Promote Your Books at a Kwanzaa Event

Annual Plainfield NJ Kwanzaa Authors and Vendors

The City of Plainfield is looking to honor writers at their December 30th annual
Kwanzaa. If you've written a book and are interested in promoting it, please
call 908.753.3097.

The Kwanzaa will be held at the Washington Community School, Plainfield.

Free of charge.

Performances, vendors, and a Kwanzaa dinner for all.

Many thanks to African Cultural Vendors for this information.

Click here for more Kwanzaa events.

Click here for more ideas about how to promote your book for the holidays.

London Kwanzaa, Tokyo Kwanzaa

Every year, I post a list of Kwanzaa events on my site, including international events.

I have the first details of international events now.


Tokyo Kwanzaa
A Kwanzaa will be held in Tokyo today (Monday 28th November).

London Kwanzaa
Stereo-Hype will be presenting a Kwanzaa event on Friday the 9th of December, 7-9 p.m. in east London.

Click here for details of these and other Kwanzaa events. I shall continue to update the comments section on this page.

Click here to read about the tradition of Kwanzaa.

Click here for lots of lovely Christmas and Kwanzaa gift ideas, including my books.

Happy Kwanzaa!

Two Pre-Kwanzaa Events

I have just found out about two pre-Kwanzaa events being held at the Alexandria Black History Museum in Alexandria, VA on Saturday December 10th. For more info, see Black Museums.

Click here for more listings of Kwanzaa and pre-Kwanzaa events.

Click here to read about the tradition of Kwanzaa.

Click here for loads of lovely Christmas and Kwanzaa gifts, including my books as well as free online fun for children and the whole family, books, DVDs and more.

Happy Kwanzaa!

Jamelia on Natural Hair

I saw the singer Jamelia on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff today. She has been on the panel all week.

Jamelia says she has relaxed her hair for 20 years, but now she has decided to wear it natural.

Her two young daughters told her "When we grow up, we want to have straight hair like yours" and she said, "No, I love your big, bushy Afros".

This led her to question what type of image she is portraying, so she has decided to "bring back the Afro".

Well done, Jamelia. I hope more celebrities will follow your example.

African American Bloggers' Carnival

The theme of the next African American Bloggers' Carnival is "Black relationships, families, culture and society".

"All positive, Black-focused blogs are invited to submit links for review and possible inclusion."

The deadline for submission is the 30th of November. Click here to post your entries.

And good luck!

Click here to read more about Black bloggers and blogging.

Black Doll/White Doll

If you have not seen this already, or even if you have, check this out:

These very young children have already learned the lesson of self-hatred.



What can we do about this?

Buy culturally relevant gifts which reflect us and our children.

Buy Black This Holiday Season.

Living with Joy Worldwide Meditation

I am so happy to be able to share this with you. Click here for Orin's Living with Joy Worldwide Meditation.

Plus click here to read about Orin and DaBen, and how you can change scarcity to abundance.

This is not specifically for people of Afrian heritage, it's for everyone.

The Best, Most Highly Effective Methods for Black People (Part 5)

Part 4 is about building on your past achievements to attract greater success. Click here to read it.

This is the final part of this series.

Strategy 6 – Be True to Yourself

Strategy 6 is, in some ways, the most important strategy of all.

Be yourself. Be true to yourself. Be authentic.

Many times, we try to fit in with what other people want. We try to meet other people’s expectations. If you were raised on a system of rewards and punishments, you probably have this problem, at least to some extent.

The school system tends to reinforce this pattern. Rewards and punishments are used to control children’s behaviour.

So, you may need to unlearn this pattern.

My parents’ generation tended to try to fit in with what they thought white people wanted. This was a survival strategy. They thought that, as long as they played by white people’s rules, they would be able to survive and thrive. But there was a terrible price to pay, as they lost a sense of who they were.

Another thing we tend to do is to fit in with our ideas of “what Black people do”, and avoid doing “what Black people don’t do”. This is called group mentality. To read more about this, see The Key to Confidence.

As long as you are trying to fit in with the group, you will never truly be honouring your own uniqueness.

Learn to love yourself, appreciate yourself and value yourself.

You are a unique individual. There has never been anyone just like you before, and there never will be again.

Click here for the Success Strategies fan page

Click here to read about what I have manifested - and can help you to manifest, too.

Click here to download Excerpts from Success Strategies for Black People now.

See also: Positive Change and Transformation.

This blog contains loads of information to help you achieve your goals and manifest what you want. Much of it is based on Success Strategies for Black People and What They Don't Want Us to Know.

I invite you to search this blog to find what you need to help you get what you want.

What do you think of this blog? Please leave a comment below.

Why I Wrote Success Strategies for Black People

I have just published Excerpts from Success Strategies for Black People, so I thought it was useful to explore why I wrote Success Strategies.

Our people are suffering and struggling needlessly. We are suffering and struggling in ignorance.

Why are so many of our people living below the poverty line?

Why are so many people in Africa struggling, living without access to clean water, health care or education?

Why are so many African Americans disadvantaged in the education system? Why are so many told by their teachers, "You will never amount to anything"?

Why are there disproportionate numbers of Black people in prison - on both sides of the Atlantic?

For more about this, see Why We Need to Heal.

Then click here to read about what I have manifested - and can help you to manifest, too.

My goal is to help you achieve your goals.

Click here to download Excerpts from Success Strategies for Black People now.

See also: Positive Change and Transformation.

Kwanzaa and Pre-Kwanzaa Events

I have started listing Kwanzaa and pre-Kwanzaa events on my site. Click here for Kwanzaa events.

Some of these include:

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture will hold Kujichagulia: A Kwanzaa Celebration for School Groups on Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Click here for museum events.

Some of these include:

The DuSable Museum in Chicago will hold the Harambee pre-Kwanzaa Celebration on the 8th of December.

The African American Museum in Philadelphia will hold a Kwanzaa event on the 30th of December.

I shall continue to add details of Kwanzaa events, so please come back.

Why Are There No Black Entrepreneurs?

Okay, so this guy - founder of Tech Crunch Michael Arrington - is saying he cannot name ONE SINGLE BLACK ENTREPRENEUR in Silicone Valley. In fact, he seems to be saying there are NO BLACK ENTREPRENEURS at all!

So I must be a figment of your imagination. In fact, you are not reading this at all.

Obviously, our brains are too tiny.

Click here for free advice from Black business experts.

Achieving Our Highest Potential

One of the most important things we need to do in order to achieve our higher potential is to get the different parts of ourselves to work together harmoniously. This is sometimes called "integration" (NOT to be confused with racial integration).

The parts of us that we disown, ignore or try to hide are the parts that contain our treasure.

Click here to read more. I talk about this more in Success Strategies for Black People.

Slavery and the White House

Below is a fascinating video interview with Clarence Lusane, author of The Black History of the White House.

One point he makes is that people who were enslaved in the U.S.A., and all over the world, were influenced by the Haitian Revolution. Like Oney, a young woman who had been owned by George and Martha Washington until she ran away.

We have so much to learn from each other internationally.

Click here to read more about the Haitian Revolution.

Is This Racial Stereotyping?

I phoned The Wright Stuff on Channel 5 this morning.

They were discussing the new TV drama, Top Boy, soon to be seen on Channel 4.

Top Boy, which will star Ashley Walters, has been criticised for focusing on young, Black gangsters and drug dealers. Hackney Council has withdrawn its permission to shoot the drama within the borough, saying that it negatively stereotypes Black youth.

The producers argue that the drama reflects life for young people on inner-city estates.

Nina Wadia, an Asian actress from EastEnders, echoed these thoughts on the show today.

My argument is that, yes, it does represent some of the realities of life for some young people.

However, there are many more stories that are not being told or not made into dramas for TV and film.

When we keep seeing the same portrayal of Black people over and over again, these images become stereotypes and cliches.

In Black Success Stories, I have profiled many successful Black people in Britain.

My free More Black Success ebooks also feature the experience of successful Black people in a range of fields.

Don't just protest against negative stereotyping. Produce positive images and positive stories like the ones in Black Success Stories and More Black Success.

Oprah Richest Woman in Entertainment

According to a recent article, Oprah Winfrey has been declared the richest woman in entertainment, leaving No. 2 Lady Gaga in the shade. Click here to read more.

Actually, I don't understand why these things are stated in this kind of competitive way. But there ya go.

Click here to download my free More Black Success ebooks about Black business success.

Click here for more free ebooks and reports.

Wangari Maathai, Warrior Woman

I want to share this great blog about Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan woman who has been active in the environmental movement for many years. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her work in the Green Belt Movement.

Often, the environmental movement has operated in a way that is very Eurocentric, and has marginalised and excluded African people and other people of colour.

This blog about Kibera describes some of the conditions endured by people in Kenya, and the way these conditions have been exploited by Europeans.

Anna Renee's blog underlines points I have made on this blog many times - that we need to tell our own stories and that we, as African people all over the world, need to network with each other. We need to share our stories. We need to communicate with each other and educate ourselves about each other's lives.

Long may this continue.

Please leave your comments below.

Learning Black History Is Fun

Click here to take my online Black history quizzes. Great fun for your children and for all the family.

See also:

Black Facts

More Free Online Fun

How to Research Black History.

This blog contains hundreds of Black history resources. If you type “Black history” into the search box, you can access them.

Please leave your comments below. Thanks.

How to Leverage Conference Networking

Greetings, all.

Where do we start with conference networking? How does it differ from local networking?

Click here to read an article by Twitter's Smallbizlady Melinda Emerson on How to Leverage Conference Networking.

To read my interview with Melinda on how she gained over 15,000 Twitter followers, and for advice from other Black business experts, click here to download More Black Success Volume 10.

Ever wanted to attend a conference but lacked the funds? Click here to download my ebook Shaking the Money Tree.

Here's to your success!

Moving Forward - What We Can Learn from Troy Davis

As I said in yesterday's blog, one thing we can learn from the tragic, horrendous case of Troy Davis is that justice often stops short of where we need it to be. Click here to read more.

People of African heritage are over-represented in the prison system. This is true on both sides of the Atlantic.

I truly believe that Spiritual Response Therapy (SRT) can help in many cases in which there have been miscarriages of justice.

SRT can produce amazing results. I have seen this in my own life many times. We are capable of producing miracles.

The Higher Self always works to find the best possible solution for everyone in a given situation. SRT is just one way in which the Higher Self works.

To read more about the Higher Self and SRT, see my book Success Strategies for Black People.

If you are willing to try new things, you can learn how to produce these amazing results and help to create a better future - for everyone.

When these kinds of terrible, tragic situations arise, we need to see this as a wake-up call. We need to find new methods to help us to move forward.

Click here to order your copy of Success Strategies for Black People now. It could help you our someone you love.

A Letter from Troy Davis

Click here to read a letter from Troy Davis.

As I blogged yesterday, Troy Davis's appeal for clemency has been denied despite worldwide protests. His supporters are still fighting hard in these final hours before his scheduled execution.

This 2003 Justice Department report gives statistics of imprisonment in the United States.

It gives figures going back to 1974 showing that African American males are disproportionately represented in the prison system.

In other words, this is nothing new. African American males have also long been disproportionately represented on death row.

It is important to remember that the fight for justice did not begin with Troy Davis and it does not end with him. This is a fight for all of us. When one person is denied justice, we all suffer.

La luta continua.