The Killing of an Innocent Black Woman!

I am very saddened by the death of Miriam Carey. She did not have to die. Her tires could have been blown out. This troubled mother died for no reason. Having a mental illness is not a crime, it is a disease. Washington cops acted cruelly and violently. Then, Congress wants to give the cops a standing ovation to justify the police’s actions. SMH! This young black woman, died for no reason. Yes, her acts were wrong, but was she armed? NO! Did she attack anyone? NO! From her actions it is clear she acted through mental illness, or a condition.

 

The fact of the matter is that she is another dead black person in America and that means nothing. Her black skin does not give her the privilege a white person would have if they had acted as she did.  Where is the apologies to her family? Where is the apology to her daughter, who has now lost a mother because the police, a law enforcement agency that is trained on many tactics of dealing with people in distress could not find a better, less deadly way to subdue Miriam Carey.

Cops executing Miriam Carey.

 

She had a history of mental illness, for she was given a mental evaluation because she thought President Obama was monitoring her and that she was a prophet. She also had an accident where she fell down and hurt herself. Shortly after while she was recovering in the hospital she learned of her pregnancy. Her boss even stated that she was a great employee until her accident, which led to the discovery of her pregnancy. He also stated that after she came back from her pregnancy she had changed and had to be let go. This woman had some problems, she was not a criminal.

Miriam Carey

Now, authorities are saying her actions made it seem like she was on a mission. They have searched her home for evidence. I hope nothing gets planted or fabricated against her. I am just saying. Her shooting was unjustified and as her sister a former NYC cop said “deadly force was “unjustified.” Now, since an innocent woman has been killed the battle now is to justify her death and confirm it in the mind of the masses.

Oh, Miriam. I weep for you, Had you been a white woman, the masses of America would have boycotted your death. People would back your family on a case against the D.C. police. You probably would not have been killed. The circumstances would have been different. You would have been given the copout of being troubled.

This woman could have had post pregnancy depression. Yes, this exists. During and after pregnancy women go through physical and emotional changes. Not every woman adapts to these changes well. Some women get depressed. It is a condition that can become severe and change a woman emotionally and mentally. Many women go without having this condition diagnosed. Many women are also often in denial about having this condition because they do not want to be labeled as a bad mother.

Miriam Carey’s grieving family.

We do not know if Mariam Carey was diagnosed with post pregnancy depression. Nor, do we know if she knew she might have this condition. However, what we do know is that a sick woman got killed. An innocent child lost her mother. A saddened family is grieving. That is nothing to applaud.

 

From Homsexuality to Black Women on Welfare: Lee Daniels degradation of black women!

I was never going to see the Butler movie by Lee Daniels. I get tired of seeing us depicted in movies as stereotypical characters who are wholesome and good, but help white people discover themselves and become better, while we serve them in servitude. However, I am very appalled to the recent words of the film’s director Lee Daniels.

In an interview with Larry King, Daniels was expressing his experience growing up as an African-American gay man. The conversation went South. View his interview here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrr7izsQa-Q

He then started describing how he walked into a gay mens’ health crisis center in New York City. He states “I expected to see a room full of gay men, but there are nothing but women that are there – black women with kids, I thought I had walked into the welfare office, but they service black women with AIDS, why?”

“Because black men can’t come out. Why? Because you simply can’t do it. Your family says it, your church says it, your teachers say it, your parents say it, your friends say it, your work says it. And so you’re living on this DL thing and you’re infecting black women.”

Although I understand Daniels’ sentiment with black men infecting black women with HIV/AIDS, why compare black women in a clinic, treating themselves and their children to black women being in a welfare office. There is no comparison.

One thing that pisses me off with welfare is that it is believed that we African-Americans, especially black women, are on welfare. Yes, I know statistics will tell you one thing. But, what are statistics? Statistics are numbers generated by people in power to gear the greater population into believing stereotypes, ideas, and garner certain beliefs about different groups of people, medicine, trends etc. That is the real definition of statistics. I mean who are participating in these surveys and tests? Have you ever been called up? Think about it.

Also, the people who use up welfare the most are Latinos, Jews and Europeans. Yes, I said it. It is so much easier for these groups of people to get welfare than it is for us. Jews get their welfare and other aids in the synagogue. Who else has this privilege. Not African Americans! Latinos and Europeans come here aided by their people in offices, and higher positions who pull down the curtains of difficulty and make it easier for them to get welfare. I do not say this to be bitter. These groups of people are organized and unify to help each other gain resources and opportunities. That is a beautiful thing. That is something that is definitely lacking in the black community. However, I say this because the hype should not be believed that we African Americans, specifically black women possess more welfare than anyone else. I know black women who have had five kids, and no job, but due to the difficulty of obtaining welfare have not been able to gain it. Thankfully she is working now. Family, statistics are not all true. They are made up to control your thinking and beliefs. V for Vendetta anyone. That was a great movie. If you have not seen it, see it. It discusses how a lot of corruption and beliefs are created.

Back to it…

I am tired of black men stomping on black. Yes, Daniels made a point about how homosexuality is different in African-American culture. He also sheds light on the struggle, homosexual black men experience. However, why try to highlight your struggle as a minority-oppressed person by bringing down another group of minority oppressed people, black women? It makes no sense and diffuses the positivity he was trying to highlight in his interview. We black women have NOTHING! Let me repeat NOTHING to do with a black mans struggle growing up gay.

We black women are not a stomping ground. We should not be used so easily as a punching bag to make a point, no matter how positive the point may be. I will not, and do not support anyone black or otherwise that seeks to benefit from the degradation of black women. None of us should. Lee Daniels is another African-American man, who unfortunately instead of trying to uplift ALL of his people, steps on those who have supported on him. We black women need to demand more, and hit them where it hurts. Deny them from flourishing with our economic power. Support those who support you and this man does not support us. –M. Millie

Kathleen Battle: A Voice to Remember!

Today we celebrate the life of Kathleen Battle. Kathleen Deanna Battle is an American operatic light lyric-coloratura soprano singer. Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s. Everyday is Back History.

Battle was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle attended Portsmouth High School. She was then awarded a scholarship to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where she studied voice with Franklin Bens and also worked with Italo Tajo. There she majored in music education for her undergraduate degree. Battle went on to gain her master’s degree in Music Education as well. In 1971 Battle embarked on a teaching career in Cincinnati, taking a position at a Cincinnati inner-city public school. While teaching 5th and 6th grade music, she continued to study voice privately. She later studied singing with Daniel Ferro in New York.

In 1972, she was still teaching and per the advice of a friend auditioned for the conductor Thomas Schippers in Cincinnati. Her performance there on July 9, 1972 marked the beginning of her professional career. During the next several years, Battle would go on to sing in several more orchestral concerts in New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland. In 1973 she was awarded a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music to support her career.

Thomas Schippers then introduced Kathleen Battle to his fellow conductor James Levine who selected Battle to sing in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s May Festival in 1974. This was the beginning of a friendship and close professional association between Battle and Levine. Their relationship would last for 20 years and resulted in several recordings and performances in recital and concert performances, including engagements in Salzburg, Ravinia, and Carnegie Hall. Battle made her professional operatic debut in 1975 as Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville with the Michigan Opera Theatre. She made her New York City Opera debut the following year as Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and in 1977 made both her San Francisco Opera debut as Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera and her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Shepherd in Wagner’s Tannhäuser. The latter performance was conducted by James Levine. Battle made her Glyndebourne Festival debut (and UK debut) singing Nerina in Haydn’s La fedeltà premiata in 1979.

Throughout the 1980s, Battle performed in recitals, choral works and opera. Her work continued to take her to performance venues around the world. In 1980 she made her Zürich Opera debut as Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. In 1982, she made her Salzburg Festival debut in Così fan tutte, followed three days later by an appearance in one of the Festival’s Mozart Matinee concerts. In 1985, she was the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. That same year she made her Royal Opera debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. In 1987 Karajan invited Battle to sing Johann Strauss’ Voices of Spring for the Vienna New Year’s Day concert, the only time Karajan conducted the internationally televised annual event, and the first time a singer had been engaged for such a contribution[citation needed]. In opera she sang a variety of roles including Oscar at Lyric Opera of Chicago and a highly acclaimed Semele at Carnegie Hall.

During this period, she received three Grammy awards for her recordings: Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart (1986), Salzburg Recital (1987), and Ariadne auf Naxos (1987). Battle’s 1986 collaboration with guitarist Christopher Parkening entitled Pleasures of Their Company was nominated for the Classical Album of the Year Grammy award. She also received the Laurence Olivier Award (1985) for her stage performance as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Royal Opera House, London. Critical response to Battle’s performances had rarely varied throughout the years following her debut. In 1985, Time Magazine, pronounced her “the best lyric coloratura soprano in the world”

The 1990s saw projects ranging from a concert program and a CD devoted to spirituals to a recording of baroque music, from performances of complete operas to recitals and recordings with jazz musicians. In 1990, Battle and Jessye Norman performed a program of spirituals at Carnegie Hall with James Levine conducting.[18] In the same year, she returned to Covent Garden to sing Norina in Don Pasquale and performed in a series of solo recitals in California, as well as appearing at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic”. Battle’s Carnegie Hall solo recital debut came on April 27, 1991 as part of the hall’s Centennial Festival. Accompanied by pianist Margo Garrett, she sang arias and songs by Handel, Mozart, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Richard Strauss, as well as several traditional spirituals. The contralto Marian Anderson, who had ended her farewell tour with a recital at Carnegie Hall in April 1965, was in the audience that night as Battle dedicated Rachmaninoff’s “In the Silence of the Secret Night” to her. The recording of the recital earned Battle her fourth Grammy award. Another first came in January 1992 when Battle premiered André Previn’s song cycle Honey and Rue with lyrics by Toni Morrison. The work was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and composed specifically for Battle.

For the remainder of the decade, she worked extensively in the recording studio and on the concert stage. She was a featured guest artist on the May 1994 album Tenderness, singing a duet, My Favorite Things, with Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Al Jarreau. In 1995 she presented a program of opera arias and popular songs at Lincoln Center with baritone Thomas Hampson, conductor John Nelson, and the Orchestra of St. Lukes.[30] She also released two albums in 1995: So Many Stars a collection of folk songs, lullabies, and spirituals (with accompanying live concert performances) with Christian McBride and Grover Washington, Jr. (with whom she had performed in Carnegie Hall the previous year and Angels’ Glory, a Christmas album with guitarist Christopher Parkening, a frequent collaborator.[In 1997 came the release of the albums Mozart Opera Arias and Grace, a collection of sacred songs. In October 1998, she joined jazz pianist Herbie Hancock on his album Gershwin’s World in an arrangement of Gershwin’s Prelude in C♯ minor. December 1999 saw the release of Fantasia 2000 where she is the featured soprano in Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducted by long-time collaborator James Levine. In solo recitals she performed in cities including Los Angeles, New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago in programs that featured art songs from a variety of eras and regions, opera arias, and spirituals.

Battle has continued to pursue a number of diverse projects including the works of composers who are not associated with traditional classical music, performing the works of Vangelis, Stevie Wonder, and George Gershwin. In August 2000, she performed an all-Schubert program at Ravinia. In June 2001, she and frequent collaborator soprano Jessye Norman, performed Vangelis’ Mythodea at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, Greece. In July 2003 she performed at the Ravinia Chicago Symphony Orchestra Gala with Bobby McFerrin and Denyce Graves. In 2006 she and James Ingram sang the song They Won’t Go When I Go in a Tribute to Stevie Wonder and she began including Wonder’s music in her recitals. In July 2007 she debuted at the Aspen Music Festival performing an all-Gershwin program as part of a season benefit. In October 2007, at a fundraiser for the Keep a Child Alive Charity, Kathleen Battle and Alicia Keys performed the song Miss Sarajevo written by U2’s Bono.

On April 16, 2008, she sang an arrangement of The Lord’s Prayer for Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of his Papal State visit to the White House. This marks the second time she sang for a pope. (She first sang for Pope John Paul II in 1985 as soprano soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass.) Later that year, she performed “Superwoman” on the American Music Awards with Alicia Keys and Queen Latifah. Since that time she has appeared in the occasional piano-voice recital, including a recital of works by Schubert, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff in Costa Mesa, California accompanied by Olga Kern (February 2010) and a recital in Carmel, Indiana accompanied by Joel A. Martin (April 2013).

Battle has received six honorary doctorates from American universities. They include: the University of Cincinnati, Westminster Choir College, Ohio University, Xavier University, Amherst College, and Seton Hall University. She also received a NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award, 1999.

Kathleen Battle is an accomplished woman. She is another black women who shows with her accomplishments that no goal is far from our reach. She is a woman who knows her worth. Her talent and all she has gained shows us black women that we too can become what we want. We too have to believe in ourselves and know our worth. We are more than the negative depictions of failure, complacency, and stereotypes that are portrayed. We are limitless black women, There is nothing we can not do and achieve just like Kathleen Battle.