Thank You - Light Your Candle - Build the Dream

Thank You - Light Your Candle - Build the Dream

It is an honor to be able finally to put something towards the new Dr Martin Luther King Jr Memorial which will be in Washington D.C. and slated for a Grand Opening on the anniversary of his famous "I Have A Dream" speech. Today marks 43 years since Dr King has been assasinated and still, we hold him dear to our hearts just the same. It should be the goal and aspiration of each of us especially African Americans to just give a minimum of $5 towards his new memorial and help to make it a reality. You will be glad you did.

With that said, Hello all! so much has transpired. I have a new granddaughter, well my first from my firstborn daughter Tierra, and her name is Kianna Micca Crawford Roberson. she weighed 7lbs, 12 oz at birth and we like to tease her because she keeps throwing her fist up. I told her girl, you real late, Black Power done came and gone, but hey you can start it over again. She is a fussy little thing but I feel a baby in the house is a blessing. Last night though, she just wouldn't sleep for no one's business. Pictures on her forthcoming.

I was blessed to be able to participate in Miss Lucretia's 40% off sale in February. It just so happen to occur the same day I received my income tax refunds. and I was able to fullfill a fantasy and buy all of the fragrances I have had a taste for. I am now wearing Queen by Queen Latifah and as far as I'm concerned, the stuff is good. Have you ever tried Lucretia's Body Oils and Sprays?? it is good, the stuff lasts, and it saves you money!! stores.lawbodyoils.com is the link. If your not a Facebook fan of her page, please do so to take advantage of her sales.

I have been fortunate to have read some great books lately. One that I brought the New Year's in with was Isabel Wilkerson's "The Warmth of Other Suns" which chronicled three people who once lived in the South and moved to the North(in this case, Chicago, New York and California)in search of better opportunities. It was a huge read, but I can appreciate the time that Ms Wilkerson took in capturing the stories of Ida, Dr Foster and George and you will too. One part that really hurt to read was when Dr Foster was driving to California and got to Phoenix, Arizona and literally couldn't get a room because of his skin color. To those who let that go down then, they should truly be ashamed and embarassed to say that they did it. And this country should equally take the blame for allowing this horrible practice against people to happen. To say my heart went out to this man says plenty. I believe it must had touched the author's heart too because she went and recreated his steps and tried to keep going and it was impossible. in spite of it, Dr Foster became a physician with his own practice as well as the personal Physician to none other than Ray Charles. he even got immortalized in one of Charles' songs, "Hide Nor Hair"
While I really enjoyed this, I only pray that there is one done for folks who came up from the Caribbean. A lot of us have some serious stories too!!
Other books I found quite good are Daddy by Default by Pat Tucker, Simeon's Story by Simeon Wright who is the cousin of Emmett Till and the son of Mose Wright, who testified against the white men who killed Emmett Till.

For now I am gone...got to get going with errands. peace.

More Thoughts on 'For Colored Girls"

Good Morning. Much has been said, cried, ridiculed and talked on about the new movie by Tyler Perry, "For Colored Girls". I wanted to see it this past weekend, but my schedule felt a bit tight to do it although I wanted to give Tyler a push for The Opening Weekend, I had to come to the conclusion that this colored woman just couldn't do it. Add to the pot on me being a bit shaky driving at night alone can be added. But last night, I found the courage after attending classes on preparing income taxes to go to the theater and see this movie for myself. I was a bit early but it is something that movies are now costing over $9.25 to see at night. I know we're in a recession but that I guess the best thing I can say is that it is better than what some of my sisters and brothers had to pay in Atlanta or New York City for that matter.
Because I was a bit early, I went to another viewing of the movie already in session, and I came on to the part with Kimberly Elise and her kids. I won't spoil it but folks it ain't pretty. between her, poor Anika Noni Rose and Tessa Thompson's travails one bit. Not one bit. Some folks say it's depressing. My eldest daughter told me that she don't go to no theater to be depressed, she go to be entertained. I want to go one step further and state, Sometimes, we need to be depressed. especially when dealing with the issue of ourselves as black women.
When Tyler and Oprah produced Lee Daniels' "Precious", I knew why. When Essence did the interview with Mo'nique long before the movie came out, I knew why. you may say, well why? Well for one, Tyler and Oprah knows what it means to be abused. Many of us black women and black men although we may try HARD to deny it nows what it means to be abused. I was born into a three generation family of Caribbean based people, who when coming to the USA, stayed at my parent's apartment. and they took my curious little self and loved the HELL outta me without scarring me and if I could go back to a heap of them now who are in their graves, bring em back one good time and hug them and thanked them for allowing a little curious nosy girl to be herself and not abuse me, I would. Since I cannot, I'll say it here THANK YOU.
Yet, in many families, that wasn't the case. you had straight up predators, Chester the Molesters that just left countless pain, anger, deep seated and most felt issues at a child's feet. stuff they have no business dealing with and couldn't. I loved and respect Pam Grier's talent. shoot, I wish I had her style, but imagine my shock when I found out how she was raped at age 6 by her own cousins then again at age 19 by an acquaintance to whom she reluctantly decide to see after basically begging for a date(the same with Anika Noni Rose's character in the movie). But we just don't know each other's histories unless one tells you. I had one lady tell me she was raped at 13 and though she was close to her family, she never told a soul. never. until one day we were talking and it came out. even now as I write this, my heart goes out to her because what can you say? what can you do?
I know some white ladies will say well, we go through this too. Yes your right. but it seems to me, we as black women paid an even harder price going back as far as slavery when we couldn't do nothing but deal with it and press on. And it's like skeletons in the closet. It's there, you won't deal with it, probably don't know how but it's there. When Whoopi Goldberg talked about her own father raping her because she was the only one who he could do it with yet he declared her ugly and gave her to a white man at 15 to give him some "pretty grandbabies" oh yes, I can see why she ended up with Elohim. Sure can. because we deal with the pain and run to God, sex(like her daughter Thandie Newton did),alcohol(like Macy Gray did), drugs or take that pain in a ball and keep it inside of us until whenever and we don't deal with it. But thank God for these movies so that them skeletons can rattle and hit the road plus be buried. Thank God that Tyler Perry who I feel God put on earth as the book of Esther say "For such a time as this", and Oprah and Lee Daniels and countless other producers and writers for making movies, plays, books so we can see and wake up and say, "yes, that is me" and by God's grace do something about it. Now a lot of folks will say well, that's reverse racism. I say, KMA straight and simple. or like one of them singers said back in the 80s, you can call it what you want. Judge for yourself. but I pray you come out of the movie a more sensitive, more aware more better you.

A discourse on hair, young kids and perpetrating esteem

From time to time, I help out by substituting at a classroom for youngsters between the first and eight grades. This day, I had the first to fourth grades and I had two little girls. One is eight and her hair is short, braided and natural; the other little girl is six and have long hair braided in twos and looking quite done. Well the eight year old was eating lunch and her brother made a remark about her hair and I stopped them and told them that her hair is fine and I broke down and asked them about India.Arie and if they have heard, "I Am not My Hair", of course, these are youngsters, so India.Arie is not in their radar. So, despite the fact that they are not to watch the internet, I went online and got the video so that they could see it and had a discussion afterward. The eight year old told us honestly that she DIDN'T like her hair. I felt for her right then and there because what she said was something that many of us sisters have a love hate relationship with their hair, thereby their self esteem and if we got a new generation doing this, then we dropping the ball. we are not making our daughters feel worthy and we got to stop. I have two daughters now 18 and 20 and they didn't get this one from me but they HAVE to have weave in their hair. it perplexes me to the highest. WHY? I remember as a six year old girl having bad arguments with my mom about my hair. I hate to say it but it was the beginning of problems between us. I know feel that as a mother who had some beautiful hair as a young girl and woman until she lost it permanently by getting a bad perm, it hurt her so that it affected my own hair journeys with her and myself but I understand that now and I have no hard feelings for her there. I wish though that we stop this and get to the light on this because we got more generations hating on themselves and THAT is not healthy.
When I first saw India.Arie perform this video, I only wished that she was around years ago when I was facing my own dillemmas. Although another fierce sister who went by the name of Miss Nina Simone was around and rocked a serious afro. My mom had mucho love for her and Miriam Makeba that one time she fixed my hair with an afro and put a clip in it so the afro would go back from my forehead a bit.and she told me I was like Nina Simone.and you know that day, I walked like I was Nina Simone. I still have mad love for them ladies to this day.
So I try my best to love these young girls and sisters to their own selves by letting them know that they are good enough. but we gotta do more. Show em love. encourage them and let them know that the mothers and Queens of Africa gave them their genes and now they must produce. Be your best and do YOU!

Greetings,
Although I write to an audience of one, I am glad for those who stop by and check me out. One thing that escaped my mind and I'm sorry that it did was last month was considered Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. that cancer is so dear to me because I lost a sister and aunt to it. nothing against Breast Cancer because I have since lost an aunt to it in May and it is even more relevant to me now, Ovarian Cancer doesn't get the rap that Breast Cancer do and after losing my sister then aunt to it. I am also sad that others who have lost their loved ones to this are not saying jack behind it and pushing for more women to be aware of this disease.
My sister was a lawyer for the federal government. I first noticed that something was wrong with my dear sister in March,2002 when she, my brother, their children and my aunt Alice(who has died in May from breast cancer) came down to celebrate. My sister was into it but she was sick. she spent the most of Sunday in bed and her son poked her in her tummy and she HOWLED!! when she went back home to Maryland, she was diagnosed with it and she lived one good year after it and died May 7, 2003 at home.
to say that this couldn't happen in my family, wouldn't, ain't gonna well that became a moot point. Then by late 2006, my aunt Lola got sick. she was let out the hospital for Thanksgiving; but after that, she was in and out the hospital constantly, until my uncle knowing that this is serious, had her put into a nursing home and he visited her daily. She died April 1,2007. hurt me sadly. by then, my father was going down rapidly. I don't think my mom would have told him but he figured it out anyway. I went to her funeral on their behalf. The Friday before Mother's Day, 2007, I went to work, and Mom told me that Dad wasn't going to last the weekend. It blew me away because we lived under the same roof. how could this be? I came home and the hospice nurses were there monitoring him. they told us just be there. My poor mom she was heartbroken. We started calling family and friends. he lasted the weekend but died the Monday evening. But as soon as my eldest brother came to Mobile, and saw Daddy, he looked at him, smiled and tried to talk but by then, his speech has left him. He died shortly after. He died four years and one week exactly to my sister's death and six weeks and one day after my Aunt Lola's passing. When my aunt Alice died the day after Mother's Day THIS year, I was like, well, there it goes again. I won't say I get maudlin around May now but I will say that although I lost three relatives in May, they are in my heart and soul and their love, teachings and good will go with me.
I think I will start a PSA on Ovarian Cancer. not to just remember Agnes and Aunt Lola, but to bring awareness of the dangers of it; There are women out there thinking they have bad stomach aches, abdominal pain and they may need to get a CA-125. for real. or BRACA test one just to see if you are suspectible. I know I will have to now. plain and simple. I hope you do too.

Leaving Gee's Bend & Condolences

Condolences go to Pastor Marvin Sapp and family for losing their wife and mother, Dr MaLinda Sapp after a battle with colon cancer. My thoughts and prayers go to you at this time.
I must be about 22 books into my 30 book challenge and challenge it IS. with a library card in arrears, I have to read the books at the library in order to get anything done; At the same time, other issues pull me and but I'm trekking along on this. I must talk about one of the books well the last book I finished for the challenge. fellow Alabamian Irene Latham's Leaving Gee's Bend, which gives a good story about love and family in Depression era Alabama, which is geared towards teens, is also a great read for those who are familiar with the area(I found out that it's a 142 mile journey by car for me). while working at one job here in Mobile, I have met some who are related to folks there.
Ludelphia Bennett is ten years old; Her mother is pregnant again, and she fears the baby won't live. On top of that, the mother doesn't feel well, all hands are needed to do the sharecropping work and it worries Ludelphia. When her good friend Etta Mae Pettway comes home after working in Mobile for a time, she is branded a witch due to the fact that the baby left in her charge has died and she is blamed for it. So, she comes home just in time to help Ludelphia deliver the baby her mom was carrying but her mother was scared of Etta Mae due to the rumors running about her, and also she was delirious with fever as well. Seeing that no help can be rendered here, she decides to go to Camden, and ask the doctor to see if he could help her mother. Now, here's the thing. Depression era Alabama is not the place for a girl to be out and about;especially a young black girl. but with determination and grit, Ludelphia goes out and get help. She encounters once she gets over the river, a family who feeds her but then the lady who just lost her husband is mad about that and over the fact that he was kind hearted to the people of Gee's Bend and she takes the girl into town to try and sell her, but that don't stop Ludelphia from getting away from the lady and finding allies in the Doctor and his wife who feed, help her and the wife being good, helps give Ludelphia the medicine she needs for her mother to get better. On her way home, she encounters the lady who wants to sell her again, but inadvertently, she gets her home via the person who tried to warn her not to trust the woman who is now on her way to take everything from the people of Gee's Bend. along the way she encounters her brother and Etta Mae, whom she tells about the raid, and with barely enough time, she goes and divert the family from losing all of their things. Of course, the lady strips the whole commumity of their livelihood(this being a true occurrence) but thanks to Ludelphia writing a letter to the Red Cross asking for help for the people of Gee's Bend, they are soon helped by them and save the day.
Gee's Bend(official name-Boykin,AL) still exists and is in Wilcox County; for a while, it was hard to get around to Camden, which is the largest town for them, due to the ferry service being taken from them during the Civil Rights era; thankfully, it was revived over ten years ago and fully operational today. what I like about the area is that those ladies took a skill and did great business with it. It is not easy living in that part of Alabama. if you don't have a car, your stuck. poverty is rampant, and those that are there, are just surviving. I had to answer a statement made by a journalist who spoke on the low numbers in the area during an election. I had to let them know that transportation is everything there and if you don't have it, your through. It is hard to think that that may be the case, but yes it is. please check out the other books on Gee's Bend as well as their quilts.

Welcome September

I can't believe It has a month since I have done a blog. August was a bit busy because my youngest daughter, Dakota, left home to go to college at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston, Ms, where her beloved best friend Madariah is going. Good thing she went there because the first weekend, if it wasn't for Madariah, she would have starved. She was on the 5 day plan, but since then has since switched to the 7 day plan;(Most of the students go home on the Gulf Coast, but since she has no car, she has to stay there)also she was real ADAMANT about loans but knowing that things DO cost in college, she HAD to take out a loan, which she told me the day after I left her. I am real proud of her. but of course, I have to send her money down there, and still take her some food and supplies within the next couple of weeks. I also had to use Mom's secret credit card, and now have to pay her back(and if she was here, she'd be bugging me about it to the bone)and since the people I am working with is experiencing cash flow problems, the time is coming to make some changes. I have to get a better full time job. I have to pay Mom back, I also have Tierra who is in college, but is expecting a baby in February, so that tells the story, I gotta get on the good foot like the late JB said.
I am more than half way through my 30 book/90 day challenge. by reading 20 books so far. Reading more but got a good four weeks to finish up the thing. I have been blessed to read some great books, as well as finish some good ones. Mandela's Way by Richard Stengel was one I started but didn't finish and found quite interesting about the man we know as Nelson Mandela. I am also trying out books I didn't finish like Catrice Jackson's "Delicious" on living an authentic, positive life for yourself. She is such an inspiration. check out her FB pages.then Carol Mackey's "Sistergirl Devotions" dealing with on the job issues. loving it.as well as some more.

Greetings. Ever since Prince won his BET Lifetime Achievement Award, I have been checking out his latest stuff and to me, his Lotus Flow3r cd is great in my honest opinion. No lie about that. But I was watching an interview he did with good friend Tavis Smiley, and he spoke on how he was embracing his blackness, being a Jehovah Witness and how he really enjoyed the Ken Burns' documentary, "Unforgivable Blackness" which is the story of Jack Johnson. The first black Heavyweight Champion of the World. When he mentioned it, I put it away for future reference, but for some reason last night, I was compelled to sit down and watch this program. Let me say this first. It has been a hundred years this month since Jack Johnson went in a ring in Reno, Nevada, and beat James J Jeffries, who had already retired unopposed but had been clamored to come out of retirement and beat Jack Johnson. ain't that something. But I would have to go back a bit further. See, at that time, boxing was still a sport in the making. But Jack Johnson worked his way up in the business so much so, that when he fought all the others, the white ones felt seriously that he was beneath them. Now, at that time, coming up the ring, you fought blacks, but once you got to the championship, you didn't do that no more and the thing with it was Johnson had come this far and Tommy Burns didn't want to touch him and Jeffries went into retirement unopposed to stay away. It took a promoter to put $35,000 on the table for Tommy Burns to do the job. He took it after Johnson went after him relentlessly to fight him. And the fight was on in Sydney, Australia on Dec 26, 1908; Burns and Johnson fought over 14 rounds before the police stopped the fight and declared Jack Johnson the winner. He was Heavyweight Champion of the World. His purse for that fight? a measly $5,000. made me mad. Now today, whenever a sister gets that on her income taxes, that ain't nothing to sneeze at. not now, and certainly not then. But to me, he should have gotten at least half of what Burns got. but then the world then was way different then than it is now. After that fight, white folks were begging James J. Jeffries, who was farming alfafa in his farm in California, to PLEASE take this black man on. They felt that since Johnson beat Burns, Burns wasn't a real heavyweight champion. Ain't that something? this man got his belt fair and square before, but because a black man beat him, it wasn't legit.. see stuff like that was what Jack Johnson dealt with daily. what a thing. and now, they were begging this other champion, who left the ring peacefully to come and beat Jack Johnson. whenever Johnson went into the ring on both of those fights, there were hardly a black face in the crowd, so he got nothing but boos. but that didn't bother him, he showed love to the crowds just the same and fought just as hard. When Jeffries finally agreed to fight Johnson, it was 1910, so although the fight was scheduled for L.A., officials there felt it too barbaric and folks had to scramble for another place, which they found in Reno, Nevada. There, On the 4th of July, 1910, Jack Johnson beat James J.Jeffries after giving him the business for fifteen rounds. Gentleman Jim Corbett even helped Jeffries train for the fight, but Jeffries, though a great contender and who was unopposed, was no match for Jack Johnson and after knocking him down twice in the fight(which was the first two times it EVER happened to James Jeffries in his whole career), they shut the fight down and Johnson, after proving and shutting up all critics and opponents emerged still Heavyweight Champion of the World. Oh did the black people have a ball. Oh what a time, but whites very upset over the victory retaliated terribly. (Bernice McFadden's book "Glorious" speaks of a fictional event that occurred because of that very fight)a lot of blacks were beaten, raped, and even killed just because they were glad that Johnson won. they were not to show any happiness that he won. Can you believe it? I remember my mother,father and the lady I care for talk about Joe Louis fights. Oh, they were proud of Mr Joe Louis. proud. but even then, you had to be careful in the South when you played the radio or around white folks too because that was a no no then too. So I can imagine how African Americans felt in 1908, 1910 knowing this black man from Texas, beat two white men to be the champion. Oh that was something to behold. He kept the title until 1915, when the Potawattamie Giant, Jess Willard beat him in Havana Cuba.
Now, Jack Johnson was unapologetic for his life on and off the ring. He dealt with white women, was unfaithful, married three women all white. Unknown to some, he did deal with black women too, but preferred white women and for the time, that was a true NO NO. folks were getting jailed and killed just because they may have looked at one, or if one said she got "attacked" by one if that be the case. Plenty brothers in those days were lynched or killed behind that. The Rosewood(FL)massacre as well as Greenwood(Tulsa OK) started on a white woman's say so. He ended up in jail after fleeing the US for some years behind it, but he eventually came home and did his time and was released.
I try hard when I hear about things, people and events, I go online, to the library, whatever, and I do some checking. Because of Prince talking about Jack Johnson, I started taking the time to read about the other opponents he fought; how he fought his black counterparts but they kept it easy if you may say. I have had a lady say well, he had white women in his life. Yes, he did. He had them. but what I take away from him was he was unapologetically black and didn't try to be nothing but black but he loved white women. once he told some people in a boxing place that he was a "brunette" in the ring with "blondes" and he caught hell for it. Unforgivable Blackness is at your local store, Walmart, Amazon.com, PBS.com and other outlets. A companion book accompanies the documentary.