Story, Story... Story!

A hole is to dig and summer is for so that you can have time to read. I was waiting until after I was done with my wedding to settle in and get it in. The way my life is these days, I probably may only be able to get One in, and it will for sure be this....

Time for me to purchase my copy of Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie. I love all her books so far, and I know I'm late, but I can't wait to read this one. I just... gosh. Sometimes I wish I was her, or had the gift of telling stories of the African/Nigerian experience like she does, but really I'm happy that I am not her because that means I just get to read them.

On another note, can not wait for the Half of a Yellow Sun movie to come out. Although I don't think I will be able to watch it... It just may be too much.


On another note, One3snapshot.com should be getting a bunch of new items in online and stores alike, so be on the lookout

Do White Women Love White Women, Like I Love Black Women?

I have moments when I'm just like. OMG I love Black Women. Like intense Admiration. Pride, Joy, and just a feeling that they are the most beautiful beings on the planet in their natural and creative forms. To my white friends, do y'all ever have this feeling about your own. Real talk? Lol. I'm curious where it comes from when I feel like this, is it just an appreciation of myself because of the awareness of the shit that Black women deal with when it comes to image or what? So do you ever feel like "OMG, I LOOOVE White women, they are the most beautiful beings on the planet?"

 I feel like this is the case subconsciously and historically because then that is why we live in the world we do today with Western/European/White as the definition and guideline for beauty.

I know there are white women who think Black women are the 'most gorgeous beings' even going on to emulate style, habits, and aesthetics of Black women/culture (just as we black women do). But I am curious to know how the basic white woman sees beauty, or rather articulates her appreciation for it.

So White Women do you ever have this feeling that you are beautiful as a race in the pure essence of Whiteness a forethought and articulation, just like I do about Black women?

Kehinde Wiley | The World Stage: Israel

It's crazy how time flies and I'll look back and I'll see that my last post was in March...and it's May now. Just like that. Crazy. Coordinating hundreds of people to get ready for San Francisco Carnaval Parade. Planning a wedding. Getting used to holding down a family/household. Chasing a speedily growing baby who at 9 months is giving me a run for my no-money. Trying to maintain some level of physical and mental health. and on and on...

Ya it's spring time and my life is just that. Still, I am going to trying to check this out before it ends on May 27, the bills at the BART station has been catching my eye for months. I was firstly intrigued by this bright image (of course), but mostly drawn by the Yoruba twin name Kehinde....but was like wtf does a Nigerian first name with a non Nigerian last name, got to do with Israel... I was hella confused.

But I did my research and found out. And I'm there. Someone who's all about putting images of black men into the "high" class of art and culture. So the shi shi pinky up side of me thinks I ought to dress cute and get out to see this, and nod my head solemnly and ask my hubby what room he thinks one of these may look good in.

Read about it

Check this article about him in GQ

How to MOVE your Money To a Local Credit Union & Not Die Trying

By now everyone in the world knows that Oakland law enforcement went crazy with the tear gas, sand bags and baton smashing on non-violent citizens who were expressing their right to assemble and speak freely.   Two posts ago, I wrote about some action items that the regular average joe like me can take to make some change (or at least be part of making some change). If you know anything about me, I'm an action bunny. I can do my own share of talking any day but a lot of times, I feel helpless if there aren't any action items. I'm still working on my ten things we can do to make change in the 99% #Occupy Movement.   But I wanted to focus on one that folks are talking about and that is coming up pretty soon:

Change from a reg corporate Bank to a Credit Union and TWEET about it...

Now most folks (me included) have been trying to figure out how, where, when, can I make this happen. The facebook page BANK TRANSFER DAY has some resources and talking points around this. FYI Bank Transfer Day is coming up Saturday November 5th.

Here's the message from the Event page for November 5th with some steps you can take.

Together we can ensure that these banking institutions will ALWAYS remember the 5th of November!! If the 99% removes our funds from the major banking institutions to non-profit credit unions on or by this date, we will send a clear message to the 1% that conscious consumers won't support companies with unethical business practices.

• Research your local credit union options
• Open an account with the one that best suits your needs
• Cancel all automatic withdrawals & deposits
• Transfer your funds to the new account
• Follow your bank's procedures to close your account before 11/05

FIND A CREDIT UNION
USA: http://www.findacreditunion.com/
CANADA: http://locator.cucentral.com/
UK: http://www.findyourcreditunion.co.uk/

Peace!!

the 99% ignored in Arts Funding #Occupy

REUTERS/Mike Segar

 Even if you were living under a rock. You know about the occupations happening around various cities in the US. What we're also talking about is the various ways this crazy 1% plays out. This Washington Post article talk about how Foundations basically pretty much fund more wealthy-white serving institutions than it does diverse communities. This funding trend does not match up with the growing population of said diverse communities.

“It is a problem because it means that — in the arts — philanthropy is using its tax-exempt status primarily to benefit wealthier, more privileged institutions and populations,” wrote the report’s author, Holly Sidford.

Talk about keeping it in the family.

Of course it's not telling me anything that I don't know. The money just circles around and 'philanthropy' is just a guise that rich people use to keep the things that entertain them alive.

Even though seemed like an ad for the Ford Foundation (which hopefully may encourage them and others to continue diverse funding) at the end, the point of the article is still something to that can be paid attention.

Chinua Achebe forces 50 Cent to rename movie

"You know, sometimes it's not the actual story/publication but the comment box that tells you what's really going on in the world"-N

Things fall apart for rapper as Nigerian writer makes him change forthcoming film title to avoid conflict with 1958 novel

50 Cent has been undone by one of Africa's greatest novelists, Chinua Achebe. The rapper's latest movie has been renamed ahead of its release, due to a conflict with Achebe's most famous work.
Things Fall Apart, published by Achebe in 1958, is Nigeria's most famous English-language novel. It has sold more than 8m copies worldwide. Unfortunately, 50 Cent was not aware of this. He spent much of 2010 shooting a film of the same name, the story of an American football player diagnosed with cancer. "It's a project that I wrote, produced and financed myself," he explained last year. Directed by Mario Van Peebles, it premiered at the Miami film festival in March and is expected to be released soon.
Read More..

 -p.s. I stole the title of the blog post

*Pouts*

I feel so sad...the whole world is clearly and completely falling apart around us and we're just going on as if. Makes me want run around screaming at the top of my lungs: "Everybody shut the fk up, and stop anything you're doing, because nothing we are doing right now matters!!!" But then I decided I'd just update by Facebook instead before going shopping...

 

Rioting in London: Police vs. Black Man

 This is basically a bit of a stream of consciousness surrounding the recent London riot after police shot a Black man (London riot you say? What pray tell is it?) Colorlines has a "short and sweet" report about it.

Photo from Colorlines

I'm way past sick of this police vs. black man; colonist vs. black lands phenomenon. It makes me want to throw up and I feel I'm simply so over this human 'race'. And the news around the after-effects drives me crazy, aren't people tired of sick of just narrowing it down to something done by those savage-black-gang-involved-tennis-shoe-stealing youth? We're such a lazy group of people who never will actually fight for change because our lives are really just great, so we pass the blame. And so the media goes ahead and puts up their template news and we go deeper into our discrimination. But sometimes I wonder maybe that's just what we need, for everything to really go to complete shit, and for people to become REALLY uncomfortable so they can pay attention.

Here's one article that begins some exploration of the causes and effect of blaming the youth, it's not that deep (neither is this blog post) but a lot of this is very emotional for me, the comments to the article make me angry and illustrate what is messed up about our societies and how far we have to go in terms of regard for humanity.

This article is particularly interesting to me. I've been intrigued out how much the blackberry is a huge thing especially from the point of Nigerians in Nigeria and the Diaspora. If you know the half of it, you know that blackberries are now getting something akin to a human right.

Because these days twitter and facebook can get you in big shit, and BBMs are less traceable by the authorities (for now), Blackberry is saying that they would give information to the police about people's BBM messages to help aid the arrest of folks who are passing on info about the London riots. So these hackers threaten Blackberry... i.e.

"You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all,"

"If you make the wrong choice your database will be made public, save yourself the embarrassment and make the right choice. Don't be a puppet," 

(read the article for more)

Like I said most or all even of the people I know who have Blackberries are Nigerian/African/Caribbean. We support Blackberry, one (too many) of us gets killed, we up-rise, the company that we fish over our moola to fecks us in the ass.

dog eat dog sucka.

the Pencil vs. the Gun

On this past weekend the SOS Rally/March happened in Washington D.C. Lots of things were said. Lots of things happened. Below are two videos I've selected to highlight.

Okay see now the problem is. Goodness! Okay I'm glad that the people in this video are the ones who are doing it, because if that was me, there would have been some weave pulling and butt kicking. I know I know, not a good example for the kids. sigh. woosah. meditate. visualize.
If you know half of anything about me, you know that I don't joke with providing the best and equal opportunities for all! But I'll just let you watch the video.



Jose Vilson (click to visit his blog) who is one of my favorite educators and activist that keep me going from afar had this to say:



p.s. Jose you need a "Teacher  Don't Teach Me Nonsense" tee

Art + Social Change: Turf Feinz for Oscar Grant

When people ask me what we (one3snapshot.com) are about; I can show them this video. Sometimes I get crippled with feeling like I can't do anything about the fkd up state of the world we live in. This is the kind of thing that keeps me going...

What Would the Heroine of my Summer Romance do?

I was just reading this harlequin romance novel of a woman who is as an exec of an ad/design agency that her father owns. She falls asleep on a late night at the office and dreams (time travels) herself back into the sixties to an ad agency where the women where 'horse corralled' in the typing pool; their only purpose to type and serve coffee to the men while dealing with taunts, jabs and lewd comments (being that they are subordinates) from the men. I'm not sure... because I don't watch it but I imagine it looked something like Mad Men? Anyway...the dream follows her as a love interest of the main boss of the ad agency while she 'fights' to increase the significance and relevance of the women in the ad agency.

I wonder what she would think about this ad...

Why Should I Vote? What Should I Vote for?!!!

Vote Vote Vote Vote Vote Vote?

http://prop23.dirtyenergymoney.com/

How many flyers and door knocks have you received regarding who you should vote for? Wouldn't it be cool if only all the million and billions that were spent on campaigns materials and candidate promotion would be spent on the actual funding of the issues at hand? Like you know actually spent on healthcare and education rather than talking about it?

Californians, what are all these propositions about? I don't understand them because all the flyers I see just use scare tactics and dramatic quotes while yet not telling me exactly what I'm supposed to be deciding on.

Just a few

Prop 23 the BIG ONE: huge and historic battle brewing in California. If passed would suspend the California Global Warming Act of 2006 (AB 32) which requires that greenhouse gas emissions in the state be cut to 1990 levels by 2020.

WTF?


Why are all the dirty gas, oil & companies companies heavily funding this proposition to pass?

Prop 25/26

Proposition 25 would reduce the votes required to pass a budget from a supermajority of two-thirds to a simple majority like most other states.

Proposition 26 would increase the legislative vote requirement from a majority to a two-thirds for new and increased state and local fees and charges. Many of California’s environmental protection programs are funded with such fees.  Opponents of Prop 26 say that it would make it even more difficult to hold polluters accountable, and to raise revenue for basic services.

Why are all the dirty gas, oil & companies companies heavily funding saying no to 25 and yes to 26?




Wtf?


If dirty energy companies are putting so much money into these things, will this make me think twice about how to vote on them? Especially since such companies are infamous for doing things that typically screw over people of color and erase lands and livelihoods...

For more info and graphics on energy companies & prop 23, 25 & 26...check out http://prop23.dirtyenergymoney.com/
       


 more questions to come, after you vote!
-n

Follow the Dirty Oil Money

Friends of mine have spent  a couple or years quite a while working on this: Dirty Energy Money an interactive tool that tracks the flow of oil, gas, and coal money in U.S. Congress. Using the site you can find out which energy companies are pumping their dirty money into politics and which politicians are receiving it.

And I've seen it take a few forms. I'm still trying out this website...since I have a death fear of math/ math-related info-graphics, I'm wondering if this is a site that I can get down with. Mostly I'm interested in the usability of this site by regular folks like me. People who are not so 'smart' and folks who get overwhelmed by the intricate details of numbers. Like can I just get a colorful video and some cool fashion telling me the gist of it?

But on a more serious note; the information is something that is important and people should care about; what with all the drama and craziness energy sources are causing in our lives today (indirectly or not). It's a bit sad because the we  do is complain about how much it takes for us to fill up our gas tanks. I would like for us to about this energy 'crisis' a bit deeper.

How do our lifestyle choices, our political leanings, and our business decisions play a role in the issue?