I’ve actually asked myself this. So much of the literature during slavery spoke about the dominance of African genes. I don’t think they saw the contradiction.
I’m part of a business group on Facebook. I got into a discussion there recently that ended with me feeling upset.
One of the women at the post office asked if I would be willing to use my calligraphy skills to do some invitations for her son’s upcoming eighteenth birthday (they’re always admiring how I address my envelopes). I went to the group to ask advice on pricing. Nothing sit well with me and I eventually decided to do it for free. All of the employees at the post office have been amazing to me and it was a way for me to give back, even if just that one person benefitted from it. Plus I really don’t think they make a ton of money there. I also figured it would be a good way to get some practice. When I stated my decision, I got a barrage of negative comments that amounted to: “If you have a skill you can get paid for, don’t ever give it away for free.”
It upset me that they couldn’t see that it was a gesture rooted in gratitude. I actually told someone, “Not everything is about money,” and she acted like I was stupid to give away my services for free.
I ended up hanging out with some artist friends a day or two after and they all shrugged at the thought of doing it for free. Like myself, they’ve given away tons of pieces of art over the years. Things that they could have sold. They completely understood. And then it struck me why my decision had gone over the way it had in the other group.
When people are naturally talented at something they don’t see it as a big deal. It’s something that they enjoy and it comes easy to them, so giving it away just brings them pleasure, to share it, that someone appreciates it. But people who don’t have those skills look upon it with a different kind of reverence. And often they see dollar signs. They can’t understand having the ability to make money off of something and not exploiting it. The first group I had spoken to were like that, all of them business people. And this was why they reacted the way they did.
Ultimately I told the postal worker (June) that I’d do it for free and she was thrilled. She dropped them off for me on a Friday and I spent a few hours in my studio writing them out while a friend kept me company. June picked them up the next Monday and went straight to her son’s school to hand them out. The following week she texted me and sent me two photos from the party, told me it was a great success, and expressed her gratitude once again. I felt so happy to have played a small role in it all.
Part of me wants to write a follow up post in the group and part of me feels like why bother. Ultimately I made the right choice for all involved and everyone’s happy. I’ll stick to my guns. Because really, not everything is about money.
For the next 13 weeks starting today Audiofile is giving away two audiobooks a week to anyone who has the free Overdrive app (which a lot of libraries use). I did not have the app so I just got it, made an account (you only need to give a name, email and make a password) and I got the free audio books from the link!
This week (April 26/18 – May 3/18) the two free books are:
The Great War: Stories Inspired by Items from the First Word War by David Almond, John Boyne, Tracy Chevalier, Ursula Dubosarsky and Timothée Fombelle
I just found out the photoshop express app has some new cool filters. I was gonna use this photo to write about something else but here’s my mug in cool colours instead.
I have been through many copyright infringement cases – some have been resolved amicably, and there are ones that have taken more work. This case against Old Navy (Gap) is not getting resolved right now because Old Navy is denying copyright infringement.
They are being totally unapologetic, and have said that it would be a “bad business decision” for me to expect to be reasonably compensated for the use of my art. Instead of compensating me, they have chosen to pay a large law firm to fight me, andhave even asked the judge to order me to pay THEIR legal fees.
When a company as large and mainstream as Old Navy steals my art and profits from it, and is unapologetic about it, I cannot afford NOT to fight this. My lawyers and I will be fighting this for as long as it takes.
Thank you for all your support. Please feel free to repost this!
So like i was looking it up and apparently Crazy Rich Asians will be the first Hollywood film with an all-Asian cast in 25 years (the last one being 1993′s Joy Luck Club) AND the very first Hollywood rom-com with an all-Asian cast too! Why are ya’ll not talking about it more??? This is a big deal guys, we should give it the support it deserves!
Linguistic racism and antiblackness, internalized or otherwise, always rear its head in conversations surrounding the language spoken in the Caribbean. Namely, Jamaica.
Patois has its own grammatical structure which is separate from English and is accompanied by its own lexicon (which yes, does include English loanwords.. we were colonized and enslaved for a few hundred years so that happens).
Patois is not to be confused with a Jamaican person with an audible accent speaking English.
The sheer disrespect people give it because it’s a language born from colonization is ridiculous at best, and these same people are the ones who claim to love vacationing in our country and consuming our arts.
Jamaican Patois contains many loanwords, most of which are African in origin, primarily from Twi.
To reiterate:
Patois is not to be confused with a Jamaican person with an audible accent speaking English.
Let’s look at some hard examples.
Examples from African languages include /se/ meaning that (in the sense of “he told me that…” = /im tel mi se/), taken from Ashanti Twi, and Duppy meaning ghost, taken from the Twi word dupon (‘cotton tree root’), because of the African belief of malicious spirits originating in the root of trees (in Jamaica and Ghana, particularly the cotton tree known in both places as “Odom”).
Let’s keep it going.
The pronoun /unu or unnu/, used for the plural form of you, is taken from the Igbo language.
Let’s look at some real world examples of linguistic discrimination and trivialization of culture and denial of right to call a language what it is: a language.
Rihanna, a Bajan artist, released a song entitled “work”. On the track, she used quite a bit of Jamaican patois in the song, which was a dancehall/pop fusion.
People went bananas. The first thing to happen was the demotion of the language to “gibberish”.
Now, I want to take a step back here and actually rewind about 20 or so years.
Dancehall, a Jamaican music genre, has been in the international eye in a major way since the 90s, with artists like Shabba Ranks and Beenie Man holding the culture torch.
We’ve been scrutinized as a people for our language that exists in our music since then (and of course before that as well, but we won’t go into that for now).
From jokes about gibberish in movies and television (In Living Color did a skit on Shabba Ranks, mocking patois and Shabba’s prominent Black features. Thus, reducing a key bearer of popular Jamaican culture to an ugly (read: Black with Black features) gibberish spouting comedy crutch), we’ve been perceived as a caricature for so long, that blatant disrespect of our culture seems trivial.
Here’s the video for “Mr. Loverman” by Shabba Ranks: (xxx)
Here’s the parody video by the cast of In Living Color: (xxx)
So here we are in present day. We’ve watched dancehall in the 90s and early 2000s get “othered” in the American and European eye, and we’ve seen the caricaturization of Caribbean (in this case, Jamaican) culture so much that we are desensitized.
In comes Rihanna and her dancehall hit of 2016.
The language is demoted.
It went from “broken English” (which is problematic in and of itself, as the use of the term has been used to point to English being a default language worthy of respect and humanization for most of its speakers) to “gibberish” in a matter of seconds, with memes to match.
My language isn’t a broken dialect of your default language.
My language is an act of rebellion and is a middle finger to colonization and antiblack violence.
I’m proud of it and how my language and my people have influenced the world around us. Be more critical, because I watch a lot of you take part in this sort of behavior and it’s a shame.
ONE MORE TIME FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK‼️
Unnu ah guh put soom bloodclat respec pon mi language.💯💯
There is….Twi in Patois?
That makes so much sense
Many of us were stolen from modern day Ghana.
My grandmother is of a group of people called the Maroons. They fought for our liberation in Jamaica and even fought in other countries like neighboring Haiti.
My grandma, like many Maroons, speaks a language called Kromanti that is spoken among many elders on one of the settlements called Moore Town in Jamaica.
For some Ghanaian people, Kromanti and Twi are mutually intelligible, meaning they can understand us!
I call people out Everytime they say the song work is gibberish. I immediately tell them it’s not, she is from Barbedos and that is probably her language. Stop being an ass. I don’t speak the language but you don’t have to be a genius to know she probably incorporated some of her mother tongue. Again stop being an ass and think outside you tiny American box. In my experience it’s almost always white people who say it’s gibberish…I’ve yet to meet a black person who was like WTF? Like chill Karen it’s not like she don’t speak more that one language…get some culture.
It’s jarring to see constantly. Also, I didn’t put a race on this because I’ve seen Latinx, Black, and Asian Americans among others partake in this behavior as well. It’s something Indeed.
I went to a kid’s birthday party the other day and they asked if I wanted any party bags so I took two for my mom’s next door neighbour who has two kids. The one who the police raided for dealing weed the other day.
He told me they caught him before he was able to hide all of his stash and they took him to jail for a few days and released him with a fine. He didn’t seem bothered.
I asked him if he ever considered another line of work and he grinned and said he’s looking into some stuff. It’s pretty much all he’s ever done though. I’ve known him since he was a kid. He just… went that way. They were always nice kids though, very polite, he still is. Maybe if they decriminalise weed he can go legit.
today at work a man brought a pug in on a leash and that pug was so excited and happy to see me it was as if we were old friends who havent been in contact in 7 years i felt so loved in that moment
today a bassett hound came in and wagged her tail so furiously all of her loose skin started to jiggle and she was so pumped to see me i want more dogs to come into my store they make my life whole and worthwhile
I’m so glad this came back cause a golden retriever named Milly came in today who put her paws on my register counter and wanted to say hi to me and I loved her so much and I scratched her ears and she gave me that classic dopey dog smile
yesterday a girl came in with her boyfriend and in her hand was a tiny tan colored dog that she told me was a chihuahua/pekingese mix and he had a severe underbite and one little canine tooth was poking out and his ears were like bent at the tips and i immediately commented on how amazing he was and she goes omg thanks do you wanna pet him and i was like there is literally nothing more i want to do while being on the clock right now than to pet this incredible tiny dog and he was so sweet and licked my hand and his name was spike
yesterday these people came in and put a blanket into one of our shopping baskets and it started to move and i was like omg whats in there and they set it down on the counter and the blanket kept moving and the suspense was so good like is it gonna be a cat is it gonna be a ferret maybe a lizard and then the smallest chihuahua ive ever seen in my life popped her little head out and licked my finger and i died
A baby german shepherd named Jonathan came in tonight and since i was on the sales floor and not behind a counter i say to the owner omg can i pet this angel and they were like yeah of course and i crouched down and Jonathan ran into my arms and almost tripped over his puppy feet it was 12/10
TODAY a german shepherd named london grabbed one of our lanterns off the shelf and was carrying it around and the owner was like, “london no, we’re not getting that” and gave him the merchandise she was buying instead and he carried it to me and dropped it on the counter at my register and i could have cried
I want everyone to know both London and Jonathan (Jonnie) came in the other day on the same day. Jonnie is much larger since the last time I saw him but still sweet and still acts like a pup, he barked at something in our footwear department. London still likes to carry things and put his paws up on my register to say hello, he carried the insoles his owner bought out the door for her. Also thanks for the notes, it’s nice to see so many people appreciate dogs on here. Another reminder, I see a lot of dogs because I work in a sporting goods store in a strip mall next door to a Petco and we absolutely allow dogs in our store. I live in a mountain town in Colorado and dogs are common here because there are lots of fun outdoor stuff to do with them.
A sheltie in a Petco shopping cart came in yesterday and her name was Sadie and she was so excited to say hi that she jumped out of the cart, onto my register counter, but she missed and Mufasa’d her way to the floor, but she was okay. The owner just let her sit on the counter and she was very well behaved and she gently smelled every item I scanned and also my hand. She was obsessed with her neck being scratched.
today a black lab name paxton came in off leash and he jiggled his way into our back room because the door was open and i yelled He Is Employed! and told his owner that we’d be happy to hire him and then eventually he made his way up to the front by himself and into the register area behind the counter and now he’s my new manager
my boss sent me this picture she took from the window at work today after i left. its not a dog, but it is a goat wearing a cowboy hat.
today a 12 week old dichromatic pitbull puppy named Spot was so tired that he was splayed out on our tile flooring, all four legs sticking out while his people tried on shoes. i asked to pet him and he wagged his tail and rolled over so i could scratch his belly
Today my boss found a lost little Australian shepherd puppy without a collar running around the parking lot and caught her and brought her in the store and I played with her on my lunch break and she was so cute and so sweet and was probably no older than like 9 weeks. Eventually her people came and claimed her. Her name is Panda and she’s in the process of being trained as a service dog for an elderly veteran with one leg.
today a bengal kitten named strider came in and he licked my finger. hes not a dog but hes is very important
This has cured my depression
This post justifies the entire existence of the internet.
#Repost @secretforesttreasures with @get_repost
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This gorgeous purple resin pendant is set with a genuine crystal and hangs from a sterling silver chain.💞 Available at my next market, the Mother’s Day Pop Up at 51 Degrees on May 5th! 💞. .
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#handmadejewelry #uniquejewelry #beautiful #TT #buylocal #trinidad #caribbean #customjewelry #artjewelry #trinidadandtobago #artisanjewelry #sundarajewelry #handmade #tandt #forher #sundara #resin #resinjewelry #crystal #necklace #pendant #secretforesttreasures #caribbeanlife #artisan #fashionjewelry #abstract
“I know all women are supposed to be strong enough now to strangle presidents and patriarchies between their powerful thighs, but it doesn’t work that way. Many of us were actually affected, by male systems and male anger, in ways we cannot always articulate or overcome. Sometimes, when the ceiling seems especially low and the past especially close, I think to myself, I did not make it out. I am still there in that place of diminishment, where that voice an octave deeper than mine is telling me what I am.”
Everything that is – is alive on a steep river bank there’s a voice that speaks I’ve seen the master of that voice he bowed to me I spoke with him he answers all my questions Everything that is – is alive little gray bird little blue breast sings in a hollow bough she calls her spirits dances sings her shaman songs woodpecker on a tree that’s his drum he’s got a drumming nose and the tree shakes cries out like a drum when the axe bites its side all these things answer my call Everything that is – is alive the lantern walks around the walls of this house have tongues even this bowl has it own true home the hides asleep in their bags were up talking all night antlers on the graves rise and circle the mounds while the dead themselves get up and go visit the living ones
– Chukchee of Siberia 1
1. David Cloutier, Spirit, Spirit: Shaman Songs, Incantations (Providence: Copper Beech Press, 1973), pp. 32-33.
Yeah they restored it very soon after. I think they need to adjust whatever they use to identify inappropriate images. They seem to do this almost by default.
The Hyperspace Bypass Construction Zone is a series of large-scale polyhedral installations and artworks that investigate geometry through light, shadow, and perception.
The project was designed by
Yelena Filipchuk (b. 1987) and
Serge Beaulieu (b. 1981) and
is inspired by the intersection of math, science, technology, geometry, material, and light. On Facebook.
I keep seeing a blog titled Throwing Pots in my suggestions and each time I see a mental picture of someone angrily hurling a ceramic pot against a wall and for a split second I get confused and wonder why someone would want to devote a blog to that when I remember what throwing means, and so I scroll past and continue to unfollow. It happens every time.
I was on the phone to a friend tonight and distractedly working and I drilled into my finger. I broke the skin but barely, there’s a tiny red dot. But that’s gotta be the weirdest way I’ve ever injured myself.
I went over and re read the commments on that guy’s Facebook post. I realise that I’m looking at it from the point of view of a graphic designer. I know the process of selecting photos for an ad. You have x amount of time to get a layout done. You go on a stock photography site to find a photo. The ones we use are American and therefore poorly represent the diversity of the population of Trinidad and Tobago. Even a lot of the black people look different. So you try to find the best photo that a) represents the scenario b) works with the layout you have in mind and c) has an model that can represent your target market/demographic. You slap it all together and send it for approval and that’s it. There’s no agenda other than to get the ad approved. People don’t put that kind of thought into these things. Maybe they should. But time is usually short and you’re busy trying to finish this job so you can move on to the next one. People see conspiracy where there isn’t any.
I just saw a post on Facebook where a guy complained at length that a local university used a black woman in a vacancy ad and therefore it implied that the job was open only to Black women. He wanted to bring the Equal Opportunity Commission into it. The institution ended up taking down the ad. I’ve never heard of anything more stupid. What gets me is how many people were supportive of his argument. What am I missing here? Did everyone get a “stupid vaccination” on a day I missed school? I can’t even begin to understand the thinking.
What is going on with this stupid app? When I try to write a reply I can’t see past the first line. It’s like they sit in a room and decide for sport what to break next.
A gif of the video I was trying to upload. What do y’all think of my resin-crystal pendant? I need to come up with a good name for them to sell them under. Suggestions welcome 🙂
The father stopped the vehicle and raised his arms to show he was unarmed
ONE OF THE ARRESTED OFFICERS WAS ACTIVELY STALKING THE FATHER’S FIANCE
They are trying to claim self defense AND claim they didn’t know there was a child in the truck
They fired “no less than 18 rounds” into the truck
The father was hit but still alive. The boy ended up being shot in the head multiple times.
There is bodycam footage of the incident and every official/lawyer that has seen and spoken on it has called it horrific.
50% of all police violence victims are autistic or mentally ill. If an autistic person starts screaming or can’t look a cop in the eyes, they use that as an excuse to shoot. I hope Black Lives Matter starts talking about that, too.
Police violence hurts the mentally ill a lot and of course that also means black autistic / mentally ill kids are getting hurt and killed. Ableism is deadly.
Oh look I can post a phot now. Anyway I made these pendants incorporating crystal, gold and silver leaf, crushed stone and opal powder. I really really like them. I’d even wear them (and I rarely wear any jewelry. I’m planning to incorporate colour next.
This is what I was working on yesterday that I was so excited about. I’ve wanted to combine resin and stone for a long time but I couldn’t figure out how without burying the stone in it and yesterday inspiration hit. My next step will be to add colour. I’m so psyched to make more of these!
-I made something new in the studio today and I’m really excited to see how it turns out. Resin and crystals. I’m hope I’m not disappointed when I take them out of the molds tomorrow.
– I watched the end of Scandal today. Well the last five episodes since I was behind. They did a decent job of tying it up but I think given what happened it’s sort of hard to believe it would go down that way. Also they killed off a character I think everybody really liked and I didn’t like that but I guess some nastiness had to happen. I have to say in the end I really stopped liking almost all of the characters and that really affected how I felt about the show. The characters in HTGAWM are pretty awful too but we knew that from the start and I kind of expect it from them so I just enjoy watching the next horrible thing they do.
– I was sitting in the studio and I heard what sounded like someone trying to bust down a gate. I looked out and the police were raiding the house next door (to my mom’s). The officer was trying his best to kick open the gate and then very clumsily half climbed, half fell over it. They spent a good five minutes trying to get it open. I almost handed them some wire cutters but I filmed them instead lol. So much for the element of surprise. Dunno if they found anything. They never come with dogs and dude next door is too smart to keep his stuff anywhere they can find it. I guess it was not a happy 4/20 for him.
As requested, here’s the purple solar quartz… she’s the only one I have argh! Isn’t she a beaut? 💜💜💜@anugrahayogatt
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#handmadejewelry #uniquejewelry #beautiful #fashionjewelry #TT #buylocal #trinidad #caribbean #caribbeanlife #artisan #forher #abstract #sundara #customjewelry #artjewelry #artisanjewelry #sundarajewelry #goldfilled #solarquartz #quartz #necklace
You know how in a lot of tv shows when they want to show that a couple has just finished having sex, they show an overhead shot of the pillows and then the two people fall back on them, sweaty, exhausted and satisfied? I’m always wondering exactly what they were doing right before that moment that they had to fall backwards in unison. Sex had never ended this way for me. Usually we collapse where we are in a heap. And maybe roll over so we don’t crush one another. But I can’t figure out what I’d have to be doing for that synchronised pillow drop to happen. My imagination fails me. I must not be doing le sex right.
13. What is something that you love that you feel like nobody else even knows about?
I think that there is something magical in connecting… with other people, with animals, with a moment… whatever it is, and it’s something that makes me feel alive. That reminds me why I’m here. When you meet someone for the first time and your eyes connect and you get that spark when for a moment you’ve connected with their soul, and they you, and you both feel it and acknowledge it. I live for those moments. It could be with a dog where you meet just instantly pour love into each other. Or sometimes I see a tree and it calls me and I can feel it, and it feels me. And there are just times that I connect with the exact moment I’m in and I’m completely present to myself, the time, the earth and everything around me. These moments are brief but they make my spirit sing. I know I’m not the only person for whom this exists but it often feels that we are all so caught up in our busy lives that we forget that we are here, in part, to feel this kinship to the world around us. This connection is real and it is beautiful.
1. Do you ever think about a specific time in your past you could travel to and change?
I don’t but if there was a time I’d go back to, I’d love to go back to my senior year of high school and find a way to convince my parents to send me to art school. I think I would have loved it.
7. What food, snack, or dessert are you craving by the end of this sentence?
I was actually trying to decide if I wanted ice cream, popcorn or cheese and crackers. I think I’ll go with the last one.
18. Can you tell me a random fact not related to bacon?
Bees can see in colours that are not visible to the human eye. As a matter of fact, to bees, flowers look like brightly lit runways with paths leading them to the parts of the flowers they need to find pollen and water.
I think that was as far from bacon as I could get.
***SILVER*** I don’t carry a lot of silver pieces but these round druzies are something else. Ya gotta see them in person to appreciate how they glisten and sparkle. We have our next few markets coming up in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned! .
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#handmadejewelry #uniquejewelry #beautiful #fashionjewelry #TT #buylocal #trinidad #caribbean #caribbeanlife #artisan #forher #abstract #sundara #customjewelry #artjewelry #artisanjewelry #sundarajewelry #sterlingsilver #druzy #necklace
I’m starting to think that any time I am sleeping or about to fall asleep an alert goes out to my customers that now is the right time to contact me. Even if it is on vibrate and across the room I will hear it. Man that was gonna be a sweet nap.
I saw a sad facebook post from the gay bookstore back in Ann Arbor where I used to live about how they hadn’t sold any books that day so I went on their online store and bought a couple, and while you don’t get #deals like elsewhere online, I’d love it if y’all would consider buying your next gay book from them instead of like, Amazon.
Common Language is a great bookstore and while I’ve only been there once, I follow it on Instagram and really want to see it succeed!
Their most recent Facebook post (~9:30 PM, April 18):
A little update:
At last count we had 211 online orders over the last couple of days. We generally have a handful of online orders PER MONTH. And many days our in store sales are 3-5 books. In other words, this deluge is significantly more than we sell in a month. We are literally brought to tears by this outpouring.
About 80% of them have already been fulfilled and are on their way to you.
The other 20% require special attention (out of print book, book temporarily out of stock, etc.) or we need to pull together books from various sources. Some of you will be getting emails from me!
Our staff is three people and one dog. And while the dog is, perhaps, the world’s sweetest dog, he’s not much help in this task. The lack of opposable thumbs is a big hindrance to many bookstore tasks.
Mind you, we are not complaining. Having a surge which overwhelms our current resources is a great problem to have. Heartfelt thanks.
As I take a short break from fulfilling orders I wanted to share a few thoughts.
This is transformative.
We will be able to pay some bills which will steady the ship for a longer voyage. In our wildest dreams this surge would continue, we’d hire more people to handle the load, and the world would have a thriving honest-to-god queer bookstore.
But even if it doesn’t continue at this truly astonishing rate, having a regular flow on online orders would give the store a level of security we haven’t seen in a long time.
All of you did this. You made it happen. And you can be a part of making that dream come true. In fact, you can be the most important part of making that dream come true. You can be an ambassador.
It was, after all, an ambassador who made this happen.
When a friend talks about getting a book, steer them to us. Our mission is to create a safe space for LGBT people, a resource for a community, a place of equality for women, a place where black lives truly matter, a place where your gender is what you say it is, not what anyone else says it is.
If this is your mission as well, join us.
so my roommate, the person I live with, my memeing friend MADE THIS POST
This got so much better since the last time I reblogged it.
I was trying to decide which side to use as the front of this beautiful solar quartz and just got caught up in admiring how beautiful it was. A solar quartz is a cross section of a stalactite. Mine are electroplated in 18K gold on the edges and I hang them from a 14K gold filled chain. This one is blue but I have them in white, pink, green, turquoise and purple. They’re all stunners. .
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#handmadejewelry #uniquejewelry #beautiful #fashionjewelry #TT #buylocal #trinidad #caribbean #caribbeanlife #artisan #forher #abstract #sundara #customjewelry #artjewelry #artisanjewelry #sundarajewelry #goldfilled #solarquartz #quartz #necklace
Whenever I get news notifications on my phone these days I glance at them and if they’re about U.S. politics I just shake my head and move on cause at this rate I just can’t keep up
soulsistrin 