How Daddy Made Me a Fly Woman
Last weekend while standing in the condiments aisle of Marshall’s looking for an awesome ginger chile sauce, I bumped into an old friend. Eyes kinda puffy, she had been crying. She just lost her dad like a month ago and just found out while looking for a glass canister that her homegrrrl’s father just passed away too. I told her what I knew firsthand: Be gentle with yourself, grieve when you want and know that Read more...
Whipping My Hair!
Here in NYC it’s been gloomy and gray for the past two days. Monday’s are hard enough to get motivated for me without rain and dark skies smothering my spirit and zapping my zeal. This morning when my clock radio went off that Eminem/ Rihanna song about love and domestic abuse started playing. Talk about a downer. Before I could press snooze I felt my body sag with blah weariness. By the time I got Read more...
Drill Baby, Drill!
All this talk about drilling really has me thinking about one of the items on my Bucket List:
· Learn how to use a drill to absolute perfection.
You see my Bucket List isn’t a summary of things I want to do before I die, but rather it’s a compilation of things I want and need to learn, and here’s the best part, while I am still single. Not to say marriage is akin to Read more...
High Fashion or Low Class?
For some reason Venus’s provocative tennis outfit at the French Open got me thinking about Sofia Maldonado’s mural on 42nd Street and the uproar it created over whether it was a bold expression of art and culture or a simple promotion of stereotypical images of Black and Latina women. Why and when does art’s imitation of life become so problematic? High art or a low down dirty shame? Clearly it’s not just girls in the Read more...
GROOVES: Esthero’s “Black Mermaid”
I met Esthero 10 years ago. We were both at a professional crossroads. Do we go left, right or do we stay? Unsure, I stayed. Esthero or Lil Dukes Up as she is affectionately known was a brave bird even back then and took a leap, giving the finger all the while flying through the air. From that moment on I wanted to be just like her.
It was late summer 2000 and the best Read more...
Precious: Bigger, Blacker & Deffer!
I went to see Precious on opening weekend. Word was, Precious takes its cues from this book that makes Oz and The Wire look like spin-offs of The Magic Garden. I’ve never read Push, the book by poet Sapphire that the film is based but I was already nervous, anxious, horrified and so excited about the premise and promise of this flick. You see I believe a lil’ shock therapy is necessary to keep Read more...
Mfon Essien: Photographer/Black Body Hero
After attending this panel and feeling like I got gypped out of a discussion about our own, as well as, society’s perceptions of Black female bodies I haven’t been able to shut-up. What with the unapolegetically full-figured, ebon beauty Gabourey Sidibe on the cover of NY Times Mag and Precious opening in theaters this weekend; with South African runner Caster Semenya on suicide watch after being photographed nude with her legs in stirrups by the Read more...
From Hottentot Venus To The White House
Last Saturday’s dreary grayness did not stop me and about 100 women from attending NY Open Center’s panel, “From Hottentot Venus To The White House: Black Women On Beauty & Bodies.” The panelists were Veronica Webb (Super+Role Model), Tricia Rose (Chair, Africana Studies @Brown U.), Susan Akkad (SVP Corporate Marketing/Diversity for Estee Lauder) with Michaela angela Davis (Cultural Critic) moderating.
I settled in with style maven Sharon Pendana sitting on my left and Ngozi Odita Read more...
I Am Not My Hair!
I guess it was yesterday or maybe Wednesday when singer, Solange Knowles was snapped by paparazzi rocking a very short-cropped coif. And before this young mama could get back home, the Web was a’buzz about her buzzed cut. Of course the haters had their Yaki Platinums in a knot over the do saying she and others are allegedly biting “the bald look” of Kanye’s ex Amber Rose. And those were the sweet comments. Other Read more...
What Do Goddesses Do When Blue?
Recently I spent an entire day reaffirming myself, my sense of purpose and my personal goals for prosperity all in the company of a very powerful sisterhood. Our gathering was extraordinary in its depth of knowledge, passion, and reverence for the ancestors and for its respect for current sisterhood. As much as I write about the importance of having your grrrls and repping for women’s issues, I, theHotness Grrrl had even forgotten how good just Read more...