#like I tweeted something about friendship and how my presence is a privilege

[jameelajamilfan]

Press: The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil is the body-positive celebrity we need

New Post has been published on https://jameelajamil.org/2019/01/26/press-the-good-places-jameela-jamil-is-the-body-positive-celebrity-we-need/

Press: The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil is the body-positive celebrity we need

Jameela Jamil is about to be your new favourite badass.

Joining the ranks of empowering female celebrities like Serena Williams, Chrissy Teigen, and Lorde, Jamil is the unfiltered, unedited, and unapologetic media presence the world needs right now. She’s the rare celebrity who challenges social expectations for women in the public eye both in real life and online.

Not only does Jamil bless our screens as philanthropist and fashionista Tahani on NBC’s The Good Place, she’s also popular on Instagram for her #IWeigh campaign. The social media movement asks participants to share photos of themselves surrounded by a list of personal attributes they care about more than “the flesh on [their] bones.”

Instead of thinking of weight as a number on a scale, Jamil’s movement asks us to value the positive characteristics they hold, like strength, honesty, accomplishments, friendships, and self-love.

In an interview with Buzzfeed this past October, Jamil explained the #IWeigh campaign stemmed from her own struggles with body image and disordered eating. “[W]eighing is not an indication of health,” she said. “It shouldn’t be part of our narrative.”

Jamil also uses social media to address sponsored celebrity weight-loss products which influential women often peddle on their platforms, especially Instagram. Last November, Jamil made headlines after criticizing Cardi B for accepting a detox tea brand deal and endorsing the product in online videos.

The actor took to Twitter, telling her followers, “[Y]ou need fiber! Not something that honestly just makes you have diarrhea the day you take it.” In additional tweets, she called out female celebrities for having diet plans and personal trainers but attributing their weight loss to these sponsored tea products.

Jamil explained that she used controversial weight-loss products as a teen and suffered from the results. She tweeted, “I was the teenager who […] spent all her money on these miracle cures and laxatives and tips from celebrities […] I have had digestion and metabolism problems for life.”

I was the teenager who starved herself for years, who spent all her money on these miracle cures and laxatives and tips from celebrities on how to maintain a weight that was lower than what my body wanted it to be. I was sick, I have had digestion and metabolism problems for life — Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) November 26, 2018

The thing that makes Jamil all the more likeable is she stays true to the advice she shares. Her photos are unedited, her posts uplifting, and her platform is used to highlight lesser-known causes and activists.

Despite the actor’s authenticity, as a conventionally attractive woman herself, she’s been criticized for speaking out against body-shaming and societal beauty expectations. Critics seem to believe women at the forefront of the body positivity movement should better represent the disadvantaged community they defend.

On Twitter, Jamil responded to these criticisms by saying, “Fat phobia and ableism leads those with power to willfully ignore the voices of the most important activists. Because of my privilege, they are not currently ignoring me. I take it as my duty to use that privilege to push things forward.”

I in particular want to address this to plus size black women, who I continue to see are so left out of this conversation. It’s my bad for not having understood your plight and fought harder with you sooner. It was ignorance, not a lack of care. I stand with you now and forever. https://t.co/ZvXRubVtaS — Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) January 22, 2019

While Jamil’s explanation is valid, her actions shouldn’t have to be justified. It’s admirable that Jamil is using her privilege and fame to further the causes that benefit everyone.

That’s why #IWeigh is so important. The campaign’s Instagram account has over 300,000 followers, allowing the people who submit their photos to reach a much wider group than they would otherwise. Jamil rarely posts photos of herself there. Instead, people with unique sizes, shapes, and skin colours greet you when you click through the page.

It’s important for our generation to have fiercely outspoken female role models in Hollywood and over social media. Jamil’s refusal to back down when it comes to speaking about what she believes won’t only inspire others to reject gender expectations, but also has the capacity to affect change. She may only be one voice, but Jamil’s shown that when you use your privilege against the patriarchal system, people listen.

Jamil’s refusal to back down when it comes to speaking about what she believes won’t only inspire others to reject gender expectations, but also has the capacity to affect change

Recently, Jamil shared that she wore jeans under her dress at the 2019 Golden Globes. She paid for the dress—and, I’m guessing, the jeans—out of pocket, did her own makeup, and wore jeans because she knew it’d be cold.

If that isn’t the most relatable thing a celebrity’s ever done, I don’t know what is.

Source: Queen’s Journal

[violetsystems]

#personal

It’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks in terms of work.  It is a little surreal to identify as working for yourself.  I ran into one of the people who hangs out on this block.  I’ve known them for years in passing.  There’s a gang of people who hang out in the alley underneath the subway tracks.  They asked what I had been doing.  I replied I work for myself now.  My office is officially my kitchen.  It look out at those very tracks. They film Chicago Fire and PD on my block often.  I don’t watch either of those shows but it can have a Hollywood backlot kind of feel.  Most of the street level communication I have resembles grittier parts of New York.  There’s no one dominant kind of person on the block.  People tend to keep to themselves but know vaguely what the other’s deal is.  There’s a sort of hidden network of communication maybe.  A block culture.  That can get a little hard to read the further you get away from your safe zone.  I’ve travelled all over the world at this point by myself.  I started travelling to Asia back in 2011 with the intention of networking.  Later in 2014, I revisited making music particularly with a Chicago form of street dance called footwork.  Footwork at the time was on the tip of everyone’s tongue.  But the root of it was buried under layers of white dominated dance music.  In 2015, I decided to say fuck it and try to organize a music tour for myself.  I tried with people in my own city but their personal agendas always eclipsed my basic plans.  There was a bass driven night in Chicago at the time called Coldtech.  It had a sister night in Melbourne.  I tried to organize a tour that passed through on my way from New Zealand.  I went to New Zealand to visit a friend.  I ended up going out on a few dates then ghosted the final night.  Somewhere in there I got detained in customs and accused of being a gang member.  I eventually ended up in Japan where I met Jake Innes.  Jake was an anime nerd and video game freak.  He knew the Coldtech people but was more like me.   Out on his own trying to use his passion to promote something he loved.  Culture.  Just like punk back in the day, you could count on that culture in a pinch to survive.  We travelled all over Japan for a few days.  Jake was my translator.  I was guided to amazing food.  Amazing spots to shop.  We talked about what moved us.  I had come up with this dumb ass phrase at the time.  Yolonet.  A sort of blockchain word of mouth.  Jake had a lot of trust with people.  He was friends with Lil B after all.  It didn’t really matter who he was friends with to me.  I am a very genuine and transparent person.  You have to be when you’ve wasted so much time on liabilities.  You never expect those to turn out to be past friends.  After reading all this depressing news about the entropy in the job search, I felt down.  You don’t expect your professional contacts to just disappear without a trace.  I barely have the connections on professional social networking to prove it.  Those people never reach out.  Never ask how my employment is going.  Don’t even realize I work for myself.  And yet the block knows.  Jake knows too.  In fact, the last two releases I put out just for fun were purchased by him.  The only way I am connecting to people I can depend on is through culture.  Something I can trust beyond politics, sooth saying, and employment fraud.  

There’s people outside of that Yolonet who have gone dark.  Entire segments of ex-friends who memorialize people who have long died while pretending I just vanished from the face of the earth.  It’s been surreal to watch.  Much more disorienting to live.  And yet, I am still here and surviving.  The people in my dash are much realer and emotionally satisfying to me than the people who forgot about me.  And the mystery of why is a little harder to detangle.  I was reading a book about Chinese director Jia Zhangke.  He was talking about how as a kid the only way to escape the place you grew up was to join the army or go overseas to school.  It’s the same if not worse here.  America talks a great game about freedom but it’s at the expense of the coffers of the military industrial complex of world war two.  Thank the baby boomers for that.  It benefits mostly the rich and generationally wealthy first.  Wealth connects and is rewarded by those connections in America with more wealth.  People who have Military family ties seem to always fall victim to the state’s own hidden expectations of connection, opportunity and ability.  Hunted by recruiters since there’s little actual income to go around.  The rich are hording it without paying taxes.  So the military often bullies people into the reserves when there’s no valid occupational work or space on corporate payrolls.  Fight their wars as a gateway into a career in cybersecurity I’m already overqualified for. My current state of wealth is due to a benefit known as a pension.  This is to say I actually worked for it.  And this is also to say I’m not exactly retired by choice.  But I worked with a lot of people I knew for over twenty years.  I literally got people jobs at that place.  My ex girlfriend for one.  That ended horribly.  The other people I helped out to try to connect ghosted me out of guilt presumably.  And so the only people I seem to be able to rely on are in the culture I have built or connected to myself.  This blog has been one of those lifelines in ways I am not at liberty to divulge at times.  There’s people I have better friendships through a click of a button than I’ve had ever in my life.  I used to try to explain these things to people.  And generally my exile from anyone in real life giving a fuck is a harsh lesson in the reality.  People don’t actually listen.  They don’t actually communicate in anything other than comparison and contrast and monetary valuation.  I was reading how a person just literally asked to buy the rights to one of Elon Musk’s tweets for 7777$.  How a sentence from a billionaire is worth more than my pain in this entire process or the lives of the worker’s in his factories even.  We just got six hundred dollars.  That should be enough for us.  But I wasn’t valuable enough to insure past October even though I was paying the premiums.  It would seem the real world’s network isn’t very reliable or at least focused on something so out of sync it seems comically evil.  What can I rely on?  It seems a lot.  I never have felt alone in the last year or so.  Ever since Valentine’s day really.  Sometimes you can show you care by not even saying a word.  Words are worthless when you can buy them for seven grand I guess.  It’s the action of caring and attention that counts.  If you built a foundation on people who didn’t care, your path ahead will be volatile at best.  If you limit someone based on your fear of them outshining you, the results will be constantly mediocre.  And many times, later in life you find you’ve outgrown these limitations people envision you in.  And through that worthless feeling you seek out something true.  You take the once in a lifetime risk to set up your own network.  To leave the baggage and the past behind and see it for what it really is.  Your self worth is no longer shackled by people’s envy, jealousy and active sabotage.  You are a defective crash test dummy that served it’s purpose for capitalism.  Or you can leave the car wreck behind and opt out of the American social experiment entirely.  It’s a free country after all.

The baby boomers did have an answer to all of this.  Shut up and take their money because they know what’s best.  My dad would always say later on in life I’d understand Republicans.  Maybe I’d even want to become one.  Like many Republicans from the suburbs, he’d never be caught dead in the rougher areas of the city much less outside of the country.  I’ve never seen any politicians talking to people on the streets in passing.  I’ve never seen anyone answering, speaking for, or actively working on this privilege that acts like a monkey on my back.  I’m an only child.  When my parents die, my bloodline is some bullshit.  I’ll most certainly have to deal with some estate affairs on either side.  But when I die, who knows where my legacy will go.  Will I get married?  Will I have children?  Will I be able to fulfill my role in the helping America achieve it’s desired GDP?  I can’t even count on my government during a Pandemic let alone to hold people accountable for crimes.  Will I die alone, invisible, broke but talked about on the Internet.  Will people watch my life until the very end to see the tragedy unmatched to their own?  Are people just drunk on making me some sort of talking point?  The gossip will never end.  The sad truth of the last five to ten years for me is simple.  There is an opposite to block chain.  A network of people who only cover for themselves and their lies.  The great lie as they spoke of in Germany did something horribly foul.  A lie when it gets out of control.  A lie when it eclipses the truth.  When every word out of your mouth is gaslighted to protect an entire ecosystem that feeds itself and protects the criminal.  When your very presence needs to be edited and erased to continue the engine running.  A great lie can tear a hole in the very fabric of reality and the truth of a narrative.  And it can suck somebody so far out into space that they have to terraform a whole new network of support.  These days the writing is on the wall.  We trust everything and doubt further.  I have only had the luxury of looking to myself for answers.  I have other inspiration.  The best inspiration if you ask me.  But I keep that to myself for fear of breaches in trust.  But it’s no lie what I believe in.  A freedom that allows love to bloom.  A freedom that values people for what they do in deeds not speculation.  A freedom that is accountable in broad daylight and answers for what it represents.  Opportunities that exist outside of war economies and mark to market accounting.  Making art that connects people without controlling the dialog.  Being part of a culture and democratically so without disrespecting the read receipts.  I’ve been real for longer than most people have been breathing.  Not long enough to claw my way out of the designs these dinosaurs outspend me on.  But the one thing I know going forward is that you cannot get anymore hardcore of a foundation other than being true to yourself.  And I’m proud to surround myself with people who are true to me.  Wherever the fuck you may be.  You all live deeply inside my heart.  And that’s something there’s no price on to betray.  So let’s stop speculating and let’s live in the moment.  I built this Yolonet for us.  And instead of hello world.  Let the first words be simple.  I love you.  World peace forever.  Drink some water.  It’s your human right.  <3 Tim

[maggieisalarrie]

Titles: A

A Cauldron of Love by zimriya (27k)

“Oh for Merlin’s sake, yes,” Niall interrupts finally. “Harry’s been in love with Louis Tomlinson since that time in second year when he went and accidentally peed on him.”

Harry turns to face him, horrified. “Niall!” he squeaks out. “You promised you wouldn’t tell anyone about that!”

Niall just shrugs and wipes his mouth with a napkin. “Aw, come off it, Hazza, was it really a secret?” When Harry doesn’t say anything, he pauses and looks up. “It was?” he says. “Ah, bollocks.”

A Hogwarts AU.

A Harmony of Frost and Flames by londoniscalling (13k)

"He’s passing lockers and whistling a quiet tune when he first smells it. His body comes to a halt and his nostrils flair instinctively, eyes going wide as he registers what the scent resembles.

An omega in heat."

OR

Louis goes into his first heat at school and Harry accidentally puts them into a compromising position.

A Harmony of Frost and Flames Extended Epilogue by londoniscalling (7k)

Sequel to A Harmony of Frost and Flames.

A Long Way From The Playground by nightwideopen (11k)

Louis is a single dad who is having a lonely life crisis and Harry is a doctor that carries around princess band-aids in his pocket.

Scraped knees make grown men bond, apparently.

A Million One, A Million Two (a Hundred More Will Never Do) by LittleLostPieces (42k)

While Harry doesn’t want to spend his final year at Wilshire Academy sharing his space with yet another idiot roommate, he figures he could have ended up with a lot worse than Niall. As the school’s newest scholarship student, Niall provides a fresh perspective on Harry’s privileged life, as well as a grounding presence when Harry’s other friends, Liam and Zayn, are acting like lunatics. Most importantly, though, Niall introduces him to Louis, a cynical townie with zero interest in spending his time around entitled boarding school kids. Convincing Louis that he’s more than a trust fund and a charming smile won’t be easy, but Harry’s never been one to back down from a challenge.

An AU loosely inspired by the short-lived WB drama, Young Americans, and the Gotta Be You music video.

A New Buzz by stylesoftheshire (7k)

‘No way,’ Louis says, shaking his head disbelievingly. ‘Only you would come out to your best friend by making him buy you a fucking dildo.’

The classic tale of how Louis helps Harry purchase a vibrator and later helps him use it.

a prayer for which no words exist by Eliane (34k)

"Louis is a few seconds away from blowing up a rather important section of the New York subway when he sees Harry for the first time."

A Run At The Past by hostagesfic (11k)

Harry doesn’t expect it to happen while Gemma’s in Australia. He’s not lonely, this time, with plenty to do and the adrenaline of the end of tour, the excitement of going back to Japan. And Gemma, of course, her jokes at his expense and her flirting with Niall and her hugs for every occasion, the way she looks like mum when she scolds him half-heartedly. There’s no reason it should happen.

He wakes up in Louis’ bed anyway.

a runaway american dream by dangerbears (15k)

AU. they take route 66 with only each other and their secrets.

a virgin to that money by eversincewefellapart (7k)

AU. Harry and Louis are broke university students who hate each other and make a sex tape. (In which Louis gets fucked a lot, Harry can't find the camera, and the road to falling in love is different for everyone.)

Accidents Happen by lanaboo222 (19k)

Harry is accident prone and Louis is a volunteer minor emergency worker. They meet a lot and things happen.

Ace by aclosetlarryshipper (32k)

It’s real. He can’t keep denying it. Denial has just made things more difficult. Acceptance is the first stage to anything.

Louis sniffles and pulls the sun visor down, flipping it open to reveal the mirror. He stares into his own icy eyes, grimacing at the red rim around the edges.

He tries to say the words, but they still feel too final and condemning.

or

The sexuality crisis you probably haven't read.

Adore You by isthatyoularry (67k)

“We invited our new acquaintances from uptown. You’ve simply got to meet their oldest son!” said his mother with a flourish, and suddenly it became abundantly clear as to why his parents had so adamantly demanded he join them in Deansville for the entirety of the summer.

Against his wishes, Harry spends the holidays at his family’s summer estate, and is reluctantly pulled into a courtship he didn’t ask for. Harry doesn’t want to get married, but Louis does. They don’t fit, but then again they really, really do.

Vaguely set in the 1920’s. Headpieces, jazz, fashionable canes, and flapper dresses, and that.

Ain’t My Fault by afirethatcannotdie (7k)

“Liam, M4M is for sex! You posted in a sex forum about your missing jacket.”

“It is not for sex!”

“It is. Trust me.”

“Well, if it helps me find my jacket then I don’t really see why it matters. Besides, someone already texted me about it. This Styles guy’s coming over in a bit to get it.”

“You invited the avocado man to come get his jacket at our flat after posting on a sex forum. Do you see where this is going?”

“I really don’t.”

“Someone is going to have to have sex with the avocado man!” Louis screeches, and Liam covers his ears.

AU. Liam posts an ad on the wrong section of Craigslist, Louis is pretty sure they’re gonna get murdered as a result, and Harry’s missing an avocado.

all i want for christmas is by crybaby (18k)

With Harry up against his side, his little four year old snuggled in his lap like it’s her favourite place, Louis could really believe they’re a real little family, off to their chalet to spend Christmas in the snow. A real little family where Louis would have the luxury of kissing Harry under mistletoe and rolling around in the fresh snow with him, taking him upstairs to his bedroom and fucking him to keep him warm.

(harry is louis' daughters' au pair. they spend christmas in austria)

all the diamonds you have here by vashtaneradas (22k)

it hits louis now, how fucking close to the precipice they’re standing. or, an au feat. investment banking and children.

All We Have by colourexplosion (6k)

He looks at the person who’s asked him a question and then immediately wishes he hadn’t. He’s beautiful, is the thing, and Harry’s met him before.

“No, sorry,” he says, shaking his head, averting his eyes. It’s an old habit, one he’s gotten better about resisting, but he supposes seeing Louis Tomlinson out in the wild transports him right back to youth club.

“Ah, s’fine really,” Louis says, instead of just walking away like a normal person, “Pretty boy like you shouldn’t be smoking anyway, yeah?”

Harry’s cheeks flood with heat before he can stop it, and he squeezes his eyes shut. Of course. Of course Louis Tomlinson — the boy who basically made Harry realize he’s gay — thinks he’s cute now. Ten years after the fact, and much too late for it to do any good at all.

Or, a 'Grown' au

Always Be My Baby by itsmiz (8k)

Louis isn't looking forward to his birthday, and Harry makes him see that age truly is just a number.

Based on Louis' tweet: 22 is old :(

Always Come Back To You by whoknows (29k)

“I’ll do it,” Harry offers brightly. No one even blinks. “I’ll do it?”

Louis sighs irritably. “Shut up,” he orders, tossing a pillow in the general direction of Harry’s face. This is a terrible time for jokes, especially Harry’s lame, old people ones.

Not that it was an old people joke. Just that most of the time Harry’s jokes consist of knock-knocks or terrible puns. The type of jokes old people like, Louis’ pretty sure. His nan always finds them hilarious when Harry tells her one.

Harry bats the pillow out of the air without even blinking. “Be reasonable, Lou,” he says in his most reasonable voice.

Louis is perfectly reasonable, thank you very much, and he’s also frustrated and upset and tired and he really wants to punch something. Maybe he should have held on to that pillow a little longer.

“You’re not gonna fucking do it,” he snaps. “That’s the last thing I need.”

amaryllis by hattalove (147k)

“Where are we?” “Um. A little while out of London?” Niall tries, seemingly the only one willing to not be mysterious and provide Harry with information, and. Oh. “London London? As in, the capital of England London?” he asks, just in case he’d misheard. “No, the other London,” Louis laughs, low and biting. He comes closer finally, the moonlight just enough to reveal a sharp-cut jaw and pale skin. “Sorry, Pup.” Nobody’s ever called Harry a “pup”. Frankly, he finds it quite insulting, but he lets it slide to try and comprehend his current crisis.

or the one where harry gets bitten by a werewolf. louis is the mysterious not-quite alpha, liam and zayn have Things going on, niall is their token human, and together, they watch a lot of TV.

And Then A Bit by infinitelymint (159k)

“We’d like to give the fans what they want.” Magee states, placing his hand on the table in front of him and leaning forward. “We want to give them Larry Stylinson.”

Or, take a parallel universe where Louis and Harry were never together, mix in a two year hiatus and an impending comeback, pour in a dash of lost fans, two tablespoons of strong friendship and a Modest! employee with a good idea. Add a squeeze of pretending to be a couple, lots of kisses and a tattoo or two. Stir. Serve: the mother of all publicity stunts.

(aka Harry and Louis fake a relationship for publicity. Eventually it becomes a lot less fake and a lot more real.)

anything plain can be lovely by el_em_en_oh_pee (5k)

Harry sees Louis - like, really sees Louis - again for the first time in his mid-thirties. (a grew-up-together AU)

Around the World by orphan_account (6k)

“Could you–” Harry breaks off, gasping as Louis leans in to bite the sensitive skin just under Harry’s jaw, a favourite spot of Harry’s. “Could you, y’know, in French?”

“Could I what, H?” Louis asks, peppering kisses underneath Harry’s jaw and trailing them up to his lips.

“Dirty talk,” Harry says in an exhale.

Or, Louis dirty talks in French. Kind of.

Autumn At My Window by TheCellarDoor (20k)

A canon-compliant AU, in which Harry and Louis are both in the band and have been sharing flats and hotel rooms for nearly five years, but never made the leap past 'friends who are too close for comfort'.

Featuring a lot of pining, Louis' addiction to Harry's scent, and a whole lot of sexual tension that might just snap loose when they decide to spend some time together all on their own. 

Last edited: September 7, 2017

Done here? Go back to my Recommended Fics → 

[irenedonati]

On Black Girls Glow, #MotherOfHeirs and me being overwhelmed.

I’m receiving since Sunday messages and acknowledgements for my “help” on the Black Girls Glow project. 

I feel answering with “thank you” or various emojis on twitter cannot be enough to express the feelings of gratitude that I actually have. I remembered I have a blog and that my blog has been silent since forever so... maybe time to start again.

DISCLAIMER: it might be a long post.

It’s my fourth year in a country that I’ve chosen to be my home and it has been four years of ups and downs and rollercoasters. 

One of the reasons why I managed to survive many things it’s because I’ve been able to be surrounded by incredible artistic talents. 

I bless my friendship with Kyekyeku, the beautiful experience with M.anifest in the work environment and the small work I’ve done with Worlasi which is another indisputable talent. All the concerts and art exhibitions and creative power I’ve seen around have nurtured me. And working with Stefania and meeting all these upcoming artists... and then meeting the Nkenten family, which technically saved me. And recently Isaac Opoku and Bright Ackwerh... I feel very lucky for all this. I don’t even want to start mentioning all the amazing people in the fashion industry... you guys know who you are.

I remember the first time I saw Poetra on stage more than 3 years ago, and I remember writing a blog post saying she moved me... and then tweeting “Girl, You Rock!” at Alliance Française, the second time I saw her. 

I know something about art because I come from music... My mum says, I used to fall asleep with Opera when I was a child, my family on my mother’s side has the music in the DNA. I’ve studied piano for 10 years and singing has been my passion for my entire life. Christmas as a kid in my house was special, because of all of us playing music and singing.

Then I’ve worked in the creative industry: advertising is one of the best environments to share passion for art: creatives are usually artists on the side or, like my beautiful friend Guido, they can even decide to finally drop their jobs and pursue their art career. Or like my beloved John, they paint during the night and they go to work during the day. 

I became a buddhist many years ago, and one of my mentors says ‘To strive even higher, to do even better—the creative process is a desperate struggle to go beyond what we were yesterday. It is a battle against resting on our laurels, against the fear of losing what we have. It is an adventure into unknown territory.’

And then I became a Yoga teacher and through Yoga and meditation I’ve been able to express my creativity more. My writings are not public, but I do write.

Now, what happened with Black Girls Glow I would not describe it as me “helping”: what I felt from the moment I’ve started working closer with Ama is that they’ve embraced me. And in a way, they helped me. 

I feel like I needed them more than they needed me: yes I’ve offered my services as Pr, helped with the fundraising, spread the word as much as I could, helped with the event and supported them. But I had the privilege to be chosen to do it. I had the privilege to get their trust. It was my honour to be surrounded by so much talent.

I’m very bad with compliments so all these “thank you” are actually very overwhelming for me. When you struggle with anxiety even too much love sometimes is too much to manage.

But I want to thank you amazing girls. I would like to spend a word for each of you because I am so thankful of the time we’ve spent together in the past days. 

Ama, I feel like in english I can’t even find the words to explain exactly what I think about you. I think sometimes I’m jealous of your strength and the way you know exactly where you are going. I’ve learned so much from you during this experience. Thank you for trusting me.

Dzyadzorm, so much strength and so much fragility.  You are the one I’ve probably interacted less with, but I admire you deeply. And you made me cry... and Bright saw me... and he’s having fun of me now. That poem is a manifesto we should teach in schools. 

Adomaa, you have the talent of those artists who are able to become icons. Amazing presence and personality without making too much noise. Working hard without talking much. Style and brain. And I find you extremely funny which I consider a great virtue. Sense of humour is so sexy :)

Cina, you are a breath of fresh hair (quoting)... like a butterfly. When you are around it’s just easier. And that voice... I don’t know if there’s a god or a someone assigned to give us talent, but that voice just feels right. Keep that spirit through life, you make people feel better when you’re around. 

Ria, ah Maria I feel like we have so much in common. If I could make a wish it would be to duet with you. We share some deep experiences and I see you being able to transform the bad into good through your voice, and I admire you so much for that.

Fu: I didn’t know you, I didn’t even know there was in Ghana a female rapper like the ones I love. Effortlessly musical. You’re a beautiful person and I’m sure other people noticed that you are also very deep. And you rocked the show... you are the biggest revelation of this project and I’m so happy more people have been able to see it.

I don’t know if these words are enough to explain how much I thank you ladies, for the privilege of being around you. And we should all thank you for what you gave us last night.  

I think, Ama who’s been around me a bit more, knows the passion I put in almost everything is the same. But I’m grateful that through this project other people have been able to see it. Yes I’m difficult, I’m blunt, I’m a bit of a troublemaker sometimes, but when I love, that’s how I love. 

So to anyone who expressed appreciation for what I have done, thank you. 

And if you feel we can do more together, my arms are open. Maybe I should work on this more seriously because if I have to tell the truth, it makes me extremely happy.

And let’s keep the attention going on Black Girls Glow because of course, this is just the beginning but we need sponsors and we need to realise what Ama wants: to make it a Pan African platform to help female artists in all the disciplines and performing arts to express themselves. 

Power to the Power.

https://twitter.com/BlackGirlsGlow

https://soundcloud.com/blackgirlsglow