The Urbane Urbanite

"There is something terribly radical about believing that one's own experience and images are important enough to speak about, much less to write about and to perform " -James Baldwin That quote by famed literary icon James Baldwin is a staple on the website for The Fire This Time Festival, and speaks to its mission to provide captivating, conscious portrayals of the black experience and offer a platform for early-career playwrights of African descent to explore new voices, styles and challenging new directions for contemporary theater. The festival, which kicks off its third season on January 16 with a panel discussion on diversity in contemporary theater, includes a four-night limited engagement of seven eclectic ten-minute plays and five staged readings (the panel discussion and readings are free) presented by the Horse Trade Theatre Group. According to Derek McPhatter, a playwright and lead producer of the festiva...

I don't know about you, but I've got the worst luck with plants. I see them in the store all pretty and gussied up, get them home and in a matter of days they're dead. Case in point: The cactus. I stumbled upon a prickly, little guy at Home Depot last year. Small. Easy. Manageable. Perfect! Or so I thought.  I gave it a home on my desk (pictured in the banner pic of this blog). And less than a month later... Who kills a cactus?! Guilt-ridden, flustered and confused about my latest botany blunder, I turned to Sandra de Ovando for advice. She is the founder and creative director of Ovando, a full scale floral and event design company, with two boutique locations as well as a production studio based in Manhattan’s flower district. Ovando's roster of New York tastemakers and influencers includes The Four Seasons, Hermes and The MOMA, as well as a host of large-scale event clients spread throughout New York and The Hamptons. Fl...

For the past five months, Paul Shaw, an internal consultant for a government agency in the nation's capital, has called a cozy row house home. Situated in Trinidad, a gentrified section of Northeastern Washington, DC, is his completely renovated two bedroom, two bathroom abode where African masks, chocolate browns and vibrant artwork pepper a sun-drenched open layout. Shaw, a native of St. Louis, MO and frequent entertainer, took me on a tour of his welcoming 1400 square foot digs, which includes a Club Monaco inspired friendship wall, a skylit bathroom - and an upscale kitchen that serves as the soul of the home.

The day after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Kathryn Stockett found herself sitting in her downtown New York City apartment, reflective, lonely and terribly homesick. "I was thinking about my family and thinking about this woman named Demetrie," said Stockett. "She was the African-American woman that worked for our family for 32 years and for the first time in my life, I started to ask myself 'what was she thinking all of those years?' I had totally taken it for granted. I was so naive as a child. She knew everything about us and I didn't know anything about her. So I started writing in what to me was her voice." Ten years and over 60 rejection letters later, Demetrie's voice has become the bona fide literary phenomenon that is The Help . Stockett's debut novel about the complex relationship between black maids and their white female employers during the dawn of the civil rights movement in Jackson, Mi...

The Urbane Urbanite has been around for 15 months. And in that time, I've written quite a few personal posts - a tribute to my 92-year-old Granny after she passed away; the uneasiness I feel about my mother getting back on the dating scene ; a confessional about feeling like a quitter when it comes to my acting career - but the most personal post, by far, has to be the interview I did with my father. The Conversation with Dad post is the most popular, most talked about piece I've ever written. It has elicited the biggest reaction from the readers of this blog and goes down as the most cathartic writing experience I've ever had. Besides providing all of you with a gutsy, engaging piece to read, it also did the unthinkable: help me get to know my father a little better and bring us closer together. In the year since publishing the post, I've gained a ton of new followers. So in honor of Father's Day this weekend, I'm reblogging my Conversation with Dad fo...

When I interviewed Jasmine Graham about her fitness company Pace For Success, I also asked her if it was too late to get a beach-ready body in time for summer. "No," she said. "You can start a 6-week intensive program, [which includes] a diet and a combination of 4–5 days of working out at medium to high intensity." Here are Graham's 16 tips on how to get moving, eat better - and get snatched in time for summer.

After a 16 year career in the fashion industry, which included a vice-president of sales position for the ECKO Kids line, Trinidadian born Jasmine Graham was laid off and decided to turn her attention to giving back.  "I had been volunteering my time with an organization called Team in Training for 3 years," says the current Brooklynite. "They prepare you for half marathons, marathons, triathlons and century rides while you raise money for blood cancer. I ran my first  marathon with them in Alaska in 2006 and I stayed with the program and became a mentor and then an assistant coach.  By 2008, I had run 3 marathons, numerous half marathons and realized that I loved running and helping people reach the finish line of their races." Fueled by her passion to help others achieve their fitness goals, Graham became a certified running/fitness trainer and started her own company ( www.pace4success.com ). "I love running so I wanted to offer a running program an...

You ever witness that awkward moment when folks are sitting around chatting about, let's say, pop culture and the conversation turns to politics and that one person who was once dominating the conversation, begins to clam up? That one person is me. I'm a great conversationalist, but when politics comes up, I start to itch and quickly change the subject. I find politics terribly boring, which, in turn, makes me a really lousy political gabber.  But I want to change that. I can't bill myself as a renaissance man and not be able to hold a conversation about what's going down in the political arena. The sweet Lord up above must have heard my cry, because no sooner had I proclaimed my desire to be a wee bit more politically savvy, did I stumble upon Prune Juice Media , a witty, intelligent, honest look at political news stories. PJM targets educated ( that's me! ) voters ( hey, that's me too! ) who are tired of "business as usual" in political reporti...

Pierre M. Coleman is riding high - and with good reason. The 27-year-old writer-director and Howard University graduate will get to see his 20-minute dramatic short film on the big screen in New York City next week. Hello, My Name is Trouble is a potent, urban drama about a teenager who succumbs to the perils of his surroundings and very bad decision making.  Trouble is packed with solid performances, especially from David A. Bynoe who plays the doomed lead character, Jeremiah and Kevin Craig West as the reverend who tries to keep Jeremiah on the right path. I got the chance to sit down for a chat with Coleman, who's been busy working the festival circuit to promote his critically acclaimed film. The Newark, NJ native talks about how his father inspired the script, his future projects - and what he'll do to tame my ego if I'm lucky enough to star in one of his flicks.

The moment you visit  The Red Pump Project website, you're hit with a sobering fact: Every 9.5 minutes, someone in the US is infected with HIV.   It's startling statistics like that, which makes The Red Pump Project - a three-year-old collective dedicated to starting conversations and raising funds to impact HIV/AIDS awareness for women - absolutely necessary. The red pump is used as a symbol of empowerment, strength and courage for women both directly and indirectly affected by the disease. With today being National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, I felt it only fitting to chat with one of the co-founders of The Red Pump Project, the always hilarious Lovette "Luvvie" Ajayi.  We talked about shoes, HIV awareness and her labor of love, The Red Pump Project.

Less than a week into February, I stumbled upon a tweet from, Chris, one of my college friends on Twitter: "'Now everybody wanna focus on Black History. Y’all are so 'seasonal' .... SMH" We discuss (and often complain) about the fact that we celebrate Black History during the shortest month of the year, but has anyone ever taken the time to find out why? Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the founder of Black History month and the second African-American to receive a degree from Harvard University, believed in preserving one’s heritage. He wanted it to be in February to honor the birth of two men whose actions drastically altered the future of Black Americans, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. What started as just a week, eventually turned into a month. I attend an HBCU (Historically Black College/University), which happens to be the first university owned and operated by African-Americans. It was originally called Wilberforce College, and today is known as Centr...

*In Sophia Petrillo Voice* Picture it: New Jersey. 1980 something.  The crack of dawn on a Saturday morning. A young (cute) little boy leaps out of bed and runs into the kitchen to fetch his favorite breakfast morning cereal: Frosted Flakes.  He fills the bowl to the top with cereal and drowns the sugary goodness in milk.  Then he runs into the living room with his bowl, plops down on the couch and crunches away while he watches The Smurfs. Y'all. That little boy was me. We all come from different places, backgrounds, religions and family structures. But if there's one thing we all have in common, it's the vivid memory of waking up bright and early in the morning to devour a bowl of beloved deliciousness. Flash forward many years later and a lot has changed.  I barely have time to grab a granola bar in the morning much less a bowl of cereal. And I be damned if I wake up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday, my day to sleep in a catch up on some...

The holidays are officially upon us. And while many people will get their hands dirty in the kitchen slaving over hot stoves, others may opt to take friends and family out for a nice dinner instead. If you're a food snob like me, you frown at the thought of dinning at a chain restaurant. While I don't have anything against spots like The Cheesecake Factory (that carrot cake cheese cake! *drools*), Chili's (Them lightly salted French fries *licks lips*) or Red Lobster (That there cheddar bay biscuit *faints*) when I want to have a real fine dining experience, those are the last places I want to eat. But not all  chain restaurants are the same. There are some upscale chain eateries that will give you the food and ambiance of a five-star restaurant. Here are my top 6 favorite upscale chain restaurants.

Photo: S. Fouad Ibrahim Ahmed III is a long way from home. The 26-year-old Newark, NJ based Egyptian artist was born in Kuwait and raised in Bahrain until 1997 after which he moved to Freehold, NJ and became an English major at Rutgers University in Newark in 2003. Ahmed took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to chat with me about how he stumbled into art, the childhood memories that inspire his work and his first solo exhibition In the Shade of Light , which opens on November 20 in Newark. URBANE URBANITE : How did you get into art? IBRAHIM AHMED: While attending Rutgers, I worked at a non-profit organization called the Academy Street Firehouse. The Founder, Dr. Terrence Zealand, wanted to start an art class. I volunteered to help out because up until then I would doodle here and there. While teaching the class, Dr. Zealand took a notice of my drawings and encouraged me to keep drawing on my own time. He did this by giving me my first official sketch book. From there,...

Last December, when Aliya S. King first told me the topic of a feature she was working on for VIBE magazine, my jaw dropped. Not only did I know then that a story about cross-dressing, gender-bending students who attend the illustrious Morehouse College (On Stands Everywhere Today!) would go viral and send tongues wagging (the president of the college issued a lengthy letter to the Morehouse community, refuting the claims in the story before even reading it. Yesterday VIBE published the story on their website and King was immediately condemned and met with harsh criticism both via Twitter and the VIBE message boards), but I also knew she was about to write the hell out of it, which she did. I wanted in!

I travel often and eat out regularly. And the more I do both, the more I find myself in obscure tipping situations. Don't get me wrong, I'm a great tipper. But sometimes I don't know when to tip or how much. For example: If I sit at the bar to order dinner instead of at a table, am I supposed to tip the bartender the same 15% or 20% tip I would give a waiter or waitress? And what about after I'm done getting a massage? What should I tip the masseuse? And the holidays are on the horizon. Should I increase my tipping game as a way to say Merry Christmas? To help me make sense of this gratuity madness, I contacted tipping expert and creator of The Original Tipping Page ( http://www.tipping.org/ ), Manny Gonzalez to weigh in on who to tip, how much - and when.

One of my many dreams is to meet Oprah Winfrey one day - and I know exactly what I'm going to ask her: "Oprah, how the hell you find time to read all those damn books?!"   Can you tell I'm frustrated? Here she is, OPRAH, leader of the free world the most powerful woman in television, founder of O magazine, runs her own production company, builds schools in Africa, has her own radio station and television channel and she finds time to not only read but read a lot. So much so, that she helms the most popular book club in the world.   I work a 9to5, run this blog and freelance on the side. That's it.  And I complain that I can't find the time to read anything.   *sigh* I read two books this year. The Girl Who Fell From The Sky by Heidi W. Durrow and Platinum by my BFF Aliya S. King . Both books were excellent!  But I want to read more. I want to be that person who's engulfed in one book but already has the next good read lined up.  I'd love t...

L: Rita Flythe-Young; R: Simone Flythe Today is Rita Flythe-Young's 51st birthday. Last Friday, there was a huge party thrown in her honor. It was a celebration with all the trimmings: a live DJ, her closest friends and family working up a sweat on the dance floor, scores of soul food, a huge cake with her picture on it, black and blue balloons served as centerpieces on each table and a matching banner hung on the wall that read HAPPY BIRTHDAY RITA. There was only one thing missing: the guest of honor. On the night of October, 7, 2009, Rita Young was walking to her car after speaking at an all women's narcotics anonymous meeting at the Harmony House in Newark, NJ (she was the guest of honor, celebrating almost 22 years sober) when she  was gunned down at point-blank range. She stayed on life support, brain dead, until December 19, when her only child, Simone Flythe, 30, gave the hospital the okay not to revive her for a second time. Young was laid to rest the da...

Bed bugs have been a hot topic for a while now. But when reports surfaced that the AMC movie  theater in Times Square had to close down because it was infested with bed bugs, I knew this outbreak had reached epidemic proportions. An actual car that was driving in front of me a couple of weeks ago! Those itty bitty blood sucking vermin struck a personal chord last year when we found out my Granny's apartment was under attack. She had been complaining about itching at night for a while and when Mom went to check her skin, she found little marks that looked like mosquito bites. It was the middle of September. She knew it couldn't have been mosquitoes. She went to Granny's bed, pulled the sheets off and found those creepy crawlies all over the mattress. When the senior citizen building Granny was staying in at the time gave Mom the run around with getting an exterminator and resolving the problem, she ended up pulling Granny from out of there all together. It was ...

Jona Biddle is a busy man. The 29-year-old Atlantic City, New Jersey native and current resident of Harlem manages a dance team called The Professionals. In just six short months, the team (ages seven to sixteen) have won numerous dance competitions, performed at the Apollo Theatre where they won first place and beat out 27 dance crews to win Hot 97 Dance Crew of the Year - and a whopping $25,000 cash prize. Biddle recently choreographed a show for Disney artist Lauren Legato and performed on BET's Blaze The Stage with Clarisa Rose. And this week alone, his dance team is taping an appearance on MTV's Made, performing in Connecticut and entertaining guests at a sweet sixteen party. And if all that weren't enough, Biddle also runs the dance department for two public schools in Washington Heights. Although inspiring children through dance keeps him more than occupied, Biddle still manages to do it all while looking impeccable. I breakdown some of Biddle...