Guest Post by Kate Jakubowski In The Geography of Genius , author Eric Weiner explains that geniuses aren’t born—they’re made by the worlds they grew up in. Creativity is influenced by culture, and that is why different clusters of gifted people have emerged over time throughout different places in the world. [1] That is why philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle thrived in Ancient Greece and why much of the Western musical canon comes from Vienna, when Mozart, Beethoven, and Hadyn were active composers in the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries. But one cluster Weiner omits is a group of gifted dancers that emerged in early-to-mid 20 th century America— two groups of dancers, in fact. The Five Moons Ballerinas were a quintet of female dancers of Indigenous heritage, while two noted Russian choreographers, George Balanchine and Bronislava Nijinska, immigrated to the United States and influenced the next generation of aspiring ballerinas. At the nexus of these two groups is Mari
Guest Post by Kate Jakubowski “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life—and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” [1] From the time she was ten years old, Georgia O’Keeffe knew exactly what she wanted to do—become an artist. [2] Born in 1887 in the small town of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, Georgia O’Keeffe became one of the most successful female artists of all time: she currently holds the record for most expensive painting sold by a woman at $44.4 million. [3] Whereas we consider Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo as geniuses who transcended their time, we often overlook American artists, and more importantly, female artists, as geniuses too. Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the most brilliant artists of the century—a multifaceted, independent individual who pioneered American modernism and influenced generations to come. The second oldest of seven siblings, and the oldest of five girls, O’Keeffe felt a sense of powe