Wanderlust Live

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an (in)appropriate mélange of opinion, dreams, languages and temper tantrums spewing out of the mind of a thirty something with nomadic tendencies and a penchant for thinking a lot.

Underwhelmed, but still intrigued

The rumor of Apple’s latest toy, the iPad caught my attention some months ago and I naturally assumed that like the Macbook, the iMac and the iPhone before it, it would go above and beyond the expectations and desires of even the most sophisticated tech geek. Fortunately for the discriminating consumer, the announcement of the iPad informs us that the release of this device is not about providing the consumer with what they want but Apple solidifying its identity as “Father knows best”. I am not the first to consider Apple’s motives and certainly not the only one who has written about it.

This device is sexy, shiny and alluring but even with all its hits (and there are several), it falls short of basic requirements that would make it a really useful device. I am thinking of how it could be used by entrepreneurs and small business owners and in that context, for me, it’s not yet worth buying. Below are the things that I would like to see the iPad achieve in its 2nd generation.

1. Microsoft Office: People in business use Office. Point blank. It is comfortable, convenient, easy and familiar. Imagine arriving to a meeting iPad, keyboard and dock and hand, ready to take notes, create draft documents and edit documents. People need to do more than read and review, they want to create.

2. Multitasking: the beauty of Apple computers and the iPhone (to an extent) is the ability to do multiple tasks at once. E.g. streaming live radio, while typing an email, then opening word to review a document, seeing a term in said document which then makes you wanna research the term on Wikipedia. That is 4 applications right there. Unfortunately the lack of multitasking on the iPad sets us back to the early 90s. I mean we might as well still have dial-up. (not really but you know what I mean)

3. Camera: I never understood the obsession behind taking pictures on mobile phone cameras. The quality is rarely as good as a regular camera and personally I feel like if you’re gonna take a picture use a normal free-standing camera, its sexier and more sophisticated…digressing. The lack of a camera, however, on the iPad is bothersome because then how will I video conference with my mama? Mother’s aside, this is a major disappointment. You now say I can use Skype for free but you give me no video capability? From the small business owner perspective, particularly if the plan is to maximize the machine as a business tool, then the ability to video conference is vital for maintaining a productive face (to screen) to face meeting environment.

4. Flash: this is last on my list of complaints but I sympathize with web site geniuses who are salty that there’s still no flash. I mean, I need to be able to read the New York Times on this thing and see all the cool multimedia thingies they post to complement the written content. But no, I can’t, at least not on the iPad.

My basic criticisms aside, I have to say that the iPad, is indeed as Steve Jobs announced yesterday Apple’s “most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.” That statement is more about the idea that the iPad represents and what Apple wants us to think and feel about its products and it being a leader in the technological market place.

The iPad in iteration 1.0 tells us that we should use the internet for every possible task. It suggests that Apple believes that documents as we know them now will become increasingly transferred to native web-based programs e.g. Google Docs. The transfer of iWork from a CD that you must enter into your computer and then install as a separate program to a web application that can be purchased at a very reasonable price and seamlessly downloaded is a subtle but salient change in the way we access, create and manage information.

The implications and impact are far bigger than we realize right now. Apple has done something ginormously significant again and when the 2nd generation of the iPad is revealed in summer 2011 there will be more clarity. For now, let’s just watch and see.

Filed under: Social Commentary, Technology, anything that can be read and reviewed

Opportunity to help rebuild Haiti (repost)

Brothers and Sisters International will be organizing a number of work brigades to rebuild Haiti. The first brigade will be leaving for Haiti on March 13th and returning March 20th. They are recruiting volunteers to work along side Haitian workers to build schools, clinics, and housing for Haitians who lost these facilities during the earthquakes. All reconstruction efforts will be taking place in the various countrysides of Haiti outside of Port-au-Prince.

Requirement for volunteers:

• U.S passport
• Country of origin passport and US Alien Card (for non-US citizens only)
• Must be at least 18 years old
• Must be a US Citizen or US Permanent Resident
• Must be able to lift 40 pounds

Cost:
$800.00 Students
$1,000.00 Non-Students
Cost includes airfare, lodging, food, and ground transportation in
Haiti. Please note fundraising opportunities will be available

Please reference the website for upcoming meetings: www.rebuildhaititoday.org

Please review the information below.

Before You Depart for Haiti

Recommended Vaccines
A number of vaccines are recommended for travelers to Haiti. See your
doctor before you travel to ensure you have had all necessary
vaccines.

Routine:

Be sure that you are up to date on vaccines such asmeasles/mumps/rubella (MMR), diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus (DPT), polio, seasonal and H1N1 flu, and varicella. It is especially important to have a current tetanus shot. Hepatitis A or immune globulin (IG): Even if your departure is imminent, one dose of hepatitis A vaccine provides adequate short-term protection for healthy people. For long-term protection, a second dose is required 6–18 months after the first dose, depending on the brand of vaccine used.

Typhoid: There are 2 vaccines available for typhoid prevention. The injectable vaccine may be preferable to the oral vaccine in cases where travel is imminent. The oral vaccine requires refrigeration and 4 tablets taken every other day over one week. Hepatitis B: If your departure is imminent, the first in a 3-dose series (day 0, 1 month and 6 months) may provide some protection. An accelerated dosing schedule may be used (doses at days 0, 7, and at 21–30 days with a booster at 12 months).

Insect-borne Diseases: Malaria

Malaria occurs in all parts of Haiti. Ways to prevent malaria include
the following:

  • Taking a prescription antimalarial drug
  • Using insect repellent
  • wearing long pants and sleeves to prevent mosquito bites

No antimalarial drug is 100% protective, so it is important to use all three ways to prevent malaria. All of the following antimalarial drugs are equal options for preventing malaria in Haiti: Atovaquone/proguanil (Malarone), chloroquine, doxycycline, or mefloquine. Each drug has its own side effects, contraindications, and precautions. You will need to talk to your doctor to decide which of these drugs would be best for you,
depending on your current health, medical history, drug allergies, and specific needs. Additional information can be found on the Drugs to Prevent Malaria page.

Malaria is always a serious disease and may be a deadly illness. If you become ill with a fever or develop flu-like symptoms either while in Haiti or after you return home (for up to 1 year), you should seek
immediate medical attention, informing your physician of your recent trip to Haiti.

Remember, these are our folks, so let’s do what we can to help. Even
if you don’t have the time and/or money to go, don’t forget about the
power of prayer.

Filed under: publicity, repost ,

Haute HOT – more cooing about NARS

If you’re one of my close female BFFs and/or an avid reader of this blog then you should know that I ADORE  NARS makeup.  This isn’t the first time I have written about Nars and it shan’t be the last.  I pray that I have the opportunity to interview him one day…but I digress.

The New York Times has done a wonderful piece on him in the T magazine in honor of the brand’s 15th anniversary and its return to the runway after a 10 year hiatus.  The visual portrayal gives us the low down on great NARS products as well as favorites of the artist himself.  You can’t ever go wrong with NARS and I am renewed in my commitment to being more fabulous than ever in my 30s that NARS will accompany me, one tube of lip stick at a time.

À tout à l’heure!

Filed under: Mes Bons Addresses, publicity, repost ,

Images of al-Jazā’ir

I am still working through my thoughts and feelings surrounding my recent trip to Algiers.  The difficulty of experiencing a place – seeing, smelling, touching, eating, feeling and speaking a place – is that words are rarely sufficient to describe those intangible and invaluable moments.  Luckily I am not easily deterred and shall try my best.  For now I will say simply that Algiers felt like home.

More to come!

Filed under: Mes Bons Addresses, publicity , ,

On reading, writing, learning and thinking

Among my earliest memories, are those of my mother reading to me.  Even more vividly are the stacks of newspapers that would sit in the kitchen chair as my mother slowly but surely made her way through the week’s news.  My grandmother for most of the 30 years that I have known her has always read the Bible and the newspaper.  She did not attend college, as was the case for many women of her day, but she was well-informed because she read.  As a school aged child my mother and I often took trips to Powell’s Bookstore in Chicago, an amazing world of used books with any and every topic you could possibly desire. It was in this environment that I developed a voracious and almost insatiable appetite for facts, knowledge and ideas.

In my immediate family, education was first and foremost a tool of moving up the socio-economic ladder.  Learning was valued not solely for expanding your mind but for broadening your array of life choices. I was definitely pushed to study hard, be competitive and not give up.  While private school wasn’t an option due to finances I was able due to my abilities to attend magnet schools from the 3rd grade through my last year of high school.

According to my mother, I began reading right before my 3rd birthday.  Writing essays and stories, only started once I was in elementary school.  Interestingly enough I didn’t enjoy writing while in elementary and high school nor for the first two years of college. I lacked confidence in my ability to express myself on the page in a way that came with much ease when I would speak.  In fact it was only during my last two years of college that I truly began to enjoy the writing process.

I have always liked school.  High school got a little tiring but ask any teenager in their 3rd and 4th years of high school and they would likely say the same.  My favorite subjects have always been languages and social sciences.  Yes these areas were easier for me to comprehend and thus I did better, but the appeal had everything to do with these subjects being portals to unknown lands, cultures and ways of doing things.

I struggled with mathematics and science; math because it didn’t come easily and science because I neither understood it, nor did it come easily.  I took the position that since social studies and languages were a breeze, so then should the other subjects.  The most dramatic points of this experience had everything to do with my ego as I made the mistake that many a teenager makes and compared myself to my peers who were math and science savants.

College was an amazing experience for me because it was at this point that I became fully responsible for what I learned.  With the exception of a few requirements, I had the power to organize my academic plan with the courses that pleased me most. I decided on a major of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies and spent three glorious years digging into the sociology, anthropology, history and language of this amazingly diverse region of the world.  It was through this course of study that I developed an identity as a global citizen, and that I understood myself to have solidarity with people living in lands unknown. This awakening developed even before I ever visited the region through the basic act of reading my assigned texts and papers.  This exposure was the beginning of what has been an ongoing engagement with this region and its people.

I had a professor, my favorite college professor, who took a great interest in me during my academic career.  During one quarter of my senior year she took me on as an independent study student stating clearly, “Negarra I don’t care what it is you end up doing career wise but you’re going to have to be able to write.” And rightly, so we spent the quarter reading on a variety topics of Latin American history and me writing and revising essays in which she would show me what I needed to do improve or cheer me on when I wrote a clear and succinct essay.  From that point on, writing ceased to be a chore or the cause of panic, but rather another tool in my box that equipped me to tussle with the ideas set before me.

Language has played a particularly important role in my learning process. My mother, a teacher of 35 years, was intent on her only daughter learning to speak grammatically correct English.  To this day when I use slang or end a sentence with a preposition, I am reminded of the times I came home from school speaking incorrectly and was promptly reminded that such language wasn’t allowed in our house.  The point of this being that there were situations where certain types of speech were relevant and necessary.  This lesson was critical to my survival in public school. Around 4th or 5th grade I learned how to curse.  It became abundantly clear to me that if I wanted to survive public school where children said any and everything (of course because they didn’t have a mother like mine to teach them the difference, ha!) that I too would have to learn to say such things more so to defend myself than to be considered cool.

I was infinitely lucky that my college had one of the best undergraduate language programs in the country.  I endeavored to learn Spanish and then Portuguese and through my college’s renowned method of immersion both in the classroom and via study programs abroad, I was near fluent in both before graduating.  For some the ability to speak a language is taken for granted as they have always led a multi-lingual life.  Language for me, like reading, was another portal.  Not only could I read in these languages and think in these languages (and thus learn in these languages!)  I could engage with people speaking these languages.  I could know their stories in their tongue and capture a meaning carefully stored within words that when translated (into English) lost some of their power.

My adult education has consisted of myriad experiences including travel, graduate school, living abroad and current events broadcast via print and television media.  I often times feel a longing for school as it is a very convenient and structured way to learn, though it can lack variety at times.  I often feel now that I get stuck in periods of reading the same types of thing all the time.  The Internet has definitely impacted how I read.  While in high school and college I still read books and articles.  Since college I have increasingly read the bulk of my news directly from the Internet, fewer books and more magazines.  The Internet I believe has increased my demand for short spurts of info thus impacting my ability to prepare the mind to endure a book.  That said I hold books, still, in higher esteem than electronic reading material.  There is (or seems to be) an engagement with the word on the page which more intense and committed, perhaps, than that which is transmitted electronically.  A book is always there, and not something you get rid of, whereas material on the Internet comes and goes and it is not yours, per se.

Learning and subsequently writing have always felt like liberation and transformation.  I believe that it is only when you have sufficiently freed yourself from any limitations (self-imposed or otherwise) that transformation can occur and then you are truly equipped to defend yourself.  Fundamentally when I write now, it is because I am grappling with an idea, trying to understand it, seeing if it fits with my current worldview and if it doesn’t how and if it doesn’t why.  Writing for me is wrestling with an idea and seeing where I am left once the fight is done.  It is saying what most won’t bother to utter but what we all think.

Filed under: SGF Writing Assignments, ruminations ,

Saturday morning delectability

Its Saturday, Praise GOD.  I woke up at quarter to 9, went to bathroom, grabbed my iPhone and some Cranberry juice from the fridge and got back in bed.    While drinking my juice and perusing the news on my mobile it occurred to me that I needed to eat.  A couple of dramatic moments later (fidgeting, sighing, rolling about in utter child like mini-tantrum) I relived myself of my bed and entered the kitchen.  After washing the dishes I decided upon apples.  Rather a simple solution for all the aforementioned theater but these aren’t just any apples, these apples are special and you shall soon know why.

Once upon a time way back when I was in my twenties and perpetually broke, I was hungry (not like that’s a novel act on my part). In the midst of this hunger I opened my near barren cabinets and my near barren refrigerator and saw apples, cinnamon, brown sugar and nutmeg.  With my taste buds seething I went to work and the recipe below is the result:

1-2 apples cut into quarters and then sliced (McIntosh or Elkar work very well)

1-2 teaspoons of brown sugar

3-6 shakes of cinnamon

3-6 shakes of nutmeg

1/2 table-spoon or butter (basically enough to cover the entire bottom of the skillet; you can add more as you see fit)

After slicing your apples, heat butter gently in a medium-sized pan over low heat so that the butter won’t burn. Once the butter has completely melted add the sliced apples and let them cook for about 5 minutes.  Then add the cinnamon and nutmeg and cover the pan.  After 5-7 minutes add the brown sugar and let cook for another 5-7 minutes depending on the texture you prefer.  If you still like a bit of crunch, 5 minutes will do if you want them to literally melt in your mouth 7 plus minutes will do.  Serve on plate and drizzle sauce from pan on top.

The result is GOODNESS!  The sauce left in the pan taste like caramel and if you’re a glutton like me you will lick it off the plate.  This dish goes well with toasted cinnamon raison bread, slathered in butter, with which to sop up the sauce.  If you still have not had enough stimulation from all the butter and sugar feel free to add the following little touch which I concocted in December.

Tannie Negarra’s Special Winter Coffee

-make your regular cup of joe as you would on any day with the preferred amount of sugar and milk/cream

-add 1 to 2 shakes of cinnamon

-add 1 capful or 1 teaspoon of scotch (I am using Balvenie Doublewood Aged 12 Years thanks to Queen Thea)

The result is goodness and more goodness…in fact the goodness is calling my name right now.

Eet smakkelijk!

Filed under: Vittles and Drank ,

In defense of Haiti

Peace to all,

As you may all already know, Haiti has once again been rocked by devastation and the masses are in need of aid and assistance. In the spirit of love, unity, compassion and honoring our shared ancestry, people all over the US and abroad are working to build relationships with reputable and trustworthy humanitarian organizations that will be able to get any donations that we give to the people who need it.

The Brooklyn based band Voodo Fe is performing tonight at the Parkside Lounge (317 Houston @ Attorney, NYC, see map below) and will be collecting canned goods, clothing, or anything else you can spare that can be transported to Haiti. Additionally, all of the proceeds from the performance will be donated to Haiti aid efforts.  Over the coming days, Voodo Fe will be identifying other opportunities to help the people of Haiti and we will keep our home open as a base for dropping off, collecting, and organizing donations of all kinds.  We will keep you all posted.  To contact us via email regarding our efforts and how you can contribute, please go here.

We are asking that everyone, regardless of religion or spiritual practice, say a prayer and send some positive energy to our folks in Haiti. Yes, these people are OUR folks, and we must take it upon ourselves to help them when in need. Prayer, as we all know, creates miracles.

For those who are involved in the closely linked spiritual communities of Vodoun, 21 Divisions, Santeria, Lukumi, Palo, Akan etc, please take a moment to light a candle, say a prayer and work for the elevation of Haiti.  In the moments where we feel powerless, the greatest power comes from the collective energy of love and positivity.  We can always offer words of prayer.  Collective ASHE/NGOLO/LIFE FORCE can defeat the seemingly impossible.

Nsala Malecum, Alaafia, and May the creator bless you all.


View Larger Map

Filed under: Social Commentary, publicity ,

A story of respect and the lack thereof

A friend sent me this today.  I thought it an intriguing story.  My response is below.  All comments are welcome.

N-

Today I was presented with the most oddly wonderful experience.  While bundling up to brave the cold for three leeks, pancetta and a few new light bulbs there was a knock at the door to the apartment building.  Upon opening it I was confronted with two relatively young and reasonable well dressed men who asked me if I believed in god and if I accepted Jesus Christ as my own personal savior.  After informing them of my position as a strident atheist we entered into a discussion whose complexity and specific details are beyond the intended brevity of this email.  Needless to say the near freezing temperatures turned what was an interesting exchange into a burden rather quickly.  After an attempt to make a graceful exit I found that I was being followed and called after.  Something about the post-mortem entitlements of leading a good, Christian existence and the fate of my immortal soul.  As a firm atheist I believe in the philosophy of Lennon, with an ‘o’ (i.e. John and not Vladimir) who said, “whatever gets you through the night”.  After asking the young men if there was anything that I could say that would shake the very foundations of their beliefs enough to force them to trade in their beliefs in an invisible, omnipresent, omnipotent puppet master and his earthly incarnation, deceased for almost two millennia for mine they looked at me as if I had lobsters crawling out of my ears.  As someone who believes that, given time, science will be able to explain the beginning of the universe, the evolution of our galaxy, life on Earth and our very species, so succinctly as to leave little room for a creator I still must admit that there is now, as there will always be, information beyond our grasp.  Which is not to say that it is beyond our capacity for understanding.  I will never be naive enough to believe that my specific outlook on such issues should be ubiquitously applied to all of humanity.  All I ask for in return is the same courtesy and respect from all of you who do believe in something.  Is it too much to ask? Sorry to unload like this, but I thought you may find it interesting/funny. I hope you are having a wonderful and stress free day.

Cheers,

A -

No need to apologise for unloading.  I think you handled this appropriately, with grace and rapier wit.  A this just goes to show that you are a brilliant and mature professor to be and I will send my kids to your house not only for good food but proper extra-curricular schooling as well. I on the other hand would have told them that I pluck and gut chickens on the weekends and that I offer them to the Orisha whose assistance I have requested so that they will leave me the hell alone.

At the core of this interchange is respect.  To accept other beliefs you have to believe that they are as valid as your own and give them the respect you give your own beliefs and the same to those who believe differently than you.  Their insistence, to the point of following you, illustrates not only a narrow minded-ness but a lack of respect for people being able to choose what is best for them.

One of the things I appreciate about you and M and your respective families is that we can have these conversations and at the end of it say “whatever gets you through night”, let’s have a whiskey now the real question is when are you cooking me some more lasagna (or mac n cheese!)?”

*applause*

Hugs

N

Filed under: Social Commentary, guest writer, repost , ,

Hey now, 2010!

So here it is FINALLY!  I have, ever so gratefully and with gluttonous elegance, slid on into 2010 and into my 30s.  Energized and ready.  I have all these ideas in my head that must get out so expect much reading material.  As usual I am working some stuff out but this year I will be stepping forward firm in my convictions, fiercer than ever before.

In the coming weeks and months you can expect some interviews, thoughts on my recent trip to Algiers and reflections on the past holiday season.  I want to write more about food and am taking inspiration from some food blogs I have recently come across which of course I will share with you.  Am also searching for freelance opportunities (paid or unpaid, but preferably paid, lol).  It’s all so deliciously exciting.  I signed up for formspring, more internet dope but it could turn out to be interesting.  Ask me what you please! Oh, and I am always looking for new topics to write about so if you have anything you’d like to hear me carry on about, by all means, let me know!

Randomly, I decided not to make any resolutions but to declare, privately, to the universe what I want.  We shall see, but I have a good feeling.

Tous mes vœux pour cette Nouvelle Année!

Filed under: ruminations , ,

Deliverance from Precious

I have sat with a myriad thoughts about the film Precious beginning long before I actually viewed it. I made, what I now believe to have been, an error (not sure how grave) in reading all the reviews I could find of this film and posting them on Facebook and this blog and exchanging them with friends.  While generally this is not a horrible idea, because of the nature of this movie, I went into it expecting to be shocked and appalled (which I was to a certain extent) and searching for some of the elements I read in the reviews when it may have been better to go in as a blank slate.  I will spare you here the detail to which some of the reviews I’ve read have gone in dissecting this film.  Instead I urge you, presuming you haven’t already moved on (lol), to read Ishmael Reed’s “The Selling of ‘Precious’” as he has painstakingly examined and reexamined and analyzed and torn this movie to shreds and come up with some intriguing ideas on the movie and everyone involved in it’s making.

I can not nor will I spend time debating the content.  I am well aware that abuse, sexual and otherwise, illiteracy, obesity and the other numerous issues presented in this film are ever-present in black communities the world over.  The movie was expert in its portrayal of horrors of abuse and poverty.  But let me be clear: these issues are not solely the domain of blacks.  One need only be reminded of the man in Austria who locked his daughter in his basement, sexually abused her and fathered several children with her ranging in age from 5-19.  Somehow this man’s case got significantly less attention than the movie.  I wonder why.

Issue 1

Who is this film for?  I can’t possibly imagine that the Preciouses of the world are scrambling to see this film.  It would seem that anyone who has lived or is living with abuse doesn’t want to go to the movies to see a story about abuse.  Furthermore, if in addition to being abused, one is also poor, going to the movies may seem frivolous or simply impossible.

So if not for the Preciouses of the world, then whom?  Amongst the film’s earliest screenings was Cannes, to which it received rave reviews.  The audience at Cannes is majority white, either European or American, with a sprinkling of blacks and other people of color in the industry who may also be from the United States and perhaps a sprinkling of people of color from other regions of the world.  Most, if not all of these people, fall into the top economic echelons of their respective countries.  In this context it is very telling that the film was well received by this audience.  When one bears witness to something that is not of his/her own experience as a result of race, class and/or educational difference  you can approach it with a very objective view.  You  can focus on the artistic rendering, the technique, the scenery and analyze it separately from the story line.  I posit that the Cannes audience being majority white and majority wealthy, likely having little or contact with Blacks, poor people or Black poor people were able to watch this movie and believe it to be magnificent because they don’t and won’t ever have to sit with these issues of poverty and Blackness in the way that a Black person does (or might).

But whom else?  To be quite honest I am still stumped.  Perhaps the question isn’t for whom but why.  And if I ask myself why I think this movie was made, after considering the aforementioned, I have to consider that the directors and producers are infatuated with the stereotypical Black depravity story and are aware that there is a strong market for such stories and knew that the result would be millions of dollars.  It seems way too simple though but I am not sure what else there could be.

Issue #2

This movie got me to thinking about images and their use.  There are some extremely graphic scenes through out this film both overt and implicit and my immediate concern while in post-movie reflection mode was the way in which these images may be used.  Because the bulk of the scenes in this film are replete with images which are bothersome (to say the least) I have to consider how non-blacks may use these images to identify and/or mark black people; not to mention how blacks above the poverty line may use this to prejudice blacks below the line.  For a non-/black person who has little or no social experience with blacks and sees this film they could easily think that Harlem is the place of poor Blacks who abuse each other, are uneducated and live off the social welfare system.  While to the intelligent mind this may seem a far stretch, fact is we all make judgments based on what we see, subconsciously or consciously, and these images are more often than not indelible and shape our approach to people (particularly those from different socio-economic and racial groupings), the way we move and act and speak in the world.

In reference to the current American debate on whether we are post-racial because Obama is president, this is a particularly salient consideration.  We are clearly not post-racial and it takes only a survey of the tactics of conservative republicans against President Obama to substantiate that.  But furthermore the reality is that Blacks are not in a position of economic power in the United States.  To that end, we should hope that such images are not swallowed up wholesale by those individuals or groups of individuals with whom blacks (other minorities, poor people, etc.) must engage for their subsistence.

Issue #3

Perhaps the most troubling issue for me is the contribution this movie makes to the normalization of issues such as abuse, poverty and illiteracy as solely the domain of Blacks.  Statistics can and will tell you otherwise but unfortunately statistics don’t make for box office smashes.  Additionally, the Black movie industry has not yet developed beyond “safe” and/or stereotypical depictions of its people so choices are limited.  We don’t yet have our Almodóvar, Iñárritu or Spielberg and until then, IF then, we will continue to have an incomplete and one-sided depiction of our collective story which will, as Precious does, lead us to believe that one version of the truth is THE truth.

…as the Brazilians say Deus me livre e guarde (God free me and keep me).

Filed under: Social Commentary, artsy fartsy, film , , , ,

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