Perceptions or Musings.

Portrait of a Black man's family in the early years. 

By Nakeisha Campbell

Pregnant by Pasckie Pascua 

Acrylic. Watercolor. Pens. Sharpies. Pastels. Paper canvas. White boards. Sketchpads. 2017.

Pregnant Aishwarya Rai

"Ghetto whores, like Soleil, physically are staggering beauties. Men have to train themselves to see into women's eyes. Therein lies truths, contradictions and the indicators of darkness...That won't happen. Two whores copulating disagree on honesty, and their perceptions of life are linked, and indicative of worth. Devalued one whore cannot see the value of the other whore." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Peer into Essence.

Is there a way to balance crudeness within what is better than crudeness? ~ Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories [9/10/18] 

Brown skinned lady relaxed in this white crossover straps floral lace overlay Peplum dress. She is striking by the character she exudes. The clothes accentuate the powers she is imbued with..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/10/18 

Bondage clashes with the projections of freedom, and women clad in chains draws men to dim their light. It is never fun bondage. As a sex game its danger is its own design. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories (I wish I knew, but I don't know the photographer's name. The immaturity, or insensitivity people have that keeps them not following the simple rules of literacy.)

A look at Lives!

Kristen Gabriel by Roland Dawson

[October 2017] 

Question. What is missing? 

INDICATION of Purpose.

Candy Flossin

Candy Flossin's indication of purpose is in the question she poised. "Which one U hittin' first, The Blunt, Brandy or Candy?" To which a young cat, Eric DemetriGiovanni Sims, quickly responded saying, "Roll the blunt, lick the candy, wrap the blunt, sip the brandy, light the blunt, lick the candy, then candy all night."  

A point in life comes and it will come when the end game is enveloped in questions centering around worth and purpose. At the end of not fully understanding the power of the punany is a story of an empty hole in the soul, a broken something or other rattling around the chambers of the heart, and a gnawing sense that you may never regain what was once mysterious, sacred and formidable a force in Nature born from your own nature!

There is a cost to not knowing who you are and what are the powers invested within you from the Creator, who is a She over the powers of the Womb. Then again consciousness may never arrive inebriated or high. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories Sept. 13, 2016

Sacred Prostitution:
The Whore and the Holy One,
a paper by Elizabeth Cunningham
prepared for The New Seminary

I was sent forth from the power,
and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
and I have been found among those who seek after me,
Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,
and you hearers, hear me.
You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves
And do not banish me from your sight…

For I am the first and the last
I am the honored one and the scorned one,
I am the whore and the holy one…

I am the silence that is incomprehensible
and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.
I am the voice whose sound is manifold
and the word whose appearance is multiple.
I am the utterance of my name…

Excerpts from "The Thunder, Perfect Mind",THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY.

Jada Fire is one of the most tragic of whores.

Sacred Whore ? Is there a transition from a common whore to a sacred one? - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

The High & Low within Essence: pictture stories.

Gazelle Powers by Kevin Stiles in a window. (2015)

Ghetto chicks seek fame through sex the same way poor white women & young suburban women clamor for fame with sex. It is pitiful, but few stop them. It is part of the sex trade. ~ Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 12.5.15

Do You Know?

Half Nakid

Round the way chick poking her pussy as a way of expressing something meant for her man, or men who want her. Can that be the same ideology of a whore? I don't know. It is for women to weigh who they are in the balances. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 11.16.16

Polarity within Black Womanhood.



Tiara Kristine Harris is breathtakingly beautiful in a way that holds the eye transfixed with movement within stillness & embraced by the stunning affect of dance upon the senses. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 1.6.16 

Ghetto chicks have their own angst as well as aspirations beyond the perimeters of circumstances of birth & parentage. Do we elevate them by perception, or become a part of who they can be? That is the question. ~ Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories Dec. 2015

 

A lot to say without words about them ....

Gisele Bündchen by photographer Paulo Vainer for Vogue Brazil May 2015.

Gigi Dowell

Juno Brown by Giulia Oberti in custom hair art wrapped her hair in her wraps at

Hardly Strickly Blue Grass Festival in San Franscisco (fall 2013).

ghetto as she wanna be at home !!!!

Trying to Git Out Du 'Hood!



Roccky'Love felt up

August 28, 2013 ·

 

Somehow the eyes turned this pose Janet Jackson held and what Joséphine Baker could have held as elegant into something different and far lower than previously projected. Somehow, but how? Is it the suggestion, the beginning of a smirk, or what passes for indifference that changes the nature of what could easily become a spiritual testament, or a formless way form has translating form to formlessness?

This is a remarkable mystery. It is - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.26.15

Sadi Ma'at seated in power !!!!

 

What Matters To The Heart

"... big Black woman Lovely's breasts speak their language to two types of men who will hear one of two sounds in the story of the visual of her." - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories Jan. 2, 2014 

Sacred Feminine Songs

"... big black woman Hershey Kiss cannot escape, it seems,  the stereotype of poverty and its effect upon her spirit. If it is to be an escapable energy someone must show her different and be different. This is the plight of so many women caught up in survival from an early age before they learn viable alternatives to making money and learn to make love as a woman in love with herself, and enraptured by herself and who she is. The Elders need to teach this who have made the journeys from virginity to Eldership. The deep aspects of femininity are wrapped up in the form and substance of manhood in ways the ghetto mentality cannot grasp, and has not seen as a viable option to pimps, men running a train on a woman, and being taken for men's sake. Loving a woman and a woman loving herself are states of being both a man and a woman step into in their ascension!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.02.14 

Barbie in her laundry room 2

Harriet Tubman leads out the hood

Roccky'Love wants to be a model,

but can't get past the hood.
May 20, 2013 · 

"As evidenced by the photographer not hired the passage from the hood to a professional career will be difficult in the fashion industry. It is an industry that has made a lot of money from the 'hood and returns only to collect payment from those who pay for the designer clothes inspired by Black women's styles. It is a deeply ingrained pattern between the white world's relationship with Black women that has not changed over the centuries to the level of exchange that is powerful and beneficial for the Black woman.

It is a deep thing to not know one's self and even deeper is the stilled translation of ancestors' voices telling a Black woman one thing and she only hears what someone else has told her."

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.26.15

 

Fear of Success

Check out this video/interview of then 12 year old Venus Williams, 11 year old Serena Williams and their father Richard Williams. It's pretty cool to see just how many of the Williams family predictions came true over time. Just goes to show you that hard work and dedication do pay off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p31aGy_jD3E




Ghetto chick showed up at work and ...

I Love Being Black

















Your point Orman Griffith, "It's pretty cool to see just how many of the [Serena and Venus] Williams family predictions came true over time. Just goes to show you that hard work and dedication do pay off. It is not only hard work it is having a vision to work from as the point of origin." I get. I add that all things start from somewhere and from someone a vision finds release in their commitment to birth the vision through labor and sacrifice.

Most people will not reach their vision's end because of poverty and other things, but in the United States where people come to see the realization of their dreams most will not birth their vision because of the misconceptions that formulate life as a citizen. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/9/15  

Gayle King interviewed Cynthia MacFadden one day !!!!

 

AFRICAN TALES: the price paid

tattooed babe in a chair was all he saw and the only words out her mouth devalued what could have been the gold of her soul. Without the tutelage of soul and spirit a boy would never see the woman if he was taught about sex through the practice of gang rape. It is a troubling kind of mentality that reeks within the bodies of many young Black and Hispanic men across the United States. It is an ingrained process in many neighborhoods. It isn't mentioned in polite and wealthy circles, or the upper, or middle class neighborhoods. It should because many of the better educated families are losing the mentality of their sons to this notion of women as objects; as pussy for the taking.

Oblivious to the touch of opulence, and arrogance is the history of a people who have struggled to reshape family as an African people. But the centuries have not been kind, or favorable, or had merciful understanding of what was created within the souls of Black People fighting for survival and dignity. For complex reasons the 21st century is playing out a frightening story in African-American communities and Native American and Hispanic communities across the country. At the core of the dramas acting out in homes and on streets and in prisons the loss of the ability to ground one's self into the spiritual tradition of their ancestors through acts of terror fled the consciousness of the generation.

There are profound ways to shift consciousness, but there are employed actors in the game of terror that have effectively shut down the creative and magical process in children that makes adult mentorship programs too hard to assimilate into the culture of pain, and denial, and fear, and loss. There are words, powerful words that can shift direction and awaken the creative abilities to undo, to unlearn the craftsmanship of dying, and Death, but after thirty some years of attack upon the minds of colored peoples the words of say an Albert Einstein (1879-1955) are too abstract for a common mind to grasp.

Einstein said, "Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live."

There is a lot in there. There is a path to freedom in those words, but people holding on to their tragedies can't hear the deeper teachings that lead out and away from the crudeness. It is hard, and I understand. I also understand that should a Messiah come he would be automatically minimized by the nature of belief that dominates and oppresses the minds of the oppressed.

These are my words. I am Gregory E. Woods a Keeper of Stories.
8.30.13

Dreadlocked beauty of a Fierce woman is a reminder of the heritage, the strong lineage of holy people, mothers, warriors, inventors, strategists, fighters, fathers, philosophers, our ancestral knowledge, the artistic traditions of the soul of the various tribes we came from, and the genius of the spirit of who  we are and who we were as a People. Who we will become is the product of our thoughts, the depth and meaning of our intent, the breath of our ancestors, and our definitions of power, where we stand, and how we envision the futures. It is through our loins in the solitude of turmoil and the relieve of quieter times we can speak to our grandchildren's children.

This has always been our way of surviving, and living in the depth of the moments we have.

 - Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha
8.3.13

tattooed bodies of 2 Black women with big assess was all he talked about. Graham never spoke of them by their names. "They was his bitches!" he claimed.

Little Mike was 12. Only twelve and he looked up to Graham without balanced questions. That was the shame of it and that was the end of it for Don. Don was a quiet man who lived by himself near where all the action took place in this part of South Chicago. He worked as a plummer on the Saturdays his dad needed help, but most of his money was made working for the city government, and his side jobs as a photographer. It was the photography gig that got him involved with Mark and Mike.

Don had taken some pictures of a fight near Mr. Lee's restaurant that sold handsomely to a couple of publications. But, during the development process of his film he noticed the two boys and the delight in their eyes watching Graham brutally beat a woman in front of her children. That stirred Don into rage and later action. He took time to find out about the two boys. Got to know some of their family members, and tried to build a friendship with the boys. It was too hard. Little Mike loved the street life, and was suspicious of Don's intention. He was afraid of him. Thought he was a fag of some sort. It was this perception of Mike's that got Don on Graham's target list. He didn't like what fags had done in his family.

That was two years before Mike shot Don in the head and was initiated into the gang that later turned him out when he tried to defend the life of a woman who used to baby sit him. The gang thought he was soft, and didn't, as they repeatedly said, "Didn't give a fuck!" about the woman. To them she had pussy to be taken, and everyone knew she had no Old Man, and no gang claimed her. She was a working stiff trying to make a living and get out duh 'hood. That's what Rodriquez said after his turn in her.

That was the comment that released Little Mike's rage, and got him shot in the head by his boys. That was the shot that rang out with the truth the neighborhood taught him to scorn and ignore. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.30.13

"We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets." 

- Marilyn Monroe

Adriana Lima, international model

August 26, 2013

Cameron 5 

"There is always hope of redemption!! With breath there is Life. Within Life there is hope to remember and reclaim!" - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of the Drum

Teresa Ware Moody & her husband in church!!!!

Taraji P. Henson in a sequined pink & leopard Basler gown with plunging neckline is amongst the best of our best. Our best is not good enough until our best is not the exception. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 

GANGSTA' SHIT: letter to a young cat.

Bria Myles

A photographer captured Bria Myles posing apparently on the streets of Los Angeles, California saying as a caption, "Westside, 'til  I die!"

Increasingly, young people are declaring allegiance to their corners in their little neighborhoods in cities across the nation. With ever increasing fury is the conviction that education, and any capacity to learn is not hip. More desirable is the inner world reflected by action that is indifferent to growth, and the larger society. I understand how fear works to multiple itself within the weakened and the depressed, but in contrast I know how strong and indomitable the human spirit is.

It is the numbers of young Black people satisfied with being at the low rungs of a society that has freed up the avenues to attaining dreams, and learning how to function in a system I admit is jacked up. But, the combination of things at work for and against advancement of the soul can be the trajectory out of the quagmire of thinking thoughts not conducive to expansion. I know very well how I ascended and left the darkness that shadowed my life years past. There are so many circumstances to arise from, and measuring and saying one is more difficult than another to overcome is a ridiculous waste of time, and unimportant. What is important is the fight, and the struggle to learn or create the stratagems to get out of the shit one is embroiled within.

If the Three Little Pig story somehow absorbed you into the pages and folds of the story physically, and you were living the experience of the pig, the third pig who eventually cooked the wolf would the story have the same outcome?

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.27.13

GHETTO CHILDRENS

Kijhana Roby

July 6, 2012

Kijhana posed a one-sided, but important question to her people. "What happened to our Black men protecting our Black women?"

I assume the answers came from the intent and flow of the one who asked the question. The answers must have come from an authentic place, but they reflect (to me) a limited scope on a broad question with equally wide approaches to answer the one question she asked.

One man spoke up and said, Well, what the system didn’t kill most Black women denutted. Buyin’ li’l niggas 3 and 4 pairs of Air Jordans. Now li’l fuckers think they ‘deserve’ dumb ass niggar shoes. I see mothers now won’t let nobody raise a goddamn man. Sorry women, grandmothers, aunts, teachers, all kinds of enablers.”

Another man said, “They keeps sayn, I don’t need no man.Well. Okay.”

What happened to our Black men protecting their women is a deep, powerful and disturbing probe into our collective history. What did happen to Black men protecting their women, their families? To say they strayed off with white women is trite and disrespectful to all concerned. Not to mention erroneous. It is not a today question. It is a look back over the decades, the centuries to see how the laws of the Euro-Americans restrained, and/or eliminated the fundamental right of African men to protect their families both on the continent of Africa, and throughout the Americas. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5.7.13

Ashley Harris by Michael Bernard for

April 9, 2013

Ghetto FAB the...

Some creation stories begin and end with curiosity, as do some relationships. Many relationships begin and end with confrontation. The basis of those relationships speaks to the order, and structure of one's life. Ties to poverty, and poverty of spirit are lineages, and circumstantial ties to a fatalistic approach to Life. Poor whites, impoverished souls, ghetto Negroes, First Nation peoples, and folks in the barrios all ache to live abundantly amongst people who won't divulge the secrets of successful living, or they simply have lost the drive to discover the world within them that holds the answers to the questions, and the appropriate emotions to meet the challenges of overcoming! - Gregory E. Woods
Oct. 17, 2012

Actions speak the words of our belief.
Nov. 17, 2012

a MOM

Strictly Sex

A Mom visits her son for dinner who lives with a girl roommate. During the course of the meal, his mother couldn't help but notice how pretty his roommate was.She had long been suspicious of a relationship between the two, and this had only made her more curious....

Over the course of the evening, while watching the two interact, she started to wonder if there was more between him and his roommate than met the eye. Reading his mom's thoughts, his son volunteered,
“I know what you must be thinking, but I assure you,we are just roommates."

About a week later, his roommate came to him saying, “Ever since your mother came to dinner, I've been unable to find the silver plate. You don't suppose she took it, do you?"

He said ,"Well, I doubt it, but I'll email her, just to be sure." He sat down and wrote :

Dear Mother:
I'm not saying that you ‘did' take the silver plate from my house, I'm not saying that you ‘did not' take the silver plate But the fact remains that it has been missing ever since you were here for dinner.

Love,
your son

Several days later, he received an email from
his Mother which read:

Dear Son:
I'm not saying that you ‘do' sleep with your roommate, and I'm not saying that you ‘do not' sleep with her.
But the fact remains that if she was sleeping in her OWN bed, she would have found the silver plate by now, under her pillow…

Love,
Mom.

Mama

MASTERS AT IT

tattooed brown sista. 

Masters in the art of living.

Masters in the art of living are people who live in the vibration free of individualism or self-centered thought. They gather living together glorifying together with a heart of willingness to live for the sake of others and give endlessly.

Posers in the art of living.

Posers in the art of living. People who are gathered who have an attachment to " I," the individual to my situation, and to my possessions.

Each one of us, was born, to be a master in the art of living. Attendance or neglect determines our eternal environment. 

- Adruma Victoria 1.13.14

from

Belmoun Ibo Lelé

February 4 , 2014

Stop this shit! Y'all are grown women and you want to show off your booty then say men are thirsty. No you are. Whatever the meaning of this is its stupid and y'all need y'all ass whooped. That's why you holding it out their for to get it whooped and I don't mean in a good way for the perverted minds. Cuz the way you marketing yourself is to a man saying come get it. So who is the thirsty one? Think its not illegal yet!!!! A guy will fuck you but won't make love to you. He will kick it with you but won't commit to you. He will 'one night' you but won't 'wife you'. 

And then you say, "He ain't shit!" 

Use your brains sister's. Think its not illegal yet!!!!! And then you wonder why you single.
whats your best asset??? - Chris Heard,  12.30.13

from Chris Heard

 December 30, 2013 

    

Problem in the Black Community: understanding

I M A G E 

There is something profoundly off in this picture of a Black man sitting in a room with pounds of dollars stacked into piles on tables around him. The shades he wears don't make him cool, nor do they mask the type of man he is, but unknown to him reveals the type of man he is not. It is the pitiful and poor man letting someone take his picture in a room with a lot of money who understands the least about wealth, the most about nothing of great importance, or anything about the distinct core of true powers at work in the world of finance. It all escapes him the way the mystique and spiritual powers of women escape to reside outside of the peripheral and the grasp of pimps. In terms of history and the abilities beyond the evil accumulation of money by any means necessary men, like this hustler are barely mentioned amongst men of knowledge who know and embody true powers. 

It is stifling in the Black community the short number of vain men making money illegally because of the suffering of others. Not that they contribute to the betterment of their communities. They don't. They can't because of short sight, vain glory and selfishness. His survival is dependent upon the maintenance of illiteracy and fear of discovery. For the sake of young cats who are not engaged in the deeper aspect of life I am writing this knowing it will be read and become a part of the sound of the collective whole in the universal sound of Life that keeps breath in our body. - Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha (Heart Song Stone Man) 1.25.14

Just ignit'!
Edited 

Excellence & Hope Against Vacuity

Gerald McCorkle, I met the first year I was married to Renee. I was a microfilm photographer for the National Archives. Conversing with Gerald broadened my horizons. He was already ten years into his marriage, had a home and a perspective on life as a Black man that engaged my quest to fit in the work place at a young age. I remarked to myself then how elegant he was, and certain of himself in an environment of strict attention to detail best described as a culture with an intentional adherence to the supremacy of being white male academics. Gerald had a  keen sense of how to get what he needed without compromising his dignity and his self-worth was not measured by a standard outside of himself. He has always been intellectually challenging to his own designs and skilled probing into others. He spoke clearly with a scant accent that acknowledged his Black American upbringing and an inflection of a literate, thoughtful, and well read man.

His interest in developing young minds has followed him the course of his life. I saw that a few years ago when I was setting up my instruments for a small gig at the Potter's House in Adams Morgan in Washington DC. I was surprised to see him after a few decades there producing shows in that venue and recording artists of the hip hop genre in the metropolitan area. Today, he friended (what a word) me on Facebook.

The first thing I saw on his page intrigued me. It was a picture, or a doctored photo of a young Black man, EJ Green, all 'tatted up', both hands up 'giving the bird' (middle finger up) with a studied look of disdain a lot of young Black cats, and millions of people the world around accept as the stance of Black men from the 'hood. The young man was seeking affirmations about the picture because it was to be his album cover for a new project. The only response came from an obviously young cat who simply said, "Get me hipp." (whatever that means I don't know). I had to respond.

Little brother, the image leaves me with a profound let down, a deep sadness unattached to hope. The art work is deeply immersed in the crudeness of a dejected spirit without hope. I know a lot of young cats wallow in it, but it goes against the African tradition of sound, movement and color.

It is from a profound source artists, poets, musicians, writers come from, but the responsibilities of the creative people has been to uplift consciousness, even in anger, from the deeper levels of lower expectations into the higher rungs, where things get done, where life is formed and vision is raised.

I started out professionally as a musician in North Africa at the tender, but exciting age of 19. Tutored by older cats the first things they taught me I just shared with you. Actually, the magic of music and my parent's lives taught me that. But, the deepest lesson was the 'how' of the art of translating Spirit through my physical body into sound. At this level of performance every genre of music from anywhere in the world I played music from fundamentally transformed (in this order) me, the listener, and the worlds around us seen and unseen! You see the momentum of sound joins other sounds creating a vortex of sensual and explosive and powerful and penetrating probes into the place all music comes from. Every expression is a real experience accessible to any life form, and any form of art and music. I know it isn't an American approach to sound, but here in the States the best of musicians, and the masters come to this place in every genre.

My word to you, young blood, is to arise. You obviously come from the same place the masters come from.

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.25.14 

Ej Green

January 14 , 2014

An hour or so later I re-visited his page because it is on Gerald's wall and my contribution was deleted, and in its place he wrote. "Sir, I don't know you so can you delete this shit off my page?!"

"Pity, young man, that you know so little about the business of music, and exchange. It will cost you in this business to be narrow in perspective confining yourself to the small circle of people you know. You are trying to get into the music game with your eyes closed. I am sorry for what you don't know, and are unwilling to know. I gave you gift... And I was interested in hearing your music."

"I wish I could tell my mom that I love her everyday. I think about her as much as she probaly thinks about me. I mean, hell, I would think about my firstborn... I don't live with regrets, just wish I did things differently because you don't learn from regrets, only mistakes. Having said that... I wish our relationship was different and not where it is today. (You are a beautiful woman, mama)" - Ej Green, August 12, 2013