Tag: Afrobella of the Week/Month
Afrobella of the Week — Afeni Shakur
No parent should have to bury their child. But on September 13th, 1996, Afeni Shakur had to do just that. Her son Tupac Amaru was at the height of his career. That year he’d released All Eyez on Me, a Diamond status double album phenomenon that spawned easily a dozen influential hip hop classics. An [...]
Afrobella of the Week — Alek Wek
I’m a sucker for a great biography. Give me any kind. I love the sex-drugs-rock-n-roll kind, (Anthony Kiedis’ Scar Tissue is enjoyable, I’m thumbing my way through Motley Crue’s The Dirt, and Lesley Arfin’s Dear Diary was one of the quickest, craziest, most addicting reads I’ve enjoyed in a while). My favorite kinds of biographies [...]
Afrobella of the Week: Odetta
If you’re a regular reader, you already know that I’m crazy about Afrobellas with guitar skills, who play music outside of the limiting circles of hip hop and R&B. In the vein of my Sister Rosetta Tharpe post, I’d like to pay homage to another legendary afrobella who laid the foundation and inspired legions of [...]
Afrobella of the Week — Michelle Obama
While I certainly have my own political leanings, my goal with this post isn’t to sway anyone. Although I do work for the “liberal media,” I actually have friends of all affiliations. So I know how bloody obnoxious it can be when someone tries to shove their beliefs down your throat, and I never want [...]
Afrobella of the Week — Bella, It’s You!
So I totally ripped off the widely lampooned Time magazine Person of the Year concept to make a larger point, I promise. I get endless Ask Afrobella questions about the same thing. It goes a little something like this — I can’t find enough cool natural hairstyles! Or, bella, I’m sick of my natural hair [...]
Afrobella of the Week: Betty Davis, The Original Funky Bella
I’m a day late and a dollar short with this post, bellas. Apologies if you clicked over yesterday and were disappointed. Mondays. Sometimes they hit you over the head harder than you expect. What can I say? Funky is the watchword this week, y’all. This week will be all about funky makeup, funky music, funky [...]
Afrobella of the Week – Pat McGrath, Bella Behind the Beauties
You hear so often about the lack of diversity in fashion -how models of color are continually exoticized and fetishized, and there’s the cliched statement that magazine editors still seem to adhere to, that magazines with black models on the cover don’t sell as well. (That theory is eloquently disproven by Constance C.R White in [...]
Afrobella of the Week – Bi Kidude, Afrobella for the Ages
Elderly women rock. I’ve always had an affinity for older ladies. I didn’t grow up around either of my grandmothers, and because of that I have always enjoyed and sought the company and wisdom of older women. It’s worth noting that age doesn’t always bring wisdom, but you can definitely learn a lot from those [...]
Afrobella of the Week: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, rock n’ roll pioneer
There’s something so undeniably bad-ass about a woman wielding a guitar. There have been many, many cool Caucasian bellas who have made their mark behind the axe. To wit — click here for Outside Left’s Top 12 Hottest Female Guitarists Ever, which includes the one and only Joan Jett, Poison Ivy from The Cramps, and [...]
Afrobella of the Week – Alison Stewart, Anchorbella
I’m a bit of a news junkie. I think it all started immediately after 9/11 — being in America when that happened really impacted upon me, and gave me this burning desire to know what was going on in the world at any given moment. To this day, I stay glued to the 24 hour [...]
Afrobellas of the Week: Sweet Honey In The Rock, A capella Afrobellas
Oh, how I love Black Music Month. You’re more likely to stumble across a song or vintage music you’ve never seen on television. Also, there’s no end of amazing documentaries to be seen, sometimes on channels you might not expect. Case in point, Soul Deep, a six-part BBC series that I managed to catch on [...]
When It Rains, It Pours
I’m super busy today, so this will just be a teeny post to follow up on that last Worth a Click I posted. Another former Afrobella of the Week has dropped a new track! And it’s FIRE! Forgive me if I’m late to share this, but my girl Jilly from Philly just released Hate On [...]
Afrobella of the Week: Marcia Griffiths, Queen of Reggae
Hey! I missed you guys so much! My family is officially back home, and now I can return to all things afrobella. And what better way to kick things off than with a brand new Afrobella of the Week? They call her the Queen, the Empress, the First Lady of reggae music. Her career spans [...]
Worth a Click
OK, I’ll admit it. I’m hopelessly addicted to celebrity gossip. I’ve managed to wean myself off a bit, but I definitely have my favorite sites and celebrities. My favorite celebrity couple right now is definitely Brangelina, and that has very little to do with Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie. For me, it’s all about Zahara. [...]
Afrobella of the Week: Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes; Supernova
I miss the kind of multicolored feminism that was so popular in hip hop music in the early Nineties. It was definitely embodied by many of the participants in Freedom, that all-star soundtrack song I featured last week. So many of those musicians came to blossom in an era when female pop stars could make [...]
