Read the complete Little Black Book Spring 2012 edition.
J Reads
J Reads: JoJo Readies Grown-Up New Album
Singer JoJo is getting back into the swing of making music. The 20-year-old, who made her name as a fresh-faced teenager back in 2004, recently dropped ‘Disaster,’ the first single off her forthcoming third album, ‘Jumping Trains.’
Showcasing a more grown-up side that fans may not be used to, JoJo sought to tackle the perils of a disastrous relationship.
“‘Disaster’ is basically about how sometimes you get so deep into a relationship, and it gets progressively horrifying and real disastrous,” she tells AOL Music. “Whether it be emotional abuse or another type of abuse, it’s like, ‘How did I end up in this storm?’ So it’s an emotional record, but it’s definitely resilient in the end.”
AOL Music BloG
J Reads: Diversity is Only Skin Deep
I’ve noticed a pattern in my classes. I walk into a lecture hall, find an empty seat in an empty row, sit and wait. Almost infallibly, the seat beside me on either side remains forlorn and empty as the room around me swells to capacity — until, that is, another black student walks in.
The student sits beside me, throwing my working theory — that I was somehow emitting strong vibes of weirdo — into disarray. He or she most kindly rescues me from my lonely isolation, taking the seat beside me with a casual nonchalance.
This has been my experience with almost every class I have ever taken at Penn.
J Reads: Michelle Obama Rallies Crowd of 3,500 at Wynn Commons
I had the privilege to attend this rally. It was well worth the cold and getting to see Michelle speak in person will stick with me always!
By Evan Medina/The DP
Election Day is finally here, and the Democratic Party made one of its biggest final stands right on Penn’s campus.
At one of the last Democratic rallies this election season, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to a crowd of 3,500 Penn students and community members in the frigid November weather about the stakes of Tuesday’s midterm election.
“This election is about all we have left to do,” Obama said. “So let me ask you — can we do this?”
J Reads: Bitch is the New Black
A lot of black women put up an exterior that says: “Everything is together. ‘I’m fine. Perfect. Don’t worry about me. Keep it moving.’ That is the trend,” Andrews says. “Put on new stilettos. Put on a mask of bitchiness.” But that image — prevalent in both the media and the workplace, Andrews believes — is one-dimensional.
“When people think about black women, they have only one adjective for us, which is ‘strong,’ ” Andrews says. “The girl you see walking down the street looks like she has it all together,” but she may not.
Helena Andrews is the author of the unreleased book and soon to be movie Bitch is the New Black. She writes about women in the Washington, D.C. area “who appear to have everything: looks, charm, Ivy League degrees, great jobs. Closets packed full of fabulous clothes; fabulous condos in fabulous gentrified neighborhoods; fabulous vacations, fabulous friends. And yet they are lonely: Their lives are repetitive, desperate and empty.”
Honestly I seems like my worst nightmare is being put into book form.
I’m still in college working toward this lifestyle and I already feel the weight of many of her words and sentiments. The disappointment she describes in the article is something my best friends and I talk about all the time. So what is the solution? That is the question that will probably never be answered. At the end of the day it will probably just be written off as another bitter black woman writing about other bitter black woman looking for sympathy. I look forward to the books release in 2010 along with the response it receives.