Thursday, October 29, 2009

Faith is reborn and Daily Cultivating and Consulting Creativity, Intellect and Expression

Daily Cultivating and Consulting Creativity, Intellect and Expression

Hey Pham,

I am trying out www.hubpages.com . (Check my page www.hubpages.com/djdannak) It is this awesome site that will share everywhere, but I didn't realize it would only deliver the link here. It is part cool understated blog and part webpage home which equals your own hub.

A lot of you say a lot of wonderful things to me about how I express myself and the accidental intellect I have become. Thanks for the LOVE and I am excited to report I have found an avenue expression for all of me and "my stuff". Check me out and click the links on the page too

Let's catch up right quick...

October 19th was the day that grief turned 30. Last Monday made 30 years that My beautiful mother Helen Dianne King Kiel went over to the other side of Jordan. However my personal pastor, mentor and friend encouraged me not to continue to acknowledge grief and loss, but seize the faith that I will soon see her face, as well as, gleefully look upon the face of Jesus who paid the price so that my mother and can be together one day.

So I press...

Faith was reborn just about everyday last week, as well, through test and trials that my Faith truly brought me out of...so maybe just maybe Hope can spring eternal as long as my faith is in tact...

So I press...I press to be obedient because I also learned last week that my obedience (to God that is) is the greatest demonstration of my Faith and it is that FAITH that GOD responds to....

So I press...and as a songwriter sang "I look for him to take the pain out of the pain and the hurt out of the hurt"...and another sang "I wanna go ....where Jesus is....I got a mother over there...where Jesus is..." (me too)

So I press and I wait...and while I wait I must share while on this side of Jordan...meet me at my hub....www.hubpages.com/djdannak

Blessings to my Bishop Dr. Kenneth Ulmer who recently suffered this loss (last week), as well as, my high school classmate who updated her status to reflect that her mother transitioned today also ...

ALL LOVE
Ashe
Amen
Danna

Friday, October 16, 2009

Pause ...Consider...African American Actresses can and will open films...

Part 1

Disclaimer...the blog below is not what I intended when I opened the "new post" window to write...but it is what flowed like blood from a fresh cut...

I use the above title not so much as what this whole blog will be about, but I have just noticed that positive and negative thinking seem to work the same way. Have you noticed that the more you say anything the closer and closer and closer it gets to becoming true. Haven't you also noticed that if fact already supports a supposition like the one above, it will not improve if everyone keeps saying it. Repeating it does not make it okay, right or true forever. Consider this...the sooner you stop saying it; it like that dream deferred and that raisin in the sun will shrivel up and die and not continue to fester like a sore and then run...

As some of you know I am a writer and not an actress, but a good number of the stories that I am interested in seeing told or want to tell tend to be a reflection of the personal culture I know extraordinarily well. I am woman. I am Black (or African American). Nearest to my heart is the narrative from and about either or both groups.

I appeal to readers, listeners, writers and bloggers everywhere to pause and consider the idea that if we lift the veil of this daily "hammered" notion and begin to believe that not only is it possible, but imagine and see it as reality...it could happen. African American Actresses can and will open films to huge box office.

And so it has been with every great struggle: Women Suffrage, Anti Slavery and Abolition, Civil War, Anti Lynching, Black Codes, Jim Crow, Integration (whether we agree that it was for the best or the worst) Civil Rights, Affirmative Action, Roe V. Wade, the Vietnam Wall, Martin Luther King's Birthday (thank you Stevie Wonder and others for Marching in your long fur in Washington, DC) the list of movements is long and wide, but you get it right ? Someone(s) with clout, resource, focus and determination had to have a vision and then an action plan to support that vision to make it happen or as the saying goes to "make it rain". Say it with me...African American Actresses can and will open films to huge box office.

We of course want to shout of all the actresses: Jill Marie Jones, Kerry Washington, Golden Brooks, countess Vaughn, Tracee Ellis Ross, Queen Latifah, Halle Berry, Monica Calhoun, Nia Long, Terri Vaughn, Ruby Dee, Suzanne Douglass, Napiera Groves, Taraji P. Henson, Kim Fields, Erika Alexander, Lisa Bonet, Phylicia Rashad, Sanaa Lathan< Gabrielle Union, Kay Pri Marcus, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Paula Jai Parker, Victoria Dillard, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Tangi Miller, Viveca A. Fox, Vanessa Williams (both of them), Angela Bassett, Regina King, Esther Rolle, Bernadette Stanis, Alfre Woodard, Theresa Randle, Marla Gibbs, Theresa Merritt, Mabel King, Isabel Sanford ....Writers: Judi Ann Mason, Tina Andrews, Suzanne De Passe, Yvette Lee Bowser, Mara Brock Akil, Gina Prince Bythewood, Danna Kiel :-), Teanne Coleman-Chennault; Directors: Euzhan Palcy, Chip Fields, Debbie Allen, Mayeen Bassey, Julie Dash, Neema Barnett, Danna Kiel :-); Producers Kimberly Ogletree, Alyss Dickson, Joyce Washington, Helena Echegoyen, Bridget Davis, Tracey Edmonds, Poppy Hanks, Robi Reed, Holly Davis Carter, Rashida Turner that daily regularly and often make it their business to shift the paradigm and "Move That Bus" on a house that is in need of repair. Say it again ...African American Actresses can and will open films to huge box office.

(these lists are full of known and unknown folks (young women and those making their way) and they are all endless..they are in no order as these women are ALL SIGNIFICANT in contribution)

While the belief, the imagination and vision to shift to the reality that entitles this blog will not be a march on Washington or even a march through Hollywood or Beverly Hills for that matter...I just believe that some positive thinking is in order and so is a new conversation...words do have power... say it ...African American Actresses can and will open films to huge box office.

My prayer is that gate keepers will choose their words more carefully when speaking on the "now" possibility and the future. This is not a rant or even a "somebody done me wrong" blues song. I was yes tried by fire (yesterday), but awakened to press for the multi-prong solution to what is a (corporate model) fact based challenge. (I been aware and worried about this for much longer)

We are all professionals and business is certainly carried on a particular way in Hollywood. I don't think any entertainment industry professional agrees with all of the rules all of the time, but we all know you must work the system as is to carefully, clearly and fairly point out its flaws. Once the flaws are higlighted, SOLUTIONS must replace joints, washers and nuts that are not allowing the system to operate properly.

Growing in Going in Creativity
Ashe
Amen
Danna Kiel

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Our onging Derrion Albert Conversation...What we do now.....

Conversation Pieces...


Conversation from Wednesday regarding Tuesdays Blog
Leslie Williams Boissiere
Amazingly well said as always.

lwb
12 hours ago · Delete

thanks ...where you at Big B
6 hours ago · Delete

Conversation from Thursday regarding Tuesdays Blog, as well
Jennifer Muirhead Johnson
It's hard to believe that something like this could happen. And it seems like the people in the crowd were excited by the violence rather than shocked or outraged. Could it have anything to do with all the violence we see on tv, film, billboards, in music? Or are these kids just used to violence because they live with it everyday?
57 minutes ago · Delete

Danna Lafaye Kiel
I believe...there are so many puzzle pieces...some fit and some don't. All the things you mentioned tv, film, billboards and music are impactful because this generation is more visual than ever and desensitized because of the over stimulation and over titillation that comes with that territory, as well as, their reality. I think to a good extent the bar on what satisfies gets raised quarterly with the new lows in the music, television, gossip and reality. Teachers, schools, after school programs, boy scouts, girl scouts, Delteens, Debutante organizations, young gent organizations are not as well funded nor does what we teach or give through any service groups get amped quarterly so as to successfully compete with what's out there in the media marketplace or the plethora of channels through which this media is delivered and received (I heard 4th graders talking about getting an iPod touch (on sale it retails for $200 to $250)) and then couple all of that with parents who have checked out because they are working all the time, because of multiple jobs or in some cases strung out on various substances. You end up with what we spoke about earlier "weapons of mass destruction" parading around as our youth...
2 seconds ago · Delete
Write a comment...

More Conversation pieces...

I am posting conversations, thoughts and statuses because I really believe that we've got to permanently change how we get down on the day to day. WE ALL (including myself) function in a sort of tragedy to tragedy sort of way. We are at the peak of dialogue when the cataclysmic event happens and then we return to a whispering valley until the next catastrophe for which dialogue again peaks. We are admittedly awake, but we must remain consistently ALERT. As my grief over Derrion Albert turns into an action plan I am posting ideas, suggestions and commands through twitter and my FB statuses. Today I posted couple of commands and got some interesting responses ...I will share here....

sidebar in
Let us not forget that the family of Derrion may never be able to stop grieving this horror. I personally don't want anybody who is awake and alert to miss an opportunity to INSTIGATE CHANGE in the hearts and minds of not only ourselves, but other "Everyday People".
sidebar out

More conversation pieces...

Danna Lafaye Kiel To all my FB and Twitter Fam call any and every child you see today a SCHOLAR or GENIUS (if they don't know what that is tell them)
9 hours ago via Twitter · Comment · Like / Unlike · View Feedback (5)Hide Feedback (5)

Comments and "likes" were

Shannon Haley, Sonya Gibson and Cushon Bell like this.

Shannon Haley
Good Morning View Park Scholars :)
9 hours ago · Delete

Mia Brandlmeier
View Park Prep!!!
9 hours ago · Delete

Danna Lafaye Kiel To all my FB and Twitter fam it is not to early to tell your little ones they are and encourage them to be SCHOLARS (Ali's school does)
11 hours ago via Twitter · Comment · Like / Unlike · View Feedback (4)Hide Feedback (4)
LaTisha Green-Hernandez, Sabrina Slocum-Johnson and 2 others like this.
Write a comment...

I later posted ...


Danna Lafaye Kiel Wants FB and Twitter Fam to continue calling any and every child you see a SCHOLAR or a GENIUS

Comments and "likes" were the following...

7 hours ago via Twitter · Comment · Like / Unlike · View Feedback (4)Hide Feedback (4)
Natasha Warsaw likes this.

Darryl Moore
But Danna...what if the kid is really dumb as heck??? LOL...then I would be teaching the kid to lie...that ain't good. LOL
7 hours ago · Delete

Breuna Baine
Encouraging a kid's self confidence is one thing but giving them accolades they haven't earned is just making a fool of them and giving them an undeserved sense of entitlement. Too much of that crap already.

Danna Kiel
Bre...I disagree I believe that we have to believe in the genius or the scholar in every child... it is their own potential we must literally call out of them and by saying it as often as the opportunity presents and dialoguing with them it also sets an expectation and that is one of the keys to educating children, youth and young people ...our babies big and small have to know that somebody cares and believes in their potential for success...the Derrion Albert situation has brought me to the realization that even though he was a scholar those who killed him died many intellectual, spiritual and cultural deaths on the inside long ago and I believe we all have a role in stopping these Weapons of Mass Destruction wrapped in the minds and bodies of today's youth who without education, self esteem and living in poverty believe that their identity is wrapped in what they wear, what they drive, how many babies they can produce and how many folks they can terrorize, maim or even kill...I believe calling children "scholars" or "geniuses" is one small step in the long walk toward what Marvin Gaye commanded..."save the babies!"

Blog Pham,

I am drunk and high off the notion that real change can happen as evidenced by the election of November 4th, 2008 and successively the events of January 20th, 2009...so I am with my whole heart trying to do my part...the Revolution may not be televised, but there is a Revolutionary Movement afoot and I am cranking up my "moving" truck now. Join me for the ride or grab your keys and join the caravan of ....

Love

Ashe'
Amen
Blessings everybody...

Rev Jackson, Bow Wow and Nas have come forward will there be more....




To Jesse, Nas and Bow Wow...Thank You, Thank You and Thank You...

Will there be more who come forward and say something ? Will there be more who raise their voices in order to raze change and fight for a transformation of values? I ask this of our citizens who have a higher profile (some call them celebrities or stars) and through their raised profile can shine a light on the tragedies and work of everyday people. Day to day many preach, teach and mentor young people. The work however of the everyman and everywoman goes virtually unnoticed and those who do it go without thanks, reward, recognition or even acknowledgment.

My hope and prayer is that citizens with raised profiles can in a fair exchange with the consuming citizens who have acknowledged their God Given talents by purchase or aquisition of their content return love, support and admonition in times of pain and anguish as with the death of Derrion Albert (Katrina Victims, Amadou Dialo, Yusef Hawkins, Latasha Harland you are not forgotten). We really are family !!!

It is the role of adults everywhere to wrap arms of Love and protection around all of our young people. It is also our role as parents, teachers, preachers, principals, caregivers and more to lend tongues of reason, listening ears and willing hands to heal the hearts and change the minds of these same young people.

My mind is still baffled and my heart is still weak from a news story, odious in nature as this one.

Excerpts from CNN piece contain quotes from Grandfather, Aunt and others...His memorial was even burned the next day....

"He was in Bible class this Tuesday night. Church on Sunday," Walker told WLS-TV. "I have no trouble out of my grandson whatsoever. This thing that happened to him is so horrific that we just don't know what we're going to do. We lost a really dear friend in my grandson. He was a blessed child."

Walker said the family was struggling to come to terms with why Albert was killed.

"I don't know where all this anger come from these people today," he told WLS-TV. "That's just too much anger for someone to have in their heart. All I can do is I'm going to pray for these people, I'm going to to pray for forgiveness." Video Rick Sanchez asks, "Are our young people salvageable?" »

Albert's aunt, Rose Braxton, told CNN affiliate WGN-TV that the family was hurt again when a memorial in Albert's honor was burned down.

"To go and burn a memorial after such tragedy, then that just speaks for itself to what kind of people they are," she told WGN-TV.

Family and friends asked the community to turn in anyone they knew who was a part of Albert's beating."

Rev Pfleger said it best ...

"What kind of person, what kind of individual, has such rage and such anger and such madness?" the Rev. Michael Pfleger said. "We've got to get to the hearts of our children, because nothing, nothing, excuses or justifies the actions of an individual who would beat another individual. Nothing justifies that in this society. "

"All I know is...something gotta be did !"
(anonymous GA man)

PS: So People what is our Action Plan ? ..I'm serious ! - What is our plan ?

Blessings
Amen Everybody