A recruiter asked me, "How much do you travel for business?" Of course working as a flight attendants 2 weeks each month I had to say 100%

"The fight we endure is to accept the Love of DIVINE within. It is all the LOVE we will ever need to achieve our dreams."

Today in "Careful, Or You'll End up in My Novel - I explore the reality behind achieving a Happily Ever After.  Do you Have what it takes to have a lasting relationship?  

Listen to Episode 2 "Internal Conflict" and let me know what you think.  

"Life is the sum of your choices"

"Careful, Or You'll End Up in My Novel" is a new Podcast/Blog that looks through the prism of imagined stories and fictional characters to help solve real problems in real life.  

Entry No.2  Bridget's Baby. Daddy's Maybe ponders if black women are unnecessarily hard on themselves, leading to their own peril and unhappiness.

drinking straws at Sam's club was the best bargain I've found. 3000 straws for $10 First Straw: Sumerians #BlackHistory

Wanted:  Information on "Free Negro" a British Legal status  for those never enslaved in America but reemerged on the Americas as early as 1513... Also, looking for black female polymaths from baby boomers, generation x, y, millennials even budding polymaths.   Polymaths are defined for this purpose as those who know a lot, can do a lot and have a body of peer-reviewed work and accomplishments in varied areas.  Thank you!

Status: Agitated

As humans our default mode is happy.   It may be hard to tell but we are a community-oriented species... Just watch us when shit hits the fan and you'll see our true nature.  We come together with one mission - "to make everyone whole again".   Yet, there are forces in this world that prefer we stay agitated. 

Upgrade: remaining agitated eventually leads to submission.  

Today's MISSION:  Shine bright like the Sun! 

Status: Default

Project: Communication Plan

Thought of the day: "Fast and Wrong... Is still wrong."

Song of the Day: SOS Band: "Take your time"

Currently Writing: "A Promise Broken", A fictionalized Romance Memoir

Currently Reading: "Severed" by VL Towler

We as individuals may not be able to heal the world; we can share out talents to help one another. 

SoulJourn : A Portrait in Community Artivism

REGEN PROJECTS, contemporary art gallery, presents Theaster Gates' exhibit "But To Be A Poor Race" 

January 14- February 25, 2017

6750 Santa Monica Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90038 Tel 1 310 276 5424 Fax 1 310 276 7430

Theaster Gates, Urban Planner  & Conceptual Artist  whose $2 million Chicago Southside project The Arts Incubator in partnership with the University of Chicago was profiled in The New Yorker   (01/20/2014), presents an interpretative display of paintings and pieces  based on content from Jet Magazines and WEB DuBois'  hand drawn info-graphic charts depicting the economic contributions  in "Exhibit of American Negroes  displayed at the 1900 World's Fair in France.

According to Gates, this is his protest.  He says in the LA Times article,

“The show says, I am going to continue to go to work. I’m going to continue to make art. I’m going to continue to sing. I’m going to keep working as a protest.”

SoulJourn: "Deciding to work where you're not welcomed"

Marlyn Thomas English Instructor Alabama A&M University talks about the hypocrisy black female artists face when going against the grain of popular opinion.

 In the book, Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

"Black females working at West Computing in Hampton, Virginia worked on a government job that provided them neither the transportation or public area rights as white counterparts; however, they continued to work and eventually began to see where they could win battles one at a time."

Many have stated the film “Hidden Figures” and the actions of those black women featured were inspiring.  However, when Chrissette Michelle decided to perform at Trump’s presidential inauguration, she faced black twitter backlash and was all but black-listed among “progressive” Blacks.

So, what’s the difference?  Thomas states it goes back to the Madonna and Whore archetypes and the policing of black women’s movement must be checked and stopped.  Source: "The hypocritical attacks on black female artists that perform for Trump"

SoulJourn: "Not all Blacks in America were enslaved 

but laws enacted against their freedom haven't changed since colonial times.

Source:  The Black North: A Social Study by  William Edward Burghardt Du Bois  November 17, 1901

SoulJourn: "Celebrating Black Women Filmmakers"

"On the occasion of the recent restoration and re-release of Julie Dash’s 1991 masterpiece Daughters of the Dust, BAMcinématek celebrates the black women directors who blazed the trail for that landmark film. The filmmakers represented in this series all worked far outside the mainstream, often with limited resources, overcoming a historically hostile system in order to tell their stories on screen. Taken together, their work represents a rich history of long-undervalued independent filmmaking.

“One Way or Another” is co-programmed by BAMcinématek’s Nellie Killian and Michelle Materre; founder, host-producer, Creatively Speaking Film Series; Associate Professor of Media Studies and Film at The New School."

Source: 'One Way or Another: Black Women's Cinema, 1970–1991'
BAMcinématek
February 3–23, 2017

U.S. Senators Demand Study on Federal Advertising in Black-owned Media

A 2007 report revealed the federal government agencies spent more than $4 billion in advertising but " a pittance of that amount (5% from 5 agencies) was spent with minority media publications."  In a letter sent, November 3, 2016, to the Government Accountability Office by the 5 U.S. Senators request-

"As one of the largest advertisers in the United States, the federal government should play an active role in ensuring that minority-owned media outlets have fair opportunities to compete for and be awarded federal advertising contracts."

Maybe some of those advertising dollars might find its way to websites with  large audiences too... Follow or contact these five senators .S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) was joined by fellow Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) for updates on how to bid for these advertising contracts. 

#blackhistory

According to " Why Do We Take Pride in Working for a Paycheck?"  by Livia Gershon,
The early American Labor movement didn't include black men or black women. 

Around 150 years ago, it was allegedly beneath white society to sell their time for wages thus bringing the term, wage slavery into the American lexicon when referring to corporate jobs. 

It's reported that in an effort to entice white workers including white working class women, whom worked the farms for their husbands, wages and working conditions were made more palatable.  This fight came from an organized labor union "Knights of Labor" however their advances didn't include black people.  

Today, black women only earn .68 cents on a dollar earned by a white man.  

"There’s no excuses for fathers/men who choose to be absent. Nor is it a woman’s responsibility to get him to return.  A mother/woman raises her children but it’s not her responsibility to raise, repair or rehabilitate a broken man or the relationship from which he walks away.  That is all very much an inside job. His job. " #Imnotyourmule

12-year-old Activist Lands Book Publishing Deal

Marley Dias, Pictured

Photo credit: Andrea Cipriani Mecchi

Tired of the school's reading list filled with white boy and dog protagonist, Marley Dias kicked off her own hashtag #1000BlackGirlBooks, last January, which featured Black girls as stars of their stories.  She achieved her goal of collecting and donating books with black girls as the protagonist.   

Today Scholastic announced Dias will pen her own story about social activism.

“Marley is using her voice to advocate for social justice, a commitment reflected by her ambitious life goals: she dreams of becoming an editor of her very own magazine and plans to use media to spread positive messages and to perpetuate more socially conscious pop culture”

Scholastic, Inc. reports the book will be released in the Spring of 2018 . 

Kiese Laymon: A Writer's Writer

Writing takes far more than talent to be great. One most also possess courage to be at the top of her craft.  At least that's the takeaway from the essay "You Are the Second Person" by Kiese Laymon. 

Laymon is identified as an essayist and novelist but a few paragraphs into "You Are the Second Person" you begin to realize those aren’t just his job titles, he’s the embodiment of those skills.

Prior to reading his essay, the definition of hack eluded me.  Now I know it identifies someone who eschews writing for expression and instead kowtows to a publisher for a check.  Check out Guernica Magazine and "You're Are the Second Person"

Currently reading Severed by VL Towler.  I started this book some time ago, then I got really busy and put it on the back-burner.  Then I thought, make time to read. Make a commitment to a book like you used to do in your youth.  

Reading like writing, forces you to close out your thoughts and enter the world of someone's making or into a world of your own making.  Reading/Writing a book is a selfish undertaking.  One that you owe to yourself. 

"Severed", A Novel,  is a crime thriller and an entertaining whodunit but I recommend it as a self-help book in my commentary "Severed", A Novel | A Black Woman's Burden

Short Synopsis | Severed, a Novel

"Someone is a few digits short of a hand in Nakadee, Louisiana.  What’s worse, someone may be torturing and holding the finger-less victim captive in this small river town.   Head of Nakadee Police Department Criminal Investigations Unit Captain Nate Padgett enlists the help of Forensic Anthropologist Lula Logan, PhD whom he feels he can trust since she’s having an affair with his direct report Junior Detective Devon Lemonde.

Padgett needs Logan to find out if the victim is still among the living.  Dead or Alive means the difference between a local investigation or handing it over to the Feds.   Meanwhile Dr. Logan has her own project underway.  She’s in town to work on research project that will tell the story of the enslaved Africans who revolted against their captors in 1830 on a former plantation.

Dr. Logan has her finger on the pulse of present missing fingers case and that of the enslaved Africans of the past …the question remains, however, which case will be her undoing."

OCEAN'S 8  Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' all female Caper Heist flick
Music Superstar Rihanna is coming to a big screen near you.  She is set to join a group of A-list Film, Television and Web actresses in the updated Ocean's 8 caper heist flick set in New York City.  Ocean's 8 expected release June 8, 2018
Photo Credit: Barry Wetcher

Searching for a birthday card the other day, I noticed in Rite-aid there were no hallmark cards only American greetings and in Publix grocery store, they only stocked Hallmark greeting cards.   What was noticeably absent, or not, because I can't really recall hearing about them until today was "African-American Expressions. Founder, Gregory Perkins, indicates on the  company profile , AAE has been existence for 26 years.  "Today, African American Expressions sells over 2,500,000 cards annually with over 500 original designs. This multimillion dollar operation has expanded to include many other inspirational gifts such as calendars, handcrafted figurines, journals, mugs, magnets, bookmarks, Christmas decorations and more."  Visit African American Expressions  at http://www.black-cards.com  and download their catalog, http://www.black-cards.com/aaexp/pdf/common/WS_catalog.pdf

http://theleadstory.org/data-scientist-trillions-african-americans-spend-as-much-as-australia/

From The Hollywood Reporter: Ebony Media Operations has signed on with the largest talent agency, WME (William Morris Endeavor), for what appears to be a client/agent relationship. 

In the partnership, Ebony/Jet is looking "to expand its current print and digital footprint, enhance the brand and utilize  the magazine's over 70 years of archival content." 

Richard Prince's Journal-isms reports that Ebony Media Operations executives have also let go their top editors which comes right on the heels of freelance writers shaming the 70-year old African-American Lifestyle Magazine for nonpayment using the hashtag #ebonyowes on the social networking site "Twitter". 

With this new deal with WME, not only will Ebony have access to A-list celebrities, sporting, corporate events, et al they may be in a better position to pay their writers.  But at what cost to its editorial integrity?