Arabella Grayson's Blog
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May.20.2013
Paying homage to the female form, fire writer Latisha Baker transforms reclaimed and upcycled wood into evocative works of art. Like Oya, the Nigerian goddess of fire and weather, who wields her sword of truth to cut through conflict, Baker channels emotional angst through her wood burning...
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May.12.2013
Motherhood: The most important job you’ll ever work.
Family-oriented team players desired.
Experience: Completion of childhood preferred.
Duties and Responsibilities: Mind reader, language interpreter, playmate, chaperone, instructor, tutor, organizer, mediator, coordinator, diplomat,...
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Apr.22.2013
On man's planetary playground, there are 1,589,361 known species: homo sapiens are only one of 5,416 species of mammals belonging to one of the smallest groups of vertebrates. Our other neighbors live on Earth at our comfort, on our terms, for our pleasure, entertainment, sport, nourishment...
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Jan.19.2013
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968)
For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership...
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Jan.07.2013
Author Wally Amos’ provocative book cover caught my attention. Why in the heck was he flaunting an old stereotype – an illustration of his grinning brown face deliciously poised over a slice of fore bitten watermelon – I wondered? For more than a decade, his famous face beamed from grocery...
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Jan.02.2013
Saturday Comes: A Novel of Love and Vodouby Carine Fabius
With an insider’s intimacy author Carine Fabius dispels the religious, social and cultural stereotypes and myths shrouding her native Haiti in an atmospheric coming-of-age tale that pits the bourgeois Chenet family against the...
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Nov.05.2012
Artist Seth Apter is auctioning off art bundles as a way of helping fellow New Yorkers in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. 100% of the proceeds will benefit The Mayors Fund to Advance New York City. Donations will support immediate aid needs - including water, food and hygiene...
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Oct.11.2012
Artist Ashanti Davis bears his soul to anyone who takes the time to absorb his graphic narratives of a life gone awry. At the moment of our exchange, he was in transition, peddling his art for food and shelter. One gorgeous Saturday afternoon, five summers ago, at an...
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Feb.13.2012
In honor of Black History Month:
On February 13, 1907, Cincinnati newspaper founder Wendell P. Dabney published The Union. Its motto, "For no people can become great without being united, for in union there is strength." (source: I, Too, Sing America)
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day so I decided...
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Jan.10.2012
Award-winning "Wee Pals" creator Morrie Turner, the first nationally syndicated African American cartoonist, regaled the crowd at his recent talk and book signing at Underground Books in Sacramento, CA. In the midst of his talk, as guests continued to arrive, Turner, 88, with his infectious...
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Dec.23.2011
"Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there." Impossible, I thought. How could anybody not stir knowing that Santa Claus and his...
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Dec.15.2011
My one special ingredient for a joyous and memorable holiday is an open heart brimming with love, gratitude, wonder and forgiveness. Here's to cheerful companionship, friendly fellowship, intellectual insights, warm welcomes, healthy hearts and healing, creative solutions, infectious smiles...
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Dec.08.2011
In the short allegory "Destination Unknown" settings (as well as other inanimate objects) are characters unto themselves, revealing the interior journey of the main character whose ride on the southbound Illusion Express leaves much to the imagination.
Destination Unknown*by Arabella...
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Oct.10.2011
The question was raised in California exactly 100 years ago today in a Special Election. For eight months prior to California's landmark election, politically savvy women and men across the state campaigned for the passage of Senate Amendment 8. Thanks to progressive thinking men, the...
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Aug.03.2011
Well, I done et my tomato. . .
I'd intended to give it another day or two, but last night when I went out to check on it like I normally do; touching the rich soil for dampness or dryness and giving it my customary caress, the tomato popped right off its sturdy stem into my welcoming hand. I tried...
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About Arabella
Arabella combines her passion for writing and the arts in the touring exhibition “Two Hundred Years of Black Paper Dolls.” Author of Precious Playthings: An Illustrated History of Black Paper Dolls, The First Two Hundred Years (work-in-progress), her work...
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