16 TIME February 15/February 22, 2021
Milestones
CONFIRMED
Pete Buttigieg, as
U.S. Transportation
Secretary, the fi rst
openly gay person
confi rmed by the
Senate to a Cabinet
post, on Feb. 2.
EXTRADITED
Former school principal
Malka Leifer, from
Israel to Australia,
to face charges of
sexually abusing
students, on Jan. 25,
after a protracted legal
battle.
BLOCKED
Twitter accounts
linked to farmers
protesting the Indian
government’s
agricultural policies,
on Feb. 1. Twitter
unblocked the
accounts later that day.
ACCUSED
Singer Marilyn
Manson, of abuse, by
fi ve women, including
actor Evan Rachel
Wood, on Feb. 1.
Manson has denied
the allegations.
DIED
Corky Lee,
photographer of
Asian-American life,
on Jan. 27, from
complications related
to COVID-19, at 73.
Dustin Diamond, who
played Screech in the
sitcom Saved by the
Bell, from cancer, on
Feb. 1, at 44.
Hal Holbrook, actor
who spent 50-plus
years
playing
Mark Twain
onstage,
on Jan. 23,
at 95.
Ricky Powell,
photographer known
for his work with the
Beastie Boys, on
Feb. 1, at 59.
Captain Tom Moore,
World War II veteran
who raised millions
for the U.K.’s National
Health Service during
COVID-19 lockdowns,
on Feb. 2, at 100.
DIED
Cicely TysonActor who opened doors, and worldsONE OF THE GREAT ACTRESSES OF THE 1970S DIDN’T HAVE
many starring roles in fi lm; she would fi nd many of her most pres-
tigious parts on television and in theater. But Cicely Tyson, who
died on Jan. 28, at 96, was magnifi cent in any medium, even if
Holly wood had no idea what to do with a Black woman possessed
of such towering gifts.
Onscreen, onstage or off , Tyson was an enchanting presence.
Her beauty was the generous kind, holding a mirror to other
Black women; even without words, she urged them to see the
same beauty in themselves. And in her refusal to play parts that
debased Black people, her greatness lies as much in the roles she
wouldn’t take as in those she did.
Tyson won two Emmys for her stunning turn in the 1974 tele-
vision movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, cast as a
110-year-old woman recalling her experience of slavery. In 2013,
she became the oldest person to win a Tony, for her role in a re-
vival of Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful. And if you saw
her in Sounder (1972) upon its initial release— playing a share-
cropper in 1930s Louisiana who holds her family together while
her husband serves an unjust prison sentence—her performance
has most likely stayed with you for close to a lifetime. With these
roles, and many more, Tyson leaves behind not just a body of per-
formances but a way of being, of living in the world, that it would
do us all good to emulate. —STEPHANIE ZACHAREKDIED
Sophie
Siren of sound
By Kim Petras
SOPHIE WAS WHOLLY
unafraid to be herself. She
wouldn’t ever conform to
expectations; she had such
confi dence in her aesthetic
and complete disregard for
what music is “supposed” to
sound like. Sophie’s sound
could be violent and brutal
but, with her high-pitched
vocals, also so soft and ten-
der and honest. I always felt
like it was music from the
future; I’d never heard any-
thing like it before. But after
meeting her, it made sense—
struggling with yourself and
your gender identity can be a
dark subject sometimes.
As a musician and pro-
ducer, Sophie, who died
on Jan. 30, at 34, would be
this fl amboyant alien scien-
tist onstage and then, in the
studio, sweet and shy. Al-
ways genuine and passion-
ate about her work. Working
with her always felt like a fun
music-nerd hangout. I’ll miss
her texts at 4 a.m., like, “Let’s
do this, I have an idea.”
We would always hype
each other up—two trans
girls making cool music. We
both had the same audac-
ity about us. What I will take
from Sophie is to remember
to be wild and experimental
when I want to be. —As told
to SANYA MANSOOR; Petras is
a recording artist