Liberté de Pensée et D'Expression

I am donning the NEW as I reflect and RENEW and become more receptive to the Spirit that lives inside of me. I explore my truth, and resist the temptation to censor myself. I must free my expression and share my TRUTH.

Ma photo
Nom :
Lieu : NYC

Resisting Self Censorship

30 mars 2006

DAMN, NNENNA!!

Did ya’ll see that kiss???

Hey, I can’t hate on the girl. Who wouldn’t be tempted to sample what oh so gorgeous Vaugh had to offer? I feel bad for her boyfriend, though. My biggest concern is that we don’t have another “Shandi” on our hands. But, in my heart of hearts, I believe that Nnenna is stronger than that and will overcome this obstacle.

I was IMing my best friend throughout the show, and we were screamin’ and hollerin’ when Nnenna did her shoot. We’d seen the previews, but there was no denying how much chemistry Miss Chemist and Mr. Hot Model cooked up on the set. Clearly! They look together, though...

Too bad Gina just cracked under pressure. Jade definitely found her victim and went in for the kill. But as with any show and ratings, there is always at least one true antagonist, and Jade is that for me. I know, it’s a competition, yadda, yadda, yadda, but still. I understand that the industry is cutthroat and it’s every woman for herself, and really, this show is something of a microcosm of life in the fashion/modeling world...shoot, even life in general.

Play to win or get out of the game, as they say. But, at the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to look in the mirror and be okay inside about the way you played. The devil’s always looking for some souls to buy, know what I mean?

Furonda. I’m glad that there’s a nice array of women of color on the show, but there’s something about this woman that’s missing. It’s possible that she has some potential, but I think she needs a little extra “umph.” Danielle is straight rocking it, doing her thing. Gotta give her props. One of my other favorites is Brooke. I’d really like to see her rise more to the challenge and really put herself all out there. She’s so adorable, and could be a serious contender.
Till the next episode...

26 mars 2006

It's A Show For Teens, But There's Depth In It

If having things turn out the way you wanted them to is the measure of a successful life, then some would say I'm a failure. The important thing is, is not to be bitter over life's disappointments. Learn to let go of the past and recognize that everyday won't be sunny. And when you find yourself lost in the darkness of despair---remember, it's only in the black of night you see the stars, and those stars will lead you back home.

So don't be afraid to make mistakes, to stumble and fall, because most of the time, the greatest rewards come from doing the things that scare you the most. Maybe you'll get everything you wish for. Maybe, you'll get more than you ever could have imagined. Who knows where this life will take you.

The road is long, and in the end, the journey is the destination.

-"Whitey", One Tree Hill

14 mars 2006

HALF PAST Autumn

If a picture can speak a thousand words, then just one of Gordon Parks' photographs spoke a legacy.

I found myself moved, stretched and filled with emotions that roiled inside of me unchecked. Witnessing the intensity of his work left me breathless. I couldn't help but be captured by the immense depravity in his pictures; the crippling effects of poverty, ignorance and racism on human life depicted in those faces continued to haunt me well after the screening was done.

GP's artful and poignant depiction of lives crippled and shattered by poverty and racism left me speechless. The pain, suffering and vulnerability of the individuals and families he photographed morphed into images of my own life in the rural South and the projects in a small southern city. It was so sad to see the families that were given money and bought new homes not be able to manage to fully rise above the strangling grip of their situation despite the "help" they received. GP summed it best when he said, "Sometimes it takes more than money." Indeed it does.

HPA was evocative, intensely emotional and powerful. This film left my emotions and my soul wretched and raw. So much so that I couldn't speak to anyone when it was over. I left, my eyes welling up as I choked back tears. When I finally made it to the ladies' room---which seemed to take a little more than forever---I broke down, sobbing silently.

I grieved for the people who had lost so much and gained so little; those whom our society rejects, scorns, ridicules and ignores. I mourned for those of us who haven't made the most of opportunities so many fought and died for by allowing them to just slip away. I wept for the ones who didn't live up to their full potential, and those, like his son, Gordon, Jr., whose time was cut short and their awesomeness glimpsed and not fully seen.

And I cried for me that I might do better and be more than I have been. That I will recognize and use my gifts and leave this world---as Mr. Parks had---more inspired.

07 mars 2006

Hip-Hop's Place in History

One of my homegirls sent this article along and I thought I'd share...any thoughts?
**************************************************************
> WASHINGTON -- Evo Morales, the new president of
> Bolivia, has made those sweaters he wears so popular
> that I wouldn't be surprised to see a Phat Farm
> knock-off soon. Speaking of Phat Farm, Russell Simmons
> may have sold that hip-hop-inspired clothing line, but
> he could still look to Morales for other forms of inspiration. For
> instance, he could take heed of the Inca proverb that Morales has also
> introduced to a wider public: Ama shua, ama llulla, ama qella. Roughly
> translated, it means don't lie, don't steal and don't
> be lazy. I can't speak to Simmons' honesty or
> integrity, but his heavy-lidded comments at a New York
> news conference last month suggest that he's guilty of
> lazy thinking. Or maybe he was just sleepy.
>
> Simmons, who made his fortune as a founder of the
> hugely successful Def Jam record label, joined other
> rap music heavyweights to announce the Smithsonian Institution's plans
> for an extensive hip-hop exhibition. Several of the genre's pioneers,
> including Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa and DJ Kool Herc,
> were on hand at a hotel in midtown Manhattan to
> introduce the project, "Hip-Hop Won't Stop: The Beat,
> the Rhymes, the Life."
>
> During his remarks, Simmons reportedly credited
> hip-hop as "the only real description of the suffering
> of our people."
>
> To borrow a phrase from Ida B. Wells, whose 1895 study
> of lynching, "A Red Record," remains one of the best descriptions of
> our suffering, "that is an expression without a thought."
>
> Let's set aside for a moment the woefully limited
> notion that African-American history is solely defined
> by suffering. Let's also dispose of the idea that
> hip-hop focuses exclusively on that suffering. The
> best of the genre's music also speaks eloquently about
> our resilience (in "Keep Ya Head Up" by Tupac Shakur,
> for example); our devastating wit (anything by De La
> Soul or OutKast); our romantic yearnings (Pharcyde's
> "Passin' Me By"); and our capacity for raucous
> celebration ("Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang).
> Hip-hop notes our trials and tribulations as well as
> any other art form, but does it provide the only real description?
> That's one heck of a lazy notion.
>
> Does anyone believe that those original 20 African
> captives brought to shore in 1619 didn't immediately
> begin to describe their condition and express their
> reactions to it, albeit in a foreign language? Not
> long after they arrived, their descendants mastered
> English and created the immortal Negro spirituals,
> famously described by W.E.B. DuBois as "sorrow songs."
> Their songs contained "bursts of wonderful melody,"
> DuBois wrote, "full of the voices of my brothers and
> sisters, full of the voices of the past."
>
> Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
>
> A long ways from home
>
> Couplets like that one perfectly describe -- in a
> single powerful metaphor, mind you -- the plight of
> early African-Americans. And that's to say nothing of
> the melody, which, unfortunately, I can't convey here.
>
> Spirituals led to blues, jazz and brilliant lyricists
> such as Andy Razaf, who worked with Fats Waller and,
> in 1929, summed up the African-American tradition
> thusly: "What did I do, to be so Black And Blue?" It's
> a small leap from there to more contemporary gems such
> as Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" (1964) and
> Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues" (1971). "The Message"
> by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five rightly
> belongs in this tradition, as do other hip-hop songs,
> but let us praise them as a worthy continuation of a
> long and righteous tradition, not as one-of-a-kind trailblazers. After
> all, barely a decade passed between Gaye's masterpiece and that
> wheels-of-steel classic.
>
> The late Gwendolyn Brooks, not usually known as an
> observer of hip-hop, nonetheless astutely placed it in
> its proper historical context. In a 1990 essay in
> Ebony magazine, she pointed out the "delightfully
> visible, importantly thick line of development in
> quality, stretch and strength of black creativity"
> extending from black literature to more recent
> developments such as hip-hop. She wrote that rap at
> its best, like other mostly African-American art
> forms, offers "an intoxicating beat" and "varieties of
> tone" while expressing "love, light, loss, liberty,
> lunacy and laceration." Leave it to a Pulitzer
> Prize-winning poet to put it all in perspective.
>
> Give hip-hop its due, but not at the expense of
> everything that has come before it. That would be
> sloppy. Lazy even.


By Jabari Asim, Washington Post, Monday, March 6, 2006; 12:24 PM

05 mars 2006

Octavia Butler articles

Here are some links to articles about Ms. Butler, what happened to her, her life and her work. I found the articles w/asterisks to be more informative. But the best way to get to know her, though, is to read her writing.

May she rest in peace...
*****************************************************
Seattle PI* http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_WA_Obit_Butler.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/261644_octavia02ww.html

Washington Blade
http://www.washblade.com/thelatest/thelatest.cfm?blog_id=5396

Amsterdam News*
http://www.amsterdamnews.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=66891&sID=4

EurWeb
http://eurweb.com/story/eur25081.cfm

KRT Wire
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/nation/14010232.htm

The Journal News
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060305/LIFESTYLE01/603050305/1031

Seattle Times*
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2002842188_jdl05.html

01 mars 2006

HUMP!day

Who has mastered the art of sipping a really hot drink? I mean, I know it’s something that any grown ass person should know, but I don’t know that I’ve figured it out before today. Certainly not before I burned the CRAP out of my tongue, lol!!! Of course, not before that happened. But now I think I have it figured out.

Does it often take a situation or an experience to “burn” us before we finally get the lesson?

This week has been one where each morning I have been very reluctant to get out of bed. I don’t know if it’s because it’s gotten so cold these days and to pull back the covers is to expose myself to an icy chill, or what. Warm, snuggly and cozy is what I like, and what I’d have no problems waking up to. Mmmm...

And speaking of reluctance, there are a few things I’ve been putting off each day to the next, swearing to myself that I will get it done. I promise. I lie. But, at some point, these tasks will arrive at a critical stage and I will truly find myself in the usual panic. Didn’t I resolve within myself that 2006 would be different? That I’d painstakingly get over my fears, push my doubts and insecurities out of the way and take care of business???
oui. je sais.
I did.
oui. je sais
I promised.
oui, je peut.
No more lies...