Eve Ensler’s Embrace Your Inner Girl Lecture – Creative Inspiration for My New Book Sisterhood, the Blog: Soundbytes from the 21st Century Women’s Online Revolution

Greetings All,

Today I spent time working on my new book Sisterhood, the Blog: Soundbytes from the 21st Century Women’s Online Revolution.  My creative inspiration to dig deep into my creative process came from social media: a YouTube video.  It featured author, artist, and activist Eve Ensler’s passionate talk about embracing the inner girl and how powerful it is for women and men to tap into this female strength (compassion, vulnerability, intuition, empathy, creativity, emotion, and so much more).  That’s why I love the Internet.  It gives us so many soundbytes from the lives of women.  That’s the 21st century women’s online revolution! 

Eve’s talk engulfed my entire being.  It was exactly what I needed. As a result, I began creating six-word memoirs for chapter titles and 20 pieces of artwork that can be used in my book.  Check out the video of Eve’s talk below (20 minutes). Let me know what you think.

Enjoy your weekend and February!

Peace, Creativity, Compassion, Intuition, Empathy, Emotion, and Gratitude for My Inner Girl,

Ananda

Celebrate February with Ananda and her online yoga classes, author chats, and creative coaching sessions.

Happy Early February!

February is one of my favorite months. I am celebrating February by offering online yoga classes, author chats, and creative coaching sessions.  See my schedule of online events below. I hope you can join me.  Please share them with your network.

If you like or learn anything from these online events, please consider making a donation to support Doctors Without Borders’ work to improve the lives of Haitians impacted by the January 12th earthquake.  Click here to learn more and make a donation: www.doctorswithoutborders.org.  

1) YOGA FOR WOMEN’S HEART HEALTH AND PEOPLE OF HAITI ON STICKAM.COM

I will be teaching a series of online yoga classes on February 5, 12, 19, and 26 to honor women’s heart health month and the people of Haiti on Stickam.com:  www.stickam.com/anandaleeke.  Each class will be held from 7:00 a.m. to 7:15 a.m. EST.  

If you miss the classes, you can watch the videos. They are all free! Click here to watch them: http://stickam.com/anandaleeke.

Click here to learn more about women’s heart health month and the Heart Truth campaign: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/educational/hearttruth.

2) AUTHOR CHATS ON BLOGTALKRADIO

I am hosting three author chats on The Ananda Leeke Show, my new BlogTalkRadio program, on February 8, 15, and 22 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:15 a.m.  EST: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/anandaleeke.  During the author chats, I will read excerpts from my debut novel Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One and share reflections that answer the question of the day.  See the list of questions of the day below.   

1) Who are love’s troubadours? – February 8

2) What does love look like in my main character Karma Francois’ life? – February 15

3) What is love mentalism? – February 22

3) CREATIVITY COACHING SESSIONS ON USTREAM.TV

Join me for two creative coaching sessions on Ananda Leeke Live!, my UStream.tv show, on February 11 and 25 from 9:00 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. EST.  Click here to watch the show: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ananda-leeke-live.  Don’t worry if you miss the live recording. A recording will be archived on the web site.

My online coaching sessions will utilize creativity exercises included in my new book That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery.  See the list of topics below.

a. How to use six-word memoirs to identify the many parts of yourself – February 11 

b. What does creativity look like in your life? – February 25

Enjoy February!

Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Gratitude for Love,

Ananda

Ananda will talk about “The Creative Entrepreneur” on 1.17 episode of Motivation Mama’s BlogTalkRadio show

Happy Weekend!

Join me for a juicy conversation about “The Creative Entrepreneur” with Denise Hart, “The Motivated Mindset Coach” on January 17 at 6:00 p.m. (EST) on Motivation Mama’s BlogTalkRadio show.  Click here to listen to the live show:  www.blogtalkradio.com/motivationmama.  If you miss the live show, don’t fret.  You will be able to listen to a recording at your convenience on Motivation Mama BlogTalkRadio show web site: www.blogtalkradio.com/motivationmama.

Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Gratitude for all my blessings and lessons,

Ananda

Ananda’s reflection on Kuumba (creativity), the 6th day of Kwanzaa

Greetings All!

Happy New Year’s Eve!  Happy Kuumba (Creativity), the 6th day of Kwanzaa!

What does creativity mean to you?

How have you been creative in 2009?

What are your creative plans for 2010?

Click on my Cinchcast below to hear my reflection on Kuumba and an excerpt about creativity from my new book, That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery (available on Amazon.com – http://tiny.cc/7uFsg).  I also mention the way African Americans are using their creativity and social media tools (Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, etc.) to tell their stories on web TV shows such as my new five favorites: “Anacostia”, “Buppies”, “Kindred”, “The New 20s”, and “Wed-Locked.”  All of these shows represent a new wave of artistic freedom in 21st century visual culture.  They celebrate the independence of creative folks who are willing to tell a wide range of stories that document the many facets of African American life.  For me, they echo one of my favorite mantras: Black folks are NOT and will never be monolothic!  They also  remind me of my debut novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One (www.lovestroubadours.com ; available on Amazon.com –  http://tinyurl.com/yfxtqyq) are also sources of inspiration for my next novel, Love’s Trouabadours – Symon: Book Two. 

Enjoy your day and New Year’s Eve!  Many blessings to you and your family in 2010! 

Peace, Compassion, and Creativity,

Ananda

Ananda’s Weekly Adventure with the Next Chapter Book Blogging Group – PLAY, Chapter 7 of The Joy Diet by Martha Beck

BOLD by Ananda Leeke – Copyright 2009 by Madelyn C. Leeke.

AEDM-Bold, originally uploaded by anandaleeke.

Happy Friday!

My Next Chapter Book Blogging Group is reading Chapter 7 of The Joy Diet by Martha Beck this week. The theme is play. Click here to see what my fellow Next Chapter bloggers are experiencing: http://tnc-thejoydiet.blogspot.com/2009/11/joy-diet-play.html.  I am still reading the play chapter.  So far I have been exploring what play means in the collages I made for Art Every Day Month (http://creativeeveryday.com/art-every-day-month).  Art Every Day Month is an annual creative challenge created by Leah Piken Kolidas (held in November like National Novel Writing Month).

Today I discovered that play means being BOLD. Here’s my definition of BOLD.

B stands for BE who you are.

O stands for OWN who you are.

L stands for LOVE who you are.

D stands for DECIDE to do these things every day!

It takes boldness to add PLAY to my daily life because it is so easy to get caught up in my to do lists.

What does play mean to you?

Enjoy your weekend!

Peace and Creativity,

Ananda

Ananda’s Creative Adventures with reading Chapters 3 and 4 of The Joy Diet by Martha Beck with the Next Chapter Book Blogging Group

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Happy Saturday!

Last week I was in Atlanta visiting my friends, meeting with my attorney/sistalove friend Lauren of CatchtheVerve, LLC (www.catchtheverve.net), and doing research for my next novel, Love’s Troubadours – Symon: Book Two at Morehouse College, Spelman College and its Museum of Fine Art, and the High Museum.  I also attended Blogalicious, the first annual women bloggers of color conference.  So it was a really busy week!

Yesterday, I finally had a chance to reflect on chapters three and four of The Joy Diet by Martha Beck, an amazing book that I am reading with Jamie Ridler’s Next Chapter Book Blogging Group.  Click here to check out what the group is doing: http://tnc-thejoydiet.blogspot.com/2009/10/joy-diet-creativity.html.  I started a series of collages on Friday morning and decided to bring one of them to my dinner meeting with my life coach Yael Flusberg of Y Elements (http://yelements.com) at DC Noodles (a terrific Thai noodle restaurant owned by my dear friend Sak, a groovy brotha from Thailand who also owns Stem, a Thai boutique and one of my favorite places to shop …. and Rice, my favorite Thai restaurant in the U.S.A.!).   Yael has been incorporating my book blogging group adventures into my life coaching homework and sessions.  Tonight, she filmed a webisode of my reflections on chapter three and four.  See the video below.

 

 

Enjoy your weekend! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Peace and Creativity,

Ananda

What’s Coming in September – OneWebDay and National Yoga Month

 

 

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Happy Wednesday!

Today I thought I would give you a sneak peak at what’s going on with me during the month of September.  See the news below. 

1) On September 1, I will launch kg yoga life practices’ OM A Day Campaign, an online effort that will promote yoga and relaxation exercises for bloggers, Internet users,  and creative folks.  OM A Day will offer yoga tips, resources, and radio shows for 30 days.  More information will be posted next week on http://kgyoga.blogspot.com.

2) On September 11, I will kick off kg yoga life practices Meetup Group’s Global Mala Project for Peace Awareness, a nine-day yoga class series that seeks to remind individuals that they have the power to create more peace in the world through mindfulness in their daily lives.Participants will have an opportunity to do 12 sun salutations. At the end of the nine-day practice, participants will complete 108 sun salutations dedicated to peace. The event will also honor individuals and countries impacted by the terrorist attacks of September 11th, United Nations International Peace, and Autumn Equinox. See the schedule below. For more information, check kg yoga life practices’ Meetup Group next week: http://yoga.meetup.com/584.

kg yoga life practices’ Global Mala Project for Peace Awareness was organized based on yoga teacher/peace activist Shiva Rea’s Global Mala Project (http://www.globalmala.org) The purpose of the Project is to unite the global yoga community to form a “mala around the earth” through yoga, meditation, and mantra practices based upon the sacred cycle of 108. A mala is a set of prayer beads made from 108 beads and used for keeping count while reciting, chanting, or mentally repeating a mantra or name of a sacred deity.

Global Mala Project for Peace Awareness Schedule

a. September 9 @ 6:45pm-7:15pm

b. September 10 @ 6:45pm-7:15pm

c. September 11 @ 6:45pm-7:15pm

d. September 12 @ 9am-9:30am

e. September 13 @ 9am-9:30am

f. September 14 @ 6:45pm-7:15pm

g. September 15 @ 6:45pm-7:15pm

h. September 16 @ 6:45pm-7:15pm

i. September 17 @ 6:45pm-7:15pm

3) September 22 marks kg yoga life practices’ Meetup Group’s first annual celebration of  OneWebDay (http://onewebday.org) and National Yoga Month (http://www.yogamonth.org).  Join me for a FREE short morning yoga class for Internet users from 7:15 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. in Malcolm X-Meridian Hill Park in DC. The class will meet by the waterfall that faces the reflecting pool located at the 16 Street and Florida Avenue, NW entrance. Participants should dress comfortably, refrain from eating and drinking two hours before the class, and bring their own mats. Yoga mats will NOT be provided. If it rains, the class will not be held.

OneWebDay was established by Susan P. Crawford in 2006 to encourage Internet users to celebrate online life and show how the Internet affects their lives. For more information, visit
http://onewebday.org. For more information, visit http://yoga.meetup.com/584.

 

Enjoy your day and week!

Peace, Creativity, and Yoga OMs,

Ananda

Fathers and Daughters on July 31st Episode of The Ananda Leeke Show on Talkshoe.com

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Me and my father Dr. John F. Leeke affectionately

known as “J” hanging out in Adams Morgan in DC

 

Happy Wednesday!

Join me for a juicy conversation with my father Dr. John F. Leeke (a/k/a “J”) about fathers and daughters on the July 31st episode of The Ananda Leeke Show at 8:00 p.m. EST on Talkshoe.com. Click here to listen to the show:  http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/15820.  We will discuss how our father-daughter relationship has impacted my life choices, creativity, and career. 

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We will also share our thoughts about the book, Daughters of Men: Portraits of African-American Women and Their Fathers (http://www.daughtersofmen.com) by Rachel Vassel.  I recently gave this book to “J” for his 70th birthday.  It’s one of his favorites!

If you miss the show, don’t panic. You can download a recording to your computer or via iTunes a few minutes after the show airs or whenever you have free time.  Click here to download a recording:  http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/15820.

What is your relationship with your father?

How has your father impacted your life choices and career?

Enjoy your day!

Peace and Creativity,

Ananda

Wreck This Journal – Week 6 – Creative Play & Gratitude

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Happy Wednesday!

Today I decided to share what I have been doing in my Wreck This Journal book for Week 6.  Click here to see what my creative sistaloves from the Next Chapter Book Blogging Group have done during Week 6:  http://tnc-wreckthisjournal.blogspot.com/2009/07/wreck-this-journal-week-6.html.

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2008 TWAM Photo Shoot 1 058

On Sunday morning, I served as a volunteer yoga teacher for my free monthly yoga class (http://yoga.meetup/584) in Malcolm X-Meridian Hill Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_Hill_Park), a local slice of paradise in my U Street neighborhood in DC.  After the class, I walked up 16th  Street to All Souls Unitarian Church (www.all-souls.org) and picked some leaves from various trees. One leaf was shaped in a heart. It was yellow and green.  It reminded me of my intention to maintain an open heart.  This morning, I created a collage by pasting the heart-shaped leaf on a green piece of construction paper.  I also wrote a statement about gratitude on the collage: I am grateful for waking up and seeing Mother Nature in a new day.  While reading page 168 of Wreck This Journal,  I decided to paste my collage as a secret message in my journal.  I used the last two digits of the year I became a debutante for Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. as my secret page.  That was a lot of fun to remember.  I had big fun with the debutante training process and coming out celebration. What great memories!

I also enjoyed playing on the following pages:

  • Page 142 asked me to create a sign of what I wanted to say.  I wrote a wisdom message that I have been using all week: be grateful for everything and everyone.
  • Page 122 asked me to trace my hand.  I traced my left hand with a black ballpoint pen and thought about how I use my left brain (logical, analytical, objective, and rational) to manage the publication process of my new book, That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery (Summer 2009 – iUniverse, Inc.).  My left brain has been spearheading the final stages of my book publication process (something I have tried to escape because all I wanna do this summer is play!).
  • Page 112 invited me to infuse the page with a smell of my choice.  This was so much fun.  I used my lavender oil and rubbed it on the page.  Now my book smells fresh like lavender!  Lovely!!!!!
  • Page 138 told me to write with my left hand.  This was silly.  I ended up writing “love is all we have.”  I can barely read the message!!!!
  • Page 115 and 116 encouraged me to close my eyes and connect the dots from memory.  My lines were all over the place. A few connected the dots. The exercise made me laugh a lot.  It was all about CREATIVE PLAY!!!!!
  • Page 150 felt good to do because it told me lose the page, throw it out, and accept the loss.  I needed to do this exercise.  Last week I started releasing a lot of clutter in my home and life.  After I dumped everything, I felt so much spaciousness in my home and heart. I also felt a sense of loss.  I got a little stuck in a sad place until I realized that I needed to accept the loss.   

So that’s all I have for Week 6. 

Thanks everybody for reading my weekly updates.

Peace and Creativity,

Ananda

Summer Wisdom Collage

Happy Wednesday All,

This morning I woke up with a lot of energy. So I made several collages for my Sisterhood, the Blog site and a summer wisdom collage.  The wisdom messages that selected me (that’s right … they selected me) were exactly what I needed.  Check them out below.  Do you have any summer wisdom? 

Peace and Creativity,

Ananda

AKML-personalwisdom

Summer Wisdom collage by Ananda Leeke

Copyright 2009 by Madelyn C. Leeke.

 

My Summer Wisdom Messages:

1) What I know for sure … love your body!!!!

2) Better health means more energy to do things you want to do.

3) She’s got the power.

4) Change, in all shapes and sizes, can definitely bring out our deepest fears–but it also offers us vital new encounters with the bountiful magic of life.