Bucket list accomplishment #1

only a couple of weeks after composing my bucket list and I can already cross of number one! the roots along with Erykah badu stopped in Atlanta on may 23. I had heard rumors that sometimes when ?uest is in town he will deejay at a local spot in the city, most likely MJQ. well this time, it was no secret. the event, co-promoted by 4 kings entertainment, was featuring ?uestlove on the turntables as a part of MJQ’s traditional friday night fix. I want to take this time to thank the lifetime member of the scholarship committee who treated me to my bucket list experience. (SCHOLARSHIP!)

dj majestik and dres tha beatnik held it down in the booth playing hits and some of the best songs that you forgot about. after a couple of hours, MJQ was packed, ?uest was ready in the booth, headphones covering afro, and black thought even came through and spit quite a few bars including two of my favorite roots’ songs star and rising up from their new album.

1 down, 27 to go. check out the pics. ☺

10 Things a Single Man Hates to Hear

10 things a single man hates to hear

I'm probably giving away a money idea, but I've always wished there was a yahoo for the male mind. a place where I could type in the male sentences I had a hard time translating and receive some sort of glimpse into the male psyche that might help me to understand and better communicate. in lieu of malemindyahoo.com, it pays to have good guy friends. ☺

blogging is really about conversation, so I thought it only right to present the male side of my previous blog 10 things single women hate to hear. I sent out an email to the single fellas and siphoned 10 things they hate to hear.

From women…
1. We need to talk.

2. There are no good men out here.
"A lot of women are blind and have no clue what a good man looks like."

3. You're such a nice guy.

4. I don't need a man.

5. I'm late.

6. I would like to date a guy just like you.
"This sucks when it's a chick you dig and you're thinking there is no one more like me than ... me."

7. You're like my brother.

8. I'm a classy chick.
"Classy women don't need to say this."

9. I want to get married before I turn 30.

From family and friends…
10. When are you going to settle down, get married and have some kids?

fellas, got anything to add? ladies, what do you think?

my bucket list

the term bucket list of course is inspired by the recent jack nicholson/morgan freeman flick about two older dudes who make a list of things to do before they kick the bucket. unfortunately i haven't seen the movie but tiffany, kimpossible, and a. hill inspired me with their bucket lists so i thought i would come up with my own.

we all have ideas of things we dream to do if the world were perfect, if we knew we couldn't fail, if we had an everlasting supply of money. something about dreaming of these things brings the true desires of our heart to the surface. makes things seem a lot more possible than they might at first glance. so dear readers, here is my bucket list, in no particular order and definitely not exhaustive. i'm hoping to add more to the list as life goes on...

1. experience questlove deejaying live
2. get published in essence magazine
3. get published in o magazine
4. get published in urb magazine
5. write and publish at least two books (hopefully more!)
6. travel to italy for at least a two week trip
7. travel to africa for at least a three week trip
8. attend a jay-z concert with my brother robert
9. travel to israel
10. take a cross country road trip when i really have time to take my time and enjoy it
11. research my family origin on both sides similar to african american lives
12. be a part of a mentoring program for young women
13. go to the u.s. open with my grandma and family
14. take my grandma to a real scrabble tournament
15. learn how to salsa dance and chicago step (instead of that fronting i do when step in the name of love comes on :O)
16. finish the scrapbook of all these pictures, programs, tickets, greeting cards, notes, letters etc that i've been saving all these years
17. check out eric roberson's night at SOB's
18. marry somebody i love, who's my friend, and can tolerate me getting on his nerves and vice versa and have some babies
19. organize a girlfriends trip for my close friends, esp the ones i rarely get to see
20. learn how to cook at least 15 dishes very well!
21. make it through 80 minutes of yoga without having to lay down for a few minutes
22. take better care of my health
23. see earth, wind, & fire and frankie beverly & maze live
24. travel to the caribbean
25. take my mom to the schomburg
26. leave life with little to no regrets
27. not let fear keep me from doing anything
28. be real with myself and with God

10 Favorite Spike Lee Flicks

my mom got me hooked on spike lee flicks starting with mo better blues. this is when I became oh so well acquainted with classic spike technique. first, the jazz score. no spike lee joint is complete without some sort of jazz seeping right out of a scene as if it is a character in and of itself. second, is the spike lee shot, used in nearly every spike lee film…I'm sure there is a technical name for this, if you are a film head help me out here. now on my top ten spike lee joints…

1. mo better blues
2. malcolm x



3. four little girls
4. do the right thing



5. jungle fever
6. bamboozled
7. school daze



8. when the levees broke
9. she's gotta have it
10. get on the bus

10 Things a Single Woman Hates to Hear

a few weeks ago, kimpossible and I traveled down to orlando, fl for the fusion experience. sponsored by Rightnow.org, fusion is a conference that encourages 20 and 30 somethings to live their faith out of the box and this is my fourth year being a part. along with co-emceeing the event with marc mccartney, I do some poems, and facilitate a breakout session.

as an opener for my session, "for single women only," I emailed some of my single female friends to poll them on the things they hate to hear. after receiving humorous emails and ignorant stories I siphoned the list to 10 things. shoutout to all the ladies who attended my session in Orlando and those who attended the first "for single women only" in dallas. for your reading pleasure…

10 Things a Single Woman Hates to Hear

1. When am I gonna have some grandchildren?
I actually just had to deal with this question recently for the first time. for the most part my family encourages me to pursue my dreams and I don't get too much pressure. but in the not too distant past a loved one who will remain nameless recently inquired of when I might be getting on this grandchildren train. I of course shifted focus to other family members who are married with kids, but no such luck. it's clear that this conversation was not about grandkids in general. it was specifically about grandkids with half my genes. lol I told said loved one…let's work on the getting married part first then we can talk about grandkids. lol

2. When is your boyfriend going to propose?
some of the ladies who are boo'd up said that they get the proposal pressure from the family and friends…may be worse around holidays. :O

3. There is someone out there…
I've always wondered about this one. On my most cynical day I was like really…have you seen him?!

4. It'll happen when you least expect it.
Raise your hand single women if you have tried to "least expect it" just so "it" will happen! LOL Dang…but I would have to say every time “it” happened to me, it happened when I least expected it. Okay, maybe there’s some truth to this one! :D

5. I know this really nice guy you'd be interested in.
I would tell my worst "let me hook you up" story but it cannot be blogged about. I must tell it in person. lol all I can say is be wary of letting your co-workers set you up! if you see me in the street I'll spill the gory details.

6. If you just _____, you could get a man.
This is an interesting one. Now, I'm not denying that all of us could probably use some growth, maturity, change. But if your only purpose for changing or growing is to nab a man, i venture to say it's not a good look.

7. I'm not ready for a committed relationship, but I still want to hang out with you.
This one received terrible reviews from my email responses and I quote "This is called: Trying to have their cake and eat it too....HECK NO!!!"
8. You're such a cool girl, why can't my girlfriend be more like you?
Dang, I don't even have a comment! lol

9. Why are you still single?
This was the response I received the most from my single female friends. No matter who's asking, something about this question is highly frustrating. Like if I knew why I was single…wouldn't I change it?! But I think a guy's perspective may help on this one. My friend Caleb shed some light. He said when a man says this to a woman, it's normally a compliment. Like he thinks you're so great he wonders why you're still single. Not like what in the world is wrong with you. LOL So before you answer this one, take a deep breath and have some positive thoughts. :)

10. We're never gonna get married.
At a roundtable of girlfriends, powwowing on the latest dating/relationship escapades this statement is likely to be tossed around. I've said it and I've heard it said. It's the fallback from your last dating experience, the defense mechanism many single women hope keeps them from hurt and disappointment.
Now…I'm not gonna get on my soapbox…at least not in this blog. lol But I firmly believe there's no use in bemoaning where you are in life in hopes of being someplace better. Enjoy wherever you are and live life to the fullest…I'll be covering this topic more in future blogs. I gotta end with a quote that inspires me no matter how many times any of these ten things.

"And don't be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God's place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God, not your marital status, defines your life." – Paul (The Message)

Single ladies…did I miss any of the things you hate to hear? Fellas anything you want to add? A blog with the male perspective on this topic is coming soon…

10 Favorite Movie Scenes

this blog is inspired by the movie that thing you do. every time this movie comes on tv I literally sit there and watch the whole movie for a 30 second scene, which is one of the ten scenes here. liv tyler's lines in that 30 seconds stick with me every time! I also admit dear reader that the color purple appears more than once in this list. if I thought about it I probably could have catalogued 10 scenes from the color purple alone! :O for your reading pleasure…

1. God is trying to tell you something – the color purple


2. you a liar and you a cheat – the jacksons: american dream (check in at 3:00)


3. thousands of kisses – that thing you do


4. follow the drip – house party


5. kills your brain cells, son. – lean on me


6. When you figure out you want to spend the rest of your life with someone you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. – when harry met sally


7. the last scene of fatal attraction

8. did I ever ask you for anything?! – the color purple

9. "sista" – the color purple (including "harpo, who dis woman?"


10. proud mary – what's love got to do with it?

Excerpt from CS Mag Cover Story

Here is an excerpt from the CS Mag Cover Story, March 2008. I'll post the full version of the article in June.

Hear Me Say…
by: Amy Jacobs

Spoken word artist Amena Brown finds her voice in unlikely places

“Are you a night owl?” Amena Brown asked as we exchanged a string of e-mails in hopes of finding time to talk. She’s a night owl – and there’s good reason. Amena juggles work as a spoken word artist, a music journalist, a poet, and still manages to hold down a corporate America day job. So, a phone interview at 11:00 p.m. was a matter of necessity – quite frankly, there aren’t enough hours in Amena’s day.

While we spoke at length, Amena probably should have been packing her bags for the back-to-back conferences where she would be speaking and performing during the next few days. Instead she gave me her undivided attention as she told me what it is to be Amena Brown.

BEYOND THE RHYME

Amena is most commonly known for worshipful poetry she’s written and performed at gatherings such as Passion and LeadNow conferences. Her gift for spoken word led her into the thick of ministry, but that was never Amena’s intention. She simply loved poetry, and was willing to walk through each door God opened.

Amena’s mother instilled in her a love for words, and from a young age she found writing to be her greatest form of self-expression. Years later, as she sat in Atlanta coffee bars and clubs, Amena was exposed to a world of performance poetry that changed her life. “I encountered so many people who are great poets. I heard people who are darn good at what they do, people who knew how to say what they wanted to say. I was inspired,” she shares.

Week after week as she looked around the places she went to hear poetry, she saw people crammed into rooms, shoulder to shoulder. Amena noticed that the audience came seeking something – they wanted to hear truth. The topic didn’t matter as long as someone spoke with conviction and talked about the truth of his or her life. “When I realized that’s why people come to these clubs, I remember telling God that I wanted to go into rooms like this and share who He is,” Amena recalls. “Maybe the audience would identify with it and eventually respect that it’s true.”

Although she comes from a heritage of ministry, Amena never had any ambition of performing in church. In her world, people who performed spoken word did it for the love of poetry. Sure she might write a piece of poetry about God, but she would perform it where all the poets were, not necessarily for a congregation of believers.

Today, most of Amena’s Christian audiences want to hear her poems, and lately she’s been asked to perform and lead breakout sessions at conferences. “From what they hear, they think I’m a worship leader,” Amena says. In her eyes, she’s far from being a worship leader. She’s just sharing a gift God has given her, and she’s as likely to do that in a smoky bar as a church.