Archive for April, 2007
Afrobella of the Week — Titi Branch, Miss Jessie’s Entrepre-bella
More of you have commented about my first Miss Jessie’s post than any other thing I’ve written. As of today, the original post has 75 comments since I first wrote it in August, and my recent review of the products has gotten 45 comments so far. Few other products have produced so much debate within [...]
Lost Ones: Donyale Luna
She was born into a turbulent Detroit household, with an abusive father who was murdered when she was 18. Her mother encouraged her to become a nurse. A relative once described her as being “a very weird child, even from birth, living in a wonderland, a dream.” Donyale Luna created her own dream. She made [...]
Miss Jessie’s Product Review
I bet you didn’t even know you were waiting for a product review, did you? Well it seems many of my readers have been! Since I went natural, the drumbeats have slowly been building. When I started Afrobella back in August, they almost became deafening. Must. Try. Miss. Jessie’s. Curly. Pudding! And I wanted to [...]
More Than Worth a Click
I’ve gotten so sick of being disappointed by magazines. I buy a lot of monthly mags, and there’s a familiar feeling of emptiness that I get after realizing yup, I read this whole thing cover to cover and got not-a-damn-thing out of the experience. I’m not gonna name names because I have lofty freelancing goals [...]
I’m a Thinking Blogger!
Didja miss me? My weekend got hijacked by one of my best friends, who came to visit all the way from Modesto, California! She’s on a plane back as I type this, and I miss her already. So instead of spending my Sunday plugged into the computer, I was dragged away from the screen and [...]
Worth a Click
Heavy sigh. Here we go again… Oh Akon. I was so happy and proud when you incorporated Trinidadian rhythms into your video for “Don’t Matter.” So you can imagine how disappointed and disgusted I was to see this article in the Trinidad Express. And then the video of you practically mauling a fourteen year old [...]
Ask Afrobella: The $100 Sephora Shopping Spree
Look at it. So cold, so clean, so sterile. So jam packed with things you want to get your well-manicured hands on. The latest in mineral concealer technology. The new hot lip gloss. Enough eyeliner and mascara to make Tammy Faye Baker faint. Powders and potions and perfumes, oh my! Sephora is toyland for women [...]
Speaking About the Unspeakable
At the end of today’s convocation at Virginia Tech, esteemed poet and professor Nikki Giovanni had an unenviable task. The poet, who first became known as the “Princess of Black Poetry” in the late Sixties, and who is known for her love of Tupac Shakur (forever immortalized in a Thug Life tattoo she proudly wears [...]
The Shoe Post
I’ve confessed my addiction to lip gloss, now let me admit to another addiction. I can’t have enough shoes. And I KNOW I’m not alone in my obsession. The only difference between us might be the kind of shoes that grab us. I have flat-as-a-board feet, and I wear a size ten. I’m not looking [...]
Afrobella of the Week — Nadia Turner, Afrobella Idol
Sanjaya, Sanjaya, Sanjaya. Bloggers can’t get enough of him, he’s gotten all sorts of press because of an acute combination of bad singing and funky hairdos. Sanjaya was already a star for those who choose to Vote For the Worst, but there’s one hair style that propelled him to top story status on celebrity blogs [...]
Aretha, Young and Gamine
I found this video on the ol’ You Tube and was transported back to 1965, when Aretha Franklin was fresh and new. She had a pixie-like hairdo, and rocked an A-line dress like none other. I miss the days when dreamy harmonies stood in place of histrionic over singing. That’s right, I said it. I [...]
Ask Afrobella: Wedding Belle Do’s
I’ve let the Ask Afrobella questions stack up too high. I apologize. Allow me to get back to Afrobella basics. I post this photo with a disclaimer: it took me a LONG time and a lot of back and forth discussion before I decided to post this photo. I don’t aim to be one of [...]
Keep it Up, BET!
Like many of you, I’d more or less given up on the ol’ BET. I grew up on it, having been a Video Soul with Donnie Simpson baby, but somewhere around the era of Miss Cita and Uncut, I realized that this wasn’t for me. Then after Free and AJ left, it was a wrap. [...]
How Odd
So I just went over to Cosmo Girl to put in a last vote for my girl Kiri, and I found this mysterious statement instead: “CG!’s film contest CosmoGIRL! and Take Action Hollywood announce our Film Contest finalists. We have determined that the online voting has been corrupted as a result of one or more [...]
An Open Letter to Hip Hop
Aww, Ludacris is such a cutie, playing with his daughter Karma in the park. She’s so adorable with her afropuff. So sweet, so innocent. I wonder if Luda lets his little girl listen to his music? “Shake, shake, shake your money maker, Like you were shaking it for some paper. Took your momma 9 months [...]
