‼️⚠️LIMITED MERCH ALERT⚠️‼️
I collabed JUST OKAY CO on my favorite pieces of JER merch yet!
I normally LOATHE merch… but Just Okay Co is sustainability sourced, Made in the USA, premium quality!
I love clothes, and love having merch that’s a quality I can be proud of
Pick it up via Just Okay Co!!!
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Wow so much happened in one day.
We got back from our morning yoga, a nice way to break up the walking from the week that was low impact but still good exercise. It was a flurry of make-up brushes, fabric, shoes and jewelry being tossed about as we got ready to take downtown Brooklyn by storm. It was one young ladies coming out in a very public way, and seeing if a certain mature dog had any new tricks. Would our dynamic duo impress a very thick-skinned and opinionated Black Brooklyn crowd or what they be ignored into obscurity?
I had chosen our accessories very carefully anticipating a potentially sunny situation, this gamble paid off majorly. I had also got my niece warmed up for what kind of attention to expect once we got to the festival. As one of Brooklyn's royalty I knew exactly how to make her coming out a success. Setting the tone that bad bitches don't hurry, we took a very leisurely stroll down Washington to Park Avenue on our way towards Commodore Barry Park. The gasps, smiles, open comments and stares let me knew we had selected exactly the right looks for this years AfroPunk festival. I knew we would be the belles of the ball!
We were working the vendor booths and I had stopped to get some re-twisting oil for my locs. I completed the transaction and turned around to find Anisha gone, tragedy had occurred when my back was turned! In the sea of coloured hair, flowing silks, taffetas and wax prints I had a challenge ahead of me. But then I remembered that we were like the only attendees with our special accessory and I looked for that and found her!
It is with great sympathy I report that my nephew Henry Allen Gentle had passed that morning after some restlessness we had known about from the previous day... Master Henry was borne on September 7, 2016 and in his brief life had bought great joy to his parents.
But I didn't know this at the time, I had a glamorous and very distressed niece on the phone and she kept shouting "Don't go!" over and over again, I had no idea WTF had happened. Now low key I was hoping her trashy boyfriend had dumped her so she could finally get an upgrade to a nice young lady or a medium brown complected brother, I was going to prepare my face to look suitable sad and disappointed albeit we know in my heart I felt a whole 'nother way. But sadly that wasn't the case her pet rabbit of six years had passed in his sleep and she wanted to make sure her boyfriend properly disposed of the body...
But we are big girls, so the make up was checked touched up and we went back to our adoring public, and of course we went in hard on the vendors. We got make-up, multiple sunglasses, kimonos, pants that would make Ms. Celie proud, of course jewelry, scarves, free tote bags and loads of warm welcomes. We had special blessings to bestow amongst the various vendors bringing some of them to tears, but all in all we spread love, the Brooklyn way!
The only rocky point of a day was a run-in with a photographer named Ms. Dubois, I know her name because she gave me her card after doing an impromptu photoshoot. This was a trend the same photographers approaching us again, I lost count of how many videos and photos we had taken by the end of the day, but I think we both had a greater respect for professional models. We were approached by Ms. Dubois who albeit my short interaction I trusted, so when she said she would take Anisha's bag while she shot her we trusted that she would return it, she didn't. This wasn't her purse, it was a bag of booty we had acquired at the festival.
I told Anisha to stay calm and allow all that positive energy we had put out to come back to us, we slowly and methodically searched the park and finally came across Ms. Dubois who had no blue gift bag over her shoulder and seemed a little confused why we were looking for her she broke into very defensive speeches about how she tells people to watch their belongings and I reminded her that she literally took the bag off of my nieces shoulder and uttered no such warning, more importantly she subsequently wandered off with the same bag.
Let's be clear I don't think her actions were out of maliciousness as much as forgetfulness. We were all heading back to the original spot where we did the shoot and about 30 feet away abandoned but intact Anisha spotted the bag and we hurried over to it, she was upset because she had left her phone in it. I was calm but disturbed at Ms. Dubois reticence to apologize for the accidental theft. She seemed to be unrepentant about her actions and I told my niece that if she can't take responsibility for her actions we had nothing else to say to her and directed her to leave with me immediately. Ms. Dubois was feeling a little repentant trying to focus on, but the bag was found, yes only by the grace of Goddess I said not because of your irresponsibility with other people's things. We tried to breathe the incident on and went to the VIP tent to collect ourselves.
After listening to a couple of acts we took up a quest to find the wellness area we had kept hearing about on the main-stage, we finally found it, and the set up with Black Girls Sew, Anisha was a bit excited too because she had also heard about this organization all the way down in Orlando. We partook of the booths, bookmarked some purchases for the next day and sat down to a peach and ginger infused drink before deciding to call it a day and head back to the Heights.
All in all it was a very fulfilling and affirming day filled with so much Black love and #BlackGirlMagic, my niece saw people just like her with bodies just like hers looking beautiful, confident and well accepted by the wider community, I did low-key say, they weren't going to know what to do with her when she got back to Orlando because she was going to hopefully be Feelin' Herself for a long time! #✌🏿
[Photo by Brown Estate]
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Afro-punk Sam Nightingale for 2 Bling 2 Bing - The Seven Fashion Zine! Inspired by the fashion of Pure Hell, Rico Nasty and pictures taken at the Afropunk Festival 2019-present.
I think Sam would make a killer punk band front-woman and I wanted to manifest it 🤟
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