In the Black community, you are “conscious” if you are “awake” to the social, political and economic reality of being Black in America. The term may have been popularized by the 5% Nation of Gods and Earths but via Hip Hop, public lectures and oral history, ideas of the “conscious” are no longer the realm of one organization or people. Thus, in this sermon, @DrGoddess addresses any and all who call themselves “conscious” to do better in present-day America (or wherever they live).

Click here to see the tweets. http://chirpstory.com/li/54530

A word:

As for you conscious types, don’t feel some kind of way. I have already given many a sermon on other topics (see my blog), snatched a number of different wigs (see the post on Wendy Williams) and shared many ideas. I was asked to cover the “Actively Errant” and the “Active Non-Believers” and I will be doing that, as well.

In the meantime, wake up, get up and do something more, or else…

Love,

Dr. Goddess

Here is the offensive tweet and the list of tweets of outrage, beginning with a preview. You can get more information on who to contact, where and how, etc. Start with: publicfeedback@theonion.com and tweet them at @TheOnion and let them know how you feel.

Please click or point your browser here if you can’t see the tweets in this message:

http://chirpstory.com/li/56682

Yes, race, class and gender are all in play here. But you don’t attack kids, period. As a writer of comedy, as a playwright, as somebody who writes about the lives of Black girls and even someone with a sick sense of humor, the fact is that children are off limits and you don’t use vulgar, sexual jokes to refer to them.

Period.

The Onion needs to reveal the writer, make an apology and issue a swift and just penalty.

Period.

All That (Should) Matter

I was co-hosting “Ask a Sista: Black Women Muse on Politics, Policy, Pop Culture and Scholarship” (which airs live every Sunday, 7pm EST, except this week, as we are broadcasting from the Democratic National Convention!) with my co-hosts, Jenifer Daniels (@thefriendraiser) and Cheryl Contee (@ch3ryl). Follow us on Twitter and participate in our hashtag: #AskaSista

So, after chatting it up lovely with the ladies and gents in our Spreecast chatroom, I was anticipating Gabrielle Douglas’s interview with Mother Oprah. And I usually refer to Oprah as “Mother Oprah” but in this case, the resemblance between she and Gabrielle is uncanny and I am beginning to question this Olympian’s birth:

Don’t they look just alike?!?

I was live-tweeting the show and LOVING IT (especially when “Gabby” said she prefers to be called “Gabrielle”) until Oprah started to give more time to the “hair issue” (which was initially more of a non-issue in the context of the Olympics and the stories that should have remained prominent). So, I did what I normally do, which is to tweet my thoughts and, in this case, my dissatisfaction—directly to Mother Oprah.

When Oprah responded, it became a “Twitter Debate”:

Harpo, Who Dis Woman?!

There are sooo many multilayered issues here. And you know that I have written about it, tweeted about it, talked about it.

My most recent piece discussing the role of Black Twitter, Oprah and OWN is here on BlackEnterprise.com.

I also did a #SheParty discussion with the Women’s Media Center and it was quite robust with great engagement from many different parties.

But what I really want is for you to see the “raw tweets,” the actual discussion as it went down on Twitter—and tell me what you think about it.

Is Oprah off base here? Is Dr. Goddess in the paint? Is this unfair to place on Gabrielle’s shoulders?

Check it out and let a Sista know…

BlogHer is a wonderful conference centered around women bloggers and the men who love and support them! Last year, I was invited to speak on a panel entitled, “Malcolm Gladwell Was Wrong! Revolutions ARE Happening Online,” with excellent bloggers and change agents, Cheryl Contee (@ch3ryl), Katherine Stone (@postpartumprog) and Gina McCauley (@Gem2001)—and it was awesome. We covered the gamut of how we merge social change, social media and social good, at varying levels and in many different ways. The conference was in San Diego and even though I was dealing with a special set of challenges, my sister bloghers, @sofiaquintero, @cyn3matic, @socalmom, @anandaleeke @thecubiclechick and @adriarichards assisted me in many ways and I remain so grateful to them. We had a wonderful time together, filled with an exchange of wisdom and laughter.

The Marriott Marina Bay Hotel in San Diego was outstanding and I was able to spend one post-conference day in the pool and jacuzzi area (as I do actually attend conference sessions, even when I’m at a resort)—and it was fabulous!!! I needed it so bad, it was just wonderful and Adria and I had a great time. I even took my laptop to the pool and she gave me great tech tips in between sunbathing! Now, the fact that I got the cotton tip of a makeshift Q-tip (which was NOT from the Q-tip brand, a point not to be missed) and ended up having to go to the hospital to get it removed is another story for another day. But the trip was wonderful! Oh the hilarity…

And speaking of hilarity…

This year, for BlogHer 2012 in New York City, I organized a panel that I had in mind for well over a year. In fact, I submitted it for SXSW Film and it was rejected, which was their loss, actually. I knew it was still a good idea and I wanted to implement my vision, so I submitted for BlogHer 2012 and it was happily accepted: “Strategic Content Development Across Multiple Disciplines: Onstage, Onscreen and Online,” with Issa Rae (@IssaRae) of “Awkward Black Girl,” Franchesca Leigh Ramsey (@ChescaLeigh) of “Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls,” Luvvie Ajayi (@Luvvie) of “Awesomely Luvvie” and yours truly, Dr. Goddess (@DrGoddess) of “Dr. Goddess!: A One Woman Show” and “Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail, a spoken word, musical comedy (unfortunately) based on a true story. Everybody seemed to love the idea and anticipated its debut. Chesca, who is also a graphics designer, designed that wonderful advertisement for our panel, as well. Thank You, Chesca!

It proved to be a stellar lineup. The room was PACKED. It was standing room only! After a brief introduction, we showed some of our artistic content from our work:

Franchesca Leigh

Dr. Goddess Arts

Luvvie Ajayi

Issa Rae

Next, we moved right into some strategically planned questions for the panelists, then onto Q & A from the audience. And the tweets, alone, prove that everyone had a good time and was properly given inspiration and information in order to get to activation—just how I like it.

If you missed it, I’ll be putting the video up soon (thank you so much to my girl, @adriarichards for coming through) and you can see the live tweeting below (or click here).

Are you fans of any of the ladies above? Do you think this was a good lineup? Is there a question you want answered? Feel free to use the comment section!

Hashtags: #BH12FunContent and #BlogHer12

Today, on Twitter, many of us learned that Author and Fashionista, Erica J. Kennedy passed away. According to her cousin, @bossladydani, she was found in her Miami apartment.

We will hear much more about what happened in the future but as someone who archives and talks about “the bombastic brilliance of Black Twitter,” I found myself scrolling through Erica Kennedy’s timeline and laughing, smiling and crying. She was young, beautiful, talented, brilliant, all of that. Erica arrived on Twitter, initially, as @Feminista09 and then moved to @ericajk.

I only met her one time in person (thanks to @MajoraCarter) and I was delighted to do so and give her a hug, in appreciation of her spirit in her tweets. I knew about but had not yet read, “Bling” and “Feminista” had just come out. Still, you will see what I mean as you explore her tweets—snarky and fun and intelligent and rachet. She knew A LOT of people, she was clearly a connector and she was beloved by many.

This is not a eulogy. There are persons far closer, qualified and capable of honoring her in the manner in which she fully deserves.

It’s just that, as an Historian who does Tech and a collector of tweets, I wanted to pay Erica her just due and put Her Excellency on display, for all of the world to see. Erica certainly spoke for herself—and well. Amazingly, I have never been able to archive 150 pages of anyone’s tweets, so somebody must have known something.

Thank You for your tweets, your life, your spirit, Erica.

May you rest in peace, as we call upon and remember your name…

Mama Kadiatou Conte-Forte, of Guinea and now the U.S., whom many of us affectionately call, “Mama K” is the Owner and Artistic Director of Balafon West African Dance Ensemble and has been teaching and choreographing all across the city of Pittsburgh (and D.C., NYC, etc.):

And now we have this!:

Oh yes!! YES! Pittsburgh’s first Welcome to Black River African Dance Conference! May 25 – 27, 2012, Memorial Day Weekend! We’re going to learn so many different dances, such as Sabar, Lenjen and Sorsone! We have Papa Assane Kone from Kankouran in D.C. in the house, too! How many of us long for September to come back around so we can go to Kankouran?! We have Master Drummer classes so you can work those djembe and conga drums, there are Modern Dance classes and even a HUGE concert Saturday Night, May 26, featuring Balafon West African Dance Ensemble, Kankouran and more!

And they’ve been practicing…

And even rehearsing how to play the balafon!

PARTICIPATE! ATTEND!

Your best best is to purchase a Full Conference Pass, which gives you unlimited classes the entire weekend plus the concert for $50. That’s a huge discount and a great bargain!

Otherwise, you can get individual tickets at the door of the Kingsley Center.

And you can purchase tickets for the CONCERT ONLY online at or at the door at Kelly-Strayhorn Theatre.

STAY IN TOUCH!

We’re mobile! Text BALAFON to 55469 for Updates & Discounts!

We’re on Facebook!  We’re on Twitter @BlackRiverConf  We’re on YouTube!

Update: Mama Kadiatou and Papa Assane were on Pittsburgh Today Live on KDKA! See their appearance here!

Update: Mama Kadiatou and Papa Assane were on the Lynne Hayes-Freeland Show airing Saturday and Sunday Morning, May 26 & 27, 6am! Watch it and set those DVRS!

We all know Jennifer Hudson.

Upon the cusp of her rise to a superstardom she earned, I celebrated with glee, remembering how, many years ago, some of us engaged in a campaign to get “the girl who was unfairly cut on American Idol, one of the three divas” to be cast as “Effie” in the film version of “Dreamgirls.” As we all know by now, Jennifer Hudson made history as the breakout star in a film that was filled with superstars, including Jamie Foxx and Beyonce. And on February 25, 2007, she won the Oscar in Los Angeles while her family members, including brother-in-law, William Balfour, celebrated at their Chicago home.

She must have been so elated about how her career was about to skyrocket in ways unimaginable!

That is why I, along with millions of others, sat in shock at hearing how her mother, brother and nephew had been callously murdered. It’s such unspeakable evil, on so many levels and for so many reasons.

So, when she emerged to sing the National Anthem for the Superbowl game on February 1, 2009, I held my breath as she took the stage. And when she finished, through tears and gasps for air, I penned this poem for her:

A Poem for Jennifer Hudson on Superbowl Sunday

You

Baptized me

in the Hudson River of Hope

Like New York’s plane crash survivors

You grabbed it and held on

To Audacity

You Have

Even more than Obama

And that’s a lot of Hope

Babygirl

You had me

At your first step

Really, when they pronounced your name

The tears came

And I saw you with my soul

When you took that deep breath

Or was that a sigh I saw in your eyes?

As you stepped upon the platform

And stole the game and the halftime show even before it came

You stood there

Just Singing

Back to your Mama

Like the millions of people watching

Were not there

Back to your brother

proving you were the prettiest one of the other

Back to your nephew

A sleeping lullaby

And that’s why I cried

So hard

It had to be so hard

To take that call

And make that first step

And take that deep breath

Switch that mic from your left

Yet you stood

Legs straight and upright

You proved

You were the flag that was still there, scarred, yet unchanged

You were the brave about which you sang

And you inspired me

You retired my excuses and fear

In two minutes

You healed us with your courage

And I want to thank you

Ms. Jennifer

For taking all of our prayers

And hopes

And dreams

For you

Soul-mixing

And singing

A most popular song

Like no one ever has before

Or ever will

When you sang

The Star Spangled Banner

Time stood still

and I . . .

am still . . .

catching my breath

You proved

It was a

Super

Sunday

after all

© Dr. Goddess February 1, 2009 All Rights Reserved

Please feel free to share this with whomever you would like. Professional publishers, please do not reproduce this poem without the explicit, written permission from Dr. Kimberly C. Ellis aka Dr. Goddess (drgoddessarts (at) gmail.com).

After I wrote this poem, I posted it on my Facebook Fan page and a lot of folks seemed to feel what I felt. I am grateful. I forgot that I published this poem last year on my blog, too.

When she sang, “You Pulled Me Through” at the Grammys and was hugged by Whitney Houston, it was yet another moving moment where we could see faith and strength, personified.

I don’t know how Jennifer made it. I admire her strength. My heart leapt with joy when I learned she was pregnant and engaged to David Otunga. This picture helped me see exactly how she made it through:

I love this picture of Jennifer and her newborn baby, David Jr.

Jennifer also lost a lot of weight (literally and figuratively) and is now the spokesperson for Weight Watchers. Her life has been such a lesson on faith and family.

Today is Thursday, May 10, 2012 and over ten hours and counting that the jury has been deliberating the fate of William Balfour, the 31 year old man accusing of slaughtering her family members. Jennifer Hudson has been sitting in on the trial everyday and gave tearful testimony as she recounted her experiences. She left the room or turned her head when the more gruesome photos of the autopsy were shown in the courtroom and sobbed when her ex-boyfriend provided his own tearful testimony. Perhaps, soon, the Hudson family will finally have some sense of closure for this tragedy. I am not sure what to think of the Balfour family but I am sure this has been a tragedy for them, as well. Who would want to think that their family member committed such unspeakable evil upon other human beings and even a child?

I glanced over at the #HudsonTrial hashtag on Twitter for updates on the case and the Chicago Sun Times and NBC Chicago seem to have the most accurate information, including the 911 call Julia Hudson made when she initially found her mother lying on the floor. There is no good ending here. Jennifer and the Hudson family know they will mourn for the rest of their lives. I just hope the joys of life come to outweigh the pain.

Stay strong, Jennifer and the Hudson Family. We are so sorry for your loss and we love you.

This weekend, I had the great honor of being invited to present at “Black Thought 2.0: New Media and the Future of Black Studies” at Duke University, hosted by the African and African American Studies Department, in the John Hope Franklin Center and curated by the inestimable Dr. Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan).

Deep, right?

Well, it got even deeper because the stellar array of panelists Dr. Neal curated was simply fabulous and an embarrassment of riches.

Prior to the conference, Dr. Neal and I (the Dr. Kimberly C. Ellis side) did an interview on NPR for “The State of Things,” discussing the State of Black Studies and what to expect from Black Thought 2.0. You can listen here while you visit Dr. Neal’s site.

I am still processing Black Thought 2.0 but, for now, here are the full array and collection of tweets from the afternoon panels, which included mine on From Jena to Tahrir: Online Activism in the Age of Social Media and then The Twitterati: Public Intellectuals in the Age of Social Media. The News Observer immediately published an article after our panel entitled, “Political Power of Social Media Extolled at Duke.”

The night before, myself, Moyaz B from Crunk Feminists Collective and Alexis Pauline devised the lovely scheme of singing a freedom song before our panel. We decided to sing Sweet Honey in the Rock’s (@SHoney73) “Ella’s Song,” (a song Bernice Johnson Reagan wrote in tribute to Ella Baker) which maintains:

We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest
We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest Until It Comes

Until the killing of Black men and Black mother’s sons
Is as important as the killing of White men and White mother’s sons

We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest
We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest Until It Comes

It was beautiful. Take a gander!

Along with @Moyazb and @AlexisPauline, I shared the panel with my Pittsburgh homeslizzle, @Jasiri_x and Dr. (@Salamishah) Tillet via Skype and it was moderated by former Duke Univ. grad and now Univ. of Missouri Assistant Professor, Treva Lindsey @DivaFeminist.

I’m @DrGoddess and I spoke about my relationship with social media and activism, starting from my protests at St. Paul’s Cathedral High School over Black History Month, to the All Eyes on Tulsa Campaign, to the Black Radical Congress, to the Raise Your Hand! No Casino on the Hill Campaign, to my engagement with popular culture from touring Dr. Goddess!: A One Woman Show to the casino battle, which led to Dr. Goddess Goes to Jail, a spoken word, musical comedy (unfortunately) based on a true story to my open letters to Chris Rock, Wendy Williams and the crowd favorite post on Antoine Dodson. Here’s the record of tweets (below) that you can read. Click here if you can’t see the tweets. You can watch it below or here at DukeLive on Ustream.

Thank you Dr. Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan), @JHFCenter, @DukeAAAS, @DukeBlkThought, Stacy-Nicole Robinson, Katherine and Laura for all of your hard work!

Black Thought 2.0 was curated by Dr. Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan) via Duke University’s AAAS Program, the John Hope Franklin Center and More! It features @LeftOfBlack, @SCraigWatkins, @ProfBlmkelley, @SandyDarity, @ImaniPerry, @DrGoddess, @Jasiri_X and more!

I’ll be giving a presentation on Online Activism in the 21st Century with the homie, Jasiri X and others. We hope you will all tune in or review later!

I love the idea of Black Thought, love being a scholar of Africana Studies and a Social Media Guru. It’s Everything!

This Chirpstory shows the precursor to the conference and the tweets from S. Craig Watkins keynote:

Go Head With All of That!

As I say in one of my tweets, this is just two pots calling each other’s kettles black. And it’s embarrassing.

And, yeah, Toure, the story IS important for America and even moreso for Black America but, as usual, your ego and desire for attention are more important than #Justice4Trayvon

Remember Me? I'm Trayvon Martin.

You both need Yankee Stadium seats. Just shameful.

Read the Twitter exchange below, which includes links for the television antics: