Here’s a sneak preview of my new and improved logo for my web site. My graphic designer Gwonghung Ng developed the design with my original artwork. Gwonghung did an amazing job. She is also working on my business card template and new Twitter graphic design. You can connect with Gwonghung on Twitter – http://twitter.com/gwong_GnG and Facebook – www.facebook.com/pages/Gwonghung-Ng/383682464568. My new logo will be included in the relaunch of my web site – www.anandaleeke.com in late March and April.
Enjoy your weekend!
Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Gratitude for Artistic Support,
All Photos – Credit: Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute
Greetings All,
Well, it’s been a great week. I spent Wednesday night, Thursday, and Friday morning in New York City. I came to Gotham City to attend the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute’s opening reception for the “Wearing Spirit: Aesthetically Personifying the Feminine in African Sacred Traditions” exhibit.
“Wearing Spirit” is a multi-media exhibition of paintings, sculpture, photography, textile art, video and installations honoring the power of the sacred feminine in African spiritual traditions. When I walked into the gallery, I felt a powerful energy wash over my spirit and ‘heart as I took in the beauty of each piece of artwork. AMAZING! Each artist”s work touched me deeply. I felt the presence of my ancestors in their work.
Attending the opening reception for “Wearing Spirit” was a HUGE moment for me because my mixed media wire sculpture “Erzulie’s Black Heart” was included in the exhibition. Below is my artist statement for the exhibition.
Artist Statement
Ananda Leeke’s passion for African goddesses began while she was studying Kemetian and Yoruba religions and writing My Soul Speaks, her first chap book of poetry, in 1992. In 1995, Leeke began using coat hangers, an assortment of wire, found objects, vintage jewelry, fabric, and amulets to sculpt images of African goddesses including Oshun, Yemanya, Oya, Maat, Auset, and Het Heru. Over the past fifteen years, she has explored these goddesses in her artwork, writing, and travels to Cuba, Egypt, Ghana, Louisiana, and Senegal. She discovered Erzulie, the Haitian goddess of love, while writing her debut novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One. Erzulie influenced the lives of many characters in Love’s Troubadours. Erzulie’s veve is incorporated in Love’s Troubadours logo and artwork on the book cover.
Erzulie’s Black Heart is a goddess of love and healing who was born out of the middle passage experience of enslaved Africans in Haiti. She is a Petwo spirit. Her love and healing energy are hot, aggressive, and quick to act when the children of Haiti need her. Her black heart represents a sanctuary for Haitians when they are faced with life’s hardships including poverty, illness, violence, and natural disasters such as hurricanes and the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that occurred on January 12. Erzulie’s Black Heart heals the pain and suffering of Haiti’s sons and daughters. She protects them with the fierce love of a Black warrior woman. Her intention is to bring the children of Haiti to higher ground.
I also had a chance to reconnect with Dr. Marta Moreno Vega, the founder of the Caribbean Cultural Center, and my dear sistalove Shantrelle Lewis, the curator of ‘Wearing Spirit.” Shantrelle also serves as Director of Programs & Exhibitions for the Center. Dr. Vega and Shantrelle agreed to share their thoughts about “Wearing Spirit” with Ananda Leeke TV. See their videos below.
My NYC play dad Fred Mays and sistalove friends Jill Barrett, Toni Blackman, and Zahava came to the event to show their support. In addition, I met artist Michael Cummings and filmmaker Spike Lee (love his movies She’s Gotta Have It, Mo Betta Blues, Malcolm X, School Dayz, and Bamboozled). Click here to see the Center’s photos from the opening reception.
My NYC play dad Fred Mays and I
Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your weekend!
Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Gratitude for the Sacred Feminine,
I have been working with my creativity coaching client Xina Eiland since January. Xina is an amazing publicist. I know because she serves as my publicist!
On Friday, we had an interactive coaching session that gave Xina an opportunity to practice her audio and video blogging skills. Click here to listen to Xina’s first audio blog on Cinchcast.
Watch Xina’s first video blog below.
What do you think about Xina’s audio and video blogs?
This weekend, I went to see an exhibit featuring the work of Elizabeth Catlett at the Mexican Cultural Institute on 16th Street in northwest DC. Click here to learn more about the Catlett exhibit. It closes on May 29. If you are in DC, consider attending Professor David Driscoll’s lecture about Catlett’s work on March 27 at 3:00 p.m. at the Mexican Cultural Institute. It’s free!
Catlett is one of my favorite artists. She was born in DC in 1915 and is a graduate of Howard University (like me!). Click here to learn more about Catlett.
I have given the world my songs by Elizabeth Catlett
Yesterday, I spent time with my sistalove Bianca Alexander. We met for afternoon tea and lunch at Sala Thai on U Street in DC. Thanks to the sunny weather we were able to sit outside and enjoy tasty Thai cuisine.
FYI – Bianca is a lawyer turned healthy living advocate who serves as co-CEO and host of Conscious Living TV, a green living news magazine show. Bianca also hosts The Soul of Green, a TV program that features untold stories about people of color in the green and environmental justice movements. In addition, she is a broadcast journalism fellow of University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications and an ethnic media fellow of the Association of Health Journalists. Bianca is also a yoga teacher and Reiki Master practitioner. For more information, visit www.biancaalexander.com.
Check out my interview with Bianca on U Street in northwest DC (recorded on March 7) below.
I consider Bianca one of my digital diva sheroes. Digital diva sheroes are women who use the Internet to do great work online and offline. They are also women who will be featured in my next book Sisterhood, the Blog: Soundbytes from the 21st Century Women’s Online Revolution.
Who are your digital diva or green living sheroes?
Enjoy your day and week!
Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Green Living Gratitude,
Today is really special for me. International Women’s Day always reminds me of my trip to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women held in September 1995 in Beijing, China. My trip to Beijing was one of the most powerful experiences in my life. This morning, I discussed my trip during my author talk on BlogTalkRadio. I also shared woman-centered poetry including two poems I wrote while attending the conference in China. Click on the link to listen to a recording of my show (12 minutes): www.blogtalkradio.com/anandaleeke/2010/03/08/author-chat-with-ananda-leeke.
Who are your favorite women poets?
How are you celebrating International Women’s Day?
Enjoy your day and week!
Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Gratitude for women’s power, passion, and progress,
I have a confession to make. I LOVE doing research for my next novel Love’s Troubadours – Symon: Book Two. YES YES YES I LOVE RESEARCH especially with the Internet …. blogs, YouTube, Twitter, podcasts, Facebook, Myspace, and web sites.
Today, my love-fest for research took me to NPR’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin (I listen to the show five days a week! Love it!). While listening to today’s show via podcast, I was introduced to Dr. L’Heureux Dumi Lewis who talked about Black male privilege. After listening to the show, I visited Dr. Lewis’ blog and watched a YouTube video featuring his keynote address on Black male privilege at his alma mater Morehouse College (the same school my main character Symon Allure attended during his freshmen year) in February. See video above. That keynote address convinced me to include a discussion about Black male privilege in my novel.
What do you think about Black male privilege?
Enjoy your day!
Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Gratitude for the Internet,
Today, I started reading Soul Babies by Mark Anthony Neal (one of my favorite Black male feminists and authors …. Loved his book New Black Man). Click here to learn more about Neal and his work: http://newblackman.blogspot.com. I am reading Neal’s Soul Babies as research for my next novel Love’s Troubadours – Symon: Book Two.
“Great artistic efforts do more than just entertain, they enlighten. Love’s Troubadours was highly entertaining, but also challenged me to explore the greater context of the world around me, which is in my humble opinion the hallmark of great art. I learned much about my own strivings and angst while perusing life through the eyes of a hip, chic, post-soul, educated yoga-loving, highly spiritual Black American Princess named Karma. There are no canned characters in this masterpiece, only complex women and men dealing with the vicissitudes of life through their inimitable postmodern brands of spirituality and social perspectives. Karma teaches us much about perseverance as well as about self-transcendence and spiritual consciousness. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book is its fresh appropriation of black middleclass sensibilities. Karma is an intuitive and progressive woman and her tastes and interests reflect a mélange of black middleclass tropes often unexplored in contemporary cinema and books. Ananda Leeke fastens our consciousness to a world of black female sophistication, and depicts Karma as an apotheosis of urban-chic and self-transcendence. Leeke takes us on an entertaining and enlightening journey as we watch an incredibly complex protagonist like Karma navigate through the matrices of her personal reformation, negotiate transitional changes, overcome family and relationship challenges and emotional angst, and emerge as a more evolved and emotionally whole woman. This is a well-written book and a fascinating look at an underrepresented portion of contemporary black middle-class life and spirituality.”
Shayne got me thinking about the type of people I write about in my Love’s Troubadours novel series. So I did a google search for Neal’s definition of post-soul. See below.
“the political, social, and cultural experiences” of blacks born “between the 1963 March on Washington and . . . the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke challenge to affirmative action in 1978.”
After reading the definition, I realized me and most of my characters are post-soul!
When I saw the cover of Soul Babies featuring Soul Train dancers, I hollered because Soul Train was one of my favorite shows growing up in the 70s. It was a religion for me to watch Don Cornelius and the Soul Train guests and dancers. They taught me how to dance and dress (at least in my imagination cuz’ my mother would not allow me to wear some of the clothes!).
What do you think about the post-soul definition?
What were your favorite memories from the 70s?
Do you listen to 70s music? If so, who are your favorite artists and groups?
Enjoy your day!
Peace, Creativity, Compassion, Gratitude, and SOOOOOOUUUUUULLLLLLL,
In March, I will be spending a lot of time blogging about digital diva sheroes on Sisterhood, the Blog – http://sisterhoodtheblog.wordpress.com. Check out my first two posts below. Let me know what you think.
I am also gearing up to return to my Examiner.com social media column. I took the month of February off for to have more balance in my life. Guess what? It worked. I will post blog notices when my new articles about the Latinos in Social Media conference (December 2009), Social Justice Camp (January 2010), Blogalicious DC Meet-up (February 2010), Social Commerce Camp (February 2010), DC Media Makers (February 2010), Crisis Camp DC for Chile Earthquake (February 2010), Black women in social media series (featuring Naomi Trower, Spelman College, and others), and other topics get published. There will be lots of videos too! So stay tuned.
Thanks for stopping by!
Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Gratitude for balance and healthy living,
Ananda
PS: I am also working on the relaunch of AnandaLeeke.com. Look for more news later this month.
Ananda Leeke 
