In honor of Women’s History Month and the upcoming Academy Awards, UpRising salutes certified cinema trailblazers.

—————

Hattie McDaniel 
Award: Best Supporting Actress 
Film: Gone With the Wind 
Year: 1940

Hattie McDaniel became the Jackie Robinson of Academy Award winners for her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind. The catch? She had to sit at a segregated table, away from the film’s cast and crew. Shameful. But somebody’s gotta be first, and McDaniel kicked down the door and forever etched her name in cinema history.

Miyoshi Umeki
Award: Best Supporting Actress 
Film: Sayonara 
Year: 1958

Miyoshi Umeki’s Oscar win was quietly revolutionary during an era when Asian roles were limited and often caricatured. In Sayonara, she played Katsumi, a shy Japanese woman navigating a cross-cultural romance with an American serviceman. The emotional depth of her performance helped her become the first Asian performer ever to win an Academy Award.

Rita Moreno 
Award: Best Supporting Actress
Film: West Side Story
Year: 1962

Rita Moreno’s win for brilliantly depicting Anita in West Side Story made her the first Latina to win an acting Oscar—but it didn’t exactly open the floodgates for her career. She has been open about how hard it was to find good work afterward. But she pushed through and eventually attained EGOT status.

Bhanu Athaiya
Award: Best Costume Design
Film: Gandhi
Year: 1983

Bhanu Athaiya’s recognition came behind the scenes. Honestly, that tracks; women of color have long had to break through in craft categories before the Academy would acknowledge them on screen. But her work on Gandhi brought a whole other level of global artistry into the conversation—and made her the first Indian person to win an Oscar.

Whoopi Goldberg
Award: Best Supporting Actress 
Film: Ghost
Year: 1991

Fifty years after Hattie McDaniel, Whoopi Goldberg became the second Black woman to win an acting Oscar. (Yes, 50 human years.) The honor was well-deserved; Goldberg’s role as the skeptical medium Oda Mae Brown stole the film outright, turning what could’ve been mere comic relief into a performance that was warm and unforgettable.

Halle Berry
Award: Best Actress
Film: Monster's Ball
Year: 2002

Halle Berry feared the graphic sex scene she shot with co-star Billy Bob Thornton for Monster’s Ball could end her career. Instead, it contributed to an overall performance that made her the first—and still only—Black woman to win Best Actress. Her acceptance speech was one of the most emotional in Oscar history; she conveyed the significance of the moment for herself and every Black actress who’s been slept on or unsung.

Ruth E. Carter 
Award: Best Costume Design 
Film: Black Panther 
Year: 2019

Ruth E. Carter’s work on Black Panther helped make Wakanda feel like a world of its own. She drew from African textiles, beadwork, and cultural histories across the continent to build a distinct wardrobe, becoming the first Black woman to win an Oscar for costume design. Carter ran it back with a 2023 win in the same category for Wakanda Forever, and now she's up for another one for her work in Sinners.

Chloé Zhao 
Award: Best Director, Best Picture
Film: Nomadland
Year: 2021

Chloé Zhao makes films that feel quiet and vast at the same time, and Nomadland is a perfect example of that. The film follows a widowed, middle-aged woman who embarks on a nomad lifestyle in America’s western states after going broke in the Great Recession. Zhao became the first woman of color (and the first Asian woman) to win Best Director. Her latest film, Hamnet, is up for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay at this year’s ceremony.

Youn Yuh-jung
Award: Best Supporting Actress
Film: Minari
Year: 2021

Youn Yuh-jung has been a legend in South Korean cinema for decades before Hollywood took notice. She became the first Korean actor to take home an Oscar, and her acceptance speech was charming and funny and completely unbothered. 

Ariana DeBose
Award: Best Supporting Actress
Film: West Side Story
Year: 2022

An Afro-Latina actress who came up through Broadway, Ariana DeBose became the first openly queer woman of color to win an acting Oscar after she revitalized a classic. She brought a stage-honed precision to her role as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake. Sixty years after Rita Moreno won for the same role, she was there in the room watching another Latina performer step into history.

Michelle Yeoh
Award: Best Actress
Film: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Year: 2023

This cinematic phenomenon lived up to its name after its 2022 release. So it’s no surprise that Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress, nearly a hundred years into Oscar history. It was a performance for the ages from an international icon.

Guneet Monga
Award: Best Documentary Short Film
Film: The Elephant Whisperers
Year: 2023

Guneet Monga’s work has helped bring Indian stories to a global stage, particularly through documentaries. This historic victory, which made her the first Indian producer to win in this category, felt like a promising signal that more diverse stories are getting their just due.

—John Kennedy

____________________

[Writer’s Room]

In My Feelings

Social media star turned rapper Dess Dior spoke about her new EP Take Notes in a live conversation at the Rolling Out headquarters in Atlanta. UpRising was in the room, jotting down her insights about the new project. Here’s what you missed.

—————

On the naming the project Take Notes

“I was very intentional with this project and the title Take Notes. Over the past year, I've been in a transitional stage in my life. I journal a lot. I jot down everything: how I feel, my emotions. I really wanted to give people a chance to feel that from me.

“Each song is a part of my life. It's just about me taking notes and documenting everything in the music. It’s full of affirmations. It's a little sad, but it's me realizing everything isn't for right now. Sometimes the wrong time/right person is possible. I experienced that on my project and a lot of other things.”

On her mindset while recording

“I feel more confident. I'm speaking life into myself. I always do that with my music. The girlies know I'm a very motivational artist. I like to speak my life into existence. That's how I manifest my life. Music is very powerful to me, so I want to be very intentional with what I say and I'm repeating to myself. It's very motivational and vulnerable. I'm not good with vulnerability, so it was a real challenge for me to get on there and make songs like ‘Different Pages,’ because I'm not really like an emotional girl. I feel all my emotions, but when it comes to translating that into my music, I have a very hard time doing that.”

On why “Tell Me Now” is her favorite song from the project

“I was in L.A. and we built that song in the studio, from the beat to everything. I don't really get to have moments like that, because it's hard to link with producers and they really get it and understand. So I was just explaining to this producer what I wanted to hear and feel. I sat in the studio for, like, 12 hours. And when he played it, I knew immediately. The energy in the room was crazy. We were up dancing, vibing. It was one of those songs that you just knew.”

On the sound of Take Notes

“I'm definitely in my melodic era. There's not really a lot of up-tempo music. [On songs like] ‘Go,’ ‘Spinnin,’ and ‘Different Pages,’ I wanted to slow my project down and give it some versatility… But I'm very intentional with what I say and put into the world. So listen to what I'm saying, because it may resonate with you or something you're going through or something that you just need to hear.”

Listen to Dess Dior’s new six-song project, Take Notes, here.

[LET'S LINK]

• No Matter What Happens at the Oscars, Delroy Lindo Embraces “the Joy of This Moment” [NPR]

• “Scariest Day of My Life”: Myrtle Beach Man Reflects on Being Stuck in Israel During War With Iran [WBTW]

• Lost Recipes [Defector]

• Ty Dolla $ign Is Getting Back To R&B With Girl Music Vol 1 [Vibe]

• An AI Avatar Is Running to Represent Indigenous Voters in Colombia [Rest of World]

• The Sinners Cinematographer Says They “All Had a Lot on the Line” [The New York Times]

[TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT]

I remember just being like, ‘Damn, I wanna be a Migo.’ I think that had a lot to do with me wanting to pursue my own dreams.

This funnyman from the Atlanta outskirts looked to local icons in music—Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff—for inspiration. Now that he’s carved out his own lane in the culture, he can truly walk it like he talks it. Click here to find out who it is, and read all about his plans to achieve even bigger dreams.

[OUTRO]

Take This Audio Doggie Bag With You

“Better Than This,” Mary Ann Alexander

Indian entertainment is more than just Bollywood. They’ve got bops, too, and R&B lovers will appreciate the vibes served up on this earworm from Mary Ann Alexander. Her latest song is a breezy track about being giddy in love that feels transported from Y2K in the best way. The music video—shot in Alexander’s rural village in Kerala, India—brings the song to life.

Listen Now →