Saturday, October 25, 2008

3rd Annual Black Girls Rock! Awards - November 2nd


Mark your calenders! November 2nd 2008

I love what this organization is doing to empower young black girls to build confidence and a bright future to counteract the negative stereotypes that are presented in the media. It's certainly a breath of fresh air!

Check out the Today Show special on Black Girls Rock! Founder Beverly Bond.





VH1 SOUL AND BLACK GIRLS ROCK! INC.
PAY TRIBUTE TO IMAN, ERYKAH BADU, PAM GRIER, ESTELLE, NICOLE PAULTRE-BELL AND MANY MORE AT THE 2008 3rd ANNUAL BLACK GIRLS ROCK! AWARDS

Esteemed actresses Regina King and Taraji P.
Henson will co-host the third annual awards show to celebrate exemplary women of color

October 3, 2008, NEW YORK, N.Y. - BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc. founder and world renowned celebrity DJ Beverly Bond partners with VH1 Soul to honor exceptional women of color for their outstanding achievements and distinguishing career marks at The 2008 3rd Annual BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Awards. The event will take place Sunday, November 2, 2008 at The Allen Room at JAZZ at Lincoln Center in New York City.


The star-studded award show hosted by Regina King and Taraji P. Henson will pay tribute to the industry’s most accomplished icons as well as lesser known women who are distinguished in their particular fields. U.S. Paralympian and world’s fastest amputee April Holmes, who is also the world record holder in the 100, 200 and 400 meter races will receive the BGR! ‘Becoming Legendary’ Award. British R&B and pop sensation Estelle will take home the BGR! ‘Who Got Next?' Award. Bethann Hardison who shook up the fashion world by speaking out against the lack of diversity in the industry will be walking away with the BGR! ‘Shot Caller Award'. This year’s BGR! ‘Living Legend' Award goes to actress and icon Pam Grier, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee who set the tone of "independence" for Black actresses as the queen of 1970s Black filmography. “It is important that we take time to honor these extraordinary individuals and hold them up as shining examples of the great women that we are so that future generations of girls can see other examples of who they can become,” said BGR! founder Beverly Bond.


Additional honorees include supermodel IMAN, global ambassador of 'Keep A Child Alive’ and founder of IMAN Cosmetics who will receive the BGR! ‘Social Humanitarian’ Award, GRAMMY Award-nominated soul singer Erykah Badu will win the BGR! ‘Rock Star' Award’, Rachel Lloyd, founder of G.E.M.S., an organization that works to rescue sexually exploited children, will receive the BGR! ‘Community Service’ Award and Nicole Paultre-Bell and Valerie Bell will receive the BGR! ‘Monument’ Award, which recognizes individuals that have endured crises and withstood tremendous emotional, physical, and/or psychological events. Former Editorial Director of Essence Magazine Susan L. Taylor will be the evening’s keynote speaker.


The growing list of stellar presenters and performers include 2007 BGR! Award recipients Tracy Reese and Sylvia Rhone, Floetry's Marsha Ambrosius, Universal Motown's Ashanti and Ryan Leslie, Star Trak recording artist Teyana Taylor and many more.


For tickets and more information on THE BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Awards visit www. blackgirlsrockinc. com/awards.


About BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc.

BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, youth empowerment mentoring organization established for young women of color. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit BLACK GIRLS ROCK! INC mission to empower young woman of color via the arts. All contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Labels: Awards, Beauty, Inspirational

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Friday, August 29, 2008

Women in Film - The Women

A lil birdie slipped me a note about an upcoming film The Women (a remake of George Cukor's 1939 film of the same name) and I snuck a peak at the behind the scenes documentary of the movie. I'm looking forward to seeing this because it not only showcases an all female cast and much of the crew, but such talents as Jada Pinkett-Smith, Debra Messing, Debi Mazar, Cloris Leachman and many others make appearances in the film. I'm a movie junkie and an advocate for women in film (especially seeing more creative talent behind the camera). The documentary gives a nice behind the scenes 'making of' for how the movie was put together. The last time I saw this many women behind and in front of the camera was in the Sanaa Hamri vehicle Something New which featured Stephanie Allain and Kris Turner as producer and wrier and Sanaa Lathan as the star. I used to have an article about women in Hollywood and I even did a presentation back in college about the lack of female directors. Some are discouraged from rising in Hollywood and others don't get the push as their male counterparts do. I think there was about 2 women during the overall course of the Oscars that were nominated in the Best Director category. With the amount of talented women at the camera helm that's pretty depressing.

But Hollywood is still a man's game where sexism, racism and ageism still run rampant. It reminded me of a video I saw on youtube ages ago about Hollywood's idea of black female beauty featuring Nia Long.

Labels: Beauty, Film

Posted by Eternal Beauty in Black :: 3:20 PM :: 2 comments

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---------------oOo--------------- Unchained, Unbound

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with a nagging feeling. I had just seen Wide Sargasso Sea (1993 Karina Lombard version) and I couldn't get a particular scene out of my head. I had read the book when I was a teen but this was the first time I had actually seen the movie. I was inspired to write a story just based off said scene alone. I got up to write the story but I couldn't for some reason. Instead I did some research on a particular figure that was in my head: a former slave turned aristocrat named Isabeau...a woman who took France's breath away. I couldn't find a lick on her but I wanted to tell her story. I knew there had to be something out there about her, where she lived, why she left her home to go to Paris.

For months I dug and dug and I finally hit pay dirt. Isabeau's story told from her own lips thanks to Madame du Barry's recordings. Suddenly this woman's story contained me. I know if I try to publish it, I'll have a heck of a time trying to convince publishers that Isabeau's story will resonate with readers. After all, here was a woman who's spirit extended no bounds. She lived in a world of poverty, possession, jealousy, admiration, more jealousy, privilege, regret, betrayal and love. Isabeau's story has to be told and I'm still consumed by the words I read that told of her life. After living in a world of oppression based a culture's idea of her people's inferiority and soon being admired for her quiet strength alongside her "exotic" beauty, Isabeau is the epitome of rags to riches. Still she is also seen as the other: a former slave woman who much of America may not believe had France on its knees whenever she was around.

And don't even get me started on the reason she left her home. It may cause some controversy based on that alone.

In any event, this woman is an inspiration because she decided to follow her heart despite the odds and she refused to be held down by anything. She wanted to go a world where men didn't look upon her color as something of an exoticism nor to be shunned. She wanted to love and be loved for who she was.

In our current time where historical romance equals Regency ladies and lords, Scottish highlanders and ladies, untamed Native American heroes and pale, "dainty" white female heroines, it's difficult to find other cultures and pairings that have lived and loved throughout history. Part of it is a society which doesn't want to recognize anything other than the current majority. But such was not always the case. The opposite of the majority was once revered and admired as the standard of beauty. Perhaps as we look closer, such was the case throughout history and even to know. Stereotypes were put in place to deter interest to attraction of minority men and women. But the human spirit is an untamable spirit and there's only so much you can try to contain before the truth and strength of mind break through those chains.

Labels: Beauty, History

Posted by Eternal Beauty in Black :: 2:27 PM :: 2 comments

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Monday, August 4, 2008

My Black is...

Click to read enlarged manifesto
Download manifesto in PDF format here.

Labels: Beauty

Posted by Eternal Beauty in Black :: 4:16 AM :: 0 comments

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---------------oOo--------------- Campaign for Real Beauty

I'd like to take a moment to kudos Dove for their real woman movement and self esteem fund. They've posted a few viral videos to show how 'under pressure' girls are today with all the images of perfection they're bombarded with.

Some facts:

Girls today are under more pressure than ever. More than 90 percent of girls want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance, with body weight ranking the highest.

The Dove Self-Esteem Fund was established to inspire and educate girls about a wider definition of beauty and is committed to reaching 5 million girls globally by 2010 with self-esteem programming.

This fall, Dove plans to release a National Self-Esteem Report to provide additional information to help Dove better understand the issues, causes and outcomes of low-esteem -- as well as the most powerful change agents on a national and regional level.

Thanks to the support of influential women globally, Dove has already reached 2 million girls and conducted nearly 2,700 educational self-esteem workshops since 2006.

This video in particular shows it:


Within the theme of images in the media impacting women, it reminds me of the recent short film A Girl Like Me by 17 year old Kiri Davis who recreated the famous doll experiment of the 1940's by psychologist Dr. Kenneth Clark.





Also check out this inspirational video response to A Girl Like Me.

It's a tragedy what we're doing to the young girls of our generation with skewed media messages. Many men are buying into this image thus causing girls and even women to uproot their lives in order to catch their attention. Much to the sacrifice of their self esteem and well being. Dove is one company that has taken the initiative to start workshops in an effort to raise self esteem in young girls today in an effort to block the constant media distortions of perfection. They also posted this video to show what goes on in their workshops.



*Fangirl moment* Yay Aisha Tyler!

Big kudos to Dove for aiming their efforts at young girls of all shades and ethnicities.

Another campaign has been going on as well. EBB mentioned the My Black is Beautiful campaign last year and it has since gone into full effect. http://www.myblackisbeautiful.com features videos, a downloadable discussion guide and events for the tour. If you're on the east, they'll be hitting your area! For the entertainers out there, Pantene is offering an opportunity to be featured in a magazine ad.

On a completely shallow note, I'm so happy to see Dove and Pantene focusing their efforts this way as they are my two favorite shampoo and conditioner products (fabulous for moisture renewal in one's hair ;-)). Plus one even has a line aimed at women of color!

Stay tuned as I'll be offering more news and goodies to help the movement and spread the message of true eternal beauty in black.

Labels: Beauty

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