From Sarah to A’Lelia – A Family Legacy In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re celebrating a woman who has lovingly carried and promoted her family’s legacy for the benefit of the Culture. A’Lelia Bundles is a journalist, producer, and the biographer of Madam C.J. (Sarah) Walker, America’s first self-made female millionaire. Bundles is also…
In her new book, The Calling, author and founder of Move the Crowd, Rha Goddess, proclaims this the Age of the Citizen, and discusses what it means to be an empowered citizen. It served as a cross-reference as I read the names of some of the nominees for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. Nominations for…
Photo Courtesy Jonathan Ernst/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images, NY Times 1/22/21 When I first heard of Amanda Gorman, she was 17 years old. A tiny slip of a girl who’d become the nation’s first Youth Poet Laureate. She had begun making her mark on the literary world long before that, and her words had already…
The world’s attention is on Washington, D.C. this week to witness this hallmark of democracy – the peaceful transition of power. With the words “I solemnly swear,” the 46th president will be sworn in to lead the United States of America. This particular inauguration is fraught with conflicting intentions, heightened emotions and intensified preparations, placing…
The souls of history are rampant in our country right now. Can you feel them? They are stalking our every step. Although relegated to the annals of the past, their spectral presence reminds us that every good-bye ain’t gone, and while lifetimes are short, Life is long. African-ancestored people hold the circle of…
You’ve probably seen several different email and social media offers to sign up for a workshop, training or multi-day challenge on crafting your resolutions for 2021.
By all accounts, 2020 was a slog, a disaster, a dumpster fire, the most villainous of years, and there are plenty who’d say they’re glad to put this annus horribilis in our rear view.
Time to ring out the old, bring in the new! What new intentions, goals, projects, habits and accomplishments are on your vision board, wish list, and resolutions for the next 12 months?
Last week I had the great and familiar pleasure of speaking once again to the brave and wonderful women of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence. It was a revival for their women’s business pitch competition, and a partnership with the brands Smart & Sexy and Curvy Couture, dispensing $250K in prize money to 19 winners. More than 400 women applied, out of the 2000 plus who clicked on the application, which says a lot about how those who are chosen start by choosing themselves first.
When I was growing up, my mother had three sets of dishes. There was the everyday set, the one for company and Sunday dinners, and the one for very special occasions. In fact, those occasions so special, I can’t recall our ever using them. They weren’t washed. They were dusted. One summer, a couple from “home” (Guyana) was visiting us on a tourist visa of several weeks. The wife made breakfast for her husband one morning and reached for the company dishes.
The transitional nature of death was all around us last week, and I find it liberating. The great Civil Rights champion, Hon. John H. Lewis died Friday evening. Earlier on the same day another movement stalwart, C.T. Vivian passed away. My friend and brother of several decades past in the Moorish Science Temple, Sunni Karnatu-Bey, made his transition earlier last week. And last night I watched the Netflix film The Old Guard, about a small team of warrior immortals, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood.
The day my daughter and I got tickets to the Broadway play, Hamilton, it was by divine synchronicity. A good friend, who knew I wanted to see it, heard that morning of two other friends who had tickets for that day’s matinee but suddenly could not attend. A couple of texts, a trip to the ATM, a quick handoff at Grand Central Station, a decision for my daughter to skip classes and there we were in our mezzanine seats, lapping up every note.