We are working on the first issue of Fill in the Gap Magazine for 2021. We are looking for artists, poets and photographers. Email us at uppcreative@yahoo.com
Looking For Contributors
Karen J Anderson
T-Shirt of the Month
Art of the Month
Although history has tried to erase them, these women are written on the souls of black women and we know how to wear them.
She refused to be what they demanded she be. She decided to take some friends with her.
After leading many people to freedom through the underground railroad over 8 years, Araminta Ross, joined the women’s suffrage movement. Later in life she cared for the elderly and evenly established the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged in 1896 on land near her home.
She would hold a mirror up so they could face their hypocrisy.
Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, Ida B Wells grew up to become an investigative journalist who brought notice to lynchings, discrimination and sexism in the United States. She also spoke and wrote about them to the point it caused conflict with many of the white suffrage organizers because she called them on their silence to racist behavior. She was associated with the founding of the NAACP and National Association of Colored Women’s Club.
She wanted to capture the history and soul of a people.
The lives of African Americans in the southern part of the United States was documented by Zora Neale Hurston. She lived through the Harlem Renaissance writing novels, short stories, plays and essays. She interviewed the last known person captured by slavers and brought to the US on a slave ship, Cudjoe Lewis.
They wanted to put their name of her work. She knew better than that.
Fashion houses saw her as a seamstress, but she opened her own shop and created high fashion for the up and coming in Harlem. Her clients ranged from Nat King Cole’s wife, Eartha Kitt, Mae West, Josephine Baker, and more. Zelda Wynn Valdes also created one of the first outfits for the Playboy Bunny.
Marcus Garvey taught them to love their hair and features the way God had given them.
Black is Beautiful grew out of a 1950s movement in New York City when men from the AJASS society started holding fashion shows for African American women who wore their hair natural. It promoted beauty to another standard.
Did You See Something You Like?
Visit my art shop and see if it is there so you can purchase it.
My art reflects my desire to tell the story of a marginalized community who sees past their marginalization. We are rich with history and spirit.
My BlackGyrlArt
Affirmation
In Destiny’s Dilemma, Zo is very good at dispensing grace to those she thinks deserve it. It is when she comes up against someone she thinks does not deserve her grace that the valve turns off. We do that sometimes. God’s grace doesn’t come with strings.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8)
Taking Off The White Hat
The Lone Ranger, Have Gun Will Travel and a host of other stories that give a very innocent portrayal of the United States expansion. What do the Sistas really think about this genre?
Episode 8 Taking Off The White Hat
Portrait Season
Chicago this is your moment. Book your session now!
Visit and Purchase from My Vida Shop
Art is a powerful way to tell a story. My artwork tells the story of a people who rise up from things that try to hold them down. They are made of great things.
This artwork is available on essential items. There are several patterns that have a deeper meaning. The purple circles remind us of God’s word that He knows the plans He has for us. We are different sizes ad different shades, but all with a purpose.
Book of the Month
An African American woman moved home to take care of her dying mother giving up the opportunity to experience a world beyond segregation. Zoraida Hughes Williams finds that some things have changed about her hometown of Fort Worth, Texas while some have stayed the same, like Hell’s Half Acre, an area where saloons, prostitution and gambling runs wild. Like most of the residents, she wants to keep her head down and stay away from trouble, but it comes in the unlikely form of an Anglo Baptist preacher. He messes up everything and almost gets them killed.
Available on Amazon.com
or Books2read.com which include Barnes & Noble, Apple, Indigo and more
They Were A Triple Threat
In Triple Threat of TV Talk With The Sistas, they talk about those old school Variety Shows from the 1970s. Performers had to be able to sing, dance and act to be on some of these shows. Find out if these old shows were entertaining.
Episode 7 Triple Threat
UPP Creative Media 