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

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.....

This Girl is On Fire!!

Who else but Alicia Keys is stealing our hearts and ears again with another great album. This is a great "come back" album from the 31 year old new mother. The album features a variety of songs from various ranges of New York songstress voice and emotions  I was very excited to hear the "soul" sound return in the new album after her last very pop sounding album "The Element of Freedom".

With the exception of the music production from her husband Swiss Beats on "New Day" and "Fire We Make" with Maxwell, the album features no other artists. But it lacks nothing, the love songs make even the frozen heart-ed fall head over heels.

I love the entire concept of the "Girl on Fire" album to celebrate women who are On Fire, in their, careers, school, in who they are! Track 2 "Brand New Me" much like the empowering track "Girl on Fire" supports the ReCreation of self as stronger and more confident. My favorite line from the single "I'll never be perfect but at least now i'm brave, now my heart is open I can finally breathe, don't be mad its just a brand new kinda free, that ain't bad I've found a brand new kinda me, don't be mad its a brand new time for me"

While I must admit that I am a bit biased because she is my favorite musical artist but in all honesty this is a great album and I recommend it to everyone.

My Grade- A

New Poem: On Being A Woman!

On being a woman

Sometimes being a woman means saying no
or dressing how you feel
Like wearing camouflage cargo pants and high heels
Frilly dresses and chuck Taylor's
Carrying entire universes inside our bodies
Explaining why we can't wear white or come out to play because our aunt is visiting
Preparing our young souls to be mothers
Like baby dolls and kitchenettes sets, easy bake ovens and candy curls
Sit still, be neat, cry if you must because that's what girls do
It's not enough to simply be us
We carry the entire gender on our backs
Emotional and bitchy (They say)
The entire race on our backs
Black and late (as always)
We carry everything And still we're considered the weakest link?
How can that be?
As we have to stroke your egos 
Simply so you can make it through the day
Continue to oppress us with your magic wand
Zap! Begone equality!
Welcome to submission
Because its easier that way right?
Break free from his chain my dear
All chains for that matter 
No chain is strong enough to hold u back
Being a woman means fighting for who You are
Everyday Through heartbreaks
Name calling
Unanswered phone calls
Text messages that never got a reply
But we'll still wave hi in the hallway
Because that's all we've got
Because being a woman means Resilience is key to our survival
And your very survival and recreation of further generations is completely Depended on everyday SHEroes 
That combat you and the world every single day
With no pat on our back or gold stars on our chest 
Just the arch in our brow and paint on our nails
Sometimes being a woman means saving us for ourselves