Happy Juneteenth Birthday Nephew Brad jun16

Watch the short video here

Celebrating #happybirthdaytoyou my #nephew #thebrad 🥰💞💫💥

HAPPY MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMOTION RAYERAYE jun 13 2022

Raylynn goes from Martin Luther King Middle School in Germantown Maryland and begins High School at Seneca High School in September 2022.

Watch the video here

Congratulations to the Parents, Daryean and Nicole and family tribe, sisters Precious Cooper and Deana Wright and Lil brother Amare and all our extended family..Granmas Maxine Prather & Mimi Grace..Aunties Uncle's cousins and all our supporting cast of loved ones 

Thank you to each of the teachers and to a special tutor Natalie 

Thanks, Raylynn for this Middle School journey, And to all the blessings in all your future experiences 

Thanks to all The one thing we can hope for is the opportunity and that each of the roles that come in the future endeavors will be fruitful. 

While Track is the energy that seems to be present for Raylynn at this time, it could change and morph into some other pursuit. hoping that we are sources of encouragement and support even if and when the journey, should it become one with more life hurdles than hopeful feats, that there is love. 

I wish Raylynn to try to be her best as a human being. Understand the virtues of kindness, compassion, and caring. Not only about winning or accomplishments. The presence to be in these moments is truly a gift 

The gift of the music is presented by the students of MLK and soloist doing a rendition of Once I was 7 years old. 

not intended for commercial usage no copyright infringement

Frailyn Jiret Chaverra Mena a Talent to Behold

Frailyn Jiret Chaverra Mena sings 

This 10 yr old girl is originally from Turbo, a district of Colombia in the sub-region of Urabá.   After appearing in "La Voz Kids" in her native country she has become an internet trailblazer.   Her voice and talent come from a place beyond her youthful age.   Her sound resurrects the voices of souls that may have walked among us and have since shared their gifts within her.   Even the language does not need a translation.,  because she sings the universal language of music 

#music #love #art #musician #artist #musica #singer #instagram #like #dance #song #bhfyp #newmusic #explorepage #viral #columbia #lavozkids

Black History Month Profiles McKissack and McKissack Construction

From Slave to Queendom Standing in the DNA of her ancestors THE WOMAN BEHIND NYC'S MAJOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS #cherylmckissackdaniel 

Watch this goodnews story about the woman-owned business,  minority-owned business,  Mc Kissack and McKissack.   The oldest black-owned female-run construction company in the United States overseeing multi-billion dollar projects 

#nycmta #laguardiaairport. #jfkairport #medgareverscollege #coneyislandhospital #harlemhospital #deltaterminal Be encouraged and inspired

Richard Pryor The Singer

Did you know that Richard Pryor, the comedian also wanted to be a singer? Check out this video

Illuminate and Be the Light like Amanda Gorman

View the video with  Amanda Gorman  

With each new dawn, we encounter the reality of beginnings and endings. 

Where or who do we look to find our light? In the voice of a 22-year-old, an inspired poet, Amanda Gorman her words give cause to Be the Light. 

In the song I Rise Up, sung by Andra Day, her lyrics are the Gospel of hope to all 

In the poetry of Maya Angelou, Still I Rise, the clarion call sounds to take up your bed of brokenness, your history, your shame, and all that holds your hostage, "Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise."

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Sydney Poitier The Definition of a Man of Charactor

Where in this video, this man not only defended his "Negroness", he defined it and affirmed it with immovable dignity and strength. The lasting enduring impact of the imagery and poignancy of the Sydney Poitier of my life is as a girl in the Caribbean at 16 years and seeing a man in a role that helped to powerfully mentor, support, encourage and shape lives, as he did in the film To Sir with Love. 

More importantly, he spoke to each of us in a very personal way, that there was no one, nor anything that could inhibit, deconstruct, derail or deny us our identity. Among many during those years, Sydney Poitier embodied, the soul of personhood, from his Bahamian accent to the roles he portrayed, he inspired and lifted communities, especially young black impressionable lives to be as great as, or even be the best of who we were created to become. 

Here is my Ode To Sir with Love Sidney Poitier 

Those school days of telling tales And biting nails are gone 

And as I leave I know it will still live on and on 

But how do you thank someone Who has taken you from crayons to perfume 

It isn't easy but I'll try 

If you wanted the moon I would try to make the stars 

But I would rather you let me give my heart 

To Sir with Love 

It was the last year of my High School in 1972. 

At St Theresa's Girls Intermediate..and etched in my memory was our class of an eclectic group of young girls..with little more or perhaps everything..friendships for life

 And the movie To Sir with Love starring Sidney Poiter was the main actor.   And in his portrayal, he symbolized the gift of being.   He was a role model.   He shone a light for the world to see the character and not color.   

And the theme song of the movie..is my high school girls anthem 

Because a teacher..shared her gift of self.  A part of history never to be forgotten.   Forever remembered .  To Sir with Love. Rise in Glory...Rest in Peace Sydney Poitier

Amanda Gorman Ode to Auld Ang Syne 2021 Goodbye ✨

Listen to New Days Lyric

✨ It’s time to welcome 2022 with Amanda Gorman’s (@amandascgorman) energy and her new, never-before-read poem. ✨ 

“New Day’s Lyric” 

May this be the day We come together. 

Mourning, we come to mend, 

Withered, we come to weather, 

Torn, we come to tend, 

Battered, we come to better. 

Tethered by this year of yearning, 

We are learning 

That though we weren’t ready for this, 

We have been readied by it. 

We steadily vow that no matter 

How we are weighed down, 

We must always pave a way forward. T

his hope is our door, our portal. 

Even if we never get back to normal, 

Someday we can venture beyond it,

 To leave the known and take the first steps. 

So let us not return to what was normal, 

But reach toward what is next. 

What was cursed, we will cure. 

What was plagued, we will prove pure. 

Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree, 

Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee, 

Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake; 

Those moments we missed 

Are now these moments we make, 

The moments we meet, 

And our hearts, once all together beaten, 

Now all together beat. 

Come, look up with kindness yet, 

For even solace can be sourced from sorrow. 

We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday, 

But to take on tomorrow. 

We heed this old spirit, 

In a new day’s lyric, 

In our hearts, we hear it: 

For auld lang syne, my dear, 

For auld lang syne. 

Be bold, sang Time this year, 

Be bold, sang Time, 

For when you honor yesterday, 

Tomorrow ye will find. 

Know what we’ve fought 

Need not be forgot nor for none. 

It defines us, binds us as one, 

Come over, join this day just begun. 

For wherever we come together, 

We will forever overcome. 

Reposted from @instagram

Premier Performance Orquesta de Parang de Trinidad y Tobago at Naparima Bowl

Please share... share share WoW!!! Premiere Launch https://bit.ly/deParranda Orquesta Nacional de Parang de Trinidad y Tobago (OnPATT) The National Parang Orchestra of Trinidad and Tobago 

Conducted by @Dr Mia Gormandy-Benjamin SEE THIS FIRST PARANG STEELPAN ONE OF A KIND CONCERT ONLINE Saturday January 8 2022 5pm EST 6pm Click link here to Book Tickets Now

How to share Joy to the World

Parang with Alicia Jaggasar Feliz Navidad

How great thou art..A Steelpan tribute to the Republic of Barbados

Celebrating Republic of Barbados 

A stirring Steelpan rendition of How Great thou Art 

#onecaribbean #steelpanmusic #trinidadandtobago🇹🇹 Reposted from @servicesatyourrequest

And if God was a voice..Morgan Freeman prays Invictus

View this video 

And as if God himself spoke

 Hear Charlie Rose's utterance ..the sigh...God 

Morgan Freeman in his inimitable poetic delivery Invictus. 

 The voice and words share cosmic chemistry And it no longer is spoken It is felt 

Invictus 

William Ernest Henley 

Out of the night that covers me 

Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be 

For my unconquerable soul. 

In the fell clutch of circumstance,

I have not winced nor cried aloud. 

Under the bludgeonings of chance, 

My head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears 

Looms but the Horror of the shade, 

And yet the menace of the years 

Finds and shall find, me unafraid. 

It matters not how strait the gate, 

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate 

I am the captain of my soul.

A voice of Courage and Hope - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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A most compelling and elucidating address on the theme of courage, hope, justice, and redress. With the most unassuming non-threatening composure, to an audience that primarily is comprised of and resembles the perpetrators of the very wrongs committed against society, and in this case, about the stolen relics, artwork, and spiritual artifacts of African nations, that sit in museums of those who colonized in the most barbaric of circumstances, Germany, France, England, the eloquence and poised delivery of a stinging reprimand is presented with coaxing command. 

When she describes how the stories of missionaries were conferred to the Africans with regard to their cultural and religious artifacts as magic, she paints the magic of Catholic Christianity beliefs that a man could be believed to have died and become the symbolic bread of life. "The point is that belief systems vary, and as long as they feed the spiritual needs of a people they are valid" 

"Just as we can't be dismissive of a history, because we are uncomfortable with it" 

The many aspects of storytelling interwoven with the harsh truths of history as she intones "It is not that Europe has denied its colonial history, that will be too crude.. it is instead that Europe has developed a way of telling the story of its colonial history that ultimately seeks to erase that history" 

For is this not the what, the why, the present of social unrest in the intellectual conversations in the USA that are rousing controversy and opposing contradictions on critical race theory?   

With demure vocal prowess, she harpoons the pillagers of cultural travesties against the Africas, to raise the level of human conscience, amend the wrongs wrought, and rightfully return the stolen museum-encased treasures to whom they rightfully belong. 

A voice of Courage and Hope Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie addresses The Humboldt Forum 

"Courage and hope are intertwined. Courage is an act of hope. And hope is born of courage. Acts of courage create hope. And there is nothing more essential to the human spirit than hope So Here's to courage Thank You"

Normalizing death and dying with hospice NurseJulie

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One of the greatest gifts we received in the dying process of my mother in 2001 was the at-home hospice care that made her transition so healing and comforting.   I remember the tenderness that the nursing care provided to the end. The last nurse told me, she is near the end.  She stated that her breathing has slowed.  She gave me a reassuring soothing hug as she left. 

My mother died peacefully in her sleep within 72 hours. I remembered watching and thinking that I could never imagine how one can have a lasting career in Hospice care.  

 As I came across this tiktok with Nurse Julie it reflects the grace and the professional spirit of what final days caregivers provide.  

To take Hospice care and give it a voice through a platform such as tiktok and to make the dying process for loved ones so enlightening and so reassuring is a testament to our need for community, connections and healing.  

@hospicenursejulie and to the many frontline health caregivers we owe you a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid A million thank yous Here is an article https://ift.tt/3FlxPng Created by InShot:https://ift.tt/3fTQQCg

Wayne "Doppie" Dopson performs a Kaiso for World Kindness Day Nov 13

Watch A Covid19 Miracle Story Jamal & Cierra Chubb Cierra Chubbs recovery walk ninety five days after diagnosis with COVID19. In September, after contracting the virus, with her due date less than two weeks, the baby had to be delivered early. In the days, weeks months that followed her husband Jamal documented the journey on his tiktok @jamal.chubb with frightening details. With millions of followers watching, praying, hoping and assisting with financial gofund.me donations today's outcome is a joyful miracle testimony Google Jamal Chubb and Cierra and read a true and authentic story of Hope, Faith, Recovery and the prayer power of our Human Connection https://ift.tt/3mr8rWq

Cierra Chubbs recovery walk ninety five days after diagnosis with COVID19. In September, after contracting the virus, with her due date less than two weeks, the baby had to be delivered early. In the days, weeks months that followed her husband Jamal documented the journey on his tiktok @jamal.chubb with frightening details. With millions of followers watching, praying, hoping and assisting with financial gofund.me donations today's outcome is a joyful miracle testimony Google Jamal Chubb and Cierra and read a true and authentic story of Hope, Faith, Recovery and the prayer power of our Human Connection https://ift.tt/3mr8rWq

When Cecilia Salazar Rhapso on the Steelpan of Trinidad 🇹🇹 and Tobago

Moments of Reflection through Quest and Challenge and Humor

At the beginning of 2013, I was drowning in the emotional tsunami of economic loss.  I was a victim to the housing crisis.   From the wealth of a full-time financially sustaining consulting career,  to the poverty of a part-time,  barely above minimum wage,  temp staffer assignment, I was mentally and financially imploding.

picture credits to
YourEventToGo

I challenged social media to acknowledge my state of loss.  I sought crowdfunding through a GoFundMe account with tragic and disappointing results.

In humored retrospect, I have learned that desperation is not a plausible enticement for soliciting public funding. More interestingly I learned, that my intuitive instincts for survival and independence are formidable and unshakable.

I learned that generosity is a virtue that cannot be extorted.  Many individuals and family members extended their kindness in gestures of both monetary and charitable gifts.  Through genuine acts of kindness, I received welcome donations with earnest and humble gratitude.

But I also realized, my professionally photographed glam shot picture for my GoFundMe appeal was an ideological contradiction. Lol!.. If I were in a state of poverty,  why did my posing picture seem to look so rich?  I was my own funding saboteur. HaHaHa!

In the months of my 2013 seasons of question and introspection,  I exercised my mental muscles in the fields of social media.  In Blogger, I wrote about my bliss, my agony, my intrigue and my curiosity.  As of December, my 33 blogs have garnered over 6800 views. Through writing, I have stretched my public outreach and have opened windows of promising opportunities.

In Yahoo Contributor Networks, several of my article submissions have been published. I am tweaking and streamlining the authority, authenticity, and tone of my writer's voice. OMG! I Am 60 Years, Well Almost, was my first published Yahoo article. My enthusiasm is noted in the opening paragraph with these words:

When life throws you a lemon, you got to add some sugar and make it lemonade. Looking at the coming of age, as an adventure. Humor in life is healthy. Be thankful for the opportunities. Often they come disguised as disappointments.In the adventure of social media, there are numerous platforms to navigate.  In the Google domain, I have expanded my circles of engagement.   I have reached an allocated 5000 count to my circles and now there are new niche inroads to map out. There is  creative stimulus for artistic demonstration in the Youtube landscape. In addition to the written scripts, my stories also include picture presentations displayed in photography and video productions.

The event of my class Reunion in Trinidad and Tobago in October 2013,  was both real and cosmic.  The months leading to the reunion date were filled with expectation and anticipation.  In spite of every wall of denial, impossibility, financial detour, and emotional roadblock,  I became the accidental tourist.

With a gift from my son, the bounty of the kindness of family, and the generosity of lifetime friends, I experienced abundance during my holiday visit.  In social media, I celebrated moments in pictures and videos.  My field of exploration in video app development technology widened and blossomed.

A most celebrated moment of the Reunion was a tribute to our teacher Jovita Lee. The privilege of being in this moment is shared in this blog So How Do You Thank Someone who has taken You from Crayons to Perfume. The revelry and joy of being with classmates after 41 years are shared in this Youtube video 60s are the new 40s.
Disappointments and trials have been exhaustive,  but!.. another year begins every year on December 31.


In commemoration and tribute to Nelson Mandela and to his life contribution, I have themed the following message of victories won.

One gains success by conviction, not by trial.

These words in the last refrain of the poem Invictus,  champion resilience:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,                        

I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul

 (This is a Poem 'Invictus' (Unconquered,Undefeated) by William Henley. Great South African Leader Nelson Mandela(Madiba)  was inspired by the poem, and had it written on a scrap of paperon his prison cell while he was incarcerated for 27 years on Robben Island )

These words ignite my resolve to remain steadfast in conviction and to be inspired in optimism.

As I captain my approach to new territories of consciousness in the coming years, I will continue to practice optimism rather than defeat.

My task is not to design new resolutions for the coming years.  I can look over the past year and find hidden treasures of discovery, new accomplishments, recognition by acknowledgments, and fulfillment in worthy achievements.

I can now prospect my capabilities and competencies on the merits of my work, my experience and my talents. My video blog is the latest career tool that I will use to promote and enlist the consideration of prospective employers.  

In a recent post to social media, I stated without reservation, that my practice of social engagement is not about me.  I have been nourished, nurtured, schooled, and charmed by the many people including family, friends, loved ones, and circles of associates, whose lives and stories continue to impact and impress me.

There are many other people whose life situations have made them soldier on against greater odds than my circumstantial occurrences. I am empowered because of  all who have shared their stories and have demonstrated success despite personal setbacks.

The journey of quest and challenge is our universal common road map.  Victories Won, Defeats Surrendered, but Resilience Triumphs and Optimism Prevails are my signature guidelines for yesterday, today, and with each new year.

Achieving Abundance is my ultimate goal of self-expression and expectation. To this end, my optimism prevails.

In all of this, I am eternally grateful.