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Parent Category: Onstage

By Natasha T. Brown

“For the elementary school kid who is soaking in each word and image of those whose hues resemble their own looking for a role model and achievement to strive for, Black History Month is very much so relevant. We should not allow the videos of famous rappers, athletes, pop stars, reality television or even the nightly news or our history to be the only images that supplement for schools and shape the views of our youth. We make black history each day.“

As an elementary school kid, I remember the month of February as an inspirational 28 days in school, where teachers integrated many of the triumphant moments and history of black culture into my class curriculum. Each year, we learned about the important acts of Dr. Martin Luther, King, Jr., and the historical March on Washington on August 28, 1963; Civil Rights Leader Rosa Parks and her refusal to move from the front of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955; about a Black American Scientist and Inventor George Washington Carver whose inventions led to the creation of Peanut Butter; the powerful rhetoric of Malcolm X and Angela Davis, the artists of the Harlem Renaissance and so on.

February was also the celebration of President’s Day and the various leaders who had seemingly impacted our country the most. As an inquisitive kid, I wondered why it was important to celebrate the United States Presidents during February – the only month reserved to honor black history and culture being that there were no black presidents in United States History. I understood that both our first president George Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday fell during Black History Month and that Lincoln is credited with abolishing slavery through the Emancipation Proclamation signed on January 1, 1863, but I still had one main question: Why isn’t February reserved for Black History Month in its totality?

The American people have rewritten Black History Month.

For the first time in 2009 during Black History Month, we could say, “My President is black.” And in 2012 after a second Presidential election, the United States re-elected Barack Obama as the 44^th President of the United States, permanently and proudly rewriting the history books to ensure that our culture is also a huge part of the Presidents Day celebrations that take place during Black History Month.

Our thinking about Black History Month and Presidents Day has expanded.

“At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington”

In 1915, Carter G. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History to broaden the understanding of Black history beyond slavery. Every year since 1926, the year of the first Black History celebration, the DC-association now named the Association for the Study for African American Life and History, has set the themes for the month. This year’s theme is, “At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality: The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington.”

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 50th anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington.

These two important moments alone, and the American culture’s accomplishments around black achievement since they occurred should rejuvenate the conversations around the importance of Black History Month—at least for the children we are teaching who are developing their since of pride for African Americans.

As an adult, while I know that Black History Month is important, each year the question is raised about the relevancy of Black History Month. In a February 7 article in the Afro-American Newspaper, Daryl Scott, president of the Association for the Study for African American Life and History was quoted saying, “My goal is to the lay foundation so the association is able to sustain itself for another 100 years,” said Scott. “That means engaging the community in a better way to make history increasingly relevant.”

This statement falls within the context of a deep concern that students are graduating high school without the knowledge of American, consequently Black American culture, largely due to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and its focus for school systems to teach students to pass tests, versus understand important moments in history and culture that will enhance their global understanding of the world.

Supplementing African American History for Schools

There are consequences to each thought, word and action that we subject ourselves and our children to as it relates to the black culture. The images and stories of slavery will never dissipate, just as the television shows, characters, media images and negativity and positivity surrounding African Americans will leave lasting impressions.

For the elementary school kid, who is soaking in each word and image of those whose hues resemble their own looking for a role model and achievement to strive for, Black History Month is very much so relevant. We should not allow the videos of famous rappers, athletes, pop stars, reality television or even the nightly news or our history to be the only images that supplement for schools and shape the views of our youth. We make black history each day.

There are various events that can help enhance their knowledge further than slavery, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and even Barack Obama this Black History Month. Learn more below and through subsequent research. The next generation should never have to question the relevancy of this celebratory month nor the important achievements in black culture.

National Youth Summit

Feb 11, 2013

To commemorate of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will be hosting the National Youth Summit on Abolition on February 11, 2013. Experts, scholars, and activists will join together with high school students from around the country and the world in a moderated panel discussion to reflect upon the abolition movement of the 19th century and explore its legacy on modern-day slavery and human trafficking. The program will feature excerpts from the upcoming AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentary The Abolitionists, which weaves together the stories of five of the abolition movement’s leading figures: Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina Grimke, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Brown. Summit begins at 12:00 noon.

Location: National Museum of American History, National Mall, at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C

Harriet Tubman: The Chosen One

(Contact venue, program may be full.)

February 14, 2013 at 10:30-11:30 a.m. and 1:00-2:00 p.m. THEARC, 1901 Mississippi Ave., SE Washington, DC. THEARC Theater presents two free performances in honor of Black History month. The 45-minute show will be performed by one woman, Gwendolyn Briley-Strand, who will transform into over a dozen characters while taking the audience on one of the nineteen journeys Harriet Tubman traveled through The Underground Railroad. Ms. Strand is an expert on the life of Harriet Tubman and has performed this play since 1993 in many schools, universities and organizations throughout the United States.

African American Heritage Night at the Verizon Center

6-7pm Monumental Leaps: The Significance of African Americans in Basketball

7pm game: Wizards vs. Denver Nuggets

This is a pre-game discussion with notable sports and media figures, including Commentator/Author Michael Eric Dyson, Reporter David Aldridge and more.

The Wizards invites youth groups for both the panel discussion and game. Contact Monique Lewis at 202-292-1044 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and tell her Natasha Brown sent you.

Happy Black History Month and stay sophisticated,

-Natasha

Natasha Brown is a writer and founding communications strategist of Think Brown INK, a creative think tank and strategic communications agency, focused on cause communications programs for artists, entertainers and entrepreneurs. Follow her on Twitter @NBrownINK or @TBINatasha or her company @ThinkBrownINK.

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Parent Category: Onstage

By Natasha T. Brown

Our lives are a constant negotiation process – what to eat, who’s going to cook it, where to work, who to work with, who will do what, is the event worth our time, should this person be involved, how much is the deal worth, should I ask for more? Almost everything within reason is negotiable, if you believe it and if you believe you have the power to negotiate. A letter comes in the mail from a credit card company informing you that you must pay your balance by a certain date: do you call the credit card company to negotiate a later date or a lower payment? Did you even believe you had the power to do so? Most people believe what they read in black and white, without believing they have the power to negotiate a better option. The amount of power you believe you have is the amount of power you have.

This week, let’s discuss “How to Negotiate like a Winner,” using the key points from one of my favorite books, You Can Negotiate Anything, by Herb Cohen. The advice shared here can be used for almost any situation and myself and millions of winning negotiators around the world have proven these methods.

Whether you do or don’t negotiate should be strictly up to you and based on three questions you ask yourself:

1. Am I comfortable negotiating in this particular situation?

2. Will negotiating meet my needs?

3. Is the amount of time and energy I spend worth the benefits that I can receive as a result of this negotiation?

Ford Motor Company Founder Henry Ford once said, “If you think you can or you can’t you’re always right.” This is the first crucial variable to negotiating.

Three crucial variables in negotiation are

1. Power – the power or capacity to get things done, to exercise control over events, situations, oneself.

2. Time – When does the losing Presidential candidate concede? If you have three months to write a paper for school, when are you most likely to write it? When you propose an ultimatum to a boss or client requesting more money, when are they most likely to grant your wish? At the final hour. When negotiating, we must understand the time constraints each party is under, present the options, select the negotiation style and remember that the concession will not likely occur until the deadline is near.

3. Information – Many people go into negotiations with a lack of information about the person or company they’re dealing with and without enough ammunition (information) to leverage in order to change someone’s thinking. A popular show right now is ABC’s Scandal starring Kerry Washington (Olivia Pope). What happens whenever Ms. Pope and “The Gladiators” get a new client? They gather appropriate information to prove their case.

Information is power. You can change someone’s mind and the outcome of your negotiation with enough information. On the bad side, this is called blackmail, but on the brighter more moral side, this is simply called doing your due diligence.

So how do you get what you want when negotiating?

1. Listen, and never know too much. Sometimes your apparent ignorance can actually change the balance of power. Admit that you don’t have all the answers; humanize yourself, and the person you’re negotiating with will be more receptive to your approach. Have you ever gone into a meeting with the sole purpose of gaining experience through a mentorship or opportunity to get close to the CEO? If you were to go into the meeting as a “know it all,” why would the CEO be inclined to let you in? But instead, if you’re approach is something like this: I really like your work and I have several questions about how you handled this case, can you tell me more? What will happen? …. Exactly what you want, you’ll get more information and leave a good impression as an ambitious and bright professional, and you’ll gain an ally.

2. Be willing to take calculated risks based on solid information, only if you believe you have the power to accomplish what is required. If you’re negotiating a deal to book an artist for a show, and the promoter tells you that he’s willing to work with you if you bring 100 people to the venue. But if not, you’ll have to pay $10 per missing person. You have to ask yourself are you willing to risk the $1,000 loss that could potentially occur if you don’t meet your end of the bargain and if you could reasonably pull the 100 people. Also, are this venue and this look for your artist even worth it? Who will be in the audience, what’s the exposure? If getting your artist on the show is important to you and you have the disposable income, you have your answer.

3. Exercise the Power of Commitment. Cohen recommends that the power of commitment and involving others should be applied to all of life’s situations when the outcome is uncertain. If a group of people believes that, “We’re all in this together,” each person will commit to making it a success. I call this the “Community Conglomerate Mentality,” and this is exactly why many of the programs that I plan for the community are never done in solitude and have partners. To me and other partners, programs like the 2013 Youth Resolution Project are worthy of the commitment.

4. Focus on fulfilling needs. To successfully interact with anyone in any situation, all you have to do is determine what his/her needs are and then fulfill them. This goes back to the information variable.

5. Ensure the person/group you’re negotiating with is invested in the encounter. If I spend two months speaking with a potential client, researching their needs, answering tons of questions via email or phone and thinking of how I can excel their company, then when the time is right, I present my price to them, let’s say it’s $1,000 a month. If they say, I can only afford $900, I have a few options: take it, leave it, or negotiate further. I’m more inclined to negotiate and even take the $900 if I’m invested into the situation. But if at the first phone call they tell me their needs, I tell them my price, and they say I can only afford $900, unless I want the client that badly, I may turn down the deal.

6. Ultimatums are always the last option. On page 43 of You Can Negotiate Anything, Cohen tells us that in order for an ultimatum to succeed, it must meet four criteria:

1) Frosting on the cake (the other side must have no other choice or have such an investment that they cannot just walk away from the deal. After you bake the cake, or build up your negotiation, you add the frosting).

2) Soft and palatable (the words you use must never belittle or offend the other side. Think “soft” ultimatum” stated as a statement of reality, i.e.: I understand your position, but this is all that I have,” versus “hard” ultimatums: take it or leave it).

3) A recipe that cannot be tampered with (quote official documents, “The policy states that we cannot give you a refund!” This happened to me this week, and I laughed inside, knowing exactly the negotiation tactic that was being used).

4) Selection from a limited menu (rather than leaving the other option with no alternatives, structure the situation to allow them to make the choice with one option obviously much more desirable to them compared to the other).

The ability to negotiate winning situations is a skill that can be used to create powerful movements for good. Although the terms “negotiate” and “power” have negative connotations sometimes, remember that these skills are absolutely necessary for anyone doing business or trying to create change. Check out the previous Sophisticated Sunday posts about Young, Philanthropic, Influencers, for examples of power and negotiation used for good.

In an upcoming issue I’ll discuss the various styles of negotiating. But please do yourself a favor and get your hands on a copy of You Can Negotiate Anything (Lyle Stuart edition, 1980 or Bantam edition, 1982.)

Natasha Brown is a writer and founding communications strategist of Think Brown INK, a creative think tank and strategic communications agency in the Washington area. Follow her on Twitter @NBrownINK or @TBINatasha or her company @ThinkBrownINK.