0 Congratulations Serena!

Wooo hooo!!

In celebration news, Serena Williams had a 3-6 6-2 6-1 victory over Simona Halep today!

image credit: Jet Magbanua

We are used to the steely strength and calm that Serena plays with on the court, and after a particularly scary time with cutting her foot on glass and suffering with blood clots, it was nice to watch her win on Tuesday over Aravane Rezai.

The powerful seventh seed is set to play against the 26th seed Maria Kirilenko in the next round. We're watching and rooting for you Ms. Williams and sending lots of good karma!

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2 Aminatta Forna, worth celebrating

image credits: Guardian.co.uk

The winners of the Commonwealth Writer's Prize were announced earlier this week with Aminatta Forna rising to the top as one of the top two winners of this prize.

Her book The Memory of Love was written to reflect a time in Sierra Leone, when the country was torn to shreds by a violent civil war in which her father was killed.

Here is a short interview where she describes her work with Bola Mosuro

Typically, western audiences have enjoyed what has been aptly named African Poverty Pornography. When stories depict war torn villages, tyrannical dictatorships, the doe-eyed journey of a village boy to the city or the starvation of human beings and animals. This book teeters dangerously towards this genre and my fear of delving into the kinds of stories I myself have lived through does not give me the sense of urgency required to spend $17 on it.

However, only a few totems of the female descendants of Africans around the World (fancy way of saying black women, no?) get recognized for their mastery of whatever foreign language they have had to learn in order to produce a literary piece of art, or for their creativity and verve. So I will read The Memory of Love to support another sister and to enjoy a masterful work of art.

If you have read the book, please let us know by including a link to your review in the comment section. Thank you!

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0 Spotlight: Melinda Doolittle

(from blackchristiannews.com)

We all remember how Melinda Doolittle, the demure, petite woman with the power house voice, became a huge sensation on American Idol in 2007. Her singing brought tears to my eyes, made me jump out of my seat and clap along or brought goosebumps to my skin. It has been a while since American Idol has had the same kind of singing sensation on the show.
Even though America (wink wink) did not think her worthy of the Title of American Idol, Melinda joined the big ranks of powerful singers in the Christian gospel singing circles where she continues to dazzle with her voice and beautiful smile.
With her website she continues to communicate with fans and allows them to get to know her, the real her, quirky and fun.
Her Album, Coming Back to You, was released in 2009 and her powerful vocals can be heard in the songs. That is not her only accomplishment, she has also written a book titled Beyond Me.
Find out what Melinda is doing today.

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0 Young Musician of the Day!

Happy Monday to you all!

I believe that music is something that is born in your soul. Sure it can be taught and expertise with an instrument can be carefully bred, but the little extra something that makes a few notes into a melody that makes you close your eyes in order to enjoy it is something that cannot be trained into a body.

I found a video in my inbox of a girl singing Anthony Dodson's now famous "Hide Your Kids" song. While her voice was certainly lovely it kinda left me feeling a little meh. One of the other videos that showed after it was of this young man playing his violin.

According to his YouTube Page, he learned to play the violin at 12 after watching his brother play it. His family is musically inclined so I guess it helps, but it is very nice to see this kind of talent.

I gotta say, I love videos of black children playing instruments and he does not disappoint! Press Play, see for yourself whether this is something you may actually like!

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0 We Can Do ANYTHING!

Two African American women from Spelman College were the 2010 winners of the AT&T Big Mobile Challenge last October.

It is not often that African American women see positive images of themselves in popular media. More often they are engaged in street brawls with each other, half naked in some music video or pregnant in line at the Welfare Office. If one only paid attention to these kinds of images, then it would be difficult to imagine that there are those who are high achievers bent on sitting at the big desk with the boys.

Enter Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller, Computer Engineering students at Spelman College.

They created an app called HBCU Buddy that allows the user to research HBCUs and their surrounding areas. Learn more about it from the link above.

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0 Spotlight: Tracy Reese

Tracy Reese (Photo from obviousmag.com)

African American women love clothes. It cannot be denied. At a gathering of black women beautiful clothes come out of the closet and are donned to present polished and beautiful silhouettes.

Michelle Obama, lauded as one of the most stylish First Wives, has become something of a fashion icon (even though the praise really should fall to her stylist if she has one. If not, well, good for her!).

In exploring fashion, certain names come easily to mind: Valentino, Vera Wang, Dolce&Gabbana, Sean John, Rocca Wear. It would seem that familiarity with design houses led by African American designers are less well known.

Hopefully this introduction is one that you will cherish. Here is Tracy Reese. The design of her clothes is clearly very feminine and creative. Her creativity was nurtured by her parents, and although she had previously thought her path lay towards Architecture and Interior design, one internship changed her life forever.

Her clothes have been described as unabashedly girly and are created for the every day woman.

Tracy Reese Website.

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0 Dreaming

NubianGraphics.com

One of my friends is a basketball junkie. Needless to say, she dragged me down into addiction and now I'm hooked. I still call the "Point Guard" a "Center" and have a million and one questions about the rules and why the referee blows the whistle so often but have learned to enjoy every single moment of it.

Today my gym hosted a High School basketball tournament and for two hours was teeming with hordes of less-than-fresh pimply teenagers ready to show their worth to the team and to the coach. The naive hoop dreams, quite evident with occasional chants like "Who are we? MVP!" were reflected in each others faces and talent that will never see them past their High School days was flaunted abundantly.

It got me thinking about my own dreams, those realized and others I abandoned years ago. I remember the anticipation and excitement whenever I thought I had placed one foot on the path to greatness. The fervor with which I attacked those tasks that promised great returns was commendable and the earth shattering disappointment was devastating when those dreams were dashed by impossible hurdles.

An adult once told me, "Terri, you need to stop fantasizing!" and I believed them. Somewhere along the way I stopped dreaming of that greatness and started the general ho-hum I'm mired in today.

This Christmas, I wish for you, and all my brothers and sisters, the ability to dream again. I wish you find the fire that once burned in your belly for incredible dreams. I wish you all success in your endeavors as we all reach to attain our goals of the greatness our ancestors had.

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0 Dreaming

NubianGraphics.com

One of my friends is a basketball junkie. Needless to say, she dragged me down into addiction and now I'm hooked. I still call the "Point Guard" a "Center" and have a million and one questions about the rules and why the referee blows the whistle so often but have learned to enjoy every single moment of it.

Today my gym hosted a High School basketball tournament and for two hours was teeming with hordes of less-than-fresh pimply teenagers ready to show their worth to the team and to the coach. The naive hoop dreams, quite evident with occasional chants like "Who are we? MVP!" were reflected in each others faces and talent that will never see them past their High School days was flaunted abundantly.

It got me thinking about my own dreams, those realized and others I abandoned years ago. I remember the anticipation and excitement whenever I thought I had placed one foot on the path to greatness. The fervor with which I attacked those tasks that promised great returns was commendable and the earth shattering disappointment was devastating when those dreams were dashed by impossible hurdles.

An adult once told me, "Terri, you need to stop fantasizing!" and I believed them. Somewhere along the way I stopped dreaming of that greatness and started the general ho-hum I'm mired in today.

This Christmas, I wish for you, and all my brothers and sisters, the ability to dream again. I wish you find the fire that once burned in your belly for incredible dreams. I wish you all success in your endeavors as we all reach to attain our goals of the greatness our ancestors had.

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