‘Gibson Girl’ draws on Rox artist to talk race
Victoria Cheng
For the first two decades of the 20th century, they looked out alluringly from the pages of magazines, eyes dark, lips curved and hair luxuriantly piled into chignons. The feminine, slender-waisted women captured in pen-and-ink drawings by Roxbury native Charles Gibson became known as the “Gibson Girls,” and their iconic faces soon adorned books, linens and wallpaper sold across the nation.
But these images bore about as much resemblance to the actual lives of American women in the early 1900s as contemporary magazine photo spreads resemble the everyday lives of women now.
Seven years ago, while watching a television documentary about the Gibson Girls, Boston-based playwright Kirsten Greenidge became interested in the gap between appearance and reality, and started to work on a play about a pair of teenage African American twins whose differences in appearance lead them to ask questions about their past.
“I was inspired by the idea of the Gibson girl, of images in society and in our culture that tell you a person or group of people is one way, and yet the reality is very, very different,” Greenidge said in a recent interview. Full story
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From soaps to superheroes, Patrick is making his mark
Kam Williams
Born in Bath, England on June 5, 1974, Marcus Patrick is an international community unto himself. The multitalented hard-body claims Cherokee, Jamaican, Cuban, English, Irish and French descent.
He’s also got more than enough firepower to provide for his own defense; he holds a second-degree black belt and is a former British tae kwon do national heavyweight champion. And as if good looks, a worldly demeanor and a nasty fight game weren’t enough, at the age of 17 Patrick was discovered by pop kingmaker and “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell, who signed the promising talent on as a member of the international boy band Worlds Apart.
Gentlemen, start your hating.
After touring for several years, Marcus turned his attention to acting, a move toward fulfilling his dream of following in the footsteps of his childhood idol, Bruce Lee. He moved to America to study acting in New York, then headed west for Hollywood.
Patrick soon encountered success on screens large and small, appearing in a number of commercials, sitcoms and soaps, and eventually theatrically released films as well. Following guest spots on “CSI: Miami” and “My Wife and Kids,” Patrick shined in a critically acclaimed stint as bad boy Jamal Cudahy on the long-running popular daytime soap “All My Children.” Full story
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