These are pictures from Friday Night Bowling to raise awareness about Sickle Cell…I won’t lie it’s also nice to be next to nice (and handsome) people too for a Good Cause…
Pinz Bowling Alley hosted Kiki Sheperd’s 9th Annual K.I.S Foundation Celebrity Bowling to raise awareness for Sickle Cell
I carry Sickle Cell trait and know that who I marry and/or procreate with matters beyond just the love we will share.
So I sit next to these nice folks and write this for the 90,000 to 100,000 Americans affected….
And I remember …
Every 1 Matters…
Sickle Cell Disease affects 1 out of every 500 Black or African-American births that happen…
Sickle Cell Disease affects 1 out of every 36,000 Hispanic-American births that happen…
Sickle Cell Disease occurs in 1 in 12 Blacks or African Americans
“When you hear of my home-going…don’t worry about me” I heard Whitney say from the screen Thursday night as I watched her final onscreen performance and enjoyed her vocals on what came to be her final recordings.
As a child of particular era I heard this song sang at the funeral of many elders as they got their wings and so it was Thursday night at Grauman’s Chinese Theater I along with many others said final good-byes to our sister, daughter, mother and friend Whitney Houston.
We welcomed a new generation of on-screen forces of nature whose performances were simply to die for...Jordin, Carmen, Tika, Derek, Omari and Mike all did their thing!
Adding rich flavorful butter-crème icing to Sparkle’s tasty cake was the wardrobe and costumes delivered by none other than 2 time Oscar Nominee, Ruth Carter.
In a room that boasted Hollywood’s brightest and best in front of the camera, behind the camera, as well as, behind the scenes (T.D. Jakes, Debra Martin Chase, Devon Franklin and Tyler Perry to name a few) Whitney could not have asked for more.
We only wish that she could’ve shared the room with us. We are certain that from heaven, she sat on the front row.
Watching Jordin Sparks, Carmen Ejogo and Tika Sumpter inspired the inner diva in all of us. As we witnessed those ladies Sparkle, so did we. Much credit is due to Twinkie Byrd (far right) for casting beyond perfection...
Fatima Robinson for seductive and soulful dance moves,
Kim Kimble for beautiful hair everywhere and Kimberly Jones and Lauri Cuppetilli for make-up that was flawless. Debra Martin Chase, Patricia Houston, T.D. Jakes, Devon Franklin, Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil were the dream team who alongside many others brought the vision to life.
As the remake of Sparkle originally penned by Howard Rosenman and updated by Mara Brock Akil is the return of a classic so is having Black Opal cosmetics as a marketing partner the emergence a modern classic.
Established in 1994 Black Opal Cosmetics is a leading beauty authority for women of color, with an impressive range of formulas, products and shades to complement and enhance natural beauty, with fashion-forward seasonal collections to bring women of color wearable trends.
This was a night to celebrate the Sparkle in all of us… and we partied !
I am learning, realizing and being beat up by the fact that the stories are so close to me they are dotting me in my own eyes...here's my hair-story as told by someone else ....22 years later ...
Syd Field says..."write what you know"...well I guess I better had then...
This song is a celebration to my ears EVERYTIME I hear it...everytime. It is a tour de force creation. George Benson, Rod Temperton and Quincy Jones truly made beautiful music together when they collaborated on this song.
The album of the same name released in 1980 won 3 Grammys including one for this song "Best R&B Vocal Performance" (a category that no longer exists).
I post this song because it along with so many other things like prayer, kind words, firm words, courageous conversations, certain books, my radio show and Love help me find myself daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or however often it takes to find...ME.
Thank you...God (Universe) for constantly and consistently returning to me the information and affirmation I need to keep it pushing...because it is moving.
I ceaselessly ponder my own central question: "Why do I do what I do?" I believe that deep in my heart answering this question will unlock the floodgates of screenplays, television episodics, novels and non-fiction that reside in my head. "And for my next trick"; I like Rumpelstiltskin who spun straw into gold will spin these thoughts, musings, notions, philosophies, world views and lofty ideas into text.
Alas ...I am not Rumpelstiltskin so in my human-woman form I continue to produce, create, write and develop. I place my faith in God not man that in due season... Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
What was the title of Sister Souljah's Book..."The Coldest Winter Ever".... It feels like I lose my way sometimes. There is so much to be created, written, said and developed.
Some of my products are executed through a tangible medium: paper, picture or video. Others through collaborative projects and some still are in the form of gatherings of people in the natural and virtual worlds. It feels simultaneously like a whole lot and nothing. When the responses and consequences are positive it soothes, inspires and empowers.
But I just remember to say Thank you...(God)Universe for constantly and consistently returning to me the information and affirmation I need to keep it pushing...because it is moving.
I am however challenged by the desire to stack consecutively and efficiently executed tangible and high quality products into the marketplace. It turns out that between my radio show, this blog and school work (and "projects" in the pipeline)...I am well...on my way (thought and silently said with that raised eyebrow).
So I just remember to say Thank you... (God) Universe for constantly and consistently returning to me the information and affirmation I need to keep it pushing...because it is moving.
I recently received Pearl Cleage's text, Deals With The Devil and Other Reasons to Riot in the mail. Almost 20 years ago I purchased it at a book signing and went about my way with my heart warmed and my WORLD forever changed by the words she spoke that day.
At the signing we talked about racism, chauvinism, sexism and men at Roots and Wings Bookstore in Montgomery, AL (now closed). She expressed her concern that if from season to season men could manage football teams, team colors, team-member rosters and stats, records and game schedules they had the capacity to understand what was chauvinistic or sexist...despite their
protestations. I asked her, "what do we do ? (to get them to understand)" ...she said, "keep trying". I have almost 20 years later not stopped trying.
Once I got the tome home and began reading, my clock was cleaned. She was for me at least all the power, potency and profundity of bell hooks without having to hold my dictionary hostage to understand the text.
Pearl's words were visual and often lyrical. She is and was at that moment poet, teacher, sister, friend, mother and auntie providing wisdom for that day and the days to come.
My volume of amazing essays would eventually be lost in a storage for which I could no longer maintain the bill years after relocating to sunny Los Angeles, CA. Her words however left footprints across my heart, my mind and my soul. They've guided me and my tongue for quite some time.
Today I was re-united with that text and somewhere at the intersection "Deals With The Devil" Ave and "Give Me The Night" Blvd waiting under a traffic light called Love ...I was re-united with me.
The question still lingers..."Why do I do what I do?" I write, produce and direct because...well Ms. Cleage says it best...
"I am writing to help myself understand the full effects of being black and female in a culture that is both racist and sexist... I am writing to try and communicate that information to my sisters (of any culture) first and then to any brothers (of any culture) of goodwill and honest intent who will take the time to listen (read or hear)...I am writing to find solutions and pass them on. I am writing to find language and pass it on.
I am writing, writing, writing, for my life"
Pear Cleage
Deals with the Devil...And Other Reasons to Riot
Knowing me is knowing that my point of view is afro-centric.
I look to reclaim what has been stolen from Africans in Africa and the diaspora. I look to rebuild and re-appropriate that which was re-appropriated from those who look most like me.
Culture, Community, Nationality, Spirituality have all been stripped from us ...Melvin Van Peebles says our minds have been colonized and I am allied with him to decolonize and re-colonize our minds through media...new and old...
(That's King Peggy of Otuam, Ghana in the picture with Gayle King)
In the meantime I will give props where props are due...
Joseph Rudyard Kipling 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)[1] was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature. He was born in Bombay, in the Bombay Presidency of British India, and was taken by his family to England when he was five years old.Kipling is best known for his works of fiction, including The Jungle Book (a collection of stories which includes "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"), Just So Stories (1902) (1894), and his poems, including Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The White Man's Burden (1899) and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major "innovator in the art of the short story"; his children's books are enduring classics of children's literature; and his best works are said to exhibit "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".
The poem "If" lifted the game up over here today... A friend referenced it and I was taken back to 6th Grade when I had to memorize that last stanza.
So here is to lifting someone else's game up and by the way IF we can remember this we can all be hollywood producers...
IF.....
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man ...or Woman ...my children
(a little creative license)
Okay
..."so how many licks does it take to get to the center of a ?"...I am
sure I am dating myself by breaking out the Tootsie Roll Pop Owl...smile
if you remember these commercials. Smile wider if you ever counted how
many licks it took you to get to the good part...the center.
Everyday
I awake I am looking to get to the good part (that bubble gum center :)
or win the "Lotto" :). Either way the end of the journey is the
destination. Inside destination is destined and destiny.
What
is my destiny ? What am I destined to do? I just want to get
there...because if I get "there" then I am not "here". In my head I just
hear "Bill" saying "Die!...I might die in committee !". I believe most
of us fear dying in committee...dying while "in progress".
There
is physical death and then there is "becoming stuck" aka "my dreams
didn't come true" aka "I didn't reach my goals" aka "I coulda been a
contender" (in my Marlon Brando voice).
Don't
misunderstand me I have heard more than a few times "it's about the
journey...not the destination". Well cute, but my feet are tired. Where
and what is the last stop of this journey? The frustrating thing is that part of the "journey" is learning
and mastering that it is about the JOURNEY.
By the way "frustrating" is
an understatement for what learning "that part" is. If you
happen to have been out fishing with me when God gave out patience then
you know...learning "that part" is actually excruciating. So
I wake up everyday trying not to fight or flight, but to float.
While on the journey this is my "float face" complements of Instagram.
Getting to the good part is what it is...a journey. By good part
I refer to living our best life by being our best us (that is "best
you" and "best me")...everyday. In my head I hear "Everyday ? Are You
Kidding?"
What is being our best us ? ...Well that is the Billion Dollar question.
Here's hoping for a down payment on a cool billion...
We
are to look in the mirror everyday and know that every dream that is
connected to making the world better through our God (Creator and or
Universe) given talents some known and others yet to be discovered gets
us to the Good Part.
Here are a couple of folks that I journey with...thanks Instagram for the cool effects.
We must remember the Good Part is on the inside and even though it manifests in all types of cuteness and swagger on the outside...the Good Part remains on the inside of all of us...
To
the winner may indeed go the spoils...but the race has never been given
to the swift nor to the strong but to the ones that endureth to the
end..."the journey" aka "the race" is the Good Part.
On
Friday I forwarded sizzle reels and treatments (on new projects) in the
hope of traction with potential buyers. Today I met with a new
collaborator and followed up with a production partner and coalesced a
treatment via email with another production partner...with each new day I
am on the journey...making my way to the Good Part.
write, produce and direct...
Danna
I just love Instagram and the cool effects...check out one of my good parts...(the one on the left with the great smile)
Well...on another planet in that other lifetime the one where my mother is still with me and I am a Pulitzer prize winning author and playwright I would love you and by now have given you at most 3 babies no less than 2 and I would gladly and proudly rush home to you everyday and cook your food and make the bed we slept on the night before and step out to the world everyday believing I did something special when I married you and that I could change the world and transform lives through my writing not just because GOD told me so but because you were present to look in my eyes and tell me you loved me everyday...
Since
Thursday February 23rd when we last spoke...I have found myself working
to slow down and become centered and then remain centered. I am
looking to get to the core. I have been on a journey to the center of my
earth.
*If God lives in you, then you have the obligation to walk the earth as a God* Dr. John Henrik Clarke
I've
been taking yoga more and just remembering to breathe and sit long
enough to finish one thing at a time. When we breathe we can connect to
God...right then. I have therefore been breathing, being still and
knowing. There is a journey to being still.
I count these revelations as the rewards for searching for the center. Psalm 46:5-10 assures us that...
"(5)
God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of
day. ...(9) He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the
shields with fire. (10) He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; (11)
The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress."
On
the beginning of the journey to my center, which for the umpteenth time
commenced the day of our beloved Whitney's funeral when Tyler Perry
spoke so engagingly of a lunch he had with her. He shared with us
that they talked of one of Paul's many letters to the Romans.
In
Romans chapter 8 Paul encourages the people of that time to remember so
many powerful things. The very essence of getting to the center of it
all he explains is seeking after the fruits of the spirit the first of
these according to Galations 5:22 is Love... At Verse 38 Paul says...
"For
I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor
depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord"
We all take
LOVE pretty seriously. I do. What Psalm 46 and Romans 8 tells me is
that it is God's Love that is at my center. I am therefore not only
obligated to remember this, but to live for the one who created me,
loves me best and loves me most !
God's Love is at my core...it is the center of my earth...
Write, Produce and Direct...
Danna
I feel pretty...oh so pretty...
Special thanks to Erlinda Photography for this one...
