WHEN WE AWAKEN: Be Firm To Affirm.

"Some things are just average, other things are spellbinding!"

Adventure has its mystery wrapped in what evolves within the soul engrossed in adventures. The few who do have adventures explore. It is the exploration that designs the journey. In the U.S. women can find reasons not to explore. Those who do follow their impulses create engaging forces that have to travel. In the end of each story are people who resent adventurous spirits.

"Do not let their voices divide your impulse," said the old to the young. ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12/20/18

TERROR

In American mythology nudity, speed, sound, movement suggest the dangers of American life can be controlled on a motorcycle. It is all in the dream of white American manhood... 

The actor, James Dean, amongst other young white men, famous for their fashionable aloofness, their rebellious attitudes, set the tone of disenchantment with the 'Establishment' (as expressed in the 1960's). Motorbikes were symbols of rebellion since the 1950's, and into the 1970's as the myth of white disenchantment became more and more violent until organization skills turned motorcycle gangs into business aligned with the mythology, and value system of colonization, conquest and terror their ancestors invested in and employed. 

The recycling of ideologies is composed to continue to stir violence in white American blood. Donald Trump is deeply intuned to its byproducts, its presence and his duty to white Americans, and their sense of global dominance.  

~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12/20/18  

"Women in the 1970's were from the previous decade where the gift they gave their daughters originated from. Unappreciative today, white women are repeating themselves in their fights for baffling reasons. 1970's white women like this had a freer tone in their voices. The all woman aspect in their carriage promised to further explore what that meant. Historical fears blocked a lot of that . Today, fearful of white men white women hesitate." ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

"Women who kill have crossed a line in the choices their gender has to make with their powers of birth." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12/23/18

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"London Hart's delicate beauty's strengths translate from intangible elements supporting her essential to become a woman with depth, one hopes..." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

IN the Depths of Human Experience.

Is it possible in the brokenness of 21st century the resurrection of divinity within the African? Could be, will it be inevitable? It is ever possible. 

It never could be a better time before, but now the dysfunction deep beneath and within the soul of Americans makes demands on common sense. A powerful African woman seated as an authority announces the presence of a husband completing sacred powers the two have responsibilities to fulfill. Birthed into the present how would crudeness and the crude way of being upon the Earth, our Mother accept the holiness of an African woman and African man, who are deep in the powers beyond the capacity of crudeness?

There is a lot asked of excellence, and a lot to fear. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1/28/19 

African Mother's Powers. artist unknown.

This was the last known photograph taken of Dr. Anna J. Cooper in her Washington, D.C. home. Dr. Cooper was an American scholar and educator.
 
Born a slave in Raleigh, North Carolina, when she earned her PhD in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 1924, Dr. Cooper became the fourth African-American woman to earn a doctoral degree. Photo Source: Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History 

Sarah Collins Rudolph is the fifth little girl who was injured in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four little girls readying for Sunday school. Her sister was killed in the bombing. She lost an eye, suffered severe cuts throughout her body, and has endured years of surgery and medical problems as a result of the bombing... 

Deep story. 

Black History Facts

White Women as Subjects

10 minute pose, graphite for Glamour & Fetish Art. 

Art is from the hand of Tim Kelly, from Baltimore. 

This title: "White Women as Subjects" is a volatile one. It is one subject in history too often unknown in depth by today's young American women activists. As well, they are subject to emotions convinced that the intensity of their reactions to social conditions is enough to make the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down! This isn't naivety. This is ignorance. The ignorance of assumption is primarily laziness. Activism is hard work. The hard part of it is the research. Research is work, and respectful of those who lived our pasts.

Understanding European history is basic to the Women's Movement. It explains; no, makes clear why the movement is first and primarily a white woman's struggle to be free. Other women are subjects to the 'crown'. Because of events unique to the 20th century, other women feel apart of this movement. Because the societal changes in the U.S. need to be white led, and the fact of what ails the souls of white women this movement is fraught with internal contradictions. For Black and Red women, the struggle is to free themselves from the histories of their past with white women, and their white men, who traveled the world killing and taking from the rest of the world. In this conquest, the inherent terror white women harbor within their wombs is of concern to us only in our relationship to the horror of what they did to other people's women!

If there is to be a woman's movement let the white women have theirs, and let our women have theirs off camera at the soul level in the ancestral realms...


- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [Jan. 18, 2019]

"Who was really sacrificed on the Cross.?"

photo by Baden Bowen of Ellis Stone.

Woman Alone by Daïdo Moriyama

Woman of Power shot with a Fuji XT2 camera several years ago by John Lehman.

Ancient Today.

Ank worn subtly by this woman enhances something so subtle it cannot be touched, but touch is its core value...The symbolic power of a thing is a symbol, but the power of a symbol is inherent within the spiritual practices the symbol is made to embody. The cowrie shell from the spiritual practices of West African cultures and the Kemit symbols from the north of the Black continent and from all directions of the Land of the Blacks, the spiritual powers of ancient peoples are potent, even in dormancy. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8/16/18

African woman's exquisite beauty...

Darla Crane is a direct competition to the promise of commitment to the principle of devotion to the essence of African womanhood. Perhaps the energetic pull is lust, or it is a merely a childish dare to see what lies beyond. These are the things to ponder as an African in the aftermath of the era of European conquest. The search for identity has to be wrestled from the command of white power over our consciousness. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8/22/18

WAKE UP to LIVE!

The African woman is the great divide in the consciousness of freedom because of the interference of European thought and aggressive terrorism. . . ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8/22/18

the Art of the Feminine melanin.

Before the decadence of this season begins consider. . .

Freedom. Kendra Cantara, a Playboy centerfold.

"Being and feeling free are two things, at once the same! Sometimes." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 5/28/18 

"...The innocence of her soft gentle form of refreshing beauty is refreshing. It belongs in a society disrespectful of who 'She' is to humanity. But, that is dangerous." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 5/28/18

A Look Back

Dyan Cannon on phone in the '60's

Sophia Loren in a breeze.

Helen Mirren, actress "Woman In Gold" 

‎

Beautiful and stunningly beautiful white women from days gone by formed and support the opinions about what was the standard for this and the last century.

Look at this gallery. It is more of a tribute. Women like Kim Novak and Sophia Loren featured in this gallery of poses, who set standards today's woman glances at in their mirrors for glimpses. Yes, this is a tribute to the influence of white women in our sensibilities. This gallery of comparative photographs skips through the mid-twentieth century with darlings like Caroline de Maigret and Lucille Baugh! Audrey Hepburn set the standard of elegant poise and the long forgotten Isabel Jewell!

If you look close and beneath the assumptions they are all white women, whose influence framed the network of thought and esteem Black women from then until now hold as mirrors. In the strive for freedom Black American's struggle for identity begins with images framing their perception of themselves.


Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
October 14, 2017

pretty legs of Ginger Rogers.

Anna Q. Nillson in 1920. 

Mae Busch's exquisite beauty in 1922. 

Hedy Lamar in the style of the 1940's.

Trumped Up Story

This story

White women are peculiar who submit to bondage, but look up to white men for release from their struggle to be equal. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 6/16/17

TWO Experiences

Eros Tales 73

Windy day. Model Ralffaella Saporito in another new day taken by Paolo Lazzarotti. 

"Tomorrow is another day" is how Raffaella titled this. 

Shot with Canon 500D + Sigma Art lens 18-35mm f/1.8

Walking in the Fog shot by Kevin B. McCluskey. 

Shot with Canon 5DsR 70-200mm @ 135
1/125 f/2.8 ISO160 No Flash..

Women's Portraits Only (WPO)

the Solid within...

"When one is void of critical thinking, they will accept lies and fall into the trap of accepting the status quo which will eventually cause them to be defined and confined by their oppressors..." Dr. Sinclair Grey III 

woman swimming with a Humpback whale in her dream.

When Dr. King spoke: Power of a People's Pain.

When Dr. King spoke: "If you can't fly, then run, if you can't run, then walk, if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward" I heard the enforcement of the laws of purpose, and felt at the time what it meant to Colored folks. Being young, and being old and a Negro in those times held a stress level that strangled dreams. It killed by fear and emboldened by necessity a killer instinct in others, and made the leaders arise from within the caste system created by the fears white lives, who developed themselves into monsters or tolerant moderates, afraid to do what was right in the sight of God!

Dr. King, I recall, was despised by so many ministers, but I saw fear of changing the white people around them alive in the purposes the church served in Colored neighborhoods. No one killed like white folks! I remember how television delivered these messages from Martin Luther King Jr. the way word spread through the forests into the towns and cities where 'Members' lived. I remember old people talking about the way storytellers told the old stories to the children around fires in the dark of night! The fires became radio, radio became television and television became the internet, where the family circles disappeared into the mist of separate rain drops.

Now, today broken circles pretend to bring people together. Pieces of a dream are no more effective than broken bowls. The old ways of fighting the demons are the methods to bring the worst of killers to their comeuppance, to trail, to the courts of law, but not the law created by the killers and framed by the beneficiaries of their brutal murders and acquisitions by force and terror.

It is less and it is more our Ancients speaking the old truths our interactions with those from Europe stripped from our knowing of the deep that gave Dr. King his voice... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/18/18 

Riddle: descent or right?

Wife of Art Warda, Kristin Warda shows her breasts off.

"Why?" is a question to ask, and "how?" they allowed her

sharing this picture is a compelling subject. 

Married couples allow each other to do things another couple may not allow. In some marriages, it keeps their integrity in order in ways indistinguishable from what another may call a sin. There are couples where the husband allows his wife to display her body for an online audience. "Why?" is a question to ask, and "how?" they allowed her sharing in this way is a compelling subject.

It is important for young inexperienced couples to learn how to wade through the complex waters of freedom of expression. The way Westerners view sex and marriage has crossed many lines indigenous peoples have learned to establish balance in Life. Western cultures have learned to disrespect many moral standards from a perspective foreign to decency, and in the momentum of that long ago decision; we in their future lay claim to freedom of expression with and without decency, or moral standards worth anything! It is a moral dilemma these days deciding what is right and what is wrong. How, Native people and those of us throughout the African Diaspora resolve these contradictions is determined by our relationship with our Ancestors, and our knowledge of what is right and what is wrong in the equation of balance and right relationship. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/10/18 

This is for the cool. . .

Smoking outdoors is a release into the spirit, if one is so minded, or connected to the simplicity of spirit, the spirit of things and life forms surrounding us. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 4/02/18

Make IT, Survive!

Harriet Tubman. She stands in my thinking a menacing presence balanced in her years after the Civil War with marriage, property ownership, the building from a vision she carried, and a life serving Colored folks in the hard years learning how to no longer be slaves! It was a hard time after the Civil War most have no concept of, but her depth is in the role she played during the freed times (1965-1876)! How to live when Southern whites unleashed their rage from 1866 on are a complex circle of interlocked stories making the buzzing sound in the undercurrent of modern life in the States! 

Harriet Tubman is a complex part of America's contradictions, and the bane of the country's existence. If white Americans were to understand why an African freed slave would terrorize them freeing African souls, and why she killed those Negroes, who wanted to go back to their masters, they'd better understand the dark of their souls, and their existence!

When she said, she'd admonished slaves running north with the words: "If you hear dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going!" she was talking with and talking to the warrior spirit prepared to die to live!

I don't want to participate in the romanticizing of the woman, or her hard work. It is where she has slipped into in the expanse of time since her life was lived. And I do not want 

HOLD ON...
by jojo brooks shifflett

And in the Winter of life, Hold on.
Hold on to you, Not who you think you should have been.
Hold on to what you know to be good, if it be but a bit of bread and honey,
or if it be a bit of earth that warms you,
or a face that makes you smile.
Hold on to these things that made you, you.
Hold on to what you must now do,
Even if it means traveling far away.

Hold on to life,
When it is easier to just let go.
Hold on to my hand,
No matter the distance between us.
For my dear one, you still hold my heart,
though we be so far, far apart.

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

American Woman, as the song goes...

Devil woman created by John T. Howard. (2018).

“In 1972 Anne Braden wrote what she called ‘A letter to southern white women’. And I just want to share a short passage from that letter… ‘I believe that no white woman reared in the south, or perhaps anywhere in this racist country can find freedom as a woman until she deals in her own consciousness with the question of race. We grow up little girls absorbing the stereotypes of race, the picture of ourselves as somehow privileged because of the color of our skin. These two mythologies become intertwined; and there is no way to free ourselves from one without dealing with the other.' 

It seems like Hillary Clinton should have read her, you know. Because Clinton was deeply mistaken in thinking that she could [call up] an obsolete notion of feminism that focuses on the categorical woman with all of its clandestine processes of racialization and class hierarchy. She used an outmoded notion of feminism that revolves around white middle class and bourgeois women.” ~ Angela Davis, Black scholar, activist

artist John T. Howard created this piece. www.artofjohnhoward.com