Spoken Word: Painting Images Drawn from the Mouth | Urban Cusp

Deep appreciate and ONE LOVE to Rahiel Tesfamariam and Urban Cusp for this article! Check it out! Spoken Word: Painting Images Drawn from the Mouth

♥ Loved Isaiah Washington's New Book!! ♥

A Man from Another Land: How Finding My Roots Changed My Life by Isaiah Washington
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I just finished reading Isaiah Washington's A MAN FROM ANOTHER LAND! He made me laugh, cry, mad, sad, dream, hope, believe. He made me SEE! DNA has memory!!!

The book is a transparent testimony of Isaiah's journey through life as a man, actor, activist, humanitarian, and child of God.

♥ After reading this enthralling testimony all I can say is: I WANT MY AFRICAN DNA TEST NOW!!! I want to know my African self NOW!! Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month ~ NOW! Read his book & you'll feel the overwhelming urgency too!

I am so incredibly impressed with Isaiah! Encore! Encore! I hope the book comes out in audio so he can bring this book to life with his outstanding acting skills!

View all my reviews

Make the best of your life

Thank you God!

Phenomenal Woman by Dr. Maya Angelou

Today I'm going to watch Dr. Maya Angelou speak at the Andrew and Walter Young YMCA. They are dedicating the Teen Center to her. Very cool.

MLK On Service - Drum Major Instinct

Minds Your Matters

As you go through life, make sure you focus on matters that matter. Many matters don't matter at all. The matters that do matter often end up not mattering because we're too busy mattering in minor matters. So mind your major matters and don't major in the minors. That is all.

Faith + Hope x Love: Tricia Harris

"The most obvious facts are the most easily forgotten..."

"If, however, economic ambitions are good servants, they are bad masters. The most obvious facts are the most easily forgotten.

Both the existing economic order and too many of the projects advanced for reconstructing it breakdown through their neglect of the truism that, since even quite common men have souls, no increase in material wealth will compensate them for arrangements which insult their self-respect and impair their freedom.

A reasonable estimate of economic organization must allow for the fact that, unless industry is to be paralyzed by recurrent revolts on the part of outraged human nature, it must satisfy criteria which are not purely economic."

- R.H. Tawney

Religion and the Rise of Capitalism 

Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now

Dear Rihanna:"Man Down" Keeps Man Down

Dear Rihanna,

Please take this in the spirit of tough love and concern that it is meant: You may need an intervention. What's going on in your mind, baby girl? 

As I understand it, your new song "Man Down" is meant to raise public awareness about domestic violence against women and empower victims. That makes sense since you were a victim yourself. We all remember the photos of your beautiful face banged black and blue from Chris Brown man handling you. Our heart ached for you. We were outraged at the cruelty and appalled by the nonsense. Your desire to empower women and raise awareness to help our community evolve is understandable and commendable. But um...that's not exactly what you're doing, is it?

Please allow me to point out the obvious. Releasing a song about pre-meditated murder to exact revenge for an assault, then running from the police to avoid prison for the crime doesn't exactly encourage growth and healing, does it? It doesn't help. It harms.

Listening to "Man Down" makes me wonder if you really want to keep man down. Is that true? Or do you simply not care? I'd like to believe that you are just painfully oblivious to the impact your power and influence have on the psyche and sensibilities of our generation. I want to believe, but that's not really true, is it? In your words, "I'm just a girl, I can only be your/our voice!"

Rihanna's Tweets

By your own admission, you are a voice for our generation. Yet you've chosen to use it to sing:

♫...It's a .22 ~ I call her Peggy Sue. She fits right down in my shoes. What you expect me to do if you're playing me for a fool? I will lose my cool...and reach for my fire arm...♫

Seriously? That's what you would do? That's what you want to encourage girls and women to do? When challenged, you shrug indifference and call it art. It doesn't matter how you dress it up, trying to explain this away as "artistic expression" that reflects the realities of many doesn't fly as a viable excuse for such callous disregard for our people. 

Answering violence with violence and calling it a song of empowerment can only be characterized as short bus logic. Get off the bus! It's taking you in the wrong direction! S.O.S.

How will you feel if/when some misguided young woman picks up a .22, aims and shoots while "Man Down" plays in her mind? Blowing someone away doesn't make you a big girl, it just puts you in the big house. 

Of course, I realize that you're only 23, but you are old enough to count. It's simply not adding up when you do your math, love. I suggest you stop counting on your fingers and use a calculator to multiply the negative affect your influence is having on our community. Your message is not courageous, it's a cop out. 

I realize that you're under fire right now and I don't mean to add fuel, but better for you to be called out than for someone you influence to "man down" and get locked up. Waxing indignant and giving flippant comments that show a disconnect from reality is not a good look. The criticism you're receiving over this song isn't because people are hating on you; it's because you are spewing hate!

All that said, I remain hopeful. You can fix this. Judging by the 6 million YouTube views of your video within three days, you have a captive audience. Now is the time. Your lyrics express deep regret over your fictitious actions. It's time for life to imitate art. It's not too late to ♫ rum bum bum bum ♫ your way to truth. Acknowledging your mistake doesn't make you weak, it shows you're strong. Be a big girl and man up!

Faith + Hope x Love: Tricia Harris