title: D. R. Bendre

text: Bendre's first published poem was "Tutoori" (Trumpet). This poem was probably inspired by the Marathi poet's Keshavasuta's "Tutaari" – but there are important differences between the two. Bendre's poem is a lot shorter and lacks the revolutionary ardour of Keshavasuta's poem. It is possible that Bendre felt a kinship with Keshavasuta based on their common admiration for Keats. Govindagraja too might have exercised an influence on Bendre: the similarity in theme between 'Raatrige (To the Night) and 'Manatali Divasa Ratra' makes this a plausible supposition. However, in the total context of Bendre's poetry, the influence of modern Marathi poetry is limited. Bendre himself was of the opinion that the influence of Marathi poetry on modern Kannada poetry was negligible. Indeed, Bendre had his own views about "influence". In his opinion, "it is not imitation of theme or style that elevates a poet or his poetry. [He] must constantly meditate on the lives of great souls". Drawn deeply to Sri Aurobindo's idea of 'Fourfold Beauty', Bendre would come to see the world and the universe in terms of the number four. (His naming his poetry collection "Four Strings" is evidence of this.) This "idea of four" included what Bendre called his "guruchatururmukha" or "the four faces of the guru". For Bendre, these four gurus were the Irish mystic and poet, A.E., the Lebanese poet-philosopher, Khalil Gibran, "Gurudeva" Rabindranath Tagore, and the Indian revolutionary and seer, Sri Aurobindo. According to Bendre, A.E. showed him a new way of experiencing nature while Gibran deepened his awareness of the metaphorical depth of the avatara concept. Tagore, who was an earlier and much wider influence than either A.E. or Gibran, helped Bendre develop a strong sense of community besides "teaching [him] to love [his] mother" through the exquisite poems of 'The Crescent Moon' collection. In an early poem of praise titled "Gurudeva", Bendre calls Tagore 'the world's eye'. But Sri Aurobindo's was the greatest and longest-lasting influence. In his early years, his introduction to Sri Aurobindo was through the articles in "Arya" regarding "The Future Poetry". These articles would inspire Bendre to work towards the creation of a mantra-like poetry himself. In later years, his visit to the Pondicherry Ashram for a "darshana" of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother would make a profound impression and influence the trajectory of his post-1956 poetry.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Unlike poets like Tagore and Yeats and certainly unlike Keats, Shelley, and Rimbaud, Bendre's recognition as a poet came rather late, when he was in his early 30s. Though he began writing poetry in his late teens, published his first poem when he was twenty, and his first book (titled "Krishṇakumaari", a mid-length narrative poem) came out in 1922, it was only after the public reading of his poem "Hakki Haarutide Nodidiraa" at the Belagavi Sahitya Sammelana in 1929 that he became famous, almost overnight. Like Masti Venkatesh Iyengar would say later, "...it is impossible now to describe the ecstasy [the poem's] listeners felt that day. [While] that one reading was hardly sufficient to understand the various meanings the poem suggested, it was enough to astonish the thousand-strong audience. It was clear to everyone of standing in the “poetry world" that here was a new poet whose poetic "shakti" (~power) was his very own." This performance would be followed by the release of Bendre's poetry collection "Gari" in 1932. Like Shankar Mokashi Punekar says in his wonderful essay about Bendre's poetry, to read the poems in the "Gari" collection is to see "how much further along Bendre has cartwheeled in the ten years since [the publication of] "Krishṇakumaari"".


title: D. R. Bendre

text: This profound change in Bendre's poetry was not lost on critics. Despite their unfamiliarity with the Dharwad dialect that Bendre had used in "Gari" (and which he would soon come to master completely), critics like V. Seetharamaiah and Ti. Nam. Sri praised the collection, with Ti. Nam. Sri even going so far as to say that some poems in it were "deserving of a place in world literature". The publication of "Gari" would cause the floodgates to open, as it were, and the river of lyric poetry that rushed forth – in the form of the collections "Moorthi mattu Kaamakastoori" (1934), "Sakheegeeta" (1937), "Uyyaale" (1938), and "Naadaleele" (1938) – would overwhelm the Kannada literary world with its newness, innovation, and originality. At the same time, it would appeal to the common people through its inherent "naada" (~ euphony) and musicality. Writing the foreword to "Naadaleele", Masti, whose keen critical sense had taken note of Bendre's work as early as 1926 and been stirred to actively support it after the Belagavi performance of 1929, would note that Bendre's poetry "[is] not simply promising but [has] achieved fulfillment".


title: D. R. Bendre

text: In an essay written examining Bendre's "poetics", Shankar Mokashi offers an excellent presentation of the idea of a "varakavi". He says, "...[t]his is an important description of an important experience! The simultaneous blossoming of [the] necessary words and rhyme with the blossoming of an idea [in the poet's mind] is the experience of very very few poets. ... But that this is part of creation in poetry is evidenced by the poetry of Valmiki, Shelley and supported by the theory of "expressionism" put forth by the Italian philosopher, Croce. We can also look to understand this [inner experience] through a number of Bendre's poems and the experience of other poets. Basically, what we are saying is that no sooner does a feeling and a word enter the poet's mind than a rhyme, a rhythm, and a euphony descend simultaneously. ... This is a very piquant matter. This experience is at the root of the distinction made between the "narakavi" and the "varakavi" (the earthbound-poet and the heaven-touched poet) in our ancient poetics. In a "varakavi", feeling-euphony-word descend in effortless simultaneity and take on form singly-doubly-triply."


title: D. R. Bendre

text: According to G.S Amur, the evolution of Bendre's poetry can be seen as having happened over three phases. Amur calls the first phase the "early experimental phase" and avers that it spanned from about 1917 to 1923. The second phase is what he calls "the first flowering", which began in 1923 and continued until 1956. The third phase, per Amur, began in 1956 and lasted until Bendre's death in 1981. Amur calls this phase "the second flowering". Given Bendre's voracious interest in everything under the sun, it is not surprising that these phases present themselves as a mix of continuity and change.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: The elements of growth and change in Bendre's poetry can be seen understood in terms of theme, form, and imagery. The early phase, despite being one of experimentation, nonetheless referenced several of Bendre's central poetic concerns and can be thought of as having laid the ground for the poetry that was to come. For instance, there is an "aspirational" quality to the poems of this phase: several poems are suffused with an idealism that desires a regional and national awakening as well as a poetic inspiration. The form and language of Bendre's earliest poems (including "Krishṇakumaari") are reasonably conventional. However, the poems of "Gari" show the first signs of Bendre's experiments with Dharwad's "earthy" vulgate as well as his preoccupation with "naada" or euphony. The themes that dominate the poetry of this first flowering are too varied to count and span the human experience. Nothing is excluded; all life is a "leele" (divine play) in which "nothing is fruitless". Or, as Mokashi Punekar says, Bendre "was a true "bhaavageetakaara" (lyric poem creator)" – in the sense that everything was 'material' for a "bhaavageeta" or a lyric poem. This phase involved endless experimentation and resulted in some of the finest lyric poetry produced in modern Kannada literature. The poetry of the final phase may be called "the visionary phase". In this phase, we see Bendre looking to explore the roots of language (or "vak") and its four degrees (or manifestations) as described in Indic poetics – "vaikari", "madhyama", "pashyanti", and "parā" – and to create new poetic forms capable of articulating his vision. In a bid to achieve the quality of the mantra, Bendre experimented with a variety of metres including Vedic metres.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: The phenomenon of "Ambikatanayadatta" is an especially interesting one, but one that has been seldom discussed in critical appraisals regarding Bendre and his poetry. In his autobiographical essay, Bendre says that " this name [Ambikatanayadatta] is not some sobriquet meant to conceal the name 'Bendre'. In a poem with that name, you can find clues that illuminate [the phenomenon's] piquancy. Right by this poem's side is the poem 'ನಾನು (I)'." Like the last two lines of the poem "ನಾನು (I)" say: "“The Nārayaṇa of the lotus-heart has himself turned into the mortal "Datta" / as "Ambikātanaya" he mirrors in Kannada the universe's inner voice.”


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Perhaps the only critic who has seriously attempted to understand the phenomenon of Ambikatanayadatta is Shankar Mokashi Punekar. In one of his essays following Bendre's death, he writes: "Has Bendre gone heavenwards? Yes. But it is impossible for 'Ambikatanayadatta' to ever leave this earth, this language, this town of Sadhanakeri. To paraphrase Bendre, his poems are living and breathing examples of recipients of the 'Ambikatanayadatta' touch. Occasionally, this touch used to happen in [Bendre's] dreams. In his poems, [Bendre] has put such lines [that came to him in dreams] within quotation marks. Once in a while, when a couple of stanzas came after much effort, the 'Ambikatanayadatta' that flashed [within] would come and, relieving Bendre of his burden, move forward with sure-footed swiftness." In the concluding part of the same essay, Punekar says that "Bendre's mother tongue was Marathi. However, his Marathi poems do not even "reach the knee-height" of his Kannada poems. But the Marathi people must not consider these words an 'insult'. [Because] while Bendre's mother tongue was Marathi, Ambikatanayadatta's mother tongue was Kannada. "He" was a Kannadiga. [This cannot be explained] Only those who get what I mean will get it."


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Punekar's description fits well with Bendre's own estimation of Ambikatanayadatta and his conviction that it was "the universal inner voice" within him. For example, in his foreword to "Gari", his very first collection of poems, he says: "I have talked so far of my poems. This is simply a matter of habit. In truth these are not my poems; they are Kannada's poems. The Kannada-language's incorporeal voice is actualizing itself through a thousand throats. That my throat is one among this thousand is itself my blessing. That I am one among the group of poets singing in the dawn of Kannada's renaissance is itself my source of pride. For if it were not so, why should anybody care about my poems? To say ‘my poems’ or ‘his poems’ is fallacious; for Kannada to lay claim to these poems is the truth." Later, many years after he had earned the "varakavi" honorific and was secure in his position as the doyen of modern Kannada poetry, he would say in the foreword to "Naaku Tanti": "...to all those "sahrudaya"s who have continued to welcome the poems of ‘Ambikatanayadatta,’ ‘Bendre’ conveys his gratitude: that his scribesmanship is not simply a waste, that his happy, wanton singing is not completely fruitless." In addition to these writings, stories of Bendre going up on stage and conveying "Bendre's salutations to the great poet Ambikatanayadatta" are also in circulation.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Bendre married Lakshmibai (nee Rangoobai) (1906–1966) in 1919 in Ranebennuru. He was 23 at the time and Lakshmibai was 13. They would go on to have nine children and stay married for 47 years until Lakshmibai's death in 1966.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: To Bendre, marriage was its own form of "sadhana". With Bendre unemployed for long durations between 1924 and 1942, the burden of managing the family and finances fell on Lakshmibai who bore them stoically. The primary reason for this ""jangama" life", as Bendre called it, was his imprisonment (in 1932) by the British government on charges of sedition. The excuse given was that his poem "Narabali" (Human Sacrifice) was a poem that could possibly incite violence. Despite having to stay in jail for only three months (and having to spend another nine months under house arrest), the British government's injunction that "nobody [was] allowed to employ Bendre for up to eight years after his release" meant giving up the hope of any permanent job during that period. All these misfortunes meant that Lakshmibai was taxed with keeping the family fed and clothed on the little money that Bendre was able to bring home. It is worth mentioning that Masti was a great help to Bendre in these years, both as a friend and financially. He appointed Bendre the (unofficial) editor of his magazine, "Jeevana", and paid him a monthly sum to help him tide through those years. Bendre would always remain grateful for Masti's generosity and come to think of and refer to him as "aṇṇa" (big brother).


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Although she had been educated only up to the fourth grade, Bendre involved Lakshmibai in his poetry and she was always the first one to listen to Bendre's poems. In 1937, Bendre wrote his famous "Sakheegeeta", a descriptive account of his married life up to that point. In it, he refers to his wife Lakshmibai as his sakhee, a first in Kannada literature (and possibly Indian literature). In the foreword to the poem, Bendre says that he has "let spread the happy-sad vine of the ordinary married life upon the trellis of [his] personal experience." Written in a metre of his own invention, the poem is especially striking for its (rooted) universality and for its prolific use of non-Sanskritized Kannada.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: The Bendres' married life was a difficult one. They were unfortunate enough to lose six of their nine children. One of them, Ramachandra, a budding poet himself, died of an infection at 20, on the cusp of manhood and just when he was beginning to be the dependable support his parents were looking for. The elegy Bendre composed for Rama (as he was known) is considered one of the greatest poems of its kind in Kannada. Another poem, "ನೀ ಹೀಂಗ ನೋಡಬ್ಯಾಡ ನನ್ನ (Don't Look at Me This Way)", written as a lament at the loss of his daughter Lalitha, is one of 20th-century Kannada literature's most popular as well as critically acclaimed song-poems.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Lakshmibai's constitution was not strong and she suffered periodically from illnesses. According to her younger son (of the two who survived), Dr. Vamana Bendre, the loss of Ramachandra plunged her into a despondence she was never quite able to overcome. With Bendre's job never being well-paying, Lakshmibai stoically endured a life of hardship. Her memory, though, has been immortalized in a number of Bendre's 'love poems'. In an especially touching gesture, Bendre dedicated his dazzling Kannada translation of Kalidasa's Meghadoota to Lakshmibai, calling her his "Lakshmi of good fortune" and asking that she "accept this garland made of pearls picked from Kalidasa's sea" and "become a partner in his prosperity".


title: D. R. Bendre

text: In some ways, despite the western cultural mores that underpin the statement, it would not be wrong to say that Bendre, through his art, brought to life Eliot<nowiki>'s assertion that "</nowiki>the more perfect the artist, the more completely separate in him will be the man who suffers and the mind which creates; the more perfectly will the mind digest and transmute the passions which are its material". There is no doubt that while Bendre the man suffered, the creative mind (Ambikatanayadatta?) digested and transmuted Bendre's suffering into some of the finest lyric poetry in modern Kannada. Or to say it using Bendre's own words, ""rasika", let my troubles stay my own / I will give you just their song! / And if that melts your sugar-heart / send drops of sweetness back along!"


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Lakshmibai finally passed away on 17 August 1966, after another illness. Deeply saddened by Lakshmibai's death (at a time when things were finally beginning to look up financially), Bendre found solace in the company of Swami Nityananda of Vajreshvari. He would, some years later, address his departed "sakhee" in his "Matte Shravana Bantu" collection (1973), where he returned to the metre of "Sakheegeeta" to narrate the story of his boyhood and youth up until he married his "sakhee".


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Dr. Vamana Bendre (1935–2017), Panduranga Bendre (1929–2004), and Mangala (b. 1939) were the only children of Bendre's who lived to be adults. Upon Bendre's death in 1981, Dr. Vamana Bendre took over as his 'literary executor' and edited the 18-volume "Audumbaragaathe", a compilation of all of Bendre's poetry and prose writings. With his siblings Panduranga Bendre and Mangala and his colleague K.S. Sharma, Dr. Vamana Bendre was also responsible for the creation of the "Ambikatanayadatta Vedike", a platform to promote Bendre's work. With the help of a grant from the Karnataka government, a portion of Bendre's 'Shrimaata' home was used to build the 'Bendre Bhavana' as a memorial to the Ambikatanayadatta, the poet.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: According to Bendre himself, his relationship with Dharwad was an umbilical one. His affection for Dharwad and its people and the inspiration he drew from it has been compared to the inspiration Lake District provided Wordsworth. Closer home, it has been compared to the Adikavi Pampa's affection for his beloved Banavasi (which, says Pampa in one verse, he wishes to be reborn in, if only as a little bee.) With his firm belief in the "mother principle", Bendre would address the land of Dharwad as "Dharawada taayi" or 'Mother Dharawada' and ask her, when he had to go away for a period on work, to await his coming like she would her child's. Having grown up in different homes in Dharwad, he would settle in a house (gifted to him by his uncle, Bandopant Bendre) in the Sadhanakeri area of Dharwad and make the area famous through his famous song-poem "Baaro Saadhanakerige".


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Here is an account by Keerthinath Kurtakoti, who along with Shankar Mokashi and G.S Amur is considered one of the three finest critics of Bendre's poetry, of Bendre's relationship with Dharwad and its people. "It was when I was ... filming a documentary of Bendre that this idea of the relationship Bendre had with Dharwad struck me of a sudden. [That is] the style of Dharwad's development is the style of Bendre's poetry. Dharwad's culture is a mixture of folk-culture and city-culture. Bendre had once heard someone say that Dharwad's natural beauty – in particular, its rains and its lush greenness – was capable of making anybody who lived there a poet. In the foreword he wrote to Chennaveera Kanavi's "Nela-Mugilu" poetry collection, Bendre would answer this by saying that "despite Dandeli's thick forests having more rain and greenness than Dharwad, not a single poet has come out of the region". Now it might seem astonishing that a poet who has immortalized Dharwad's scenic beauty in his poetry has such little faith in the inspiring power of the region's natural beauty. But it is only the Dharwad people's "divine vigour" that Bendre has faith in. He has, with his own eyes, seen how Dharwad has put back and rebuilt the Kannada [language and culture] that at the beginning of this century was lying waste. He has himself participated in this rebuilding." ... Every inch of the Dharwad land has revealed its history to Bendre. For him, both the classical and the modern have to present themselves through Dharwad [alone]."


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Upon his retirement from D.A.V College, Solapur, in 1956, Bendre returned to Sadhanakeri. Fortunately for him, no sooner did he return than he was made the adviser to the Dharwad branch of Akashvani. This was, in large part, thanks to the generosity and foresight of P.M. Lad, the then Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. During his stint there, Bendre wrote a great deal for A.I.R, including a number of radio plays, of which only a few have been published so far. Meanwhile, his association with a publisher friend, Bhalachandra Ghanekar, led to the publication of five new books of poetry. These books were soon combined into a single-volume and published in 1957 under the title "Aralu-Maralu". The collection would win the Sahitya Academy award in 1958.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: In 1965, Bendre, who also wrote poetry and prose in Marathi, received the Kelkar Prize for "Samvada", a selection of his Marathi prose writing. In 1966, Bendre turned 70. The event was marked by a grand celebration in Shirahatti, his ancestral hometown.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: This period also saw Bendre receive with a number of well-deserved honours. The University of Mysore gave him an Honorary Doctorate in 1966 and Karnatak University followed suit in 1968. 1968 was also the year that he received the Padma Shri from the Government of India. Elected a Fellow of the Sahitya Akademi in 1969, he was awarded India's highest literary award, the Jnanapitha, in 1974. Kashi Vidyapitha presented him with his third Honorary Doctorate in 1976.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Through all of this, Bendre's 'High Yoga of Poetry' continued unabated and he brought out eleven collections of poetry between 1957 and 1978. As was his wont from the very beginning, he continued to mingle with all kinds of people, accept invitations to speak from all over, and talk uninterruptedly for hours together.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Towards the end of his life, Bendre became deeply absorbed in numbers. Interested from early on itself in numbers and their representation, the theory of Sankhya, and the Katapayadi system, they now became his central concern. In fact, he was known to waylay hapless travellers and hold forth for hours about this or that new idea regarding numbers that had come to him. When Dom Moraes visited Bendre in 1976, he found him completely immersed in numbers. He was still a "Gārudiga", but the "Gārudi" had been replaced by a calculator. "Only great poets", wrote Moraes, "have such interests and ideas as Dr. Bendre."


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Bendre died in Mumbai's Harkishandas hospital on 26 October 1981, aged 85. He was cremated that very evening in accordance with Hinduism's last rites. His ashes were later taken to Dharwad where a procession gathered to mourn and celebrate Karnataka's and Dharwad's favourite poet.


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Bendre is widely recognized the greatest and most influential Kannada poet of the 20th century, by his peers of the Navodaya period, younger contemporaries, and the later poets of the Navya, Bandaya, Dalit, and other movements. While he has been criticized by some for the lack of "social concern" in his poetry and others have called the poetry of the post-"Naaku Tanti" period incomprehensible and "meaningless wordplay", there is near-unanimous agreement about the originality and inventiveness of his poetry, his position as the trailblazer of modern Kannada poetry, and his remarkable use of the Kannada language. The well-known critic, L. S. Seshagiri Rao, has written that it is "doubtful that anybody in Kannada's literary history has explored the Kannada language as comprehensively as Bendre". In an essay written a few years before Bendre's death, Gopalkrishna Adiga, often called the leader of Kannada's Navya movement, would say that, "After Pampa and Naranappa, nobody has grasped the very quick of the Kannada language and, strumming the language's life-chord itself, written poetry the way [our] Bendre has." He would add in the same essay that, no matter what differences of opinion one might have with Bendre, "he is the "guru" of every poet writing [in Kannada] now. ... There is no poet who has not, either directly or indirectly, come within the sphere of his influence. That he showed the way [forward] not just to imitators but to poets possessed of great talent themselves or that he nourished their poetry [with his own] is a matter of importance. Bendre is the most important poet-creator of this century. Every poet writing now is a child, grandchild, or great-grandchild of Bendre's poetry. ... Not only has Bendre's poetry become a part of our culture, it has become one with our essence."


title: D. R. Bendre

text: V. K. Gokak, a younger contemporary of Bendre's, one of the members of Bendre's "Geleyara Gumpu", and himself a Jnanapitha awardee, confesses in his book, "Bendre: Poet and Seer", that it was Bendre's acquaintance that ensured "[Gokak's] muse did not perish in the deserts of Indo-Anglian verse" and goes on to say that "Bendre's poetry has ushered in a tradition of its own in modern Kannada literature ... [his] poetic style has an intricate pattern of its own ... [his] is an epic style harnessed to [sic] lyric uses ... every great modern writer illustrates [the synthesis of India and Europe, ancient and modern culture, science and art] in his own way ... and this is what Bendre does [which puts him] among the best writers that the modern world has produced."


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Interestingly, Bendre's remarkable poetry for responsible for the critical development of three of Kannada's best-known thinkers, viz. Keertinath Kurtakoti, Shankar Mokashi, and G.S Amur. Each of these younger-by-a-generation contemporaries of his used his poetry as the whetstone to sharpen their critical acumen on. In doing so, each of them made a notable contribution to modern Kannada criticism. In particular, their insights about Bendre include Mokashi's statement that "of those [Kannada] poets to whose study one may capably and successfully devote a whole lifetime, Shri Bendre is the most modern ... his is a poetry that may be thought of as 'out-topping knowledge'".


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Meanwhile, G.S Amur writes in his Sahitya Akademi award-winning book, "Bhuvanada Bhaagya", that "no matter what criteria we use to measure Bendre's poetry – vision, richness of language, the ability to create images, the successful use of metre, the variety of poetic style, it is evident that his poetry stands shoulder to shoulder with the poetry of any epic poet who has [ever] lived." In the book he wrote for the Sahitya Akademi, Amur concludes by saying that "the "bhaavageeta" was [Bendre's] chief mode of expression but in his hands it assumed many forms, from a folk lyric to "Mantra" [sic] and expressed itself in a variety of a rhythms and an amazing range of symbolic imagery. He was undoubtedly the greatest lyrical poetic genius of the century."


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Written as early as 1962, Kurtakoti's essay, on the other hand, offers us an understanding of the influence that Bendre's poetry would have on 20th century Kannada poetry and beyond. Kurtakoti says that "from every point of view, Bendre is the leading poet of the age. Later critics can discuss the merits of Bendre's own poetry and the style of its beauty in more detail. For the time being, all we can is this: that Bendre's poetry is rich in a way that does justice to the Kannada language's natural rhythms, to the present-day's sensibilities, and to the inner-essence of the Kannada literary tradition. In this fashion, his Kannada poetic creation has given new life to the Kannada poetic tradition. When Bendre first began to write poetry, there was nothing before him [to model his poetry on]. But the poets of the future will have Bendre's poetry [to refer to] ... this alone tells us clearly of the importance of Bendre's poetry."


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Bendre himself was not unaware of the depth, range, and brilliance of his poetry. In his foreword to "Naaku Tanti", he speaks about "the poetry of wordly effort and the poetry of yogic effort" and says that "we must not by holding on tight to the ignorance and egotism of ordinariness give it up to the curse of petrification" before adding that "complexity and incomprehension are the result of one's natural sensibilities. It is only through comprehensive learning that old bonds can be shaken off, and new relationships created." In another essay of his, he says "The process of understanding literature is a living, breathing process. It may take centuries even. Understanding me is left to the future". Having said this, he quotes Bhavabhuti's famous "time is endless and the world is large" statement in the foreword to his 1972 collection "Vinaya" and goes on to say that the statement is the maxim a poet has to live by until his readers garner the necessary "cultural capital" that is needed to understand his work. "A critical examination of the work of a "born poet" can only be done by a "born" [literary] critic."


title: D. R. Bendre

text: Bendre's legacy as a popular poet remains secure, mostly on account of the immense popularity of Kannada's bhaavageete tradition and his play with the Kannada language's sound. His poetry, including his post-"Naaku Tanti" work, also continues to attract new writers and critics. Like Shankar Mokashi once said of Ambikatanayadatta, "[he] will live on forever in Shri Bendre's work. He will remain a favoured son of the world. As Shri Bendre himself once said about poetry: ‘Oh vision seen by the men of god!’ To have known such a man of god is our good fortune; to attempt to understand him is futile: like "Gommata", ‘ಅತ್ಯತಿಷ್ಠತ್ ದಶಾಂಗುಲಂ’ (अत्यतिष्ठत् दशाङ्गुलं) – he stands ten "angula"s above us all.”


title: D. R. Bendre

text: In 1972, film director and playwright Girish Karnad directed a Kannada documentary film, "Da Ra Bendre", for the Government of Karnataka. The script was written by Keertinath Kurtakoti. Bendre is also the primary character of the semi-fictional novel "Dharawadada Dattu Master" by N. K. Kulkarni.


title: Estadio Akron

text: The Estadio Akron, formerly known as the Estadio Omnilife and Estadio Chivas ("Estadio Chivas", ), is a multipurpose stadium that is used mostly for football matches. It is the home of Liga MX side C.D. Guadalajara. It is part of the JVC complex, and has a capacity of 48,071. Construction started in February 2004, but due to financial problems and other issues, the stadium's completion was delayed for a number of years.


title: Estadio Akron

text: The stadium hosted its first major international event with the first leg of the 2010 Finals of the Copa Libertadores, and hosted the 2011 Pan American Games opening and closing ceremonies. The stadium's artificial field caused great controversy, drawing criticism from many notable players, and in May 2012, it was announced that the stadium would replace the artificial turf with natural grass. The stadium is also expected to host some matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.


title: Estadio Akron

text: In February 2004, C.D. Guadalajara announced that it would construct a new stadium of its own, intending to leave Estadio Jalisco. Construction on the stadium did not begin until May 2007.


title: Estadio Akron

text: The third public football match at the stadium was a friendly between Guadalajara and Manchester United on 30 July 2010. Guadalajara won the game 3–2, with the first goal at the stadium scored by Javier "Chicharito" Hernández playing for Guadalajara. This match was held to represent Hernández's transfer from Guadalajara to Manchester United, with Hernández playing the first half for Guadalajara and switching sides to Manchester United in the second half, thus symbolically sealing his transfer contract that had been signed in March 2010.


title: Estadio Akron

text: The stadium hosted 8 matches of the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup, including a semifinal, between Uruguay and Brazil.


title: Estadio Akron

text: It was also the venue of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2011 Pan American Games, where it also hosted all the matches of both men's and women's football tournament.


title: Estadio Akron

text: In May 2012, following criticism regarding the artificial field, it was announced that the stadium would replace the artificial turf with natural grass. The replacement was complete by July.


title: Estadio Akron

text: In December 2017, the stadium changed its name from Estadio Omnilife to Estadio Akron, after signing a sponsorship deal with a car lubricants firm for 10 years.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish city in the Community of Madrid. Straddling the Henares River, it is located to the northeast of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 193,751, making it the region's third-most populated municipality.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Predated by earlier settlements ("oppida") on the left bank of the Henares, the city has its origins in the settlement founded in Roman times on the right bank (north) of the river, that became a bishopric seat in the 5th century. One of the several Muslim citadels in the Middle Mark of al-Andalus (hence the name "Alcalá", a derivative of the Arabic term for citadel) was established on the left bank, while, after the Christian conquest culminated circa 1118, the bulk of the urban nucleus returned to the right bank. For much of the late middle-ages and the early modern period before becoming part of the province of Madrid, Alcalá de Henares was a seigneurial estate of the archbishops of Toledo.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The city has a long university tradition. Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros founded the Complutense University in Alcalá de Henares in the late 15th century. The city currently hosts the (refounded) University of Alcalá. It is the native city of Miguel de Cervantes.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Locally, it is generally known simply as , but (‘of the river Henares’) is appended when needed to differentiate it from a dozen Spanish cities sharing the name Alcalá (from the Arabic word , for fortification or citadel, typically a castle).


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The city boundaries have been inhabited since the Chalcolithic phase of the Bronze Age. Romans conquered the area in the 1st century BC, and built the town of "Complutum" near a previous Carpetanian settlement, Iplacea. With 10,000 inhabitants, it reached the status of "municipium" and had its own governing institutions. It played an important role, located on the Roman road connecting Emerita Augusta and Caesaraugusta.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: After the downfall of the Roman Empire, under the Visigoths, it declined, although it also became a pilgrimage destination in remembrance of the Saints Justo and Pastor.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: When the Moors arrived in 711, they subdued the Visigothic city and founded another site, building an , which means "citadel" in Arabic, on a nearby hill, today known as (Old Alcalá). On 3 May 1118, it was conquered by the Archbishop of Toledo Bernard de Sedirac at behest of Castile.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Soon after, on 10 February 1129, Alfonso VII gave Alcalá to Raymond de Sauvetât, also Archbishop of Toledo, becoming an archiepiscopal property for centuries to come. Raymond granted the town an old "fuero" (charter) in 1135.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The Christians preferred the "Burgo de Santiuste" ("Saint Just's borough") on the original Roman site, and the Muslim one was abandoned.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Under Christian rule until the end of the Reconquista, the town had both a Jewish and a Moorish quarter and a renowned marketplace. Its central position allowed it to be a frequent residence of the Kings of Castile, when travelling south.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: At some time in the 1480s, Christopher Columbus first met there the "Reyes Católicos", King Ferdinand II of Aragon and his wife Queen Isabella I of Castile, who financed the travel for the "Discovery of America".


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: In decadence since the mid-18th century, Alcalá de Henares experienced a relative demographic and economic upturn in the second half of the 19th century, based on its newly acquired condition of military outpost, to which an embryonic industrial nucleus was also added.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The population steadily increased from 1868 to 1939. The population was still agrarian to a large extent, with high levels of illiteracy and poverty. Seeking social change, Republican and later Socialist movements grew in force in the city. The leading figure in the latter movement was , who became the first municipal councillor from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in the province of Madrid in 1903. Emerging in reaction to Socialist advances, Social catholicism also took hold in the city from 1905, founding a number of organizations such as "Centro Católico de Acción Social Popular" and the "Mutual Obrera Complutense".


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Following the 1936 coup d'etat that sparked the Spanish Civil War, putschist elements seized key posts around the city. However, following the botched coup in Madrid, Rebel forces in Alcalá eventually surrendered to Republican Colonel Ildefonso Puigdendolas and his troops on 21 July. Alcalá, that reportedly became a Soviet power base during the conflict—a "republic within the republic" where the Republican national government held a tenuous grip—was the place were POUM leader Andrés Nin was transferred to and presumably tortured and killed in June 1937 by NKVD agents.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Thousands of prisoners were held in different camps in the city after the end of the war. From March 1939 to February 1948, at least 264 individuals were executed in Alcalá by the Francoist authorities.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The polyglot Bible known as the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, the first of the many similar Bibles produced during the revival of Biblical studies that took place in the 16th century, was printed at Alcalá under the care of Cardinal Cisneros.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: A papal bull of 7 March 1885, united Alcalá with (effectively merging it into) the diocese of Madrid, which includes the civil province of Madrid, suffragan of the archbishopric of Toledo. The bishop's residence has since been used for preserving historical archives. It was designed by Alonso Berruguete and has a famous staircase.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: During Muslim rule, the Jewish community of the city was granted equal rights as the Christians living in it. In the Middle Ages, the Jewish congregation of the city paid taxes to the Archbishop of Toledo. The Jews of Alcalá were mentioned in the 14th-century Satire by Marrano Pero Ferrús. During the 15th century, the Jewish congregation of the city was one of the largest in Castile, having about 200 Jewish families. Hebrew studies at the University of Alcalá were encouraged by Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros during the 16th century, bringing some Jews and Marrano Hebraists to work in the city. The location of the Jewish quarter of the city is well known – between Mayor, Santiago, Imagen and Cervantes streets. One synagogue stood in Carmen Calzado street, no. 10. The other was on Santiago street. After the 1492 Alhambra Decree Jews were required to become Christians to continue living in Castile and Aragon; those who refused had to leave these kingdoms and most of them found residence in the North of Africa, Amsterdam and the Ottoman Empire.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The origins of Miguel de Cervantes' family are supposed (there is no total certainty) to be Jewish. Because his father worked on the former Jewish neighbourhood, the birthplace was close to the workplace, and also because the surname Cervantes makes reference to a different site in the Northwest of Spain, and geographical surnames were common among the Jewish population.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Alcalá de Henares is located in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula, in the southern half of the Inner Plateau. It lies on the valley of the Henares, a left-bank tributary of the Jarama, which is in turn a right-bank tributary of the Tagus. The right (north) bank of the river (on which the current urban nucleus was built) displays a very flat relief with a series of quaternary fluvial terraces, while the left (southern) bank features a very steep slope of clays from the miocene, rapidly rising up to the moors of La Alcarria.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Standing at an average altitude of 654 m, and occupying some 88 km; the city was for a long time contained in between the Henares to the South and the Madrid-Barcelona railway to the North. However, the increasing population brought on the sprawl of the urbanised area to the area located in between the railway and the A-2 motorway and beyond.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The climate in this city of central Spain is semi-arid, with cold, dry winters and hot, dry summers. The average year-round temperature is . The average year-round rainfall is about , mainly in spring and autumn. Temperatures vary from some degrees below in December and January to some over in July and August. Dry season coincides with maximum heat in summer.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The major landmark and one of the great prides of the city, its university, uses sites throughout the city, but has two main campuses. The first is on the north side of Alcalá. This campus includes most science departments and student housing (as well as its own, separate Renfe station). The second, central campus, houses most of the humanities and social-science departments, including a law school.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The architectural influence of the university can be found in other present-day academic institutions. The University of San Diego is largely based on the Spanish university; its campus and address take the name "Alcalá Park". In addition, some buildings at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas were modeled after the architecture of Universidad de Alcalá de Henares.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: In 1293 in Alcalá de Henares King Sancho IV of Castile founded the "Universidad Complutense", one of the oldest universities in the world, as a Studium Generale. With the patronage of Cardinal Cisneros, it was recognized in a 1499 papal bull, and quickly gained international fame as a main centre of learning of the Renaissance thanks to the production of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible in 1517, which is the basis for most of the current translations. By royal decree, the university moved to Madrid in 1836 (initially as the Universidad de Madrid, later as the Universidad Central, which in the 1970s would finally be renamed "Universidad Complutense de Madrid"). A new university was founded in the old buildings as the "Universidad de Alcalá" in 1977. Parts of the new university occupy the buildings of the old Universidad Complutense in the city centre, including the modern Colegio de San Ildefonso, and other "Colegios", and the structures have served as a model for other universities across the Spanish territories in the Americas and other dependencies.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The university chapel dedicated to Saint Ildefonso has a monument to the university's founder, Cardinal Cisneros, by Fancelli, an Italian sculptor.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Although the present university is named "Universidad de Alcalá", the ancient institution founded by Cisneros is the one now called "Universidad Complutense", translocated in the capital city of Madrid ("Complutensis" is the Latin word for "native of Alcalá"). The modern university is related to the original institution in name only, although it occupies the former buildings of the Complutense.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Aside from the buildings associated with the university, one of the city's most important and historic building is the Cathedral-Magistral of Saints Justus and Pastor, known formally in Spanish as the or more familiarly as the . Constructed between 1497 and 1514, the cathedral houses the remains of Saints Justus and Pastor, two Christian schoolboys martyred near the city during the persecutions of the Roman Emperor Diocletian at the beginning of the 4th century.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: In 414 a chapel was erected at the site of Justus and Pastor's martyrdom, and was converted into a cathedral during the period of Visigoth control of Hispania; bishops from Alcalá were present at the Councils of Toledo beginning in the 7th century. In 1053 the old city of Alcalá ("Alcalá la Vieja") was conquered by Ferdinand the Great, only to be recaptured the following year by the Moorish armies then warring for control of the Iberian Peninsula, who destroyed the cathedral as an act of retaliation. At that time the relics of Saints Justus and Pastor were taken to Huesca for safekeeping until after the reconquest of Alcalá in 1118. Although a church was rebuilt on the site in 1122, Pope Urban II, under the influence of his friend Raymond de Sauvetât, the Archbishop of Toledo, decided not to restore the Diocese of Alcalá at that time. Instead, de Sauvetât was able to secure the incorporation of Alcalá into his own archiepiscopal territories through a donation from King Alfonso VII in 1129.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The church was rebuilt again some three hundred years later by a subsequent archbishop of Toledo, Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña, who elevated it to the status of a collegiate church. It was finally reconstructed in its present Isabelline Gothic style under Cardinal Cisneros (1495–1517), the founder of the university. A tower was added between 1528 and 1582, achieving its modern appearance in 1618. The processional cloister and the Chapel of Saint Peter were incorporated into the building in the 17th century.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The building was declared a national monument in 1904. Nevertheless, it was burned during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), and practically all of its contents were destroyed with the exception of a few minor relics and choir seats.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: It was not until 1991 that the Diocese of Alcalá was finally restored, being separated from the Archdiocese of Madrid, at which time the building was granted its present status of cathedral-magistral. (Although the title "magistral" was originally granted by Cardinal Cisneros, the building was still technically only a collegiate church, and not yet a cathedral within the ecclesiastical meaning of the term.)


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The Cathedral of Alcalá is notable as one of only two churches in the world to be granted the special title "magistral" (along with St. Peter's Church in Leuven, Belgium). The title reflects its former status as a collegiate church, and derives from the requirement that all of the canons of the cathedral must possess the academic distinction of Doctor of Theology in order to serve there.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: In addition to that of Saints Justus and Pastor, the cathedral also houses the tomb of renowned 17th-century Spanish sculptor Gregorio Fernández.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The city is also home to the Archbishops Palace. This site is where Christopher Columbus and King Ferdinand planned the excursion to the West as well as the birthplace of Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, who would be the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and therefore queen consort of England.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Alcalá's Corral of Comedies, which hosts a full program of theatre and is open for tours, is the oldest documented corral in the history of Spain.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The center of the city remains essentially medieval, with many winding cobbled streets, and many historic buildings. The city centre surrounds the "Plaza de Cervantes" and is traversed by a long pedestrian main street, the "Calle Mayor". The city includes the Moorish quarter, the Jewish quarter, and the Christian quarter. These distinct neighborhoods have given Alcalá the reputation of "the city of three cultures."


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The old city centre has been largely preserved, unlike the suburbs. There has been no clear planning by the city councillors regarding expansion, and the sprawling suburban areas are irregularly constructed, with the addition of 1970s-style high rise blocks in many places.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: One of the most important streets in the city is the "Calle del Cardenal Cisneros" which takes tourists from the Madrid Gate at the entrance of the city, to the old city center and the cathedral in Santos Niños Square. The main park of Alcalá, Parque Municipal O'Donnell is a major recreational center for city residents and lies along a main road of Alcalá, Vía Complutense.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Recent archaeological excavations have opened up the city's Roman forum where a large complex comprising a basilica, public baths, a cryptoporticus, a market and a large monumental façade stands out. Alongside the forum is the Domus with an extraordinary collection of Roman domestic mural paintings. On the outskirts is the House of Hippolytus, an old school. In turn, the Regional Archaeology Museum (MAR) holds highly valuable mosaics.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The city hosts a large population of international students due to the presence of the university, and in particular its Spanish language and literature programs for foreign students. Alcalingua, a branch of University of Alcalá, is one of the major foreign language learning centers for students from abroad.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Alcalá is well known for its population of white storks. Their large nests can be observed atop many of the churches and historic buildings in the city, and are themselves a significant tourist attraction. Situated in the lowlands of the Henares river, the city is an attractive home for the migratory storks due to the wide availability of food and nesting material in the area.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: For over twenty years, Alcalá's storks have been counted and studied, and the active protection and maintenance of their nests is by official policy. Although once in danger of disappearing, with only eleven pairs counted between 1986 and 1987, the population has grown to around 90 resident pairs today, many of which have shortened the distance and duration of their typical migrations to remain in the city nearly all year.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Some 18% of the population are of foreign origin, according to the official data, a large part of the newcomers (30%) are immigrants from Eastern Europe. Many Chinese businesses have also been established in the city. Alcalá has the largest community (18%) of Romanian immigrants in Spain, with over 35,000 people. In 2007, for the first time, the immigrants from Romania created a political party for the elections to come.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Alcalá's excellent transport links with Madrid have led to its becoming a commuter town, with many of its inhabitants travelling to work in the capital. By Cercanias (railway) is the lines C2 and C7 that links Alcalá de Henares with Madrid in 35 minutes, or Guadalajara in 25 minutes, also exists in the peak hours trains called CIVIS, direct train, that makes the journey in 20 minutes. Also it is linked by bus to Madrid, Guadalajara and several towns and villages in nearby.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: By car, Alcalá de Henares is well linked with the state roads network with the nearby A-2, the highway which starts in Madrid and continues on to Barcelona and to France.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Alcalá also has an intensive bus system called "Alcalá-Bus" which runs to all the major neighborhoods and costs 1,30 euro per ride.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: The city celebrates the birthday of native son Miguel de Cervantes on 9 October every year and organizes an annual Cervantes festival, the ("Cervantine Week").


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Alcalá hosts an annual "Noche en Blanco." During this festival the streets are filled with music, art, theatre, and dance as the city residents celebrate Alcalá's rich cultural heritage. The festival goes well into the night and centers around the Plaza de Cervantes where stages are set up to host the performances.


title: Alcalá de Henares

text: Saint Didacus, known as San Diego in Spanish, was born in Alcalá de Henares and is the namesake for the city of San Diego, United States. Alcalá de Henares is the birthplace of Catherine of Aragon, is twinned with the English city of Peterborough in England, her final resting-place.


title: Cassis

text: Cassis (; Occitan: "Cassís") is a commune situated east of Marseille in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, whose coastline is known in English as the French Riviera, in Southern France. In 2016, it had a population of 7,265.


title: Cassis

text: It is a popular tourist destination, famous for its cliffs ("falaises") and the sheltered inlets called "calanques". The wines of Cassis are white and rosé, and not to be confused with crème de cassis, a specialty of Burgundy which takes its name from blackcurrants ("cassis"), not the commune.


title: Cassis

text: The town is situated on the Mediterranean coast, about east of Marseille. Cap Canaille, , between Cassis and La Ciotat ("the "civitas"") is one of the highest maritime bluffs in Europe, a sailor's landmark for millennia. It is east of Marseille and in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône.


title: Cassis

text: The present site of Cassis was first occupied between 600 and 500 BC by the Ligures, who constructed a fortified dwelling at the top of the Baou Redon. These people lived by fishing, hunting, and farming.


title: Cassis

text: The current site of Cassis could have been inhabited by the Greeks, though no proof has yet been found.


title: Cassis

text: During Roman times, Cassis was part of the maritime route made by the Emperor Antoninus Pius. It was a small village, established mainly around the Arena and Corton beaches. The principal livelihood was fishing and maritime trade with North Africa and the Middle East. Several archaeological discoveries attest to this.


title: Cassis

text: From the 5th to the 10th centuries AD, invasions by foreign tribes led the population to seek refuge in the "castrum", a fortified city that, in 1223, became the property of the Seigneurie des Les Baux-de-Provence.


title: Cassis

text: In the 15th century, Cassis was ceded to the Counts of Provence; then René of Anjou gave the town to the Bishops of Marseille, who ruled the town until the Revolution of 1789.


title: Cassis

text: In the eighteenth century, Cassis started to develop outside the ramparts of the fortified city and around the port. After the Bourbon Restoration, new industries developed here, including the drying of cod, the manufacture of olive oil and clothing, coral work, wine-making and the exploitation of local stone (cement, limestone). "Stone of Cassis", which was quarried here since antiquity made the town famous. It has been used for the quays of the large Mediterranean ports (Alexandria, Algiers, Piraeus, Marseille, and Port Said). A claim that it was used for the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York City gained wide circulation but has been proved apocryphal. Today, the stone is used more for domestic purposes such as the construction of sinks and fireplaces.


title: Cassis

text: In the twentieth century, as these industries began to disappear, the workforce turned to tourism and wine making. Cassis was one of the first three vineyards to profit from the "appellation d'origine contrôlée" (label of controlled origin) introduced in 1936.


title: Cassis

text: The oldest form is Tutelæ Charsitanæ, attested since the first century. It then drifts into Carsicis (15th century) and Castrum Cassitis (1323). These place names suggest a Car-s theme derived from the pre-Indo-European *Kar meaning stone or rock, to which has been added the suffix -ite. The French language has retained the Provençal Cassis spelling, which is identical in both the classical and Mistralian standards.


title: Cassis

text: The final "s" is not pronounced in the local variant of Provençal, unlike other dialects. Tes pronunciation of the final "s" is found in the motto of the city, which rhymes Paris, Cassis and vist with one another (pronunciation in Provençal "mistralien": /pa.ʁis/, /ka.sis/, /vis/). In French, both pronunciations occur.


title: Cassis

text: The Provençal motto of the commune attributed to Frédéric Mistral is "Qu a vist Paris, se noun a vist Cassis, n'a rèn vist", which means "Who has seen Paris and not Cassis, has not seen anything".


title: Gender essentialism

text: Gender essentialism is a theory that is used to examine the attribution of distinct, fixed, intrinsic qualities to women and men. In this theory, based in essentialism, there are certain universal, innate, biologically or psychologically based features of gender that are at the root of observed differences in the behavior of men and women. In Western civilization, it is suggested in writings going back to ancient Greece. With the advent of Christianity, the earlier Greek model was expressed in theological discussions as the doctrine that there are two distinct sexes, male and female created by God, and that individuals are immutably one or the other. This view remained essentially unchanged until the middle of the 19th century. This changed the locus of the origin of the essential differences from religion to biology, in Sandra Bem's words, "from God's grand creation [to] its scientific equivalent: evolution's grand creation," but the belief in an immutable origin had not changed.


title: Gender essentialism

text: Alternatives to gender essentialism were proposed in the mid-20th century. During second-wave feminism, Simone de Beauvoir and other feminists in the 1960s and 70s theorized that gender differences were socially constructed. In other words, people gradually conform to gender differences through their experience of the social world. More recently, Judith Butler theorized that people construct gender by performing it. While still strongly criticized by many feminist theorists, gender essentialism sheds light on social constructs surrounding gender that are found in society as well as societal views on sex and sexuality.


title: Gender essentialism

text: The gender essentialist claim of biology theorizes that gender differences are rooted in nature and biology. Historical views based in gender essentialism claim that there are biological causes for the differences between men and women, such as women giving birth and men going out and hunting. This claim is analyzed in detail by Emily Martin in her article "Medical Metaphors of Women’s Bodies: Menstruation and Menopause". In her article, Martin examines some of the historical views that used biology to explain the differences between women and men. One popular view in ancient Greece was that men were superior to women because they could sweat out their toxins while women had to menstruate to get rid of their toxins.


title: Gender essentialism

text: In 1975, American biologist, Edward O. Wilson, claimed that “both human and social behavior and human organization” are encoded in human genes. He later added to this claim, using the example of reproduction and how one male can fertilize many females but a female can be fertilized by only one male.”


title: Gender essentialism

text: The gender essentialist claim of masculinity theorizes that men are dominant, and women are submissive. It is influenced by socially constructed gender roles and traditional, patriarchal views about how men and women should act. Feminist theorist, Sandra Bem, analyzes the claim and its roots in her 1993 book, "The Lenses of Gender: Transforming the Debate on Sexual Inequality." Bem also breaks down how gender differences are perceived in society and how patriarchal views and claims of biology work together to “reproduce male power.”


title: Gender essentialism

text: The gender essentialist theory of normal gender is rooted in the idea that there are only two genders – male and female. This claim is analyzed by feminist theorist Monique Witting in her article, "One Is Not Born A Woman." In her piece, Witting’s main claim counters the theory of gender essentialism, claiming that there is not a “natural” group of women and this idea is founded in patriarchal oppression, sexism, and homophobia.


title: Gender essentialism

text: In feminist theory and gender studies, gender essentialism is the attribution of a fixed essence to women. Women's essence is assumed to be universal and is generally identified with those characteristics viewed as being specifically feminine. These ideas of femininity are usually related to biology and often concern psychological characteristics such as nurturance, empathy, support, non-competitiveness, etc.


title: Gender essentialism

text: In 1980, feminist theorist Monique Witting published "One Is Not Born A Woman," an article that discusses how gender essentialist views regarding men, women, and gender roles work to re-establish patriarchal roles and ideas in society. She also talks about how these views contribute to women’s oppression, focusing on “lesbianism” and how it goes against the “rules” that society has set in place. Witting’s piece shows how the gender essentialist claim of normal gender is rooted in homophobia and how these roots continue to allow women to be oppressed.


title: Gender essentialism

text: In 1988, feminist theorist Emily Martin published "Medical Metaphors of Women’s Bodies: Menstruation and Menopause." This piece analyzed the history of gender essentialist claims and how biology has been used to explain differences between genders. This claim of biology, according to Martin, dates back to ancient Greece Martin explains that, throughout history, views regarding women varied with menstruation originally being viewed as something important but still something that made women lesser, but later changing to be viewed as a disorder that negatively impacted women’s lives. Martin’s piece provides insight on how society places great importance on the different biological processes between genders.


title: Gender essentialism

text: The 1993 publication of "The Lenses of Gender" by feminist theorist Sandra Bem addresses how gender differences are perceived by society. She also talks about how essentialist gender roles reproduce male power.


title: Gender essentialism

text: Feminist theorist Elizabeth Grosz states in her 1995 publication, "Space, Time and Perversion: Essays on the Politics of Bodies", that essentialism "entails the belief that those characteristics defined as women's essence are shared in common by all women at all times. It implies a limit of the variations and possibilities of change—it is not possible for a subject to act in a manner contrary to her essence. Her essence underlies all the apparent variations differentiating women from each other. Essentialism thus refers to the existence of fixed characteristic, given attributes, and ahistorical functions that limit the possibilities of change and thus of social reorganization."(1995:47)


title: Gender essentialism

text: Biologism is a particular form of essentialism that defines women's and mens essence in terms of biological capacities. This form of essentialism is based on a form of reductionism, meaning that social and cultural factors are the effects of biological causes. Biological reductivism "claim[s] that anatomical and physiological differences—especially reproductive differences—characteristic of human males and females determine both the meaning of masculinity and femininity and the appropriately different positions of men and women in society". Biologism uses the functions of reproduction, nurturance, neurology, neurophysiology, and endocrinology to limit women's social and psychological possibilities according to biologically established limits. It asserts the science of biology to constitute an unalterable definition of identity, which inevitably "amounts to a permanent form of social containment for women". Naturalism is also a part of the system of essentialism where a fixed nature is postulated for women through the means of theological or ontological rather than biological grounds. An example of this would be the claim that women's nature is a God-given attribute, or the ontological invariants in Sartrean existentialism or Freudian psychoanalysis that distinguish the sexes in the "claim that the human subject is somehow free or that the subjects social position is a function of his or her genital morphology". These systems are used to homogenize women into one singular category and to strengthen a binary between men and women.


title: Gender essentialism

text: Throughout history women have been viewed as the submissive and inferior gender. In ancient Greece, this view was supported by the belief that women had to rid their bodies of toxins by menstruating while men could sweat their toxins out. By the 1800s, this view remained the same, but the reasoning had changed. In 1879, the French doctor, Gustave Le Bon, explained this inferiority of women as their brains being closer to the size of gorillas than most male brains. Le Bon also stated that women were fickle, inconsistent, lacked thought and logic, and were not able to reason.


title: Gender essentialism

text: Children have been observed making gender categorizations and displaying essentialist beliefs about gender preferences and indications. Proponents of gender essentialism propose that children from the age of 4 to 10 show the tendency to endorse the role of nature in determining gender-stereotyped properties, an "early bias to view gender categories as predictive of essential, underlying similarities", which gradually declines as they pass elementary school years.


title: Gender essentialism

text: The male–female dichotomy has been an important factor in most religions. In the Abrahamic religions the difference between man and woman is established at the origin of time, with the bible saying of Adam and Eve "...in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them", indicating that the difference is instituted by God. Some discuss if this verse is a expression of gender essentialism or a reference to humanity as a whole.


title: Gender essentialism

text: In Norse mythology Ask and Embla were the first people, man and woman, created by the gods. Other Nordic myths have LGBT themes.


title: Gender essentialism

text: Gender essentialism has been heavily influenced by both religion and by science, with religion being the prominent reasoning behind gender essentialism until the mid-1800s. The reasoning ultimately changed from religion to science, but still supported the same essentialist thinking.


title: Gender essentialism

text: The official view of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) is an essentialist belief in gender. The 1995 LDS Church statement declares gender to be an "essential characteristic" and an "eternal identity". Mormons generally believe in an eternal life and that it would be impossible for one's eternal gender to be different from one's physical, birth sex. Church regulations permit, but do not mandate, ex-communication for those who choose sexual reassignment surgery, and deny them membership in the priesthood.


title: Gender essentialism

text: The main alternative to gender essentialism is the theory of the social construction of gender. In contrast to gender essentialism, social constructionism views gender as created and influenced by society and culture, both of which differ according to time and place. Theories of the social construction of gender grew out of theories in second-wave feminism in the latter half of the 20th century.


title: Gender essentialism

text: Prior to the 1960s, dating back to the second half of the 1800s, feminists were beginning to actively identify and challenge “legal and social inequalities between the sexes."


title: Gender essentialism

text: Feminist activists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were among some of the first to take a public stand against gender essentialist views that led to sexism. In 1848, Stanton and Mott held the first women’s rights conference. Then, in 1869. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony founded the National Women’s Suffrage Association.


title: Gender essentialism

text: The start of second-wave feminism in the 1960s pushed for serious change in how society reacted towards sexism and gender essentialist views. Although it brought to attention gender segregation in the workplace and the gender pay gap, little has changed in the power dynamic as it is so deeply ingrained into society.


title: Gender essentialism

text: Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity can be seen as a means to show "the ways in which reified and naturalized conceptions of gender might be understood as constituted and, hence, capable of being constituted differently". Butler uses the phenomenological theory of acts espoused by Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and George Herbert Mead, which seeks to explain the mundane way in which "social agents constitute social reality through language, gesture, and all manner of symbolic social sign", to create her conception of gender performativity. She begins by quoting Simone de Beauvoir's claim: "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman." This statement distinguishes sex from gender suggesting that gender is an aspect of identity that is gradually acquired. This distinction between sex, as the anatomical aspects of the female body, and gender, as the cultural meaning that forms the body and the various modes of bodily articulation, means that it is "no longer possible to attribute the values or social functions of women to biological necessity". Butler interprets this claim as an appropriation of the doctrine of constituting acts from the tradition of phenomenology. Butler concludes that "gender is in no way a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts proceed; rather, it is an identity tenuously constituted in time—an identity instituted through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements and enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self".


title: Gender essentialism

text: Candace West and Sarah Fenstermaker also conceptualize gender "as a routine, methodical, and ongoing accomplishment, which involves a complex of perceptual, interactional and micropolitical activities that cast particular pursuits as expressions of manly and womanly 'natures'" in their 1995 text "Doing Difference".


title: Gender essentialism

text: This does not mean that the material nature of the human body is denied, instead, it is re-comprehended as separate from the process by which "the body comes to bear cultural meanings". Therefore, the essence of gender is not natural because gender itself is not a natural fact but the outcome of the sedimentation of specific corporeal acts that have been inscribed through repetition and rearticulation over time onto the body. "If the reality of gender is constituted by the performance itself, then there is no recourse to an essential and unrealized 'sex' or 'gender' which gender performances ostensibly express".


title: Gender essentialism

text: Analyzing gender has been a concern of feminist theory. There have been many modes of understanding how gender addresses meaning, but developing such theories of gender can obscure the significance of other aspects of women's identities, such as race, class, and sexual orientation, which marginalizes the experiences and voices of women of colour, non-Western women, working-class women, lesbian/bisexual women, and trans women. As a challenge to feminist theory, essentialism refers to the problem of theorizing gender as both an identity and a mark of difference. This refers to a problem for the concept of subjectivity presupposed by feminist theories of gender. There are arguments, made primarily by black and lesbian feminists, that feminist theory has capitalized on the idea of gender essentialism by using the category of gender to appeal to "women's experience" as a whole. By doing this, feminist theory makes universalizing and normalizing claims for and about women, which are only true of white, Western, heterosexual, cisgender, middle- or upper-class women, but which it implies are situations, perspectives and experiences true of all women. Patrice DiQuinzio discusses "how critics of exclusion see this as a function of feminist theory's commitment to theorizing gender exclusively and articulating women's experiences in terms of gender alone". Instead one must theorize feminism in a way that takes the interlocking category of experiences between race, class, gender, and sexuality into consideration; an intersectional model of thinking.


title: Gender essentialism

text: Some feminists, such as DiQuinzio and Nancy Chodorow, have used the idea of a woman's essence to link gender socialization with exclusively female mothering. Butler disagreed, because not all women are mothers, due to age or personal choice, and even some mothers do not regard motherhood as the most important aspect of political struggle.


title: Gender essentialism

text: Essentialism of gender in feminist theory presents a problem regarding transfeminism. Gayle Salamon writes about trans studies that they are to be "the breaking apart of this category, particularly if that breaking requires a new articulation of the relation between sex and gender, male and female". Transubjectivity challenges the binary of gender essentialism as it disrupts the "fixed taxonomies of gender" and this creates a resistance in women's studies, which as a discipline has historically depended upon the fixedness of gender. Trans identities break down the very possibility of gender essentialism by queering the binary of gender, gender roles and expectations. In recent years, through the work of transfeminists such as Sandy Stone, the theory of trans women and their inclusion into feminist spaces has opened, just as theories of race, class, sexuality and ability did.


title: Gender essentialism

text: Poststructuralism indicates "a field of critical practices that cannot be totalized and that, therefore, interrogate the formative and exclusionary power of sexual difference", says Butler. Therefore, through the poststructuralist lens, the critique of gender essentialism is possible because poststructuralist theory generates analyses, critiques, and political interventions, and opens up a political imaginary for feminism that is otherwise constrained. Feminist poststructuralism does not designate a position from which one operates, but offers a set of tools and terms to be "reused and rethought, exposed as strategic instruments and effects, and subjected to a critical reinscription and redeployment". Critics such as Susan Bordo suggest that Butler is reducing gender to language and abstraction.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: Ward Francis Weaver III (born April 6, 1963) is an American convicted murderer. He is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for sexual assault, rape, attempted murder, and the murders of Ashley Pond and Miranda Gaddis in Oregon City, Oregon.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: Raised in Northern California by his mother, Weaver had a tumultuous childhood; his father, Ward Weaver Jr., was convicted in 1984 of a double-murder. After a stint in the U.S. Navy Reserve, Weaver was convicted of assaulting two teenage girls in Fairfield, California in 1988.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: In January 2002, twelve-year-old Ashley Pond disappeared en route to her bus stop in Oregon City, near Weaver's residence. Two months later, Pond's classmate, thirteen-year-old Miranda Gaddis, also vanished under mysterious circumstances. The disappearances received international media attention, and were profiled on various television programs, including "Unsolved Mysteries". The remains of both girls were discovered on Weaver's property in August 2002 during an investigation into the rape of his son's girlfriend, also committed by Weaver. In 2004, Weaver was sentenced to life without parole for the sexual assault and murder of both girls.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: Weaver was born April 6, 1963, in Humboldt County, California, to Trish and Ward Weaver Jr. In 1967, his father abandoned the family; several years later, his mother married Bob Budrow, an abusive alcoholic, and the family relocated to Portland, Oregon.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: Weaver first exhibited antisocial behavior as a teenager; his sister, Tammi, later said that he physically and sexually abused at least one family member by the time he was twelve years old, and his half-brother, Robert Budrow, claimed that Weaver frequently beat him during their childhood.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: In 1981, a teenaged relative reported that he had repeatedly raped and beaten her. Police investigated allegations of abuse in 1981, but Multnomah County prosecutors decided not to pursue charges because Weaver had enlisted in the armed services and would be leaving Portland. Shortly thereafter, Weaver graduated from Marshall High School in Portland, and joined the US Navy Reserve. He was discharged the following year on May 17, 1982, for heavy drinking and dereliction of duty. During his tenure in the Navy, he met his future wife, Maria Stout, a native of the Philippines. The couple moved in with Weaver's parents and she was soon pregnant. Five months into her pregnancy, she was physically assaulted by Weaver and hospitalized, but refused to press charges. Their son, Francis, was born in December 1982, though it was later determined that he was not Ward Weaver's biological son.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: In 1981, Weaver's father murdered a young couple whose car had broken down in Tehachapi, California, and buried them in his backyard; he was sentenced to death for the crime in 1984. He is also a suspected serial killer, being suspected of up to 24 other murders.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: Weaver married Maria Stout in 1984, and the couple relocated to Bakersfield, California. On June 15, 1986, Weaver attacked the teenaged daughters of a friend in Fairfield, California, striking one of the girls—fifteen-year-old Jennifer Ordonoa—with a block of concrete. He was sentenced to three years in prison for the assaults. After his release, Weaver and wife Stout relocated to Canby, Oregon, where they operated a store. There, Maria gave birth to their fourth child, Mallori, in 1989.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: In 1993, Maria Weaver filed a restraining order against her husband, and their marriage ended in divorce. In July 1995, Weaver beat his new girlfriend, Kristi Sloan, with a cast-iron skillet. He was jailed for the incident, but Sloan refused to testify against him. By October, they were back together and, in February 1996, they married. The marriage lasted four years.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: In August 1997, Weaver began an affair with a woman he met at work. The couple moved into a rented house on South Beavercreek Road in Oregon City. Weaver's then-12-year-old daughter Mallori became friends with Ashley Marie Pond (born March 1, 1989) and Miranda Diane Gaddis (born November 18, 1988); the three girls were students at Gardiner Middle School, and were also members of the same dance class. In August 2001, Pond accused Weaver of attempting to rape her at his home, and the incident was reported to police; however, charges were not formally filed by law enforcement.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: On the morning of January 9, 2002, Pond left her home at the Newell Creek Village apartments to walk to the nearby bus stop; she never arrived. Friends and family, including Gaddis, began to search for her; Gaddis resided in the same apartment building as Pond. The dance team which both girls were a member of organized a fundraiser to help assist the search for Pond, which they scheduled for March 23, 2002.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: On the morning of March 8, Gaddis disappeared under similar circumstances to Pond. After Gaddis's disappearance, the Federal Bureau of Investigation instated a task force to search for the girls; FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele stated during a press interview: "There is a growing belief that the cases are related, and while there's a slight hope that they have run away, there is a growing belief that there was some kind of criminal activity involved."


title: Ward Weaver III

text: After both girls vanished, Weaver (with the help of his son) dug a hole in his yard and covered it with concrete; Weaver told his son it was a pad for a hot tub. KATU television news reporter Anna Song conducted an interview with Weaver prior to his arrest, during which he stood on top of the concrete slab where Ashley Pond was buried. When asked about the slab, Weaver told "The Oregonian": "I'm putting in a Jacuzzi. The last time I checked that wasn't against the law." "Portland Tribune" reporter Jim Redden got two tips early on – one from Linda O'Neal, a private investigator and a relative of Pond – which prompted him to interview Weaver. Weaver told Redden that he was the FBI's prime suspect, at a time when it was generally believed there was no such suspect. During a July 9, 2002 interview with "Good Morning America", Weaver commented:


title: Ward Weaver III

text: On August 13, 2002, Weaver's stepson, Francis, called police claiming that Weaver had attempted to rape his nineteen-year-old girlfriend. When speaking to authorities, Francis suggested that his father had been involved in the murders of Pond and Gaddis. Weaver was arrested for the attempted sexual assault, and law enforcement subsequently initiated a warrant to investigate his property. Pond's stepmother, who had suspected Weaver in both disappearances, erected a sign next to the concrete slab on his property which read: "Dig Me Up."


title: Ward Weaver III

text: The FBI began a search of Weaver's property on South Beavercreek Road on August 24, 2002. That day, FBI agents discovered Gaddis's remains inside an empty microwave box in a storage shed behind Weaver's home. On August 25, the remains of Pond were unearthed from beneath the concrete slab in Weaver's backyard, where they had been stored in a 55-gallon barrel.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: The disappearances of Pond and Gaddis drew international media attention, receiving coverage in "The Oregonian", "People", "The Los Angeles Times", "The New York Times", and the BBC. The disappearances were also profiled in an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries", which aired on September 20, 2002, after the girls' bodies had been discovered.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: Journalist Linda O'Neal went on to co-write a book about the case, entitled "The Missing Girls", published in 2006. The book was somewhat fictionalized, featuring composite characters and reconstructed conversations. O'Neal contended that the substance of the book was accurate, but the FBI criticized the book, and took exception to O'Neal's characterization of how the case was solved.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: In 2002, Governor John Kitzhaber launched a multi-agency investigation into the handling of the first report of Weaver's abuse of Pond. Weaver remained under arrest for the attempted rape of his son's girlfriend until October 2, 2002, when he was indicted and charged with six counts of aggravated murder; two counts of abuse of a corpse in the second degree; one count of sexual abuse in the first degree; one count of attempted rape in the second degree; one count of attempted aggravated murder; one count of first degree attempted rape; one count of sexual abuse in the first degree; one count of sexual abuse in the second degree; and two counts of sexual abuse in the third degree. In September 2004, Weaver pleaded guilty to two charges and no-contest to the rest. A plea bargain allowed him to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to two life sentences without parole.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: On March 4, 2007, Weaver was walking to the barber shop at the Snake River Correctional Institution for a haircut when the barber – another inmate – revealed a makeshift knife and attacked him, causing neck and shoulder injuries. He was treated at the prison. The barber was placed in the disciplinary unit.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: In 2009, Gaddis's younger sister, Miriah, visited Weaver in prison on two occasions: "I had to know what happened. It was the only way I could put it behind me," she told reporters. During the visits, Weaver admitted to murdering Pond and Gaddis "with his bare hands," and told Miriah that he had planned to murder her next.


title: Ward Weaver III

text: On February 17, 2014, Weaver's son Francis was arrested and charged with murder. He and three others had allegedly robbed and killed a drug dealer in Canby, Oregon the day prior.


title: Kidderminster

text: Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it had a population of 55,530. The town is twinned with Husum, Germany.


title: Kidderminster

text: Situated in the far north of Worcestershire (and with its northern suburbs only 3 and 4 miles from the Staffordshire and Shropshire borders respectively), the town is the main administration centre for the wider Wyre Forest District, which includes the towns of Stourport-on-Severn and Bewdley, along with other outlying settlements.


title: Kidderminster

text: The land around Kidderminster may have been first populated by the Husmerae, an Anglo-Saxon tribe first mentioned in the Ismere Diploma, a document in which Ethelbald of Mercia granted a "parcel of land of ten hides" to Cyneberht. This developed as the settlement of Stour-in-Usmere, which was later the subject of a territorial dispute settled by Offa of Mercia in 781, when he restored certain rights to Bishop Heathored. This allowed for the founding of a monastery or in the area.


title: Kidderminster

text: The earliest written form of the name Kidderminster was first documented in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as "Chideminstre", meaning 'Cydda or Cydela's minster or monastery'. It was a large manor held by William the Conqueror, with 16 outlying settlements (Bristitune, Fastochesfeld, Franche, Habberley, Hurcott, Mitton, Oldington, Ribbesford, Sudwale, Sutton, Teulesberge, Trimpley, Wannerton and Wribbenhall). Various spellings were in use – "Kedeleministre" or "Kideministre" (in the 12th and 13th centuries), "Kyderemunstre" (13th–15th centuries) – until the name of the town was settled as Kidderminster by the 16th century. Between 1156 and 1162 Henry II granted the manor to his steward, Manasser Biset. By six decades later, the settlement grew and a fair (1228) and later a market (1240) were established there.


title: Kidderminster

text: To the south by the River Stour, dating from the 15th century, is a single surviving tower of Caldwall (or Caldwell) Castle, a fortified manor house.


title: Kidderminster

text: Kidderminster owes its growth to the early development of the cloth industry, which was aided by its position upon the River Stour, and its location at the congruence of four main roads to Birmingham, Dudley, Worcester and Bewdley and Bridgnorth. In a visit to the town sometime around 1540, King's Antiquary John Leland noted that Kidderminster "standeth most by clothing". Over the following centuries the town specialised in textile trades such as weaving, fulling, cloth working and milling, and was also home to numerous other trades including shoemaking, haberdashery, saddle making, dyers, tailors, tanners and glovers.


title: Kidderminster

text: King Charles I granted the Borough of Kidderminster a Charter in 1636. the original charter can be viewed at Kidderminster Town Hall.


title: Kidderminster

text: Kidderminster's position at the junction of several main roads made it a place of strategic importance during the English Civil War, with several skirmishes taking place in and around the town.


title: Kidderminster

text: In 1670–1 Kidderminster's cloth industry obtained a guild by act of parliament and by 1677, the town had as many as 459 weavers and perhaps 3,000 spinners. Following King Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes in October 1685 and the subsequent renewed persecution of French Protestants in France, many Huguenots emigrated to Britain. The immigration and settlement of waves of industrious Huguenots brought the benefits of skilled artisans, merchants and manufacturers to Britain. They contributed to a preexisting but basic cloth weaving industry in towns and cities throughout England, in some cases establishing new businesses. In Worcestershire, the Huguenots established themselves at Worcester, Evesham, Droitwich and Kidderminster.


title: Kidderminster

text: In the early 18th century, carpet weaving was introduced to Kidderminster, and this rapidly became the staple trade of the town. Its growth was aided by the opening of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal in 1771, and later the arrival of the railway to the town in 1852.


title: Kidderminster

text: Poor trade conditions in 1828, when 2,000 looms were not working for an 18-week period, led to riots where £3,000 of damage was done during one night.


title: Kidderminster

text: The town's local government was reformed by the Municipal Reform Act 1835, which incorporated Kidderminster as a municipal borough. This superseded the charter of 1636, and divided the borough into three wards represented by six aldermen and eighteen councillors, the number of wards was doubled in the 1880s. The current Town Hall on Vicar Street was built in 1877.


title: Kidderminster

text: Kidderminster has two Commissioners' churches. The first was St George's Church, on Radford Avenue. This was designed by Francis Goodwin and built in 1821–1824, finally being consecrated in April 1824. Its grant of just over £17,000.00, was the third-largest given by the commission to any church outside London. The second church was St John's Church, on the Bewdley Road. This was built in 1843 and the architect was Matthew Steele; its grant was just over £4,000.


title: Kidderminster

text: In 1974 the old borough of Kidderminster was abolished and merged into the new Wyre Forest District. In December 2015 Kidderminster was established as a civil parish with a new Town Council, following a public referendum.


title: Kidderminster

text: The River Stour and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal both flow through Kidderminster town centre.


title: Kidderminster

text: The modern carpet industry was founded in the area in 1785 by Brintons. The carpet industry became extremely important to the local economy, so much so that the local newspaper is still named "The Shuttle" after the shuttles used on the carpet looms. A type of carpet was known as Kidderminster carpet or, in the United States, Ingrain carpet: this was a reversible carpet with no pile, with the pattern showing in opposite colours on the two faces, and was popular from the 18th to early 20th centuries. By 1951 there were over thirty carpet manufacturers in the town, including, for example, Quayle & Tranter (now defunct). They commissioned such notable artists as George Bain to create their traditional Celtic designs.


title: Kidderminster

text: Aided by a 2004 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, a museum dedicated to the Kidderminster carpet industry was officially opened by Lord Cobham in 2012.


title: Kidderminster

text: Kidderminster Town is a civil parish within Wyre Forest District, with Kidderminster Town Council created in the early 21st century to take on the duties of a parish council, following a referendum in May 2015. Prior to this, Charter Trustees maintained the traditions of the town and elected a Mayor. As of the last election in 2019 for the Wyre Forest District Council, the Conservatives lost their majority and now no group dominates the council.


title: Kidderminster

text: The area (initially as Kidderminster, then after 1983 as the Wyre Forest constituency) has been represented by Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs) Gerald Nabarro 1950–64, Tatton Brinton 1964–74, Esmond Bulmer 1974–87, Anthony Coombs 1987–97, and Labour MP David Lock 1997–2001. In the 2001 United Kingdom general election, the town returned Dr Richard Taylor as an independent MP for the Wyre Forest parliamentary constituency. Taylor had fought the election to protest against the proposed reduction in services at Kidderminster Hospital. He held his seat at the 2005 election, the first independent MP to do so since 1949. Mark Garnier has held the seat of Wyre Forest since the 2010 election increasing his majority each time.


title: Kidderminster

text: At the 2011 census there were 55,530 residents in Kidderminster in 24,869 households, the median age of Kidderminster residents was 41.


title: Kidderminster

text: Kidderminster's population at the 2011 census was predominantly White (96.8%). The largest non-white groups were Asian at 1.7%, and mixed race at 1.2%.


title: Kidderminster

text: 67% of Kidderminster residents identified as Christian, with 24.7% stating they had no religion, and 6.6% not stating any religion. The largest non-Christian group were Muslims at 0.8%, followed by Buddhists at 0.2% and Hindus and Sikhs at 0.1% each, with others at 0.4%.


title: Kidderminster

text: Kidderminster's parish church of St Mary and All Saints' is a grade I listed building dating mostly from the 15th and 16th centuries. Another notable church is St John's Church, which is grade II listed, and dates from 1843. Other listed buildings of note in the town include the Town Hall of 1877. The Shrubbery, a 19th-century mansion, and the Kidderminster Register Office. Many of Kidderminster's historic buildings were lost from the 1960s onwards, this led to the creation of the Kidderminster Civic Society in 1993 to promote preservation of the town's heritage.


title: Kidderminster

text: In the 1968 "Buildings of England" volume on Worcestershire, Pevsner described the town as; "uncommonly devoid of visual pleasure and architectural interest." Crown House, an early 1970s office block was particularly criticised, and was once rated among the top 10 ugliest buildings in Britain. Demolition was completed in April 2020, improving the Kidderminster skyline. In the 2007 revision of this volume, Alan Brooks wrote; "the 19th century mill buildings, together with the churches, provide most of the architectural interest in a town otherwise uncommonly lacking in visual pleasures."


title: Kidderminster

text: Two railway stations in the town share the same approach road and are located less than fifty metres apart. The main National Rail station, operated by West Midlands Trains, is Kidderminster, from where trains run to Birmingham, Worcester and London. The other station, Kidderminster Town, is the terminus of the preserved Heritage Railway line, Severn Valley Railway, from where trains run to Bridgnorth.


title: Kidderminster

text: Several major routes run through the town, including the A456 which runs from Birmingham to just south of Woofferton, Shropshire; the A451 which runs from Stourbridge to Abberley; the A442 which runs from Droitwich to Hodnet, Shropshire, a few miles north of Telford; the A449 which runs from Newport in south Wales to Stafford and crosses the A456 at the Land Oak; and the A448 road which starts in the town and goes to Studley in Warwickshire, via Bromsgrove and Redditch. A major change in the town centre road infrastructure was the construction of the ring road in the 1970s and 1980s. This relieved the town's growing congestion but diverted traffic outside the centre, drawing off customers for businesses. The final phase of the ring road was never completed, which results in the town having a ring road that does not form a complete ring.


title: Kidderminster

text: There are direct bus links with towns including Worcester, Halesowen, Bewdley, Stourport, Bridgnorth, Bromsgrove and Redditch. The majority of the services in Kidderminster are operated by Diamond West Midlands (previously First Midland Red), while the rest is operated by Arriva Midlands, Finesse and Yarranton Brothers and Services 291 and 292 were operated by R & B Travel prior to the company surrendering its licence in January 2020.


title: Kidderminster

text: Services 15A/C, S15, 294, 580 and 133were operated by Coniston Coaches prior to surrendering its licence in October 2020.


title: Kidderminster

text: As part of educational restructuring in the Wyre Forest district, Kidderminster's schools were reorganised from a three-tier system of first, middle and high schools to the two-tier system more common in the UK as a whole, featuring primary schools and secondary schools. In this process, several first and middle schools were closed or merged into new primaries. The three high schools of King Charles I School, Wolverley C E Secondary School, and Baxter College (formerly Harry Cheshire High School) became secondary schools that included sixth forms.


title: Kidderminster

text: Independent schools include Heathfield Knoll School in Wolverley. Formerly independent, Holy Trinity School became a state-funded free school in 2014. Kidderminster College is located in Market Street in the town centre, having moved from older premises in Hoo Road in 2003. Other local secondary schools include The Stourport High School & VIth Form Centre and The Bewdley School.


title: Kidderminster

text: Kidderminster CC is a local cricket club at whose home ground of Chester Road North Ground Worcestershire County Cricket Club play occasional County Championship and county 2nd XI games.


title: Kidderminster

text: Formed in 1886, Kidderminster Harriers F.C. is the town's professional football club. Local rivals of the Harriers were traditionally Worcester City and Bromsgrove Rovers, and in recent years also Cheltenham Town and Hereford United. As of 2013 Cheltenham are in a division above Kidderminster.