Friday, February 28, 2014

AIR BRUSHING

Kim Kardashian & her mother Kris Kardashian


14 most Famous air brushed women

"The trend of photo shopping women's features and bodies could not have been started by 'real' men. Men's ideals are varied, complex and forgiving of their women. Often, going along for the proverbial 'rides' we tend to enjoy our women's body changes. So speaking as a real man it is obvious men have not emphasized this technique even though it produces great eye-candy." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4.23.13

Nya Lingerie gallery

Satin lace push up teddy


"Wearing a Dorothy black set will set any evening off for any husband with a mind set upon anything but..."



Thursday, February 27, 2014

Black in Style


Joy Spirit
3 Black Women in style.
May 28, 2013 



May 27, 2013 


Black BEAUTY


 Jan. 15, 2014 


I have heard it many times, and said myself a few times, "Segregation was the best thing for Black people in AMERICA; they had their own businesses, banks; hospitals, family unity; police stations, leaders; a true spiritual foundation; and etc." but that is wrong. What is wrong with the assertion is the narrow view of segregation. Colored businesses were not the great aspect of the era more accurately called the period of neo-slavery. It was a reign of terror where Black men did not have the right to equal protection under the law to protect their families, for example.

Often Black folks sing that slave song about how good it was to be in segregated society the way runaway slaves longed to return to their masters. It seems to come from several worldviews none of which are willing or able to endure the trails of building freedom into their patterns, their thinking and their lives. I've said it before and again I bring up the spirit of Black Americans leaning deep into being Black White Person. How white Black Americans are is a subject of debate until one steps out of the country for a long enough period to see what has become of the soul of Black folks, and how repulsed Black Americans are of Africa and Africans.

There is a lot of myth in belief. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.15.14





February 1957

Miss February 1957 Sally Todd

In the context of today Miss February 1957 Sally Todd represents something missing in the scope of understanding self in an intimate sense of being present. - Gregory E. Woods 5.5.13 






AGELESS BEAUTY: a concept

Big Buttaholics


November 27, 2013 


"Gentle. I like the gentleness of the subject, and the confidence of the photographer's approach to the ageless questions around Beauty and who she is." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 





Helen Mirren elegant in black dress !!!!



Wednesday, February 26, 2014

TOUCH beyond TOUCH


Nina Ninabelle
Yesterday 
a long time ago...

"There are no words for this emotion. This feeling stamps itself upon mother and child for a lifetime, and as I discovered when my mother died last year it extends beyond the grave!" - Gregory E. Woods 2.26.14


TRIBUTE to my People


Crow Man 1883 


"It is hard to gauge where one fits if they are a visitor to Turtle Island. Most see the United States, and dismiss the spirit that formed the land, lives in the land and is the spirit of the land. Thousands of years of ceremonies, families, war, relationship, prayers, and rituals connecting body to spirit, spirit to the Great Spirit, animal people to the two-leggeds and the circles that we came from and taught from and relied upon to see the future, and understand the present preceded the visitors who came, saw and took. 

It is a helluva a thing to live with: being invisible in one's own country, but it is the Americans who cannot see us, and when they do are fond of the cliches that render us invisible or insignificant. 

Like every one of the four colors we belong together, and have a lot to contribute and have given many gifts to the worlds of people. We named ourselves it is thought, the People. It is what our tribal names often mean, but in truth we were named by the spirits that still live upon and with Turtle Island. . ." ~ Gregory E. Woods, (Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha2.25.14  




Crow Children 1910 



Steppin' Out!!!!

Robert's Black Heritage Page
Aretha Franklin stepping out of a car in a white mini skirt!
Oh, my! I forgot about what made her overwhelming back then in the late '60's. Somehow, I don't remember how pretty Aretha Franklin's legs looked back then. Rarely did she show legs. The photographers had a sensibility and sensitivity not common amongst them today. It is felt in the quality of the subjects and the way their techniques captured moments and events. Maybe those photographers had creative focus where artist typically floated. - Gregory E. Woods 11.14.13


Tamala Jones' beautiful legs!!!!
Tamala Jones!!!!




Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Our Native Concern for our Collective Good!


Crow bate' known as Finds Them And Kills Them aka Jim 1928


Creek man circa 1868 


"It may be time, but do enough have the nerve to make that stand against all forms of evil, first within themselves, second around them and lastly on a global level?" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.26.14




"This problem was created as "we" moved from being ruled by nature, to being ruled by laws/government. How do you go back?" - Shawn Oxley


 Now that's some bullshit! 


"We stand to learn a lot from the Native Americans. It's time we ask and listen to their wisdom." 
- Hollie Jones 2.22.14 



You are correct, Hollie Jones. But, there is a deep concern many of us Native folks have. Osama bin Laden in an pre-9/11 interview said, "The President does not have the heart to hear words...

You take out the word, President, replace it with white Americans, and reflect upon the collective consciousness of Europeans and Euro-Americans throughout their histories, and something very clear and evident arises to the surface. It is other relative's job to point these things out to our white relatives, but receiving the truths, the self-truths has not been the best attribute of our white brethren. Up until this day all ceremonial work, circles of reconciliation, and diplomacy stalls at the point the late Osama bin Laden pointed out. Americans didn't listen to him, or the ramblings and legitimate complaints and concerns Arabs had about their relationship with the United States, and the affect of Western civilization upon their world, and look what had to happen on September 11, 2001!

Listening, like prayer, is related to talk. Talk, reaction and intimidating action are the strong points of the Americans. Listening requires vulnerability, and vulnerability is a strength masked under the skirts, and a primal element of the breath of women. Vulnerability is etched into the fabric of women's makeup, but it is culturally loathed by American men and women. As one people we are not. As one people united and truthful to ourselves and each other we are not. We, as Americans, have more fear than anything else and our actions are reactions to the revelation of our truths, and our truths are dealt with through war! That alone disqualifies us from creating long lasting and peaceful solutions! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.25.14



Crow & Hunkpapa dancers at Crow Agency, Montana 1886 



white eyes

Emily Hoot

SLAVERY & HUMAN TRAFFICKING  

Who listens to the voices within a woman's eyes? Raped and cast aside women's souls and bodies are strewn  across the landscapes of countries all around the world. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 2.25.13


a story

Model contestant


model Jessica Solis  walking the runway on episode 3, of the series Project Runway, in a dress by designer Alexandra Von Bromssen at Parsons The New School for Design.
August 26, 2013


Jessica Solis
August 19, 2013


The Idea of a Higher Ideal


 A collage of the mystical traditions of African women's spirituality, beauty & philosophies.



In the commencement of time
Our diversity was the survival
Mechanism that enabled our existence
To endure in all terrains across the globe.

To deny Africa is to forsake humanity.
To forsake Africa is to deny the humanity
Which exists in all of us.

Many people with different languages
And customs are all belong to one
Place. For, Nature doesn't discriminate against
any one person. It affords all of us
the privilege to exist in our actuality

From atoms emerging out of the early
Universe to Humans On earth
Try to decipher their purpose
And origin, we connect to have 
the ultimate human experience
In this universe.

Belmoun Ibo Lelé 



Halle Berry & Gabriel Aubry at the mall.?


My wife and I dancing at my son's wedding in 2010.


Monday, February 24, 2014

Old Strength of Beauty


Newafricancultures


Turkana woman, Kenya
Femme turkana, Kenya
Mulher Turkana, Quenia credit(o)s : Flores-Jan @ overlandsphere.com


November 21, 2013 



Angolan woman - Femme mumuila
 November 20, 2013 




PARENTING: a thinking art


Today's parents need to understand the basics. Rushing is not a part of growth, or nurturing. Preoccupation with phones and gadgets have no great power to connect, or communicate outside of the designation of tools. Mother's love has the condition of permanence, temporal, and sustaining elements and energies. The best mothers grind the corn and the stories for every meal that belongs in our food. She grounds us making us sure footed and stable in a way that balances and is balanced by her husband. It is a unique and common dance rushed through in today's climate. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.24.13

AMEN!


Kristina Raquel
Jan. 13, 2013

"If you had a date with God what would you hide?" - Ade (10.9.13)


Kristina Raquel on Feb. 24, 2012


Sunday, February 23, 2014

Blow The Mountain Top Cut the Tit!


Terry Tempest Williams
July 12, 2012 

 "When I witnessed mountain top removal for the first time in the hollows of West Virginia, it put everything I believed about democracy into question," says Terry Tempest Williams.  http://earthjustice.org/mountain-heroes/mymtrstory







Something is happening beneath the surface, right beneath our noses and on top of the world. Things like this often happen while most are distracted by a major event in the public eye of no real consequence to the betterment of the whole! So what is insignificant that is occurring and getting your attention while something fundamental to our freedoms, and our very lives is being threatened with extinction that has your attention? Who cuts the tops of mountains to create wealth, and expand an industry, or develop beautiful islands in the water for the rich to enjoy? 


Like many the thought of, and the 'how' such a practice could have been conceived staggers the mind of most people because the mountains are where people, their histories and homes are and have been, and where prayers ascend from to the Most High, and where animals and birds live their productive lives. Mountains have been revered since our first time as people upon the Earth, our Mother! The insensitivity of a group of people who would conceive of such a thing have their own dilemma with their grandchildren becoming environmentalists, and disagreeing with the tactic. The people who profit from the destruction of mountains have an origin, a creation story, and a history we need to discover, and dissect. That being said I want to ask the proponents and those opposing this practice a series of questions beginning with how could such a thing be conceived, developed and acted upon? What kind of people believe in, and come from such an energy force, or level of consciousness? 

I don't know how to arrive at an answer to the three questions I raised without making the obvious connections to the rape of the Earth, our Mother and the rape of women. The correlation is clear. The horror visited upon one is visited upon the other. That being said where should focus now be centered in our introspection? What is the name of the monster chopping the tops of mountains off, and the one who takes pleasure in cutting the nipples of his victims' bodies? 

We can protest, and be outraged and sign petitions, march on Washington, but those actions will be as effective as slamming one's fists into the ocean outraged at the creation and power of a tsunami if we don't understand the beast created, or find out who, and what mindset, and cultural perspective created this monster! It is the lack of understanding origins that leads to gross assumptions, and disallows introspection to lead good people to correct strategies to develop and unfold in the war that should start within our very beings and follow the wisdom of knowledge, and rituals of purification that should lead the best leaders to lead the best of people to permanently stop the actions of the men who come from two cultures that have darkly, and with light altered the world we live upon. 

I asked six questions. The answers will determine outcome. These are my words. I am Gregory E. Woods, the first born of Herbert and Constance B. Woods. I am also named Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha. I am a Sirmiq Aattuq Wisdom Keeper, a Keeper of Stories, a Grandfather Teacher, a Muskogee Indian-African Man speaking for the next seven generations. 

(2.23.14) 



Earth, our Mother


Bankrupting the Prison System pt. 1


by Dr. Sinclair Grey III
Dec. 23, 2013



Why do we have prisons? To protect members of society from rapists, murderers, and people who seek to do harm. Without a doubt, there are people who need to be behind prison bars; however, there’s a problem when prison is viewed as a ‘rites of passage’ for so many men and women, especially our younger generation. Here’s another reason why we have prisons. Because it’s extremely profitable. Think about it for a moment. Isn’t prison supposed to be about ‘corrections?’ Correcting attitudes and behaviors of individuals who’ve made wrong decisions. However, prisons for the most part have become warehouses. The minority community (African-Americans and Latinos) face it with great difficulty.



There’s a term that needs to be discussed. It’s been discussed among those in the academic arena and tossed around with people who have no clear understanding of its term. The term is ‘Prison Industrial Complex.’  Well, what is the Prison Industrial Complex? Unless you know what it means, you’re bound to fall into the trap of ignoring what’s happening within communities all over the world. According to Wikipedia, the prison industrial complex or (PIC) is ‘used to attribute the rapid expansion of the US inmate population to the political influence of private prison companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies.’ In simpler terms, the prison industrial complex is about making profits for small and big businesses at the risk of locking up people for a profit. Without inmates, there’s no profit. Without crime and criminal activity, businesses who depend on providing goods and services to prisons suffer.


During a panel discussion with current mayors of Los Angeles, Houston and New Orleans in 2012, NPR’s Michele Norris offered a chilling report which claimed, “The prison industrial complex will look at the test scores of a city’s third grade population. If the test grades are low they know that they’ll have to start building a prison.”


When you have schools with limited resources, how can you explain the frustration of teachers who care but are unable to do what is needed to make a difference? In addition to this, can you imagine the frustration of students who (at no fault of their own) cannot get the adequate education they want, need, and deserve? And sadly and sinfully, big businesses and corporations profit from what’s happening to the disadvantaged.
To better understand this perspective, let’s look at the state of California for a moment. Since the 1980’s they have built 23 prisons and only one school campus. Something seems wrong when a state that has decreased their prison population according to reports, continues to spend more on prisoners. “California has more than 130,000 prisoners, a huge increase from the state’s 1980 prison population of about 25,000. Prisons cost California taxpayers close to $10 billion, compared with $604 million in 1980.”


The question that needs to be raised is what has happened? Why have we failed our children? Has greed become more important than the lives of human beings? Unless people begin to care about the welfare of each other and stand up to the injustice(s) of the prison industrial complex and big businesses, we will continue to see numbers skyrocket in prisons. It’s unfair and it’s unjust.


For the next few weeks, I will be discussing how we can bankrupt the prison system. It will be provocative and progressive. I hope that a meaningful dialogue will come out of this and in the process, we can make a difference. This is not to be the perfect solution; it’s designed to initiate a beginning to make a difference.

Source: Atlantic.com, Huffington Post, and Wikipedia.




__________
Dr. Sinclair Grey III is an inspirational speaker, motivator, author, organizer and liberator of persons from all intellectual, social and cultural walks of life. He is a committed advocate for communal change. Email: drgrey@sinclairgrey.org. Follow on Twitter @drsinclairgrey


the Story 

IN Laura's world


Illusion self-portrait goes viral



Her story

Any who've read my words over the years know of my fascination with photography. Today is no different. I woke up last night to the sound of the television we'd left on from our movie night. Despite the sound of the action flick that was playing (Pain &Gain) starring the Rock (Dwayne Johnson) I heard a hallowed sound of silence. In my office the computer was on. The first thing I clicked I saw the magical photography of an eighteen year old photographer's dream world of Laura Williams. I think I was the 200,001 person to view her self-portraits. Maybe not. Anyway check her out and listen to her voice in the Flickr video about the young woman.


Invisible
Titled, "Invisible" by Laura Williams

This piece is a way of looking at the world. View.


The Divine Flows

Give thanx & praise.
Divine flow is energy. It is steam and water, flesh and blood. It is movement in Life, and stagnant motion when stopped or hindered by fears. It is the stillness within and the tense calm before the tempest flares. Divinity gives access to the hard hearts, and the free spirits traveling between worlds in the sickness of their bodies, or in the good times of their good health. Divinity is an accessible mysterious creature. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 3.22.13

sepia dream
dawn





Saturday, February 22, 2014

BUILDING LIFE

Marisol Torres smiling on May 31, 2013


"The sheer joy of youth, and discovery at young age becomes the impetus of invention, and the fire of innovation, or a stale memory if dreams are not further pursued. Old age is built by one's youthful energies, the dreams made manifest, and the impeccability of soul and action." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 7.26.13


Marisol Torres in her vibrancy August 30, 2012

In the tradition of activism


akua naru
 écoutez Akua Naru sur Radio Mukambo! www.groovalizacion.com/article6319.html?lang=fr
Artist Akua Naru sitting in all her nobility in Brussells at Théâtre Marni
  March 12, 2013 




singer/activist Nina Simone
 February 21, 1933 - April 21, 2003 

“You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.” Nina Simone


a Place for Sacred Words

"Sacred forms are many, and are as diverse as the Creation they come from, adhere to and juxtapose themselves against". - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 3.22.13


modestly placed
in the sand

'University Of Exposing Gorgeous Women Official


Friday, February 21, 2014

Work at Change Work to Change Work for Change



Acknowledging the fear associated with change in the streets may I recommend for reading and thought a book, "The History of Barrios Unidos: Healing Community Violence (Cultura Es Cura)" by Frand de Jesus Acosta, for a comprehensive and readable insight into deep community activism. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 


NFR, as seen, interpreted centuries later...


NEFER by SleinadFlar 

An Egyptian princess. 'Nefer' (or more precisely nfr, as Egyptian hieroglyphs didn't show vowels), as found in Nefertiti and Nefertiti, being the Ancient Egyptian word for 'beautiful'.

Two versions are shown here: right the original version from 2008 and left a new version just finished. Besides the obvious flipping of the canvas (I figured it to be more expressive that way), changes include the substitution of lines with shades, addition of some details and some general color and shade balance thingies. I still think there's room for improvement, but I'm gonna leave it as it is for now. - SleinadFlar 




Nina Minami vulnerable & Japanese fine!!!! 


The question that looms large on the horizon isn't obvious to the dull, and those committed to the slow evolution of non-sight in a dynamic and visual world. Centuries after Nefer, or Nefertiti's reign artists today feel free and in their rights to depict her not as an Egyptian woman of her time, but as a woman void of what made her and her people formidable to Europeans. Black Americans not owning their images have no say in the interpretations of their histories in any medium. It is only a small percentage of Blacks, not enough, who do own their images, and thus their minds follow the path of their imagery into the body of their life-work in connection with and to their ancestors. This is natural law, and a law Black Americans have divorced themselves from. Still in the embryonic stage of spiritual and emotional development, and purposefully inattentive to intellectual development the physical masses of black humanity in the US prefers the limited capacity of the child. It is a choice to be infantile. It is a choice to limit perspective and have small influence nationally outside of issues of discrimination, and have no respect globally. The progress from slavery to maturity is slow, and made slower in Black White People's incurable need to suckle the tit of white American's approval. 

I've said it before, and I am saying it again. "Niggers ain't free!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2.14.14