Conceptual beliefs as fashion

Nigerian woman in the Ankara style.

Ankara blend with the royalty of femininity and African strength designed from the soul!

African Woman powerful in presence and essence.

African fashion is made by the essence of African thought about African womanhood.

the Hope to Break free!!

Black Woman in blue by Ike Slimster

There is a lot of space to be filled with the stories about the essence and the survival of Black African daughters, who have come from a dark past in relation to Europeans. But, there are the centuries before our Dark Centuries with the whites, we do not talk about because we only think of ourselves in terms of enslavement. This dark space in our souls is our history connecting us to Europe after we opened the world-at-large to them. There is no Europe or America without the Blacks from the Land of the Blacks!. . . ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [August 8, 2018]

the Precious touches.

Victoria Hunnie Jewelz.

Lingerie football player. Victoria Hunnie Jewelz. by Roland Dawson. Oct. 31, 2018.

pregnancy, water and motherhood: Tomiko Fraser by Guy Viau.

pregnancy of hers has no words to convey the beauty, the warmth, the comfort of knowing deep things father and child will never know, only sense. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

Absolutely stunning Mailis is in this photo taken by Aaron Kurkela. (Nov. 2018)

Elizabeth Montgomery

Death in Lust, Ideals in Chains.

Raquel Welch only in a string stays this way in our collective consciousness: the creative side.  

Black women leave a lot to think about!

Taraji P. Henson's captivating way of being present, and at risk and in the splendor 

of one moment at a time! That's quite a gift to have as expression of Life, of gratitude! 

When you think about the lot of African women's life in relation to white men, and there is horror; deep horrors always just beneath the surface you should cringe. Coping. How they coped is an insight into how they faced and dealt with the terror of that relationship. There have been a number of white men whose lives were destroyed trying to destroy African women over the centuries. It is not openly spoken of; it is part of the dark folklore between then and now! 

The complexity of these stories is woven into the fabric of women, Black women like the actress, Taraji P. Henson, and many others! White women need to learn from those they once and enslaved, and continue, for the most part, to express this emotion towards in life day to day. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 10/11/18 

[This] provocative older white woman, as she is: a stabilizing force, confronts history in ways other races can't. Do they take advantage of this politically, or socially? Is it making a difference their social status for others? It can be measured, but so far fear dominates them. "When is enough, enough?" answered leads better than being bound by the spell of their long dark history. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [10/11/18]  

Amber Cream here. There should be flow and glory in womanhood, but survival makes it another. As one older Black woman told me: 'a wet pussy and an empty pocketbook don't go together'. That is whore talk, or survival or reality?

AFRICAN WOMEN: What they Know, We forgot.

African style, African woman.

African women are disarming!!!!

African woman posing for Thänx Chikusě's camera. 2018. 

SG Media

Pride and comfort within one's being speaks to the soul like no one else's assessment of value can create... Love this shot. ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10/10/18

This African Woman, she go say: Ibe Lady, oh!!

"Your willingness to look at your darkness is what empowers you to change." 

- Iyanla Vanzant

African model on runway

Moments, bright ones!

"... dark classic beauty against colors from the spirit that founded terrestrial life is an ideal!" 

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

A woman's beautiful legs are an atonement for some, for others they are twin pillars of strength carrying their weight and for others legs just stunning in their beauty and appeal makes moments brighter! Tributes of various types have been made in awe of women's legs for a host of reasons. Some people are simply collectors of pictures, or photos of women's legs that holds them in a trance. Others are supposed to simply be admired and other women's legs have clear paths towards a pool wet with dreams and potential!

In the fullness of clarity two things: (1.) Nothing beats a great pair of legs!" and (2.) "the supremacy of beauty is in the melanin of African women!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 7/28/18

Garcelle Beauvais, actress at premiere of The Jungle Book in Hollywood. April 2016.

Gabrielle Union shopping at the Calypso St. Barth's Pop Up at art basel in Miami in 2015!

Getting ready for church involves presenting yourself a mystery unto men. 

- Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 2.9.17

Oh! My God, in heaven!! An African woman in an African print dress!! Unbelievable! Just breathtaking!!

being still.

What is waited for in African women is their older years. That blossom is a profound experience to live through, I imagine. I know the feel and the actual power of this energy, as a man. It Transforms.... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [7/23/18]

the Distance between Needs.

5 young Black women with Faith Coffield's baby in the center, and Zaria Fortson-Linton on the far right. photo by Roland Dawson (2018). A question to them: "Do they understand the depth of the meaning of their breasts, and connections to their long ago?" 

Faint Memory of Times Before Them. 

There is the faint memory of the times before the whites landed on the African coasts, and demeaned the sacredness of the breasts and diminished its sacred power in the cultures that operated at this level of being Human. It is a significant memory. American women are steeped in European hate based beliefs we can place beneath the dogma of Puritanism. It is a real struggle for women trying to gain equality when they are of the African Diaspora because this struggle, for them, is the conflict of being an African woman and understanding being equal is not a goal in a matriarchal society. What is meant is in the question: "Do Black women in our Diaspora need to try regain what was the core of our collective cultures in Africa in sympathy, or remain in ignorance of white women's cultural trauma and how it has always worked against African women?". . .

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
July 5, 2018

the Body

Marie McDonald

Marie McDonald (July 6, 1923 – October 21, 1965) was an American singer and actress known as "The Body Beautiful" and later nicknamed "The Body"

Betty Brosmer had the greatest hourglass figure of all time. 38-18-36 (inches) they said back in her time!

Bria Myles astride a chair.

Big boned Mexican, Maritza Mendez

Cherokee D'Ass (2016)

Jamaican lady softly clad in black lingerie with a touch of precious, a measure of dignity and an aloofness somehow engaging that brings together an intangible men need to bring into their being. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

a poignant moment to reflect.

Jeans worn by an elegant African woman is a different feel. What makes the difference is culture. What culture says to the African American community isn't a foreign language, it is a submerged memory speaking to the presence of our Ancestors. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10/14/17 

Julianne Moore by Peter Lindbergh, 55, featured in Pirelli's 2017 calendar

celebrating natural beauty and femininity.

Overwhelming this woman is. To the uninformed and the shy...

"Thick Black women have a power over charm that isn't about being better because they are better. Under played in the fashion industry, the national press and the perceptions about women preferred by paranoid white women obsessed with weight; Black women find themselves the envy of the slight, the bound and those held captive by other people's opinions.

In short, in some kind of way there is a freedom of theirs that is the envy of other women..."

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Telling A Story!

Protect him, a traditional story. "What are your thoughts on this?"

There is a lot to remember in this image. The most provocative memory comes from the dark times of enslavement when African women created secret societies to protect their men, and fleeing slaves from the ravenous spirits of the whites! I think about Voudon and its importance to African survival, not only for their own, but the white women seeking refuge from their own men, and culture! There is Harriet Tubman's ability to kill those who wanted to return to slavery, and the Maroon societies throughout the African Diaspora. Lastly, I remember how this spirit permeates the ancestral links of our young people, who are unguided and unable to fit in their minds who they are, and how all these things align themselves into their systems of beliefs, action and inaction!

It is a deep story denied, captured and hidden and in the open,  and in action! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories