Nip/Tuck?

So I've always been dead set against plastic surgery, and now...well, I'm perhaps still dead set against it for myself, only because I'm really a coward when confronting the idea of going under a knife while unconscious. I mean...think about that!

Anyway I just heard the funniest thing:

"If its saggin', baggin', and draggin' - get it sucked, nipped, and tucked"
~Dolly Parton~

Now that's all this vapid line of life threatening procedures needed! A cute AND funny tag line.
Thanks Dolly, now if I suffer later on from S-B-D, I may just consider this.

What it means to PRIORITIZE!!!

Quick note to get some stuff off my chest here. I'm a bit exhausted by the near daily forwards now advising me to lift my fists in outrage, to march, or to boycott some product or service because of an idiot who has again successfully enraged people of color by expressing an ignorant disdain for non-whites. Are we really doing this now? Are we going to give up our time, energy, and attention to this (rather than to real problems or to our victories), to validate EVERY single minor allegation or sign of racist sentiment???

Listen - Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are educated and successful representations of us, of ALL of us, black, white, red, and blue, and one of them IS the leader of the free world. Yes, it's true. Believe it. Can we focus now on mobilizing everyone we can to roll with the changing hand of power and hopefully the driving philosophies that could possibly save our world and NOT to attention seeking idiots???!! Please???

I just bought Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines, both featuring Barack and Michelle on the covers – photographed by Anne Leibovitiz. I spent some down time looking at these photos and reading the articles – I did, and you know, it made me feel like I was above the nonsense. And gasp, I bought them both at Barnes & Noble.


Want something to foward around? Humanitarian agencies are being kicked out of Darfur as we speak!!!

Read about it HERE

Sign the Petition HERE . I just did.

And the Congo is on a real fast track to hell!!!

Read About it here at the NY TIMES - "The Invisible War"

For God's sake folks - a swapped around book in a Barnes & Noble window in ONE neighborhood in all of Florida???!!! Offensive yes...grand scheme importance? None.
PLEASE PRIORITIZE!!!!

the Barnes & Noble Picture...

So no doubt you've seen or heard this one today...

-----Original Message-----

Barnes & Noble

Let us not be lulled into a sense of complacency, due to the recent political success of President Obama!

Racism still exists in this country. Like all things, nothing is perfect on this planet, in this world.

We have an obligation to be active on issues that simply cannot be ignored.
Along these lines we should all actively spread the word of how Barnes and Noble apparently feels about black people or at least our President.

Please forward this to as many people you think should be aware of it and would be offended by this.


Boycotting Barnes and Noble will show the economic effect of people who will not tolerate racism.


Barnes and Noble had this as their store front display in Coral Gables, FL, in the Miracle Mile Mall. I am totally disgusted and I think it isimportant that we all find a different place to buy our books. Obviously this is a place of extreme ignorance. How far have we really come?

God bless the CP race!


----
AND I SAY:

Is this a joke? I’m sorry but I don’t agree with this at all.

1)
As a photographer I have to note that if this was indeed a B&N window and I wanted to point out this outrage to the world, I would have ensured that there was an entire storefront photo to help market my outrage. Since this is not the case I have to question whether if this is a joke or not (considering there are so many folklore sights out there invalidating this issue)

2)
This has indeed put B&N in quite the tricky position of having to apologize as an institution for an occurrence at ONE store in one of the more racist states in the country, where it may have been a stupid prank by a customer or store worker. And so now, I should boycott the ENTIRE company (that does not sanction nationwide uniform corporate displays) for this supposed act????

3)
I live in New York and if you walk into ANY B&N here you feel proud of Barack Obama who has all but been immortalized in full show more than any other figure I’ve ever seen in ANY bookstore!

4)
The world now knows how overly sensitive we’ve become to the jokes, snears, and primate comparisons (which of course are not to be tolerated), but be careful that those who mean to offend us also mean to distract us in time wasting matters, lest we keep our attention steadfastly on continuing to build positive symbols of our obvious greatness, while enjoying the discounts off the very books that document just that. Ha!

It’s time to LIVE IN GLORY people. Pick the battles carefully, do no wear yourselves out on a win that may not count. The only satisfaction won here as I see it is the attention the prankster fool is getting out of this.

Long live the HUMAN race!

YardEdge Interview with Marisa Willoughby

Check out the latest YardEdge video blog - featuring Jamaican Artist Marisa Willoughby.

PART 1



PART 2

The Black List Project and the conversations it provokes..

I must sleep and digest what I just saw and heard at the Brooklyn Museum today - and then return to this entry. But for starters - I was invited by another female photographer of color, Amanda Adams Louis, to attend a special event, a panel discussion "What's Black Got To Do with It?" at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium. The summary of this was as follows:

This panel discussion, moderated by Elvis Mitchell, interviewer for The Black List Project, continues the exhibition’s consideration of how race, history, and each individual's striving shape and enrich their stories of success. The discussion will center on what the next four years might hold for Black women now that First Lady Obama and her daughters have moved into the White House. Panelists will include Studio Museum in Harlem Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden, acclaimed artist Lorna Simpson , and CNN Entertainment Correspondent Lola Ogunnaike.

I had wanted very much to see this project featuring large format portraits by Timothy Greenfield Saunders - so the topic of discussion was simply an added bonus. Sitting in that auditorium and listening to these women, and to Elvis Mitchell, made me realize and remember a simple truth...it is really important to congregate, to gather and share your experience. I heard things that I thought in my self imposed isolation were my own concerns or observations. Gosh what a shock to realize how common it was that women of color do so revel in Michelle Obamas skin tone and features, and what meaning it brings to how we feel we will be perceived henceforth.



There were many areas of discussion enveloped in the question of "What's Black Got to do with it?" such as:

-How we will weather the complete destabilization, well, destruction of our federal funding for the arts, and how that will challenge particularly non-commercial artists of color. Lorna Simpson made some incredible points about the technological inequities that exist, where access and ability to participate in the new world of internet exposure is sharply limited among people of color, particularly in the poor nations of the world, in Africa and the Caribbean. The irony is that its much cheaper to get your work seen in today's digital world - but you must have access to those cheaper means in order to benefit from this advancement. When and how, in today's economy will we have sufficient initiatives to bridge this gap? At least, I heard today, that Obama's stimulus proposal will include $50 million to the Nat'l Endow. for the Arts. It's a start...

- We are now by default made to return to important conversations and cultural observations of our place, our growth, our importance, and our contributions to society, now that the "bling bling" era of self-serving materialistic distraction has now been brought to a sudden and jarring halt.

-We must now consider how to quantify the significance or gravitas of Michelle Obama's win, how black women will be viewed, and what will now be expected of them, of us; the excitement and concern of what it means to suddenly be shifted from invisibility to complete and utter important symbolic visibility..., hers, her daughters, and thus our sudden and near ubiquitous image now and forever and positively included in the photographic history of America...of the world!

Lola Ogunnaike was repeatedly noting that in her experience, she was constantly responding to comments of how her presence as a dark-skinned black woman on CNN was of particular importance to many sisters, that the meaning of this has apparently swelled with Michelle Obama's ascent to First Lady in the White House.

-There was too, a question by Elvis Mitchell whether all people of color, will disappear AFTER Obama - like how TV land looked post the Cosby Show? Could this attention be just for the moment? Where will we be in four years? And someone asked too - what is Black History Month now going to be like - and will it become redundant?

There were indeed SO many things I wanted to discuss regarding my understanding of the significance of this time - through the eyes of an immigrant, a perpetual immigrant...a West African (Sierra Leoneon born), raised, and schooled in the Caribbean, British, and American societies, seeped in the social sensitivities of the black diaspora from three very distinct points of view. I asked what I thought was quite an important question:

So now that our image has been positively redesigned in the likeness of the Obamas for other 'races' - what will this do for relationships WITHIN the black race? How does this address intra-racism? And since this panel is specifically about black women - how does this affect the relationships among all sisters of color?


More anon - but in the meantime...I've found the Black List playlist on youtube. Check it:

What Is It to Live Creatively?

The question I've pondered my whole life is "what is it to live a creative life?" Is it to search, or to find your purpose and passionately without fear or caution, chart a course of action to pursue this singular purpose and fulfill it? Or is it to let the essence that is YOU change and unfold anew, as you keep yourself open to any and all adventures you may happen upon; to create and share multiple textures of self and to be rewarded and fulfilled by the experience itself?

I've tried both and neither way has settled the question. The traditional paradigm that we all exist in - particularly in America I think, offers little permission for the latter, and few rewards for the obedient follower of the former. There is great monetary reinforcement and useful social gain to opt for another path - that is, to live the pre-meditated, strategic life: get the traditional degree - one that has been proven to be socially necessary and profitable, and get it from the right institution; attend the right parties; join the acceptable clubs; learn the unoffensive, agreeble language; think critically only when a format is set as to how to do so acceptably; invest here; buy that; live here; eat 2000 calories a day; laugh at this volume; marry that person; procreate by X age; don't curse; never share; expose nothing; eat your vegetables; drink more water; etc, etc. By the time you've satisfied even half of this list perhaps 20 years have gone by and suddenly you're gripped by a frighting and urgent need for a DO-OVER, back when you knew who you were and what your taste was, how to take risks, and the fact that you hate water and like to use the word "fuck". Sound familiar? Perhaps because we're horse fed this shit, only about living as a straight player BY the straight players as it were; the mysteriously irrefutable and unidentified 'they' we always hear about...

But what about those of us who live only in a state of risk? We wake up one day too from our non-traditional high-on-life trip, only to realize that we're on the outside with no way of buying our way back in. The mid-life crisis of the artist??? What in Christ's name is that? Well, if you didn't sell your soul to Big Brother - you wake up and realize that you made the decision to be financially and socially isolated from the majority of 'swimming sleeping minions', who you now idolize from inside your 'empty' fish bowl, sealed and seated in a vast tank of unreachable toys and comforts, while their faces press in to your globe wishing to experience for a day what it could be like to be such a liberated and exotic misfit. Incredible.

Could the grass be greener only and simply because we have our backs turned to our own lawn while craning our necks over the fence to get a peep at the garden next door?

To live creatively I believe is to live honestly; in truth; however that is to be manifested by you - whatever that means, so long as it is satisfying an intrinsic need within you to feel, experience, create, or express, and NOT to satisfy some external requirement or subscription on how to live out the limited days you have on this earth.

With that - I leave you with a trailer for a documentary I intend to watch VERY shortly, about someone who has done just that: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson





see link below also.  serious talk and hard truth with eerily current relevance.

Top Ten Hunter S. Thompson Quotes on Alternative Reel

SeBiArt Hosts Video Blog on YARDEDGE - 1st Interview - SPUR TREE LOUNGE, NYC

PART I

PART II

1 COMMENT FOR THIS ENTRY

germaican_lady

Laaawwed, mi hungry now!! ...lol... Oh, by the way, what DON'T you do, girl?

Posted by GermaicanLady on Sunday, January 18, 2009 - 21:50
[Reply to this] [Remove] [Block User]

Late but still affecting...a little thought on Obama's Victory

The night Barack won, my mum called me from Jamaica. Like all around us, and around the world, we wept - and she said to me "You see Berette, do you see what he has done? Look at his supporters: an even mix of every type of person jumping together as one body. That is the world your father and I raised you to see, that is the world we wanted to you to live in." And I cried out, LOUDLY and almost violently because that night, I remembered the girl I was when I moved here and my heart opened for me to begin loving myself again.

Yes, it was truly an amazing time to be alive, to be a part of such joy, such openness, such incredulous euphoric oneness on that night, and I will forever cherish having been alive to witness and experience it. I was jumping till the wee hours in Times Square - too filled and too hungry to be filled more to go home. :) It was also the night I accepted America as my home. 

A Response to DISPATCHES FROM (A)MENDED AMERICA

I received a most moving email describing the new endeavors of my acting professor Godfrey Simmons Jr, inspired by Barack Obama's Historic victory. (See my Favourite Blog List or go directly to www.dispatchesfromamendedamerica.blogspot.com). I was immediately inspired by his appeal and responded to it with a most personal account of my journey as a black immigrant here in the United States. First a synopsis of his project - followed by my response:

In the month leading up to the Presidential Inauguration, I will be traveling throughout America with my friend and colleague Brandt Adams to interview Americans about this watershed event. The guiding questions will be: What does the election of America's first African American President mean to you? Has this changed your life and if so, how? Has this changed America? What do we do now? We feel we can best investigate these questions by soliciting real Americans' own stories of the 2008 presidential election through their eyes and in their own words. What are their hopes for the President elected on hope? What suggestions can they give to an Obama administration that would keep them engaged in the governance of our country?

The interviews, which will be digitally recorded either on audio or video, will form the basis of a documentary theatre piece called DISPATCHES FROM (A)MENDED AMERICA. Brandt and I, two displaced sons of the South, will begin traveling on December 28th along the same routes used by The Freedom Riders in 1960 and then make our way from Mississippi, North toward Chicago, retracing The Great Migration of African Americans from 1910-1940. Finally, we'll make our way eastward through Philadelphia, finally landing in Washington DC on January 19th in time for the Presidential Inaugural Ceremony. We plan to interview people in Farmville, Virginia, home to one of the school districts included in the original five cases comprising Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka; Greensboro, site of the first civil rights sit-in at Woolworth's; and Oxford, Mississippi, where James Meredith integrated the University of Mississippi in 1962. The fact that Brandt is a 25-year-old white man born and raised in Virginia and I am a 42-year-old black man raised in Virginia only serves to amplify the resonance of this project to us both personally and politically.

My Response

I would like to share a couple of thoughts with you on this if you don't mind. I know I'm not an American, and so there's a particular meaning that this election has had for African Americans that I can't share in a historical or cultural context, but I can certainly share in an emotional one, as a black immigrant in this country. As you know, I am the daughter of two attorneys/human rights activists - of West African and German decent. I grew up as a foreigner in every country I've lived, in Jamaica, the UK, and now here, raised with ideals that espouse the same values as those lofty ones upon which this country was built...We The People... .  I moved here with, as I was told, a blanket over my eyes. I therefore lived to, and relished in cracking the glass of stereotypes. I was lucky to make it to my mid-twenties with no idea, experience, or frankly belief in racism; with no tolerance for the so-called existence of it in my daily life; no real empathy for any one who cried from its contemporary lashes; and I certainly didn't identify with the living meaning of 'minority' - for you see, I had that middle class up-bringing in nations where either BLACK was the majority (and so therefore I've seen black leaders of nations), or in the UK where being 'an educated black' was lauded so much so that it was barely even noticed! A far cry from America where being black was a point to be noted no matter WHAT you do or where you are from! You're black first, and then the rest of your demographic or personal details can be organized into some pre-ordained section of the social quilt.

Over the years, I have felt the blanket I came here with fall from my eyes. I can no longer argue, shut off, or close my eyes to the fact that I have been fighting a thing I never fought before. I have to fight to be me, to be 'Berette'. I know undeniably now how "the angry black woman" is formed. Not so much because of I've become one, but because of moments when I channeled the feeling of one because I felt denied the right to be the educated, beautiful, mild mannered, sexy, intelligent and sophisticated being that I actually am. Yes I said it! ha! When I open my mouth and this nondescript accent comes out, I am no longer blinded to the confusion it causes - I am now hurt by it. When I speak in well constructed sentences, and offer bridge-tales for a desperate connection - or as an explanation, I have felt saddened by the fascination and incredulousness in the eyes of some of my listeners or audience, and no longer enjoy the acceptance I gain, as it is often in the form of exotification if you will. If I don't dress in fashionable duds, I can't get a cab or service in a store. I can't deny that the woman I am, that many of my sisters are, is not seen in the media or represented in a way to reinforce the validation of my apparent freakish existence. I can't believe that I find myself now seeing, feeling, and experiencing things I never saw, felt, or heard in my childhood. As a woman, a black woman, I have come to experience and understand the burden of this ascribed status and its place at the bottom of the totem pole. I have come to understand as a quiet social rule that I am not a status prize on the arm of men, and most painfully therefore of black men who have further to climb. I have taken on damaging thoughts of myself. After over a decade, I have fallen from my parents' idealistic heights and now live as a 'minority'.

I was going through an emotional break - a sense of a loss of self, and I needed to get out, for in my subjective world, - I came to conclude that while living here, America was apparently teaching me to hate myself. Then Barack Obama came along, with that wife of his. :) Let me state that since March of this year, it was Michelle Obama who held my interest most. It was her, who gave him deep character in my eyes. It was her interviews and speeches I paid closest attention to - most of them featured on CSPAN. He was easy for me to accept - as we have seen this (type of) man represented in politics and media before - and frankly I grew up around men like that, his rhetoric, his sentiments, wishes, projections, dreams were refreshingly familiar to me. His style of debate woke up an unused part of my mind and heart and brought my father back to me.  But his wife - she represents CHANGE, in a way that will I believe, quietly shift and alter far more in the current paradigm of the world than even his win.   I grew up with women like this all around me too - my mother being one cut from the same cloth.  But rarely have I seen these women commonly featured plainly in politics, high academia, or media, if at all, the lack of which contributed to my forgetfulness and diminutive perception of myself in America.  Oh, to be so priviliged to be a little black girl in the world today to see her, a tall dark-skinned, broad-nosed, well spoken educated, black woman as the First Lady of a first world white majority nation!  As she said, and I paraphrase 'to be a girl who will be a woman my age some day living in a world where she can take this for granted!'  INDEED.  What privilige to be black adult female to see that too. WE needed that. I NEEDED, I NEEDED to see THAT in my lifetime. How will this change how black women are seen? How will this lift some of the burden? How will this remove: the xenophobia, the concubine crown, the mammi cap, the animalistic vulgarness expected of us, the anger, the pain, bipolar post-traumatic stress and confusion, the lashes of thankless expectation of strength, the lack of positive reinforcement, the lack of permission to be weak or to be great? How will this remove the invisibility? Will this give black women the right to be unremarkably yet respectfully normal? Godfrey, this is what I wept for that night.

Strangely enough - I really didn't experience doubt about the trajectory of Barack's campaign. It seemed ordained and so I believed, but not with a blanket over my eyes, rather with a knowing and a worry frankly, of how he would be regarded by the end of 2009. For anyone who would have won, love and popularity would not be theirs' to hold by the holidays of next year, but I felt weary of the first black president having to endure the impatience from the public from what will be hardcore third world political choices imposed on us to fix the mess of that nitwit Bush. It will be interesting to see how long and how tightly we can hold on to the hopes we now project onto our Son of Hope. He will need our faith and our patience and our belief and our celebration more a year from now - it is key that we know this now - for the romance will end shortly.

My mum called me from Jamaica - and we wept - and she said - "You see Berette, you see what he what he has done? Look at his supporters: an even mix of every type person jumping together as one force - that is the world we raised you to see, that is the world we wanted to you to live in." And I cried out, LOUDLY and vigourously, because that night, I remembered the girl I was when I moved here and my heart opened to begin loving myself in the American context  again.

I wish you every possible blessing on this journey. I wish for you to be filled and for you to find all you seek, I anxiously await the blog entries and the theatrical work that will be birthed from this effort.

Peace with much ease dear brother, teacher, and old friend,

Berette

lines|music|poetry|humanity - the words and voice of Ben Okri

"We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It's just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there. Destiny plans a different route, or turns the dream around, as if it were a riddle, and fulfills the dream in ways we couldn't have expected."

"Reading, like writing, is a creative act. If readers only bring a narrow range of themselves to the book, then they'll only see their narrow range reflected in it."

And speaking of narrow views -  this is such a poignant talk on the danger of such limitations - seen on TED:  "Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."

Chimamanda Adichie: The danger of a single story

SeBiArt Summer Program - Mark Your Calendars!!

So guess what dear revelers - its party time AND showtime all under one roof and and on one boat!! I'm collaborating with a bunch of creative geniuses this summer to bring to you some great art, excellent entertainment, and fun on a boat - jamming to tunes and watching some great dance in the golden sunset! Check out the flyers and see you there!!

The first event is All We Have Left… an evening of art by me, and new choreographic works by Sarah Holmes' SHBA Danceworks, and more NYC based and visiting dance companies from the west coast.
I will be previewing my photo series "Crowded" for this show. It will be presented at Triskelion Arts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on July 25th. There will be an after party too! See flyer below and more at www.triskelion.org:

The next event is the "Summer Groove Cruise" hosted by Art For Progress – the New York based non-profit arts and education organization that headed up the competition I won back in March. This event held on Aug 7th promises to be a lot of fun on the Star of Palm Beach circling the island of Manhattan in the evening sun. It will be a 3 hour soiree of music, dance performances, and art. This will also be an amazing opportunity to view up close international artist and weather maker Olafur Eliasson's New York City Waterfalls installed at different points with prime viewing from the water. If you don't have your own boat – come claim this one people! This is the way to parTAY!! Performances by Nina Buisson Contemporary Move featuring principal dancer Maki Shinagawa and SHBA Danceworks in collaboration with SeBiArt. See flyer and www.artforprogress.org:

SEE YOU THERE!!!

I Friggin WON!!!!! Ha - I got support like Obama!! lol!

I won!!! I won!!! I can't friggin' believe it! Check out the link(click or copy & past):
http://www.artforprogress.org/contest.php

And now I have to figure out how to put this all together in a presentation for the Clash of the Artist event on March 15th. This is when the finalists and winners get to show off their work liVe!! :) A friend of mine and finalist, fashion designer Prizy Sebastian will be showing her stuff there too - and ladies, it would be wrong to miss it - she makes SERIOUSLY gorgeous stuff. OMG - I'm so excited!!!! Please mark your calendars! Check out the http://www.artforprogress.com under "Upcoming Events" for when & where, and also for more upcoming events they have too.

the January campaign poster below - :) LOL!

hello my people!

I submitted a slideshow video from a photo series called "SPLIT" that I started some time ago. I've submitted it to an organization called Art For Progress, for their annual Clash of the Artists event. If you've been to my website or my channel on YouTube (www.youtube.com/SeBiArtPhotography) you may have already seen my video. The image below is the thumbnail that you'll see on the site.

The link is http://www.artforprogress.org/contest_PARTICIPANTSPAGE.php. The video can be found in the "Creative" category located in the drop down menu on the page. Clicking on the photo will allow you to view the video in full – or – if you've seen it already you can just click on the VOTE button beside my name! Online Voting Ends on Feb 20th!

Thanks so much for your support!



4 COMMENTS FOR THIS ENTRY


GermaicanLady

Aaahhh, Berette! You WON!!! I am so happy and excited for you! You deserve it, girl! Thumbs up and have a great time for the both of us cos I will definitely not make it... Congratulations!!! Hugs and kisses... :-)

Posted by GermaicanLady on Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 21:16
[Reply to this] [Remove] [Block User]


MaryContrary™©

YAYYY!! Sorry for the dorky cheer, but hell... you know me...

This is AWESOME! I can't wait to go see the exhibition!! I enjoy excitement vicariously through you... CONGRATS!!

Posted by MaryContrary™© on Friday, February 22, 2008 - 16:32
[Reply to this] [Remove] [Block User]



Jamie B

Hey just wanted to drop by and say congeratulations.... I love your photos! X

Posted by Jamie B on Saturday, February 23, 2008 - 15:34
[Reply to this] [Remove] [Block User]


Sawandi

Hey!!!!!
i know i'm late, but....
Big big big big BIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! congrats

wow

Posted by Sawandi on Saturday, March 01, 2008 - 12:10
[Reply to this] [Remove] [Block User]