Glimpses...

Naked and vulnerable woman by Stéphane Battesti‎. (2019)

"Isolation is deep in the confines of what hold American women bound..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories photo by Dimitris Lelouda.

Deep Within Changes.

American woman's spirit has changed. photo by Marcin Weron. (2019)

Flower child in the 21st century in 

photo by Siegart von Schlichting. (2019)

The meaning of a flower child has changed over the decades from a dancing excitement to stoic posturing. Strange. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 3/12/19 





















Gallery Of Refined Art

TO ACTIVATE, TO FREE OTHERS: a calling.

Still spinning from this past Monday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) when I was given the Legacy of A Dream Award at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. — It was surreal to say the least. I gotta thank all of my family, friends, colleagues, mentors, and teachers who came out. You made the evening so special.

A line from my acceptance remarks, “Let us wake from our deep deep sleep so we no longer have to dream and can experience in our waking state the beloved community...”

Thank you Georgetown University and President John J. DeGioia for selecting me for this honor. Summarized from their website, “Each year, the "John Thompson Jr. Legacy of a Dream Award" is given to an inspirational emerging leader... since 2003, the award has been given to civil rights icons, children’s rights advocates and other #humanitarians."

In one of the photos you'll see me with Dikembe Mutombo who reminded me that I have a lot of growing to do!

And all the remarkable beings who I get to work with at One Common Unity — There is so much important work to do... feeling grateful and inspired. - Hawah Kasat (Jan. 26, 2019) 

Hawah Kasat honored (r.) receiving the Legacy of A Dream Award at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. January 20, 2019. 

"The journey we are on is long and sometimes it can feel overwhelming. The question today is what will we choose to invest our time, energy and resources in?

Life is both short and long. It is long because during our time we can make a huge impact on future generations… if we spend our time wisely and are other-centered instead of self-centered, then we have the opportunity to correct the injustices in the world.

It is short because that time, which we have, moves by really fast and if we aren’t paying attention it will be over before we know it.

I encourage all of us, to never forget that it’s never too late for us to begin dedicating our life work to something beyond selfish interests.

The solution to the violence and division in this world may begin with being caring, kind, generous, and other-centered BUT our work cannot end there. The institutional violence which inherently breeds inequity must be addressed. Both of these paths require more than just good intentions, they require us to fundamentally change the ways we live and with unrelenting focus transform the very systems that perpetuate violence." -Hawah Kasat (Jan, 20, 2019)  

EIGHTEEN 

"One has to live this life within their vision to speak this truth. From legacy to knowledge of how things work is how intelligently vision is carried by people, who hold the vision given them into their individual futures. In our mother's carrier (her womb) we lay in the waters knowing. Remembering is how we learn who we are, and how we manifest that dream becomes legacy. It is a cycle of unlearning visionaries move within..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [Jan. 30, 2019]  

One Common Unity

Hawah Kasat honored receiving the Legacy of A Dream Award at 

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. with his family. 

(2019)

A Question to American Life.

Gun held and pointed at you by a beautiful white woman. 

Is she hot, or not? 

No. Nothing fun, funny or sexy about a woman aiming a gun your direction. Sexy clothes, an incredible beauty, flat abs, hips, sexy jeans are distraction. Two things: if her hand is steady, her eyes are deadly you up 'shits' creek. Most of us don't know where this creek comes through, but we recognized it when we pay attention! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 12/20/18 

This JANE.

Jane Birkin, actress and singer was known

for being a muse to Serge Gainsbourg.

Jane Birkin, born Dec 14, 1946, was the center of attraction to a mystique inspired by the daring and the intolerance for resisting social change typical of this time period (1960-1970's). She was intriguing more than beautiful, thoughtful more than attractive. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 4/01/18

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?

Whores as Stars.

Hana by Toby

There is a group of women who've chosen to make their living in the adult entertainment business. Mostly, in this industry, it is white women who receive the bulk of the recognition and lucrative jobs, not because it is an area for whites only, it is something deeply embedded in the veins culture worldwide that is reflective of the larger social construct created by ideals from Europe. Racial politics aside the soul is the subject to focus upon. Is the wording of this craft deceptive in how it is phrased in the public arenas to validity to the soul of whores?

A street whore does not have the social status to merit the police looking into her case should she be killed or raped, or beaten; nor do police departments across the country have the commitment to pursue rapists, as research shows us. Wealthy and/or politically connected women can expect appropriate care from the justice system if sexually assaulted; not a whore, and by definition it includes porn stars. But, porn stars at the top of their game often take on an aloofness, an arrogance against views and people outside of their world, and understanding of the specialty of their craft. Never mind loss to soul, image, or integrity in a Puritanical sense of morality, or the Christian view's ridged in its understanding of right and wrong, and the sanctity of marriage. 

Many Euro-Americans have gone far asserting prostituting can be, and should be respected in the context of basic survival for women raising children alone. For survival, if as a couple a man lets his woman sell her body for cash he is deemed a pimp; even if he is the husband. In the same breath condemnation is rained upon the occupation at the street level. Men can be as violent as they want on the streets with whores and down the way girls in their neighborhoods. Girls can be gang raped as a way into a street gang, and as rites-of-passage into a brutal type of manhood for the boys.

It is so complex a subject I am subject to return to it time and time again. Fathers need to absorb the contradictions of the subject matter to see themselves better. It matters the true attitudes fathers have within them, and contradictions introduce truth to their perspectives. At some point they come to the surface in their relationship with their daughters and their sons, and then what? The what is answered by unconscious actions the fathers make with their children, and their mothers!

- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5/02/18  

Japanese woman as lover ...

Gallery of porn stars. 

SEAGULLS Belong...

Seagull by the Turkish photographer, Safak Yavuz. (2017).

Seagull problem.

Long after we are gone off the face of the Earth, if that happens, a modicum of Life will remain. Among the remnants will be seagulls, rats, crows and vultures. They will help build life anew with restorative powers. Let's awaken from within before then. . . - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/28/18

Stand For Something, and Someone Else.

Civil Rights protestor alone and defiant.

I grew up during this era and everything was devoured, meaning all information about the Civil Rights movement was taken in by the general public eagerly and with dread. It was exciting for reasons this generation cannot grasp.

Every time period exists within a period of time. How it was important and unique to its time is important to the future where it is judged. It has always been like this in human history! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 9/7/18 

Kaepernick making a statement.

Cicely Tyson speaking at Aretha Franklin's funeral. 2017. 

I am always moved by Cicely Tyson's presence, what she says, does not say and how she conveys deep intangibles with her eyes, and by right of ancestry and legacy!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories (Sept. 7, 2018) 

Shekere played by Chadra Pittman made by Madeline Yyodele of Women of the Calabash. photo by Bill Thomas.

SEEN in the interior of the Soul. . .

The outstanding is astounding! In women seeing themselves in the admiration from men is a value system. In fact, memories stirred by looks means something adheres to what people value: worth. Are beautiful women observed, or their beauty perceived? Do beautiful women believe in the ideal from those who admire them, or lie about how important it is to be admired for beauty? Are we wrong needing Beauty, or women needing to be seen as beautiful?

Simple questions, but at the beginning of puberty the question is raised by the consciousness of general society. It is our parents our validation should come from, or at least, the form of family once held that status. Now, with Instagram baby sitting children, and informing them value has become a vague sense of being accepted by strangers, by people a child will never see face to face. Ain't that some shit? ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/28/18

naked. Marilyn Monroe.

Art as Woman.

"Modeling style and modeling clothes can be the same, but more often is not because those who try do not know they have to develop the abstract with the practical application of beauty and intelligent forms of analysis to produce a better feel to establish what can be, or is beautiful!..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/25/18

Elizabeth Ashley photographed by John Darko Chapman titled 'The Widow',

body paint by Jon Jon Loveless. (Sept. 11, 2016)

This Actress provokes thoughts...

Debra Messing in her first movie, A Walk In The Clouds

Debra Messing (born August 15, 1968) is an American actress. She is known for her many television roles, most notably her eight-year run playing Grace Adler on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace... 

I never liked or watched Will & Grace. I was no fan of lily white shows depicting, with skill, how white people look at the world around them without seeing anyone else, but themselves! It is a dismissive quality brilliantly written in this and other shows like Sex and City, Mad About You, and so. That's how it is in daily life! 

I pay respects to the actress' respect and deep love for her father. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 3/8/18 

Debra Messing on the Tonight Show

Undoing An Upbring! (2)

Valerie Baber, adult actress, educator and student of several disciplines

seated here March 18, 2013.

For many men, who know her name Valerie Baber is a porn star. Her lifetime interests and developmental process in psychology, travel, cultural criticism, literature, philosophy, human sexuality, media, sociology, photography offset something fundamental in the definition: porn star. In her life work she has become an Agent Provocateur. But, that is too limiting. I wrote her once saying: "You have made a compelling impact upon thousands of people beginning with first steps you took in your youth unlearning the patterns of a belief system. It is a commentary of a fundamental focus Life gives us: we can change from within!" Specifically, I was referring to her strict Christian and military upbringing that confined her sexual energies, and other creative possibilities into an unbearable aloneness. 

Many do not escape this, but she did. The question: "How? How did she do it?" goes unanswered by millions, who seem content to die without becoming themselves, or Life has confined them to the narrow places. ~ Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4/26/18  

the Riddle in "HOW?" 

"How is it that we can punish women who are paid by politicians yet allow freedom and forgiveness to the politicians who pay them? The irony of the situation is that if we allow Sptizer’s deep pockets to buy his way back into our homes and hearts, then it’s not young women he hired who are whores, it’s the people of New York." — Valerie Baber

FATHERLESS by Design.

Spider Man's son grew up without his father present...

Ya' Hear Jimi?

JIMI HENDRIX

In the depth of his genius and originality the gem of his words, "When the power of love is greater than the love of power the world will know peace." came forth like the hot waters of geysers in the lands the Americans stole from the Nez Perce, the Absaroka and others to establish the worlds' first national park: Yellowstone.

Jimi Hendrix being a Black Indian meant a great deal to Native people who knew this and to Black Indians who understood the danger of being or admitting to being a mixed breed in those days... It took great commitment to his art to free himself as the musical conduit, and others in the 1960's collective struggles to change lives, and to change the world as they knew it. Jimi Hendrix represents many things. In 2012 he is strange because the concept of freedom he lived and embodied then does not live in the current phenomenon of today's dictatorial patriotism stilted in an idea of freedom in the narrow spheres of one class of people. – Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5/23/12 

Symbols worn by Sher Nero-Mejia. 

Moral Bankruptcy

the Riddle in "HOW?" 

"How is it that we can punish women who are paid by politicians yet allow freedom and forgiveness to the politicians who pay them? The irony of the situation is that if we allow Sptizer’s deep pockets to buy his way back into our homes and hearts, then it’s not young women he hired who are whores, it’s the people of New York." — Valerie Baber

Valerie Baber said, "He wants me to wear this dress again, but I told him he'd have to work for it. He loved that I gave him a challenge. Ladies, value what they value. Make them earn it." (April 2018)