Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Black Scholarship


Books by Black authors and scholars.




Keep Learning About Black History With These 23 Vital Books
Black History Month might be ending, but learning about black history never should.



By Claire Fallon
·

The shortest month of the year is coming to a close, and with it, the country's yearly celebration of Black History Month. The presidential speeches have been declaimed, and the flurry of media inquiry into black achievements throughout American history is subsiding. But the end of February need not ― and should not ― be the end of learning about the history of black people.

The history of black Americans contains immense oppression and suffering, all too often papered over by white-dominated educational systems. It also contains great artistic, scientific and social achievements, for which black creators are often given little credit. With the rich history of African-Americans often ignored save for one short month each year, it's no wonder many never learn much more than George Washington Carver's peanut-based achievements.

So why not commit to learning about black history all year round? Here are 23 books, worth reading in any season, that dive deeper into major moments in black history:

Isabel Wilkerson shines a light on the human stories behind the mass movement
of black people in the rural South to Northern, Eastern and Western cities after 1915.

·      
Simon and Schuster
An inside look at the Civil Rights Movement, from one of its most prominent figures


Basic Books
This economic history argues that the evolution of American capitalism was deeply intertwined with slave labor, and documents the inhuman cruelties of the domestic slave trade and productivity pushes that allowed the cotton trade to burgeon in the South.

·       
Metropolitan Books
Family Properties explores an oft-forgotten historical injustice: redlining, a practice by which federal agencies denied mortgage insurance to buyers in black or integrated areas. Redlining rapidly drove segregation and left black families prey to exploitative sellers. Beryl Satter, whose father battled these injustices as a Chicago lawyer, paints both a personal and a sweeping portrait of the phenomenon.

·        
·        ·       
Vintage
For anyone who remains unclear on the problem with white feminism, Killing the Black Body makes it eminently clear. Dorothy Roberts lays out the many distinct ways black women's reproductive rights have been systemically infringed upon, such as forced sterilization - injustices which have often been ignored by a mainstream feminism focused on white, middle-class women's concerns.




·       


Harper Perennial
A portrait of a legendary Supreme Court justice as a lawyer, Devil in the Grove catches up with Thurgood Marshall shortly before he brought the seminal Brown v Board of Education suit The book focuses on Marshalls defense of four young black men in Florida targeted by prosecutors and the KKK after a young white woman made rape allegations.






















·       
Nation Books
Ibram X. Kendi examines how racist ideas were spread throughout American history in this sweeping, award-winning history of thought. Bonus: He recently published a reading list for The New York Times, consisting of 24 books he describes as "the most influential books on race and the black experience published in the United States for each decade of the nation's existence."



















·       
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
A detailed history of an influential Chicago-based newspaper that gave voice to the black community, The Defender traces the publication from its founding in 1905 to its role in speaking out about Jim Crow to its profound impact on politics in the middle of the century.
























·       




You can call it current events or history in the making, but Wesley Lowery, a Washington Post reporter who has been covering police brutality and Black Lives Matter, brings together the results of his reporting - both political and personal.


What other books about black history should everyone be adding to their must-read lists? Add your own recommendation in the comments.

Naline Hampton



Paris Hilton in West Hollywood !!!!


Some Things You See To Believe!



Amy Adams exquisite in a sensual way wearing a strapless emerald gown at 42 attending the British Academy Film Awards in London's Royal Albert Hall. Feb. 2017. photo by David Fischer.




Celine Dion a uimit intr-un incrustata-paietă Zuhair Murad rochie...                
She is one of those women whose beauty and presence and complexities of gifts she can give soul to soul who is so astonishing you can't believe she exists, and has not spoken to you face to face. But, you understand she does so soul to soul in her music deep set in her eyes. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 


Heidi Klum attending 2016 Emmy Awards !!!!




Jane Krakowski attending the 2016 Emmys in a vibrant blue gown !!!!



False Identity Mistakes.


Statue of Bronze Native Woman.
"I apologize for not knowing the name of the artist. Don't know how to find it. If anyone does I am more than interested in correcting this slight. It is one of the things about the Internet I don't like: respect for intellectual property."



Knowing God in the Feminine

If God has both femininity and masculinity, what about the times when God, in the feminine, wants to express Her Subjectivity? I've been wanting for a long, long time to discuss this. Now, I expect women will be very excited and more then keen to look at authority, their authority. I also expect that when they pray and liaise with God, in either gender format, they'll have differing, or potentially different questions, questions of God. I am more... comfortable to answer them if I know they know I have Femininity, and they won't be ratted out, crucified or scorned, but would flow in endless and even blissfully positive directions.


It is important for women to look at why God deferred certain action, why that action is favorable, feminine and productive, why patience is necessary, not just a virtue. So, all in all, the hope is to give, give love; and, for this I deferred giving things I have within Myself. Our legacy yearned for freedom but no freedom is secure without the freedom of God in both genders. For example, or case in point: Why didn't the Bible outline Jesus as referring to his discussions with his, or His, Divine Mother? Did he have the discussions and yet, the Bible leaves them out? Or, did he not have them?


As a percentage of understanding, very few human beings understand or have come to know God in the Feminine. It is very, very sad. Even so, the Deferral of God, in the Feminine, and also in the Masculine, as a Father who also with a Mother want the best for Her/His Children. The Good News is we can talk about the process, what has been deferred, meaning specific topics and unlock the past, free people and engage, knowing that God will continually educate, like all parents, to love their children through time, experience, and placement.

Adruma Victoria



You are asking people to unlock the past, Adruma. That is beyond an intellectual capacity. In a Euro-American setting like this one with most if not all subscribing to a measured concept of reality as we are taught this is quiet the stretch if one believes the intellect and the heart, or spiritual matters are separate. If so, it makes it hard to plunge into the quest you've laid out, and makes cowardice easy to disguise... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories Feb. 27, 2017



A facsimile of a woman, or the idea of a woman has not risen to the heights maturity naturally guides feminine energies? Women tell the stories of our times. What is she telling us about her versus us?
- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories



Restoration Asleep




asleep

Sleep is a hope of waking up. Asleep are the dreams of resurrection. Deep in slumber is trust of awakening. If we go through the necessity of sleep conscious do we wake up in the morning to the awakening of consciousness?  - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.6.16

 

Monday, February 27, 2017

A M E N !




We see more of ourselves looking at what is beautiful the way it (an object), she (a woman) engages our senses. Amen is said to the surprise of soul discovering itself. Seeing what we can do with ourselves is its own beauty. Amen is said from a tradition of reverence in a child's spirit appreciating what is beyond immediate grasp! Amen is said in the first gasp for breath seeing a woman's body that may or may not be given to a man. It is not just want it is presence that says, "Amen" to the Creator for creating the forms we need to see, be within and explore for identity in the essence of the female form. As men it is Amen to the strength women build within us! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2/6/16




jeans sliding off a right body.


 

Glamour, its fun!


Dakota Johnson with her mother Melanie Griffith by Jordan Strauss at 2015 Academy Awards


Dakota Johnson wore a necklace by Cartier from a museum to the 2017 Oscars.
photo by Frazer Harrison


Faye Dunaway a provocative actress at 28 & a subtle beauty after 72 years of aging


Fine Stones of the Oscars.


Jessica Biel wears a handcrafted Tiffany & Co. collar, made using over 350 uniquely shaped 18k yellow gold fronds and over 200 baguette diamonds. The collar is roughly 60 carats. 2017 Oscars.
© Frazer Harrison/Getty


Charlize Theron claimed, 'I've never been a fan of labels.'


Charlize Theron wore diamond chandelier earrings to the 2017 Oscars. photo by George Pimentel.


Kirsten Dunst wearing Niwaka diamond earrings and necklace.
photo by Kevin Mazur for Getty Images.



Sunday, February 26, 2017

Above the Fashion, Beauty!



Taraji P. Henson extreme in her beauty at 67th Emmy's (2015)


Taraji P. Hensen wore a NIRAV MODI statement necklace, made with 103 carats of diamonds from the brand's Luminance collection to the 2017 Oscars. photo by Jeff Kravitz.



Janelle Monae wore an Ellie Saab necklace attached to her gown to the 2017 Oscars. photo by Steve Granitz.



Ruth Negga wore Irene Neuwirth featuring Gemfields responsibly sourced Mozambican rubies. Her head piece features 146.16 carats of Gemfields Mozambican rubies, the earrings include 37.18 carats of Gemfields Mozambican rubies and 3.26 carats of diamonds, and the ring showcased a 14.89 carat Gemfields Mozambican ruby framed by white diamond pave, all set in blackened white gold to the 2017 Oscars.

photo: © Frazer Harrison/Getty


NEW Atheists thoughts on...


"...You don’t have to be a believer to see that religion genuinely offers something to its adherents (often when nothing else is available) and that what it provides is neither inconsequential nor silly.


By contrast, the New Atheists engage with religion purely as a set of ideas, a kind of cosmic rulebook for believers. On that basis, it’s easy to point out inconsistencies or contradictions in the various holy texts and mock the faithful for their gullibility.


But what happens then? You’re left with no explanation for their devotion other than a susceptibility to fraud. To borrow Dawkins’ title, if God is nothing but an intellectual delusion then the billions of believers are, well, deluded; a collection of feeble saps in need of enlightenment from their intellectual superiors.


That’s the basis for the dickishness that so many people now associate from the New Atheism, a movement too often exemplified by privileged know-it-alls telling the poor that they’re idiots. But that’s only part of it. For, of course, the privileged know-it-alls are usually white and those they lampoon the most are invariably Muslim.


For the extraordinary contemporary popularity of the New Atheism also relates to something else that happened at the dawn of the new century – namely, the terrorist attacks on 2001. It’s 9/11, more than anything else, that divides the old atheism from the new..." by Jeff Sparrow nov. 29, 2015  



Monte Aloia Nature Park in Galicia, Spain



Virtue of Insight.


Dat Ass Tho
"I'm 39. Sometimes I feel not old enough to be considered old or young enough to be considered young.
Like I'm in limbo until further notice. Does anyone else have that problem?"

"I remember. The difference to make is based on how you envision your middle years and your deep perception about old age. Will you become an Old Wise Woman?" - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 2/23/17


Dat Ass Tho

"Church dress is always controversial on a Black American woman's body. It is the body, not the fashion, that is the subject of sin, the object of desire. The lesson is for men to become impeccable in their spirit."
- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 10.24.16




Right size Black women like this are the substance of dreams. How and if that dream unfolds is dependent upon the substance of her integrity, the powers of her will, and the powers she has unfolded. But, when men like Dilei Trocato say in Portuguese, Cavalona quero come vc grandona bem gostoso tesuda! he means as I understand language, "Big Horse I want eat you great big hot mama!" Do they distract from the deep implications of my insight? If it doesn't are you not looking into her eyes? - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 2.23.17


Men's thoughts evoked by her...


Jordan Carver the morning of February 21, 2016 as poetry ...


Dear Woman,
Sometimes you’ll just be too much woman.
Too smart,
Too beautiful,
Too strong....
Too much of something that makes a man feel like less of a man,
Which will make you feel like you have to be less of a woman.
The biggest mistake you can make
Is removing jewels from your crown
To make it easier for a man to carry.
When this happens, I need you to understand
You do not need a smaller crown 👑
You need a man with bigger hands. #quoteoftheday




Jordan Carver on the morning of


Victor Kingsley If they feel less of a man for a woman being a woman, then they are not a man. Ladies be the way you want, it does not bother me, I am secure in my manhood.

Leonardo Arias Remember too much pride can break hearts even your own. By all means don't settle for someone who is not at your level. You will know when you're with the right man.

David Hartley It's true, that you, women, are beautiful in all the ways that man is not. You are glamorous and stunning while he is humble and hard working. Two sides of the same coin....the real question is not if he is man enough for you but rather can you love him for all of things he is not and find value in the everyday and mundane tasks that allows your spirit to run free?

Jesus David Garcia Villada Not want to be imprudent, but do not tell me you're there after a great performance... But really I do not understand what your point. Sometimes you'll just be too much woman...? I understand, you are besutiful, yes; is you strong, yes. But?

Darrell Mennie as they say, Only boys have fear of a woman with self confidence and power, Men will help rise them up higher.

Steve Romisher That's right, women love confident, secure loyal men who are centered, and can handle a woman at their worst and at their best, and be their rock, never change who you are for anyone as long as you know you're doing right by your mate, and yourself. (Feb. 21, 2016)



 

BATHING IN WATER





"A body bathing is in a sensual ritual."
- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories
2.6.16


Bathing is a delight, a sensual experience. As ritual it is necessary. As an engagement with the element of water is it a relationship with the holiness of care for the soul? You can expect to be cleansed by water. You can expect to be bathed in a tub of water, or a clean river. Water can turn up the volume of the sounds in the soul many people avoid listening to in the rush of their day. It is the rush of water falling on the body that speaks of the relationship of water to soul, soul to knowledge and waiting to patience and growth to discovery. ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2/6/16

 

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Sophia LOREN and other challenges for Black Men.


Sophia Loren in a striking pose as Cleopatra.

As repulsed and angry at the insistence of white people that African stories, historical references, Hebrew customs, and traditions, and Egyptian culture and high sophistication was white it took me but a pause to study why and know that psychologically whites aren't prepared for the truth or exposure outside the myths they created to cover the evil they'd done.

Hedy Lamarr, who played Delilah in the mid-20th century version of Sampson, and Sophia Loren in a period piece made me to set aside my aversion to white indoctrination until they went off screen, or I laid the picture down on the coffee table. Those two were so profoundly beauty and the awe they consistently got as a reaction from them was breathtaking. Anything that takes the breath away requires time to recirculate the system of breath that believes in living. Restorative properties of beauty meet legendary proportions a few times in each man's lifetime. We remember them trying to open the reasons why.

Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories




The Epitome of Perfection Part 8

Some breathless moments for me began with the sight or the recollection of Sophia Loren, or perhaps her presence challenged the very notion of Italian women's supremacy over other European women. It didn't. Did it detangle the story that accompanies white women worldwide wherever they go that they are the ideal ? No. It did not.

For an Indian, as I am; Sophia Loren, I could not judge harshly because she supplied the weight to the feeling of deep beauty transcending a social order and the social norm. It was just a refreshing time hearing her voice, listening to her talk, looking at her imaging you were with her, could be with her, and were acknowledged by her.

Of course at the height of her beauty (that's inaccurate her beauty did not wane), and her career it was dangerous for Colored people to express or worse exhibit gushing or even casual desire for any white woman. A 'member' (what Negroes used to called themselves and each other away from white folks) could get killed by a white woman in degrees. Black men, in the public eye, need to examine this, and their occupation with beautiful white women amongst themselves preferably because an assembly of like-minded individuals brings clarity solitude can't and won't because one person needs the other person. If being a separate entity unto one's self does not help a man trapped in the child support system, and that threatens his freedom, why resort to it during the period of examination crucial to your development, and later initiation rites?  That is a helluva a leap, but it isn't. The subjects are related. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories Jan. 4, 2014





Mystique is important to employ. More than a defense it is a glory, a substance of things hoped for, a manifestation of things worked on. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 1.4.17

Simplicity is She



A body simply attired is a poem, a haiku poem. A woman's body is her story. When it is a man's story is it honestly connected to the higher aspect of manhood, or the lower demonstration of crudeness? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.6.16

 

Friday, February 24, 2017

Glance: a look within.




"Deepest powers live where dwells the conflicts between life and death. When the possibility of resurrection enters this realm new birth is possible. The place between a woman's legs is not a place. It is space, divine kinship with elements away from the clutch of crude spirits if a woman has those powers, and between her head, her heart, her vagina is the womb Creation came from! Of course, a nigger wouldn't get this. A concubine would not understand her role if set in these times and the preacher would not understand what his Christian faith did not need him to grasp. . . Now, there's a riddle to existence!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories Feb. 24, 2017













Deep truth. The weakness is a strength in a man, and a void in a boy.
- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories








Street walker. They have hard lives being idolized in film, being self-proclaimed bitches as if that were a battle chant. They are property once a woman. They are the lost daughters. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 2.24.17

SIMPLICITY is an Art form.


Deep in the face of African women the insight of St. Augustine's words, "Love is the beauty of the soul." obviously did not consider African women, but the truth does. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories




"Deep purity has its hold on the wise. It awakens the deaden.
It can but the dead need to know if they want to arise!"
~ Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories
(Feb. 23, 2017)






Teaching the Soul through Breasts




Crystal Clear holding her breasts as big as she is strikes a cord of familiarity
extending backwards as the Sankofa bird remembering the Mother Land.
- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 12.1.15

 

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Instagram, the value of


Viktoria Odintcova, a Russian model sitting in a park. 



Wearing jeans cut off way above her thighs, a black loose fitting t-shirt with a V-cut showing her ample breasts, and tennis shoes, Viktoria Odintcova allowed herself to hang on to the grip of a man 73 stories above the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates dangling in the air to have pictures taken for the 'likes' on her Instagram account. The video features the crew practicing on ground, and then arriving at the Cayan Tower in Dubai to do the real thing (without permission). This is an international problem and she violated laws. The most grievous thing she did was to be socially disrespectful and contemptuous of Arab culture and the rules of safety accepted by nations without exceptions made for 'entitled' people from European countries. Somehow, Europeans and white Americans are snug in their assumptions of exclusivity.

Well, there is another thing not taken into consideration. There are ripple effects. Global economies. The things citizens do in other countries have impact internationally, and during a time of Arabic people's reaction to Western powers she left herself vulnerable in the part of the world who see her in a different light out of a woman's place in their house! Also, an assistant to the chief of police in Dubai said that Viktoria Odintcova “had been summoned to sign an undertaking not to repeat any dangerous moves that could endanger her life in Dubai.” According to Emirati newspaper The National

This young wisp of a woman, Viktoria, "grips a blond helper’s hand as he confidently encourages her to lean away from the top of the 1,000-foot building. As she leans back, her hair flows and her eyes close, and somehow she gets comfortable enough to look serene in images captured by her team. As if that were not enough of a risk, she then gets down on her knees, while still holding the hand of her “spotter” and then gracefully flops off the rails, the guy’s forearm strength the only thing keeping her from plummeting to the ground.

Somehow, she still looks beautiful, with her T-shirt falling off her shoulders, and her sneakers (they’re not even fancy suction-cupped shoes or something high-tech!) kicking about as if she’s just dangling from the side of a pool."

The Russian model is a thrill seeker. She has done other stunts in other parts of the world. Daredevils are not unusual. They are generally found in every culture as variations of the sort in guises such as wildly creative musicians or artists, soldiers of exceptional skill, athletes, politicians, parents, and so forth.  In today's world daredevils like this young woman face a challenge: too much attention immediately and a lack of business acumen. They cannot live invisible lives as we older people all have been able to do in times past. She will probably have her insurance rates increase. Undisciplined or uncaring or not knowing better people like her have to broadcast every adventure of their lives to be liked by total strangers, who either love and admire them, or despise them.

For 'likes' on Instagram, Angela Nikolau, another Russian model who last year in 2017 stepped off the roof of a ridiculously tall building in Guangzhou, China, in an adorable dress and heels! Viktoria Odintcova posed on the edge of a cliff in Sri Lanka, and has also bungee-jumped in Sochi, Russia, with a camera in hand, and prettily posed on the edge of a cliff in Sri Lanka.

Top model Coco Rocha pulled something similar when she balanced in pink heels on a ledge lots of stories up with no strings attached for the cover of Harper’s Bazaar Taiwan over the summer. Then she sat on the ledge, saying, “So here we are on set, you think it’s a normal day, until you might be asked to do something like this, and you do it willingly, ’cuz you love the art of fashion,” in her behind-the-scenes video for Instagram. She made sure to add the hashtag #DontTryThisAtHome.

It is childish. It's fun. The urge within them must burn to act out what they envision but the dangers are in the shadows and children raised to be unaware of how things work are easy targets in the vicious political games of terror, exploitation and a few other nefarious ventures. The questions they didn't ask most likely were who would protect them? How do I be disrespectful, and why is it important to have deep knowledge with your dreams?


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
Feb. 22, 2017  



Viktoria Odintcova dangling from the 73rd floor of Cayan Tower in Dubai for Instagram likes in Feb. 2017.


Russian model, Viktoria Odintcova dangling above Dubais from the 73rd floor of Cayan Tower in Feb. 2017.