Philanthropy is the love of humanity

Wednesday I attended GW's Fourth Annual Woman and Philanthropy Forum. It was an inspiring, motivating and thought provoking event. As the venue did not provide wifi, I had to take notes...with pen and paper ~gasp~. These are a few of the nuggets of knowledge I gleaned from the day.

Keynote speaker Nancy Brinker

1. philanthropy transformed me
2. I still learn on the job everyday becasue the world is changing everyday
3. do not fear occasional mistakes, learn from then...it is more about the response in the long haul
4. where you live shouldn't determine whether you live

Panelist Mahsa Pelosky

1. do what you can with what you have where you are
2. our values are reflected in how we spend our money
3. philanthropy is about citizenship

Panelist Madeleine Jacobs

1. philanthropy is time and money
2. we have to be strategic with our time, treasure and talent, we can't give to every cause

Aren't these wonderful nuggets? I can't wait for next year's event...well done G-Dub!

How Will Your Obituary Read?

Shazzam!
By Jove, I think I've got it!
This is hotter than a summer afternoon in the bayou!

I've learned the secret to life: relationships...authentic, true, honest, real, deep, stimulating, thought provoking relationships are the answer.

It doesn't matter how much money you have, what kind of car you drive or the number of bedrooms in your home. And you know how I know that not one iota of this materialistic stuff matters...because I've never seen any of it mentioned in an obituary. What is mentioned are the relationships folks had, with their Creator, families, children, friends, animals, organizations and even the world.

Don't get me wrong, money is important and their is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting nice things; however, those materials aren't the goal in life. They are the rewards for and result of self discipline, hard work and personal responsibility. The goal in life is to be a good parent/spouse, trusted friend and dependable co-worker...these relationships will outlast anyTHING you own.

Consider the future for a moment, how will your obituary read?

Reading poetry is nice, HEARING poetry is the way to go!

On Tuesday I attended the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest - DC Finals. Nine young men and women came on stage one-by-one to recite poems. It was a wonderful evening!

And while there was only one winner, who will move on to represent DC in the national competition, ALL of the participants did a good job.

As host @ChriStylezBacon aptly put it, their teachers had put them "through poetry book camp," and it showed.


Some of the poems recited:

We Wear the Mask, Paul Laurence Dunbar
"Alone," Edgar Allan Poe
The Blues Don't Change, Al Young
The Bones of My Father, Etheridge Knight
Calling Him Back from Layoff, Bob Hicok
"Hope" is that thing with feathers, Emily Dickenson
The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost (with audio)
Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll

More dancing, singing and acting...oh my!

The second week of INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival begins this evening and runs through Sunday. If it is half as good as the first weekend, then we're in for a plethora of phenomenal performances.

FYI...I'll be at the Atlas...hanging with the cool kids.

Thursday

Source Festival: Best of the 10-Minute Fest

Liner Notes

Slam Theatre 2.0: The Miseducation

Friday

From Shuffle to Showboat: Prelude to the American Musical

Access Granted

Saturday

Getting Airborne!

Cinema

Jazz Jam Session w/ Jose Herrera Trio

Sunday

Life in Motion: A Trio of Perspectives

Singers, dancers and actors...Oh my!

The Atlas Performing Arts Center third annual INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival opens this weekend and I'm all over it. The full schedule is packed with more than 150 main-stage performances, 30 free café concerts and 25 special events. Starting tomorrow evening, the festival will feature a diverse arts line-up, including dancers, singers, actors, aerialists and dogs (so I'm not going to this particular show...you can though...it's supposed to be wonderful).

These are a few of the performances yours truly is seeing during the festival:

Zip Zap Circus USA and Airborne DC!: Getting AirBorne!

Source Festival: Best of the 10-Minute Fest

Little Red and the Renegades: Festival Opening Party

I have one, if you wanna play with someone's uterus, go get your own

I'm amazed!
I'm shocked!
Frankly, I'm just dazed and confused.
I never would have guessed people are interested in my uterus.

Everyone seems to have an opinion about how I should treat it.

The "Church" says "you gotta put a ring on it."
The anti-abortion folks say if I break it, I own it, no returns or exchanges.
The politicians only want to pay for upkeep, not for excessive mileage.
The Pink people, who used to look after my boobies, now wanna have a say in what goes on down there.

I wish these folks were as interested in my mortgage, my gas prices, my grocery bill, my 401K ROI, my local schools, my environment, my voting rights, my food and water supply, my incarcerated, homeless, unemployed, underemployed and chronically ill brothers and sisters.

Isn't there enough stuff on the planet to be concerned with other than what I do with my uterus?

From Black To Racially Ambigious...WTH?

I am a Black woman. I have always known I am Black. My family and friends know I’m Black. At times there has confusion because I’m a fair-skinned Black woman. The confusion is usually with Latin men, who speak Spanish to me and I politely respond, “no hablo espanol.” Then they take a closer look at me, smile and move on. This has happened numerous times and is a regular occurrence in certain neighborhoods and countries. It was not until I began acting a few months ago that I even considered using this misidentification to my advantage.

I began putting my acting resume together and shared it with a fellow actor. She suggested, along with my actual race, I list the other ethnicities I can also play. It took me a minute to figure out exactly what she meant. I decided to stay true to myself and list only “African-American.” I am a Black woman and I want to play roles that are either Black or not-ethnically based. Much to my chagrin, it seems Hollywood has something different in mind.

I recently saw an advertisement looking for a “racially ambiguous” woman. What in the world? Who the heck is “racially ambiguous?” It hit me like a ton of bricks, I’m racially ambiguous…at least to some people. When Black folks see me, they see a sista; when Latinos see me, they see a senorita and I know I confuse the heck out of a lot of white folks. I can’t tell you the number of times a white person has asked, “What are you?

So, I revised my resume to read, “Ethnicity: Black (can play Hispanic, Middle Eastern or North African).” Has the pendulum swung so far that we are non-racial?

I may work as multi-ethnic, bi-racial or mixed, but I won’t live that way. It took me years to get over my hang-ups about being a fair-skinned, hiyella, redbone, light-bright Black woman. I am proud to be a Black woman, and while there is probably some white, American Indian and other in my ancestry, when I look in the mirror, I know who I am and I am wonderful.

Photo: Me and Daddy on July 4, 2011

This is a repost of an article I wrote for Body and Self Image. Submit your [self image] story here: http://arkstories.com/bodyimageblog.html

How did this happen?

Last month, the DNC announced the hiring of "Greg Hinton as its first-ever Chief Diversity Officer."

Really? The Democratic Party needs a Chief Diversity Officer? Really? Does anyone else see the irony in this?

I don't get it. The Democratic Party is the party of the people...Black, brown, white, Jew, Protestant, GLBT, women, etc. Almost any and every marginalized group has been able to find some political refuge under the Democratic umbrella. This is why I'm disheartened to learn the party has hired a CDO; it shouldn't need to hire one.

I was there, 20 years ago, and it was great. Ron Brown was the first Black chairman of a major political party. Alexis Herman was there, along with a slew of men and women representing every facet, shade and angle of America. The consultants and contractors also represented different slices of the American pie. The DCCC and the Convention Committee were equally diverse.

There wasn't a need for a CDO, people understood the headquarters for a political party had to look like the people in the party.

How did Democratic leaders forget that most basic principle?

I'm sad, oh so sad.

segregation is NATURAL

segregate (v): to separate or set apart from others or from the main body or group; isolate

It is time to be really real with each other...we are more comfortable with our own kind, and it is okay. It is natural.

Look at nature, lions roam the plains with lions, wolves run in packs with other wolves and even ants build highly structured colonies with other ants. Segregation is natural. It is only in the most complex ecosystems, such as a rain forest, where multiple species co-exist, interact and depend on each other. For them, integration is natural.

As we are all homo sapiens, shouldn't it be easier for us to co-habitate?

This is where the rubber meets the road...we have to move above and beyond what is natural and comfortable for our own ever-increasingly complex ecosystem to survive and flourish. The troubling part is the breadth and depth of segregation, it permeates every part of American society and culture. For most of us it is an unconscious way of life. Consider Sunday, it the most segregated day of the week. Monday through Friday we labor side-be-side, have lunch together and my imbibe at a happy hour with each other. On Saturday, our children play soccer together, we shop, go the movies and co-mingle throughout the afternoon. But Sunday is a very different thing for most of us. Race-based denominations, congregations and conventions abound:

• The African Methodist Episcopal Church 
• St. Augustine Catholic Church, "the Mother Church of African American Catholics" 
• The National Baptist Convention, "the nation's oldest and largest African American religious convention"

This is in no way meant as an indictment of religion, faith, denominations, congregations, etc. These organizations, and their founders, were forced to segregate because of prejudice and fear in the 18th and 19th centuries, and while they are open to all, the members are still predominantly Black. And there are countless unforced examples in our lives:

• white music (country, bluegrass, metal) and Black music (R&B, hip hop, neo-soul)
• white entertainment (Everybody Loves Earl and opera) and Black entertainment (Meet the Browns and go-gos)
• white sports (hockey, lacrosse and swimming) and Black sports (basketball, football and boxing)

There are the so-call exceptions for each of these categories, you know who they are, the "blue-eyed soul brother" or the "Black diva."

Yes, yes, yes...let's just admit it, put it out in the open...we prefer being with others like us. We feel welcome, safe and empowered; we are in our comfort zones with others like us. However, consider this, "If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness." ~Les Brown

How will you move beyond your comfort zone?
What one thing can you do to make your life more integrated?

They Choose US

Wow, this is a big world with 193 countries and 7 billion people speaking 6,500 languages. Think of it, immigrants from the around the world come here, the United States of America. We should be humbled, with our widely known and often discussed history of slavery, discrimination, intolerance and injustice, they still want to come here. They want to live with us; they want to be our neighbors and they want to call America home.

They come here singing "America! America! God shed his grace on thee..."
They come here thinking we are "the land of the free and the home of the brave..."
They come here accepting Lady Liberty's invitation, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses..."
They come here knowing with hard work and perseverance, they too can achieve the American Dream.
They come here believing in democracy, "with liberty and justice for all."

To put it quite simply, they think we are all of that and a bag of chips.
Are we? Is America living up to the hype? 

 I'm not so sure anymore:
 Most of us are aware of the Arizona law, SB 1070, which encourages racial profiling because it requires "law enforcement officers attempt to determine an individual's immigration status during a 'lawful stop, detention or arrest' when there is reasonable suspicion that the individual is an illegal immigrant..."

 In June Alabama passed HB 56, which "requires public schools to check students’ immigration status, criminalizes giving an undocumented immigrant a ride, and instructs police to check the immigration status of anyone they stop if they suspect the person of being an undocumented immigrant."

Not to mention redlining, LGBTQ discrimination, sexual harassment and pay inequities, voter fraud elimination schemes and the rise of hate crimes.

Yep, I can see why immigrants would want to come here. We're so open to people not like us.