I wrote this last year and it's still applicable. New Year's Day is celebrated on different days, in different months, on different calendars that are even on different years. There is no "real" New Year's Day, so no spring isn't it that's eurocentric, cuz it's winter in the southern hemisphere.

Betchu if 40% of men grew tumors on their dicks they’d fuckin know why.

Alright. Technically at work today. Gonna do a little bit then tidy up & make some lentils or black beans (I hate black-eyed peas), greens, & cornbread. My cabbages aren’t ready to be harvested yet. But here are some sweet peppers I picked yesterday. #ZodiGardens

On Jan. 1, 1804, Jean-Jacques Dessalines declared Haitian independence. Eating soup joumou on New Years Day symbolizes emancipation. In the U.S., every Jan. 1 was "Hiring Day", where people could be sold away from their families. The New Year's Day meal is greens (or cabbage) & black-eyed peas.🍽️

I am going to listen to Donna Summer all evening after I finish this audiobook. Happy Birthday, Queen. 👑💃🏾

On a related note, I do wish Storygraph or Fable let us log articles we read. Even if they don’t count towards our reading goal, it would be nice to keep them alongside our books. I often read articles related to topics that come up in my books.

About 2025? There were certainly bright spots. My family, my garden, my community service. Met my reading goal. Spent a lot of time on JSTOR. Took my son to see dolphins in Corpus Christi. But overall, this year had dispiriting dismaying vibes. Glad to say goodbye.

LOVE big noses and big lips. Give me them Negroid features, baby 😍

"...a white mob that, with the help of federal troops, killed hundreds of black sharecroppers in the town of Elaine, on the eastern edge of Arkansas." It's history that we never teach. The review opens with the story of a Black woman who had grown up in Elaine & had never heard about the massacre.

Another one from much warmer times, recording 'What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow' in North Carolina. A welcome reminder that spring will always come again. I hope you’re staying bundled up out there and enjoying time with loved ones. Video: Alexei Mejouev

En Vogue had the best individual voices that blended well. Swv had the better over all blend Dru Hill was nice too Wanya and them had the most passion. I'll give it to EV But who the hell would say 112? I love them but no.

Shai

Coming back to this, if all you have the energy to do is clean yourself, do that! Do the bath. Do the scrub. Look over your prescriptions for the year and do what it do. You needed that bluing bath all year, DO IT. Uncross yourself and do something sweet. 🫶🏾

Flu numbers are high in most states and almost all cases are variants of H3N2 and the vaccine includes H3N2 Get your flu vax if you haven’t already! Even if you still get the flu, the symptoms will be easier to manage if you get vaccinated!

Instrumentation & musicianship >>>

This is the idea behind Persian New Year/Nowruz. It happens around the Spring Equinox. Holi in India is also set to coincide with the arrival of Spring. The Zodiac also starts with Aries at that time as well.

I need Priah Ferguson to be big in the coming years. She is great.

Happy Birthday to the Queen of Disco Donna Summer 🕊️

Happy birthday to the late Donna Summer.

As fine an actor as he was, Isiah was an even better spirit and the greatest gentleman.

This is why they want us talking about day care scams.

I was denied for over 2 yrs before I just got a lawyer & gave them 25%

This is by no means an exhaustive list, just a random sampling in my city + a reminder to always spend Black. It's critical now more than ever before. Recommit in 2026. #WeAllWeGot✊🏽

The ADHD rates are too high for these shows to be going this long between seasons

We’re at the point where we have concentration camps and slave patrols and the people with the most safety think a mean joke is the pinnacle of resistance

They make it so hard to get any help and that's how you know all the rampant fraud accusations are bullshit.

Anyway. My brain is fried. I let my kid go to bed way too early so I could do these files, which means his sleep schedule will be absolutely fucked tomorrow. 🫠 And I should eat more than a handful of grapes and some turkey pepperoni for dinner but… cooking is not happening. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Y’all I just spent 2 straight days working on my mama’s paperwork for disability housing. It is cruel how the government makes people jump through hoops to get assistance. I am thankful to be able to help her, but angry that so many disabled folks don’t have help for this stuff.

If you love "I Love the Lord" on The Preacher's Wife soundtrack? That's Richard Smallwood. His sound was undeniably his. What a gift to the world.

Thank you for putting Carmen De La Lavallade on my timeline! She danced in Lydia Bailey too, Hollywood's only film about the Haitian Revolution - & her love story with her husband is 💙! And she stood up to *rump in 2017 when she got her Kennedy Center honors. A beautiful & inspiring artist!

!!!!!!!! And they know it, that’s why they fight so hard against a high speed train

Sugar has me in a chokehold. ☹️

a major part of the problem

The plane breaking apart on beat followed by “take the scenic route” is frying me 😭

50K needed to meet their goal so that they can take clients in the new year. They are all volunteers. They need our help. Share. Donate. Share again. Make it monthly!

Now I’m wondering where “Wallah!” comes from because I never thought about how it’s used to replace “voila“

My family in Ghana has talked about this. What’s interesting is Black Americans have moved to Ghana and other countries on the continent for decades, but there’s a difference between the Kwame Toure, WEB DuBois and Geronimo Pratts moving there in the past and this current trend.

Before anyone tries to sing Total Praise on Watch Night: youtu.be/fanibKS3CNw?... #RIP Richard Smallwood

“We have a great deal of criticism and loathing for what men have been socialized to be in this society…But we do not have the misguided notion that it is their maleness, per se -i.e., their biological maleness- that makes them what they are.” I ponder this often as a mother of a boy.

Spanish and Kiswahili

One of my family group chats recently devolved into chaos about this very thing. It is interesting (to say the least) to see how common this is across our community. I hope I and my fellow parents can change this with our young sons.

Richard Smallwood, a gospel giant and songwriter known for classics like “Center of My Joy” and “Total Praise,” has died. He was 77

Richard Smallwood walked so that Donald Lawrence, Kirk Franklin, Kurt Carr, & Ricky Dillard could run. there will never be another like him. EVER.

i made a joke that it’s always correct to break someone’s Meta glasses and someone said i was endangering the lives of all glasses wearers, who are “usually neurodivergent”

Here’s my favorite video of him telling the choir the CORRECT notes for Total Praise, that I saved months ago so I can use it against my MD.

Carmen de Lavallade brought us so much beauty, color, and grace. According to the National Black Theater, she passed yesterday. What a privilege to be able to introduce my mother to this woman whose art she taught me to love and appreciate. Rest well, Dame de Lavallade, and thank you. 💗

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