Acronym of the Day|  FinCen:  Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. (US Department of Treasury)

Smithsonian's National Museum African American History & Culture beats expectation! 7 levels of African's American History with new exhibits throughout the year...

"Ahh, The Name is Bootsy, Baby"

Culture Galleries - Smithsonian's  National Museum African American History and Culture"

In the spirit of our lively forum discussions - from Smithsonian's National Museum of  African American Heritage and Culture

Language | The Power of Words

Rapping, Storytelling, Preaching, Signifying, Testifying, Playing the Dozens.

At Its heart, African American culture is an oral culture. Enslaved blacks combined English with African vocabularies and ways of talking. They created a language that built communities and kept them going. Talking and telling connect people.  New terms and expressions are born, picked up, and spread with each generation.  Some master two languages or dialects - one they speak in their community and mainstream American English. How African Americans speak depends on whom they're speaking to.

I was on vacation for a week and just like when I left the airlines after 8 years, when I returned I found myself returning to AALBC.com-munity to find my balance. 

Smithsonian National Museum African American Heritage and Culture

"Ethiopia"

W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson commissioned Fuller to create Ethiopia for the Negro Exhibit in the America's Making Exposition in 1921.  An image of the sculpture graced the cover of the exhibit's publication describing it as "A Symbolic Statue of the Emancipation of the Negro Race" Fuller's work links the cultural achievements of ancient Egypt as well as the Ethiopian resistance to colonial rule to a narrative of African American struggle and achievement.

"Remaking Respectability - African American Women in Interwar Detroit" Featured in the book by Victoria Wolcott  now available on Kindle "Detroit Housewives Leaque"  and how they helped transform Detroit's  black politics and culture.

"Don't Buy Where You Can't Work"

The 3rd Sunday in May is a special day in Black history when we celebrate the founder of the Detroit Housewives League, Fannie Peck.  In 1930s Black women couldn’t afford to stay at home and wait for their husbands. Too many businesses would sell goods and services to Black people but wouldn’t hire them. So in 1930 Detroit women led by Fannie Peck formed a group called the “Detroit Housewives’ League.” It educated women on their buying power and encouraged them to only shop at African-American owned businesses. The group was also initiating big protests and boycotts.

In 1935 they set a huge packing warehouse on fire protesting against high prices, and later joined thousands of Chicago housewives in a march that shut down the city’s entire meat industry. 

Go toSource: BlackMattersUS

One Night Only | The first Black-owned and operated Chicago theatre to reopen for an outdoor concert.   The Pekin Theatre located in the Bronzeville section of Chicago was first opened by alleged professional gambler, Robert Motts.   The outdoor concert, sponsored Illinois Humanities and Empty Bottle, an Evening at the Pekin Theater will feature ragtime pianist and MacArthur “genius” grantee Reginald Robinson and his band playing music from the Pekin’s active era, which lasted until 1916.  The concert will be held June 17, 2017 @ 7PM

Source : Timeout Magazine

"What's in a Name, N--ger." 

I'm always amazed when black people say the N-word is a term of endearment or familiarity -yet the conventional spelling is rarely used to indicate this 'truth'. Same with this painting that hangs in Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. The artist, Barkley Hendricks says he's meant to be provocative but the spelling of the portrait's name "New Orleans Niggah"  reveals otherwise.

 "New Orleans Niggah" by Barkley Hendricks  - oil and acrylic on canvas on loan from the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio

From the placard:

 "There's a saying in the black community: You put it out there and let others deal with it.  The cool realist style of New Orleans Niggah Invites viewers to contemplate how they personally engage issues of identity , black masculinity, racism and the politics of language. This is a portrait of the artist's friend and fellow Yale classmate, art historian Jules Easton Taylor. Instead of identifying Taylor by name or profession, Barkley Hendricks chose to refer to him by a derivation of the explosive racial epithet.  Although used here as term of familiarity and endearment, Hendricks does not ignore the complex history of the word.  Taylor had achieved much professionally, but he would not escape the racism that existed in America at that time. "

New Find... Dateline: Bronzeville A Runny Walker Mystery

A history mystery with a twist - 3D  Illustrations from  the Jones Brothers..."  From the Press Release

"Runny Walker makes his debut in Dateline: Bronzeville, a fast-paced mystery adventure set on the South Side of Chicago in 1940. Dateline: Bronzeville is the first in a series of Runny Walker Mysteries. 

This remarkable collaboration melds stunningly beautiful original artwork by acclaimed media artist, Philip Mallory Jones with a dynamic ‘ripped from the headlines’ mystery tale by his brother, Donald Brooks Jones. 

Says Donald, “The inspiration for Dateline: Bronzeville comes from our experience growing up on the South Side of Chicago, listening to the tales told by our parents and elders of the characters they had known, plus extensive research in the African American press of the day.”

Philip adds, “Dateline: Bronzeville is our celebration of the lore and legends of the now-vanished world known as The Black Metropolis.” 
Dateline Bronzeville: A Runny Walker Mystery A Picture book for the kid in us all! 

Blitter, a Black-owned micro-blogging social networking site created by Patrick Francis - launched on October 5, 2017... Check out my initial thoughts on the service 

End of Poverty ?, the documentary by Philippe Diaz  should be called how thugs ravage the land and have taken over the world.

Imagine coming up with a concept for a book, writing a draft and then shipping the raw document to someone else - only to have to pay $14.95 to read the finish product. 

Except that is exactly what is happening in so called third world countries such as Kenya - "predatory capitalism" where the impoverished Kenyans work the land ship their raw materials for tea and coffee to other countries and never profit from it.   

I became interested in watching the documentary after seeing an interview clips from Confession of an Economic Hitman, author John Perkins.  He talks about how he and others like him work on the behalf of multinational corporations to jack the land and resources from people in African countries... We're not free in this country - it's impossible to be - because no one will be free until everyone is free...  Watch the documentary. Read the book,  and then really begin to wake the Eff up!

“It is good to be ‘woke’. It is even better to be ‘woke” to your own f*cked up sh*t too…” ~Manatole  From  Mel Hopkins' Actuate: Thought Into Action

Jesus said unto him "Thou shalt love the Lord thy G-d with all thy heart, and with all ... ³⁹ And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."  #Greatestcommandment #relationshipgoals

Nah, I’d rather you love me better.  It seems most of Y’all don't love yourself all that well.  

~Thanks.  

"Brian Tart, President and Publisher of Viking says; "DeRay McKesson is the voice of a new generation, leading the charge in the fight against racism and injustice today,"   

And that voice will sound off in the upcoming book with Viking - On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope by DeRay McKesson.   Read more here:  The Thriving Writer

@TroyI can't respond to The New Religion by Zaji.  I get this error notice 

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Currently re-editing my #flashfiction story, "Law-Abiding Ghouls." A cautionary tale for politicians who long for the good ole days. A time that wasn't so great for anyone.

Thankful for leaving baggage in the past where it belongs while cherishing the blessings and lessons learned over the years.