Me in Oakland trying to bust a sexy Sabar solo in my pink sequin-esque outfitWest African Dance (Sabar, Djembe, Kutiro). Dressing like one of them Bohemian gypsy hoez. Trying to enjoy the moment like Imhotep (He said "Eat, Drink and be Merry for tomorrow we will die..") History, folklore, mythology, spiritualities and cultures throughout antiquity. Glorifying martyrs. Bookstores. Jewelry shopping (Swarvosky Crystal Chandelier earrings this month... Somebody needs to stop me). Greek Philosophy. Ethnology. Epistemology, Anthropology. Theology. (All the "ologys") Alchemy. Occultism. Collecting tribal accents. Building sandcastles in the Kalahari. Urban Safaris. Flea Markets. Sisterhood. Feng Shui. Wikipedia.com. Existentialism. Ebay Queen. Reminding myself to ask questions like Socrates instead of giving answers because I’m a know-it-all. Standing on the shoulders of my foremothers. School of Empiricism. I'm one of the smartest dumbest bitches you will ever meet in life. I quote the classics but simultaneously habitual for tripping in heels, walking into walls and losing car keys in my hand. I can either say something hella profound or hella stupid depending on the day or week. Kinda like a pendulum swinging back-and-forth from a realm of academic intelligentsia to montessori school drop-out. I've been a dumb blond my entire life and I embrace that quintessential aspect of myself. I over-analyze and dissect even the most insignificant aspects of life which drives my friends crazy. I love to study but never read any of the assigned curriculum in school. Instead I always managed to find the book next to it in the library more interesting, coincidentally making me the anti-christ in class. I question everything and my professors in college hated me as it was customary to bring my newfound knowledge to school and share. I’m trying to change the world but doing it in my own way which may seem counterintuitive at times. I’m definitely a work in progression. Aside from being into identity theft, sometimes hearing voices, and a short criminal record I consider myself a good catch. I believe in 'existence' before 'essence' thus I wasn't born a woman, I became one. I'm that bitch that much rather be demonized by the conventional and deified by the radical. Writing such abstract and metaphysical poetry that even I don't understand the shit. Gossiping with Tamiko. Wait did I tell you how fly I was?
I'd like to meet:
My Family, Friends & Associates..
SAVE DARFUR (our sisters are living in hell on earth…)
Rock The Vote
Helio Public Relations
Shakti Designs
Emmacita
Tamiko Hope
Rock for Darfur
Sasha Jones
Kiki Jordan
Stacee Lee
Goapele
A Poem About Ms. Doss
Ledisi (Reppin 4 the Bay Area indie soul scene at the 2008 Grammys!)
Joi (Tennessee Slim)
Sunni Patterson
Kim Hill
YahZarah
Goldfinger Creative
Mandolin
Luna Angel
Jennifer Johns
Namane Skyblaze
Myrna "Whild Peach" Brown (1959-2007)
Tekitha Washington
4th Avenue Jones
The Temple Bar
Jubella.com + YMIB +Circle of Beauty Magazine
Favela Rising
Masani Jewelry
Zanne Jewelry
Kuumba Divine Jewelry
Eklectic Funk Jewelry
Sewra's Waistbeads
Birds of a Feather Jewelry
Akua Angel Designs
Ms. Katherine Dunham (1910-2006)
Josephine Baker (1906-1975)
Mark Jenkins
Mabiba Baegne
Mamady Sano
Maimouna Keita School of Dance
Nikkanni - Guinea Dance Queen
Keina Sivadart ‘Yaaba’
Keba Konte “Bleu Ladyâ€
Djibril N'Doye “Sabarâ€
Andre Benjamin “Lady Lavaâ€
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
e. badu
Imani Uzuri
Ashaka Givens Collection
Nicacelly Designs
House of Mamasan
Fashionista Andrea Lamadora
Wildlife Works/Kenya Foundation
Hides n' Dungarees – Coming Soon
Billie Holiday (1915-1959)
Lupe Fiasco
Mos Def
Evidence-Dilated Peoples
The Elevaters
Tarsha McMillian-Hamilton
Slick n' Rose
Malik Yusef
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Music:
Traditional: Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, Roberta Flack, Curtis Mayfield, Miriam Makeba, Jevetta Steele, Youssou N'Dour, Siti Binti Saad, Tracy Chapman, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Enya, Carlos Santana, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Chaka Khan, Jimmy Cliff, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Beethoven, Stevie Wonder, Richard Marx, U2, Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper, Fela Kuti, Madonna, Siedah Garrett and too many more to nameContemporary: Goapele, Kim Hill, Joi, Lauryn, YahZarah, Conya Doss, Ledisi, Outkast, Mos Def, E. Badu, Mary J., The Fugees, Whild Peach, Gnarls Barkley, Syleena Johnson, Ras Kass, Bilal, Talib Kweli, 4th Avenue Jones, Jaguar, Lupe Fiasco, Anthony Hamilton, India.Arie, Tupac, Serengeti, Melky Sedeck, Cee-Lo Green, N'Dambi, Chinah Blaq, Les Nubians, Meshell N'Degeacello, etc.
Movies:
Favela Rising, Sarafina, 16 Blocks, Darfur Now, Casino Royale, Blood In/Blood Out, Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha, Hotel Rwanda, The Fugitive, Devil in a Blue Dress, Ocean's Eleven, Rize, Tears of the Sun, Beaches, Fried Green Tomatoes, Color Purple, Murder on the Orient Express and anything with Johnny Depp in it..
Television:
The Discovery Channel
Books:
When God Was A Woman, The Bible Myth, Civilization or Barbarism, They Came Before Columbus, The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus, Black Athena, The Joys of Motherhood, Fingerprints of the Gods, The Gods of the Egyptians, Women Who Run With the Wolves, The Way of Zen, Deceptions and Myths of the Bible, The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait, Meditations for the Humanist; Ethics for a Secular Age, Spirituality for the Skeptic, 16 Crucified Saviors before Christ, I Know why the Cagebird Sings, Sula, Yellow Raft in Blue Water, Feminism and Suffrage, The Circumcision of Women; Strategy for Eradication, House on Mango Street, Uppity Women, Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization, From Babylon to Timbuktu, From Atlantis to the Sphinx, An Unquiet Mind, Herodotus: The Histories, Iliad, The Odyssey, Aeneid, Divine Comedy, Mrs. Dalloway, Hamlet, Arthurian Legends, History of God, Golden Age of the Moor, Possessing the Secret of Joy and many more.
Heroes:
In no particular order: My mother (You have to learn to exist in the moment and appreciate the present instead of constantly living within the traumas of your past and your anticipation of the future), Frida Kahlo (I paint my own reality. My painting carries with it the message of pain), Black Diamond (And all of Liberia’s Womans Artillery Commandos), Auset (I, Isis, am all that has been, that is or shall be; No mortal man hath ever me unveiled. The fruit which I have brought forth is the Sun), My father, Friedrich Nietzsche (God is Dead), Aristotle (A sign of an educated mind is someone that can entertain ideas without necessarily accepting them), Copernicus (In the middle of everything is the sun), Hypatia (Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing), Billie Holiday (Southern trees bear strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the root), Virginia Woolf (I don't believe in aging. I believe in forever altering one's aspect to the sun), Octavia Butler (I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell), Miss Katherine Dunham (A creative person has to create), Siddartha Guatama(It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles), Sojourner Truth (Ain’t I a Woman?), Lao-Tze (The words of truth are always paradoxical), Socrates (The unexamined life is not worth living), Plato (Love is a serious mental disease), Gerald Massey (Whether considered as the God made human, or as man made divine, this character never existed as a person), MarÃa Candelaria, Lakshmibai (In her death the rebels lost their bravest and best military leader), Sarrouania of Azna, Lozen of Apaches, Che', Nehanda of Zimbabwe, Pandora (Zeus said "mingle together all things loveliest, sweetest, and best, but also mingle therewith the opposites of each." So Hephaestus took gold and dross, pure snow and highway mud, honey and gall, the bloom of the rose and the toad's venom, the voice of laughing water and the peacocks squall, the sea's beauty and its treachery, the mother bird's heart of love and the cruelty of the tiger. The goddess became Pandora "all gifted"), Niuta of Poland, Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, Manat, Aphrodite, Cécile Fatiman, Heraclitus, Serafina, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body; for giving her the most enlarged freedom of thought and action; a complete emancipation from all forms of bondage, of custom, dependence, superstition; from all the crippling influences of fear is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life), Susan B. Anthony (There is not a woman born who desires to eat the bread of dependence, no matter whether it be from the hand of father, husband or brother; for anyone who does so eat her bread places herself in the power of the person from whom she takes it), Medusa, Pythagoras (Time is the soul of this world. Number is the ruler of forms and ideas and the cause of gods and demons), Oshun, Yemoja, Nzingha of Matamba, Nandi of Zulus, Transito of Ecuador, Queen Dido, Women of Tang Dynasty, Policarpa, The Trung Sisters (My wish is to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I want to drive the enemy away to save our people. I will not resign myself to the usual lot of women who bow their heads and become concubines), Ludwig van Beethoven (Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend), Yaa Asantewaa, Cassandra (Troy Will Fall), Nanny of Maroons, Nyabinghi, Pimiko, Amaterasu, Matilda Joslyn Gage(Enforced motherhood is a crime against the body of the mother and the soul of the child), Qiu Jin (I would now rouse women's essence, spirit, to rise as birds in flight over fields, leaving swiftly earths dust, that they may speedily cross the frontier into the great world of light and brilliance. I desire that they be leaders, awakened lions, advance messengers of learning and intelligence), Anacaona, Albert Einstein (The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion), Dahomey Amazons, Edgar Allen Poe (Thank Heaven! The crisis - the danger is past, and the lingering illness is over at last - and the fever called "Living" is conquered at last), Tomyris (Still thirsty for Scythian blood Cyrus?), Josephine Baker, Cleopatra VII (Trust in Isis. She is more effective than millions of soldiers), Nefertiti, Neferteri, Nefrusobek, Agatha Christie, Hatshepsut, Makeda, Nanna, Inanna, Enheduanna, Candace of Meroe (She sat patiently on her war elephant awaiting the arrival of Alexander and when he saw her he respectfully turned around from Nubia and headed to Egypt), Kentake Amanirenas (Augustus I send you these arrows. If you want peace they are a token of my friendship and warmth. If you want war, you are going to need them), Emily Dickinson (Because I could not stop for Death She kindly stopped for me. The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality,) Hippocrates, Tiye, Sandra Cisneros (We are the footnotes of the footnotes), Ruth Green (There was a time when religion ruled the world...it was known as the Dark Ages), Shakti, Kuan-Yin, Judith of Falashas, Baba Yaga, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Amina of Zaria, Tamiko, Dahia-Al Kahina, Jezebel, Mumtaz Mahal (Beloved ornament of the palace), Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Montaigne, Sir Isaac Newton (If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants), Voltaire (If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated. If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him), Tupac Amaru (not the rapper) and many more goddesses, mambos, priestesses, prophetesses and witches that came before me…
