Black History Month Blog Challenge: Day 3...

This Jamaican Guy.

And boy do I LOVE Jamaican food.

Curry Chicken. Jerk Chicken. Roti Bread. Coco Bread. Rice & Peas. Chicken Patties. Coconut Soda.... YUM! (I'm drooling on my laptop right now...OK, slight exaggeration, but you get the idea!)

Anyways getting back on topic, his name is Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr.

Garvey was a member of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements.He was apart of the Back-to-Africa movement that helped return people of African decent back to their native and ancestral lands. Garvey founded the UNIA, Universal Negro Improvement Association. He inspired other to want to know and get in touch with their African roots. He was even sentenced to 5 years in prison for some fraud stuff. Garvey received alot of backlash and negativity because some people thought that his actions were a little to extreme. I don't want to give you all a major history lesson, but you can read more about him here. I'll also put in a picture of the Marcus Garvey wax figure from the Great Black Wax Museum in Baltimore, Maryland that I went to during my Washington, DC vacation which you can read about here.

This is the wax version of Marcus Garvey from the museum in Baltimore. It looks a little creepy, I know. That whole museum was a little creepy, if you were there alone, you might pee your pants...I'm just sayin'!

I'm happy I'm getting this up before "tomorrow" we just came back from dinner at Applebee's and OMG! There were so many empty tables, but we waited like 20 minutes...why? No idea! They lost a ton of points for that, and they were slow, and the server we had was new, so...yeah, you know how that is. Besides that I did the 2 for $20 with my sister and we shared onion rings and I had the three-cheese chicken penne pasta and it was delish! I'm still stuffed, but hey! Pasta does that to ya! L0l!

Quick.

This will be super quick! I just walked in the house, and I'm about to leave again in like 2 minutes, they're downstairs screaming my name now. So the Black History Post might be late. Sorry! But I'll get it up as soon as I get back home, I just need to write a little more and tweak it just a hair! Love y'all!

Peace & Love

-Tiffani

Black History Month Blog Challenge: Day 2...

Broadway.

I am a Musical WHORE! OK maybe that's a little extreme, but I love musicals.

Rent. West Side Story. Grease (I secretly always wanted to be a Pink Lady). The Wiz. Mary Poppins.
Annie (My sisters favorite, she sings EVERY song obnoxiously!). Fiddler on the Roof. Dream Girls....

And so much more. When I FINALLY make it to New York...Broadway will be my first stop!

So on to the actual HISTORY part of this blog challenge.

This guy.



James Hubert Blake or Eubie Blake

He was the first African American to compose and produce a Broadway musical that was written AND directed by African Americans. And lets face it, a good musical, especially on Broadway is absolutely nothing without an amazing composition. The musical Shuffle Along in 1921 was very popular among both black & white people. His ragtime music was a hit. I'm sure if I was actually in that era I would have enjoyed it as well, but I enjoy almost ALL musicals...hey don't judge me! But I won't sit here and give you a complete bio, you can read it all here yourselves. Its 9 something PM, when I realized "Oh My Lanta! I didn't post and it'll be 12 AM soon!" I hurried to my laptop, did a quick little research and got steadily distracted with my nieces fighting each other ninja style(as always) but I was determined to pump this post out before February 3rd. But you all know I am the queen of procrastination, and for this I can only apologize and continue to be myself! L0l! This was the first time I got on my computer all day actually. Hmmm, wonder who I'll write about tomorrow. Sometimes, I wish I was working on Western Time, that would save me 3 lovely hours! But hey! Wouldn't change these lovely Southern roots for the world, it was just a simple thought. Well, now I'm rambling, so....yeah...bye!

Peace & Love
-Tiffani

Black History Month Blog Challenge: Day 1...

The first GREAT African American is...

Don Cornelius

I thought he would be very fitting for the first day of Black History Month, seeing how he passed away today. This was extremely sad, and incredibly shocking to me, especially me and my mama (I can use bad grammar all I want) we were just talking about him and his show yesterday. For those of you that don't know Don Cornelius was the creator, producer, host and most importantly OWNER of the hit musical variety & popular dance show Soul Train! The show first aired in 1971. My mama always talks about how her and her brothers and sisters would watch Soul Train for the latest fashion and dance moves, then imitate it and the next party or dance. She also told me that my uncle had a MASSIVE fro' back in the day! Haha! In the 70s African Americans never really owned any television programs, however Don did. Many shows tried to compete with his (ex. American Bandstand) but couldn't.  He had many legendary performers from The Jackson Five, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, to Diana Ross. He had white performers as well, such as David Bowie and Elton John(Benny & The Jets is one of my FAVE songs!) I mean, c'mon Soul Train is iconic, even it that wasn't your era. He was a pioneer for African Americans to own televisions shows and for people like Oprah to have their own cable television network. So many famous people have come out of Soul Train, just being dancers. Rosie Perez, the group Shalamar, Rerun, and choreographer to the stars Laurie Ann Gibson. However not famous, the small Asian woman with hair down to her butt, was very iconic. I still remember watching her on old rerun episodes. Because of Don Cornelius African American weddings, birthday parties, and family reunions are now SO much more fun when your dancing down a Soul Train line doing the bump with your favorite cousin that you only get to see once a year. Another great African American pioneer paving the way. Rest in Peace Mr. Don Cornelius! 

Yay! Got it posted before the 1st is over! And I've already started drafting the post for tomorrow *pats self on back*

I usually sign out of my posts "Peace & Love" but seeing the topic, I thought THIS would be more fitting:

Love, Peace...and Souuuuuuuuul!!

-Tiffani

The Start of a New Month!

Today marks the first day of Black History Month! I hope its a prosperous month, no violence, no ignorance, and nothing that makes the African American race look bad. I pray that people stop falling victim to all the NEGATIVE stereotypes. Good for me, I've always been a good girl. However, some people are products of their environment. But I'm a country girl, turned suburban girl! Now that I live in North Carolina with my sister, I see that its my job to teach my nieces a little about African American History. I took the class in high school, and its also my minor. I just sort of love History in general. I want them to know all the amazing contributions African American made to the world. Not just the basics that everybody knows like Martin Luther King Jr. or Harriet Tubman. Although their contributions were great, its a WHOLE lot more, that not really talked about that much. I think everyday I'll post a little bio & history and a not-so-well-know African American that has done something great. It'll be a great challenge for me, since it seems that I constantly takes the hiatuses! L0l! But I'm up for the challenge *brave girl face & pose*

I'll get started on the first "official" entry right after I post this one! I'm already gonna give you guys 29 GUARANTEED posts! :) Don't I feel accomplished! L0l! It's all for y'all!

Peace & Love

-Tiffani!

Easy Livin'...

I don't have a what I'm loving Wednesday today...because I haven't been loving anything since I packed up my life and MOVED to Fayetteville. But I feel better, day after day, and I'm feeling less, and less homesick as well. Today was just a pretty basic day, still looking for a job since Old Navy is being mean, and wants me to wait until after the holidays to transfer up here, since they're fully staffed for the holidays. Today I cleaned a little. I finally got ALL my stuff that was in my sister's garage and lugged it all upstairs... what a workout?! I did some laundry, took out trash, brought the trash & recycling bins back to the house, vacuumed, washed my hair, showered, and a SPLASH of organizing. Besides that I didn't do anything else today. I'm still a little bit sad and homesick, but i'll manage.

Does anybody know a good way to deal with being homesick?

Help a poor girl out!

I'm glad to regularly be back in the swing of blogging, hopefully I won't pull another Houdini (disappearing act) again! :)

Peace & Love

-Tiffani

Hello There....Again!

Hey y'all...I'm back...AGAIN! I'm now writing from Fayetteville, NC. I recently moved from Charleston to Fayetteville with my sister for college, and just a change of scenery. I still get a little homesick, I have to force myself not to cry. I really miss my mom...ALOT! I don't know anyone here on age with me, so making friends is going to be a challenge. But, I think I'm ready for it. Hopefully, my writers block, brain farts, and pure laziness will subside with my new location and I'll be posting much more often. Especially with all this boredom, I'm sure I'll post quite often in my plentiful spare time! :) I've missed you all, I need to check on more blogs, be nosy and find out whats going on in your lives. This is going to be a hard Christmas without my mommy being here all the time. I really just miss having a social life, I have no friends here, but my friends back home are anxious to take the 2 hour road trip up here to visit me. Can't wait! This short time has been nice just giving you guys a small update, I SHALL return.

p.s. I'm really glad its cold out now, as everyone knows i HATE the summer! :)

p.p.s. Don't judge me! Haha!

Peace & Love

-Tiffani!

I am ALIVE!

I am alive guys. I know I suck at this blogging thing, I've been thinking of just giving up on this blog thing. But just to let you all know what I've been doing since my last post, I'll make a whole new post later tonight. Its gonna be quite a long post. So prepare yourselves. :)

Peace and Love

-Tiffani

Not all its cracked up to be...

This is going to be a SUPER short post. I just wanted to write it really quickly to let you all know I'm still alive! Well today(Tuesday) my friend Bryn and I went to the new Trader Joe's in Mount Pleasant. We were pretty excited but, it really wasn't all it was cracked up to be. But I do have a new FAVORITE beverage that i'll enlighten you all on when I'm not so... I don't know... BARELY AWAKE! :)

Sweet dreams to those already sleep or about to go to sleep! :)

Peace & Love!

-Tiffani

Its My Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to ME, Happy Birthday to ME! Happy Birthday dear MEEEEE! Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my 19th birthday! Its not a serious one, but it'll be my last year in the "teens!" I'm just happy and appreciative to be able to see another year. Some people don't make it to 19.  For some reason, my birthday usually falls on a odd day, and this year is no different its a Wednesday! But I did look ahead on the calender too see that my 21st birthday in 2013 will be on a Saturday since next year is a leap year!

I'm going to wait until Saturday and just have a simple dinner with my sister, cousin, friends, and hopefully the guy I like if he's back from his vacation in time! :) **fingers crossed**

I'm gettin old... Who else has a birthday today or soon(any Cancer's out there)? I'd love to know your birthday plans.

p.s. I'm also going to a Reggae festival on Saturday here in Charleston at Wanamaker Park. I went to one a few years back and it should be tons of fun, music, and food(Jerk chicken on coco bread, with a chicken patty since I don't eat beef, and a coconut soda!) I CANNOT wait!