10 New Mom Must-Haves

You don't need everything but you may need...

1. Snow suit with feet n built in mittens (cold climate. cut down on the get ready time w a one piece coverall)
2. One piece pajamas (for all day wear)
3. Bibs (teething drool)
4. Wash cloths
5. Playpen or pack n play (ours was handed down from awesome friends!)
6. Carseat/stroller in one (city)
7. Bassinet
8. Swaddles
9. Body carrier (as low as $20)
10. Swing (motion in the ocean)

Trying to save money?  10 Things you may not need or not right away...

1. Crib (you can pack n play w bassinet or buy in 6 months when baby is done w bassinet)
2. Baby bathtub ( you can use a bath sling which can be cheaper and easier to use in sink or tub)
3.  Clothes that aren't soft or elasticized.  Babies like leggings rather than pants too!
4. Bouncer (some babies love it, others aren't that interested.  plus you can probably get larger toys from a friend who has outgrown them or second-hand)
5. Walker (babies grab anything to cruise)
6. New stuff.  Check out sites like freecycle.org for strollers and stuff. Share lightly used stuff w friends.
7. Bottle warmer (at least I didn't. still in box along with bottle sterilizer)
8. Wipe warmer... (just keep the booty clean)
9.  Highchair (clutch, but can wait until baby is sitting up)
10. Clothes without ears (you need a bear cub in your life)

Staying Together Episode 6 "Raising Our Youth" Part One

Staying Together Episode 6 "Raising Our Youth" Part One

Top #5 Favorite Li'l Kitchen Tools

I hardly remember life before my...

5. Vacuum wine stopper (no spills)
4. Meat Cleaver (for cutting/chopping everything)
3. Bamboo mat (homemade sushi, save a fortune)
2. Rice/veggie Steamer (perfect rice, really what was I doing all these years?)
1. Ceramic Knives (magical buttery cutting) #5 advantages to ceramic knives.

Blonde Ambition

click on a photo for slides

 

Top 5: Is this Real Life 2012?

 He looked SUSPICIOUS

5.  Whitney is dead.
4. Mormonism is the fastest growing faith in US history.  I've studied it enough to JUDGE.
3.   Politics:  It's like living in 60's and 70's again (for the first time.)  
2.  Urkel is back!  DWTS doesn't stand for Down With The System.  I literally thought it did.
1.  Police are allowed to strip search you for breaking a leash law now?  Lunatics

Hurt Village by Katori Hall: Combating the Vilification of African Americans

The details of racism can be complex and inconvenient.  While we applaud The Wire for its nuanced look at the black underclass and many Mad Men fans expectantly wait for the show, to perhaps, paint an accurate look at civil rights and affirmative action in the late 60's, the concept of sympathetic black characters with baggage is still elusive to much of the American public.  Katori Hall's "Hurt Village,” focuses on a poor, black Memphis family that has to move in a week because its housing has been bought up by developers for the purpose of gentrification.  However, at the last minute, the family's application to receive Section 8 is denied because the household income is a few hundred dollars over the limit.  This story mirrors the troubles faced by the characters in Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun."  Except Hansberry's characters were trying to move on up while Hall's are simply moving on out.  After she returns home empty-handed, Big Mama (Tonya Pinkins), the grandmother matriarch of the family, screams "America Ain't Shit!"  The sentiment is clear. How can a society that is completely open to the displacement of poor black people really care about inequality? 

"Hurt Village" covers everything that could befall a family... from poverty to drug addiction to post-traumatic war stress.  It hits the audience like a flood.  Through 13-year-old heroine, Cookie (Joaquina Kalukango), an enthusiastic student and  rap artist in the making, Hall explores the bleak realities of current day America; characters are aware of their circumstances, the unfairness of the system, but also have  a keen sense of their own agency.  In one scene, a young mother, Toyia (Saycon Sengbloh), rants about a white nurse who had suggested she be sterilized after she gave birth to her daughter.  At the end of the scathing monologue, she quips, "She was right though!"  The characters in the play are all aware of their plight which is not the case for everyone in similar situations.  The fight against racism is still a war of consciousness.   

Like a Sam Shepard play, “Hurt Village” portrays dysfunctional families  whose characterizations are not strictly realistic, but are still somehow very honest.  Hall's characters have names that reflect their troubles like "Crank" (Marsha Stephanie Blake) who struggles with addiction. In the second act, the lights go out and a spotlight hits Crank as she spins in a circle and speaks a beautiful poetic monologue directed to her daughter who is not present.  With the exception of a this time break, "Hurt Village" is not marked by the magical realism of Hall's Broadway sensation, "The Mountaintop."  

Hall does not shy away from mess.  The writing is the perfect combination of tragedy and comedy.  Each actor was superb.  There were also wonderful performances from Corey Hawkins (Buggy), Nicholas Christopher (Cornbread), Charlie Hudson III (Ebony), Lloyd Watts (Skillet), and the brilliant Ron Cephas Jones dressed all in white as the formidable drug boss, Tony C.  The bad news is that  I saw the production of the play the day before it closed.  The good news is it is being made into a movie and that it can always be put up again. 

The Racialization of Trayvon Martin pt 2.

Black kid in a hoodie.  Black kid making a corner store run.  Black kid with a hood drink and candy.  Black kid with a background requiring disciplinary action.  Regardless of past behaviors, he did not deserve to die.  In a world where it is so easy to write off black life, black kids are marked for death.