“The past repeats itself, but wears a brand new face…”

As much as this quote pretty much sums up my romantic relationships as of late (*sigh, followed by a Moscato-induced giggle*), it’s actually a description of NEWFAMILIAR (4 The Soul-Reciprocity, 2009), the sophomore release from Chicago’s very own Trizonna McClendon. Trizonna McClendon proved on her debut CD, Overtones & Innuendos, that she has an intimate connection to the joys and trials of the young woman’s journey through love and life. A kindred, almost psychic, ability to tell OUR stories; a soulful soundtrack of life.

Ms. McClendon, aka Triz, aka Trizzie Mac, returns with the familiar blend of angelic harmonies and heartfelt lyricism her fans have come to expect and a new, fresh perspective and sound. NEWFAMILIAR showcases Trizonna as both vintage and futuristic, and this was definitely the look and feel on her video shoot for the single, “Shatter Proof.”

Trizonna and the 4 The Soul-Reciprocity/ Honest Managment camps shot the video, directed by Cooley, in Triz’s hometown in the penthouse suite of the beautiful Avenue Hotel. “Shatter Proof” is a sexy song of romantic cat and mouse games, set over an 80′s style syth beat. I had the fortunate opportunity to make a cameo in the video, playing the super fabulous journalist who interviews Trizonna and gets the juicy insider scoop on Mr. Shatter Proof. Basically, I got to play myself, lol.

Be sure to look out for the video and support Trizonna. NEWFAMILIAR is available right now! For more information, check out Trizonna’s Web site and Myspace. In the meantime, check out more pics from the shoot.

Sean Paul w/ Writeous Media Founder/Host, Sandria Washington

Not even gusty winds and rain could stop Sean Paul’s “Imperial Blaze” from heating up Chicago last weekend. Grammy Award-winning dancehall superstar Sean Paul visited Chicago on Friday, August 7, to promote his upcoming album (his fourth), Imperial Blaze, dropping August 18. Before hitting up the new g0-to, hotspot The Shrine, I caught up (literally) with Sean Paul for an exclusive interview at Hard Rock Hotel.

Let me just say, it is NEVER  a dull moment when you are doing the indie/freelance thing. My professional advice: Don’t just be prepared; STAY prepared! After a couple of hours of waiting and driving across the city and back in rush hour mixed with Lollapolooza traffic, I had the pleasure of interviewing ’Sean da Paul’ and he had some great insights (and a few jokes) for the Writeous Media followers.

Curious to know the meaning of the album title? Hint: it has nothing to do with “a big spliff,” lol. Check out the video interview posted on YouTube (WordPress charges a fee to upload video…sooo not happy about this) and be sure to pick up Imperial Blaze on Tuesday, August 18.

For more Sean Paul news, visit www.allseanpaul.com.

Dutty eh!!

CHICAGO (August 10, 2009) — Are you ready to believe in the power of music? On Sunday, August 16, 2009, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Tarrey Torae seamlessly crafts music’s power to heal, inspire, set moods and transcend barriers into an intimate, live music showcase in her hometown, Chicago. The event, an exclusive sneak peek inside of her forthcoming solo debut, The Sweetest Survivor, will be held at Rumba, 351 W. Hubbard St. from 5:00pm to 8:00pm.
 
Tarrey Torae, whose melodic vocals spring from the crossroads of Mississippi geniality, essential womanhood and passionate soul, is a highly sought after musical mainstay in the R&B and hip hop communities. Her rich vocals have held down tracks for Pete Rock, Kanye West, Talib Kweli, John Legend and The Last Poets.
 
Not bad for a girl born and raised in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, where the odds of making it in the music industry were better than her making it home from school safely each day. “I know what statistics say about where I’m from. Yes, I grew up in Englewood, but look! I am still here, living life sweetly,” says Tarrey Torae.
 
With songs inspired by her passion for community activism and true soul music, The Sweetest Survivorintroduces Tarrey Torae as a master storyteller, unashamedly sharing audio chapters on relationships, violence, sex and love for self—a brand of storytelling Tarrey describes as “soul music drama.” Helping to bring this drama to the stage is the nationally-acclaimed band, ZZAJE. 
 
“This album is a reconciliation of everything that I love,” shares Tarrey, whose background includes community canvassing with the Chicago chapter of the NAACP, youth empowerment workshops and singing to AIDS patients in Harlem. “I realize now that I can do both—be an artist and help people. Making good music has been the bridge all this time.”
 
Tickets are $20 and may be reserved  by phone at 877. 238. 5596, or purchased online at www.smarttix.com, keyword “tarrey torae.” 
 
For more information and music, visit www.tarreytoraemusic.com and www.myspace.com/tarreytorae. You can also follow Tarrey Torae on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tarreytorae.
 
Press Contact: Sandria Washington, Writeous Media | 773.369.1511 | sandriawrites@gmail.com
 
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Writeous Media is supporting Open Books’ blogathon efforts by posting updates to OB’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Follow all of the fun at www.twitter.com/openbooks. I’m sending a special thank you out to Michael Stagg, who’s here with me at Bronzeville Coffee & Tea supporting the Blogathon. Please visit his MyIISense blog  and follow him on Twitter, too.

Open Books is blogging to raise literacy awareness and funds for their Reading Buddies Program. Their $2500 goal will allow an underserved Chicago school the opportunity to have Reading Buddies at their school, fully funded by Open Books and your donations! Click here to donate to Open Books today!

Happy Blogging!

What have I gotten myself into now?! From overnight walkathon to all night blogathon! On Saturday, July 25, 2009 I will join Open Books to blog for the cause.  I’m volunteering with Open Books, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization promoting literacy education, and they are participating with other organizations around the world in Blogathon to raise at least $2500 for their Reading Buddies program. Every 30 minutes for 24 hours (beginning at 8am Saturday morning), Open Books will post to their blog, using the Mad Libs game format.  In case you didn’t catch that, people from around the world will be blogging for 24 hours STRAIGHT, posting every 30 minutes! Insane, I know, but the pleasure of raising money for the causes we believe in will keep us motivated (or at least, I’m hoping so!).
 
As part of my role, I’ll be posting updates to Open Books’ Facebook and Twitter pages. To make it a little more fun, my friend Michael Stagg and I have decided to get together at Bronzeville Coffee & Tea, 528 E. 43rd. St, and blog it out from 8a-4p (gotta love free Wi-Fi!). It’ll be a great time to catch up on writing, read some new blogs, network/socialize and support a local business while raising money for Open Books. We’re asking those that are coming out to donate at least $10 towards Open Books’ efforts. 

While updating for Open Books, you can also check out updates to my blogs–this one and Love’s Hangover. I’ll finally get some much needed new content up!
 
So, please come out and join us at Bronzeville Coffee & Tea tomorrow! The more, the merrier! And please buy me lots of coffee, lol.

Contact:            
SpokenExistence, Inc.   
C/O AquaMoon
6167 N. Broadway #202
Chicago, IL 60660
E-mail: aquamoon@spokenexistence.com 

 Don’t Call Me Sassy!
A community forum on Black womyn and the names we call them

CHICAGO (April 9, 2009) — In commemoration of Sexual Assault Awareness Month and National
Poetry Month, AquaMoon presents, “Don’t Call Me Sassy: Celebrating Surviving and Being
Healthy Sexual Beings,” Thursday, April 30, 2009. This performance and community discussion will
be held at Jane Addams Hull House-House Museum at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC),
800 S. Halsted, 7-9pm. A $5 donation is suggested (Note: No one will be turned away for lack o
funds). 

Feisty. Assertive. Unladylike. Abrasive. Fast. Aggressive. Sassy. Although books tout that “men love b*****s” (Why Men Love Bitches by Sherry Argov, Adams Media © 2002) and urban radio would have the world believe a diva is a female version of a hustler (“Diva” by Beyonce, Sony © 2008) and not an extraordinary opera singer such a Leontyne Price, such name calling for Black girls and womyn often has a negative connotation. “Don’t Call Me Sassy” addresses how Black girls and womyn are tracked, alienated and stigmatized by these names.

“The title of this program negates such name-calling and shows how problematic labeling and name-calling is for African American girls and womyn,” says veronica “Moon” bohanan, one-half of artistic duo AquaMoon and longtime youth and womyn advocate.

Popular Web site, www.MichelleObamaWatch (MOW), recently took the Huffington Post to task for its repeated references to Sasha Obama as “sassy” (http://michelleobamawatch.com/why-
does-the-huffington-post-have-such-animus-for-sasha-obama). “She’s being what’s called “pre-tracked” for being a normal child her age,” write the moderators of MOW.http://www.gpac.org/archive/news/index.html?
cmd=view&archive=news&msgnum=0680).DontCallMeSassy@spokenexistence.com.

In the same post, MOW cites a Ohio University study that shows “teachers tend to view the behavior of black girls as not “ladylike” and therefore focus disciplinary action on encouraging behaviors like passivity, deference, and bodily control at the expense of curiosity, outspokenness, and assertiveness” (http://www.gpac.org/archive/news/index.html?cmd=view&archive=news&msgnum=0680).

“Don’t Call Me Sassy” assembles a panel of community activists, including Keisha Farmer-Smith (manager of Girl World at Alternatives Inc.), Renisha Campbell (public health community organizer), Mariame Kaba (program officer for education and youth development at the Steans Family Foundation) and Sharon Powell (sex health educator). Dr. Stephanie Brown (health educator). The panel and discussion will be moderated by hip-hop activist and femcee, Amina. The program will also feature a special performance written and directed by AquaMoon and performed by Rebecca Cotter, Shanara Fornett, Carmen Jones and Tierra Winston.   

Please RSVP at DontCallMeSassy@spokenexistence.com.

April 30 is Poem in Your Pocket Day. Attendees are encouraged to bring poems celebrating womyn surviving all forms of violence and being healthy sexual beings.  

Cosponsors of this event are University of Illinois at Chicago’ Office of Women’s Affairs– Campus Advocacy Network (CAN), Student Outreach Services (SOS) & Men Against Sexual Violence (MASV)

AquaMoon
AquaMoon is the Chicago-based youth and womyn-centered writing, performance, and activist-artist duo that bridge the gap between the streets, hip-hop feminism, performance activism andacademia. For more information please visit www.spokenenexistence.com/aqua_moon.
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Press Release drafted by Sandria Washington of Writeous Media. Release can also be found here.

It was a really pleasant surprise when I got a text from John “The Author Williams,” host of the Creative Soul show on BlogTalkRadio, asking me if I was available for an interview and to pick a date. Normally, I shy away from opportunities like that;’ usually I’m the one doing the interviewing, so I’m more comfortable in that role. But, If God opens a door isn’t it my responsiblity to walk through it?

I first “met” John back in March when I arranged an interview for Bo Beniz on his show to promote The Chicago Hip Hop Classic. Since Day 1, John has been good peoples.

We had some “technical difficulties” with this interview (it was originally scheduled to air on July 11), but everything happens in perfect timing. We got it in on the 14th and it was a great time. John thinks he’s also a comedian, too, lol. This was my first “real” time talking about my background and what I’m in the process of building with Writeous Media. It truly is the story of history in the making. I really appreciated the opportunity, and the chance to highlight some of  the Writeous Media fam: Focus 1, Bo Beniz, AquaMoon and Tarrey Torae. And a special shout out to Bo Beniz, my best friend Laticia and Michael Stagg for calling in and listening in the chat room. That support meant the world to me.

Here’s what John had to say the day after the show:

Sandria is really onto something special!!!! Get to know her early before she blows up!!! John R Williams-THE Author

So, click the link and take a listen. Get to know me…I’M BOUT TO BLOW UUUUUUPPPP! LOL

Creative Soul – Guest: Sandria Washington of Writeous Media

Shared via AddThis

“I meditate on the liberation of my mind, body, and spirit”–Veronica Bohanan

The lotus flower is a universal symbol of spiritual enlightenment. It grows in muddy waters, sinking at nightfall and then emerges high above the murky depths at daybreak, its petals bright and blooming just as beautiful as the day before. The lotus represents purity, strength, good health and fortune, spiritual rebirth and in many cultures it represents the sacred feminine. Much like the lotus flower, Veronica Bohanan shares a spiritual unfolding of herself in a collection of poetry and prose entitled Om: My Sistagryl Lotus. Her work is a literary rebirth of self, where she submerges into the murky depths of society and her inner woman and uses the power of her words to emerge as a woman filled with light and understanding, towering above all of the madness–renewed as a melanin-infused sistagyrl lotus.

Some may argue that to be young, black and female is to endure life with three strikes, but in her debut collection Veronica Bohanan–a Chicago native with a history of advocating on behalf of women and youths–showcases that to be young, black and a woman is much more a gift than a curse. Bohanan’s sagacious style of poetry and prose are her unabashed meditations on self-discovery, love, race and gender relations, spirituality, hip hop, women’s health, the economy, urban life and black wom(b)anhood.

I received a copy of Om: My Sistagyrl Lotus as a birthday present, but the true gift came when my spirit digested Bohanan’s words. In an era when sisterhood seems to be a thing of the past, it felt good to connect with another sister, albeit through ink and paper, who could relate to my fears and joys and make me feel like I’m okay just as I am. Although her experiences are personal, Bohanan describes them in such a way that what’s unique to her life now becomes universal to touch the reader.

In the poem, “he said he liked my lips,” Bohanan discovers the beauty of her full lips, which for many (myself included) was once a source of ridicule. She writes, “yesterday after peeing and washing my hands/the mirror caught me/i surveyed their proportion/explored their lushness/puckered up close with the me i saw/stepped back and smiled.” Her words describe a simple incidence, but it’s in this small instance that the way she sees herself is forever changed.

Veronica Bohanan is equally crafty in her prose, demonstrating her mastery of storytelling. The collection’s opening piece, “hmo diagnosis,” recounts Bohanan’s 2001 doctor office visit where she was informed she has polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), “the most common metabolic and endocrine disorder among women of child-bearing age.” The reader feels Bohanan’s emotion and the doctor’s lack of any. Again, it’s a simple incidence, but it’s paramount to her life and how she sees herself.
These “naked renderings” as Veronica Bohanan describes her work invite healing to not only herself, but to anyone who reads this collection. Om: My Sistagryl Lotus is required reading for any black woman who seeks a companion on her journey toward self-discovery and for anyone who seeks insight into what such a journey might be like.

To order, click here.

[This review originally appeared in Brown Gurl Magazine.]

Comedy All-stars Square Off Laugh for Laugh at Fast & Furious Comedy Showdown
Comedians Michael Blackson, B. Cole, Marcus Combs, Reggie “Bruh-Man” Ballard & Ill Will get “mad” funny in this summer’s hottest comedy face-off
 

CHICAGO (July 9, 2009) – On the streets of Chicago, comedy has no restrictions and it’s survival of the funniest. For one night only, five of comedy’s most edgy and innovative acts hit the stage for a no-jokes-barred comedy clash. GO Sity Entertainment, Bo Beniz & Mark Walker Entertainment present the Fast & Furious Comedy Showdown, Saturday, July 18, 2009, featuring Michael Blackson, B. Cole, Marcus Combs, Reggie “Bruh-Man” Ballard and up-and-coming comedic talent Ill Will.
 
This lineup of characters is one battle where the audience can expect to end up in stitches. “We wanted the funniest of the funny, and these comedians are among the best,” says Bo Beniz. Now, who will be the best comic standing?
 
Challenger 1: Michael Blackson
Known as “The African King of Comedy,” Ghana-born comedian Michael Blackson has been entertaining audiences all across the country for more than a decade. In 2005, Blackson released his top-selling comedy sketch CD, Modasucka: Welcome to America.
 
Challenger 2: B. Cole
B. Cole, founder and CEO of Cole World Productions, is no stranger to entertainment. The multi-talented Chicago native has been doing comedy for over 12 years. He’s appeared on BET’s Comic View and in the hit films Love Jones and Barbershop.
 
Challenger 3: Marcus Combs
This hilarious comedian hails from the windy city of Chicago. Marcus will have you rolling out of your seat from the time he hits the stage until he says goodnight. You can catch Marcus in the DVD series P. Diddy Presents The Bad Boys of Comedy.
 
Challenger 4: Reggie “Bruh-Man” Ballard
Audiences came to know and love Reggie Ballard from his portrayal of “Bruh-Man” on the classic sitcom Martin. Ballard was featured on HBO’s Def Comedy Jam, and continues to act in television and film.
 
Challenger 5: Ill Will
Ill Will is getting the last laugh these days, turning a health trial (Multiple Sclerosis) into a comedy testimony. The Chicago comedian is the 2008 winner of the WGCI Comedy Slam Contest, and is a star on the rise.
 
The Fast & Furious Comedy Showdown goes down at the Harold Washington Cultural Center, 4701 S. King Drive, Chicago, IL 60653. Laughs begin at 8pm. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at the following locations:
 
Sensual Steps Shoe Boutique, 4518 S. Cottage Grove, Chicago, 773-548-FEET
The Music Experience, 1959 ½ E. 73rd, Chicago, 773-493-0154
Challenge Men’s & Kids, 4033 W. Madison, Chicago, 773-722-0092
Sound Master, 12101 S. Western, Blue Island, 708-489-9277
 
For discounted group rates of 10 or more, contact Go Sity Entertainment at 773-552-2500.
 
GO Sity Entertainment& Bo Beniz
GO Sity Entertainment is a Chicago-based company that specializes in urban music, event production and artist management, founded by hip-hop artist Bo Beniz. Follow GO Sity on Twitter at www.twitter.com/gosity for more information.
 
Mark Walker Entertainment
Mark Walker Entertainment specializes in producing and promoting quality events, such as the highly successful Domino Brown Sugar Comedy Tour Series.
 
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