Flipskript Ink

Seriously...? Last month following a Black Solidarity event, SUNY New Paltz students found a 'colored only' sign on a water fountain in a campus building. A couple of days later, another sign was found in a dorm hall that read, "lynch n----rs Nov. 10 at 7:30." The response of anger, hurt, rage, and safety were understandable and I share the same emotions. New Paltz College is known for its diverse student body and social activity. Antics like this should not be taken lightly. Photo courtesy of Daily Kos . "You're joking," "this can't be for real," "woooord," were some of the thoughts racing through my mind. This event went viral on various social outlets. As I read an article from the Huffington Post , part of me is quick to get angry and write some unholy words in this post about how socially constipated society remains. At the same time, the other part of me is not surprised. Anything that promotes positivity within a m

 Photo courtesy of Baristanet . Violence. Sadly, it is so intertwined in society that it's almost impossible not to come across it. Since when do we have to protect ourselves from the store aisles? Call me crazy, but these past few Black Fridays have been getting increasingly ridiculous for every kind or bargain hunter. Customers are being pepper-sprayed, people are being trampled on and fights are exploding left and right. Hard-working retail sales associates are being cursed out by the irate customer who is already sleep deprived from pre-Black Friday scavenger hunts and online sales. Hoping the storm had subsided, I ventured out to a department store for some cheap snacks and polite conversations with some employees late Black Friday night. Everywhere I looked there was an officer on duty. I was happy to let the associates vent out their disgust over customers biting, slapping and fighting over DVDs, video games, and other material possessions. Having to witness it r

This video is basically summing up my weekend. No doubt I have much to blog about, such as the nonsensical mayhem of Black Friday or the social constipation at my alma maters. I'm just gonna take a few minutes to just dance to this song. It's a hot song. Period.

Maysa Leak sounds as beautiful as she looks. No stranger to jazz, funk, R&B or soul, her latest video, Flower Girl, featuring Dwele is just a sample of what listeners can expect from her upcoming album, Motions of Love . A native of Baltimore, MD, Maysa had well prepared herself for what she wanted to do with her talent. After earning her degree from Morgan State University and crossing paths with Stevie Wonder, she relocated to North Hollywood to fulfill her dream of music. Not only did she have the opportunity to work with Mr. Wonder's Wonderlove , she also performed for the Oprah Show and  The Tonight Show. She even got the chance to scat on stage with legendary diva Chaka Khan at a concert. This experience and Chaka's influence has allowed her to develop her own sultry, sweet voice. Maysa spent almost five years as the lead singer for the British jazz/funk band, Incognito. In addition to being a featured vocalist for the group, she began taking on her solo albums.

This song is a memory I take from my late father. Every now and then, I find myself traveling to the state of nostolgia and remember our times together. While taking my daily walk on my lunch break, I switched my iPod to this song and the warm feeling I had when I first heard this song returned. In 1992, I was a precocious preschool graduate who didn't quickly settle into the routine of elementary school. My parents insisted that I accompany them to what was a massive warehouse or just a big store in general (I have a feeling the store might have been Curtis Lumber). The few thoughts that my mind was filled with pertained to this errand that had to be ran. This minor adventure had put a major conflict into the cartoons and episodes of ALF and Jeopardy I had planned on watching. I remember feeling so uneasy about my arts projects and spicy vegetables for dinner that a scoured look of frustration stayed on my miniature frame. Then, out of the blue and into the airwaves, Rod was s

Photo courtesy of avani-mehta . When was the last time you've said or did something that you now regret beyond belief? I'm not talking about minor matters, such as forgetting to tell your friend that her date canceled on her or overcooking a favorite dish. Regardless of the severity of the situation, you would surely want to have yourself redeemed and buy back the respect or trust that was temporarily lost. The literary definition of redeem means to to pay off, buy back, recover, atone for, or compensate for something. When redemption involves human interaction, it gets more complicated than necessary. I say this because the more I walk around this planet Earth and notice the various uneven structures in the world, the stronger its craziness corrodes the tainted air we breathe. When people get mad, they don't just shut off all communication with you. It becomes a life or death situation. They suddenly feel invincible because their conscious is filled with

Amidst my rebellion against cable television, I came across Tia and Tamera's reality show the other night at the laundromat. I suddenly found myself cable shopping around and working out a budget just so I can tune into this show. I grew up watching these girls on TV, saw most of their movies and consider them some of the role models for young, beautiful intelligent Black women. These women have shown me, in some way, what to do and how to handle yourself between fame and real life. I just scoped out this article about them on CNN   about life beyond their sisterhood, married life and their show. Browsing down to the responses, I'm no longer surprised about some of the comments readers left. Why do I say this? First of all, these ladies are intelligent beauties. They've been going to school during theri acting careers and have garnered a psych degree. They've been working since practically puberty and know more than enough about hard work. Second, they're only

I start this post off by tipping my hat to the multifunctional full-timers holding down many jobs. This includes 24/7 parents, freelancing side hustlers and the unemployed who are looking for work. Making sure I count my blessings for having a day job, I try to remain positive about the various aspects I could take from what I do. Long story short, I work at a bank. The skills I have learned along with the financial experience can allow me to write some personal finance articles to the up-and-coming genereations who, hopefully, will have some sort of financial resource to start with. I say this not to be mean, but to be real. Not everyone's situation is the same. A set of parents may have set aside some type of account or trust for their child/children for financial stability while another family, despite limited resources, put forth whatever effort (and energy) to give their kids all they've got with what little they have. Either way, someone is doing something as times are ge

While my original plan was to work on some outlines for future projects, I spent an hour in the library watching Awkward Black Girl on Youtube. I mad that this web series started back in February and I'm just now finding out about it from the Poughkeepsie Journal . Just from the name itself, I didn't know what to expect. Issa rae, the director, writer, and producer of the web series, stated in an interview that the reason she created the show was because she couldn't find anyone on TV she could relate to. I couldn't agree more. I rarely see this type of original, down-to-earth entertainment on television anymore. For this show, awkward isn't a bad thing. I consider it more avant-garde. It seems that the majority of the characters Rae created are putting J on the outside, therefore J acts like the outsider. When she unknowingly brings a few close people inside her world (Fred, CeCe, White J), she doesn't know how to navigate life after the fact. I love how her

You ever felt like things were spiraling out of control? Or couldn't get a firm grip on life because your mind was going in circles? Fortunately, I just got out of that weird place and am slowly trying to come back. I've been so busy at work and such that I forgot I used to write (oh em gee). At the same time, it's been so frustrating because it is easier to get an unpaid writing internship anywhere than it is to get a full-time, or even part-time, paid writing gig. After snapping out of it, I realized that I wasn't falling out of love with journalism; I was angry with it. I'm not slow or anything, so I knew that the industry was in trouble. New media is taking over and it leaves many to wonder the destiny of the newspapers that are creating new blog ideas everyday; not to mention trying to keep up with a day job. After a constant battle royale with the workplace, its politics, dispassionate people, and angry philosophies, I've been lacking the energy and concen

Photo courtesy of thegrio . I did I again. I let another month slip up and didn't post anything on my blog...I got to stop doing that. Anyway, I was reading the current issue of Essence (the one with Alicia Keys on the cover). There was this awesome story written on redefining the Black woman. Saying that the story impacted me is just an understatement. I've been making moves and taking actions that some people throughout my life have not understood, i.e., my decision to go away to college, learning how to speak Chinese, prefering to read my Bible instead of going out on Friday nights, etc. Obviously, May was a busy and trying month and I felt myself slow down a little bit; but I feel myself getting it together. As long as society's citizens have remembered, the American Dream was to work hard, make a lot of money and have a nice house, family, and car. Today, with the job market and economy the way it is, people are barely there getting by. For the current iPad generation

I'm still shocked and saddened about the Armstrong tragedy that occurred in Newburgh earlier this month. I'm even more concerned about the continual trends in unemployment, gas prices, and the various suicides due to bullying. However, when I find time to watch television, the Royal Wedding is everywhere, like acne at the first stage of puberty. So, why is there a problem here? This is not to say that I'm happy for the future husband and wife. But I'm not gonna waste time and electricity to watch people exchange vows, do the shuffle, and eat cake. Some could call me a hater and think I'm nuts, but the truth is that I just don't care. I wanna know why Black unemployment is twice as high as the national unemployment rate. I mean I know there are a variety of reasons, but let's discuss these reasons. I wanna know why there are more insults for a sexually loose female than there are for a sexual male. Flavor Flav and Bret Michaels are getting praise for their

Unpublished, September 2010 As a young kid, I had a hard time understanding Prince because of his falsetto voice and his display of sexuality. After hearing this song and watching his Purple Rain movie in high school, I began seeing the Purple One in a new light. The first time I heard this song, I was sixteen (2003) and home sick from school. I happened to catch the last few scenes of the movie on VH1. As crappy as I felt that day, I found myself spontaneously dancing to the upbeat tempo. The song just made me feel better emotionally. Suddenly the song lead to another memory I had of not him, but his picture when I was three years old. Let me repeat this for reference sake, I was a three year old little kid who understood little (or nothing) about Prince, his music, and color. It was the Arsenio Hall Show in the early 1990's and they showed a picture of his album cover, LoveSexy. When this picture popped on the TV screen, I cried to my mom screaming, 'MOM! There's a naked

As I sit here listening to Jennifer Hudson's new album, I'm reflecting on the latest news stories that have been popping up for the last 24 hours via the internet and radio stations. This is what I came up with so far: Legendary Hollywood icon, Elizabeth Taylor, dead at age 79 Elizabeth Taylor's Final Resting Place Water poisonous for Tokyo infants Japan struck by another major earthquake Another Chris Brown thing Another Charlie Sheen thing Ohh, comparing Chris Brown and Charlie Sheen (Breezy brought up a good point, but I digress) Little girl loses leg saving her sister N----r Heaven...? What does baby mama mean? Now, because I choose not to tell you, the free-willed citizen who reads whatever your heart oh so desires, what to do, I'll let you pick out which one of these stories is more important to you. I'll just end this post with words from my sister's status... RIP Liz Taylor but there's still entire families dying in Libya right now... P.S., realizin

Society, without a doubt, is in the most ridiculous shape mankind has ever witnessed. I don't feel like this post is coming from a dark place today, but it has been one of the things that I have been passionate about since I was 10 years old. Back then, kids in my age group were getting the latest Air Jordans and catching Waynehead and Reboot on Saturday mornings. My older brothers were mastering the Sega Genesis. Though I enjoyed these things too, I was researching topics like domestic abuse, how the elementary education system operated, and the struggle to be such a loving person in a hateful world. I will never forget the day I realized how evil, vindictive, and jealous people can really be over something so infantile that it could cause massive injustice. There are some in this world who feel they get to decide who will live either comfortably or miserablly. What if you're just trying to live your life, period? I'm learning to keep being a loving person and not care a

Posted twice on my blog, I know, but this song resonates with my soul so much. You got to be everything and some to the best of your ability.

Work on yourself before you work on another.

In a race, everyone gets tripped up. But you got to keep running.

If no one can handle the person that you are, there is always gonna be someone else on your level. Don't stress it.

Everyone has their own definition of perfection, this includes you.

While looking for part-time freelance work, I came to a weird yet late realization. I don't know how to copywrite. I've applied to some copywriting jobs in the past and barely received any responses, except for this one company in the city (will not even get started on how hard it is for a communications/media grad to get a job in NYC, but I digress). The company stated in my response email that even though I had excellent credentials, I didn't have the skills and experience they were looking for. After witnessing the rise of new media and many talks with my mother, I acknowledge that trying to become an established writer, journalist, or author has proven difficult in this day and age. I'm aware that different writers have their own views on rejection letters, but this one is beginning to help me. I began analyzing my skills. Thinking about my experience, mostly in college, I've done beat reporting, copyediting, proofreading, and got (I mean am getting) accustomed

It has been a few crazy weeks...so crazy that I don't even want to think about it. But I will say that despite hard economic and employment stumbling blocks, I've started something new which has lead me to a new outline. Long story short, after working many jobs [mostly in college] I thought to myself, 'Hey, I never really worked at a bank before...I think I'll give it a shot.' With that said, I found a new job that will allow me to grow in a different industry and allow me more creative pitches for my freelance writing gig. And this is on top of my other writng projects. Here is a brief summary of my projects: Project 1 deals with a high school class in a sick and twisted storyline of harassment, rape,. miscarriage, right and wrong. I have no idea where this concept came from, but I can't stop writing it. Project 2 is a a story I'm considering turning into a series about a little girl and her friend being harrassed by older junior high kids. I started worki

Things have been so weird for me since I lost all function of my laptop, but let me be real; I've had it since 2005. I learned from a a fellow poet/computer sales rep that every three months is one year in technology age. So technically, nearly six years in tech. time made my PC go past its prime. What kills me is that everything is on my PC, from freshman year. Various stories, articles, poems, and homework (of course) and some of it is on a portable flash drive, but who knew that humans could get so awkward over such a thing? First off, let me just clarify that I'm not totally electronically immobile because I've been floating in between libraries to check my emails and still get some assignments done. It's just an inconvenience because there are time limits, operation hours and I have to alter my deadlines because of these restrictions. It's just when I have an idea about an article or a poem, the most I can do is put my pen to paper. Obviously there is nothing

Of all of the things to go out of whack, my computer has to be the one. Technically, it's my monitor but that besides the point. So basically, I've had my computer for like 5 years (technology age it's at a mid-life crisis). Every essay, poem, article, creative idea, and indie project I've been working on is on that PC and sadly, it's time for me to invest in a new one. The only reason why I can't is because I'm short on money (but who isn't)? Where do I go from here? There is always the library, my alma mater, and a temporary computer monitor to my laptop. All hope if not lost...and neither is my data :0). OK, enough being depressed and woe is me. I've got work to do. Photo courtesy of recover-lost-data.co.uk.