Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Eve Talks Relationship with Stevie J and Knowing Your Worth


Recently Eve hosted a 'Intimate Hour' with high school girls in Philly for the Uniquely You Summit. Where she touched on her relationship with Stevie J and knowing your worth.
I love the fact that Eve did this summit. Young girl need a positive woman to come out and speak to them about relationships and loving themselves.
Eve is an OnPointCeleb! I also love all that Kendra G is doing. I believe that abstinence is the key.



Check out video below:



Wednesday, July 18, 2012

AWARENESS: THE SMITHS SPEAK OUT AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN WASHINGTON D.C.


 Actress and advocate Jada Pinkett Smith listen to testimony at the ‘The Next Ten Years In The Fight Against Human Trafficking: Attacking The Problem With The Right Tools’ Committee Hearing at the Hart Senate Office Building on Tuesday  in Washington, DC.
Jada was accompanied by her 11 year-old daughter Willow Smith and superstar husband Will Smith and was also pictured coming in with Chairman Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).


Thursday, July 5, 2012

Author Terrance Dean Writes Letter To Frank Ocean



Best-selling author, Terrance Dean, who wrote about down low and gay celebrities in his memoir, “Hiding In Hip Hop,” has penned an open letter thanking Frank Ocean on his courage to stand up and be proud.
Its awesome to see people supporting Frank at this time...OnPoint!

Read an excerpt below:

An open letter to Frank Ocean:

Over the course of the past few days I read on the blogs, and saw a few tweets chattering about an R&B artist coming out. Your name surfaced, along with an interview you did overseas, and then you wrote on Tumblr about a relationship you had four years ago with a young man. You shared how it changed your life, and how that young man was your first love.

You see, in 2008, my book was released, Hiding In Hip Hop: On The Down Low in the Entertainment Industry From Music to Hollywood. It’s my memoir detailing my life of working in the entertainment industry, and being privy to many friendships with a number of closeted celebrities, as well as a few relationships I shared with most of them. So, the news of an R&B artist coming out and admitting his true sexuality was not a shock to me. I actually have been awaiting the day, counting down the hours and minutes as to when one of my friends, or past lovers, would be brave enough to come forward and make a public announcement (My inhale continues to expand). But, it wasn’t one of them. No. It was someone younger. Much braver. An artist who isn’t hindered by the old relics of Hip Hop, or the entertainment school of, “Don’t you come out or it will ruin your career,” and the record label politics. It was YOU. Someone who recognizes their own uniqueness and the power they have to change a world with their honesty and truth. It was you Frank Ocean. A trailblazer. A journeyman. A true lyricist. An artist. A pioneer. A hero.

So, I want to thank you, Mr. Frank Ocean, for your courageousness. It takes a brave soul to come forth in truth, and in love, despite what the rest of the world is doing or feeling as “flavor of the week,” as legendary soul singer, Maze, recently said in a speech at the 2012 BET Awards.

There are many young people, even mature people, who are struggling with their sexual identity, and are afraid to step out of the shadows for fear of being judged, criticized, or ridiculed. Every day the fear grips and chokes them, just as it once did to you. So, please know that they are watching, reading, and listening to you, and the declaration you’re making. A black man in Hip Hop, who looks like them, speaks like them, and realized his dreams despite of the backlash or BS others tend to hold on to because of their own prejudices against same gender loving people. You boldly refuse to be bound by others, and in that declaration you are giving others hope and courage to be their authentic selves. Being black and gay so many times we hear, “No,” and “You can’t,” or, “It’s impossible.” Yet, your music and voice is heard around the world on radio channels, you’ve performed in stadiums before hundreds and thousands of people, and club DJs bang your songs while men and women, straight, gay, and bi, bop their heads and two-step to YOUR GROOVE. Yes, that is POWER-FULL!

Your gift has, and, is being revealed right before our eyes, and we are bearing witness to it. Every time you’ve opened your mouth we’ve heard it in your songs. Your melodic, smooth, and hypnotic voice lingering gingerly with the beats blending perfectly to tell us about love, happiness, hopefulness, and starting again. Thank you for the gift of your voice, and for understanding how to use it.

I also want to thank you for being open, vulnerable, and FRANK regarding your first love with another man. What a powerful testament in bearing your soul, and being emotional, open, and so revealing for the entire world to see, especially your emotions, and feelings for another man. Your letter was truly heartfelt. Thank you for your honesty.

Yet, you’ve found the strength from a loving and nurturing support system of friends, loved ones, and family who healed you through. They lifted you, inspired you, and encouraged you. And, in the power of your Being you were able to rise, lift the earth, and connect us to you with your symphonic music and tantalizing lyrics. Simply because you acknowledged your greater SELF which you stated at the end of your letter, “I don’t have any secrets I need kept anymore…I feel like a free man.” POWER-FULL!

Just as singer, Adele, wailed with an open wounded heart on her 21 album, singing about a rejected love, and Mary J. Blige, cried out with a soulful blues of an unrequited love on her, My Life album, their vulnerability connected them with their fans. Just as you have done with your letter. And, yes, there are many artists who have made songs about former lovers, ill-fated relationships, and love lost, but Mary J. Blige and Adele touched the souls of folks like an old Negro spiritual. And, in that connectedness their truths catapulted them to super stardom. My hope and prayer for you is that your new album, Channel Orange, in which reviewers say that many of the songs are an ode to a love lost with another man, will have the same effect as 21 and My Life did on the lives of music fans around the world, and it catapult you into the superstar stratosphere where you belong.

Warmly,

Terrance Dean

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Frank Ocean Opens Up About Sexuality In A Letter To Fans



Frank Ocean writes a letter to his Fans about his sexuality. Earlier this week a blogger apparently came out and said that Frank Ocean will have a few love tracks on his upcoming album "Channel Orange" saying 'him' instead of 'her'. Of course everyone wasn't sure whether to believe what this person had said, but early this morning Frank posted a letter on Tumblr called "Thank You's" to prove the blogger was telling the truth.

In the letter Frank Ocean says he wrote it on December 27, 2011 on a plane. He describes meeting a guy at 19 years old during the summer and eventually falling in love with him, after spending a lot of time with him. Frank ends the lettering by saying he has nothing to hide and that how he feels like a free man.


I'm proud of Frank Ocean for coming out with his sexuality. It will be an inspiration to a lot of young people that are scared to be themselves...OnPoint!

LETTER BELOW!!!


Whoever you are, wherever you are… I’m starting to think we are a lot alike. Human beings spinning on blackness. All wanting to be seen, touched, heard, paid attention to. My loved ones are everything to me here. In the last year or 3, I’ve screamed at my creator. Screamed at clouds in the sky. For some explanation. Mercy maybe.  For peace of mind to rain like manna somehow. 4 Summers ago, I met somebody.  I was 19 years old. He was too.  We spent that Summer and the Summer after, together.  Everyday almost.  And on the days we were together, time would glide.  Most of the day I’d see him, and his smile.  I’d hear his conversation and his silence.. Until it was time to sleep.  Sleep I would often share with him.  By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping.  No negotiating with the feeling. No choice. It was my first love.  It changed my life.  Back then, my mind would wander to the women I had been with.  The ones I cared for and thought I was in love with.   I reminisced about the sentimental songs I enjoyed when I was a teenager.  The ones I played when I experienced a girl too quickly.  Imagine being thrown from a plane.  I wasn’t in a plane though.  I was in a Nissan Maxima.  The same car I packed up with bags and drove to Los Angeles in.  I sat there and told my friend how I felt.  I wept as the words left my mouth.  I grieved for them, know I could never take them back for myself.  He patted my back.  He said kind things.  He did his best, but he wouldn’t admit the same.  He had to go back inside soon. I was late and his girlfriend was waiting for him upstairs.  He wouldn’t tell me the truth about his feelings for me for another 3 years.  I felt like I’d only imagined reciprocity for years.  Now imagine being thrown from a cliff.  No. I wasn’t on a cliff. I was still in my car telling myself it was gonna be fine and to take deep breaths.  I took the breaths and carried on.  I kept up a peculiar friendship with him because I couldn’t imagine keeping up my life without him.  I struggled to master myself and my emotions.  I wasn’t always successful.

The dance went on.. I kept the rhythm for several Summers after.  It’s Winter now.  I’m typing this on a plane back to Los Angeles from New Orleans.  I flew home for another marred Christmas.  I have a windowseat.  It’s December 27, 2011.  By now, I’ve written two albums.  This being the second.  I wrote to keep myself busy and sane.  I wanted to create worlds that were rosier than mine. I tried to channel overwhelming emotions.  I’m surprised at how far all of it has taken me.   Before writing this, I’d told some people my story. I’m sure these people kept me alive.  Kept me safe… sincerely.  These are the folks I wanna thank from the floor of my heart.  Everyone of you knows who you are.. Great humans.  Probably angels.  I don’t know what happens now, and that’s alright.  I don’t have any secrets I need kept anymore.  There’s probably some small shit still, but you know what I mean.  I was never alone, as much as I felt like it..As much as I still do sometimes.  I never was. I don’t think I ever could be.  Thanks.  To my first love, I’m grateful for you.  Grateful that even though it wasn’t what I had hoped for and even though it was never enough, it was.  Some things never are…And we were.  I won’t forget you.  I won’t forget the Summer..I’ll remember who I was when I met you.  I’ll remember who you were and how we both changed and stayed the same.  I’ve never had more respect for life and living than I have right now.  Maybe it takes a near death experience to feel alive.  Thanks.  To my mother, you raised me strong.  I know I’m only brave because you were first…So thank you.  All of you.  For everything good.  I feel like a free man.  If I listen closely, I can hear the sky falling too.
 -Frank