Did I mention I love to read…Well I DO!! Ever since I was kid I always had a book to read. Even as I hit 40 this year, I made sure I had my share of reading done. Matter fact this year I even did a Reading Challenge (on Good Reads) where I had to read at one book a month. And as I type this post I managed to get in 15 books plus a few comic books and graphic novels. It felt good to turn the pages (old school reader) of each new book and then look up what my next read would be!!
With all that said, I figure I would keep up with my tradition from last year and compile my ‘Top 21’ books from this year, and as an extra bonus for me I even got to meet some of the authors!! Pretty cool!!
Nothing like sharing some of your faves!! As I always say, ‘sharing is caring.’
So in no particular order, here is my Top 21 List of Books for 2021!!
Just As I Am~Cicely Tyson
Somebody’s Daughter ~Ashley C. Ford
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre~Carole Boston Weatherford
Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America~Keisha N. Blain
Luster~Raven Leilani
Black Leopard, Red Wolf: The Dark Star Trilogy~Marlon James
Digital Black Feminism ~Catherine Knight Steele
Maya and the Robot~Eve L. Ewing
The Black Flamingo~Dean Atta
Fast Pitch~Nic Stone
Bamboozled by Jesus: How God Tricked Me into The Life of My Dreams~Yvonne Orji
The Day the Klan Came to Town~Bill Campbell
Black Boy Joy: 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood~Edited by Kwame Mbalia
Chronicling Stankonia: The Rise of the Hip-Hop South~Regina N. Bradley
The Book of Unknown Americans~Cristina Henriquez
The 1619 Project ~Nikole Hannah-Jones
The 1619 Project: Born on the Water ~Nikole Hannah-Jones & Renée Watson
Stella’s Stellar Hair ~Yesenia Moises
How the Word Is Passed A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America ~Clint Smith
Christmas cookies (CHECK), Egg Nog or Mulled Wine (CHECK & CHECK), Firestick plugged in (CHECK), and plenty of Blankets (CHECK)!! Just a few items needed as we prepare to dive into some Holiday movies!! I figured I would share a few of my holiday favorites with you to get you in the holiday mood!! Now some of these are classics and some are just simply for a good laugh, but nonetheless channeling the holiday season!! Check them out below:
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989): This is one of my all-time favorite movies ever!! It never gets old!! And an extra bonus it takes place in my home state (Chicago, IL)!!
Four Christmases (2008)
The Best Man Holiday (2013): Nothing like hearing and seeing a rendition of New Edition perform during the Holidays!!
The Holiday (2006)
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020): A fantastical/STEM holiday adventure infused with some #BlackGirlMagic … works for me!!
The Preacher’s Wife (2002): What more could you ask for with a cast that includes the late Whitney Houston, Denzel Washington, the hilarious Jenifer Lewis, and Courtney B. Vance and the amazing music…chef’s kiss!!
A Christmas Story (1983): Classic Christmas Tell!!
Prancer (1989)
Frosty the Snowman (1969):Classic Holiday Canon!!
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966): Classic Holiday Canon!!
The Night Before (2015): Nothing like searching for the ultimate holiday party!!
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992): The perfect way to introduce your kids to the classic Christmas tale!
The Family Stone (2005)
Jingle All the Way (1996): Who doesn’t love a Holiday fight for Christmas toys?!!
The Nightmare before Christmas (1993)
Die Hard (1988): Yep this counts!!
Home Alone (1990): No ‘Wet Bandits’ for me!!
Elf (2003): Will Ferrell in elf suit…priceless!!
A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965): Classic Holiday Canon!!
Now I know there may be some flicks that didn’t make the list, that maybe you think should, but if that was the case this list would never end!!
In addition to curling up on the couch to watch your favorite holiday movies, I will also escape to the theaters (safely of course, masked and ready). So if you are anything like my family we always have a tradition of going to see a movie on Christmas Day, just another way to get our movie fix in!! And as that day quickly approaches we still gotta figure out what it will be, but trust me we are definitely looking forward to it!!
Ahhhhh it’s that time of the year again! It’s a Saturday morning 8:30 am in Richmond, VA on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. The fall/winter season of graduation is upon us!! One thing I do like about VCU is that we have graduation twice a year, for those who finish in May and those that finish in December. December graduation this year was my first time participating in the entire school celebration at the Siegel Center here on the VCU campus. And this year was extra special as I had the awesome opportunity of hooding my former student and sister friend Dr. Lisa Winn Bryan!! Participating in this joyous moment is one that I will treasure for a lifetime. I remember when she asked me to take part in this incredible moment I had to make sure I was not dreaming, causing this is a serious thing. And what really got me was that morning as all the graduates are preparing for the big moment, Lisa walks in and sees me and she immediately begins to tear up and I had to fight back tears. That was the beginning of what would be one of the most rewarding days in my professorial career.
Just a few captured moments with my sister-friend Dr. Lisa Winn Bryan!!
Graduation is ALWAYS one of my favorite times of the year here at VCU and I get to celebrate it twice once in the spring and also in the fall. This momentous occasion is one that with each year will become more and more special. This is what happens when you become invested in your craft and the students who play a role in its shaping.
This semester has been about self-determination and perseverance for not just myself, but especially for my students. Each one of them in their own unique way has charted a path to success on their own terms. I say this every semester, but it warrants being mentioned being a professor/teacher is way more than providing weekly/daily lessons and educating the future…it’s about being a listening ear, parting growing wisdom/advice, showing support in-person and via Zoom, creating platforms for stories to be told, and as my Soror and the first president of National Association of Colored Women (NACW) Mary Church Terrell once said “lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go.” Graduation is the culmination of all the hard work that students take part in during their academic matriculation, and we as professors get to see the fruits of their labor flourish. I am always grateful that I get to change lives regardless of how big or small.
This change was specifically seen in my Capstone Senior Seminar course! I had the opportunity to mentor 7 AFAM seniors as they completed their senior thesis research projects. The topics ranged from the importance of Black motorcycle clubs in the Hampton Roads, to the issue of colorism for Black men, to the need for academic safe spaces, to better representation in comic books, to healing and processing Black mental health in Black matriarchal figures. And if their oral presentations were just an appetizer to their research papers….I cannot wait till the main course!! I am so proud of each of them and the work that they have done. Overcoming fears, sharing their personal stories, being vulnerable, and taking risks that will make them better scholars and people!!
A few of my students from my AFAM 499 course, “Capstone Seminar in Africana Studies” [Bottom picture l-r Angelica Williams, Alexa McNeil, Dr. Gipson, Nylah Kelly, and Winfred Walker]
Look out world, there’s a new set scholars entering and they have something to say!!
The new season of Insecure has started and we are 2 episodes!! Let me tell you as someone who has been watching the show since DAY ONE, Issa rae and the show never ceases to amaze me!! So much so that I had to write down a few notes in the form of a ‘thank you’ note post expressing my appreciation!! I remember actually hearing about the show in 2016 while vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard and attending the annual MVAAFF. If nothing else I had planned to watched the series off the strength of Issa Rae’s previous web series “Awkward Black Girl” and the fact that it was a series about young Black professionals. With little to no expectations, like many others we just dived in. In the words of R&B singer Vivian Green, we were always riding an “emotional rollercoaster” 30 mins at a time when it came to this show.
It is not often that you find a show that tells so many stories and is so relatable that you have to step back and say “damn that’s really close to my life” or “I totally know that feeling!” Every season has created an on-going dialogue, surrounding everything from entrepreneurship to family planning (birth and death) to complex relationships/dating to self-preservation to job security to simply just believing in one’s self, all topics that will surely continue linger in the atmosphere even after the last and final episode. For me, Insecure is the Living Single of its time! As a professional, awkward, funny, driven Black woman seeing the various experiences of Black womanhood play out on-screen via the vision of a Black woman always gave me a sense of hope and promise.
And so I have to thank you for showing the many complex layers of relationships and friendship and that they are not perfect nor should we strive for them to be. To be honest in each of the four main Black female characters (Issa, Molly, Kelli, and Tiffany) I found a piece of myself in each character. That’s what makes being a Black woman so great!! Life truly is a learning process. You provided us another outlet that permits us to stumble, fail, get back up, find joy, be angry, and persevere!!
Black women friendships as personified in HBO’s Insecure
Thank you for normalizing therapy, particularly for Black women…The familiarity of each session was so very refreshing….this is so needed and necessary. The way therapy is showcased on this show is a great example of how it can be utilized in fiction but translate into reality.
Molly in a therapy session on ‘Insecure’ Season 2-Episode 2 “Hella Questions”
The fashion and hair…So versatile..Daring…Forward-thinking…Inspiring…I definitely picked up a few things and added them to my closet.
How about all the cameos….Syd, Sterling K. Brown, Lil Rel Howery, Kyla Pratt, Luke James, Kofi Siriboe, Jidenna, Hayley Kiyoko, Dawn Richard, Wendy Raquel Robinson, and many more…
I will always look at couches, Best Buy shirts, and Coachella very differently and I’m good with that!
New and improved vocabulary…words/concepts/phrases like ‘zaddy’, ‘ho-tation’, ‘Go for it, go for it, go! Ho for it, ho for it, ho!’, ‘work in progress’, ‘thug yoda’, and ‘we got y’all’ will always have a special place in the Black community.
Thank you for the location…location…location!!
Oh and I cannot forget the amazing soundtracks, my music game continues to level up thanks to this show!!
Official ‘Insecure’ Playlist from Spotify
Watching this show this show for me personally allowed me to have those moments of thinking about how to evaluate my life and actions. Lots of growth and self-reflection!! I definitely increased my intake of daily affirmations and learned to truly be honest with myself and others. About five years ago, Issa Rae made a statement to NPR that definitely resonated then and even more so now, “We don’t get to just have a show about regular Black people being basic.” Who would have thought basic, regular, and awkwardness were just the things we needed in life.
Once again my Sunday nights will never be the same after Insecure comes to a final close. Insecure will join such shows as Lovecraft Country, Power, and The Wire, as premium channels shows that were well worth the extra purchasing cost.
So when it is all said and done…Issa you switched up the tv landscape around how we CAN center Black people and culture in a variety of ways….And I thank you Issa Rae for making this contribution to the pop culture landscape!!
Join WinC International (via their WinC Media Channel) and Hello Barkada on TODAY at 7 pm/ET as they celebrate cartoonist icon Jackie Ormes!!
“Cartoonists and history-makers Barbara Brandon-Croft (“Where I’m Coming From”), Bianca Xunise (“Six Chix”), and Steenz (“Heart of the City”) join Hello Barkada founder Christine Pasalo Norland to discuss the impact of the late cartoonist Jackie Ormes!”
Totally siked to see this event taking place!! As a huge fan of Jackie Ormes, there was no question that I needed to make sure I tune into this discussion!
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to sit on an AMAZING panel with a great group of women to discuss women in media and entertainment as part of the Meliora 2021 celebration at the University of Rochester!!
So I wanted to make sure I shared the video with you just in case you may have missed the LIVE presentation, or you just want to re-cap!!
In continuing with our Summertime Conversationson ‘Feeling Good’, Kaniqua and I dive into the culinary world to talk about the importance of Black culinary traditions and their relationship to happiness and and joy!! Now I will forewarn you, you will probably want to have a snack on hand, or immediately afterwards, when catching this episode!!
Inspired by Nina Simone’s 1965 classic song “Feelin’ Good”, Summertime Conversations on “Feelin’ Good”: Exploring the Lived Experience of Black Joy, is a freeform dialogue that foregrounds how people of African descent create communal agency and collective resilience via the cultivation of joy.
During this episode, Kaniqua and I will discuss and explore traditional Black foodways and how they contribute to the communal expression of collective Black joy and happiness.
Check out the video below:
For more Summertime Conversations, you can go here !!
Who is still on a high from that Loki season finale and the Black Widow movie?!! I know I am and definitely looking forward to seeing what comes next!!
Well I got a little info on what is coming up next out of Marvel Studios (film and television), check it out below:
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (In theaters September 3rd, 2021)
Eternals (In theaters November 5th, 2021)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (In theaters December 17th, 2021)
Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness (In theaters March 25th, 2022)
Thor: Love and Thunder (In theaters May 6th, 2022)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (In theaters July 8th, 2022)
The Marvels/Captain Marvel 2 (In theaters November 11th, 2022)
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania (In theaters February 17th, 2023)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (In theaters May 5th, 2023)
Looks like there is going to be a lot of interweaving of the MCU films and television shows, which should make things very interesting!! Definitely no shortage of engaging content for the next couple of years!!
In honor of #BlackMusicMonth, Dr. Robinson and I wanted to make sure we brought you all another episode of Summertime Conversations on “Feeling Good”: Exploring the Lived Experience of Black Joy!! Our latest episode is a dialogue on Black Music Month as well as a ‘Sonic Curation of Happiness via Black Music’!!
Check it out below…
And if you wanna check out our “Black Joy & Happiness” Soundtrack that was discussed on this episode, check it out below!!
“It’s an artist duty to reflect the times in which we live.”
Black Future Feminist 