Black DesigNer

So it's been awhile since I've posted. This summer session is no joke! But anyway, Last night had to have been one of the best nights that I have had in a while. I went to see Sex and the City: The Movie and it was truly an experience. SATC is one of my favorite shows because it is so well written and of course the fashion, the FASHION! It was a delight to see many shoes, handbags, and overall beautiful pieces all incorporated into the film.

As I thought about the movie some more last night one thing that I've noticed is the lack of well known Black high fashion designers. I'm not talking about your P.Diddy or Kimora Lee Simmon characters I'm talking about REAL designers. It is quite apparent that the film does a lot of name dropping to entice women to go and spend a couple $$$s on this products by so and so. This is marketing genius in my opinion, because the women on the show support these European designers by spending good money to promote their product. This in turn makes avid watchers of the show and fashionistas flock to their Neiman Marcus, Saks 5th ave, Louis Vuitton boutiques and so on to invest in these high priced items and ultimately support these European Designers. Which further promote and strengthen European high fashion market. It is also note worthy to point out that this same dominating market does not cater itself to the Black audience at all really. Despite that, the Black dollar is a huge supporter .

I say all this not to bash anyone but I think it should be noted that there are really good Black designers out there who are not confined to the "streets" and we need to recognize that. So in lieu of my fashion consciousness here are some Black designers who are truly inspiring. They are worth name dropping and supporting in my book and I'm NOT referring to Sean John or Baby Phat...

While you browse, here's a song that I thought was pretty cute. It's from the movie. :-)






OZWALD BOATENG



Below are some of his pieces...

TRACY REESE





STEPHEN BURROWS



FRANCIS HENDY





NATHALIE KONAN





ASHAKA GIVENS

Some of her work...




And of course Mr. Patrick Kelly one of the most influential designers of our time...

A Fair Reminder...

So I logged on to Facebook last night and one of my friends had this link posted up on her page. The link is an article written by a Duke student about the Duke Lacrosse incident back in March 2006. The article was callously written with intent to disgrace North Carolina Central University and its former and current students. The writer proceeds to talk about two NCCU students with track records, but with an emphasis on Crystal Mangum. I agree, that NCCU should not have let Mangum graduate from its institution because the woman blatantly and publicly violated the school’s honor code and should have been expelled for her actions. Not only did Mangum disgrace herself (which I’m sure she was used to doing), but she disgraced the Black community especially Black women publicly. But back to the matter at hand, that was the only point in the article that I found to be valid. Aside from that, the writer had nothing else…so then she resorted to bashing.


This writer took some bold steps in trying to smear, humiliate, and publicly bash another University. Further she attempts to discredit the university and the alumni as a whole. This so called “newspaper” took an even bolder step in publishing such hatred. If anything, the writer should have done some more critical thinking and research on the rape case and realize that it was former D.A. Mike Nifong and Durham police that DROPPED the ball. NCCU should not have to bear these harsh attacks because of carelessness of the police and D.A. Moreover, Duke University is also guilty of not keeping a "drug free" campus and you can argue that for any university in the U.S. so does that mean a degree from Duke should be discredited? But you know, I think she knew…she knew that she wanted to tear down NCCU and its reputation and further debilitate and divide people in society, namely between the White privileged and Blacks with an obviously weak arguement. YES, Crystal Mangum did her dirt and was called out on it. But to take her actions and apply that to the school as a whole, NO. In fact if that's how this writer gauges what a respectable university is then EVERY university including her own is a disgrace and should be discredited. If I were to do some in depth research I'm sure I could find plenty of skeletons in any university's closet. In my opinion, this writer is just as disgraceful as Crystal Mangum to her university in airing such spite. And this article on a greater level is a reflection of how privileged people in powerful positions will try to tear apart and keep the unprivileged down.

My Faves....

My Favorite song of the moment...





Favorite Music Artist(s)





Favorite Artist



Favorite Poet





Favorite Show



Favorite Flower



Favorite Soap




Random favorite stuff, hey it's a slow day...

I told one of my friends that I started a blog

His response: "do you have anything opinionated on there? I don't like to read about people "ranting" about their life".

My response: I'm going to rant about my life b/c its MY BLOG!

Well, I thought about the comment some more and I was pretty defensive at first. However, I realized that I do have some VERY opinionated things that I do want to say but I don't believe that a blog where my name and pic is plastered all over is the place to put my business on a platform...especially with my writing delivery.

I also realized that there's a certain finesse to writing a blog especially about one's own life and personal experiences. I thought that this blogging thing would be a way to air out my feelings, thoughts, and some ideas...pretty simple huh? but there is a way to write when you decide to put yourself out there or better yet an edited version of yourself . I'm not great with words. I lack finesse and creativity when it comes to describing thoughts and feelings. English was always my least fav subject, maybe that explains why I have to look up what a noun means and what a verb does...but um yeah...working on that...hm I wonder if I should be admitting that...I mean Black people are supposed to be amazing illustrative conveyors of thought right? well there goes another stereotype that I can't claim...

Lady Killa!

While you do all the work trying to show me how much you think of me.
I'll turn away.

While your heart wonders what mine feels .
I will be blank.

When your ear yearns to hear my voice.
I will be quiet.

While you look for me, I will lay low.

When your body want's to fill mine.
I will stay away, far away.

When you think your ready to say what's on your heart,
call me, I won't answer.

Heart

I thought this was a pretty neat piece of art to post up. It's kinda creepy but it's funny too. This man is wearing his heart on his sleeve.

Today I'm feeling kinda.... sigh

I did accompolish to clean my apt today! yay :-) and of course my bathroom. But um how I feel can be summed up in this one song. It's crazy weird because I wrote about these EXACT feelings in my journal the other night which was quite revealing, because ...well just listen to the song....

Tilex!!!

I have a confession to make...I havent washed my tub in like 3 weeks! I know pretty gross but this tilex shower cleaner this is amazing although I havent washed my tub in 3 weeks it looks like I havent washed it in a week! LOL

Well I havent done much today aside from writing an analysis of the U.S.expenditure on Healthcare. So I think I'm going to head out to Michaels and buy some art supplies. I have this idea that I want work on so I'll be posting pics of my work soon! stay tuned :-)

So umm yeah I'm posting lol

Last year a friend of mine encouraged me to start blogging. Well I did it for a day or two and then yeah...as you can see I never really kept up with it!

But tonight I decided that I should try it out again.

Since last May, I moved from NC to GA for grad school. Before that I was in NYC tryin to live the life up there but quickly realized that "tha life" was all a facade. You need *MUCHO* deniro to live "tha life" but most of all FRIENDS you can't do it all alone... so I left, got my butt into grad school and here I am.

The real reason why I'm here tonight is b/c I've been thinking a lot lately...A LOT about me being happy and me doing what I WANT to DO...and thinking about the next step when it comes to my personal life. There are so many thoughts running through my mind and right now I'm just rambling not really saying much...

But basically it's this
1) I'm kinda scared. Scared that I might be wasting my time here in GA not pursuing my true passion, I'm so far away from my family and friends! Don't get me wrong, I love to help people and public health is right up my alley but being in the middle of GA away from friends is starting to get to me!! I also know that I can use this degree as back up but right now my heart, my mind, my soul is not in tune with this right now...


2) I'm scared about personal relationships. I've only had 1 serious relationship which lasted 8 months and a serious crush on a guy which lasted a couple months too. I'm not well-versed on the relationship tip and I've pretty much been single for as long as I can remember. I'm really into this guy but he's in a diff state :-( honestly I don't know how to act around him b/c he's just so cool and makes me feel special :-) I don't know what will come of it or if anything can come from it :-/. Not knowing where things are going also makes me nervous but I learned one thing...never pressure ANYONE.

3) I've realized some things about me that I need to work on. It's kinda hard when you know your the shiz and realize that a certain quality about you is so not shiz lol but i'm growing.

So that's everything right now. Plus the Golden Girls is on :-) gotta watch my fav show. But anyway I'll share this song that got me thru today.