friends' blogs

musicindustry20.blogspot.com
mediwisdom.blogspot.com
sportsbloopervids.blogspot.com
badjokepakstis.blogspot.com
shoesexpense232435.blogspot.com
nhlhits26@blogspot.com
iwishthatwasmyroom.blogspot.com

Nothing is for Nothing- poem by Jill Scott

 I had been turning tricks longer than I actually knew it.
Being whatever they wanted me to be whenever they wanted me to be it.
A freak, inside, outside kitchen counters, laundry mats, two at a time,
hotels, motels, and backseats of leased cars, vans and jeeps.
Made myself like it ’cause they liked it and I liked that they liked it
and so I continued being the perfect image of a wet dream.
Nasty, wild, exotic, erotic.
Freak was they wanted so freak was who I was.
And everybody was walking around talking about me.
Like teenage pregnancy wasn’t becoming synonymous with being black and woman.
Like America wasn’t suffocating our thoughts.
Like there was nothing to talk about what was doing or screwing.
And I thought the whole damn thing was ridiculous, which it was.
‘Cause I was content giving my men a little heaven
between their struggle to breathe and contemplation of suicide.
Wasn’t I good for the cause?
Closed mind, open legs, making niggas forget why they’re so damn angry.
Wasn’t I good?
Then the mood swung as well the tempo and I became an ideal.
They want her pretty and docile, caring and stupid
and there I was on your Mark, Seth, Joe and I was Suzy Homemaker on the hunt for love;
Cooking and cleaning, ironing and faithful and a freak cause that’s what they liked
and I liked being what they liked so what they liked was who I was.
A prostitute, selling my soul for emotional gain,
struggling not to be the third generation of lonely women in my family.
Struggling to gain but gaining nothing but confusion, frustration, illusion, and emptiness ’cause there was no love,
just empty condom wrappers on the floors to be discarded like me.
A prize performer long before I actually knew it too,
’cause I was faking me out of the me I would become.
The me that I see now.
The me that holds onto herself with both hands and all feet.
The me who must have love and give it.
The me who brings more to the table than good looks and a wet hole.
The me that is confident, and intelligent and filled to the brim with respect for me.
And a freak ’cause that’s what I like and I like being what I like and what I like is all a part of what I am.
youtube video of Jill Scott reading her poem "Nothing is for Nothing"

Jill Scott quotes

·         Power doesn't have to be on such a big scale for powerful things to occur. Within your own home, you can be a powerful woman as a mother, influencing your children's lives.

·         All I have to do is be me on stage. But acting, I have to be someone else, and walk how they would walk and blink how they would blink. I used to talk about it bad like, 'Aw man, that person made $10 million a movie?' But now I understand why they do. I get it now.

·         The artists who stand out to me have a passion for what they do. There are a lot of people who can sing. It's just like when you go to church and people are singing because it sounds good, not because it feels good. There's a difference.

·         When I was growing up, my mother would take me to plays and museums, and we'd talk about life. Those times helped shape who I became.

·         I think every individual has his or her own power, and it's a matter of working, taking time and defining what that power is.

·          In order to grow emotionally and mentally, sometimes you have to grow physically as well. I'm just trying to grow, man, and always I just want to be the best and most confident me I can be.

The Skin I'm In - by Laurie Cooper

Laurie Cooper is artist born and based in Philadelphia, PA. She received Bachelor's degree from the University of Arts and received her Master's degree in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. Laurie Cooper strives to highlight the inner and outer beauty of everything that she paints. She works diligently to showcase the special qualities of the black race. Her paintings are known for their inherent strength of character, strong unique facial features and richness of skin color.

Still I Rise - poem by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
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.       

Professor Angelou reciting her poem, "And Still I Rise"
Queen Latifah, Willow Smith, Cicely Tyson and Jill Scott give an inspired recitation of Dr. Maya Angelou's poem in her honor.
 

 

Frederick Douglass quotes

· Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.

· Without a struggle, there can be no progress.
 

· People might not get all they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.

· It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.

· I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.

Maya Angelou quotes

• I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.
• I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
• My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.
• Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.   

 

• One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
• It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
• When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.
• Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
• There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
• My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.