Is There This in Life: our Answers?

Naked Black woman. Deep beauty, overwhelming powers. This is a book cover for Chika Unigwe's book titled, "On Black Sister's Street"

"Is this lust? No, this is power, the power of beginnings. Every Black man needs to develop himself, to ready himself for the 'one'. That is just one story told here..." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 6/10/17

Is This Lust? 

https://www.instagram.com/isthislust/ 

body of Iskra Lawrence by photographer, Heather Hazzan is a white woman.

photographer, Doug Ochoa took this photo of Abby Parece. There is a lot of trust between the two!

I don't know what inspired William T. Stoddard to write this after seeing the photographic work of Doug Ochoa, but it deserved a listen:

"Criticism often produced a feeling of isolation, a feeling of you and me, separated by a great divide. We learned many defense mechanisms at an early age, thinking that a good defense would be the best protection from further reproach.

We have continued this approach as adults. Whether it’s a confrontation with a stranger on the street or an argument with our partner in the bedroom, we believe that we need good excuses to explain ourselves and good logic to defend ourselves. We behave almost as though we were professional negotiators, our own little lawyers." [May 24, 2017]

Intelligence, Resistence, and what it took. . .

Black man, Black woman as lovers motivated Africans to explore the notions of freedom erroneously defined by whites during and after slavery. The couple is a dangerous form of retaliation. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 2/8/18

Health of a Nation

John Conyers on Why He Keeps Introducing a Medicare for All Bill.

"First elected to Congress in 1965, John Conyers is the oldest serving representative in the House... He has won re-election twenty-five times and is serving in his twenty-sixth term. And he has been introducing a Medicare-for-All bill in the House since 2003...

on his website, he explains why: ...

... The United States still spends almost twice as much per person on health care as any other country, yet our key outcomes – life expectancy, infant mortality and preventable deaths – too often lag behind our peers. A recent Commonwealth Fund study ranked the U.S. healthcare system dead last among 11 highly developed countries in terms of quality, efficiency and access to health care.

... More and more people across the country understand that a single-payer healthcare system is the only way to guarantee quality care and at the same time reduce medical costs.

...That is why I have introduced my bill, The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, in every Congress since 2003. It is co-sponsored by more than 50 Members of Congress and support continues to grow."

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/8/9/1688077/-John-Conyers-on-Why-He-Keeps-Introducing-a-Medicare-for-All-Bill

Myth America.

I haven't verified this story but: “A teacher at East Middle School in Farmington Hills, Mich. is being accused of forcibly dragging a black sixth-grade student from his seat for refusing to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance.

The unnamed teacher is reportedly under investigation and was put on leave from his duties after “violently” grabbing young Stone Chaney out of his seat for not standing.

“The teacher consultant comes up behind me and snatches me out of my chair violently,” he told WDIV-4 of the Sept. 7 incident. “I was so confused. I didn’t know what was going on.”

These reactions are from white Americans unable to see themselves through other's eyes. No one gives a damn about that pain of theirs. It has always been like this: Blacks and others conquered and dominated by Euro-Americans have always stood above and away with their intimate knowledge of our white people! When light hits upon their myths there is always a violent reaction. It is fear based, but belongs to them. Because they haven't the propensity to do their spiritual work leave them to be, is what Black protest is about on a deeper and invisible level! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Bill Russell, 11 time NBA champion, takes a knee.

"[Francis Scott Key] shared a general view of the free people of color as shiftless and untrustworthy: a nuisance, if not a menace, to white people. He spoke publicly of Africans in America as "a distinct and inferior race of people, which all experiences proves to be the greatest evil that afflicts a community."'

~ Jefferson Morley / Snow-Storm in August: Washington City, Francis Scott Key, and the Forgotten Race Riot of 1835 p.40 

AS We Appear.

a Black man, Merv, on the streets of LA taken by photographer, Wil Cohen, in June of 2017.

"Whoa! There is a rare subject: a Black man without the feminine traits white Americans like to believe in! Black men are complex. It is in the way we appear in their history that disturbs them in their nightmares, and you, the photographer, captured it, or simply took the picture and what I've spoken of came alive within me?" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8/13/17 

A Story of BEAUTY

January 2, 2016 this couple became engaged at The National Shrine of our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, IL. It began as a normal day enjoying time alone before having to go get their kids from nana's house. Amiana and Dennis better known as Ami and Tim went to the movies first for that last "alone time before the kids" and proceeded to head to Nana's to get their sons.

Nana had the bright idea of letting the kids see the lights and pet the camels so everyone loaded up to go to the Shrine for the Christmas lights before they were put up for the season. At the very end of the light display the family got out to light a candle as they always had, Ami went up first to light her candle. Tim walked along with her but did not follow in lighting the candles, she turned around and there he was! On a bended knee with a beautiful ring! Ami was surprised beyond belief! Her mom, sister, and sons were holding a sign that read "Have a SPARKLING NEW YEAR". She burst into tears and of course said yes!

After being in shock for about 10 minutes Ami got back in the car with her now fiancée and family and screamed with excitement for the rest of the night! It was more than the engagement ring, it was the clarity that even though the couple had experienced "life's storms" over the 16+ years of knowing each other, it was that moment he placed the ring was on her finger she KNEW WITHOUT A DOUBT that LOVE WILL ALWAYS FIND ITS WAY!

Amiana and Dennis will be getting married May 6, 2017 at the very place they were engaged! The National Shrine of our Lady of the Snows.

This couple, Amiana and Dennis were engaged here at the

National Shrine of our Lady of the Snows.

They will marry here May 6, 2017.

Gateway Bridal Shows

To Think About

Mr. Todd, a timeless quality you captured between eras that speaks very well about yesterday and today for the way Black men had to live and can now chose to live. It is all up to their concept of freedom and the depth of their commitment to unravel the contradictions of freedom. . . - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4.11.16

black photographer Derrel Todd captured timeless image of Damon Fleming
for Fott Print Fotos (2016)

Matthew Alexander Henson, first Black Arctic explorer was explorer, Robert Peary's first mate over a 20 year period to the various places around the globe...

Matthew Alexander Henson was the first Black Arctic explorer. He was Robert Peary's first mate on their expeditions. He spent 18 years on expedition with Peary as his navigator and craftsman. He traded with the Inuit tribe and even learned their language. He is credited with being the first man to reach the Geographic North Pole (although many people dispute this). He is ...the first Black man to be accepted into the Explorers Club because of his achievements while exploring the Arctic. He was taken in by a sailor as a child where he learned to read, write, and navigate the sea. He went to many countries. He was working at a clothing store in Washington, DC in 1887 when he met Robert Peary. Peary heard of his skills as a navigator and took him on an expedition to Nicaragua. Henson became Peary's first mate after impressing him with his skills as a navigator. They then set out to explore the Arctic for more than 20 years. Henson is the only non-Inuit man to master driving and training dog sled teams using Inuit techniques. ~ anon

 

Famous Slave Musician

first Black pianist to win national fame, Thomas Greene Bethune.

The first Black pianist to win national fame was Thomas Greene Bethune, [Blind Tom]. He was also the first black artist known to have performed at the White House. Then about ten years old, he played the piano for President James Buchanan. Born a slave near Columbus, Georgia, Bethune’s talent as a composer and a pianist was soon recognized by Colonel Bethune, who had purchased him in 1850.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/467389267560870300/ 

Black on White lovers

Flora 

overcoming, becoming!

Tuskegee Airman, Martin Luther King Jr. Bodyguard Dies at 93

September 5, 2016
Camila Domonoske



Dabney Montgomery fought for America on two battlegrounds: in southern Italy, during World War II, and in the American South, during the civil rights movement.

Montgomery, who died on Saturday at the age of 93, was a ground crewman with the Tuskegee Airmen. He went on to be a bodyguard for Martin Luther King Jr., guarding the civil rights leader during the march from Selma, Ala. — his hometown, Montgomery, along with the other Tuskegee Airmen, received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007.

The heels from the shoes he wore during the march from Selma to Montgomery will be on display in the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, which is opening later this month.

Dabney Montgomery grew up in Selma; his father was a fireman (a stoker) for Southern Railroad.
"Watching my father board his train, I wanted to be an engineer when I grew up," he told the Wall Street Journal last year. "But only white men were engineers then, and only a few blacks became firemen."

As a young man Montgomery was drafted, trained as a ground support crew and sent with the Tuskegee Airmen to southern Italy, where he supported the pilots.

"When I saw guys who looked like me flying airplanes, I was filled with hope that segregation would soon end," he told the Journal.

But when he returned home at the end of the war, discrimination was rampant.
After he was discharged from duty in Atlanta, Montgomery went to the train station to head home to Alabama. He described what happened next in an oral history project by the Alliance of Ethics and Art.

"Before I could get in, a white officer threw up his hand. 'You can't come in this door, boy, you got to go around the back,' " Montgomery remembers. "That was 10 minutes after I received my honorable discharge."

Things were even worse once he got to Selma, he says. He told the Wall Street Journal that when he tried to register to vote, the woman at the courthouse told him he needed the signatures of three white men.

Montgomery got the signatures. When he brought them in, there was a new requirement: that he own $1,000 worth of property. He didn't have it, and she wouldn't let him register.
He went to college on the GI Bill and moved to New York, but the civil rights movement brought him back to the south.

In an interview, Montgomery described the moment he decided to go home:

"I was sitting at home in New York City and I saw that attack on people in Selma on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. They gassed them and beat them with sticks — the sheriff, the officials in their uniforms, because they was marching to the governor's office to vote.
"And I saw them knocked down, and I saw the gas in the air, and I was sitting here — this is happening in my hometown, Selma! I said, 'I'm going and get[ting] a taste of that gas.'
"I went to my director and said, 'I've got to go home. ... I'm going home to take part in that movement.' "

So he did. He joined the protests in Selma and became one of Martin Luther King Jr.'s bodyguards, The Associated Press reports, guarding the leader on the famous 1965 march from Selma.
The AP notes that Montgomery, who later moved back to New York and settled in Harlem, continued to serve his community for his entire life:

"He worked for the New York City Housing Authority and as a volunteer outreach worker for a nonprofit that assists the elderly.
"Montgomery remained active until his final weeks, frequently visiting schools to talk to children about his experiences growing up in Alabama, serving in the war and marching for civil rights.
" 'He just loved motivating young people to be somebody,' [his wife] Amelia Montgomery said. 'That was his joy.' "

Tuskegee Airman Dabney Montgomery waves to the crowd as he is introduced before the start of a baseball game in New York. in June 2013. photo by Kathy Willens for AP

Women to know Men to find out 3

Innocent Black & sexy say something ...

6.

An innocent looking, Black and sexy woman says something to the senses of men. The calibre of each man attracted to her tells the woman, the recipient of their attraction to her powers, is a story discernible within seconds. Translated to a man's head is either an intellectual process leading to a decision with good consequences, or a non-process leading to the head attached to drive, uncontrolled desire, and fire. Sex appeal's guises are shields for a woman, and tricksters for men to 'see', or be manipulated by. It is the proper order of the intangibles men cannot have access to without invitation and invitations come by knowledge and intimate knowing of things beyond the veils between women's legs, surrounding their heart chambers, and intellectual promiscuity into the complex talk culture has in store for women's compromises. Attraction after dissection isn't as simple as initial reactions. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3.13.15

Hegre Art - Flora 

DICK GREGORY



flag of Black Americans, Red for the blood shed, Black for the People, Green for the land the whites stole from the Africans.

Dick Gregory, A Real Inspiration and True Warrior



Richard Claxton 'Dick' Gregory is an inspiring Black American comedian and civil rights activist whose social satire changed the way white Americans perceived Black American comedians since he first performed in public. His participation in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's is well-documented, as are his efforts on behalf of American Indians, for world peace and against hunger.

"We used to root for the Indians against the cavalry, because we didn't think it was fair in the history books that when the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a massacre." --Dick Gregory

Legendary Activist Dick Gregory was on the frontline in the sixties during the Civil Rights Era; today he continues to be a "drum major for justice and equality."

Gregory was arrested for civil disobedience several times. As a part of his activism, he went on several hunger strikes to publicize the world hunger problem, to draw attention to the nation's drug abuse epidemic, and to emphasize the plight of the American Indians.

After a childhood of poverty in St. Louis, Gregory attended college on a track scholarship and later served two years in the army. In the middle 1950s he concentrated on finding work as a comedian, always having had, as he says, "a good rap."

As he became better established as a comedian, Gregory put his convictions into practice by devoting much of his time to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

On behalf of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Congress on Racial Equality, and other prominent civil rights organizations, Gregory made appearances at demonstrations, marches, and rallies throughout the country.

Dick Gregory and his activism spurred him to run for mayor of Chicago in 1966 and for president in 1968 which garnered substantial media attention.

Many American Indians retaliated with their own adaptation of 1960s civil disobedience -- fish-ins -- to protest interference with treaty rights. The war also continued in the media as a parade of the famous came to support the American Indian cause: Marlon Brando was arrested in 1964 while "helping some Indian friends fish" on the Puyallup River, Gregory was jailed for joining the American Indians in illegal fishing.





Dick Gregory

In the early 1970s Gregory abandoned comedy to focus on his political interests, which widened from race relations to include such issues as violence, world hunger, capital punishment, drug abuse and poor health care.

Gregory ran for President of the United States in 1968 as a write-in candidate of the Freedom and Peace Party, which had broken off from the Peace and Freedom Party.

Gregory became an outspoken critic of the Warren Commission findings that President JFK was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.

On March 6, 1975, Gregory and assassination researcher Robert Groden appeared on Geraldo Rivera's late night ABC talk show Goodnight America. An important historical event happened that night when the famous Zapruder film of JFK's assassination was shown to the public on TV for the first time in history.

The public's response and outrage to that showing led to the forming of the Hart-Schweiker investigation, which contributed to the Church Committee Investigation on Intelligence Activities by the United States, which resulted in the House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation.

Gregory was an outspoken feminist, and in 1978 he joined the National ERA March for Ratification and Extension, a march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the United States Capitol of over 100,000 on Women's Equality Day (August 26), 1978 to demonstrate for a ratification deadline extension for the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution, and for the ratification of the ERA.

The Women's Movement was largely successful in securing gender equality in the laws and society.





Frederick Douglass

Gregory and Mark Lane conducted landmark research into the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which helped move the U.S. House Assassinations Committee to investigate the murder, along with that of John F. Kennedy.

Mark Lane was author of conspiracy theory books such as Rush to Judgment. The pair wrote the MLK conspiracy book Code Name Zorro, which postulated that convicted assassin James Earl Ray did not act alone.

Gregory was an outspoken activist during the US Embassy Hostage Crisis in Iran. In 1980 he traveled to Tehran to attempt to negotiate the hostages' release and engaged in a public hunger strike there, weighing less than 100 pounds (45 kg) when he returned to the United States.

In 1998 Gregory spoke at the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with President Bill Clinton in attendance. Not long after, the President told Gregory’s long-time friend and P.R. Consultant, Steve Jaffe, “I love Dick Gregory; he is one of the funniest people on the planet.”

They spoke of how Gregory had made a comment on Dr. King’s birthday that broke everyone into laughter, when he noted that the President made Speaker Newt Gingrich ride “in the back of the plane,” on an Air Force One trip overseas.




Huey P. Newton (l.) said, I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.

Since the late 1980's, Gregory has been a figure in the health food industry by advocating for a raw fruit and vegetable diet.

At a Civil Rights rally marking the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, Gregory criticized the United States, calling it "the most dishonest, ungodly, unspiritual nation that ever existed in the history of the planet. As we talk now, America is 5 percent of the world's population and consumes 96 percent of the world's hard drugs".

In response to published allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had supplied cocaine to predominantly Black American areas in Los Angeles, thus spurring the crack epidemic, Gregory protested at CIA headquarters and was arrested.

Gregory announced a hunger strike on September 10, 2010, saying in a commentary published by the Centre for Research on Globalization in Montreal that he doubted the official U.S. report about the attacks on September 11, 2001.

"One thing I know is that the official government story of those events, as well as what took place that day at the Pentagon, is just that, a story. This story is not the truth, but far from it. I was born on October 12, 1932. I am announcing today that I will be consuming only liquids beginning Sunday until my eightieth birthday in 2012 and until the real truth of what truly happened on that day emerges and is publicly known."

"I never learned hate at home, or shame. I had to go to school for that." --Dick Gregory

- author unknown



Haile Selassie I with a student

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6-PACKS

a body builder



Bodybuilding Motivation



"What is it that fixates women of the last two decades to an ideal of body perfection by a standard long held by men? Within the last decade women have accepted the inherent disrespect of their wombs by referring to the growth of their child in their bodies as a baby bump. There is no outcry about it, so apparently the essence of a woman doesn't matter beyond her body's accessibility, and chances of getting laid, married or admired? 

It is an odd contradiction in the face of a young girl coming up in a time when direction is governed by fears of not being acceptable, or having a cavalier attitude towards standards of being, character, power and divinity. It is no longer an American distinction. We've carried this irreverence to other countries with missionary fervor, and altered cultures the world over for a very long time. Having been successful in this we somehow feel we cannot or do not have any responsibility in this transition from the ideal to the crude. Western women have for centuries been chattel from the perspective of European histories. We Africans and Native people puzzled over the demands of such a belief and paradigm over the centuries of contact. 

Today, it is something every group in the U.S. is struggling with. Without proper tools, and the advantage of the training a warrior receives the power of conformity is greater than the truth of one's authenticity. Another generation of women are coming of age disconnected from the Sacred Powers of their Wombs, and another generation of boys will never enjoy the discovery of being inside of and a part of the balancing forces of Sacred Women. 

What is yours and what is my spiritual responsibility? is the next question to ask and answer in the mirror before us!"  - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.28.14





black woman athlete & NPC Competitor, Ambi



PHOTOGRAPHY: Black Subjects



Black woman, Shawn MsMocha Baskerville by Derrel Todd. (2016)

Black man, Bryan Thomas by Derrel Todd (2016)

 

Lay Where Heart Is

Black man laying between his woman's legs relaxed.

"Society tells black men to always be hard never show emotions and sometimes we don't realize who its hurting and that is our women. Any black man that has no problem showing his affections for his lady will tell you its not that we wanna have sex its just fact that we wanna be near our lady whether her having her legs wrapped around us or us resting our heads in between her legs. We need a woman's energy to keep going in life!"  

 

Pharaoh Pain 



Black lovers close.



Black man & his woman by Joey Rosado © island boi photography 2014

 

Today Gov. Wilder

Governor L. Douglas Wilder (Virginia 1990 - 1994)

On this day January 13, 1990 Lawrence Douglas Wilder inaugurated as first African American elected Governor of a USA State. Wider was also born in January, specifically January 17, 1931.

"L. Douglas Wilder was governor of Virginia from 1990 until 1994. His was a political career of many firsts: the grandson of slaves, he was the first African American elected governor of any state in America. ...He was the first black member of the Virginia Senate in the twentieth century. And he was the first African American to win statewide office in Virginia when he was elected lieutenant governor in 1985. A Democrat, he ran briefly for United States president in 1991 and in 2004 was elected mayor of Richmond, serving until 2008"~ anon

I like being reminded of this occassion. It left me and Blacks with a deep sense of purpose, pride; as if prayers of our grandparents had been answered. It was as astounding as President Barack Obama becoming president! The big difference between the two men's tenures in office was the racial backlash. With our President his election was a rally call to crackers, rednecks, disenchanted poor whites, white supremacy up the length of the ecomonic ladder to turn out and against his life force in office. It was an enormous assault for Congressmen to make public declarations to work against their boss, the leader of the free world! But, they got away with it. The question not asked in public is why; why is this and why was it not knocked down the way dissention was knocked down during Bush's administration and treated as being un-American? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories


 

Political Powers: Dr. King Spiritual Powers: Jim Brown

"Jim Brown was the first person I knew who understood and internaized esoteric knowledge (Quantum Physics) as he worked the game. It was a deep teaching and a powerful act of power while not being aware of what he was actually practicing in the game against those white boys in the early 1960's!"

 

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.4.16

Jim Brown running for the Cleveland Browns in early 1960's.



Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his cleric robes.

"This means, at bottom, that true religion is a two-way road. On the one hand it seeks to change the souls of men, and thereby unite them with God; on the other hand it seeks to change the environmental conditions of men so that the soul will have a chance after it is changed. Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them, and the social conditions that cripple them, is a spiritually moribund religion in need of new blood." ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Confrontation & Triumph !

www.boldandbreastless.com

Boldandbreastless November 13, 2014 ·

 

I'm not conceited or arrogant, at all!! I'm just a very confident, breastless hefa, with no insecurities and so very thankful to GOD, for my amazing testimony!! Cancer had no idea who it was dealing with!!! I'm so glad that GOD is ALWAYS on my side!! -

 



KKK member pees his pants when confronted by a Black Man!

Ahmed Majeed said, 'The hate is willing but the bladder is weak.' (2015) This scene occurred after the church murders in Charleston, South Carolina.  

Tactically, the white guy had the technical advantage. If he'd paid attention to details and managed his fears, which are understandable, he could have taken advantage of the Black man's lack of strengthens in the area of strategies. His pants hang. He would be an easy kill in any confrontation with just a little thought given to the art of war.

This Black man gives rise to assumptions many Black man think they have by mere outbursts alone. The thinking of the warrior is far beyond posturing. The same holds true for the white man. Both of them made assumptions as am I thinking I know the story of this scene. But, the emblems of the Klan are there. What we enjoy about this moment is the inner power of the Black man. When Black men face their inner man's demons in like fashion better men will come out of the introspection manhood requires.

This was a complex moment, one we should be pleased with and take notes about. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (11.21.15)
 

Elegant To Be A Man



elegant Black man exiting his car

Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.

Paulo Coelho

 

A First

black man, James Parks, a former slave dug the first graves at Arlington National Cemetery. He held a place of honor amongst whites in his day taking care of the cemetery. His story speaks of a time touching mine, but distant yet present with its significance to mine. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.7.15