January Prompts

Prompts are effective elicitation tools.  Blog editors and publishers write prompts to motivate other writers to write about topics suggested in the prompt.
Not all writers, not even all online writers, are bloggers.  People also write, podcast, and create video streams for posterity, as journals, and as subject reference articles. So, these prompts are published to help writers of all sorts who may be using online journals to understand their own lives, and live life fully with the wisdom they have accumulated through time.
With that stated, The Women’s Legacy Project begins a monthly post with prompts intended to help chroniclers of all sorts consider events, topics, and people related to the month at hand.
Every month we craft between 30 and 50 prompts

Inspirational Women of January

four women-relate prompts & four subject prompts
 Zora Neale Hurston born on January 7, 1891 (died 1960) was an author and anthropologist who was a pioneer of African-American and African-Carribbean folklore and a student of Franz Boaz, making her an academic sister of Margaret Mead.  Her best known work is Their Eyes Were Watching God. Alice Walker has championed a rediscovery and reinterpretation of Hurston’s groundbreaking work and rule-bending behavior in the 1970s and 80s.
Joan Baez, folk singer and songwriter, was born in January, on the 9th in 1941 supports human and civil rights, is a peace activist, and is a founder of the Humanitas International Human Rights Committee (1979).  A seminal force in the early 1960s folk music scene on both coasts, she and Bob Dylan often performed together including at the March on Washington.  She continues to perform in support of causes in which she believes.
Merija Gimbutas was born on January 23rd 1921 who passed away in 1994 was author, emigrated to Boston, began with Lithuanian beliefs and rituals, folklore, and ancient practices, wrote The Prehistory of Modern Europe (1956) and The Civilization of the Goddess (1994).  She was instrumental in laying a foundation for the idea of matriarchy in prehistory, a contested view.
Mary Lou Retton, first and only American woman to win a gold medal in the All-Around in gymnastics at the Olympics (1984) and first American woman to win a gold medal in gymnastics, and first woman featured on a Wheaties cereal box was born on January 24, 1968.

50 Years Ago in Music

one huge prompt with 14 nested prompts & two contextual prompts
Some of BillBoard (USA) Magazine’s top singles for January 1966:
THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE- Simon & Garfunkel
WE CAN WORK IT OUT-Beatles
I GOT YOU (I FEEL GOOD)-James Brown
TURN TURN TURN-Byrds
OVER & OVER-Dave Clark Five
LET’S HANG ON-Four Seasons
MAKE THE WORLD GO AWAY-Eddy Arnold
FLOWERS ON THE WALL-Statler Brothers
SHE’S JUST MY STYLE-Gary Lewis & The Playboys
FIVE O’CLOCK WORLD-Vogues
DAY TRIPPER-Beatles
BARBARA ANN-Beach Boys
Context
The Beatles album Rubber Soul was released in the United States.
On January 6, 1966, a Thursday, singers Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, who previously performed as “The Warlocks”, appeared for the first time under their new name, the Grateful Dead, at the Fillmore in San Francisco, California.

Once Upon A Winter’s Day

10 prompts associated with Winter
What memories come to mind when you think of:

• Hot Chocolate
• Jigsaw Puzzles
• Winter Storms
• Family Board Games
• Ice Fishing
• Ice Skating
• Icicles and Eaves
• Fireplace
• Snowed In
• Sledding

Icons, Emblems and Events

7 January facts

• The 2016 observance marks the 30th anniversary of the first observation of Martin Luther King Day in the U.S. in 1986.  It is always observed on the third Monday of the month of January although MLK’s birthday was January 15, 1929.
• Gemstone: Garnet – Garnet, the birthstone for January,  signifies eternal friendship and trust.  The word garnet is derived from a word that means seed, at the stone resembles a pomegranate seed.   is the name of a group of minerals that comes in various colors all the way from the deep red to vivid green.
• Flower(s): Carnations or snowdrops
  
  

  Snowdrops in the snow

  
  in various colors of red, pink and white are the flowers associated with the month, and connote affection, deep love, distinction, happiness, fascination, and fidelity.
• Astrological sun signs shift from Capricorn to Aquarius on January 20th.
• January 22, 1973: Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade insures a woman’s right to abort a pregnancy.
• January 27, 1967:  Tragedy strikes the U.S. space program as a deadly fire in the command module kills Apollo astronauts Lt. Col. Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Lt. Col. Edward H. White, and Lt. Cdr. Roger Chafee .
• January 28, 1986: U.S. space shuttle Challenger explodes one minute and 12 seconds after liftoff, killing the seven crew members. Among the crew was school teacher Christa McAuliffe.

At least 41 prompts are listed above.  If you find these to be useful, please let me know by leaving a comment. If you use these prompts online, please link back to this article!