I’m going to be on NPR’s News and Notes today! If you’d like to hear my perspectives on the political and cultural issues of the moment, check your local listings and tune in! For those of you who aren’t able to listen live, I’ll post the link as soon as it’s online, which should be by the end of today.

Edited at 11:15 p.m. — Here’s the link! Click and listen.

So this is a quick follow-up from my Worth a Click fashion post from a few weeks ago… I bought my first items from Kiyonna, and the experience totally underscored why I prefer to shop in person, rather than online. I got these shorts in chocolate brown, and yeah… I’m gonna be sending those back ASAP. Sizes apparently run a bit smaller than I’m used to at Kiyonna. Still looking for those perfect summer shorts, and I’m gonna trade these in for one of those fabulous daffodil yellow tees I mentioned before.

And I bought this dress, which is cute and comfortable, but it didn’t wow me right away like I thought it would. The sleeves aren’t as kimono as I expected, and to take it from understated to amazing, I’ll be needing to purchase some kind of fabulous necklace to kick it up a notch. But here’s the thing —
I bought this dress because I’m going to a wedding this Sunday and it’s the kind of event where there may be some haters to the left if you catch my drift. I want to really look stunning and work it for all it’s worth. My options are…

1. get the aforementioned necklace or pendant and just rock the dress with my head held high,

or 2. Get a new dress that will do the job, ASAP.

I’m leaning towards option #2. And as luck would have it, I’m actually heading to NYC for a fleeting, fleeting trip this weekend, so I need advice from my gorgeous full figured bellas who live in NYC! Where should I go to get the dress of my dreams?

I’ve been doing some research, and I think it’s between Salon Z at Saks Fifth Avenue, and Monif C, which is on W. 38th St. (I’m staying on the upper East side, so I have no idea how far away either place is). I’m not sure I’ll have enough time to shop at both stores, so any input to aid in my decision making would be much appreciated. Monif C looks like the kind of store I’ve been dreaming of — OMG I love this dress! But I wasn’t planning to spend more than $200. I actually wanted to spend like $150, tops.

Help me, bellas! You’re my only hope. Where should I shop when I head to the Big Apple?

For years, I did hot oil and deep conditioning treatments after shampooing and conditioning my hair. That was just the way my hairdressers always did it — wash, condition, THEN slather on oil, stick me under a dryer or bonnet or weird spaceman hot lamp until I’m done, then rinse and repeat. I never questioned it, but it always seemed like a pain to me. You mean I gotta wash it out AGAIN?

I honestly hadn’t even heard of pre-pooing until late last year, when I discovered Healthy Textures, a blog dedicated to the well being and growth of relaxed and natural hair. Although primarily the information and styles are for relaxed textures, the healthy hair tips are great for bellas of all hair types. Not only does the author, Macherie, have an excellent post on the topic — The Benefits of Pre-pooing, but she’s also got a video tutorial! She advises that it’s a great way to use up hot oils, protein conditioners, and old conditioners you haven’t used yet. I came late to the pre-poo party, but now that I’m here, I’m staying! And telling everyone I know about how great pre-shampoo treatments can be.

When I first heard the term pre-poo, I giggled like a five year old for a second, but the concept grabbed me right away. Doing a pre-shampoo treatment saves me so much time. I slather on some hot oil or deep conditioner, cover my curls with a plastic cap, then put on my little hair steaming bonnet. Or I do a pre-poo just as Macherie did in the video, with a wet towel and a plastic cap, and leave it on for as long as an hour while I kick back and watch Best Week Ever or The Soup or Clean House or… you get the picture. It’s marvelous “me” time. Sometimes I double up the beautification and give myself a pedi, or wear a clay mask on my face while I pre-poo, too. Every couple of weeks I make that my Sunday beauty ritual.

I’ve never done an overnight pre-poo, Macherie advises against it… but quite a few bellas on Nappturality, Long Hair Care Forums, and such all seem to have tried that and I haven’t read any complaints on their forums.

So what do I use to pre-poo? My curls love an oil treatment, and lately I’ve been using Lippia Tea Hair Oil from Zosimos Botanicals, a cosmetics, skin care, and hair care company so green that they formulate their products in a wind-powered workshop. $11 for a sizable bottle that’s lasted me through quite a few pre-poos. In West African countries, Lippia tea is traditionally served as a relaxation tonic at the end of the work day. And according to the peeps at Aveda, it’s also popular in Brazilian folk medicine, and has been used “for centuries for its soothing properties to remedy irritation and discomfort.” Zosimos Botanicals blends it with olive oil and perilla seed oil. This stuff smells more like something you’d cook with, but it makes my curls divinely soft when used as a pre-poo.

Of course, you can use any oil you’d like, including the VO5 stuff, Queen Helene, any of the brands you get at Sally’s, or you can turn to your kitchen for regular olive oil, sweet almond oil, or jojoba. Many bellas create their own pre-poo mix, including other known-to-be-nourishing ingredients like honey, rosemary essential oil, castor oil, neem oil, or Indian amla oil — psst, you can get a interesting mix of oils from From Nature With Love.

What has pre-pooing done for me? It’s helped to make my hair softer to the touch and more manageable for comb-throughs. I’ve been noticing less shedding, and my ends aren’t as brittle and prone to knotting up. That’s IF, and only if I keep up my beauty regimen regularly.

So, bellas — do you pre-poo? And if you do, what do you use?

** I found the beautiful afro photo at Nature’s Parlour, a UK natural hair website.

My heart’s been heavy this week, and I’m gonna blame it on the news. The issues I addressed on Tuesday got me down, first.

After that, the response to Michelle Obama’s “That’s America” statement — which has been already turned and twisted and reduced into a quote-unquote unpatriotic soundbite that is as best a caricature of the deeper truths I think she was trying to underscore.

Then I found myself staying up late and watching BBC News the other night. Lord have mercy. I wonder how many people switch off the national news — which comes prepackaged with a Bart’s People or celebrity news type of segment at the end for that little kick of feel-good to end the broadcast — to see what’s happening in the rest of the world, where things aren’t nearly so shiny and pretty? It hurts to look. I can’t even lie.

This particular evening, more than half the broadcast focused on unfolding tragedies in Africa — Anarchy in Mogadishu. Utterly heartbreaking prostitution in Zimbabwe. The murder of aid workers delivering food to the most desperate people in the Sudan. After enough looking, it forms what feels like a thundercloud over your mind. And somewhere in that cloud, a song drifted back into my memory. Syl Johnson’s “Is It Because I’m Black?”

What you know about that?

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know Syl’s version until the Wu Tang Clan sampled this classic soul joint for “Hollow Bones”. I grew up knowing a different version of Syl Johnson’s classic — a reggaematic version by Ken Boothe.
But when I discovered Syl’s version, I fell head over heels. The song is a protesting plea, disguised as classic gangsta lean low rider material, and it was released in 1969 — an era of increased consciousness and black empowerment when the music spoke directly to the struggles of the civil rights movement.

Johnson’s lyrics present blackness as a burden — “looking back over my false dreams that I once knew, wondering why my dreams never came true. Is it because I’m black? Somebody tell me, what can I do? Something is holding me back. Is it because I’m black?” He gives voice to the kind of depressing thought that so many of us minorities, immigrants, and people trying to come up in the world have had at some time. Is this all there is? Is this my lot in life? “I wanna be somebody so bad. I want diamond rings and things, like you do. I wanna drive Cadillac cars. But you keep on putting your foot on me, and I believe I can break away and be somebody, somehow, some way. I heard somebody say sometime, “you can make it if you try.” And some of us, we try so hard, we try so hard,” he groans. Heavy lyrics and a heavy song.

It’s the kind of sentiment Bill Cosby has railed against, and that people like Pat Buchanan would determine as “ungrateful.” Does that make the question invalid, or pointless? I don’t think so. Not at all. The sharp contrast of equality that Syl Johnson was singing about in ‘69 has diminished, yes. We have overcome and then some, in so many ways. Still so much remains to be done, and I think particularly these days — feelings of difference and awareness of continued inequality are there more than before.

Syl Johnson’s song feels like throwing your hands up in defeat, and that’s not the tone I want to leave you on today. So what’s the response to “Is It Because I’m Black?” I think it might be Nina Simone’s “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black,” which will be included on Protest Anthology, a new collection of music and interviews to be released on April 8. Check out the high priestess of soul at the Harlem Festival in 1969.

That song captures the swelling spirit of the same period, and turns Syl Johnson’s lament around by celebrating blackness, and infusing our spirits with hope. And hope is what I want to feel. Hope that we can get past this racial stalemate in this country, and lend a hand to brothers and sisters at home and around the world who need our help.

I’m looking for a few good charities to support, bellas, to give back to communities in need both here and abroad. I’ve been doing some research on Charity Navigator. Do any of you have suggestions?

Bellas, I was recently interviewed by the beautiful ladies at Belle Noir magazine.

In case you haven’t heard of Belle Noir, it’s a wonderful site for big, beautiful women of color. Check them out. And I liked the questions she asked me in the interview! In case you were wondering what’s in my makeup bag, or what products I recommend for those of you about to go natural, check it out!

Much love to Belle Noir, and thanks for the honor!

I’ll take “self-inflicted political scandals for $800, Alex.”

Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up! Or… maybe you can? What an utterly insane campaign season this is proving to be. And I really don’t mean to needle any Clinton supporters who read Afrobella — at one time, I too admired her simply for her intelligence and capability even though she was never my candidate of choice. But as the campaign wore on, my disdain for her tactics grew stronger. And now here we are, with Sinbad of all people, at the epicenter of an unraveled, repeatedly-told lie. Comedians, bloggers, and news anchors are having a field day. I’m not wading into the campaign waters any deeper than this for right now, y’all. I’m just saying, the iron is sizzling for a Sinbad comeback! I just want to see him on like, the Colbert Report this week or something. And strangely enough, when my brother in Trinidad mentioned Sinbad during my Earth Wind and Fire music post of last week Thursday, I was like…. man, SINBAD! I haven’t thought of that brotha in FOREVER. Flash forward a week and he’s on the news every night. Strange.

My days of being “the tall girl” ended when I was oh, eleven or twelve. Then I became the average-height girl. But I was still able to identify with Life as a Tall Girl, an essay written by University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh senior Rebecca Thomas. She’s 6 foot 4, and has always attracted gasps and stares from obnoxious onlookers. “I often wish people weren’t so rude. How can they act so unabashedly shocked when they see someone who is different from them? And I’ve got it easy; I’m a minority only in the sense of height. I can only imagine how those under the burden of a group prejudice based on their race or religion must feel. I like to think that those who have insulted me didn’t intend to. I do believe that most people are basically good, but they can be insensitive,” she says. Finally, she’s wearing her height with the regal bearing it demands. “In fact, sometimes I wear heels. Just to make them look twice,” she adds.

Go ‘head, Rebecca! I found her story to be inspiring, and maybe you will too. In somewhat similar news, the world’s tallest man just got a new bicycle! Totally random, but I love to know about the lives of Guinness World Record holders.

I always welcome an opportunity to be a part of the News and Notes bloggers’ roundtable, but alas, I was sick this weekend and had to back out on Monday. Monday’s discourse focused on Obama’s marvelous speech, the website Stuff White People Like (which yes — is a classic, lazy, con-job, but an oft-hilarious one, IMO), and Kwame Kilpatrick’s indictment on perjury charges. If there could be a soundtrack to this indictment, might I suggest Radiohead’s Just? You did it to yourself, Kwame. You and no one else. Can’t blame the media for everything.

Even though I still think of this as a quote-unquote beauty blog, sometimes I get political on Afrobella. OK, often. Maybe too often. Especially recently. But sometimes I prefer to keep things light and positive, cause truth be told, too much politics makes my blood boil. So in the interest of keeping things relatively light, I’m just going to address this burning political fire in my belly real quick then get back to the calming seas of beauty and style.

This weekend, I wound up in one of those conversations where you can’t lose your cool. You know — you’re at the office, or in a doctor’s waiting room, or at a social event where you’re required to keep the polite face on… then someone goes and says the thing that just gets under your fingernails the deepest. I wound up in a doozy this weekend, filled with gems like, “I just don’t like Obama because he’s a Muslim and attended a madrassa,” and “President Bush was right to invade Iraq.” Anyone who knows me, knows how hard it must have been for me to respond to inflammatory statements such as these without raising my voice and my pressure. But I’m proud to say, I did neither. I implored with the ignorant party to educate themselves, I pointed them in the direction of the Obama Fact Check — note, not to be confused with the LOL-worthy The Obama Facts. Regarding the issue of President Bush, I wish I had told this person to see PBS Frontline’s special series, Bush’s War. Exhaustively reported. Unflinchingly examined. It should be required viewing for anyone still driving around with a W sticker on their car. Be forewarned — as this Reuters review would indicate, “the level of incompetence uncovered by “Frontline” is stunning.” And if you feel like I do, it’ll make you mad as hell.

Whew. I need to cool down with some fashion. How’s about a giveaway?

I love funky jewelry, I love indie designers, and I love shouting out blossoming businesses. So when singer, songwriter, artist, and jewelry designer Rhonda Ray contacted me about her banging earrings, I was excited. Rhonda’s taken this natural hair thing to a whole new level. She even wrote a song about it! Like to hear it? Here it goes. It’s Afrolicious!

Besides banging out beats and tunes, Rhonda weaves some magically beautiful earrings. I absolutely love them! They are meant to ideally compliment a big fabulous fro. I’ve been rocking the reggaelicious hoops, and I also got a gorgeous pair of pear earrings in her “lavender dreams” color range (which is so Pisces, so soft, so my favorite calming colors). Rhonda’s earrings cost $20, and if you buy three pairs, you can get a free Afrolicious tank top with her fetching logo on it. Or, you can enter this here giveaway and possibly win a pair of Afrolicious earrings for free!

Rhonda has graciously made these five earrings for Afrobella readers. Do you want a pair? Do you, bella? Well then, you know the drill, it’s totally random. Just leave me a comment that begins with the phrase, “I’m totally afrolicious!” And tell me (and Rhonda Ray!) why you deserve to rock these fly hand-woven earrings. And make sure to visit Rhonda Ray’s site and show her some love!

I’ll close these comments by Saturday. Good luck, my afrolicious afrobellas!