Lifestyle
What does Monica and Brandy’s meeting in “The Boy Is Mine” tell us about the fragility of female friendships
Last week, Ariana Grande threw a bit of nostalgia back into the top 100 hits by releasing a contemporary version of her 1998 hit “The Boy is Mine,” which featured the duo’s original vocalists Monica and Brandy. Taking a walk down memory lane, Monica revealed how working on the Grande project healed her decades-long rift with Brandy.
“The new collaboration process has largely bridged the gaps,” Monica said Entertainment tonight. “When you communicate properly, you can find not only solutions and solutions to problems, but sometimes it turns out that there were never any problems, only constant misunderstandings.”
Even though their duet topped the Billboard charts for nearly 13 weeks after its release, Monica and Brandy’s relationship was notoriously strained. Even before the release of their hit, the R&B singers consistently opposed one another in the media, a lot in order that Brandy originally suggested the idea of a joint song to silence rumors of hatred amongst the creators at the time. Although they were reportedly friends and on the same level at the time of the single’s release, things took a turn for the worse shortly after when Monica reportedly broke up punched Brandy backstage at the 1998 MTV Music Video Awards.
Since then, the “So Gone” and “Right There” singers have occasionally thrown little jabs at one another on social media, and their interactions have been limited over the past twenty years. In 2020, the ’90s R&B icons shocked fans once they faced one another in a “Verzuz” battle that, in keeping with Monica, required lots of maturity.
“I wouldn’t call it anyone’s fault,” Monica said before the battle, per Entertainment tonight. “We all contributed to it and after some time it became a reality… It’s over. And it required a really adult conversation. There’s no shame in saying that.”
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Now, 4 years later, the singer credits Grande with further mending the rift between her and Brandy.
“The conversation itself made it much easier for me,” she added. “We decided the key was to maintain other people out of our relationship, each skilled and personal, and keep it between her and me, and that modified all the pieces. That completely modified the trajectory of the whole thing… My son was in the hospital in the future and she was the one I talked to while he was there – that is what Ariana did that he may not even realize.
Whatever the reason for his or her strained relationship, Brandy and Monica’s complex friendship reflects a broader phenomenon amongst women. In his book “Fighting for our friendships: the science and art of conflict and connection in women’s relationships”, writer Danielle Bayard Jackson explores the unique intricacies of female friendships.
“The way girls and boys come together and react to certain situations showed me our unique ways of bonding and resolving conflict,” Jackson said Psychology today. “Research suggests that ladies have higher expectations for support and intimacy in their close relationships than men. Women integrate friends into our lives as deeply as siblings, while men treat their friends more like cousins. With such high expectations, even minor conflicts can look like major violations. I do know I’m generalizing, but we often know that men aren’t as closely connected, so perhaps they do not see or hang around with one another as much (as women do).”
In addition to highlighting the differences between male and female relationships, Jackson emphasized the importance of conflict in friendship. Although most individuals view conflict in friendship negatively, the writer emphasizes that these moments are opportunities to grow and strengthen the bond – an idea echoed by Monica when talking about her friendship with Brandy.
“This time I thank God for growth and change, and for becoming a mother and experiencing a lot of what I have and learning to communicate properly,” Monica said, reflecting on the evolution of her relationship with Brandy. “We have lots of catching as much as do in terms of giving audiences what they really wanted from us back then. We didn’t discover a technique to do it then, but we’ll discover a technique to do it now.”
Lifestyle
What is GiveTuesday? The annual day of giving is approaching
Since it began as a hashtag in 2012, Giving on Tuesdaythe Tuesday after Thanksgiving, became one of the largest collection days yr for non-profit organizations within the USA
GivingTuesday estimates that the GivingTuesday initiative will raise $3.1 billion for charities in 2022 and 2023.
This yr, GivingTuesday falls on December 3.
How did GivingTuesday start?
The hashtag #GivingTuesday began as a project of the 92nd Street Y in New York City in 2012 and have become an independent organization in 2020. It has grown right into a worldwide network of local organizations that promote giving of their communities, often on various dates which have local significance. like a vacation.
Today, the nonprofit organization GivingTuesday also brings together researchers working on topics related to on a regular basis giving. This too collects data from a big selection of sources comparable to payment processors, crowdfunding sites, worker transfer software and offering institutions donor really helpful fundstype of charity account.
What is the aim of GivingTuesday?
The hashtag has been began promote generosity and this nonprofit organization continues to advertise giving within the fullest sense of the word.
For nonprofits, the goal of GivingTuesday is to boost money and have interaction supporters. Many individuals are aware of the flood of email and mail appeals that coincide on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Essentially all major U.S. nonprofits will host fundraising campaigns, and plenty of smaller, local groups will participate as well.
Nonprofit organizations don’t have to be affiliated with GivingTuesday in any method to run a fundraising campaign. They can just do it, although GivingTuesday provides graphics and advice. In this manner, it stays a grassroots endeavor during which groups and donors participate as they please.
Was GivingTuesday a hit?
It will depend on the way you measure success, but it surely has definitely gone far beyond initial efforts to advertise giving on social media. The day has change into an everlasting and well-known event that focuses on charitable giving, volunteerism and civic participation within the U.S. and all over the world.
For years, GivingTuesday has been a serious fundraising goal for nonprofits, with many looking for to arrange pooled donations from major donors and leverage their network of supporters to contribute. This is the start year-end fundraising peakas nonprofits strive to fulfill their budget goals for next yr.
GivingTuesday giving in 2022 and 2023 totaled $3.1 billion, up from $2.7 billion in 2021. While that is loads to boost in a single day, the trend last yr was flat and with fewer donorswhich, in accordance with the organization, is a disturbing signal.
Lifestyle
BlaQue Community Cares is organizing a cash crowd for serious food
QNS reports that Queens, New York-based nonprofit BlaQue Community Cares is making an effort to assist raise awareness of Earnest Foods, an organic food market with the Cash Mob initiative.
The BlaQue Cash Mob program is a community-led event that goals to support local businesses, reminiscent of grocery stores in Jamaica, by encouraging shoppers to go to the shop and spend a certain quantity of cash, roughly $20. BlaQue founder Aleeia Abraham says cash drives are happening across New York City to extend support for local businesses. “I think it’s important to really encourage local shopping habits and strengthen the connections between residents and businesses and Black businesses, especially in Queens,” she said after hosting six events since 2021.
“We’ve been doing this for a while and we’ve found that it really helps the community discover new businesses that they may not have known existed.”
As a result, crowds increase sales and strengthen social bonds for independent businesses.
Earnest Foods opened in 2021 after recognizing the necessity for fresh produce in the world. As residents struggled to seek out fresh food, Abraham defines the shop as “an invaluable part of the southeast Queens community.” “There’s really nowhere to go in Queens, especially Black-owned businesses in Queens, to find something healthier to eat. We need to keep these businesses open,” she said.
“So someone just needs to make everyone aware that these companies exist and how to keep the dollars in our community. Organizing this cash crowd not only encourages people to buy, but also shows where our collective dollars stand, how it helps sustain businesses and directly serves and uplifts our community.”
The event will happen on November 24 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at 123-01 Merrick Blvd in St. Albans. According to the shop’s co-owner, Earnest Flowers, he has partnered with several other Black-owned brands in the world to sell his products at the shop. Flowers is comfortable that his neighbors can come to his supermarket to purchase organic food and goods from local vendors like Celeste Sassine, owner of Sassy Sweet Vegan Treats.
At the grand opening three years ago which was visited by over 350 viewersSassine stated that the collaboration was “super, super, super exciting” to the purpose that the majority of the products were off the shelves inside hours.
Lifestyle
Keke Palmer Recalls the Key Advice Will Smith Gave Her as a Child: “It’s Hard to Be First”
Like many young people, actress Keke Palmer went through a phase wherein she clashed along with her parents. Recently in a performance at “Toast” podcast.Palmer revealed that fellow actor Will Smith helped her take care of the situation along with her family.
As a child star who has appeared on Nickelodeon and Disney productions, the “Akeelah and the Bee” actress explained how juggling fame has affected her and her family relationships — a lot in order that she admits she once considered emancipating herself from her parents.
Although her lawyer tried to get her into counseling, Palmer said it was Smith’s words that ultimately modified her mind.
“A couple of weeks go by, I’m on the set of ‘True Jackson, Vice President’ and I get a call from a very, very unknown number. And I said, “What? If it was strange, I would not answer,” she said, mentioning that she simply went back to work. Later, while retrieving her phone, Palmer received a voicemail from the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” star.
“Hey Keke. This is Will. We’re here filming ‘The Karate Kid’ with (my son) Jaden and I just want to let you understand that I’ve talked (to your lawyer),’ Palmer continued, impersonating Smith. “He let me know every little thing you are going through and I need you to know that sometimes it’s hard to be the first, but you may do it. Just stay focused, love your loved ones and every little thing shall be high-quality.
Palmer remembers struggling as a child with the attention and fame that got here with climbing the ladder in the entertainment industry. While trying to adjust to the demands of her burgeoning profession, the actress recalls feeling that fame meant she would have to “throw (her) family away.”
“It’s something that happens when you leave and you can become a child artist, you can be the first person in your family to go to college, or you can be the first person in your family to get married,” Palmer said: explaining her feelings at that moment. “There are so many firsts that can happen as the generations of your family grow and evolve.”
Ultimately deciding not to undergo the emancipation process, Palmer emphasized the importance of getting a healthy community when navigating the entertainment industry.
“I think I’ve always felt like a lot of people, whether they’re big names or whether they’re my lawyers, have been a good community,” she added. “Also, my parents made sure I was around (people) who would encourage community rather than discord and separation.”
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