Sesame Street has been a tremendous influence on my life, and throughout the history of this blog I’ve celebrated the series on several occasions. Today I take special pleasure in giving tribute to the Children’s Television Workshop, Jim Henson’s genius, and Sesame Street. Today the legendary program turns 40 years old.

That’s HUGE!

Sesame Street taught me my alphabet, it taught me how to count, how to share with others, and that natural hair and brown skin is just as beautiful as any other kind. Allow me to share some Afrobella highlights from the last 40 years of arguably the best children’s TV show of all time!

The Cartoons:

Sesame Street has a long tradition of featuring animated characters with adorable afros in them! And funky music to boot. Take for example this supafly Seventies mama who fixes her car with the letter R. How badass is that soundtrack?

Both Billy Joe Jive and his partner Smart Susie Sunset had natural hair and fly Seventies style.

Then there’s one of the most popular grocery store lists ever:

Who doesn’t remember that? Years later, Sesame Street released a remake of “A loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter,” but nothing can top the original.

Back in the day Sesame Street was groundbreaking and inspiring, dedicated to integrating their audience and teaching kids to embrace and celebrate each other’s differences. Listen to this song from the Seventies, by Roosevelt Franklin’s baby brother, Baby Ray Franklin.

What a great message to teach the kiddies!

The Celebrities:

The list of celebrities who have appeared on Sesame Street is so long, it might be worth asking — who HASN’T appeared on Sesame Street?

From the early days, iconic celebs acted and sang alongside muppets to teach kids new words and life lessons. Check out this montage for just a taste.

That video is amazing. Celebrities from Vanessa Williams, Maya Angelou, Liam Neeson, Rosemary Clooney, Doug E. Doug, opera singer Denyce Graves, Conan O’Brien…all joined together to sing composer Joe Raposo’s signature song. I think that montage is adorable, but my all-time favorite version of Sing is by Olivia and Linda.

Sesame Street was where I first discovered and fell in love with Cab Calloway. HOW old was I when I first became obsessed with this?

And let me confess – the Two-Headed Monster was one of my favorite muppets!

The first time I heard Smokey Robinson’s You Really Got a Hold On Me was this version right here.

Dag, that letter U was persistent!

So many of my beauty icons made their first impressions on me through Sesame Street. I will never forget when Lena Horne and her fabulous fro appeared, and sang one of the funkiest alphabets ever.

I was always just a little jealous of the late, great Madeline Kahn in this classic clip – she got to hold and cuddle Grover! He’s always been my favorite monster!

This clip of Ethel Merman and Michael Jackson appearing on a Special Sesame Street Christmas is both wonderful and heartwarming. Michael’s fro was ON POINT as always, and I’m just sad that he didn’t sing a song and appear longer on the show.

Back in the day in Trinidad, the television stations showed vintage Sesame Street episodes over and over again, so many of my most favorite moments were from the Seventies and early Eighties. Consequently I’m kind of a walking encyclopedia of random Sesame Street trivia. For example, did you know that the original New Way to Walk was by The Oinker Sisters (LOL), but Destiny’s Child remade it in the Nineties?

Random, right? And I got so much more where that came from!

The Characters:

There were quite a few human characters on Sesame Street that I grew up identifying with.

Susan’s bright colors, asymmetrical afro and plus size style made her a favorite of mine from early on — which is why I celebrated Dr. Loretta Long as one of my earliest Afrobellas of the Week!

Consider this clip from 1986 — in my prime growing up days.

On a personal note, Telly Monster has always been one of my least favorite muppets. Chill out, Telly!

Olivia always was one of my favorite singers on Sesame Street — check out her beautiful braids and the handsome George Benson in this classic clip. Olivia wasn’t a regular on the show in the later Eighties, but her guest appearances definitely meant a great song! For example — Birdland, a jazzy tune she sang at Hoots the Owl’s Birdland Jazz Club.

Aw, and there’s the late Northern Calloway as David in the audience singing along with her.

David was one of the coolest brothers on Sesame Street. He had one of the sweetest voices and sang some of my favorite songs. (anyone remember I’m Pretty? I think about that song when I’m putting on makeup sometimes. TMI? Maybe!)

I knew the actor who played David had passed away, but I had no idea what led to his demise. Wikipedia outlines the tragic end of his life. RIP Northern Calloway.

This morning I watched Sesame Street for the first time in many years, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda played a rapping realtor trying to get Big Bird to change his habitat, and First Lady Michelle Obama taught Elmo and Big Bird about planting seeds to make delicious fruits and vegetables grow. Today’s episode made me proud of the show that has endured so much change, and excited for the future. It’s been 40 years, and Sesame Street is still going strong! And someday when I have kids of my own, I can share the classic clips of the show I’ve grown up learning so much from.

If you still don’t own these DVDs, treat yourself (and your little ones) to Sesame Street – Old School, Vol. 1 (1969-1974) and Sesame Street: Vol. 2 – Old School (1974-1979). And why not throw in Follow that Bird — it’s a classic!

What are some of your favorite Sesame Street moments?

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When I saw the photos of Sammy Sosa that have been circulating online, one dancehall classic came immediately to mind.

There’s a few more photos on Huffington Post that show the sharp difference in his pigmentation.

The story Mr. Sosa is sticking to is that a skin rejuvenation procedure has made his skin appear lighter, and besides that the lighting made him appear significantly fairer skinned than normal.

If that’s true, then it’s a shame that Mr. Sosa had a facial treatment that resulted in such marked discoloration. Any technician worth their salt will tell you, laser treatments can be very problematic for black skin, and deep chemical peels can damage black skin. So I’m curious as to what kind of treatment Mr. Sosa may have had, so I can make sure not to ever get it myself.

Additional conjecture that Sosa may have vitiligo triggered by steroid use has been gathering steam around the blogosphere.

Among many, the concern is that Sammy Sosa is undergoing a Michael Jackson-esque makeover. He’s reportedly wearing colored contact lenses. Sadly, if Sammy Sosa has indeed been bleaching his skin for superficial reasons — he wouldn’t be alone.

Throughout the Caribbean and Africa, skin bleaching is a popular phenomenon. Products like Fair and White, So White, and Nadinola fly off the shelves throughout most Caribbean islands. Just recently in Jamaica, dancehall artist Lisa Hype defended the practice of skin bleaching and even celebrates the practice in her song Proud of Mi Bleaching. The song title alone speaks volumes, and is a mentality that I have a hard time understanding. But it’s real and it’s happening — black people around the world still seek to alter their natural beauty, often by dangerous means. Just this year reports surfaced of a black woman who underwent a questionable operation to change the color of her eyes from brown to blue. And despite the known dangers of skin bleaching — from permanent disfiguration to skin thinning to cancer — there are those who pledge undying loyalty to the practice. For more insight, check out this clip by Current TV about a Jamaican family of skin bleachers.

Sammy Sosa may not be deliberately lightening the color of his skin by chemical means — one photo can’t tell the whole story. Either way, he needs to stop whatever he’s doing that appears to be causing so much change and apparent damage to his skin color. I still want to give him the benefit of the doubt, so I hope he really isn’t using skin whiteners. But I also hope that this current outcry reaches the people out there who are risking long term health effects hoping to achieve a more light skinned appearance, and sends a direct message that the practice is sad, scary, stupid, and unnecessary.
Queen Ifrica said it all better than I ever could.

** edited November 10 at 10:39 p.m. CST — Well, Sammy’s admitted the truth during television interviews with both ESPN Deportes, and Univision. My suspicions were correct.

“”It’s a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some,” said the former slugger during the “Primer Impacto” program at the Univision Spanish network.

“It’s a cream that I have, that I use to soften [my skin], but has bleached me some. I’m not a racist, I live my life happily,” said a smiling Sosa during the interview.”

And he’s joking about marketing the product too. I would write more about this topic, but all of a sudden I have a mysterious headache. SMH.

Photo courtesy the Chicago Tribune.

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I’ve been watching this beautiful young singer on the rise, but I guess I wasn’t paying close enough attention. All of a sudden, my mind connected the dots. The chick I’d seen on VH1 Soul with Questlove, was the vocalist behind that version of Sam Cooke’s Cupid that I heard at Starbucks! And the same artist I’d been reading about on Soulbounce forever! OH! This is Melanie Fiona!

It took me a while, but now I’m head over heels for her sound and her style.

Melanie Fiona hails from Toronto, but — according to Wikipedia – has parents from Guyana. Which perhaps explains the Caribbean influence that comes through loud and clear in her Subway Series. In this awesome clip, she performs her songs “Sad Songs,” “Please Don’t Go” and “Bang Bang” on the streets and in the subway stations of New York City.

So. Amazing. The sounds of steelpan gave me chills – such an amazing and underused instrument.

Melanie’s album, The Bridge, is available for sale right now. Show a real singer some love, if you’re feeling this!

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Love her!

(first seen via The Feminista Files — check our my girl Erica’s awesome blog!)

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Can I be real with y’all? I’m kinda sick of Chris Rock’s Good Hair. Raise your hand if you’re with me.

The endless media tour. The premature outrage. The trailer, which showed all of the docucomedy’s best clips. To paraphrase Chris Rock himself, I’m tired, tired, tired of Good Hair.

So I’m gonna conclude writing about it once and for all with this review.

I hate going into a movie when I already know too much about it. And I already knew WAY too much about Good Hair. And to be honest, I didn’t quite understand the controversy and call for boycotting the film. As I said in the Black Voices podcast: it’s important to remember who’s making this movie. It’s Chris Rock, the man who brought us Pootie Tang! The comedian who continually courts controversy. What did we REALLY expect from Chris Rock besides comedy? Social commentary? A historical perspective? Sorry — wrong filmmaker. Wrong film. For more informed views on black hair, see some of the documentaries I mentioned in my previous post, Before Chris Rock’s Good Hair.

As a comedy, Good Hair delivers. There were scenes and one-liners that were laugh out loud funny. Some scenes brought back painful memories of my own burning scalp. And there were scenes that caused my throat to tighten up and tears to well in my eyes. One particular scene, where a three-year-old girl explains that she has her hair relaxed “because we’re supposed to,” particularly ached to watch.

If there’s one thing Rock does well, it’s underscore the point that kiddie perm is an unnecessary evil. There are a few points where you can see true concern and consideration on Rock’s face as he interviews the subjects in this docucomedy, and whenever he touches on this particular topic — that little children in our community are taught that their own hair texture isn’t beautiful the way it is, and are conditioned to crave chemical relaxers from such a tender age — you can see the ache in his eyes. It’s in moments like that where you can see his genuine motivation in making this film.

I believe the power of scenes like that are undercut by the barbershop scene, where a group of black men cackle wildly while confessing that they feel a level of intimacy with white women because they can run their fingers through their hair.

The audience at my screening of Good Hair wasn’t the target demographic. The theater was in a “white” neighborhood, and there were few people present — I’d estimate 10, tops, and I seemed to be the only woman of color there. So when laughter rang out in the crowd, it was easy to tell who was laughing, and it was interesting to see what the audience laughed at. It sometimes underscored what frustrated women were telling Rock when he appeared on Oprah to promote this film for the second time. When the Caucasian couple sitting behind me burst out laughing at the scene in the relaxer factory, I wondered if this is what the upset black woman in Oprah’s audience meant when she admonished Chris Rock for “telling our secrets.”

If I had to do it over again, I’d probably have waited to see Good Hair when it makes its inevitable debut on HBO. It was amusing and interesting, but I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know. I have to agree with The Hotness Grrrl on this point — if you must be mad at Good Hair, be mad that Chris Rock’s wife, Malaak, didn’t appear in the film. I was perplexed by that, especially since so many celebrities gave on-camera interviews about their weaves, and the whole point of the film was that Rock’s own daughters had negative feelings about their natural hair texture. That would have made Rock’s film a little more interesting, but would have probably made his home life a lot more uncomfortable.

In general, Good Hair is worth seeing. The underlying message of the film, “the stuff on top of your head is not as important as what’s inside your head,” resonates. Will this film make anyone stop and ask themselves – why do we use sodium hydroxide to alter the texture of our hair? Will we ever truly believe, as Kari Cobham’s Daytona Beach news article states, that “good hair is healthy hair, regardless of texture”? That remains to be seen.

Did you see Good Hair? What do you think? Was it worth the price of the movie ticket, or not?

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Precious. You need to go see it.

I tend to avoid sad movies, which is a shame and something I’m trying to change. There’s so much to be learned from movies that bring you down, and often so little to be gained from movies that are pure escapism. I’d always justify it by saying: I watch the news, and that’s sad enough.

But Precious is the kind of film that needs our support. It’s a film that reveals a slice of American life that we too often close our eyes to. Because we don’t want to see.

All of the rumors about Precious are true. It’s unbearably sad. At times it’s hard to watch. If you’ve read Push by Sapphire — upon which this film is based — you already know that.

What you may not know about the film — Mariah Carey is GREAT in it. Lenny Kravitz is unexpected and WONDERFUL. Paula Patton is awesome. And Mo’Nique? Deserves an Academy Award. Seriously. She. Is. That. Good. Scarier than any horror movie villain. Uncomfortably intense. She is broken and damaged and frightening and so, so real.

I don’t know where Mo’Nique found the inspiration for her character. You can see the passion and fury in her eyes, this came from the depths of her soul. And the film’s star — Gabourey ‘Gabby’ Sidibe — I honestly hope she doesn’t get typecast by this role. Because she is so incredibly convincing as Precious, that I can understand why she’s giving interviews explaining — “I’m actually not her.”

Gabby Sidibe isn’t Precious, but for sure there are Precious girls out there. I see them every day, here in Chicago. They’re the girls standing in the background while the news anchor reports about yet another murder in their neighborhood. They’re the girls fidgeting anxiously while sitting on the el, or the bus. They’re the girls who are typically shouldering the burdens of poverty in the shadows, while the boys get put in the uncomfortable spotlight. They are the girls who are raising the next generation.

I saw this movie with two of my Twitter friends, LuvvieIG of Awesomely Luvvie and Luvv Divine and Obabreezie. After the film we couldn’t stop talking about it. Precious is an amazing film, a story of redemption that cries out to be seen…but in a small, selfish way you almost don’t want other people to see it. It’s such an ugly slice of reality, you want to keep it hidden. But people NEED to see this movie. I hope it’s shown in schools. I hope the people who need to see this movie, see this movie.

As raw and real and painful as it is, Precious is uplifting. And important. We can’t let movies like this come and go without making some noise at the box office. Because there are many, many more stories like Precious, that need to be told.

** edited Wednesday 3 p.m. — Today the New York Times ran a FASCINATING interview with director Lee Daniels about this film. Click here to read it. If you saw the drama that arose in the comments below, this interview can help to shed light on where the director was coming from in telling this story.

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I know y’all already know how I feel, but I wrote about it for BVHairTalk in a post titled I’m on Team Zahara! Just so everyone else knows.

Baby Z looks fine to me!

Is it weird to quote yourself? Oh well:

“Sometimes when I read posts on gossip blogs about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s children, I’m left feeling lost and alone in the universe.

Small wonder I got a dose of kiddie hair relaxer at age 7 — I didn’t exactly make myself easy to handle.
When I see Baby Z — and the same goes for her sister, Shiloh — I see two happy, loved, very independent-minded little girls, and an indulgent mother who allows them to express their own style.”

“I disagree with the conclusion of that Newsweek article: “…there will come a day when this beautiful little African girl will understand what it means to be an African American woman in this society and realize unlike her younger sister, hers is not a wash-and-go world.” That sentence revealed more about the author than she may have realized. For some African American women, the expectation isn’t that hair needs to be tamed into submission. For many natural hair bloggers and our readers, this world is whatever we want it to be. I’m comfortable and happy with a wash-and-go style, and I dare you to look at a natural-hair Web site like Le Coil and tell me those women look unkempt or “a hot mess.”

So there you have it, and for further reading allow me to recommend Roslyn Holcomb’s take, and Gina of What About Our Daughters, who titles her post Leave Zahara Alone!

Cosign THAT.

I’d love to hear your opinions on this, seeing as any photograph of this four year old child will invariably be torn to shreds by writers, bloggers, and commenters who apparently are all experts on black hair styling. Is Baby Z under a different kind of scrutiny than other celebrity kids her age? What are your feelings on that? And if you have advice for Brad and Angelina about her hair, what would it be?

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By now you may have heard the news — Playboy is shaking things up and featuring Marge Simpson on the magazine’s cover, to commemorate 20 years of The Simpsons. But did you know that the provocative cover was meant to be an homage?

Yes indeed — Marge Simpson’s pose pays tribute to the October 1971 issue featuring Darine Stern, the first black woman to pose on a Playboy cover.

From CNN: “We decided to re-create [it] because it’s one of our most iconic covers,” [Playboy editorial director Jimmy] Jellinek said, “and because Marge’s sexy blue beehive immediately made us think of Darine Stern, whose beautiful, voluminous hairdo was front and center on the October 1971 cover.”

Well, I’ve always been a Simpsons fan — but it’s interesting to know that this cover is meant to be another historic first. The first black Playmate, paid tribute to with the first animated Playmate. What will they think of next?

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This is the time of year where pink ribbons mysteriously appear on every item at the drugstore, where annual walks are walked and funds are raised, all in the names of the Susan G. Komen fund and breast cancer research.

When most people think of breast cancer, they think of the most obviously affected area. Not everyone addresses the less obvious things that are affected by breast cancer, like self esteem, overall well being, and hair. But for some women, cancer can attack those things are well.

When my Aunty Gemma was diagnosed with breast cancer, I got to see how breast cancer can go far beyond the chest. My aunt struggled with hair loss, and what to do in the aftermath of cancer therapy. In an effort to answer some of her questions, I reached out to an expert in the field.

Vaso Spirou, the owner of Miami Beach’s Salon Vaso is known and widely respected as a master colorist and hairstyling artist who specializes in curly hair and caters to the needs of South Beach’s elite. Her salon is sleek, sexy, and captures the exclusivity of the city. But Vaso’s hidden passion is in helping and serving the needs of those affected by cancer. As a survivor herself, she knows all too well the debilitating effects the disease can have.

“It has a major emotional effect on your beauty. Losing your hair can help you feel even worse,” she said in a telephone interview.

For clients of her gorgeous salon, Vaso customizes store-bought human hair wigs — offering scalp measurement so the wigs fit perfectly, and styling the wigs so they look normal and natural for each customer. “Why would you want to look different, especially when you are going through something as serious as breast cancer?” she asked.

Vaso offered five helpful tips for patients dealing with cancer-related hair loss.

1 — Find a hairdresser who knows you and knows what you’re going through. Tell them you’re hunting for wigs that they can customize. It takes personal attention, and if they’re unaccustomed to styling wigs, perhaps they know someone who can help.

2 — When the hair grows back post-chemotherapy, it will grow back thicker, denser, and more coarse. Definitely different. It’s typically more wiry. So be aware that there will most likely be a change in your hair’s texture after cancer. Sometimes it even grows back a different color.

3 — Don’t even think about relaxer, chemical treatments, or extensions right away. When your hair grows back thick and healthy enough, you can use extensions and chemical treatments again. If you know you’re going to go through chemotherapy, it may be best to consider cutting your hair off and wearing a wig at a certain point — just to have an easy transition into the hair issues that may result.

4 — Don’t be afraid of looking like you’re wearing a wig while you’re wearing a wig. There are amazing wigs that kind of adhere to your scalp. I recommend hotheads.com.

5 — Last, and in my opinion, most importantly, Vaso recommends dealing with the psychological effects on self esteem by taking a positive attitude. Speaking from her own experience, she declared “I woke up this morning saying to myself — I wanna live, I don’t want to just survive. They have to make up their minds to live every day.”

In addition to being sagacious, sweet, worldly and wonderful, Vaso is charitable. Here’s another reason for you to make an appointment with her if you’re ever in the 305 — all proceeds earned on Mondays in the month of October will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Salon Vaso also offers incredible manicures, pedicures, and body treatments. Visit her website here, and you can also follow Salon Vaso on Twitter.

Are you a breast cancer survivor? Or do you know someone who is? Please feel free to share your experience and advice regarding cancer and hair loss right here — you could be helping someone who’s dealing with this issue right now!

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Sherri Shepherd — Chicago gal, comedic actress turned serious actress, she of is-the-world-flat?-I-don’t-know opinions on The View.

There’s something about her that I find extremely likable.

Even when Sherri’s putting her foot in it alongside Whoopi and Babs and making me yell at my TV, I still like her. When she’s playing Tracy Jordan’s take-no-BS wife on 30 Rock, I LOVE her. And I’m interested to see how she’ll fare on Lifetime, as the star of her own self-titled sitcom.

Sherri can be described as semi-autobiographical. It “centers around a newly single mom, paralegal and part-time comedienne/actress who tries to get back into the dating scene and move on with her life after divorcing her cheating husband.” I’ll let the New York Times say it, not me — “Any resemblance to her own very public break-up with the comedian Jeff Tarpley will be purely coincidental.”

During Lifetime’s Sneak Peek Week, all new episodes will air nightly at 7 pm EST. And during this special Afrobella/Lifetime giveaway, one lucky reader (who lives in the USA) will get a sweet Sherri “Single Survival Kit,” which includes the following:

*a PurseN
*Pamper U Pouch (printed zipper pouch includes 10 oz lavender fragrance body lotion, 8 oz lavender fragrance bath crystals, unscented tea light candle, and cool eye gel mask)
*a chrome purse holder
*a pair of velour slippers
*an umbrella
*a rabbit style wine opener
ALL inside a branded Sherri tote bag!

Pretty sweet gift for a single lady! I NEED to get myself a PurseN – how have I never heard of this miracle product before??

All you have to do is leave a comment below and tell me — which of those survival kit items would help you the most as a single woman?

I’ll close comments on Friday and choose a winner over the weekend. Good luck to all my single ladies!

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