Sophisticated Sunday
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- Parent Category: Onstage
By Natasha T. Brown
This week, BlackStartup.com, a new crowdfunding platform for ideas and projects benefitting the African American community will launch. Created by a group of six professionals who met as Omega Psi Phi Fraternity brothers at Morehouse College, BlackStartup.com looks to attract more minorities to crowdfunding. Similar sites such as Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com raised more than $2.7 billion for members of the public in 2012.
“One of the biggest challenges in the African American business and non-profit community is finding the resources to fund projects. We don’t participate on crowdfunding web sites at high levels, and access to capital is a larger problem in minority than non-minority communities, “said BlackStartup.com CEO Nathan Bennett Fleming. The Black Startup team is a group of professionals that have complementary skills in business, law, entrepreneurship and technology. There are three lawyers, PR/communication professionals, and more who comprise its leadership.
“We hope to use the collective knowledge of our team. And we plan to establish partnerships with on-ground resources to connect with entrepreneurs,” Fleming said. “We will have a library of webinars, online videos and articles that will help with the startup and design of a company.”
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- Parent Category: Onstage
By Natasha T. Brown
“A lot of our souls yearn for something, but we don’t know the route, we need spiritual navigation.” – Sister Souljah
Sean Combs refers to her as the “Number one author of the hip-hop generation.” Jada Pinkett Smith said that Sister Souljah is “spiritually rewarding and powerful.”
I, like many young readers, were in awe and emotionally invested with the characters of Sister Souljah’s 1999 debut novel The Coldest Winter Ever. As a teenager who indulged in literature, hip-hop and the various facets of black culture, this novel was poignant in that it didn’t hide the truth of the streets, but it also didn’t glorify the negative culture and consequences of the drug game. The Coldest Winter Ever is the story of Winter Santiaga, the rebellious, spoiled teenage daughter of a notorious drug dealer in New York. This novel is one of the best that I have read to date. Fourteen years and three novels later, Souljah has published the sequel to The Coldest Winter Ever called A Deeper Love Inside – The Porsche Santiaga Story (Simon & Schuster, January 29, 2013).
On Wednesday, April 17, I met the author during a discussion and book signing for A Deeper Love… at the Oxon Hill Library in Prince George’s County Maryland. As a writer, her words and conversation reminded me of why as a kid I was attracted to this art in the first place and why as a reader, I was drawn to her novels. Souljah opened our eyes to her soul and shared practical tips for building as a community.
“I believe the maker who created all of our souls gives each of us a gift and an assignment (at least one). I believe writing was my gift and the books were my assignment,” said Souljah. “I can’t claim the credit for the writing, because it was a gift. [When people praise our work and it’s successful], the thing you can feel good about is that you obeyed your assignment.”
Many of the audience questions allowed her to open up about her thoughts, experiences and best practices:
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- Parent Category: Onstage
By Natasha T. Brown
Author R. Kayeen Thomas is an author, poet, journalist, hip-hop artist, and social justice advocate out of Washington, D.C. In February Thomas received an NAACP Image Award Nomination for Outstanding Debut Author for his novel Antebellum, published by Strebor/Simon & Schuster. On April 16, Thomas’ third novel The Seven Days will be released and available everywhere books are sold, including online. This book is a prequel to Antebellum; both novels force readers to evaluate the important lessons lost and gained from African American past.
Save the Date for The Seven Days-Antebellum Book Release Party from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on April 30 at Busboys and Poets (14th& V NW), hosted by the Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Thomas creates compelling and thought-provoking novels important to the African Diaspora by juxtaposing today’s hip-hop culture with daunting realities of slavery and the mindsets associated with both. Learn more in his own words:
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By Natasha T. Brown
In an August 2012 Huffington Post article, Designer/Author Vicky Tiel wrote, “It's about time women rule in the art world. We are half the sky and only 23 percent of the art on display in galleries in New York, but that will soon change as 40 percent of working women now earn more money than their husbands in America, and will soon realize that they must support their sisters in the arts and buy their work.”
When we think about equality, empowerment and advancement of women, the conversation of women equality in art may not be the first area that comes to mind. Women and girls are thought to be artistic and creative with the ability to create feng shui from an ordinary atmosphere.
However, despite public perception, women artists are not paid or showcased equally compared to male counterparts. In my final Sophisticated Sunday feature during Women’s History Month I encourage dialogue about these realities as well as spotlight an upcoming program hoping to equalize the playing field for women artists. Below you’ll meet female trailblazer, Timea Gaines, 24, Chief Executive Officer of Love Life Media, founded in 2012. Gaines is the creator of SheROCKS, an all-ages celebration of women in the arts, taking place on March 30, featuring visual artists; as well as dance, music and instrumental performances and dialogues with female filmmakers and entrepreneurs.
According to The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 51 percent of visual artists today are women, however, only 5 percent of the art currently on display in US museums is made by women. Additionally, women earn more than half of the MFAs granted in the US, but only 1/3 of gallery representation is women, NMWA adds.
SheROCKS will encourage girls and women to pursue careers in the arts, while empowering them to realize that they have a place in the mainstream arts and entertainment industries. The vision of SheROCKS stems from the overall goal of Love Life Media to create a platform where positive media can be mainstream for college students, teenagers and young, working adults. As a culmination to Women’s History Month, SheROCKS is a “wonderful artistic movement,” said Gaines, and one that she hopes will continue past the March 30 celebration.
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- Parent Category: Onstage
By Natasha T. Brown
Her voice is beautiful, creating moments through music, aiming to inspire her audience to love themselves, dream and find love in the process. But few people know her story. Just three years ago, Green Tea was still on a journey to find happiness, and become happy with her self, her outer appearance, her career and her personal life.
Below Green Tea talks about her journey to self-love and how she found herself—specifically, her journey with weight loss and the meaning behind some of her lyrics. Being an independent artist can be challenging and costly. One thing that the singer doesn’t mention is her fearless approach to live her dream and the company she created to help her do so, G.I.G. Baked Goods, which stands for God is just that Good. Green Tea is one of the very talented artists that I work with and I am excited to share her voice and journey with you for this week’s Sophisticated Sunday.