Lifestyle
What now after the controversial and emotional elections? ‘Joy Lady’ Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts speaks out
If you are struggling emotionally and do not know where to search for hope and joy following the 2024 US presidential election results, you are not alone.
Apart from about half the country, even the self-proclaimed “Lady of Joy” Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts goes through difficult times after the elections.
The thought leader, author and storyteller explained that in the first few days after the election, she didn’t know the best way to lead others to joy, “in a way that did not seem to be I used to be diminishing their rightful rage; the legitimate grief and sadness that folks feel.”
She continued, “And that is why I struggle a bit bit, since it’s like I’m Lady Joy, right? So it’s as much as me to bring joy and I’m trying to search out it for myself. I’m attempting to do the work I’ve been doing for the previous couple of years, locate the joy in my body, to be clear about my next move.
While it might be hard to wrap your head around joy right now, Lewis-Giggetts, writer of “Black Joy: Stories of Resistance, Resilience, and Reconstruction” and its recent sequel, “Black Joy Guide: 30 Days of Intentionally Reclaiming Pleasure”, believes that joy is precisely what people scuffling with difficulties need right now.
“I will say that even in the midst of my struggles, I still believe that joy and reclaiming joy, accessing joy, is a huge factor in how we move forward,” she said.
Lewis-Giggetts said that ultimately, joy can grow to be our best asset. But you have got to make the time and effort to search out the joy, to “own” it.
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“Yes, joy now becomes a tool of resistance; but also a tool for healing,” she said, adding: “In particular, we can now wield our joy, our humanity, we can wield our…all the ways that we enter the world, we can wield it in a way that denies what that person (and) these entities are trying to do.”
But she added: “We can’t rule what we don’t have access to. We cannot rule what we are not willing to appease and conquer.”
Calming down and gaining joy can appear like various things to many various people. For Lewis-Giggetts, searching for laughter – in her case, Netflix stand-up specials, gardening, and walking – are a few of the ways she finds joy.
“HEARTConversation” the podcast host said that finding joy can be relatively simple. It doesn’t have to be reserved for big things like vacations, milestones, and important moments. It could be meditation, journaling, or even gathering people and being around those you love. It could even be as seemingly minimal as putting on Beyoncé’s “Cozy” during a moment of author’s block and dancing to it, she said.
“I think the next thing we need to do is give people enough peace to access all the parts – the ways, the sadness and the joy that live simultaneously in our bodies,” Lewis-Giggetts said. “So that we can get the message about the next step; what will be the next move.”
For those that rightly ask, “What now?” or what the next move will probably be, she admitted. “I do not know what the next move will probably be. I wish we had… How will we organize ourselves? What are we doing? Will we just leave here with ‘Blaxit’ or will we stay and fight?”
Lewis-Giggetts clearly states that we must first respect the space we want to process. “What I know is that we won’t be as effective as we want to be, regardless of the response, if we don’t take steps here to redress the balance,” she said. “(To) regenerate, refresh and (and), you know, access joy.”
Lifestyle
Mariah Carey will be questioned under oath over claims made in her best-selling memoir
The legal woes stemming from Mariah Carey’s claims about her family in her 2020 memoir proceed.
When the autobiographical book of the 55-year-old music icon entitledMariah Carey Meaning,” released in 2020, revealed intimate details about her “dysfunctional” upbringing on Long Island, New York, because the youngest of three children. Shortly after its September 2020 release, Carey’s older brother Morgan and recently deceased older sister Allison challenged among the book’s claims in lawsuits filed in 2021.
According to reports, Morgan Carey’s team will be questioning Mariah under oath in New York in early January 2025 regarding the particular allegations she made against him.
The “All I Want for Christmas” singer is scheduled to be virtually deposed on January 17 The case was reported by the New York Post..
In her best-selling memoir, Carey claimed her brother was violent, sold drugs while working at a New York nightclub in the Eighties, and suggested he frolicked behind bars, all of which he denied.
In one section of the book, he describes an alleged incident in which “12 cops” had to interrupt up a physical altercation between Morgan, whom he calls his “ex-brother,” and their father.
“I was a little girl and had very little memory of the older brother who protected me,” she wrote. “More often than not, I felt like I had to protect myself from him, and sometimes I found myself protecting my mother from him, too.”
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Elsewhere in her book, she suggested he had been in prison, describing Morgan as her “brother who deals drugs sometimes, is in the system and is drunk.”
The lawsuit also references one other passage in the book in which Carey alleges that Morgan “discreetly provided powdered party favors to beautiful people” while working at a preferred New York nightclub in the late Eighties, his lawyers said USA Sun is “reasonably understood to refer to cocaine.”
Morgan has denied the entire allegations in his lawsuit and maintains that he filed the lawsuit out of “disappointment” with Mariah’s alleged lies, not “anger” or “jealousy” of her success. Although a judge dismissed most of his lawsuit in February 2022, he was capable of make two allegations: that he was a drug dealer and that he had been in prison.
Mariah Carey’s team is predicted to supply documentation, evidence and potential sources to support her claims. In an August 2022 affidavit, Carey stood by the claims and said she made them “fully accurate as I have stated in my own literary style.”
Since the siblings’ legal disputes began, their mother Patricia and sister Allison died on the identical day in August on the ages of 87 and 63, respectively. Morgan, with whom Mariah is believed to have had no significant conversations since 1994, also claims that he learned of the death of her mother and sister from the singer’s lawyers, indirectly from her.
Three years before her death, Allison filed her own lawsuit against Carey over allegations in her book that she tried to “pimp” her 12-year-old younger sister by supplying her with drugs. At the time of Allison’s death, the legal dispute between the Carey sisters had not yet been resolved.
Lifestyle
History-making Grio Awards winner Alena Analeigh McQuarter seeks support as she continues her medical school journey
With a passion for science, technology, engineering and arithmetic (STEM), the Fort Worth, Texas native began his business Brown STEM Girla corporation that connects what she calls other “brain” girls of color with mentoring, scholarships and careers in STEM fields.
“I really want to leave my mark on the world,” McQuarter said 12 news from Arizona“and lead a group of girls who know what they can do.”
He is currently working to make a difference in medicine by pursuing a PhD in Integrated Biological Sciences with an emphasis on inflammation, immunity, and immunology at Loma Linda University Medical School in California.
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Although McQuarter managed to interrupt a couple of glass ceilings early in her life, she encountered several obstacles along the way in which, especially financial ones. In addition to tuition, being a full-time student attending classes and labs involves additional costs, such as housing, transportation to internships, and tutoring services. When the school didn’t receive the expected annual financial support to cover these costs, Alena and her mother, Daphne McQuarter, were left to select up the pieces.
“It’s a lot for a parent to have a child like Alena, who is talented. She’s 15 and she’s studying with 25, 26, 27-year-olds and it’s a huge financial burden to watch her navigate this whole process,” Daphne explained. “For me (as her mother), my job is to make sure she doesn’t have the stress of finances so she can go to school and do what she loves.”
As a single mother, Daphne knows from first-hand experience how stressful and confusing it might be for college students and oldsters to navigate the financial elements of upper education. Although Daphne is there to advocate for her daughter, who’s already swamped by the rigorous academic requirements of her program, Daphne can only imagine how difficult these situations might be for college students with out a lawyer. To ease the financial burden on her daughter, Alena’s mother launched GoFundMe campaign.
“Sometimes I may not hear from her until the next day because she is working or studying,” Daphne said, explaining her daughter’s busy schedule. “It’s very demanding. So for her, the additional help and support means loads, so she can concentrate on her classes and never worry about every little thing else, because once you worry about every little thing else, it affects every little thing else in your life.
Ultimately, Alena understands the importance of not only constructing representation in STEM fields, but additionally that students like her receive the support they should have the option to take part in these programs. Having used crowdfunding opportunities up to now, this young genius knows from experience how financial freedom might be linked to academic success.
Support Alena’s PhD journey via by contributing to her GoFundMe.
Lifestyle
Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade celebrate daughter Kaavia’s 6th birthday
Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade’s daughter Kaavia, often called the “suspicious baby” online, is not any longer a baby. On November 7, Union and Wade celebrated their daughter’s sixth birthday. Posting a carousel of photos and videos, the parents wrote Kaavia a sweet birthday message Instagram.
“Miss Kaavia James Union Wade turns 6 today!” They wrote in a joint post. “You are a miracle who has blessed everyone with your kindness, compassion, elitist humor, intelligence and loving soul.”
“You are a gift to your family, blood and chosen ones, as well as to many people around the world,” they added. “We love you beyond measure and celebrate your adorable little self every day!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUEEN KAAVIA!!!”
In 2018, the actress and NBA star welcomed Kaavia via surrogate, which Union said was a difficult decision. In his book “Got Something Stronger?” Union reflected on her fertility journey. After being diagnosed with adenomyosis – a disease affecting the uterine mucosa – and several miscarriages, the star recalls how her doctor really helpful surrogacy, which she admits she was not ready for.
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“I wasn’t ready for this. I desired to experience being pregnant. Watching my body expand and change to accommodate this miracle inside me. I also desired to experience being pregnant in a public place,” she said in a reflective essay published in the magazine ” Time magazine.. “…Why did I need to risk it a lot for the prospect (to have a baby)? If there was one other method to have a baby and be healthy, why was it so hard for me to simply accept it?
Despite fertility issues, Union, now 52, says she doesn’t regret becoming a mother at 46.
“I became a mother at the right time because I was healed,” she shared earlier Instagram. “And I committed to healing forever, so I didn’t pass on all this generational trauma to Kaav… if I had been a day younger, or even certainly 10, 15, 20 years earlier, I would have passed on too much traumatic stuff to my child.”
Kaavia is the youngest member of Union and Wade’s blended family. The couple can be parents to Wade’s son Zaire and daughter Zaya, whom he shares along with his ex-wife Siohvaughn Funches, and son Xavier, whom he shares with Aja Metoyer. Wade can be the legal guardian of his nephew, Dahveon Morris.
As a toddler, Kaavia’s personality shone through in her parents’ social media posts, which captured their daughter’s hilariously serious faces. From her signature side eye to her lovely smile, Kaavia quickly became known on social media as Union’s beloved “suspicious baby.”
“I love that there’s a Shady Baby, and a Shady Baby is just someone who won’t dance for you when you say now. She already has her own opinion at the age of four and a half months,” said the actress People Magazine in 2019. “I hope he keeps the same energy, that when he feels like smiling, he smiles, and when he doesn’t, he doesn’t (smile). You either catch the mood or you don’t, but she will stay true to herself.”
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