What Are We Reading this Week? {02.13.16}

By Lindsey Oliver ’16

Beyoncé owns the Bowl. During Sunday’s Super Bowl half-time show, Beyoncé stole the show from headliner Coldplay and co-performer Bruno Mars. The focal point of her performance was her politically charged new song, “Formation,” which went straight to No. 1. on music charts as soon as it was released on Saturday. Among other things, the song is, as New York Times columnist Jenna Wortham puts it, a call to action: “Black women, join me and make your own formation, a power structure that doesn’t rely on traditional institutions.” (New York Times)

The force is with her. This fascinating Vanity Fair profile looks back at the 30-plus-year career of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, number 42 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list and a driving force behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens. (Vanity Fair)

Helping Hillary? Two feminist icons rung in on women and the election this past weekend. “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” said Madeleine Albright, the first female U.S. Secretary of State, while introducing Hillary Clinton at a rally on Saturday. That same day, feminist icon Gloria Steinem asserted that young women prefer Bernie Sanders to Clinton because “the boys are with Bernie.” Steinem later apologized on her Facebook page for “implying young women aren’t serious in their politics.” (Fortune)

Good style. Archel Bernard is a 27-year-old Georgia Tech graduate making a difference in both fashion and the lives of those in her native Liberia. Last month she opened Bombchel Factory, which produces modern versions of West African clothing and employs Ebola survivors who would normally be stigmatized and unable to find work. (New York Times)

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