SPARTACUS and JIM CROW

The movie, Spartacus, was good, and for the times extraordinary! But, the novel? It was the book that turned the country upside down! It was banned in the South! I did not understand that until I read it! The author's mastery interpreting Roman history gave the spiritual and the intellectual basis for the governing business of American life: slavery. It was an extraordinary read! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/19/18

Analysis of Bonjour Tristesse

Bonjour tristesse

by

Françoise Sagan

" In the first of this two-part novella, I found myself charmed by Sagan’s poetic narrative more so than the story. The story itself was interesting as it portrayed a young, well-to-do French girl enjoying a Mediterranean party lifestyle free of responsibility. The family composition and moral attitude not typical for the 1950’s era it was written in also contributed to the interest of this story. However, when the setting and situation of a motherless girl partying with her playboy father on the French Riveria was stripped away the story actually struck me as a story depicting something very normal.
Teen angst, confusion, a question of responsibility and sexual experimentation are all highlighted in this book.

Seventeen-year-old protagonist, Cecile, was essentially just embracing the teen experience. She did, however, express it in a way that was unusually well-spoken and thoughtful considering Sagan was only 18 at the time she wrote this book. It wasn’t until the second part that my curiosity peaked and my fondness was completely won. When Cecile became aware of things like her own selfishness and the needs of other people, I found myself developing more of an attachment to what I was reading, as this was the point that I could see Cecile as a whole person. Although in many ways she is a child, she is also is also in many ways a grown up. Her laziness, combined with the decisions that she makes solely on her own desires are reflective of her youth. However, her ability to not linger on the small things or take the actions of others too personally is mature and admirable. I also enjoyed the way she found beauty and fault in all the characters mentioned. She seemed to be personally interested in the human character and her descriptions of those around her were affectionate yet honest. Descriptions of herself and how she felt her social position was in relation to the other characters was of interest to me as it offered yet again another candid and introspective observation from in a voice perfectly suited for a narrator stuck in an age somewhere between child and adult. 

The unsuspected and sudden ending, although sad, was just the sort of thing I was content to leave with as I felt confident that this would lead to a maturing or faster self realization for all the characters involved." — Valerie Baber

PROMOTING: A Lumbee Gershom!

Anita Jo Shifflet, Lumbee author promoting her book: A Lumber Gershom (2018).

Dear Customers...All Orders have been processed and will be shipped out January 27, 2018...All books will be inscribed and signed by JoJo. We apologize for the delay but had many orders to process. If you are interested in taking the journey with JoJo, You can still purchase your inscribed & signed copy for $15.00 at
alumbeegershom.com — with Anita Jo Shifflett.

Consistent in their Death Probes.

There are a couple of things among other consistencies in white American thought and practice that stand out: the experimentation on Black Americans and an insistence upon killing. There are no studies on this. There are no scientific studies on this kind of purpose and inclinations because the science worlds are governed by the very people who need the most psychological work done. . . - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12/18/17

"Perhaps Baltimore's Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) best exemplified the dubious protections of parental consent, which it was careful to elicit when it began its "Repair and Maintenance Study" in the mid-1990s. Researchers approached black families in 108 units of decrepit housing encrusted with crumbling, peeling lead paint... we know how to protect children by banning the use of lead paint and by offering lead-abatement programs. But the agenda of the KKI scientists did not include removing children from lead exposure, because they planned to use these children to evaluate new, cheaper lead-abatement techniques -of unknown efficacy- in old homes with peeling paint.

...they purposely arranged with landlords to have children inhabit lead-tainted housing so they could monitor changes in the children's lead levels as well as the brain and developmental damage that resulted from the different kinds of lead- abatement programs. Scientists offered parents of children in these lead-laden homes incentives such as fifteen-dollar payments to cooperate with the study, without divulging it placed their children at risk of lead exposure...

When the KKI drew blood from one-year-old Erika Grimes on April 9, 1993, for example, her reading was nine micrograms per deciliter (μg/dL), which is a "normal" reading, according to CDC guidelines. The KKI identified lead-imbued hotspots in the home but did not tell Erika's parents. When Erika was retested on September 15, 1994, her blood-lead reading was 32 μg/dL, which CDC charts label a "highly elevated" reading.

The KKI is affiliated with the prestigious John Hopkins University, whose IRB approved the protocol. On August 16, 2001, Maryland's top appellate court ruled against the researchers, drawing a parallel to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment." ~ Harriet A. Washington / Medical Apartheid (The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present) pp 291 & 292

WHOA!

alternative model modeling for Murpho's Rod's and Customs is Keke Cancino

(2013)

Colored Woman by Pasckie Pascua. acrylic. watercolor. pens. sharpies. pastels. oil. paper canvas.

spiked headdress post-apocalyptic, tribal look by Miss G. Designs.

Sculpture of a woman chiseling fat off ...

pin up girl by Gil Elvyren

Vintage book covers

TIMES together...

Marilyn Monroe reading James Joyce's Ulysses!!!!

Marilyn Monroe reading in her office at home. We loved that space, that privacy. Spending time there together made it special and private. Privacy had become a commodity as much as time alone was a necessity. Good days. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 7/25/17 

Marilyn Monroe with a Nikon F by Bert Stern.

Marilyn Monroe by Bert Stern. Her last photo session before her death.

Once a girl, now a woman.

"If you must insist on improving the quality of life improve yours." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

Rosa Brighid by Danny Desantos early in January wearing a harness by Malice Lingerie.  

Early on little girls like to imitate and later emulate women whose sense of fashion is an essence, a being true to themselves that creates an atmosphere around them. It is elusive so it is mysterious. The woman who is not a lady, yet is still a woman can become many things, or embody the deeper treasures and become a Sacred Woman. It is the lady whose mystique is a quality girls can perceive, but cannot articulate until later in their lives, who hopes they become ladies because she can help them become ladies! 

The Little Girl, the Woman, the Lady, the Sacred Woman are moving entities within the soul of the Feminine. Without them women are just bodies, les carapace; and Art is lost.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

1/16/17

Rosa Brighid's book in print Now available to order in print:

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1122913 

BLACK EXCELLENCE 2

Third World Press

Chancellor Williams's 1971 tome excavated the submerged history of black people in Africa and beyond. The extensively researched book unsettled the problematic common assumption that black civilization created no meaningful cultural or historical achievements. I was alive with vigor finding and studying Dr. Williams' book. He was alive when I purchased it, and I felt charged by that fact because he worked near by me in DC and I hoped I would eventually meet people who'd study with him, or were mentored by him. I did and I do feel gratitude knowing more understanding will come to those who study this work deepening their understanding of this country and Black people. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories
·       

·       
Penguin Classics
Malcolm X collaborated with journalist Alex Haley to write his autobiography over the two years leading up to his assassination. The final result has been a landmark influence on many black thinkers and activists.

·       
Chicago Review Press
Assata Shakur's autobiography takes readers inside black activist movements of the 1970s, giving a first-person account of her involvement and of how targeting by federal agencies eventually weakened groups like the Black Panthers. For those who don't know she was the mother of rapper, Tupac Shakur.

·       
Vintage
A now-classic history of the Haitian Revolution of 1794-1803, The Black Jacobins tracks and analyzes the massive, sustained slave revolt, led by Toussaint L'Ouverture, that led to the formation of the free state of Haiti.

















·       

ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS

Hello everyone, I hope you're doing well. 

 

One of the great problems of our community is that we and our children are often kept in the dark on the ugly history of this nation.  We are not led to understand the intricacies of slavery, how it came to be, and how choices made 300 years ago create the world in which we live.

 

Most importantly, we don't understand how much of slavery, oppression, Jim Crow and racial terror was driven by hard, cold economics.  In fact, if most black people were aware how many trillions of dollars were stolen from our people, the reparations debate would be over. 

 

To help with this issue, I've put together a lecture series in TheBlackHistorySchool.com called "The Economics of Slavery."  This program consists of a set of recorded lectures I've given on Black Economic History and how all of this ties into the world in which we live together. 

 

The book I use for this lecture series is "Black Labor, White Wealth," by Dr Claud Anderson.  This book should be required reading for every black child in America.  

 

This is a course for anyone who wants to have a raw and authentic analysis of America's racial past, the economic incentives for the creation of this past, and how these factors often influence our lives today.  Right now, the program consists of a 7-lecture sequence, but I am going to continue to add recordings to the vault that you can view at your discretion.  

 

The material is self-paced and pre-recorded, and comes with a 30-day, 100% money-back guarantee.  

 

You can sign up for the program at a discounted price of $69.99 by using this link.  The price will go up very soon, so you may want to take advantage of this opportunity now. 

 

I created this program because I truly believe, at the bottom of my heart, that we've been lied to for 400 years.  My lectures are designed to tell you the truth.  

 

Sincerely,

Dr Boyce Watkins 

Feb. 27, 2017  

CreateSpace
 
The Souls of Black Folk is a groundbreaking early work of sociology, published in 1903, and advocates for black education, voting rights and other civil rights while capturing the state of affairs and of debate at the time.

·       
Knopf

An expansive, lavishly illustrated history of the variegated black experience in America, Life Upon These Shores has a wide scope but is rooted in specificity through hundreds of photos and careful scholarship.
















·       

Little Brown and Company
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.




















University of North Carolina Press
In an extensive oral history, E. Patrick Johnson tells the stories of black gay men who have made their homes in the South.

Myra A. Jolivet author of Pushed Times, Chewing Pepper, a murder mystery series

BLACK EXCELLENCE of Scholarship.

Talking about issues, tweeting about them does not make one a scholar. Study begins the process of becoming one in your own right, thinking deepens the progression towards understanding the levels of our society and our place in it. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories  

Amistad
The Original Black Elite demonstrates the crushing power of Jim Crow by telling the story of Daniel Murray, a black man who, along with a cohort of outstanding contemporaries, achieved wealth and status in the post-Civil War era - until their assimilation into the white upper class was stymied by the rise of segregation.





















·       

The New Press
It's always a good time to read The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander's chilling analysis of how black men are disproportionately targeted and more heavily punished by the criminal justice system - and the oppressive consequences for the black community.

·       
Simon and Schuster
In a new history of the Emmett Till case, Timothy B. Tyson recounts the horrific story of a young boy who was brutally lynched after a white woman (falsely) alleged that he made lewd comments to her. The Blood of Emmett Till weaves this infamous event, and its aftermath, into a broader story of white supremacist violence and rhetoric that extends into the present day.

·       
Broadway Books
If you somehow missed this book about a black woman's DNA being exploited for decades of research - catch up fast. This year it's becoming a movie starring Oprah.

William Morrow
The women profiled in Hidden Figures - which is already a major motion picture - made meaningful, intentional contributions to the science of American space exploration, only to be largely ignored by history.

·       
Dover
First published in 1872, black abolitionist William Still's contemporaneous accounts of the Underground Railroad offer a peephole into the experiences of people escaping slavery. The account is drawn directly from his interviews of the hundreds of people he aided in escape.

Tribeca Books
First published in 1933, The Mis-education of the Negro examines how the educational system itself worked against black children, teaching them not to seek out ambitious life paths.















           

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 !!!!

Back to being Black . . .

One of the things I have noticed visiting homes of friends, new friends and acquaintances is the abundance or the lack of books, and libraries in their homes. There is a large percentage of white Americans I have visited whose homes have libraries of a variety of subjects, including the histories of Africans, the philosophies of religions, government, etc. In homes of Black Americans libraries are not common. It does not matter the education level.

It always bothers me. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/9/16 

THE TRUTH

EXCERPT:

 

Western scientists have long arrived at the conclusion that western culture is predominantly left-sided, and is now attempting very strongly to introduce into the school system methods that would make more use of the right hemisphere.

This has been especially encouraged by the discovery that such educational methods that appeal to the right side of the brain excel greatly over those of ...the left. "Super learning," "accelerated learning," etc. are the superlatives that are being thrown around as they are finding that such methods shorten the learning period (2 to 20 times faster), and produce a greater yield in understanding, and retention (500% in the same time span) over the left side.

Is this the reason why Black nations were the first to achieve a high level of civilization? We will see that it is.

The techniques used in the current "Super learning" systems, are nothing more than a minor fraction of the techniques used in traditional Africa from time immemorial. By pretending that the whole thing is a recent western discovery, and invention. Westerners are dooming themselves to stagnation, again! They need to humbly ask the African people to show them the way.
-Book Source: Metu Neter by Ra Un Nefer Amen I 

 

 "Although, the material in this book has the full support of historical documentation, I am writing foremost as a priest of over 20 years of practice. I am here presenting a practical syncretism of the best that the Kamitic (Ancient Egyptian), the Dravidian (Black India), and the Canaanite (true authors of Kabala) religions have to offer.

They were among the six nations that laid the foundation of civilization. But it would be folly on our part to merely document this fact, and to compile and explain a list of who, when, why and what.

Would it not be a sign of intelligence, to be more interested in the methods employed by them for the creation of civilization, so we may learn and apply them to its re-creation? If the religious, philosophical systems of ancient civilizations were so great, why aren’t we practicing them?"

 

 

~BOOK: Metu Neter, Vol. 1 by Ra Un Nefer Amen I, Shekem Ur Shekem of the Ausar Auset Society

Right! This is fundamental to the development of child, and civilization in the great places in the Land of the Blacks and other places around the globe that understand balance.

The troubling thing, I have observed, is the typical Black American shuns and will shun Metu Neter for reasons I won't elaborate on. How can this approach be made into the larger Black American community? ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4.26.16
 

Things that make you go hmmm....

It makes me pause and think about the serfs of old Europe, the slaves of the Americas, and the poor in many countries like India who fight and fought so hard to be literate. There is an inner craving to express oneself, to communicate at the deepest levels, and the most trivial of ways for fun. That primal need spurned the creation of alphabets for languages that had not previously considered having one. There are many tribes around the world trying everything they can think of to maintain their languages, customs, their stories and traditions. It is so deep this need, but here in the States we contradict our children. Somehow we have emphasized something else, and the burning need to be educated has wilted down.

Oprah Winfrey despaired when she admitted why she built a school in South Africa instead of the United States. She said across our country the children were more interested in tennis shoes. Ain't that some shiggady?- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 11.10.13





Books as Business

The One Website Book Lovers Need to Know

March 6, 2014 by The Book Insider

Last year, Random House decided to give away Dan Brown’s bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code, for free for one week. But millions of readers, including avid Brown fans, were not aware of the week-long giveaway.

Many of the readers who did take advantage of the promotion were using BookBub. BookBub is a daily email service that alerts readers to limited time promotions of free or deeply discounted ebooks across a variety of platforms. BookBub notified nearly 1 million readers of the free Da Vinci Code deal last spring.

“It’s the Groupon of books,” Dominique Raccah, the publisher of Sourcebooks, told The New York Times about deal sites like BookBub. “For the consumer, it’s new, it’s interesting. It’s a deal and there isn’t much risk. And it works.”

Why did Random House give away a national bestselling ebook that usually retails for $9.99? The promotion was very deliberate, with the goal of hooking new readers on Brown’s thrillers and drumming up interest in his new book, Inferno. In fact, the ebook included the prologue and first chapter of Inferno.

Publishers and authors also run free or discounted ebooks to hook readers on a series, or build a following for a new author.

“It makes it almost irresistible,” Liz Perl, Simon & Schuster’s senior vice president explained to the The New York Times. “We’re lowering the bar for you to sample somebody new.”

In order to get the word out on these promotions, publishers and authors feature their deals on sites like BookBub. BookBub is unique in that it does not list every single free ebook on the market.

Instead, BookBub’s expert editorial team selectively curates only the best ebooks to be featured in their email and on their website.

In most cases, the deals can be purchased for any ereading device, including Kindle, iPad, Nook, Kobo and Android. Additionally, BookBub allows readers to select which genres they would like to receive, so each email is matched to subscriber preferences. With millions of readers already using BookBub’s service, this type of promotional concept seems to be resonating with both publishers and readers alike.

To see today’s ebook deals, go to www.bookbub.com.

 

FOOD vs AMERICAN FAMILIES

Getting to Yum: The 7 Secrets to Raising Eager Eaters

Interesting. This subject and its relevancy to these times is troubling for reasons I cannot quite grasp. Something transpired in this generation, and it may be entitlement (I don't know), that did not exist prior to these times. The science of making children eat is indicative of something outside of what I know about food.

I traveled the world growing up. Never in my household, or any I visited, nor in any continent did parents struggle thus. Eating and play were as fundamental to being a child and being alive as breathing and coming home at night after playing all day was a natural rhythm. But, a scientific and methodical approach to getting a child to eat? Interesting it may be, but isn't it a 'tell' that something is askew in our approach to life? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5.29.14

When You Go 'Round in Circles!!

Composer, singer, pianist Billy Preston
 

 

Book
 

 

Old man playing the banjo a long time ago!