“If I’m remembered 100 years from now, I hope it will be not for looks but for books.”

                                                                                                   – Dolly Parton

Plant-based + Creativity

Plant-based eating delivers more benefits beyond physical health.  I’m often reminded of this when I reflect on a time when I experimented with vegetarianism while performing poetry during my early days as a writer.

As I adopted a holistic lifestyle from juicing, eliminating sugar and salt, eating fresh fruits and vegetables, drinking water and practicing spiritual meditation, creativity poured out of me.  It enabled me to create one of the best poems I’ve ever written, as I surrounded myself with other creatives and heard a jazz percussionist deliver a solo performance that inspired an observatory poem about rhythms and their connections to life.

My reflections on plant-based foods and creativity were reignited again after watching the HBO documentary on Earth Wind & Fire and learning about the plant-based lifestyle its band members adopted.

As a personal witness, there is truly a correlation between plants and creativity … consuming something from the earth, created by the Creator can inevitably spark seeds of creativity and seeds of greatness.

Earth, Wind & Fire Part II

Photograph by Bruce W. Talamon/HBO
All Images Courtesy of Warner Bros. & HBO

An informative addition to the Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial VS. That’s the Weight of the World) HBO documentary, is the interview with its director and producer, Questlove, on the Track Star Podcast where Quest sits down with host, Jack Coyne, and offers an enlightening discussion about the holistic artistry of EWF and its visionary leader, Maurice White.

Photograph by Bruce W. Talamon/HBO

Photograph by Henry Diltz/HBO

For more information on the interview and the EWF documentary, visit the following links:

Jack Coyne Interviews Ahmir Questlove Thompson

The Documentary

Links to Excellence - More Than a Speech

As commencement speeches have become a media event that many look forward to each year, the 2024 Clark Atlanta University Commencement Address, delivered by Dr. Daniel Black, is a phenomenal delivery, surpassing an address catered to students.  Its inspiring message is for anyone needing the encouragement to fulfill their dreams, seize their future and remember their inherent abilities to soar.

The Best Commencement

 

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

                                                                                             – Eleanor Roosevelt

                                                                  ___________________________________

The Transatlantic

 

Who would have imagined ancestors of such atrocities would bear descendants who’d enrich America ... names that would remain, after their demise.

MLK Day

 

Though we’re all created equal for some, it’s earned.  Glory is a cinematic movement, reminding us of the sacrifice.  

The Song

 

A humble upbringing informs humanity and the determination to survive.

                                                                               ________________________________

The Other DEI

 

Diversity, Equity, and [Investment] are resourceful assets when implemented by companies and organizations under inclusive policies, based on qualifications regardless of racial identity or gender.

It is the DEI, presently at risk, as inclusion is an investment, allowing one entity a competitive advantage over another, as inclusiveness measured on qualifications translates into success.

An Interiors Encore

The above video is a recap from my March 2014 post.  Featuring the buildOn foundation with music from Ludovico Einaudi, it iterates the importance of education, cultural unity and providing help to those in need.  The message? People Matter.

Einaudi Contributes to buildOn

Remembering the Music

 

Music is more than art. It’s a constructive tool that can provide peace of mind, as I learned years ago, growing up in a time when lyrics edified and transported one to a calming state, while enjoying such music in solitude.  

In celebrating Black Music Month, and great music throughout the year, I revere music as an asset whose value appreciates, remembering the albums of Earth Wind & Fire; Stevie Wonder’s, Songs in the Key of Life; Roberta Flack and others – artists who made life-affirming songs, inspiring hope and empowerment … a time when profane lyrics were simply unthinkable.

 Silence can tell a story if we watch and listen.

Strong Women are Built at Home

 

Strength is inherent or often navigated by example – the principles and morals taught at home, where girls learn self-respect; the value of an education; their love is not for sale.  Having a foundation that cultivates confidence is the differential that can transform a girl into a respectable woman armed with strength, opposed to one without standards.

Black History – A Month to Honor

 

How did music come from a people taken from their land – relegated to slavery, fatal atrocities?  ... Alienated from their culture?

Through centuries of enslavement, hope ensued and the endemic relics of their music, culture and mores, turned into blues … rhythms, dialects, and the cultivation of a people poised with dignity and divine solidarity.                                                                                                    _________________________________

A Dream

To have a dream often requires mental autonomy when no one believes but you – when no one can see it but you.  But a dream that promotes humanity, as that envisioned by Martin Luther King, Jr., is immeasurable.

Why the N-word?

Though it’s a conversation that will always be debated, I still find this racial slur offensive regardless of who uses the word or how it is used.

After having my commentary, “Denouncing the N word,” published in a lifestyle magazine over twenty years ago, I find the word more offensive, observing its insidious damage to those who view it as innocuous, and witnessing the blatant damage to those who are fully aware of its harm.

It’s not the etymology of the word that mystifies, but it’s preservation and longevity that is deeply ingrained in the human psyche that it has developed a life of its own, obliviously passed down through generations that some for whom it was intended to offend are immune to its intra-racial use.

More than an implosive word that has turned on itself within some parts of the black community, it’s a commodified utility that’s heard in songs and movies, as I have seen great dramas use the word incessantly till it racially emasculates and eviscerates dignity – the flaw that I feel if omitted would elevate these shows to their highest merit.

WHY?

“The standards of the civilization into which you are born are first outside of you, and by the time you get to be a man they're inside of you.” 

                                                                                                       -  James Baldwin  

Celebrating Black Music with Timmy Thomas

 

Some of the best songs are contemplative inquiries, petitioning for peace and unity, as the 70’s hit, “Why Can’t We Live Together,” written, sang and instrumentalized by late R&B singer and keyboardist, Timmy Thomas.  As with such songs they are infinite reflections of our current times.

For more on the historical background of this song and to listen, visit: 

The Inspiration

The Song

Ancestral Words

Each year as Memorial Day is celebrated, some of us not only think about those who have served in the military, but also civilian loved ones who are no longer with us, and the words they often spoke that we memorialize, as we repeat them and heed the wisdom attached to their words and sayings.

These sayings may have been passed down through generations; derived from biblical scriptures, or coined from sacred lessons that are relevant to our times and hold the solution to living a victorious life.

 "I believe in prayer. It's the best way we have to draw strength from heaven."

                                                                                                    - Josephine Baker