In case you’ve been wondering — what’s Afrobella up to? I’ll tell ya.

Grustling. Real hard.

I’ve been working my fingers to the nub to keep the fires blazing here at Afrobella while writing at AOL Black Voices and tah-dah — just last week I wrote my first article for Ebony! Yup, it’s about Michael Jackson. I hope you all like it and leave comments and YAY!

After that, I was featured as EbonyJet’s featured blog. DOUBLE YAY!!!

Twas a good week indeed.

Over at Black Voices I blogged about Alicia Keys’ hair, missing the Essence Festival, and I answered some hair questions.

Speaking of which — have you heard of the Cherry Lola method? The creator, Cherry Lola, claims that it’s helped to control her frizz and caused her curls to clump together at the root. I’m curious, and I have cooked with amino acids before! Might have to buy a bottle just for this purpose.

UK bellas here’s something for you — AfroSaxons, a limited release documentary that follows four black hair salons in the UK as they prepare for the Black Beauty and Hair Awards. I’m seriously looking forward to seeing this, based on the logo alone — isn’t it awesome? I can’t wait to see this, just like I’m looking forward to finally seeing Chris Rock’s Good Hair when it finally hits the big screen.

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Bellas, fellas – been having a tremendous time on this road trip. Apologies for being a tardy blogger, I’ve been too busy having fun and catching up with friends both old and new. After leaving my friend Jenny’s place — mentioned in last week’s installment of The Journey, I’m currently in Harlem staying with my good friend AJ and his beautiful girlfriend Lauren, who works at the Ethan Allen flagship store as an interior designer. If you need an interior designer with a real sense of style, ask for her! She rules!

Yesterday my husband and I enjoyed a great day in Harlem. Not THE great day in Harlem, but a brilliant one nonetheless. Let me tell you all about it!

The standard oh-you’re-going-to-Harlem? advice is, start on 125th Street, and just kinda stroll around and check it out. Apparently NYC hasn’t gotten the memo that everyone’s ready for Spring already… it was cold yesterday! 125th Street didn’t care — it was just as bustling and fun as I’ve ever seen it, and I love the vibe. I gotta admit, 125th Street reminds me of my home country just a little bit — Fredrick Street in downtown Trinidad is just as busy and vibrant, with salesmen of all kinds hawking products you may not need but will probably buy anyway. Harlem’s specialties are tubs of shea butter and African black soap, incense and scented oils and CDs galore.

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Hey bellas! I’ve got an exciting career advancing proposition for you, on behalf of one of my favorite bloggers in the game!

The one and only Carmen Van Kerckhove, creator of Racialicious and president of the diversity education firm New Demographic, is offering the kind of diversity training I can get behind.

Carmen is all about helping organizations overhaul the way they think about race and diversity. She’s offering a FREE TELESEMINAR happening on Wednesday, January 21, 2009. That’s tomorrow!

The call is titled “The 3 Biggest Diversity Blunders Your Organization Could Be Making Right Now (And How to Avoid Them),” and in it she’ll break down specific information that will show you exactly why your organization hasn’t become the leader in diversity it wants to be. And then, she’ll give you the resources to turn that around so that you can help your organization gain a crucial competitive edge by recruiting and retaining top diverse talent.

If this sounds like something that can help to take you and your company to the next level, click here to reserve your line for this FREE 60-minute teleseminar.

Yet another tip of the hat to the Frugalista — today’s tip made me shriek in excitement.

If you visited a high end department store and overpaid for some cosmetics between May 29, 1994 and July 16, 2003, you could be in for a freebie, thanks to a class action lawsuit.

From Businessweek:

“Starting next week, several big retailers will giveaway $175 million worth of free high-end cosmetics including such brands as Estee Lauder and L’Oreal to consumers as part of a class-action settlement alleging that the stores planned to fix prices.

Department stores such as Macy’s and Nordstrom will distribute free cosmetics as long as supplies last to shoppers who bought certain cosmetics between May 29, 1994 and July 16, 2003 to settle claims that the stores violated antitrust laws and tried to fix prices.”

So you’re wondering — when, where, what?

“The products will be available starting Jan. 20. Shoppers are only permitted to receive one product made by cosmetic companies that include Chanel, Estee Lauder and L’Oreal USA, among others.

Stores participating in the settlement include: Bergdorf Goodman, Bergner’s, Bloomingdale’s, Boston Store, Carson Pirie Scott, Dillard’s, Gottschalks, Herberger’s, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Parisian, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Younkers.”

Companies are giving back specific products, so visit Cosmetics Settlement to learn more. Myself, I’ll be making a beeline to the Dior counter for a bottle of J’Adore. Or to Givenchy, for a bottle of Very Irresistible (it really is). Or to Lancome, for a tube of Fatale mascara.

Well hello, 2009!

Happy Friday, bellas!

I wouldn’t describe myself as a crazy cat lady… I think having more than one cat is definitely the first step, no? Just the one is enough for me, thanks. Max gives me plenty of stress and stuff to clean up… and now he’s famous! My cat Max is officially a LOLcat!

I submitted this photo to I Can Has Cheezburger right after we got back from Chicago. The house seemed to be in perfect order until we visited the upstairs bathroom and discovered the toilet paper terror had struck again. Poor guy was bored and lonely, and took out all of his emotions I guess. Now that we’re back home and settled, has Max changed his ways? Not at all. In fact, just this morning he casually knocked over a glass of water with his paw, leaving the coffee table dripping and all of my work documents soggy at the corners. I still love the little furball, but aarrrgh!

While I was busy celebrating my second bloggiversary, another famous blogger was celebrating her fifth! Five years in the blog game is no joke. Congratulations to The Budget Fashionista, for half a decade of fun, fashion, and frugality.
This week she’s been interviewed by my amiga Natalie of The Frugalista Files on five ways to recession proof your closet, and on Clutch Magazine, on just how far being fabulous for less has taken her. I’ve gotten some great tips from The Budget Fashionista — that 70/30 rule has gotten me through many but-I-really-need-this-trendy-shirt quandaries. And I had a bella on a budget breakthrough of my own this weekend — at one of TBF’s fashion find stores, I scored a FLY red Michael Kors long winter coat for a mere $60! Thanks, TBF!

My blogging amigas are all headed to NYC for Fashion Week and already the stylish posts are rolling in — Nichelle of 55 Secret Street took this image of a Brooklyn Fashion Week show that stretched across the Bridge.

Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. You all have a blast at the L’Oreal Feria party! Wish I could be there with you…

Politics is causing my pressure to rise again, so I’m glad there are other bloggers who are covering the issues that I am obsessed with but lack the energy to write about myself. Racialicious has a great post about Michelle Obama and sexism, and Stereohyped covered the Maury Povichesque drama surrounding Republican VP pick Sarah Palin, and asked the question — could you just imagine if this were happening in the Obama family? I can think of at least two or three “newscasters” whose heads might explode. Opinion based news is killing me these days, I tell ya.

Two recent posts at Soulbounce got me in the mood for musing —
Five Reasons why Freedom is Impossible Today highlights why Freedom, one of my favorite old school all star jams from the Panther movie soundtrack, would never happen today. Reason # 2 — The disappearance of the female emcee. Period.

Also at Soulbounce, their top 100 Soul/R&B songs countdown has come to a thrilling finale with Donny Hathaway’s A Song For You.

What an incredible song. Ray Charles’ version was the one I knew first — it’s a good one, and the emotion rings true because of Ray’s advanced age. “And when my life is over, remember when we were together,” sounds right coming from his weathered voice. But Donnie Hathaway made that song his own because he lived it at such a tender age. Those lyrics spoke to the anguish within his own heart.

I have about half of a super long post about Donnie Hathaway written and holding — he was to be a part of my Lost Ones series, which I envisioned as a kind of Hollywood Babylon that focused on black celebrities who succumbed to the pressures of fame. I had to stop writing it midway through my posts about Dennis Brown and Donnie Hathaway. It was just… too sad, sitting up late at night all alone, watching YouTube videos of my musical icons who had passed away. I do plan to someday revisit and complete those posts. Soulbounce did a beautiful job of commemorating the life of an artist lost to the world in the prime of his life.

Donnie Hathaway was just 33 years old when he was found dead, and that makes the emotion you hear in this song seem all too real. Depression is real, it isn’t something you can just “get over” or “snap out of.” Click here to learn more, and hopefully answer any questions you may have.

Donnie Hathaway left this world too soon. But his spirit lives on through his talented children, like daughter Lalah Hathaway. He left us with incredible music — treat yourself to A Donnie Hathaway Collection, if you don’t already own a copy. You won’t regret the purchase.

Hey there! Today the nominations for the 2008 Black Weblog Awards are officially open, and I’m puttin’ myself out there. If I could win Best Writing in a Blog just once, I would be the happiest afrobella you ever did see. If you enjoy what you’re reading, show your girl some love. Enough begging. On to the clicking!

Lauren over at Stereohyped did a beautiful artists’ spotlight on Clementine Hunter, a folk artist from Cane River, Louisiana who has been called the “black Grandma Moses.” I loved the idea of highlighting an artist who connects to your roots. Inspired by Stereohyped, here’s my artist’s spotlight on the brilliant Trinidadian painter Boscoe Holder — dancer who once worked alongside Josephine Baker, choreographer, artist, and brother of famed actor Geoffrey Holder who many of you will instantly recognize from Annie and Boomerang (Strange! It Stinks So Good!). Geoffrey Holder is also a painter, FYI, and like his brother Boscoe, he is inspired by beautiful black women.

Boscoe Holder’s art is lush and moving, the women he captures have soul and class and are just stunning to gaze upon. In this article by L.M.N. Harris (who was once lucky enough to sit for the artist), he explained why black beauty was his main focus:

“I just like black skin! Black just looks so damn good. I’m black, old, tall, lean and wrinkled and I still look good. Black people don’t know their own strength, their own beauty, and I guess I’ve always been aware of it in one way or the other.””

You damn right, Boscoe. Don’t we look good, bellas?

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