Beautiful - Christina Aquilera

For those of you who didn't pay attention to Christina Aquilera after we met her as the pop princess singing "Genie in a Bottle," you've missed the emergence of a true vocal artist. Four videos are below that will take your breath away, and a fifth bonus video just for fun.

Beautiful (Haunting video makes this cover special)



A Song For You (her amazing collaboration with Herbie Hancock)



Impossible (live with Alicia Keys)



At Last (she does Etta James proud on this cover)



Having fun covering Lady Marmalade in Moulin Rouge! with Lil' Kim, Mya, and Pink 
 


Thank you to my friend Regina for reminding me of my appreciation for this beautiful voice.

What we carry

What are the things we carry that define our lives and our communities? What informs our physical, spiritual, personal boundaries? What is both quotidian and unique to our lived experience?


My friend Lynette D'Amico has an amazing post up at Is Greater Than that considers the things we carry.


She takes us on a wild journey, from an eruv and Orthodox Judiasm to how we carry babies to what we carry in our bags and psyches, and then to West Rogers Park - her neighborhood in Chicago - the place that now carries her home.


Be sure to read the whole essay here, but below are a couple of excerpts:

"...The Hebrew word eruv means “mixture” or “joining together,” as in the joining together of public and private space. An eruv integrates private and public properties into one larger private domain. So the boundaries between private and public are enlarged and carrying is permitted. By some complicated process involving symbolism and thousands of years of Jewish law, an eruv is a wall that is a series of doorways...

...Boundaries construct our identities and clarify what we can carry, whether keys or babies, whether the key is a green card or a bank card, whether the baby is carried across the border on her mother’s back or rides in a Burley, whether we are on our way to pray, on our way to a new life, or just on our way to a decaf latte... 

...We carry resentment and longings; our nephew flipping his hair, a fat old orange cat, homegrown tomatoes. We carry water bottles and cell phones, lipstick and sunscreen, notebooks and pens, umbrellas, chips and nuts and little candies, Xanax, Vicodin, and aspirin; condoms, the latest New Yorker, a Swiss Army knife, a pair of channel lock pliers, a flashlight.. 

...Within my borders—West Rogers Park, the 50^th Ward—I pass through a series of gateways–the Georgian bakery on Devon, Warren Park where the dogs run, the empty Z Frank Chevrolet dealership on Western, the halal and kosher grocers. I am enclosed and enlarged by the walls around me. My hands are empty. Invisible wires guide me. I look up."

 So let me ask this: What are the things you carry? What carries you? 

On the Occasion of Starting Kindergarten (A Love Song)

If I were a poet this would be a poem. But I'm not. So let's just call it a song. Without tune, meter, or rhyme. A love song. For you, grandchild.

::::

Beloved child of my child.

A warrior girl at five, you have already survived great harm. 

Fierce. 

Resilient. 

Strong. 

Sassy.

Smart.

Ready. Set. Go. 

Twinkle twinkle little star.   

Your star's ablaze. 

The fire in your eyes announces, "I am here. I demand to learn."

Some might think you less, being brown and poor. A girl. 

Don't let them. Knowledge is a necessary weapon for your survival.

ABCDEFG...won't you come and sing with me.  

Rise above and play together. You already know how. Rise above the playground chatter, the mean teasing, the fronting about others. Do not fall for the subtle (or not so subtle) ways some teachers will try to say who is less, who is more. Don't listen.

You were born to lead. 

You are equipped.

Ready. 

Set. 

Go.

Rise above and play together. You already know how.

Sepia Queen Photography: A Woman’s Mystique

Stephanie Morris, my good friend/sister-in-spirit, is an amazing photographer who has been increasingly bringing her art to the world. I asked her if she would write a guest post about her work, about emerging more publicly as an artist, and most recently, her participation in Big Blaq: The End of Acquiescence. Here’s what she had to say:

Emergence

By Stephanie Morris

Below are three photographs I exhibited in Big Blaq, a recent show created by TAWU (The Artist Within Us), a Twin Cities-based collective of artists of color. My participation in TAWU and this event is meaningful because it was an opportunity to make my debut in a community art forum.  This show was about bringing art in a big and bold way to a community of folks that don't customarily seek out art in traditional galleries and exhibitions.  It was a great turnout for the opening and the goal of Big Blaq was accomplished. There was some amazing art shared by a group of very talented local artists of color.  This was the first of many more shows to come.

The pieces I chose to include in the exhibit are a narrative about the mystery of women.  Each of us has our own unique story. There is much to be considered about what we think, how we feel, how we love and what we do.  This work is a deconstruction of a composite female.  It asks us to contemplate that which we do not see – to conjure the story behind the woman and to appreciate that there is often more there than what our eyes can perceive.

I call this series “A Woman’s Mystique.”

Keyhole Silhouette - 33x57

Fancy Feet - 38x50

My Muse is a Muse - 49x34

Artist’s Statement:

I have been a lover of photography for many years and continue to be amazed by the majesty of nature, and the juxtaposition of the human form in nature.  I am most intrigued by that which is not obvious at first glance.   My goal is to create images that reverently extend my worldview.  My hope is that my work will be a provocative commentary on life. 

Contact information

Stephanie Morris

Sepia Queen Photography
Email

How to scare (some) white people

I've been trying to figure out for weeks how to better talk about the way the "race card" is being played by the right wing conservatives/tea baggers to manipulate white voters. Well, here is the best analysis I've seen yet and it is hilarious.

Elon James White, who brings us This Week in Blackness (TWIB)," brings it all together with "TWiB! Season 3 Ep#7 - The 'How To' Guide on Scaring White People."