancha as well as a frame drum (daf) played by the vocalist. This trio style of performance provided the starting point for Alim Qasimov's innovative treatment of mugham.

Alina Bronsky was born in Yekaterinburg, an industrial town at the foot of the Ural Mountains in central Russia. She moved to Germany when she was thirteen. Broken Glass Park, nominated for one of Europe’s most prestigious literary awards, the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, is her first novel. Alina Bronsky is a pseudonym.

Alisa R. Drayton is the executive director of the Yawkey Club of Roxbury.   Drayton is a life-long learner, holding a B.S. degree from Lincoln University, a M.S. degree from the New School for Social Research and a J.D. from Boston College. She joins BGCB after dedicating her life’s work toward providing financial and operational leadership to community development organizations.