what up y’all?
i know i ‘ve been gone for hella long but we are about to remedy that! i needed time to get through some dark months and reflect on what i am doing here. Life goes on. For today i leave you with these two great songs to set the return of JuliRed right!!
it’s about the community-
i ain’t rich till he is rich till she is rich till we is rich.
be good to yourself!!
c/s J’red
So for awhile i’ve been getting questions about healthy eating, living, healing and food from friends and family. After becoming a vegetarian at 14 and periodically going on meat haiatus during my early 20’s, I decided just over a year ago to become fully vegan (for all intents and purposes, also for those that need labels) but i like to say i eat to live. its been an informative journey. So from now on every Wednesday ill write about, offer up, explore some healthy tip or issue. this is just a little info on what i do or what keeps me interested in being well. WELCOME TO WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS!!
This week its Rice Protein vs Hemp Protein:
you might want to first ask yourself if you where to you get protein from? no answer or no clue? you might not be getting enough? not everyone needs a protein shake but for people on the go, folks with high metabolisms, those who eat very irregularly, or tend to work out a lot you may just want to try one.
Rice Protein: it seems that as a replacement for soy or whey it works well enough and is billed as a complete protein but does not carry as much protein per serving. which means you are actually getting less than you might need and might need to use or spend more. The plus is that there is a minimal taste factor and can be mixed with anything.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Rice-Protein-Powder-Whats-it-Actually-Good-For?&id=729039
Hemp Protein : This seems like a winner! is is a real complete protein including the 8 our bodies do not naturally produce. also it contain both omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. this is especially important as you begin to cut out dairy and other fats from your diet, your body still needs the correct fatty acids to build cells that insulate your veins, arteries, skin, and for all type of other body needs like producing hair ect. Finally, as a natural fiber hemp will help regulate digestion and blood sugar levels, which may cut out bloating that most people feel when they drink protien shake or eat those meal bars. the cons- it can taste pretty gnarley (its not as sweet as the sugary flavored whey protein) and it is pretty expensive.
http://www.n101.com/hemp_protein_guide_A10003.html
Both seem to be good for people who have allergens to dairy or soy products. additionally some soy is high in estrogen and can mess with people’s mental, emotional, and physical cycles, if they are sensitive to imbalances in food products, be selective about how much soy you introduce into your diet. Either way you decide to go, i suggest to only buy powders that are guaranteed organic or else i am sure everything else goes out the door.
Be healthy yall
c/s
JuliRED
I hope by now you have heard about the execution of oscar grant by the BART police officer that took place just 3 weeks ago. I have been following the story but haven’t posted about it. Today Obama’s inauguration seems like a good day as any. So here is one of the better postings ive read and the video of the murder.
Barack Obama and Oscar Grant: The Post Racial America?
I was out in Oakland, CA. this past weekend for a friend’s birthday. Naturally, I visited Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley–my old stomping grounds–while I was there. Things have changed there while remaining the same. The area is certainly much more ethnically diverse. Gentrification has slithered in, but its presence is quite minimal when compared to other sections of Berkeley, Oakland or San Francisco. Peoples Park looks better than it has in years, with its native plant life dominating the east and west ends of that small piece of turf where so many battles have been fought. Doorways that used to shelter street people have been blocked off and some benches have been removed from areas where those same folks used to relax. In short, the presence of corporate America was greater than it used to be some thirty years ago, but the character of those few blocks that was carved during the 1960s and 1970s remains as its essence despite numerous attempts by city and university officials and businessmen and women to convert the strip into just another pedestrian mall.
The politics expressed on t-shirts for sale and in posters pasted on fences and shop windows were less radical then I remember. Indeed, the overwhelming number of Obama images was a bit of a surprise to me, especially when compared to the very small number of posters reacting to the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza and massacre of Palestinian children. Yet, the most interesting juxtaposition of political imagery appeared in a shop window that featured a poster of Obama and several leaflets calling for protests against the murder of a young black man by the BART transit police. For those of you who don’t know, the facts of this case are these. Early New Year’s morning an argument on a BART train erupted into a fight. Several passengers involved in the fight were removed from he train at Oakland’ Fruitvale station. Several transit police took those involved off the train, cuffed some of them and forced them all to squat near a wall in the station. One young man, named Oscar Grant, was lying face down on the station floor with his hands behind is back when a police officer took out his gun and shot him. He died several hours later. This is my interpretation of the events derived from viewing at least two cellphone videos taken by other passengers and posted on the internet. It is an interpretation shared by thousands of other (if not millions) viewers. In fact, it is the opinion apparently held by the prosecutor involved in the case, as the officer was indicted for murder and turned himself in January 14th, 2009.
The reaction on the street to Grant’s murder was definite and quick. People around the Bay Area saw the video and saw murder. Protests were organized by a variety of groups, including churches and radical political sects. The first protest on January 7th attracted a thousand or so people and ended with a small riot in downtown Oakland and the arrest of more than a hundred protesters. Most people were not just angry about the murder, but also that no charges or arrests had been made in the case even though a week had passed since the shooting.
Then there is Barack Obama. If the state of black America could be summed up with the life of one individual, which of these men would we choose to represent that state? Barack Obama, who will become president of the United States on January 20th, 2009, or Oscar Grant, whose life was ended by a police bullet on January 1st, 2009? The very fact of Grant’s death shows the world that there is no post-racial America. In fact, it reminds us all that, despite the gains in the area of race in the United States, Barack Obama is the significant exception to the rule. This fact is not a denial of the hopes his election has raised for African-Americans and the nation, but it is a cold reminder that making a black man president is a long way from ending the very real fact of the systemic racism that made this nation what it is. The death of Oscar Grant, like the presence of so many African-Americans in the US prison system, is an even harsher reminder of how that racism plays itself out in the daily lives of so many of its citizens.
Racism will end in this country when it no longer serves the interests of the elites that run it. The presence of a black family in the White House may be a symbolic victory for the forces opposed to racism, but the men and women chosen by Obama to help him rule represent the real nature of his presidency. Malcolm X once said that “An integrated cup of coffee isn’t sufficient pay for four hundred years of slave labor.” Well, neither is a black man in the White House sufficient enough to forget the death of Oscar Grant and the many other African-Americans whose lives have been destroyed by the very system soon to be governed by Mr. Obama.
Happy Kwanzaa: on this 5th day we celebrate Nia.
Nia (Purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Most of us ponder what our life purpose is or wonder if we are fullfilling what some consider our true calling or what is meant for us to do with our time on this earth. Important thoughts about how our voactions and choices must proceed to the collective building of our community’s health and well being are usualy on the forefront of my mind. recently more so.
just last night got me thinking about how it is really time to be more purposful with my work, love, art, healing, and choosing with whome to build with .
in the movies right before a truamatic experince the scene slows and gets quiet. i used to think that was all hollywood exaggeration. not any more. 3 seconds felt like eternity… long enough for me to strangly hear everything that was going on around me. ironically Ne-Yo was singing, “please dont worry about me i’m fine.” my little sister was driving and my cousins were in the back laughing. As i turned my head the right slow motion started and everything went eirily silent. i took a deep breath in breathed “oh my god” and saw the headlights of a truck barreling down the road coming straight for me. then everything stopped real sudden, sudden, airbags out, smoke everywhere. Words were too loud to make sense and the sirens drowned everything out. then all seemingly transfixed on the air above us, we popped out of the car from fear that the smoke would lead to a fire or explosion (again too much hollywood) but… all five of us walked away. This morning as i woke up the headlights still burned my eyes from the dream… yet my body was still sore from the reality.
it was my second car accident this month, one at the beginning and one at the end. What a way to end the year. im thinking ima need my ancestors to stop with the reminders… i get it, my life isnt done yet. message received – thank you and i know….i have more work to do and not a lot of time.
“Our choices in the life we were ready to begin would not be many: we could fit into existing arrangements, abandoning our dreams of that better world, dreams of our way, the way. Or we could try to realize the way. That would mean fighting against the white road, the white people’s system for destroying our way, the way. We listened to Isanusi. We did not know then the knowledge contained in his words was immediate, urgent knowledge. We thought we would have time to absorb it, time to adjust to its meaning. We had none.” ~ from two thousand seasons.
NIA: Purpose
| Today is my favorite day of Kwanzaa. when we discuss what we need, want and who we are for our selves and our community. Kujichagulia- Self determiniation.
If you know me at all you know that nothing gets me going like the BBP and the way they defined and carried out their multifacted plan of self determination. though not perfect nor nearly as radical as once thought these are the same very basic needs that have yet to be met for Black people. Think about them and while listening to the instrumetal play and ask yourself what plans are you making for your self and community and how will they be carried out this year? |
The Ten Point Program
- We want power to determine the destiny of our black and oppressed communities’ education that teaches us our true history and our role in the present-day society.
- We want completely free health care for all black and oppressed people.
- We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of black people, other people of color, all oppressed people inside the United States.
- We want an immediate end to all wars of aggression.
- We want full employment for our people.
- We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our Black Community.
- We want decent housing, fit for the shelter of human beings.
- We want decent education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society.
- We want freedom for all black and oppressed people now held in U. S. Federal, state, county, city and military prisons and jails. We want trials by a jury of peers for all persons charged with so-called crimes under the laws of this country.
- We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, peace and people’s community control of modern technology.
James Brown the Godfather of Soul passed away 2 years ago on this day, December 25th, It is this great gift and loss to the Black community i will be honoring on this day. There are so many things that we say and do because of this man. There are many artists from Usher to Michael Jackson who credit him as an inspiration. it is not hard to see why:
Honor the man, the art, and the spirit of soul behind it all.
SAY IT LOUD: I’M BLACK AND ‘ PROUD!!
R.I.P James Brown
C/S J’Red
have bison steaks and burgers, flowers that grow without soil or water, pet nail files and even a 20-in-1 power tool mailed to your home. If you ACT now you can always get double of this mysterious solution or product. Hurry now and get free shipping from colorado spring, CO. sorry no C.O.D.s
So i have been home for about 2 days and have diligently accepted my spot on the couch to watch the much missed cable T.V. However in my avid patrolling of the channels i cannot escape these commercials. i am perplexed that they are still around. i remember them from my childhood. i mean maybe it wasn’t ZAPP 2000 or the Ginsu knife that could cut through soda cans that marveled my young eyes and imagination but they are still the same commercials, products, set up and they’re still all located in Colorado. so my question is: Who is buying this stuff? Who thinks this is well used ad space? Better yet, why would anyone want Bison meat shipped to them? Is Colorado Springs really stuck in the 80’s like the commercials make it seem? (i know that was more than one questions… but really??? )
i don’t want to knock on the stay at home inventor who came up with the multipurpose tool but i will not be picking my teeth with the same utensil i use tighten a bolt on my tire. Nope, sorry cant do it. And maybe it seemed like a good idea to have flowers year-around but anything that’s plant like and grows without soil or water belongs in a sci-fi flick full of toxic liquids and other mutant animals. Don’t put these radioactive flowers on the coffee table next to me, i like my plants in dirt, maybe i’m old fashion like that.
not everything needs to be dropped, shipped, or ordered at a moments notice or infinitely improved upon. Usually, even if you buy the tool, you still have to do the work. that is really what this is all about. people trying to find the easy way out. there is none. learn that and you will save time and a lot of money.
that’s all
c/s j’red
Winter nights are long and cold, two weeks feels like 30. what is the time and space formula that extracts the needless suspension of memory from my eyes, dreams, and skin. even if i cant quite make out the fuzzy glow of what once was, the laughter lingers in my ears. Shifting scenes of radiating fluttering bodies smell old like the pages of cracked, well read, and sun worn books… it’s time to close them. but on long dark nights sleep swings into other dimensions and the fall into abysmal recollections and stories untold is sometimes safer than waking nostalgia.
so ima keep this real short.
So on monday that Iraqi reporter threw is his well worn leather wing tips at Bush. So while we all have seen this youtube video and many (over 19,000) have become his fan on Facebook, am i the only one not impressed?
How little it takes these days to get people excited and claim every moment a turning point in history. Folk are so easily distracted and gigglely, that we are forgetting that Obama has just put the equivalent of Clinton administration part III to work in the big house. the Clintons were not good for us and despite claims of his love for Black people and producing more jobs, we suffered greatly under that administration. So a part III is not promising.
So please stop joining the band wagon and pretending this is a revolutionary moment or even comical. instead lets really talk about building community health centers, childcare co-ops, and doing the work on in our own neighborhoods and families, on our selves that really produces something worth fighting for.
c/s juliRED
I recently returned from a trip to nyc. i still haven’t wrapped my head or feelings about how the trip was in its entirety. they say the city has a way of showing you people’s true self… this is true and sometimes brutal. especially when cowardice and assholeness runs rampant, but lucky for me that grand island is also a mecca of Black people and art. i can fall whole heartedly into different places and times and be inspired.
My case in point: Barkley L. Hendricks exhibit “Birth of The Cool,” is showing at the Harlem Studio.
It is the best of both worlds!! Hendricks pieces are mostly life size portraits from the 70’s that depict Black folk in all our flyness and glory. The colors are amazing and the feeling behind each work pulls you in to another time where sistas walked around with naturals on the regular and the vibrant reds, greens, and yellows were nothing in comparison to the beauty of Black love and struggle.
This was exactly what i needed. I thank Donitra for insisting on the walk down 125th and the freezing cold wind for pushing us into the door. Barkley L. Hendricks was born in Philly in 1945 and is still teaching in Connecticut. Very rarely do we appreciate art and an artist while they are still alive. So please if you get a chance check it out at the Harlem Studio Museum or somewhere else near you. you wont leave sad or disappointed. if anything your smile will be brighter. you’ll notice range of tones in your skin that are impossible to describe, yet radiate a power and light that can only be valued in the beauty of Blackness with a smooth head nod.
Stay fly, stay Black.
c/s juliRed
Check it out @
http://www.studiomuseum.org/
144 W 125th St
New York, NY 10027
(212) 864-4500
Go on Sundays- its free!!
