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My Journey In Photos

Teedy's Black History Fact Of The Day!

Arna Wendell Bontemps October 13, 1902 – June 4, 1973

Arna Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, the son of Creole parents. His father was a skilled brick mason who moved his family to Los Angeles when Arna was three years old. Tension developed between father and son when Arna refused to be apprenticed as a mason. He was sent away to a white boarding school in San Fernando with his father’s command not to “go up there acting colored.” Unhappy at what he saw as his father’s effort to make him forget his racial heritage, Bontemps went on to Pacific Union College in Angwin, California, graduating in 1923.

A year later, Bontemps began to publish his poetry in magazines such as The Crisis and Opportunity, which encouraged the work of young African American writers. He had hoped to study for a Ph.D. in English, but after his marriage in 1926 and the subsequent birth of six children, he accepted teaching jobs to support his family. In 1926 he moved to New York City to teach at the Harlem Academy for five years, a period in which he was also close to several important figures of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer. In 1931 he published his first book, God Sends Sunday, a novel about a black St. Louis jockey. That year Bontemps moved to Huntsville, Alabama, to teach at Oakwood Junior College.

He grew frustrated at trying to reach his own generation and decided to write to younger readers, “not yet insensitive to man’s inhumanity to man.” For the remaining forty years of his life, Bontemps wrote biographies, children’s fiction, and black history, and compiled literary anthologies, often in collaboration with his close friends Langston Hughes and Jack Conroy. In 1943, after completing a master’s degree in library science, he served until his retirement as head librarian at Fisk University, developing an archive of African American cultural materials that is a major resource for study in this field.

A Black Man Talks of Reaping
God Give to Men
Length of Moon
Nocturne of the Wharves
Reconnaissance
Southern Mansion
The Day-Breakers

#BlackHistoryMonth

Teedy's Black History Fact Of The Day!

Arna Wendell Bontemps October 13, 1902 – June 4, 1973

Arna Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, the son of Creole parents. His father was a skilled brick mason who moved his family to Los Angeles when Arna was three years old. Tension developed between father and son when Arna refused to be apprenticed as a mason. He was sent away to a white boarding school in San Fernando with his father’s command not to “go up there acting colored.” Unhappy at what he saw as his father’s effort to make him forget his racial heritage, Bontemps went on to Pacific Union College in Angwin, California, graduating in 1923.

A year later, Bontemps began to publish his poetry in magazines such as The Crisis and Opportunity, which encouraged the work of young African American writers. He had hoped to study for a Ph.D. in English, but after his marriage in 1926 and the subsequent birth of six children, he accepted teaching jobs to support his family. In 1926 he moved to New York City to teach at the Harlem Academy for five years, a period in which he was also close to several important figures of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer. In 1931 he published his first book, God Sends Sunday, a novel about a black St. Louis jockey. That year Bontemps moved to Huntsville, Alabama, to teach at Oakwood Junior College.

He grew frustrated at trying to reach his own generation and decided to write to younger readers, “not yet insensitive to man’s inhumanity to man.” For the remaining forty years of his life, Bontemps wrote biographies, children’s fiction, and black history, and compiled literary anthologies, often in collaboration with his close friends Langston Hughes and Jack Conroy. In 1943, after completing a master’s degree in library science, he served until his retirement as head librarian at Fisk University, developing an archive of African American cultural materials that is a major resource for study in this field.

A Black Man Talks of Reaping
God Give to Men
Length of Moon
Nocturne of the Wharves
Reconnaissance
Southern Mansion
The Day-Breakers

#BlackHistoryMonth

UGH!!! Norway's mens curling team is giving me agita!!😣😣

Come on y'all! I honestly think it's the outfits. Ulsrud (RIP) started a trend with the Norsk Snazzy Pants and now, Basic Britches Curling Britches ain't working! Come on let's get that bronze boys!! 🥉🇳🇴🇳🇴

UGH!!! Norway's mens curling team is giving me agita!!😣😣

Come on y'all! I honestly think it's the outfits. Ulsrud (RIP) started a trend with the Norsk Snazzy Pants and now, Basic Britches Curling Britches ain't working! Come on let's get that bronze boys!! 🥉🇳🇴🇳🇴

Happy Friday Magnificent Meatballs!

I've had some tough weeks but I'm trying to keep my mind busy and creative to stay out of, The Dark Place.

I've been making quite a few custom press-on nail sets for folk who want the extra finger bling for special occasions. While I'm doing that, cooking, revamping my website and getting myself together for singing next week, I watch the Winter Olympics. I've been a WO junkie for quite a long time. It doesn't matter the sport. I'm watching on HBO Max, Eurosport. Because it's the Eurosport broadcast it's usually someone from the UK as commentator. I'm watching the freestyle sking and before one of the athletes did his run, the commentator said, "He was up early for a wake and bake for this match today!" 😐😐😐 Uh...I don't think he knows what that means...🫠

Happy Friday Magnificent Meatballs!

I've had some tough weeks but I'm trying to keep my mind busy and creative to stay out of, The Dark Place.

I've been making quite a few custom press-on nail sets for folk who want the extra finger bling for special occasions. While I'm doing that, cooking, revamping my website and getting myself together for singing next week, I watch the Winter Olympics. I've been a WO junkie for quite a long time. It doesn't matter the sport. I'm watching on HBO Max, Eurosport. Because it's the Eurosport broadcast it's usually someone from the UK as commentator. I'm watching the freestyle sking and before one of the athletes did his run, the commentator said, "He was up early for a wake and bake for this match today!" 😐😐😐 Uh...I don't think he knows what that means...🫠

Happy Mardi Gras!💜💚💛

**Photo of me and my mama, Mardi Gras, 1973**

Fuzzy says I look like a garden gnome!😂😂😂

Happy Mardi Gras!💜💚💛

**Photo of me and my mama, Mardi Gras, 1973**

Fuzzy says I look like a garden gnome!😂😂😂

Teedy's Black History Fact Of The Day!

Fannie Lou Hamer

(October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting and women's rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was the vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Hamer also organized Mississippi's Freedom Summer along with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She was also a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, an organization created to recruit, train, and support women of all races who wish to seek election to government office.

Hamer sought equality across all aspects of society. In Hamer's view, African Americans were not technically free if they were not afforded the same opportunities as whites, including those in the agricultural industry. Sharecropping was the most common form of post-slavery activity and income in the South. The New Deal era expanded so that many blacks were physically and economically displaced due to the various projects appearing around the country. Hamer did not wish to have blacks be dependent on any group for any longer; so, she wanted to give them a voice through an agricultural movement.
Hamer died of complications from hypertension and breast cancer on March 14, 1977, aged 59, at Taborian Hospital, Mound Bayou, Mississippi. She was buried in her hometown of Ruleville, Mississippi. Her tombstone is engraved with one of her famous quotes, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

#BlackHistoryMonth

Teedy's Black History Fact Of The Day!

Fannie Lou Hamer

(October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting and women's rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was the vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Hamer also organized Mississippi's Freedom Summer along with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She was also a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, an organization created to recruit, train, and support women of all races who wish to seek election to government office.

Hamer sought equality across all aspects of society. In Hamer's view, African Americans were not technically free if they were not afforded the same opportunities as whites, including those in the agricultural industry. Sharecropping was the most common form of post-slavery activity and income in the South. The New Deal era expanded so that many blacks were physically and economically displaced due to the various projects appearing around the country. Hamer did not wish to have blacks be dependent on any group for any longer; so, she wanted to give them a voice through an agricultural movement.
Hamer died of complications from hypertension and breast cancer on March 14, 1977, aged 59, at Taborian Hospital, Mound Bayou, Mississippi. She was buried in her hometown of Ruleville, Mississippi. Her tombstone is engraved with one of her famous quotes, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

#BlackHistoryMonth

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Black History SHero! My mom is creative, insightful and she loves ferociously. She taught me how to live a life filled with self awareness and imagination. I'm so fortunate to have her as my mama💜 I love you, my first Valentine!💜

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Black History SHero! My mom is creative, insightful and she loves ferociously. She taught me how to live a life filled with self awareness and imagination. I'm so fortunate to have her as my mama💜 I love you, my first Valentine!💜

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