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

Will Smith as "King Richard" A Man and his Human Reveal Oscars22

When Theatre is Life Imitating Art as The Greatest Deception 

A Man and his Human Reveal

‘At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you” is the advice Denzel Washington gave to Will Smith after the slap at Oscars 2022

No one saw it coming. Not the Oscars, Not Chris Rock, and ultimately not Will Smith.

Will Smith, the Prince of Philly, encountered the elephant in the room, the out-of-body seismic ego-shattering deafening moment of the human reveal.

We witnessed the absolute incarnation of what fame, fortune, possessions, money, and having, cannot buy. HAVING is not BEING.

‘At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.”

All over the world media today, Oscars 22 will overshadow, in some people's minds, this unscripted, unrehearsed, naked emotional outburst by the consummate "Mr. Everything is cool actor Will Smith", while all the more serious World crises are still ongoing.

The role-playing behind the mask of theatre, the rise to the pinnacle of success, the ultimate "I Am" this moment of public applause and acknowledgment was stripped of the glamour and glorification, and diminished to a slap in the face.

What Chris Rock understood, perhaps also, on that stage, under the bright lights of stardom, is that he was defenseless. He understood, more so than the audience and the cameras, the rage that he had incited, not as the theatre of comedy, but the rage that brother to brother, was unleashed.

‘At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.'

What the role of King Richard was, did not win Will Smith the Oscar. The King Richard of the Venus and Serena story depicted the public storytelling of a man who was obsessed with a passion to ensure that his daughters became the epitome of his dreams. They would be Superheroes in Tennis. They were Richard Williams  "Oscar" winning trophies.

Though he would dedicate his whole life to having Venus and Serena become icons of sports history, they could not make him a family hero. He was staged and acted brilliantly depicted on screen by Will Smith as King Richard.

Richard Williams the father, the husband, the individual;  a very broken and fragmented man was portrayed as this Atlas of a character with an indomitable spirit of pursuit.

Will Smith presented a Richard character worthy of an Oscar.

When Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and many of the legends of the world stage faced hated rhetoric and constant public ridicule, Michelle lent the world the mantra, When they go low, We go High. Denzel reminded Will and us all to pay attention.

‘At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.'

Not because Jada is diagnosed with hair loss, or wears a bald look, - shaven hair, baldness have now become the standard of beauty that women around the world have begun to embrace without threat to their feminine -, was Will Smith propelled to be chivalrous. Not because their family's intimate and personal lives have been on public display, with its entanglements, which we saw publicly about Jada, and there was nothing it seems, that Will committed, was Will Smith so impassioned to defend in his wife's honor

Will Smith was perhaps having an orgasmic episode of self-implosion. All too often the high-profiled famous, the monarchy, the leaders of governments have been the muses of public opinion. Too many celebrity lives have become too public for them to try to manage and we the public are their critical audiences.

Denzel Washington gave a wisdom message, not just to Will, but to all who need to pay attention.

‘At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.'

Even with your greatest performance, your heights of celebration, your untamed desire for applause...the Oscar message of 2022 is a Reflection of Real Emotion and we can instinctively be at the mercy of our own naked human reveal.

‘At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.”

An Awakening to Be Conscious to the Mystery in the Everyday Incidents

 

 

  Watch Love and Care and Be Blessed

I think about the gaping hole that the effects of Covid have unmasked in the world.  I think about the collective human body being tragically affected and that the calamity of death is just unwavering.

In the more recent times,  especially during the onslaught of Covid and its many variants, the wreckage of death by Suicide has compounded the toll of corpses added to the already shattering body counts.

When Regina King's son's death by suicide was announced, there was a chilling awareness that many are experiencing an invisible and incalculable and desperate need to implode and therefore the only way out is to self-explode.  It happened more intimately with family and loved ones.  In another headline, a beautiful young woman, a celebrity figure, a very refined, educated, articulate, and popular personality, was found dead, after leaping from her 9th floor New York City apartment.

We, all our us, family, friends, acquaintances are left with the anguish and the horror of how to reconcile with the tragedy of death by suicide.  There is a gaping hole that we are left with. 

This gaping hole isn't just the graphic mortal wound that may have been inflicted by a loved one, or a public figure, as was a recent Maryland Councilman, who also succumbed to suicide, it also is the gaping hole of what may be the human void that has been exacerbated during this time of Covid. 

Where we have been drowned in our masks of self-protection and fear and isolation and insular self-care regimen,  the human construct is being shattered into pieces.

The core of social engagement has become strained and devoid of physical emotional and life-sustaining energy.  Many are presenting to be normal or ok, while they have become combustible internally.  Where the everyday interaction with friends or family, or contacts has become virtual rather than normal,  behind the masks, the covers,  the apparatus of self-protection for others, are eyes, tears, sorrow, hurt, pain, and suffering.  And in this new age of virtual encounters, a mask does not cure the dying within.

When a responder on social media stated that to send our thoughts and prayers to the grieving, or to comment, or to lend a word of consolation was being intrusive and not allowing the loved ones to grieve in peace, I shared that it is in the common reaction of human care, outreach, support, sharing, that we fill a piece of that gaping hole that has been left open.  That we as humans need an outpouring of love and kindness to help fill each other's emptiness.

While I do not have the answers to the gravity of extremes that may cause a soul to leave this earth by choosing to die by their own hands, because of their internal haunting desolation that our hypotheses or prognoses can never fully grasp, I know that there is an alarm sounded to those of us in the world of the living, to be awakened.  

How are you feeling? I hope that my life, my thoughts, my feelings convey, I care. I have no supernatural understanding of thoughts and actions, but perhaps, we are not behind masks to protect ourselves from a pandemic.   

If only we could look beyond the masks we wear, physically and emotionally and demonstrate the human instinct, to render the heart, the spirit, the energy force of love and care we can pour resilience and possibly hope to the invisible dying right before our very own eyes

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."

 Created by InShot:https://ift.tt/3fTQQCg

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