Joyce E. Davis's Blog, page 7

The Hula-Hooping Puppy's Quest for "Important Things"

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7:32 a.m. October 26, 2011...walking to school:



"Mommy, what do you know?" She's munching on red grapes.



"About what?" I'm trying to trick my racing brain to refrain from rearranging my mile-long To Do list.



"Just what do you know?" Her brows are furrowed as she scans the ground for pavement breaks not to step on.



"I know that I love you. I know that the sky is blue." Oh, I'm so clever...and I'm rhyming!



"But don't you know any important things?" my precocious kindergartener presses. I'm pleasantly surprised and a bit amused at her clarification.



"Well, like what? What do you think is important?" Turnabout is fair play I think, employing a tactic I learned from a friend.



"Like doing work on the computer...and on the iPad." I'm momentarily proud, then instantly concerned: My child understands technology. My child sees me using technology too often.



"Well yes, I know how to do those things. What else do you think is important?" Now I'm praying the tactic will work better the second time around.



"Well, we read to each other! Yes, we read to each other." Her voices fades as she races ahead.



"Oh yes Amber, that is very important."



She's out of earshot. And I am beaming.....


















 VIDEO: The Hula-Hooping Puppy 










Hope you're Enjoyceinglife...[image error]

Shel Silverstein Has a New Book Out!!!!

Hooray!!!!

Why I fell in love with Shel Silverstein....


Why I still loved Shel Silverstein at age 25....


If you and your child like weird, whimsy, and witty writing, check out this great NPR piece about the incredible children's poet and illustrator. And make sure to visit Shel Silverstein's website , which has wonderful animation accompanied by the author reading his prose. His imagination is matched by few.
Enjoyceinglife.....

Healing Work: Spelman 9/11 Video Reflections

If I hadn't overslept on the morning of September 11, 2001, I probably would have been on the A train riding directly under the World Trade Center as the buildings were being attacked. Instead I found myself being rousted by an early morning phone call from my father alerting me to the first plane crashing into the North Tower.

I was watching the news and ironing - still thinking I was going to my job editing at Honey magazine - when I got a call from my boss at the time, Ebony magazine's current editor, Amy Dubois Barnett. Together we watched the second plane hit, and realized that we weren't going into the office that day.


Video Series: Where Were You on September 11? / Spelman College: LyaNisha Gonzalez, a professor in the department of drama and dance from New Jersey, reflects on how her life has changed since September 11, 2001.

Some memories of that morning and the next few days are foggy. Like I don't remember if I talked to anyone else on the phone that day - or for several days - because all the lines were jammed with people all over the world trying to reach their loved ones in the New York area. I think I remember sending and receiving emails some kind of way (dial up?), communicating to my family and friends that I was safe and staying put.

By the end of that week, I did have to go into work, as we were closing an issue of Honey that was scheduled to be printed in a few days. I do recall getting off the train at 33rd and Park Avenue and being accosted by the smell of the towers burning - a stench I'll never forget. By the time I walked half a block to my office, my clothes and hair were peppered with debris from the decimated World Trade Center that was still falling from the sky like snowflakes.

Getting off the elevator, my face was streaked with tears from seeing every available space - bus stops, business fronts, light posts, building walls - plastered with "Have You Seen?" signs, desperate posted pleas from those looking for their missing loved ones. I was overwhelmed by the thought that several days before thousands of people tragically lost their lives halfway between my office and my apartment.

As we worked to put the issue to bed, rumors of bomb threats in many of the skyscrapers and massive train stations kept the mood uneasy. We talked of buying sneakers in case we had to walk miles and traverse bridges on foot to get home, as places like the Empire State Building and Penn Station were continuously being evacuated.

My heart was so heavy that I felt like I was trudging along in a daze the last two and a half months I spent as a resident in New York City. You see, I had already been planning my escape.

Even though I swore I'd never come back home to Georgia (God forbid, where my parents lived!!), by the time the planes hit the towers on September 11th, my sensible self had nearly secured a position as the senior editor at Upscale magazine in Atlanta. I'd turned 30 years old earlier in the year and with that milestone came a crack in rebellious runaway attitude I'd let impact my decisions for the last 15 years. I missed home - and September 11th just sped up a transition that was already in the works.

Oddly enough, I don't think it was until these last few days, that I felt the full impact of what my parents must have been feeling a decade ago - their only daughter, their oldest child, operating in the center of the worst terrorist attack the United States had ever experienced.


Video: Where Were You on September 11? [Part 2]: Members of the Spelman College community reflect on their experiences on September 11, 2001.

Interviewing members of the Spelman College community - students, faculty, and staff - for a series of September 11th anniversary videos really brought it all back to me. Their poignant and emotional remembrances and the perspective I've gained about valuing the important things in life has made me realize that the decade since I left the traumatized capital of the world was a seminal growth period for me.

One Spelman staffer who worked across the street from the World Trade Center and lost 10 people they knew when the towers fell could not bring their self to participate in the video project. The person described their feeling about September 11th a decade later as still being "too raw."

I realized, too, a lot later that I was traumatized by my experience on that fateful day. And being a parent now makes the memory even more acute. I am grateful I had the opportunity to shoot my first pseudo-professional videos for the 10-year anniversary of September 11th. The subject matter of this project is historic. The process was therapeutic. And the work allowed me to revisit one of the most terrifying times in my life through the incredible stories of others brave enough to share their reflections.

Continue Enjoyceinglife...

Ninety-one. & a half...

Hattie Mae Reid Lee, born in Greensboro, Alabama, February 2, 1920

When I was growing up, my grandmother said the Lord's Prayer - and a Bible verse - over every meal, even if it was just a banana. She never let me get a scratch on myself when my brother and I spent every summer with her and my grandfather in Tuskegee, Alabama. Whether they drove us cross-country to California, across several counties to swim at Gulf Shores, or down the road to fish in the Tuskegee Lake, she started saving for the next summer excursion as soon as we returned. She made the best peach cobbler and salmon croquettes - ever. And she taught me that when seated, young ladies keep their dress down and their legs closed. Even though she's blind, not always clear, and in a nursing facility now, she's still got lessons to share. And I'm still paying close attention....

Fighting the Devil: Procrastation Eased by Library Love (#Write)

Okay so you know the most important thing you have to do before writing is cleaning your keyboard, right?!?! It seems the forces of evil are always against me when I'm on serious deadline.



Everything in my personal life just explodes, my computer crashes, and I've certainly gotten no more than 3 hours of restless sleep the night before - so I'm hyped UP on coffee and anxiety in the midst of creativity-suppressing exhaustion.....



So who the heck knows how or why I even do this writing thing!?!?!



And this week not only do I have to write a few articles, but I also have to edit a digital mag - and edit a video that I shot (yea for diversifying my skills! Booooooo for adding to my stress level).



Ugggghhhhh!



On a lighter note, to kick off my crazy deadline-driven work week, I started volunteering in the library of my daughter's elementary school. Nerd that I am, when the librarian gave me the 5 minute tour and mentioned the Dewey Decimal System, I went all gushy - happily catapulting myself back to card catalogs and curled up evenings with books I adored.



As I re-shelved and checked in dozens of books - many that I remember cherishing and being enthralled by more than 30 years ago - I was encouraged about my chosen profession.



Helping out in the library didn't really reduce my stress, but it certainly let me know that I could never have survived an existence that wasn't spent as a lifelong learner through reading and writing.



So...Procrastinators, let me know what you do when the word "discipline" is like Kryptonite and you just. can't. get. it. together.



Alright, enough....



I'm putting some words on a blank document - even if they don't make any sense.



Writer's write - alright? alright......

Feelin' It Friday: Skills Jones....

Back when I was in my 20s and flirted - for about 12 seconds - with putting some rhymes on a tape and trying to get it in the hands of a music exec, I would have LOVED to have some dope tracks like this to flow over.



I mean I lived around the corner from Nkiru Books in Brooklyn, frequented by Talib Kweli and Mos Def (pre-Black Star). I rolled up on ciphers pretty regularly back then - and I was just beginning to get my real music journalism career going, brushing shoulders with the digging-in-the crates crowd. Plus, I had the fly Bahamadia afro working. It could have happened.



Anyway...Novi Nicest - a self described designer, music composer, producer and writer - hit me up on Google+ and I checked his intro compilation on SoundCloud....listen and love....



And I hope this counts for my daily 30 minutes of writing....cause this is all I'm getting in today....



Writers write...



Allow Me To Introduce Myself by nicest

Dance Like You Used To....

I was listening to this fabulous Stevie Wonder podcast and teared up as "As" started playing.

I remember dancing to the song like tomorrow wasn't coming with my favorite "big sister," Pam, when I was probably no more than 8 years old.

She was a shapely, cappuccino-colored sister with thick lips and hair and a curl-shaped mole on her cheek. Probably seven years my senior, Pam was the best dancer in the world to me. We were part of this multi-ethnic dance troupe that rehearsed in an old church in Atlanta.
Our dance teacher, Miss Annette, choreographed a specific solo in "As" just for Pam. And when her arms, legs and hips swirled from the floor to the sky in dramatic leaps and giving thrusts, I was enthralled.
She was the embodiment of a beautifully talented Black woman. And I loved her. Every chance I got, I was up on her. And when I got the opportunity to dance with her, I never wanted our duet to end.

Back then my crafty momma had me in so many activities that I was changing from my leotard to my softball uniform in the car, munching an apple and reciting my times tables.
I did a lot, but dancing was my love. I feel like I took every kind there was, even mime!

And I never got tired - ever. The energy I had then, I only see glimpses of now at age 40. And for some reason that just makes me plain old sad.

Nobody tells you that you'll wish you could dance like you used to.

And I miss it.
Sure I get on the dance floor a few times a year and work it out until I'm about to pass out.

Or I twirl around a few times at a music festival in the park, Zumba for a couple of hours a week in class, and two step at a several concerts.

But dancing - modern, jazz, ballet - like I did from age 4 until about 14, or even club dancing - college through twenties - just disappears...

Only showing up in classes or infrequent old school parties and unexpected opportunities when this body - often worn out from life's responsibilities (parenting!?!?) - can only do so much.
Dancing disappearing?

Who knew?

And whoever knew, why the hell didn't you tell me?

I guess I'm gonna have to dance as much as I can now.....and dance like I used to - in my head...

And that's all right...cause I have a vibrant and vivid imagination....

And my memories of Pam are clear and strong...

Get it girl.....

Stevie....
Keep on Enjoyceinglife....like James Dean clearly is in this dance class taught by the incomparable Eartha Kitt....dance rules!

3 Shots, 2 Ears Pierced & 1 Cool Book!

My big brave 4 year old had quite a day at the doctor.

But after all the tears were wiped away, she'd been immunized against serious diseases and she had beautifully pierced ears.

And to top it off her wonderful pediatrician gave her a super-cool book, Owen & Mzee: The Language of Friendship. Gotta love doctors who care for the body and the mind.

Hope you're Enjoyceinglife because we certainly are!

What You Don't Know About Vanessa Bell Calloway...

Who doesn't remember the beautiful Vanessa Bell Calloway comically barking and hopping on one leg as the intended of the Prince of Zamunda in the hilarious Eddie Murphy flick, Coming to America (video)?



Well Ms. Calloway is so much more. The classically-trained dancer shared three little known facts about herself to me in an interview I did with her for Heart & Soul. Like who knew that she can burn in the kitchen (video) and started acting on "All My Children" and "Days of Our Lives?" Or that she and actress KiKi Shepard - an Apollo staple - are good friends who auditioned together in New York in the eighties? Check out my piece and enter to win a DVD of Vanessa starring as Nurse Gail Strummer in the Jada Pinkett-Smith vehicle, "Hawthorne."


My favorite role of Vanessa's is in the film Stompin' at the Savoy (video). She was nuanced and sensitive in her heart-breaking portrayal of a Harlem Renaissance era domestic worker who gets involved in an interracial relationship.









Stay humble and keep enjoyceinglife!

My Daughter: The Actress!

I had no idea when I posted this lovely image of my daughter on Facebook that it would lead to her first acting gig.


And here's her first poster! She plays the Reisha, the daughter of a woman in a troubled relationship, in the web series, Only God Can Judge Me, produced by Baz Brothers Production.


I am too excited and proud that not only is she smart, but she'll have the opportunity to explore her creative side through acting. Being on set was cool, even if she got a little antsy at times from the understandable number of takes and the wait time it took for her scenes to be shot.

She auditioned by telling the story of Rapunzel, which she'd learned in school and seen in the movie Tangled. And even though she was nervous, she also did a little Michael Jackson-inspired dance to showcase her versatility.


From taking cast photos to filming scenes, her involvement in this family friendly, Christian-based web series has been a wonderful learning experience for us both. Education is where it's at in my house. We stay focused on reading, writing and arithmetic, with a healthy dose of culture thrown in – plays, festivals, crafts, art exhibits and library visits. And she's taken classes in everything from swimming and soccer to gymnastics and dance.


Yes, she's a busy girl. And even though she had one modeling job (above) last year, I must admit I have been a little wary about entertainment driven extra-curricular activities. But if she wants to do more acting and opportunities present themselves, I'll support her as long as she remains grounded in the important values her father and I work hard to instill in her character.


Off the soapbox and back to the excitement: I'd like to give a big old juicy proud mama shout out my super talented, super beautiful daughter, Amber Loyd, who can be anything in this world she wants to be, including an entertainer!

The episode she'll appear in will debut in July. So stay tuned, folks. She's blasting off!