Free Spirits. Different Feel.

Flower child in the 21st century in photo by Siegart von Schlichting. (2019)

The meaning of a flower child has changed over the decades from a dancing excitement to stoic posturing. Strange.  

flower child Maitrieya Sandness in 2013 

"... but the play of it is the essence of it." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 3/12/19 

hitchhikers in the 1970's. 

Women Tell

Woman from the Far East by Debarghya Mukherjee.

Woman from the Hadhramaut region of Yeman. 

The ones with the tall conical shaped sun hats work the fields.

Stillness photographed by Nick van Dijk.

Deep Within Changes.

American woman's spirit has changed. photo by Marcin Weron. (2019)

Flower child in the 21st century in 

photo by Siegart von Schlichting. (2019)

The meaning of a flower child has changed over the decades from a dancing excitement to stoic posturing. Strange. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 3/12/19 





















Gallery Of Refined Art

Contradictions over Time.

Kim Kardashian West is worth $175 million dollars in 2018. What she is really worth is in the realm of perception, high intelligence, and a knack for fitting into a hard world for women without the compromises ordinary women make to survive. It is a far cry, this reality for her, from the days of Europe's dark age, and from the Armenian massacre over a hundred years ago! For those two people is their reconciliation between the two cultures of her bloodlines, and marriage to a Black American man? This is a blood question only she can answer; we can only speculate, or judge her on this note.

What is it for us and the ancestry of our peoples we need to recognize and work with, and work through? Kim Kardashian West married an eccentric and gifted man whom she seems to understand and definitely loves. "How do we love?" is the more important question, and perhaps the best place to start a study of a person. But, that is not how people begin their assessments of each other, nor is it a place immaturity leaves a person!

Immaturity is a major factor in American culture. It is the financial support of reality stars, and it is foundational to President Trump's appeal, and is part of the spell he holds over his followers. For Mrs. West this works one way in the entertainment world; for the nation as a whole this fixation with immaturity is a facet of the political  and moral manipulation of America's sub-conscience. As a force, immaturity goes about its business with little fear of being corrected. It is a drug of the sort that does not hesitate to implode because it is forever trusting in its revival. Immaturity leads public perception directing inaction so skillfully millions of Americans have lost the reason it takes to be a major force in the complex world of global politics. These citizens rely on the cruelness of people like Trump who cannot fathom how and why the pieces that hold nations together needs a high level of education in many disciplines and deep respect for Life, in all its forms!

White people are at the center of this trauma in America. This is their creation we are conditioned to, their dichotomy entangled in our ancestral lines, and we of the darker hue are in this with a deeper responsibility. We are the carriers of what needs to be done to undo this mess. Our spiritual responsibilities have depth in the intuition of what eludes us: the truth, and those truths bath in the bloodletting of this nation's past and present.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
June 13, 2018

Kim Kardashian West wearing flip flops.

This JANE.

Jane Birkin, actress and singer was known

for being a muse to Serge Gainsbourg.

Jane Birkin, born Dec 14, 1946, was the center of attraction to a mystique inspired by the daring and the intolerance for resisting social change typical of this time period (1960-1970's). She was intriguing more than beautiful, thoughtful more than attractive. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 4/01/18

A Look in Shadows.

2 Black women definitively grounded in their African roots.

As I see it:

We, African Americans, lock ourselves into our ancestry by hair too late in the long history of our relationship with Europeans. It is not spiritual paths African Americans, for the most part, follow; it is fashion. Locked away in our relationship with Euro-Americans is a past in our present that senses where to place one's self in their estimation of ourselves, and who we are as a people.

Rastafarians made stands in the early 20th century in Jamaica because they'd gone home through scripture and culture back to Africa as their Mother's land. That spiritual power preceded the fashion of locking kinky hair during a time when the dreadlocks made the statements conformity could not make! The dreadlocks of the true Rastas, and the holy people in Black lands is far away from the conformity Black Americans embody and deny in one glance towards white Americans for acceptance.

Having a job depends upon their understanding and acceptance of our culture. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6/30/18

Sex in the Game

Bridgette B., born Oct. 15, 1983 in Barcelona, Spain moved to the U.S. in 2004, later earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Fashion Merchandising from Kent State U. She got into hardcore porn in 2008. In 2012 won an AVN award for Unsung Starlet.

The obvious question: "What pain led to a career in pornography?" The answer draws us into what ails the soul of a country. Women tell the secrets of a culture. ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

the Dean Martin

Dean Martin drink in hand.

"At the time, in those days Dean Martin was often with a drink and a cigarette. The three of them were telling complex stories of the time, and the stream of consciousness that informs today... It is remarkable how the past lives in the present!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/12/18

Diamonds Are Rough

Diamond Jackson is a whore; in polite society she is an adult actress. She is fine; as good looking as a man would want a woman to be but she embodies histories we like to ignore, or pretend didn't happen. Her perceptions mirror the inconsistencies of men's theology. This woman likes to be filmed and photographed copulating with white men in submissive and dominate roles. As an outside historian observing this let it be pointed out: she raises awareness about the conditioning of thought and practice that influences the way men and the law looks at, and judges women victims of rape and molestation. 

Black women, like Diamond Jackson, school white men's imaginations about who they are, and what they truly think about Black women in their contempt... There is a history to this assertion Americans need to uncover!

Sadly, there are millions of Americans ignorant of the basis of the social constructs they take for granted, and assume have always been in place for the right reasons. Women have the right to know what preceded today to better understand the forces that dictate life every two minutes, in the States, when a woman gets raped. If the MeToo Movement is going to acquire true power it needs relationship with the past realities, and principles that set this stage of such deep disregard for women and it needs a sacred base. Understandably, fear keeps women focused on outrage. With no substance and a lot of emotion this aspect of the women's movement moves to sink in quick sand without balance to a righteous cause. But, why balance, and what needs to be balanced? 

The obvious questions arise from knowing what has passed on before today, why and how. (Sankofa) There is another dangerous question we cannot afford, in the long run, to ignore; a deeply disturbing question not to be answered by men. There is a link between whores and professional women too terrible to think about, but it is there. You discern and ask the question from these histories. 


Gregory E. Woods (Dawn Wolf), Keeper of Stories
4/29/18 

Teaching world history revolves around women.

Diamond Jackson makes this point without reservation.

Study of Humanity looks at Self!

Black mother and child by Chris Doche

Blind woman by Katka Grajcarik.

Old people at meal time. photo by Yap Kh, from Malaysia.

Of this moment, the photographer, Yap Kh wrote: "Wearing a set of dark-coloured winter clothings and holding his hands with a cup of freshly filled tea to keep himself warm, an elderly man with white beard is waiting his breakfast to be served." I would love to know more. This part of the world is foreign to most Westerners! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8/10/18 

Death and Resurrection. photo by Stuart Jarman.

Chilling. It is as if she is dying herself to herself. This is like a mystical account of she dying within herself the way Mother Earth has to bear the pain of life-death-resurrection over and over again!. . . 'Death and Resurrection' is what I would title this piece. Wonder what Stuart Jarman titled this piece? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8/10/18


Art of Portrait Photography

One thing to point out...

Ali Larter leaves le Chateau Marmont in jeans. It is something wealthy white women can get away with. You can't be Colored and rich and do this. It is also something beautiful white women do and get away with. Just a small cultural observation. You can't be offended by it, it is just the way it is. We all have something others don't have, or care to be like!  Case in point, Black women gonna show up fine, and divine dressed to the nine at every big time event! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/16/18

Contradictions over time, within belief sytems...

Asian couple. rarely photographed like this.

Americans prefer the stereotypes... 

[Many] Asian woman's provocative way of being unstable in the stability of mutual support from a googling male population, and assertions of feminism in their own countries is a cultural challenge read by American culture with not much accuracy. Under the pleasure of assuming superiority many Americans think they understand Asian cultures. With this mistaken belief system the danger of negotiating with any Asian nation, from a presidency like Trump's, is a disaster waiting to express chaos. In the criminal mind weaknesses Trump displays with aplomb are played with by manipulative killers, because white men like Trump think there are no things unattainable to them. This makes them feel they are capable of outmaneuvering their tactics. It is an easy game when the mouse believes he can outwit the cat in the open! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6/12/18 

Differences between the African and the Euro-American

Abby Parece ,by the way in jeans, makes the light look better back in 2015!...

Abby Parece made a statement in 2015: "If you keep looking back you might miss what is standing right in front of you!" "What would Sankofa say?" would be the question to ask, not being a white man. I am an African First Nation man.

Sankofa affirms the spiritual practice of looking backwards to better see the present and the future. It is distinctly Akan, from the Adinkra system of writing in present day Ghana and the Ivory Coast. In Colonial times European countries after slaughter and subjugation the continent of Africa was divided amongst the war participants against African rule, thus becoming countries with multi-linguistic groups, and cultures living in new circumstances.

The immediate task to maintain cultures and rituals throughout the continent of Africa was, and to this day difficult because Europeans as Colonial powers are extremely brutal. There are quite a number of West African authors, from the 1960's onward who have critiqued this time and illustrated detailed stories of that initial period, and how it moved through the decades. In these struggles, Sankofa was the appropriate technique amongst others to maintain the ancient cultures as France, and England, in particular thrust their nasty spirit into daily life!

In the United States, white Americans have inflicted themselves with gross contradictions to live by as they spread dark forces upon the people indigenous to this land, and the enslaved Africans they kept alive to copulate bringing forth more 'property' to bear upon their individual, and collective wealth. This system of manipulation for financial gain and cultural dominance to this end slaughter ancient ritual practices of the many African traditions that survived the Middle Passage. The Church, the educators, the business men, and the Department of War were the high priests of this orgy of dismantling the soul of people, Red and Black.

The 20th century bore fruit from this violence in both of our communities. Sankofa became more of a presence in the African spiritual communities in major cities as more and more Black American's struggles brought them closer home to who their ancestors prayed better understanding of self over mere survival. Washington DC's African spiritual communities are 'houses'.

There are eleven (11) houses: Yoruba, Akan, Ausar Auset, and one house of Voudoun. Each employ Sankofa in the practicality of unlearning what white people poured into our souls, as bowel. It is safe to say, and accurate to say the Sankofa presents itself to need, and is indifferent to being disregarded the way whites like to overcome their dichotomies with denial insisting upon other ethnic groups to simply get over whatever they (we) think they did to us!


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
March 7, 2018

Abby Parece by EASPHTOGRAPHY in October of 2015.

a writer meets an artist

Modesty Blaise watercolor by Jim Holdaway.

Modesty Blaise created by  writer Peter O'Donnel and artist Jim Holdaway.

the TAO of nonsense

It is hard not to remember the visual effect of Indonesian women's energies. They were different 40+ years ago. My youth was exciting, as well as magical, and learning how to see Asian women was fun. Each country had a certain look and feel to their women, their food, and the atmosphere of soul. These elements distinguished one country from other Asian countries, and developed Western eyes to see what they don't look like, need to understand. The hope of the exchanges over the last two centuries were lessons to learn how to act in any part of Asia, as  human beings!

For the most part, it was unsuccessful.

It is hard to put to words the magical power of learning to be less to learn more about another. It is un-American this perspective, particularly if one is a white American, or a white-thinking Colored person. You see, in every sphere of life loss of magic, the inability to connect head to heart, or having no interest in enjoying attaching magic to daily living diminishes the quality of relationships between countries.

These are things lost to President Trump, and very much a part of his riddle of existence. In diplomatic circles it is a curse, a tombstone being profoundly ignorant and disdainful of the fundamentals of human interaction. But, it is very much a part of what made 'America great'! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11/27/17

Indonesian modern Kebaya by Annie Avantie.

What 'They' Say is True!

Jazsmin Lewis attending premiere of Jackson 5 Dynasty.

Black women have to show up in excellent dress with impeccable manners and sharp intellects poised to engage. Traditionally, it is what Black American mother's taught daughters. This is the high end of expectation. Being poor, or rich has the same requirements of expectation in the Black American system of belief and social conduct. Being ghetto is a recent undevelopment!

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/16/18 

Jasmine Guy, actress, attending film premiere of 'Crazy As Hell'at the 10th Annual Pan African Film Festival, Feb. 6, 2002. photo by Frederick M. Brown.

Tamara Tunie attending Torch Ball. 

Starbucks, American culture, and contempt.

A NOTE TO PAUL SYKES, District Manager Starbucks and store manager, Holly Hylton of store #17767 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

The attitudes exhibited in this scenario are and have always been evident. I would not go into a Starbucks until one opened in Forestville Maryland for Blacks in Prince George's county. Starbucks in Conyers Square Starbucks, in Atlanta, Georgia I never visited had a unique approach led by a Black man. He engineered from the elitist social model of this corporation and made it a popular haven for Southern Black culture to flourish. It was brilliant...

Starbucks is successful because it caters to the 'supreme' idea that white people educated with high incomes can posture above the fray, and gloat with specialized coffees with Italian names. It isn't far removed from the crude bars of poor whites bitter about the loss of the Civil War. Neither end of the spectrum admit how they are related, and depend upon each other for the success of their advancement as superior beings!

It is an old traditional American story. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/16/18 

the UnObvious Walk

Durga Holzhauser said, "Perhaps an old wound on the ocean floor of our soul drives our fulfilled life away. It may be obvious when someone has broken our heart, but the stickiest bandages are the ones that are hidden away in our subconscious mind, eating up our desires. Forgiveness has a thousand layers."

Art. Black boy against the Moon.

"Taught not to be aware Blacks are unaware of the wonders around them,

within them, and working around them!" - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 3/30/18 

This artist caught something surprisingly obvious Black Americans scarcely give cause stock to enrich their lives. It is the lies that perpetuate the confidence in not knowing what should be known. In this drawing is the typical dead walk. Nothing is heard, perceived, seen, or acknowledged save one thing: what does not matter.

Our boys are content with this show of no force. Head covered in hoods, dragging feet, slouching with plugs in their ears. They see little. With no peripheral vision their vision is narrow, somewhere beneath their feet. At some point, death finds a peace to begin its stalk of life forces with little unction to live beyond mere existence, a few years, or a life of violence for the sake of belonging to what does not want them, or see their souls.

There is no easy way to teach the dying to live if they lack the tools for a skill set to live. The movie, Black Panther, in its complexity points out this point with mastery, and without preaching. It is stacked well into the story lines and the imagery. If a one wants to know of these things he must think, probe and become something of a force to be reckoned with in the quest for the right knowledge and the right teacher to lead them towards their initiations! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3/30/18