Brown Girl Swagger

The BLK ProjeK continues its hustle to turn a piece of neglected parkland into a flourishing, cooperatively, community owned & run urban farm.
The BLK ProjeK is currently planning the Libertad Urban Farm Family Fun Block Party. The block party will be a day of urban farm awareness, a chance for community members to become acquainted with the possibilities of what an urban farm can mean to their community, how to get involved as well as having a bunch of fun while doing it.  This block party will also serve to help raise funds to continue to get this initiative under way.
There will be performances, workshops, raffles, demonstrations and food. We need your help! Help us to raise funds to pull this off!

Our current date is September 26th, 2009 from 12-6 PM. The location: Fox Street between Leggett Avenue and 156th street in the Boogie Down Bronx.
All donations are tax deductible, since we are still in the process of applying for 501(c)3 status our current fiscal sponsor is Mothers on the Move.
If you would like to donate (and we really really really need you to) address all money orders to:

Mothers on the Move 725 Fox Street Apt. 1B Bronx, NY 10455  and place The BLK Projek in the memo line

or if you prefer to pay online you can do so here: Brown Paper Tickets- Donate!
This promises to be an event that is off the chain and for a good cause so help us make it happen!

View a slideshow of work we have been doing

Check out our YouTube Video

The BLK Projek’s Holistic Hood project is moving like a fret train people! We have added…drum roll please- ACUPUNCTURE!

Yep - if you are stressed, overwhelmed, suffering from physical ailments then this is for you. The BLK ProjeK in partnership with Mothers on the Move will be bringing you FREE ACUPUNCTURE.

Our first Free Acupuncture Thursday was August 13th and it went DOPELY. I didn’t really anticipate the response. I mean even Jessica from Square Rootz came up from BK to get poked (lol). Folks didn’t believe me when I said make an appointment and a few left a lil salty because they had to wait longer than expected.

If you are interested Jomo, our licensed, board certified acupuncturist will be back THIS THURSDAY, August 20th.

Where: Mothers on the Move 928 Intervale Bronx, NY 10459

Time: 6:30 - 8 PM

APPOINTMENTS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED
There is more news! Holistic Hood Yoga has moved to Thursdays!

Join our fabulous Instructor Camellia for Hatha Yoga. If you have never taken yoga before don’t worry, our class is a great low impact class that will teach you how to cope with stress through, breathing, chanting and holding specific poses.

Where: Mothers on the Move 928 Intervale Bronx, NY 10459

Time: 6:30 - 8 PM

PLEASE BE ON TIME AS SPACE IS LIMITED!

For more questions or to make appointments please contact Tanya at Tanya (at) BLKGRL (dot) com.

On the face of it this probably seems like a really silly post but lets be real there are things that we have internalized that are misogynistic that we never ever question as such. Case in point…calling someone a pussy. This for most men and boys is the ultimate insult.

Walk with me people cuz this is been on my mind for a minute.

A couple a months ago I caught myself calling a particularly whining ass male a pussy. He exhibited weak behavior, he was whiney, he seemed…feminine. The fact that was my line of thinking is what made me stop and ask myself “well what the hell is so terrible about feminine?”

Hence the nuanced misogyny that even I, a self-proclaimed womanist has internalized. The more I thought about this, the more ludicrous it seemed. Candidly speaking, pussies are great. I am not just saying that because I have one (well maybe I am). The reality is that they facilitate birth, they give life, they are the very embodiment of strength and some of them are even a great addition to one’s diet ☺.

The reason that being a “pussy” is insulting is because it is associated with being feminine and being feminine is somehow inherently associated with weakness. I could explore this even more but this is a blog not my graduate thesis so I will just allow ya’ll to marinate on it for a minute.  And I know a few of you will say calling someone the male genitalia is insulting too and yes, yes it is. But calling someone a dick has a completely different connotation and it doesn’t speak to weakness or one’s inability, that’s my ultimate point.

Being a pussy makes you incapable, it makes you weak, it makes you a WOMAN.

This may seem trivial but it’s time for us to start thinking about the subtle way we condition our children, ourselves to think about women and what it means to be feminine…or not.

I have been inundated the last few weeks. The only thing on my mind has been Holistic Hood and The Who is that BLK GRL Campaign. Well last Sunday we did the damn thang and we want to give our faithful readers a sneak peek at the behind the scenes.

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Hello everyone,

I have to tell you something. I tried. I tried really, really hard. I tried really hard for good and bad reasons. I tried with optimism. I tried because I am Black. I tried because I am working on getting to comfortable, useful, productive outside my own bubble, fabulosity. I tried to relate to Harlem Heights. I really really did. I tried to like it. I went to the premiere. I talked to some of the cast. I had an optimistic open mind. I spoke to different friends and random folk. I watched it with the mister (after much pleading on my part and trying to hear over his frequent interjections of “this shait ain’t real” and repeated snickers). I watched more than one episode.

And well y’all.

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I happily live in a hood that is about 80% Latin. I value the weird juxtapositions that present themselves in my community. The backdrop of bodegas, chuletas with the dollar store Bamboo earrings, the old man and his son who blare bachata while beating their congas. Watching my little daughter wind her hips to the beat of the drum while the weathered faces of women who look much older than they are encourage her, calling her morenita and freca, the old papichuelo in the beat up pizzeria who calls me big woman and tries to lure me into a bad salsa two step.

This is the community I live in, the community I fight for everyday with out the slightest bit of apology yet I know they mistrust me. I hear the conversations in the few pieces of Spanish I can understand, I am often deliberately

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Leave it to BET to rework an MTV show. Pass the originality please…..I have never brought myself to exchange an irreplaceable hour of my time for The Hills or any of that other melodramatic pale-faced malarkey ( I’ve read about it in passing though), so in seeing all of the promotion for Harlem Heights, Black Erosion Television’s new pseudo reality offering, I didn’t know what to expect. I even made my way uptown to see the premiere and what all the hoopla was about…

With wide-ranging, scenic shots of Harlem streets and staple hot spots, Harlem Heights definitely makes use of their ninth cast member.

For those unfamiliar with the village of Harlem it is the gentrification capital of New York City , once the epicenter of the Negro Renaissance. Malcolm X spoke in these streets. Adam Clayton Powell repped Harlemites in Washington and elsewhere. W.E.B Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Zora Neale Hurston, the list goes on and on.

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Monday, March 2nd, NuNu and I went to the NYC BET Premiere of Harlem Heights at the Apollo. I will leave the review up to NuNu but I was impressed by Ambi’s new branding strategy and the Goody Bag that was put together, which consisted of products and coupons from locally owned (many Black owned) businesses was pretty awesome too!

This is for all my Uptown Grls or those who don’t mind visiting! We hope to see you there…

So way back when on my now defunct personal blog I touched upon this subject once before and not so coincidentally, it also included the same suspects.

I consider myself a pretty conscious, righteous person. I mean like any person I have my conundrums and contradictions but when it comes to music I liken it to food. What you put in will surely have an affect on what comes out. If you want to think clearly, evolve as a person then watch what your mind consumes and sorry kids most of the shit in the mainstream music business is utter nonsense.

BUT

I have to admit, I freaking love The Dream. There I said it and I feel like a load has been lifted off of my chest. Everything this man has produced and put out and in the last year, I have been all over it. I Love Your Girl, yep. Falsetto, yep. Rockin That Shit, yep.