i had to watch “cloudy with a chance of meatballs” in 3D to get “for colored girls” outta my head.
tyler perry may have redeemed his past cinematic coonery with his adaption of the ntozake shange’s play “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf.” it is a collection of 20 poems that deal with intense issues of what it means to be a woman of color in the world..
it’s been a year since i dedicated two weeks to myself and to learning how to swim.
the backstory: in preparation for our fantastic sailing adventure, i had been attempting to learn how to swim. it was a lot harder than i thought it would be and i wondered if i was going about it all wrong.
george alexander wrote in the photo essay book, ”queens:”
Hair is about identity, beauty, racial pride, race politics, self-acceptance, self-expression, self-realization, class, status, fun, glamour, romance, fantasy, art, passion, joy, pain, freedom, enslavement, power.
i’ve moved a lot in my life. some childhood relocations were due to familial unrest. then i wen to college and decided i should get as far away from familiarity as possible. thus started the nomadic life: from athens to atlanta. from there, beaumont, midland, seattle, houston, albany, denver and — in a few days time — boston.
a recent new york times article got me thinking about what i’m going to do with my hair after the big boston move. finding a new stylist is proving to be so much more difficult than i was expecting.
Getting “good hair” often means transforming one’s tightly coiled roots; but it is also more freighted, for many African-American women and some men, than simply a choice about grooming. Straightening hair has been perceived as a way to be more acceptable to certain relatives, as well as to the white establishment.
i firmly believe the best antidote to racism is to talk openly about how to overcome bias.
from an article in the boston globe about our unconscious bias:
“unlearning’’ unconscious racism will require systemic change and a new understanding that everything, from portrayals of race in the media to the friends we hang out with, influence our unconscious biases and that our choices affect our biases. Read the rest of this entry »
i can’t tell you how many times i’ve been asked “what’s it like being married to a white man?” i used to get annoyed but people just don’t know any better. that’s like asking me what it’s like to have arms. my arms may be a different shape, size and color than yours but they are fundamentally the same.
Read the rest of this entry »
between a mobile phone that is always with me, two email addresses (work and personal), facebook, gmail, flickr, ichat, skype, google voice (see the new widget in the lower right), and this blog, i’m as plugged in as i think i care to be. and, no, i don’t use twitter because that’s just one more thing to keep track of. frankly, i don’t think so much of myself as to believe anyone cares what i’m doing right now enough to “follow me.” hell, i’m not sure anyone even reads this blog.
i don’t really want to make new friends. i’ve often felt like an outsider with my blood relatives so the tight circle of girls that have known me since high school and college are more like family sisters to me. but here lately i’m losing old friends as fast as i can make new ones.
it’s the babies. Read the rest of this entry »
i’ve lived all over the country. east coast, west coast and a fair amount of time in the middle. no matter where i live today, new york city will always be the place my heart calls “home.”
most people find it odd that i am soothed by the sounds of manhattan. yelling, honking, foreign languages, the clomping of police horses on asphalt. trains rumbling underfoot, bikes whizzing by, strange music coming from portable stereos and cars and windows and men dressed like a barbershop quartet.
i know. i’m supposed to be a part of the blogosphere, right? sharing my thoughts and opinions with the internet and letting it all out into the ether. so, why haven’t i bothered to write anything recently? because i’m in a rut. cranky, a little depressed, sick of the weather here and generally unsatisfied with my existence of late. take that, twitscape! Read the rest of this entry »
while i was cleaning today, i came a across a magazine article from 2007 that i ripped out of an in-flight magazine and saved because the writer, in describing herself, summed up exactly how i view myself and the predicaments i find myself in most of the time. Read the rest of this entry »
you how sometimes you look at your significant other and think, “wow. i’m lucky” and smile? i am fortunate enough to get that feeling often. it’s love but a bit better, i think. it’s adoration. he tries so hard to make me happy, usually succeeding. he’s mostly unselfish and patient and kind.
i do adore him and all his weirdness. everyday, not just on valentine’s day.
sailing was way more intense than i expected. 7 days in the caribbean bouncing around the virgin islands sounds like cake but the water was “heavy” with north swells pretty much the whole time. handling a 43-foot sailboat is a ton of work: trimming sails, helming, navigating, tacking, jibing, points of sail, docking, mooring, anchoring, right of way, man overboard drills … my brain has been jammed full with so much information it’s mush. Read the rest of this entry »
my best friend recently had a baby. i went to visit and she revealed to me that her four-year marriage is probably over. i’m still having a hard time getting my head around what she said. he seemed like such a great guy. and why get yourself all pregnant if you think it’s not working out. hope springs eternal, i guess. Read the rest of this entry »
i signed the booking agreement for sailing today. it’s a week-long course that covers everything from sail handling to reading charts to anchoring to provisioning. this officially starts the ball rolling on our fantastic sailing adventure plans. Read the rest of this entry »
it’s a new year. time to try some new things, come to grips with the last 365 days and get moving. i’ve been thinking about blogging for a while and, well, here it is. i’m not sure if i’m even up to this but i guess we’ll see. HI! Read the rest of this entry »
