One-to-Watch: Actress Simone Missick

Actress Simone Missick is going to be added to the growing lists of bad azz heroines. Kudos to her on her upcoming series.

Check her out starring as the character Misty Knight on the Netflix series "Luke Cage" starting, September 30, 2016.

Photos: Getty Images

Julia Sarr-Jamois For J. Crew

I Saw It In A September Issue: The fabulous Julia Sarr-Jamois has scored another rocking campaign and this time she fronts for J. Crew.

Julia is Frotastic!

To find out more check out J. Crew's exciting new collection for Fall.

Le Look Du Jour: Solange Knowles at Opening Ceremony Fêtes the Debut Issue of 'OC Annual'

Our favorite "Afrolista," Solange Knowles was out and about at the launch party for Opening Ceremony's debut Issue of 'OC Annual' Magazine looking pretty awesome in pink.



Solange, OC Annual E-I-C, Rory Santran and Humberto Leon.








Opening Ceremony's New Book Will Be Published In September.

Carol Lim and Humberto Leon on the owners of Opening Ceremony.

Looking for something unique and that will show your true individuality, then Opening Ceremony is the store for you. Check here to shop online.

Photos: Opening Ceremony and Steve Eichner

What's Haute Now: Janelle Monáe Is Now A Covergirl

While checking out the September issue of VOGUE Magazine I spotted (and nearly dropped that huge and heavy sucker on my foot) the gorgeous Janelle Monáe in advertisements for Cover Girl Cosmetics. All I can say is that I'm so proud of her.

Congratulations!

Photos: Cover Girl Cosmetics

Media Mogul Oprah Winfrey Goes Au Naturel For The September Issue of O The Oprah Magazine

Oprah sports her massive Afro on the cover of O The Oprah Magazine's September issue 


“They say a little change never hurt anybody. In fact, I believe that’s an understatement: I’ve found that a little change make a world of difference, and I’m always amazed by how easy it is to brighten things up with a little tweak. (Like, say, wearing your hair au naturel, as I did on this month’s cover.) ~Oprah Winfrey .

Once I saw the cover I smiled from ear to ear. As a woman who has been au naturel for four decades it's refreshing to see more and more women embrace their natural hair texture and wear it with confidence. Sure, some of you will say it's so superficial, but I deal in the superficial and I also "deal-n-truth" on my own terms.

A lot of women look up to celebrities for inspiration and for some kind of validation in the choices that they make when it comes to their appearance, sorry, but that's not my thing. If I like your style, I like your style and I will always have my own personal style and not copy anyone else's.

I've read several blogs dedicated to natural hair who confirm this statement when some write that they'd like to see more prominent women wear their hair in it's natural state in hopes that it would be more acceptable for them to wear a natural hairstyle with confidence and be readily accepted from their peers and co-workers. The problem doesn't lie with your peers or co-workers, the problem is basically an individual problem that goes much deeper than that.

The real problem is that the psychological damage that so many women suffer from will not change a thing until they learn to embrace what they were born with before they look to a society who they think will accept them. The problem actually lies within before another human being will accept you and no one will accept you until you accept yourselves. Stop looking for external forces to accept you and begin to accept yourselves just the way you are. I don't base my life on what other people think of me and women just don't understand how freeing it is to be free from the opinions of others.



Oprah looks beautiful either way she chooses to wear her hair. Rock On Oprah!

A Moment In Afro Her-story: Love Unlimited

 Barry White gave to us his beautiful gifts of song and music-along with that he introduced the world to his beautiful wife Glodean, her sister Linda James, and their friend, Dianne Taylor who made up the singing group, Love Unlimited. Barry White's Love Unlimited singing group was composed of these three beautiful black women who surrounded him with their innate style and beauty.

Who could forget their song, "Walking In The Rain With The One I Love? Yes, in those days we did have love on all levels, what happened... I don't have a clue either.

 Before nail salons became popular, these three women wore some of the most unique nail designs that we ever saw at the time. I used to wonder how were they able to do anything with nails that long?

Any way, they were glamorous, poised, elegant and refined with some of the most beautiful perfectly coiffed Afro's on the planet. BTW, whatever happened to the record companies having etiquette coaches because many of today's so called stars are certainly lacking in that department?

"A Moment In Afro Herstory: Kathleen Neal Cleaver"

"Activist,  Educator and Intellectual, Kathleen Neal Cleaver "

At one time Kathleen Cleaver was a very prominent member of The Black Panther Party and was once married to one of the founding members, Eldridge Cleaver. Any individual over the age of forty remembers how the lives of those in The Black Power Movement turned out. After Eldridge’s legal situation was resolved, Kathleen went back to school in 1981, receiving a full scholarship from Yale University. She graduated in 1983, summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. In 1987, Kathleen divorced Eldridge Cleaver.

She then continued her education by getting her law degree from Yale Law School. After graduating, Cleaver worked for the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, and followed this with numerous jobs including: law clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, the faculty of Emory University in Atlanta, visiting faculty member at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, the Graduate School of Yale University and Sarah Lawrence College.

In 2005, she was selected an inaugural Fletcher Foundation Fellow. She then worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Yale Law School, and a Senior Lecturer in the African American Studies department at Yale University. She is currently serving as faculty at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia.

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"A Moment In Afro Herstory: Nikki Giovanni"

"Activist, educator and poet Nikki Giovanni"

Yolande Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni  is a Grammy-nominated American poet, activist and author, intellectual and shero. Nikki Giovanni is currently a Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia Tech. The civil rights and black power movements inspired her early poetry that was collected in Black Feeling, Black Talk (1967), Black Judgment (1968), and Re: Creation (1970).

She has since written more than two dozen books including volumes of poetry, illustrated children's books, and three collections of essays. What great books of poems to read to your young children and grandchildren. I admire Nikki because she speaks her mind. Shouldn't we all have the courage to do that?

"A Moment In Afro Herstory: Angela Davis and Toni Morrison"

Angela Davis and Toni Morrison

Most of us know Angela Y. Davis as the most iconic Afro wearing women in "American His-story," but others know her as an activist, educator, intellectual, socialist and was a vocal activist during the Civil Rights Movement and a former Black Panther. Her research interests were in feminism, African American studies, critical theory, popular music culture and social consciousness, and philosophy of punishment and prisons. Since moving in the early 1990s from communism to reformist she has identified herself as a democratic socialist. Davis is the founder of Critical Resistance, an organization working to abolish what it calls the prison-industrial complex.

If you are an avid reader like I am, I'm sure you've read one of many Toni Morrison's excellent works of Literature. Toni Morrison  is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved. As an editor at Random House, Morrison played an important role in bringing black literature into the mainstream. No one can tell our Her-story like we can and these women had the courage to tell the truth even when it made others uncomfortable.

(Photo:Jill Krementz)

"A Moment In Afro Herstory-Ursula Burns, CEO Xerox Corporation"

Ursula Burns THE CEO of THE XEROX CORPORATION

The joy and elation that I and probably others felt when Ursula Burns was named the new CEO of Xerox was one of great pride in this woman's accomplishments through perseverance and hard work. I also loved the fact that previous CEO Anne M. Mulcahy handed the helm of the company over to her and to me that was what the true succession of power is all about, especially when you know that this individual shares much of the same visions and goals of the company. I wish Ursula Burns immeasurable success for the future of The Xerox Corporation.

The CEO of The Xerox Corporation is a native New Yorker who grew up in a lower East Side housing project and is the first women of African descent to head a Fortune 500 company. Burns ascended the corporate ladder at Xerox, beginning as a summer engineering intern in 1980 and becoming the president of the printing giant in 2002.

In 2008, Burns ranked 10th on Fortune magazine's top 50 Most Powerful Women in America. She's the second-highest placed African-American woman behind only Oprah Winfrey, who was ranked No. 8 that year. Ursula Burns, was and is a math whiz, who graduated from Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn with an engineering degree. She received a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1981 from Columbia University. Burns is married to Lloyd Bean, a retired Xerox scientist. The couple have two children.

We tend to celebrate celebrities, but not the real trailblazers who are really the most influential in the world. Even though she's on the cover of Black Enterprise Magazine this month, she should have been boldly front and center on the cover of Essence Magazine instead of their usual celebrities. Sure they wrote a small article about her, but this was a cover defining moment in "Our Herstory" and as usual they saw no significance of her accomplishments.


Many women claim that wearing their hair the way it grows from their scalps feel that they won't get promoted or hired because of their appearance and that our natural hair is too radical. Really? It's not the appearance of your hair that's not accepted in corporate America-it's your inability and unwillingness to succeed for the success of the company that's not.

Failure is not an option and neither are excuses. We're not judged by our hair or what we look like anymore, were judged by are talents. Ursula Burns is an example of many women in corporate America who wear their hair in it's natural state knowing that they are more than a skin color and hair texture. Again, it's not all about ones appearance- it's all about your talents.


"My perspective comes in part from being a New York black lady, in part from being an engineer. I know I'm smart and have opinions worth being heard." ~Ursula Burns