THE SAUDA VOICE

BLACK WOMEN: The New 'It' Girls

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(by Eva McKend | Clutch Mag) - Who would have thought that being a single black woman would be all the rage? If you’ve clued-in to the blogosphere over the past few weeks, you probably have noticed the trend. From Helena Andrews’ forthcoming book and film Bitch is the New Black to ABC’s Nightline segment on single black women, I am starting to feel like the “it” girl. Everybody seems to be talking about me and I’ve never been more ready for my close up. After all, there are serious issues at play that could really use the airtime.

As an underappreciated beautiful black woman, I hope that you would understand my trepidation over being haphazardly catapulted into stardom. For those of us who know, being single isn’t always cute and certainly isn’t something to exploit. It can be lonely and desperately painful but can be an unfortunate reality for so many black women.

Although it was not without flaw, I am comforted when I see television specials like that of the ABC segment. The largest blemish was Steve Harvey’s perpetuation of binary gender roles and antiquated irrelevant advice that only further contributed to the rhetoric of assault on women. The relationship advice in his book, which he predicates his comments on, encourages women to constantly be altering their physical and emotional selves to fit the male gaze. Apart from this disappointment and some problems with the numbers (the eligible numbers should have included black male college graduates, but I suppose they didn’t want us to hurl ourselves off of the Brooklyn Bridge and should have subtracted gay black men), I felt solace in hearing other black women facing what I am. It makes me feel as though I am part of a community grappling with a common struggle and ultimately as if I am not alone. However, not all black women share this sentiment. If Essence’s relationships editor Demetria L. Lucas could, “she would climb under a rock…to avoid the onslaught of articles, primetime TV segments, books, and countless blog discussions.” While Lucas very eloquently iterates her frustrations with the white constructed “Black Man Shortage” narrative, I don’t see what we have to gain from hiding from this reality. I do not deny that major networks do in fact pull out this story ever so often to sensationalize the issue but I wonder if we can start using these specials as a springboard to discuss what is really going on in our community. Many black women and men ask why we are still talking about this. To them I answer, because it continues to be a dire circumstance with no trace of getting any better.

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Thanks to my cousin Jeana S. for story tip.

Janet Jackson Covers Gotham Magazine

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(via Hip Hop RX) - Legendary Pop singer and actress Janet Jackson, 43, is featured on the latest edition of Gotham Magazine ‘The Wedding Issue.’ For her feature in the magazine, Janet Jackson talks about dealing with the death of her brother Michael Jackson and the truth that you must go on and can’t stop living

Jackson Jackson also speaks on her New Year’s resolution which is to learn a language which she hasn’t made her mind up about. The singer says it’s either between Spanish, French and Italian. In addition to learning a language, Janet Jackson also revealed that she wants to get closer to the man upstairs, GOD.

“I also want to get closer to God,” Janet Jackson tells the magazine.

As for her new book “True You,” Ms. Jackson speaks about weight loss, self-esteem, confidence and more. Janet Jackson says that it’s not an autobiography but give glimpses of her childhood to the present which she believes will be helpful and interesting to share.

In other news, Janet Jackson will be returning in her role as a Patricia a self-help psychologist in the sequel to Tyler Perry’s “Why Did I Get Married,” titled “Why Did I Get Married Too?” The movie stars Tyler Perry, Tasha Smith, Jill Scott, Malik Yoba, Keyshia Cole and Monica Arnold and is scheduled to release April 2, 2010.

HAPPY MLK DAY

Never Forget!

The struggle is not over!

Haiti Needs Our Help

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By now, most of you have heard of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti this past Tuesday.  It is feared that the 7.0 quake may have killed tens of thousands of Haitians.  As of today, the last estimate cited was a possible 100,000 people.  I still can't wrap my mind around this number.  It is my hope that the death toll turns out to be nowhere near this number.  Any death is heartbreaking, but the death of thousands of people at any one time is simply gut-wrenching.  

If you would like to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti, especially Port-au-Prince (area hardest hit), please consider donating funds through Wyclef Jean's Yele organization.  You can donate in one of two ways:

ONLINE:  Go to Yele.org.  The homepage has been changed to a simple, easy to use donation page whereby you can donate as little or as much as you wish to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund.   

CELL PHONE:  Text the word "YELE" to 501501.  In doing so, you will be making an automatic $5 donation to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund.  

If you would like a donation alternative to Wyclef Jean's organization, you can also donate to Haiti relief efforts by texting "HAITI" to 90999.  In doing so, you will be making an automatic $10 donation to the Red Cross.

DISCOVER LATEST NEWS ON HAITI EARTHQUAKE

The Tyra Show Says Goodbye

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(via People) - After five seasons, two Daytime Emmy awards and too many girl-power episodes to count, Tyra Banks is announcing the end of The Tyra Show.

“This will be the last season of The Tyra Show,” Banks tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I’ve been loving having fun, coming into your living rooms, bedrooms, hair salons for the past 5 years.”

Wrapping at the end of its fifth season in the spring of 2010, it will be lights out for the show that brought viewers memorable weave-exposing, cellulite-revealing and tear-jerking moments.

Banks will focus on the launch of Bankable Studios, a N.Y.-based film production company currently reviewing possible projects. Sticking to her mission, Banks aims to bring “positive images of women to the big screen,” says an industry insider.

“My next huge steps will allow me to reach more women and young girls to help us all feel as fierce as we truly are,” Banks says.

Adds the insider: “Tyra is sad because she’ll be missing so much of the daily connection to her viewers, but excited at the same time to be taking on a new challenge.”

With encouragement from filmmaker Tyler Perry and longtime mentor Oprah Winfrey, Banks is “redefining beauty for women in film,” adds the source. “With Oprah’s big announcement this year, I think that gave Tyra the confidence to get out there and follow her longtime dream of film producing.”

But fashion fiends worry not. America’s Next Top Model is slated to return for its 14th season in February along with Banks’s ABC show True Beauty.

“There’s a lot cooking right now and a lot of fire burning in my heart,” Banks writes in an open letter on her Web site. “And I salute you my amazing family of viewers; without you there never would have been a Tyra Show. I really love you all.”

Serena Williams Named Athlete of the Year

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(AP via ESPN) - Playing her best at the most important events, Serena Williams re-established herself as the top player in women's tennis in 2009 and was a landslide choice as Female Athlete of the Year by members of The Associated Press.

Williams received 66 of 158 votes cast by editors at U.S. newspapers that are members of the AP. No other candidate got more than 18 votes in the tally, which was announced Tuesday.

Serena Williams returned to the top of women's tennis in 2009. Clearly, Williams' most infamous on-court episode -- a tirade directed at a line judge after a foot-fault call near the end of her U.S. Open semifinal loss in September -- didn't hurt her standing in the eyes of the voters.

"People realize that I'm a great player, and one moment doesn't define a person's career," Williams told the AP. "And I was right, for the most part: It wasn't right the way I reacted -- I never said it was -- but I was right about the call."

She also noted that the outburst, which resulted in a record fine and two-year probationary period at Grand Slam tournaments, "got a lot more people excited about tennis."

The 28-year-old American tends to do that, thanks to her powerful, athletic play and her outgoing personality.

"We can attribute the strength and the growth of women's tennis a great deal to her," WTA chairman and CEO Stacey Allaster said in a telephone interview. "She is a superstar."

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Rihanna Does GQ

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(by Lisa DePaulo | GQ.com) - Rihanna is running late. Several hours late. Her fluffy bronze poodle, Oliver, arrives before she does, with his own entourage. There is much fussing over the dog ("You smell like your mommy") outside the soundstage in Burbank, where the musicians and crew for her upcoming world tour are waiting and pacing. Almost everyone but the poodle is chain-smoking cigarettes. It's been one of those weeks. A few days before, Rihanna spilled her guts to Diane Sawyer about the "whole Chris Brown thing," as the musicians call it, and though the interview hasn't aired yet, the buzz is on. She has also been saying things like, "I've put everything I've wanted to say for the past eight months into my music," which might explain some of what's emanating from the studio. Is that Rihanna, the sweet girl from Barbados, dropping the N-bomb? Her new album, Rated R, is, to put it mildly, edgier than the under-my-umbrella stuff that sold 12 million records. One song, called "G4L" (Gangsta for Life), sounds like a revenge fantasy, with her homegirls arming themselves with guns to go out and fuck somebody up. On another track, she talks about getting her hair pulled during sex. She's made her point.

But apparently not enough. Rihanna's image—so carefully crafted and handled and managed from the moment she was plucked, at age 15, from a girl group in Barbados by a producer who would squire her to his home in Stamford, Connecticut, get her a record deal with Def Jam, and send her on her way to superstardom—had gotten all twisted up in the "Chris Brown thing." In the record business, domestic violence isn't just a tragedy; it's an image crisis. So now Team Rihanna had to decide how to "handle it." Their plan was this: She'd talk about it for the release of the album. She'd do Diane and Glamour and announce that she wanted to help young women who'd been in her position. Even if that meant addressing what really happened that ugly night last February, when she and Chris Brown left a pre-Grammy party, gorgeous, smiling, and posing, got into his car, and she later emerged bloody, bruised, and bitten.

Before I even meet Rihanna, I feel for the girl. It's bad enough to have the guy you're madly in love with beat the shit out of you. It must be quite another thing to have this whole apparatus surrounding you (and your poodle), making you confront this horrible episode on public terms. And then what? If you say you want to help young women, can you really stop talking after the publicity blitz is over? And should you have to go through any of this? Not to get all domestic-violence preachy, but what Robyn Rihanna Fenty endured, at the tender age of 20 (when Chris Brown beat her up, she was two weeks shy of her twenty-first birthday), is not something that is likely to go away after the world tour.

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Disney's First Black Princess Tops Box Office

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(via Black Voices) - Disney's new animated feature 'The Princess and the Frog' was tops at the box office over the weekend.

The new film, which opened nationwide Dec. 11, brought in close to $25 million at the domestic box office, making it the highest-grossing start ever for an animated movie in December.

According to studio estimates, its worldwide total is currently $32 million.

A new take on the Grimm Brothers' classic fairy tale about a prince turned into a frog, with the princess becoming the amphibian., 'Princess' features the voices of Tony Award winning actress Anika Noni Rose as Princess Tiana. The film, which takes place in New Orleans during the Jazz Age, is written and directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, who together worked their magic on 'Aladdin' and 'The Little Mermaid.'

The musical, which also features the voices of Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, Jenifer Lewis and Keith David, is Disney's first hand-drawn animated tale in five years – a departure to the computer-animated films that now dominate the animation industry.

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Bitch is the New Black

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That's the title to author Helena Andrews' new book and memoir.  Due out in June of 2010, Bitch is the New Black takes a satirical look at the successful and accomplished lives of young black women living in Washington, D.C.

When Ms. Andrews pitched the book to publishers she described it as part "Bridget Jones Diary" and part "Sex and the City."  Albeit brief, this description has definitely piqued my interest.  This single, successful and accomplished sistah will definitely pick up a copy of Ms. Andrews' book next June.  Maybe I'll see myself inside it's pages....maybe not. 

In addition to landing a publishing deal with Harper Collins, Ms. Andrews' achieved another success:  The film rights to her book were also sold and Shonda Rhimes, executive producer of "Grey's Anatomy," is set to produce the film.  Ms. Andrews will serve as the film's screenwriter.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Ms. Andrews gave some insight into her book:

A journalist who has written for Politico and The Root, Andrews says her book attempts to reveal what's behind the veneer. In a series of essays, Andrews documents the lives of so many young black women 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. They are post-racial feminists who have come of age reaping the benefits of both the civil rights movement and the women's movement, then asking quietly: What next?

"Gone are the [college] days when friends are an elevator ride away, dinner plans are made on the way to somebody's hall, and Thursday is Friday or Friday is Thursday (who cares, you'll figure it out in Philosophy C203)," Andrews writes. "Soon enough, the little old lady living in a shoe is you -- and the rent is effin' unbelievable, and nobody comes to visit because you're too far from the Metro. Adulthood comes in little jigsaw pieces. Once the painstaking work of fitting them all together is done, the picture doesn't look nearly as cool as it did on the box."

Andrews writes about what it is like for a young, black woman dating in D.C., trying to find a mate who seems ever elusive. The futile rituals are familiar: the dressing up, the eager cab ride over to the party, the hold-your-breath as you walk in, scanning the room quickly for any looks returned. The mantra sounding in the back of your head: "So-and-so found a man last year at a party like this. Maybe tonight is my night." Then one by one, the men prove to be disappointments and disappointing: married, uninteresting or uninterested.

Here's a brief clip of Ms. Andrews discussing the inspiration behind Bitch is the New Black:

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Disney Unveils First Black Princess

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(via Chicago Sun-Times) - Although she hasn't even made her national big-screen debut yet, Princess Tiana is getting the royal welcome as Disney's first African-American princess character.

Cheryl Mayberry McKissack, CEO of NiaOnline, is making plans for multiple viewings of "The Princess and the Frog" with several godchildren. And U.S. Senate candidate Cheryle Jackson has a date with her niece for the big-screen debut.

Mom Miki Roberts has already scooped up plenty of Princess Tiana merchandise.

"I'm so excited I'm about to jump out of my skin," said Roberts, who recently left Oakbrook Center's Disney Store with loads of Princess Tiana merchandise -- pajama sets, cups, plates, bags.

The animated musical opens Dec. 11, but Harvey mom Kina Washington ordered a hair and bath products gift set for her 8-year-old daughter, Kayhla, in September -- as soon as it was available. She expects to replace some of Kayhla's princess products with those featuring Tiana.

The anticipation is strong for "The Princess and the Frog," an update of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, "The Frog Prince," in which Tiana is a 19-year-old waitress who dreams of opening her own restaurant in Jazz Age New Orleans. The film opened in two theaters Wednesday, drawing huge business over the holiday weekend.

Tiana expands the $4 billion Disney Princess brand, the top selling franchise in the Disney theme parks and company stores, according to Imaginings 3 Inc., the Niles-based candy novelty licensee of Disney. Besides the role-play costume and the bath set, Tiana is featured in video games, a cookbook, Band-Aids, fruit snacks, clothing and toys. A "Princess and the Frog"-inspired wedding gown (for women, not children) will be unveiled in the spring.

And the new character's merchandise is outselling other Disney Princess items by double-digit percentages, Disney said. Available for about a month, 45,000 dolls have been sold -- 17,000 just last week.

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