Black Love Matters in Real Life & in Film
On the recent cable broadcast of Book Of Negroes when Aminata Diallo says to her former slave owner, “I love that slave man… freely,” she was not only claiming her love for her African husband, she was committing an act of resistance. Manifesting their love was a radical expression of freedom for slaves that even chains couldn’t suppress. That kind of freedom was a threat to the entire institution of slavery and, seemingly, is one Read more...
My Connection to “Olympus Has Fallen”
I just saw the trailer for Olympus Has Fallen and see that it opened strong this, its opening weekend, coming in #2 at the box office making over $30 million. Is it just me or has there been a surge in the number of movies being made about the White House coming under attack since President Barack Obama has taken office? The new G.I. Joe movie revolves around the West Wing possibly being blown to Read more...
The Truth About Susan Rice
If you watched Barack Obama’s first official press conference after winning his re-election bid then you saw the President go ballistic when asked about the Republican’s response to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s possible nomination for Secretary of State. To summarize, our Prezy said that anyone who has a problem with Ambassador Rice will have a problem with him. End scene! I feel Obama because the attack on Susan Rice is not only largely unfounded, but Read more...
November Hotness!
Twelve days into November and there’s been more history-making excitement, chills and thrills then there has been in the past 12 months! Firstly, the election was nothing short of historic. President Barack Obama, standing with the 47% and against a hailstorm of lies, loot and lunacy (ie. Trump), won his re-election bid and with that showed that Americans had grown weary and intolerant of angry rich white men who think gays, Latinos, Blacks and women Read more...
My Election Anxiety
When I’m nervous I don’t bite my nails, I just pick-up my emery board and go totown. I start filing them down. Way down. Looking at my laptop now I see the filed sawdust-like remnants of what two days ago was a beautiful manicure. Now I’m typing with stubs. It’s Election Day and I’m stressed the crunk out!
My phone rings: “Hey Nicole!” It’s my gumbo-making, Texas born, pistol-handling godmother. “Yeah, I’m calling to tell Read more...
The Wonder That Is Michelle Obama!
It’s Halloween and my mind couldn’t be further away from tricks and treats than it is right now. Yes, I’m stunned, transfixed even, by the images on my television of the devastation left in Sandy’s wake. And to be honest, right now there is probably only one thing that grips my heart harder than the images of the burnt smoldering ash that was once the thriving neighborhood of Breezy Point and that’s the fact that Read more...
RIP Etta James (Jan. 25, 1938 – Jan. 20, 2012)
Born Jamesetta Hawkins and known affectionately as Miss Peaches, the ever-adored badass beauty Etta James transitioned this morning at the age of 73, less than a week shy of her 74th birthday.
I realize there’s a contingency of folk who just recently got put on to the magic that was Miss Peaches via Beyonce’s tortured cinematic portrayal, but so many more of us have long been spinning our parent’s vinyl. We swooned to “I Read more...
Behind EVERY Great Man, Is a Great Woman!
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama went out to lunch one day and suddenly the owner of the restaurant walked over to greet them. The owner kindly introduced himself to the President, then turned and told the First Lady, “WOW MICHELLE, YOU STILL LOOK GREAT!” As the owner walked away from the table, the POTUS asked Mrs. Obama, “Someone you know from the past?” Mrs. Obama responded, “Yeah, he had a strong crush Read more...
First Lady: Uppity? “I just own my happiness!”
Last week mush-mouth Rush Limbaugh was up to his old moronic tricks chasing his tail and flapping his gums like a pigeon in its first bird bath. Wet winged, err right-winged and ignoring the fodder that is Herman Cain’s antics, he chose to pick on someone else? The First Fam– specifically Michelle Obama. Limbaugh explained the booing of the First Lady at a NASCAR event in Florida as the crowd’s frustration with her “screwy” expenditures Read more...
Who is Esperanza Spalding?
“I’m not gonna sit around and waste my precious divine energy trying to explain and be ashamed of things you think are wrong with me.”
-Esperanza Spalding
Without having to arrive in an egg, without having to don Betty Rubble’s Flinstonesque leopard print costume, and without having to shake her as$, Esperanza Spalding stunned most of America and nabbed the Grammy on Sunday night for Best New Artist.
In March 2009, thanks to my Read more...