Black Girls Rock Inspires Black Women Everywhere

Every so often, BET airs programs that actually help the Black community and one such program aired tonight, Black Girls Rock. Each year as it did this year, Black Girls Rock inspires and empowers Black women all over the world.

Honorees this year included "Living Legend" Patti LaBelle, "Rock Star" Queen Latifah, "Social Humanitarian" Marian Wright Edelman, "Star Power" Venus Williams, "Young, Gifted & Black" Misty Copeland, "Community Activist" Ameena Matthews and "Shot Caller" Mara Brock Akil.

"Creative Visionary" Mara Brock-Akil left a special message to Black women in her acceptance speech. As a writer and producer of shows like "Girlfriends" and "The Game", this business woman creates shows that validate the real lives of Black women. She stated in her acceptance speech that Black women have to validate each other especially in an America that does not validate and believe in the beauty, creativity and strength of them. Her latest business venture "Being Mary Jane" which also airs on BET is a series that shows black women in a light that they have not been seen before.

My response to her acceptance speech and my admiration for her as a black female writer, inspires me to contribute to organizations and programs that empower and encourage Black women to go after their dreams, be who they are and let nothing stop them from reaching their goals.

Meanwhile, one third of Black twitter was too obsessed with "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" to pay attention to the show. While the show is called "Black Girls Rock" and does seek to encourage young black women to be strong and go after their dreams, Black women of all ages can be inspired from the show. But when the ratings fight with a reality show that people watch simply to see black women fight with each other, what messages are we sending to our children, and those outside of our community that judge us on behalf of shows like that?

If you haven't watched this year's "Black Girls Rock" check it out and tell me what inspires you about the show and what goals you now have.

IMARA Woman Informs, Inspires and Empowers Columbia Community

The lovely people behind IMARA Woman magazine, hosted their 12th annual Health Ministry Empowerment Tour this month and I was fortunate to attend the tour on the last stop in Columbia at Eau Claire High School.

As a social media marketing expert for MakeMeOverEb.com I attended the "Ask the Doctor" session before the Make Me Over Eb! makeover session, which discussed several topics related to health and wellness of Black women.  At the "Ask the Doctor" session, which focus was on illnesses such as  high blood pressure, diabetes and menopause, I learned that as a young woman in my twenties the way I treat my body now will impact greatly the illnesses I develop as an older woman. By eating healthier, reducing meat, fat and grease intake along with daily exercise, black women can extend the length of life and reduce the risk of developing serious illnesses. Leading a healthier life can  even reduce  the symptoms of menopause later in life.

Make Me Over Eb's makeover session along with the help of Karizma the Stylist put on a presentation that both wowed the crowd and gave out valuable information. They along with myself as an assistant, gave out gift bags, surprise giveaways and even did a few live makeovers. Ebony Looney the Eb of MakeMeOverEb.com stuck to the IMARA Woman theme that "One Small Change" can make a huge difference. By simply adding a colored scarf to an all black outfit one can spice up and ordinarily plain look. Scarves can be worn several ways and with winter season well on it's way, they can be found all over the place.

Karizma the Stylist gave a few hair care tips as she specializes in Natural Hairstyling, Braids, Weave Techniques, Commercial Hair Installations. With just edge control cream, water and a few bobby pins she transformed the hairstyles of two audience members. Taking care of black hair is defiantly work but with the right tools and a steady stylist that knows your hair type and needs you can achieve the look you desire.

The sessions followed a Luncheon that featured a pink inspired fashion show with models from toddlers to our wisest members of our community. The lunch provided was a healthy plate of brown rice, green beans, baked chicken, salad and a multigrain role that was completely delicious.

Be sure to subscribe to Imara Woman Magazine for future events and a very inspiring magazine.

Unleashing the Black Erotic

On the weekend of September 18th through the 21st, the College of Charleston hosted a conference titled Unleashing the Black Erotic: Gender & Sexuality, Passion, Power & Praxis. The conference featured a variety of presenters from colleges all across the nation.

This conference was the first of its kind to me where I saw and heard academia engage in discussion and research about gender and sexuality of black people. 

The first panel was titled Visionary Poetics: Imag(in)ing the Black Erotic. This panel gave us a working definition of the term eroticism as Charlene Regester of University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill defined Eroticism as hyper sexualized image of women in relation to their body. This first panel gave a historical definition of the way society began to view black sexuality. From Jean Toomer's "Cane" to Dorothy Dandridge films and the poetry of Essex Hemphill, black sexuality began with a negative connotation. 

Joan Morgan's Keynote address set the tone for the rest of the conference with her lecture on The Pleasure Principle: The search for politics of Pleasure in Black Feminist Thought. She begins with the thought that there is  an absence of language that speaks across boards and that is "If you don't speak for yourself then other people speak for you". Not telling our own stories results in a misguided view of the image of black women and we thus become victims of other people's image of us, particularly those who are outside of our communities. The solution then for black women is to identify our own desire and eroticism and tell our stories of pleasure without the trauma and violence that is often accompanied by it, much like the women in Tyler Perry films. The final thought is that black women had to and continue to experience some form of pleasure in order to simply survive. Whatever is someone's pleasure that brings them happiness or joy then who are we to judge, especially when we as often as we can engage in our forms of pleasure.    

Day two of the conference  focused on the ways Black women engage in forms of pleasure and display their sexuality. Conseula Frances of College of Charleston, describes in her paper African American Romance Fiction and the Pleasures of Vulnerability  reasons black women should read romance literature. In many of the popular stories about black women embracing their sexuality, they are either seen as prostitutes and sluts or face some sort of repercussion for enjoying the pleasure of sex. The difference of romance novels is that the main goal of a Romance novel is to provide pleasure to women. These novels allow women to be their most vulnerable selves and enjoy sex with a tall dark and handsome hero and often times, risks his life to pleasure the woman. As cheesy as these stories might sound, they however provide a reverse to the degradation of Tyler Perry films, which seek to curse Black women for enjoying pleasure.   

The final panel on Day two explored the roles of Women and sex in Hip Hop. SaraEllen Strongman of University of Pennsylvania discusses in her paper, Erotic Ambiguity: Janelle Monae's Gender Performance as Liberatory Politics, the way Soul singer Janelle Monae is able to define her own sexuality. By her dress, music and behavior in interviews, Janelle Monae is able to preserve her erotic power and protect herself from those who might try to destroy her image. Monae has a new age and psychedelic soul sound that is quite different from the rest of her R&B contemporaries, not to mention her self-defined black and white uniform. She is almost always seen in a black and white suit ensemble and never wears anything too low or too short. Monae, quoted in an interview that her music is her work and just like her parents who everyday went to work and wore uniforms, she does the same. Janelle Monae is then able to control the image of her sexuality and keep everyone guessing by choosing not to play into the prescribed images of beauty and sexuality, a lesson for us all.

The conference was overall highly engaging and enlightening and I plan to personally to more writing that brings me pleasure, read some romance novels and reevaluate my personal wardrobe. 

Amanda Seales' "Death Of The Diva

Culture critic, artist and activist formerly know as Amanda Diva has put death to the Diva. All references formerly known as diva have since forth must ceased and desist. In an completely newand original   one-woman musical narrative Seales critiques "pop culture's portray of women" especially in music and television. 

The former Diva notes that her inspiration for this project came out in response to the massive amount of negative images of women in the music and television industries. In the narrative, Seales poses as several different characters and some men as a retrospection to what today's society finds as entertainment. 

Seales notes that when she was growing up there were many positive and powerful women being the best at their craft. These women possessed a quality beyond their talents that inspired forthcoming generations to do great things with their own talents. However the reality of contemporary culture relies in reality TV stars fighting and spitting on one another in public places and female MC's creating an army of Barbie "wanna-bees" 

This narrative certainly puts into perspective the question of what values are we sending to our younger generations. 

check out the video highlights at: http://youtu.be/Rp8nSjIgHfQ

Zoe Saldana and the Nina Simone biopic disaster

Since the announcement ofa biopic on the life of pianist, singer and civil rights activist, Nina Simone,fans have been buzzing in anticipation of having the story of the late greatartist told. To the dismay of many however, actress Zoe Saldana has been chosento portray the blues icon.

Saldanais most known for her roles in science fiction movies like Avatar and the latest version of Star Trek, which has a sequel premiering this summer. While bothmovies required the 34 year old actress to learn a different language and toportray as an alien species, they did not prepare her for the backlash she hasbeen receiving for the role of portraying a real American icon.

Muchof the criticism derives from critics’ opinion that the young actress bearslittle resemblance to Nina Simone. “Musician India.Arie said "they shouldhave chosen someone who looks like Nina Simone," and an online petitionfor a boycott of the film attracted more than 10,000 signatures.” (Lawless) Manyargue that because Saldana bears little resemblance to Simone in both skin andhair texture, she will not be able to tell the story of Simone in a realistic sense. 

TheAP reports that Saldana feels very strongly that she is the right actress toplay Nina Simone. “The Nina Simone story needed to be told, and I'm reallyblessed that I did it,” said Saldana, a New Yorker of Puerto Rican andDominican descent.” (Lawless) Nina Simone, along with her amazing talents has amusician, had a major influence on the civil rights movement with songs, “Young,Gifted & Black”, and “Mississippi Goddam”.

“Justlike everybody else I feel very strongly about Nina Simone, and that (this) wasa story that needed to be told.” (Zoe Saldana) Saldana feels that her talent asan actress and the importance of telling Nina Simone’s story on screen areworth the controversy that she has thus endured since taking the role. 

Lawless, Jill. "Zoe Saldana: Nina Simone Controversy Wont Deter Me From Telling Story." The Huffington Post 15 May 2013: 5.

Problematic Music videos Part. 1

FUTURE FT. KELLY ROWLAND - Neva End (Remix) lyrics

After getting over Future's horrible vocals in his latest song "Neva End" featuring Kelly Rowland, the video and lyrics are quite displeasing! The images and romantic relationship that the video promotes continues the long trail of on & off relationships found among many black couples.

A romantic relationship among many other things is about give and take, respect, love and commitment. But in Future's latest video it appears that whatever the man decides to do in a relationship is okay because "ride or die chic" will put up with anything. Which includes him stepping out of the relationship with or with out her knowledge because according to the chorus "You got all the questions and I know all the answers". "You" being the woman with all the questions and her male counterpart, all the answers.

So if we take the song apart in the first verse Future declares that's as long as his money stays long and he keeps giving her that "good lovin" she'll always be dependent on him "Long as I’m swimmin’ in Benjamins, you shop with no limited You’ll see reminisce every session, know you’ll come back again I know you can’t breathe without me, you gon’ need the oxygen I damn near gave you an overdose, on my own medicine".

Next verse, Kelly's bridge she found out that he was cheating and even tho he made her so mad, she stays because she still loves him and continues to come back!? "You showed your true colors I can’t believe you played me/ I let you meet my mother!/ Oh, you hung out with my brother, my significant other/ you know I still love you, oh baby/ Oh boy, you make me so mad, but I come right back".

My question is why? Why are women continually going back to men who treat them bad repeatedly? One key factor is the images portrayed in the media when other black women in music and movies find no fault even set the tone to stay in bad relationships. Black women are the most beautiful creatures on the planet and women in general are the most hard working so why subject yourselves to a man that cannot respect your worth?

Special Messages From Jada Pinkett Smith

A Special Message From Jada Pinkett Smith “The war on men through the degradation of woman”

Actress Jada Pinkett Smith had been in the news a lot lately concerning her views of how women are viewed in america. First, in a recent interview where Smith was questioned why she would let her daughter cut her hair, Smith first challenges the use of the word "Let". She goes on to explain that her daughter, Willow's body belongs completely to Williow and not even her mother should decide what she should do with it. The hair cut is also a statement that her beauty is not determined by the length of her hair. Pretty powerful statements!

In this most recent facebook post shared by Smith, targeted to the youth of this generation, she describes how both black men and women have begun to strip themselves of their true fullness. She pronounces that man has demoted himself to a "walking bank" to only attract women. Of the women she has traded in her original Goddess status for a "big ass and full breasts for physical comfort only". In doing such black men and black women have subjected themselves to half full beings and thus the two have become lost in a society that already seeks to push down their "trueness".

"Power and Control Will Never outweigh love, May we all find our way" (Smith)

Black Love

Black Women Do Stuff Like Worry About Bills and Pray

   

News Flash: Black Women Do Stuff Like Worry About Bills and Pray - COLORLINES


Stereotypes of black women shape the way society views them and ultimately how black women view each other. The article argues that black women have not been able to define themselves because the media insists on do it for them. Black women have been consistently labeled as strong, angry, no- man having church goers and many have subsequently fallen into those categories. It's not that black women haven't been telling our side of the story, we have since Sojourner Truth's Aint I a Woman speech. The problem is according to Akiba Solomon "Is that Main Stream Media DON'T LISTEN".  So I guess its our job as black women to make them listen make them see who we really are. The next question then is who are "Them" and how can we make them listen.....