A Great Big Diva!

Talking Smack

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Listen to yourself when you talk negatively about someone. Often times Gossip is a form of laziness. It's a comfort zone. I think if we took the time to really see what the issue is (fear, jealousy,envy, unfulfillment) in our own life then we wouldn't just sit and bitch about someone else. We would do something about the issue in our own lives that sparks the sudden vitriol we spew forth about another. It is easier to bitch about a person who writes a play then to start/complete our own writing …

First You Dream.

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FIRST YOU DREAM: Crafting a new solo show and watching the amazing Audra McDonald Live From Lincoln Center. (She just won the Tony for "Lady Day.") Talk about an inspiration! I'm going to sing all of my favorites like she does in concert except the tunes won't come exclusively from the American Songbook and Broadway - though I will sing a few of those. Gospel, Blues, Disco, an Aria - I have this voice that can handle so many genres, yet I have so few opportunities to sing them all in a concert …

Hanging With Macy Gray & The Women’s Health Foundation Party.

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I am still buzzing from my great night performing (with Raymond on solo piano) for the Women's Health Foundation at my all time home away from home: City Winery Chicago. It was a great party for a great cause: Women's Pelvic Health - (the party is cleverly called "Below The Belt") which offers education and access to health services and health options for all stages of life (adolescence, childbearing, menopausal and older women) They really encourage women to be proactive and act as their own …

Maya Angelou

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Dearest Maya Angelou represented so much to me. My mom & I used to read her books together. (her autobiographical Caged Bird Series) She was the zenith of African American Artistic Achievement. She had such dignity and elegance. She was the Poetess, the Sage, the Wonderful Crone. As long as she was around I felt a connection to the familiar. She represented a generation of Black Renaissance, a Freedom Fighter who survived Jim Crow and was active in the Movement and then, there are those sweet …

“I Could Be Next,” the fear of middle age.

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Strange days. I am a very upbeat, positive kind of person. I always look on the bright side of most situations and people. However, lately my usually happy-go-lucky thoughts have turned to those of my own mortality. Stroke, heart attack, Cancer, disease and death are what I visualize on a huge roulette wheel and it's spinning. Whose number will be up next? It could be me. I could be next. There could be Cancer cells growing in me right now. A little clot may be waiting to stir loose and …