Blog Talk Radio: The African American Body Image Episode: When We Look in the Mirror, Just What Do We See?

Do me a favor, please.  Go to the mirror and take a good long look at yourself.  What do you see?  Take a good look at your facial features, your hair, your body type, the lines in your face, the various scars, and tell me what you see.  Are you pleased at what you see?  How does this affect you interaction with others?  How does this influence your attitude and outlook on life?

I know that my questions are a lot to hit you with this morning, but my questioning does serve a purpose.  Theory posits the human body as a historical narrative, a broad palimpsest—a scroll written on and over innumerable times—that invariably proceeds us.  Even before we open our mouths, even before we have the chance to speak for ourselves, to allow others to get to know us, our body with its various adornments and embellishments is always already presenting its own biography.

The question then becomes just how much this body narrative affects us in our day to day lives.  Just how much does this narrative coincide with our own self-image?  Just how much does this narrative dictate our actions? 

The African American Body Image is the theme of our discussion tonight over at Freedom thru Speech Radio on BlogTalkRadio.  Please join me and my co-hosts RiPPa of The Intersection of Madness and Reality and The Janitor of The Urban Politico.  Also sitting in on the panel tonight will be @MelzieC of The Curvy Girl Chronicles, Tondalaya from Club Cushions, and our old friend Nic McClean of My Fabulous Boobies.

The show starts at 8 PM EST.  You can listen to the show by accessing our BlogTalkRadio platform by clicking here, or you can listen or comment by dialing in through our dial-in number, 914-803-4881. 

Don’t miss out because this promises to be an informative, entertaining show, and don’t listen alone;  please run tell your friends.  And, as usual, the most important voice missing from this conversation is invariably your own.

Blog Talk Radio: The We Count Episode: What Would Black Jesus Do?

Did you happen to catch the We Count!: The Black Agenda Is the American Agenda Summit hosted by Tavis Smiley yesterday? If you did not, then you can catch it here. And this summit will be our topic for discussion on tonight.

Let me repeat a question that I’ve posed many times before: What is the Black Agenda? I keep hearing about this “Black Agenda,” but as of yet, no one has been able to articulate a cohesive, coherent Black Agenda for me. And on yesterday Tavis Smiley convened a panel of august African American community leaders, religious leaders, and scholars to discuss just that—The Black Agenda.

However, at the end of four hours, I still had not gotten a better grasp of this agenda though one of the panelists did suggest that those in attendance and those looking on could purchase a copy of this agenda in the form of Tavis Smiley’s book, but no real consensus seemed to be reached.

But this show is our attempt to make sense of the proceedings of that summit. Did that summit meet your expectations? What do you think was accomplished by that summit? What are you feelings toward the proceedings of that conference? Did that summit inspire you, spur you to act?

Come and join our own august panel of guests as we attempt to get to the bottom of this Black Agenda yet again. iluvblackwomen will be in the house, as will the dynamic Brother Jesse, and California community activist Alvin Herring.

And we look forward to you being in the house as well. Remember, the show starts at 9 PM EST. You can join us on our show platform page by clicking here, or you can dial in to listen to the show at 914-803-4881.

What is Your Story?: The How I Got Over BlogTalkRadio Broadcast

Everyone has a story, a narrative. And everyone has had to overcome something in their lives, has had a bridge to cross in getting where they are now. If you haven’t, trust me on this, you will, and some of us may be going through something, crossing that bridge, at this very moment.

You know history, most specifically African American history, is a broad palimpsest of these stories, these narratives. If we comb through the annals of African American history, many of these narratives stand out. The narrative of Cinque and the slave ship Amistad is one. The narrative of Nat Turner is another.

Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the list of triumphant, inspirational narratives of people who refused to be slaves, who refused to be second class citizens, who insisted that their humanity and the humanity of all African American men and women be recognized goes on and on.

But these are the most popular, most well-known narratives. However, there are millions of other lesser known individuals whose names you will perhaps never see on the front page or in history books whose narratives are no less fascinating or uplifting.

These are the narratives that I find to be the most beautiful, the most compelling, those narratives of common people, people just like you and me, facing sickness, facing poverty, facing drug abuse, facing the daily vicissitudes of life, who emerge from the experience better and stronger.

And these are the narratives we will explore tonight on the Freedom thru Speech blog talk radio broadcast. We will feature the narratives of Nicole McLean of My Fabulous Boobies, Nina Brewton of Be Inspired, and Michael Stagg of My II Sense who all have beautiful narratives to share.

And we will perhaps feature your narrative, too, if you are willing to just tune in and call in. Nevertheless, this is a broadcast that you do not want to miss. You can listen or comment by dialing the show’s call-in number at 914-803-4881 or by simply going to our BlogTalkRadio page by just clicking here.

Freedom through Speech Radio: The New Year's Resolution Show

Do me a favor. Take a good look at the video above. You don’t need to watch all of it, but just enough to get the gist of what the brother is attempting to articulate. The brother Paul Brunson, who bills himself as The Modern Matchmaker and a certified life coach, made the video in response to the Washington Post article Bitch Is the New Black which had the black blogosphere all abuzz a few weeks ago.

We began a discussion of the article and the issues it raises on our BlogTalkRadio show, Freedom through Speech Radio, about two Sundays ago, but because of time constraints, we were never able to bring closure to the issue.

But this is the thing with me. I am almost apt to agree with the brother, but in the same instance, I believe that his explanation is only part of the truth; the reasons why successful black women cannot find suitable life mates are so numerous and at once so personal and individual that no singular explanation can suffice. What are your thoughts on this issue?

Also, we will be discussing the events and issues of this past year as well as the events and issues which stand out in the upcoming year. And my co-host and blog sister, OneChele, has a new book which hit bookstore shelves on January 1st, Heard It All Before, so we will definitely have to discuss this.

Our special guests tonight are the gentleman mentioned earlier, Mr. Paul Brunson of onedegreefrom.me, and every man’s dream, Tracy Renee Jones of mebeinganonymous and tracyreneejones.com.

So, come on over and join us at 8 PM EST on Freedom through Speech Radio on Blog Talk Radio.

BlogTalkRadio Apperance: Black Men Re-inventing Ourselves

To kick off Black Boys and Men Week here on soulbrother v.2, this evening I will be sitting in on a blogtalkradio panel discussing the various issues black boys and men in this country face. The panel will be moderated by @TheHighRoad.

If you are not familiar with @TheHighRoad, you can get a sense of this devoted husband and father’s efforts to improve the conditions of our communities by going to his site, The High Road, by clicking here.

I really, really need your support on this one; this is a subject that I am very passionate about, and I am sure you will agree that the needs are many. The show will be aired this evening at 5:30 PM EST. Please call in to comment and have a say in the discussion. The call in number is (347)215-9596.

But if you cannot call in, or you will not be able to hear the show live, you can click here to go to the broadcast page to hear a replay or download the podcast.