It could be as easy as doing an online search, watch a documentary, volunteer, get tested, talk to your children about AIDS, make a donation. I could go on and on.
For starters, check out the AAPC (African American Planning Commission) website on change.org. They have an interesting post called “World AIDS Day 2008- What You Can Do To Help” in their blog section.
I wish I took the time to write this post right after watching the movie, but my hubby and I caught a showing of The Secret Life of Bees a few weeks ago on a whim. As someone who rarely goes to the movies anymore, this was definitely worth the trip to see it on the big screen. With a cast that includes several musician-actresses Queen Latifah, Alicia Keyes, and Jennifer Hudson, I was initially leery to check out a chick flick sans some of the chick flick classic divas. However, I was wrong. These ladies along with Sophie Okenodo really brought the story to life.
Ladies, this will channel all of your mother issues as each character has a story to tell. There are moments where I could have used a tissue box (lots of those moments so be prepared) and moments that I outted a belly laugh. My! Dakota Fanning is growing up, but she played her role as Lily well. Her character is near and dear to my own heart as she dreams of being a writer.
Kudos to Gina Prince-Bythewood who directed the on screen version and has classics such as “Love and Basketball” and “Disappearing Acts” on her resume.
The NY Times published a review called “A Golden Dollup of Motherly Comfort“. The first paragraph is below…
Adapted by Gina Prince-Bythewood from the best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd, “The Secret Life of Bees” unfolds in a sentimental, honey-glazed land that vaguely resembles South Carolina in 1964. It would be wrong to say that the troubles of that time and place have been wished away — on the contrary, the movie begins with a scene of horrific domestic violence and includes child abuse, a racially motivated beating, suicide and the threat of a lynching — but from the opening voice-over to the final credits, every terror and sorrow is swaddled in warm, therapeutic comfort…
Now, don’t get lulled into love and happiness from the start of this review because the NY times article ends with a backhand that is worthy and debatable at the same time.
…In case they didn’t have enough problems of their own, August and her sisters also have Lily to deal with, and the film seems to struggle with an awkward and unstated tension. You can almost feel how badly it wants to be about the lives, not of bees, but of black women at a pivotal moment in the recent past.
Despite Ms. Prince-Bythewood’s best efforts to retain a sense of history, and Queen Latifah’s shrewd refusal to play her character according to stereotype, the film becomes a familiar and tired fable of black selflessness, in which African-Americans take time out from their struggle against oppression to lift the battered self-esteem of white people who have the good sense not to be snarling bigots. Even Ms. Fanning, weeping on cue and looking uncomfortable otherwise, seems a little abashed that the movie, in the end, has to be all about her.
Here’s also an excerpt of the review written in Black Voices…
After a long delay, Sue Monk Kidd’s bestseller, ‘The Secret Life Of Bees’ is finally a film– with an all-star cast to boot. Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, and starring Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo, and Tristan Wilds, the film is laced with dramatic and powerful performances. It’s certain to satisfy the fans of the book and newcomers to the story.
Set in South Carolina in 1964, the film is the moving tale of Lily Owens (Fanning) a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother (Hilary Burton). To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father (Paul Bettany), Lily flees with Rosaleen (Hudson), her caregiver and only friend. The duo travels to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother’s past. Rosaleen is also a fugitive, having fled from authorities after standing up for herself against white racists…
(image above from huffington post)
News of this attack came just as I was leaving for a Thanksgiving trip so this post originally had re-posts of news reports and asked for firsthand accounts. Now that I’m back with access to the internet and a chance to catch up on the full details, I will start posting some more useful information.
First of all, the NY Times published an article called “Citizen Journalists Provide Glimpses Into Attacks” where they refer to Harvard Professor Arun Shanbhag who describes his firsthand account with commentary and photos on his blog arunshangbhag.com. Residing in Boston, he happened to be in Mumbai during the attacks. The article continues to talk about all of the various online channels we, everyday citizens, have at our disposal to share photos, videos, and more with the rest of the world. Just think if we had Twitter and if blogs were prevalent during our 9/11? At this point, where there are more questions that answers, everyone is a news source. Just be careful not to get caught up in rumors that are equally viral during major events such as the attcks on Mumbai. As I begin reading through Arun’s account on his blog, my first reaction is why was he and so many people able to get so close to the death and destruction? He has some real close-ups of blood stained sidewalks (i know, hold your tummies if you decide to look) that I would think should be restricted areas of travel.
BBC News posted accounts of 5 survivors in an article called “Eyewitness: Mumbai Survivors“. The consistent thread in these reports seems to be that the police were late to arrive and seemed ill prepared to respond fully.
Another NY Times article, “The Personal Sting of Terrorism” has a youtube link to India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s address to the nation (I’m posting it below) along with some harsh criticism about his delayed response, stoic expression, and lack of issuing any condeming words. The fingers will certainly be pointing everywhere as this crisis unfolds.
[youtube=http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=r4kpxr976qA]
United American Indians of New England (UAINE)
NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING
Every “Thanksgiving” Thursday
12 Noon
Cole’s Hill
(the hill above Plymouth Rock)
Join us as we dedicate the 35th National Day of Mourning to our brother, Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier. Add your voice to the millions worldwide who demand his freedom. Help us in our struggle to create a true awareness of Native people and demonstrate Native unity. Help shatter the untrue glass image of the Pilgrims and the unjust system based on racism, sexism, and homophobia.
For More Information Contact:
United American Indians of New England/LPSG
PO Box 890082, Weymouth, MA 02189
Phone and Fax: (617) 232-5135
E-mail: uainendom@earthlink.net
source: United American Indians of New England’s (UAINE) webpage
I have long struggled with Thanksgiving in the same way that I struggle with the 4th of July. As an African-American who has ancestry in Africa and the original Americans who were here when Columbus “discovered” America…among so many other cultures that are just a part of the story of being an African American, I find that once I know the truth, it’s simply hard to find something festive in this holiday. As such, from year to year, I just do whatever. Sometimes with family and sometimes without. A vivid memory is one of the other conscious black buddies of mine back at Morgan State handing out fliers on campus with the title “Thanks-Taking” with a wanted photo on it.
No matter your ethnicity or belief, engage me here and take the time to read this re-post of a re-post (don’t you love the internet?) on the real history of Thanksgiving. Do with it what you may, but it’s worth a read. If I had more time to spare right now, I’d put together a proper post, but hopefully this compilation is helpful to you.
below from www.danielpaul.com
Also check the blog By Any Means Necessary for the post Native Blood: The Myth of Thanksgiving- by Mike Ely
The Real Thanksgiving
Quoted from: The Hidden History of Massachusetts
Much of America’s understanding of the early relationship between the Indian and the European is conveyed through the story of Thanksgiving. Proclaimed a holiday in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, this fairy tale of a feast was allowed to exist in the American imagination pretty much untouched until 1970, the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims. That is when Frank B. James, president of the Federated Eastern Indian League, prepared a speech for a Plymouth banquet that exposed the Pilgrims for having committed, among other crimes, the robbery of the graves of the Wampanoags. He wrote:
“We welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people.”
But white Massachusetts officials told him he could not deliver such a speech and offered to write him another. Instead, James declined to speak, and on Thanksgiving Day hundreds of Indians from around the country came to protest. It was the first National Day of Mourning, a day to mark the losses Native Americans suffered as the early settlers prospered. This true story of “Thanksgiving” is what whites did not want Mr. James to tell.
What Really Happened in Plymouth in 1621?
According to a single-paragraph account in the writings of one Pilgrim, a harvest feast did take place in Plymouth in 1621, probably in mid-October, but the Indians who attended were not even invited. Though it later became known as “Thanksgiving,” the Pilgrims never called it that. And amidst the imagery of a picnic of interracial harmony is some of the most terrifying bloodshed in New World history.
The Pilgrim crop had failed miserably that year, but the agricultural expertise of the Indians had produced twenty acres of corn, without which the Pilgrims would have surely perished. The Indians often brought food to the Pilgrims, who came from England ridiculously unprepared to survive and hence relied almost exclusively on handouts from the overly generous Indians-thus making the Pilgrims the western hemisphere’s first class of welfare recipients. The Pilgrims invited the Indian sachem Massasoit to their feast, and it was Massasoit, engaging in the tribal tradition of equal sharing, who then invited ninety or more of his Indian brothers and sisters-to the annoyance of the 50 or so ungrateful Europeans. No turkey, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie was served; they likely ate duck or geese and the venison from the 5 deer brought by Massasoit. In fact, most, if notall, of the food was most likely brought and prepared by the Indians, whose 10,000-year familiarity with the cuisine of the region had kept the whites alive up to that point.
The Pilgrims wore no black hats or buckled shoes-these were the silly inventions of artists hundreds of years since that time. These lower-class Englishmen wore brightly colored clothing, with one of their church leaders recording among his possessions “1 paire of greene drawers.” Contrary to the fabricated lore of storytellers generations since, no Pilgrims prayed at the meal, and the supposed good cheer and fellowship must have dissipated quickly once the Pilgrims brandished their weaponry in a primitive display of intimidation. What’s more, the Pilgrims consumed a good deal of home brew. In fact, each Pilgrim drank at least a half gallon of beer a day, which they preferred even to water. This daily inebriation led their governor, William Bradford, to comment on his people’s “notorious sin,” which included their “drunkenness and uncleanliness” and rampant “sodomy”…
The Pilgrims of Plymouth, The Original Scalpers
Contrary to popular mythology the Pilgrims were no friends to the local Indians. They were engaged in a ruthless war of extermination against their hosts, even as they falsely posed as friends. Just days before the alleged Thanksgiving love-fest, a company of Pilgrims led by Myles Standish actively sought to chop off the head of a local chief. They deliberately caused a rivalry between two friendly Indians, pitting one against the other in an attempt to obtain “better intelligence and make them both more diligent.” An 11-foot-high wall was erected around the entire settlement for the purpose of keeping the Indians out.
Any Indian who came within the vicinity of the Pilgrim settlement was subject to robbery, enslavement, or even murder. The Pilgrims further advertised their evil intentions and white racial hostility, when they mounted five cannons on a hill around their settlement, constructed a platform for artillery, and then organized their soldiers into four companies-all in preparation for the military destruction of their friends the Indians.
Pilgrim Myles Standish eventually got his bloody prize. He went to the Indians, pretended to be a trader, then beheaded an Indian man named Wituwamat. He brought the head to Plymouth, where it was displayed on a wooden spike for many years, according to Gary B. Nash, “as a symbol of white power.” Standish had the Indian man’s young brother hanged from the rafters for good measure. From that time on, the whites were known to the Indians of Massachusetts by the name “Wotowquenange,” which in their tongue meant cutthroats and stabbers.
Who Were the “Savages”?
The myth of the fierce, ruthless Indian savage lusting after the blood of innocent Europeans must be vigorously dispelled at this point. In actuality, the historical record shows that the very opposite was true.
Once the European settlements stabilized, the whites turned on their hosts in a brutal way. The once amicable relationship was breeched again and again by the whites, who lusted over the riches of Indian land. A combination of the Pilgrims’ demonization of the Indians, the concocted mythology of Eurocentric historians, and standard Hollywood propaganda has served to paint the gentle Indian as a tomahawk-swinging savage endlessly on the warpath, lusting for the blood of the God-fearing whites.
But the Pilgrims’ own testimony obliterates that fallacy. The Indians engaged each other in military contests from time to time, but the causes of “war,” the methods, and the resulting damage differed profoundly from the European variety:
o Indian “wars” were largely symbolic and were about honor, not about territory or extermination.
o “Wars” were fought as domestic correction for a specific act and were ended when correction was achieved. Such action might better be described as internal policing. The conquest or destruction of whole territories was a European concept.
o Indian “wars” were often engaged in by family groups, not by whole tribal groups, and would involve only the family members.
o A lengthy negotiation was engaged in between the aggrieved parties before escalation to physical confrontation would be sanctioned. Surprise attacks were unknown to the Indians.
o It was regarded as evidence of bravery for a man to go into “battle” carrying no weapon that would do any harm at a distance-not even bows and arrows. The bravest act in war in some Indian cultures was to touch their adversary and escape before he could do physical harm.
o The targeting of non-combatants like women, children, and the elderly was never contemplated. Indians expressed shock and repugnance when the Europeans told, and then showed, them that they considered women and children fair game in their style of warfare.
o A major Indian “war” might end with less than a dozen casualties on both sides. Often, when the arrows had been expended the “war” would be halted. The European practice of wiping out whole nations in bloody massacres was incomprehensible to the Indian.
According to one scholar, “The most notable feature of Indian warfare was its relative innocuity.” European observers of Indian wars often expressed surprise at how little harm they actually inflicted. “Their wars are far less bloody and devouring than the cruel wars of Europe,” commented settler Roger Williams in 1643. Even Puritan warmonger and professional soldier Capt. John Mason scoffed at Indian warfare: “[Their] feeble manner…did hardly deserve the name of fighting.” Fellow warmonger John Underhill spoke of the Narragansetts, after having spent a day “burning and spoiling” their country: “no Indians would come near us, but run from us, as the deer from the dogs.” He concluded that the Indians might fight seven years and not kill seven men. Their fighting style, he wrote, “is more for pastime, than to conquer and subdue enemies.”
All this describes a people for whom war is a deeply regrettable last resort. An agrarian people, the American Indians had devised a civilization that provided dozens of options all designed to avoid conflict–the very opposite of Europeans, for whom all-out war, a ferocious bloodlust, and systematic genocide are their apparent life force. Thomas Jefferson–who himself advocated the physical extermination of the American Indian–said of Europe, “They [Europeans] are nations of eternal war. All their energies are expended in the destruction of labor, property and lives of their people.”
Puritan Holocaust
By the mid 1630s, a new group of 700 even holier Europeans calling themselves Puritans had arrived on 11 ships and settled in Boston-which only served to accelerate the brutality against the Indians.
In one incident around 1637, a force of whites trapped some seven hundred Pequot Indians, mostly women, children, and the elderly, near the mouth of the Mystic River. Englishman John Mason attacked the Indian camp with “fire, sword, blunderbuss, and tomahawk.” Only a handful escaped and few prisoners were taken-to the apparent delight of the Europeans:
To see them frying in the fire, and the streams of their blood quenching the same, and the stench was horrible; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave praise thereof to God.
This event marked the first actual Thanksgiving. In just 10 years 12,000 whites had invaded New England, and as their numbers grew they pressed for all-out extermination of the Indian. Euro-diseases had reduced the population of the Massachusett nation from over 24,000 to less than 750; meanwhile, the number of European settlers in Massachusetts rose to more than 20,000 by 1646.
By 1675, the Massachusetts Englishmen were in a full-scale war with the great Indian chief of the Wampanoags, Metacomet. Renamed “King Philip” by the white man, Metacomet watched the steady erosion of the lifestyle and culture of his people as European-imposed laws and values engulfed them.
In 1671, the white man had ordered Metacomet to come to Plymouth to enforce upon him a new treaty, which included the humiliating rule that he could no longer sell his own land without prior approval from whites. They also demanded that he turn in his community’s firearms. Marked for extermination by the merciless power of a distant king and his ruthless subjects, Metacomet retaliated in 1675 with raids on several isolated frontier towns. Eventually, the Indians attacked 52 of the 90 New England towns, destroying 13 of them. The Englishmen ultimately regrouped, and after much bloodletting defeated the great Indian nation, just half a century after their arrival on Massachusetts soil. Historian Douglas Edward Leach describes the bitter end:
The ruthless executions, the cruel sentences…were all aimed at the same goal-unchallengeable white supremacy in southern New England. That the program succeeded is convincingly demonstrated by the almost complete docility of the local native ever since.
When Captain Benjamin Church tracked down and murdered Metacomet in 1676, his body was quartered and parts were “left for the wolves.” The great Indian chief’s hands were cut off and sent to Boston and his head went to Plymouth, where it was set upon a pole on the real first “day of public Thanksgiving for the beginning of revenge upon the enemy.” Metacomet’s nine-year-old son was destined for execution because, the whites reasoned, the offspring of the devil must pay for the sins of their father. The child was instead shipped to the Caribbean to spend his life in slavery.
As the Holocaust continued, several official Thanksgiving Days were proclaimed. Governor Joseph Dudley declared in 1704 a “General Thanksgiving”-not in celebration of the brotherhood of man-but for [God's] infinite Goodness to extend His Favors…In defeating and disappointing… the Expeditions of the Enemy [Indians] against us, And the good Success given us against them, by delivering so many of them into our hands…
Just two years later one could reap a ££50 reward in Massachusetts for the scalp of an Indian-demonstrating that the practice of scalping was a European tradition. According to one scholar, “Hunting redskins became…a popular sport in New England, especially since prisoners were worth good money…”
References in The Hidden History of Massachusetts: A Guide for Black Folks ©© DR. TINGBA APIDTA, ; ISBN 0-9714462-0-2
For purchase details Email A. Muhammad “mghemlf@att.net”
During March 1623 Myles Standish lured two Chiefs to a meeting then murdered them. The picture of the monument, erected by the Weymouth Historical Commission, depicts how the town of Weymouth, Mass, takes pride in his barbaric deed.
What Hellish Pride and Prejudice
What in hell is a hearth built on blood of a brother’s harvest you absconded, along with a curve of land kissed by ocean for first people given this fine land, who were sickened on your flu-filled flannel gifts until they were too weak to wise on to your malicious plans?
You merchant-adventurers of Weymouth, mount your monument of treason against corn-fed Wessagusset, as you celebrate 300 years of your encroachment on eternity’s placement of a people who had heroes like Pecksuot who, even thirty years ago, still, is said, tucked a child into her covers at Bricknell house so she did not have to see your scurrilous skirmishes.
You promote your pestilent importance on this land, as if you thought you would be allowed to stay forever. You hold a fatal flaw in this grasp to make it seem you made something worthy.
What is worthier than Wampanoag in first light, who had their blood spilled by you, on the very ground you grind against?
Listen, they speak, and trace truthful steps through and around this place you think you own: Such pride and prejudice in this piece of cement that will not outlast us, the true people of the East, or sun that burns red on mornings it remembers.
Carol Desjarlais
*******************
New York Times
November 25, 2004
Banned in Boston: American Indians, but Only for 329 Years
By KATIE ZEZIMA
BOSTON, Nov. 24 – It is a prejudicial, archaic concept that prohibited Native Americans from entering a city for fear members of their “barbarous crew” would cause residents to be “exposed to mischief.”
But it is more than notions and phrases in Boston. A ban on Indians entering Boston has been the law since 1675.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino took a step toward repealing the ban on Wednesday, filing a home rule petition. Mr. Menino said a repeal would remove the last vestiges of discrimination from a vibrant, diverse city that is looking past old racial conflicts.
“This law has no place in Boston,” Mr. Menino said. “Fortunately this act is no longer enforced. But as long as it remains on the books, this law will tarnish our image. Hatred and discrimination have no place in Boston. Tolerance, equality and respect – these are the attributes of our city.”
Joanne Dunn, executive director of the Boston Native American Center, said she laughed a bit as she drove into Boston on Wednesday, realizing that she was, technically, breaking the law (being without benefit of the “two musketeers” required to escort American Indians with business in the city). “For us indigenous people it brings some closure,” Ms. Dunn said. “You come into the City of Boston and it crosses your mind that you’re not welcome here.”
The Boston City Council, which in April 2003 unanimously passed a resolution calling for repeal, must now approve the petition to remove the ban. The repeal must then pass the legislature and be signed by Gov. Mitt Romney.
A spokeswoman for Robert E. Travaglini, the president of the State Senate, said Mr. Travaglini had not seen the petition and would allow the City Council to act before considering action. A spokeswoman for Mr. Romney, a Republican, said he had not seen the petition either and would be “happy to take a look at it” when it crossed his desk.
Felix Arroyo, a city councilman, said he expected the measure to pass unanimously at a council meeting on Dec. 1. “I think all of us will look forward to voting yes on this,” Mr. Arroyo said.
The Massachusetts General Court enacted the law, called the Indian Imprisonment Act, in 1675. The legislation came at the height of King Philip’s War, a conflict between the Wampanoag tribe, led by Metacom, known as Philip, and settlers near Plymouth, Mass. The war began in 1675 with a raid on the town of Swansea and spread across Massachusetts, spilling north to New Hampshire and south to Connecticut. The war, one of the bloodiest on American soil, ended the next year.
The law rolled over when the state’s Constitution was enacted in 1780 and has lingered for centuries, with no one taking the steps to repeal it. The Muhheconnew National Confederacy, a lobbying group based in Falmouth, Mass., started pushing for repeal in 1996 after working with the city to protect Indian burial grounds on the Boston Harbor islands. The group petitioned the legislature, then the city, and received the necessary resolution last year. It renewed the push in July, before the Democratic National Convention.
“It means a great thing,” said Sam Sapiel, 73, a member of the Penobscot Nation of Maine who lives in Falmouth and worked with the Muhheconnew Confederacy on the repeal. “It’s what we’ve been striving for.”
It was little coincidence that Mr. Menino signed the petition the day before Thanksgiving. The podium at the news conference was decorated with a splash of crimson chrysanthemums, and the desk Mr. Menino used to sign the petition was festooned with a pumpkin and other gourds. An Indian leader also invoked the holiday.
“Being so close to Thanksgiving, this is a good day for native people,” said Beverly Wright, a member of the Wampanoag tribe of Martha’s Vineyard, the state’s only federally recognized tribe. “It’s been on the books for a long time.”
Ms. Wright believes there might be other, similarly discriminatory laws. Mr. Menino said he would look into the possibility of repealing them.
Nov 22 11:05 AM US/Eastern
By BASHIR ADIGUN
Associated Press Writer
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) – MTV launches its first-ever music award program for Africa on Saturday, with acts from across the world’s poorest continent nominated for prizes in the Nigerian capital.Winners were being selected by fans sending text messages, said Alison Reid, a spokeswoman for MTV Networks Africa.
Africa has long featured a vibrant music scene, but artists have had difficulties breaking into overseas markets. Famous African artists include Senegal’s Youssou N’dour, Nigerian legend Fela Kuti and South African impresario Miriam Makeba, who died this month.
MTV hopes the awards can offer the artists more exposure and celebrate the continent’s artistry…
Read the rest of the article HERE.
This is a good read for those of you contemplating going natural or have already made the changeover.
SHE-BLOGS: SHE IS HEALTHY HAIR
# # #
On the surface, this seems a little odd. Your hairstylist who studied cosmetology might also serve as a good therapist? However, at least us ladies know, there is quite a bond that forms with your hairstylist. Often we find ourselves chatting away about things we wouldn’t share as openly with our closest friends. They get to know our families, our husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, children.
I ran across this article in the NY Times- Cutting Hair While Cutting to the Chase on Clients’ Domestic Abuse that was rather interesting.
Here are some snippets from the article. The full article can be seen by clicking the article title above.
The privileged, often therapeutic relationship between hairdressers and clients has long been the subject of magazine articles and movies. A growing movement in New York and across the nation tries to harness that bond to identify and prevent domestic violence, a pervasive problem that victims are often too ashamed to reveal to law enforcement or other public officials.
Ms. Vasquez, Ms. Castillo and Ms. Florentino are all stylists in Manhattan who have been trained (or are being trained) as part of a one-year-old program by the city’s Administration for Children’s Services in beauty salons in the Washington Heights area, where a high number of cases of abuse and neglect in homes have a component of violence that is not necessarily aimed at children. The initiative joins similar efforts that have been sprouting across the nation; perhaps the best known, called Cut It Out and based in Chicago, has trained 40,000 salon professionals in all 50 states to recognize telltale signs of domestic abuse…
…“The salon may be one of the few places women might be without their abuser around,” said Laurie Magid, a former state prosecutor who is acting United States attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “This program really addresses a need. You don’t have a case unless you have a crime reported in the first place and that is the difficult area of domestic violence.”
While Cut it Out trains stylists offsite, the Washington Heights workshops, conducted in Spanish, take place inside beauty parlors during the hours that clients are served, which not only makes it easier for people to participate, but also enhances the comfort factor…
Read about the City of Chicago’s Cut It Out program HERE or HERE.
Coming soon! Affrodite interview with iNDIGO. I’m really feelin’ her and I don’t typically listen to gospel music, but she has a sweet voice and uplifting message that appeals to my soul. If you haven’t gotten hip to her, let this serve as your appetizer.
Find iNDIGO on myspace: myspace.com/indi1st
Also, check iNIDIGO’s own online community: jesusgroupie.com
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Here’s an excerpt from an article about iNDIGO on About.com…
Jocelyn Saunders aka iNDIGO doesn’t just have an awesome voice; she also has a serious eye for fashion, a business sense that just won’t quit and a mission to reach out to young adults using every talent that God has given her.
The founder of Jesus Groupie Inc. and the lady behind Saved & Fly, looks to Philippians Chapter 1, verses 4-7 as her basis.
Jesus Groupie is a website community for people who are not only proud to be believers, but are also humbly ambitious, stylish without conceit, and beautifully full of love.
Saved & Fly … well, let’s just say that iNDIGO proves that you can still look good as a Christian without having the show the whole world everything you’ve got! …
…This talented lady has a voice that could go head to head with Beyoncé any day of the week.
I don’t know anything about this organization, but I’m sharing the information because I received via email and thought someone out there might be interested.
If you’re aware of this effort, please comment as to its validity and nature of the work they’re doing. I would hate to mislead my readers.
Today we say farewell to Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba. She was both a singer and activist originating from South Africa. When Miriam testified against apartheid, her South African citizenship was revoked and she fled to the United States. During that time, she met and married Black Panther member Stokely Carmichael (aka “Kwame Toure”) and also continued her singing career that including moments like performing for the late President Kennedy. Her duets with another legend, Harry Belafonte, produced some of her most popular classics “The Click Song” and “Pata Pata.” Miriam collapsed after performing in Italy and later died from cardiac arrest. Still a singer and activist until her dying moments, the concert was to support author Roberto Saviano who received death threats after publishing a book about the Italian mafia.
Here’s a YouTube clip that summarizes her life.
Excerpt from AFP…
“She was enjoying herself,” Zamo Mbutho, a backing singer and composer with the band, told the Sowetan newspaper.
The audience had loved her performance, althought she played fewer songs than originally planned. She finished off with “Pata Pata”, one of her best known hits, he added.
“After the song she thanked the audience, blew kisses at them with a radiant smile and left the stage. As she went past me, she put the mic on the drum. As she went down the stairs, she fell.”
“It was the first time she left alone,” guitarist Mandla Zikalala told the Star.
Born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932, Makeba was one of Africa’s best known singers, famed for hits such as “Pata Pata” and “The Click Song” but also for speaking out about the abuses of apartheid.
South Africa’s white regime revoked Makeba’s citizenship in 1960 and even refused to let her return for her mother’s funeral. The singer spent more than three decades in exile, living in the United States, Guinea and Europe.
Read the full article BODY OF S. AFRICAN SINGING LEGEND MAKEBA ARRIVES HOME
Here’s a snippet from BBC News…
South African singing legend Miriam Makeba has died aged 76, after being taken ill in Italy.
She had just taken part in a concert near the southern town of Caserta and died of a heart attack.
Makeba, known as “Mama Africa”, spent more than 30 years in exile after lending her support to the anti-apartheid struggle.
She appeared on Paul Simon’s Graceland tour in 1987 and in 1992 had a leading role in the film Sarafina!…
Read the rest of the story S. AFRICAN ICON MIRIAM MAKEBA DIES
Excerpt from SABC News about funeral plans to be held this Satuday, November 15, 2008…
The memorial service of the late songstress, Miriam Makeba, will be held on Saturday at the Coca Cola Dome in Northgate, Johannesburg. The world-renowned singer, who was affectionately called Mama Afrika, died of a heart attack shortly after performing at a concert in Italy on Sunday night.
Her body is currently at a funeral parlor in Orlando East, Soweto. The service will be held from 9am to 1pm.
Article excerpt from Time Magazine…
“She was at the United Nations ages ago, before it was even fashionable,” said the South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka of Miriam Makeba, who died Nov. 10 at 76. The first African woman to win a Grammy, Makeba, known affectionately as “Mama Africa,” traveled to New York City in 1963. She appeared before the U.N.’s special committee on apartheid to plead for intervention in South Africa. Her nation repaid Makeba by exiling her until 1990, when President Nelson Mandela personally asked her to return.
Though much of Makeba’s influence resulted from her political involvement and her topical lyrics, she shied away from the term political singer. Makeba said in an interview, “I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us–especially the things that hurt us.”
Thank you LalaTamago for sharing this story with me.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Braiding Daughter’s Hair A Labor Of Love
Very cute story. Little Miriam is adorable!
This is serious folks. Ladies AND Gentlemen, this is for you…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k6m5AZu9eQ]
Thanks to Quirky Black Girls for reminding me about this powerful documentary.
This caught my attention on my Yahoo news because it’s so true. Comedians like Bill Maher, late night talk show hosts, and sketch comedy like Saturday Night Live have long made their bucks, so to speak, on take comical jabs at our nation’s leaders. Obama’s smooth delivery with a few wise comebacks in his back pocket make comedy no laughing matter. Besides that, the strong positive reaction so many people have had to him does not lend itself to comedy. He’s kind of untouchable like 9/11. You just don’t want to be the one that goes there.
Here’s an excerpt from the article I was reading…
Here is a man who inspires admiration, excitement or, maybe, suspicion. What he doesn’t inspire (in any measurable quantity, so far) are cheap laughs.
“A dignified, thoughtful, charismatic, smart man who doesn’t run at the mouth,” summed up Craig Ferguson, host of CBS’ “Late Late Show,” in the aftermath of eight go-go Bush years for comics. “Is it a challenge to our creative juices to find something funny about Obama? God, yes!”
Right after the election, some TV wags were even waxing nostalgic on the air, however tongue-in-cheek.
On Comedy Central‘s “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart said he was already missing the Bush administration George W. Bush impression, which had served him so well at the anchor desk. — and his own George W. Bush impression, which had served him so well at the anchor desk.
“As a comedian,” NBC’s Jay Leno echoed to his “Tonight Show” audience, “I’m going to miss President Bush. Barack Obama is not easy to do jokes about. He doesn’t give you a lot to go on. See, this is why God gave us (Vice President-elect) Joe Biden.
“When one door closes, another one opens up.”
True, as a six-term U.S. Senator and lately as Obama’s running mate, Biden has cemented his reputation for blurting out remarks before they’re vetted by his brain. (Item: Biden declared that “Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television” to address the nation when the stock market crashed in October 1929 — even though Herbert Hoover was president then and TV was barely invented.)…
…The host of HBO’s “Real Time,” comic Bill Maher describes himself as “a policy guy who tries to stick more to what politicians do than who they are.” But that doesn’t mean he’s immune to the problem Obama represents.
“It’s always better if the president is stupid, or fat, or cheating on his wife, or angry, or a phony. This guy is none of those things. And that,” said Maher with a laugh, “is really unfair.
“But, c’mon, on balance, aren’t we all happier that we have somebody who isn’t such an easy target? I mean, comedians have had it really easy for the last eight years.”
You can find the rest of the article BY CLICKING HERE.
As you can see, the “boobie prize” seems to be Joe Biden for comics.
These are a must have for my quirky doll collection!!! I was over at djT.elle.is.kind.of.dope ‘s blog reading about it and had to throw a post up here.
Here’s an excerpt from the eBay INsider blog…
posted October 27, 2008 – It has been a month in the making and it was so hard to keep it a secret! Finally, I can show you the most fabulous Cabbage Patch Kids this side of the Beltway, the ultra exclusive, only available on eBay, Presidential dolls. Now you can take John, Barack, Joe, or Sarah home. In a few days you will have the opportunity to bid on these one-of-a-kind dolls on eBay and truly own a piece of pop culture history…
My first thought looking at all of the dolls was that I wanted Sarah Palin. Apparently, I’m not the only one because she’s going for the highest bid now. Read more at LA Times blogs from 11/3/08.
Backseatcuddler.com explains…
The dolls will be featured in an eBay auction benefiting the US Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots program. The auction will also include “6 limited edition 25th anniversary dolls identical to those Cabbage Patch Kids first created in 1983.”
I don’t know if there are any more on auction, but I’m sure they’ll go for an even prettier penny now that the election is over.
I just read a post from one of my fav blogs Steve The Penguin who posted a great commentary on Proposition 8 in Cali. The media does definitely like to manipulate even when you least expect it. Californians, gay community, anyone with a point of view on same sex marriage and/or California’s vote to ban same sex marriage…
First- read THE FRAMERS and show my girl at Steve The Penguin some love with a comment
Second- come back here and continue the dialog
To get you going, here’s an article from the LA Times written back in May of this year…
CALIFORNIA OVERTURNS GAY MARRIAGE BAN
In a 4-3 decision, the justices rule that people have a fundamental ‘right to marry’ the person of their choice and that gender restrictions violate the state Constitution’s equal protection guarantee
By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 16, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — – The California Supreme Court struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage Thursday in a broadly worded decision that would invalidate virtually any law that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.
The 4-3 ruling declared that the state Constitution protects a fundamental “right to marry” that extends equally to same-sex couples. It tossed a highly emotional issue into the election year while opening the way for tens of thousands of gay people to wed in California, starting as early as mid-June.
The majority opinion, by Chief Justice Ronald M. George, declared that any law that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation will from this point on be constitutionally suspect in California in the same way as laws that discriminate by race or gender, making the state’s high court the first in the nation to adopt such a stringent standard.
The decision was a bold surprise from a moderately conservative, Republican-dominated court that legal scholars have long dubbed “cautious,” and experts said it was likely to influence other courts around the country.
But the scope of the court’s decision could be thrown into question by an initiative already heading toward the November ballot. The initiative would amend the state Constitution to prohibit same-sex unions.
The campaign over that measure began within minutes of the decision. The state’s Catholic bishops and other opponents of same-sex marriage denounced the court’s ruling. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who previously has vetoed two bills in favor of gay marriage, issued a statement saying he “respects” the decision and “will not support an amendment to the constitution that would overturn” it.
The ruling was greeted with loud cheering and whooping when it was released at the high court’s headquarters here Thursday morning. About 100 people lined up outside to purchase copies of the decision for $10 apiece. Some people bought 10 to 15 copies, calling it a historic document. One man said he planned to give them out as Christmas presents.
Gay groups planned celebrations up and down the state.
“I can finally say I will be able to marry John, the man that I love,” said Stuart Gaffney, one of the plaintiffs in the case, referring to his partner of 21 years, John Lewis. “Today is the happiest and most romantic day of our lives.” …
Awesome political t-shirts! I own a few myself.
Black Gives Back
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