Bad Boy Joe
A "JOE" from Brown Betties & Joe Cabaret

Bad boy, come and play with me
Bad boy, show me your bad toys
Bad boy, you’re no good for me
Bad boy, let me show you how bad I can be…


Charles Porter
http://www.charlesfporter.com/

Joe - November 2007

(pic: Charles in L'Uomo, Italian Vogue)

What makes you a Bad Boy?
I can't resist home made chocolate chip cookies........ EVEN DURING MY MOST
STRICT REGIMENTS.... lol

Harlem’s Love Story…
For your reading enjoyment, find the ninth installment of “Harlem’s Awakening”…This is the “True Hollywood Story” (as it were) behind the love affair between Joe and Harlem that plays out in the Brown Betties & Joe: A Bedtime Story cabaret.


Chapter 9 – Fringe Benefits
Cora hadn’t seemed to notice that Harlem hadn’t answered her question. Cora was like that; she tended to ask you stuff and then just keep on talkin’ – not particularly waiting to hear what your answer was to her very question. Some would say that Cora was the type of person that liked to hear herself talk, but Harlem thought otherwise. She just thought Cora was fun and sassy.

Cora placed one scoop of vanilla ice cream in a lovely silver bowl, passed it to Harlem, and said, “I came to hear of them Brown Betties just last night when me and Harold was waitin’ for the subway. We was headin’ home to my place and I heard these two fellas talkin’. One of ‘em was actually kinda cute, the other one wasn’t. I guess it goes like that sometimes. Anyway, the cute one starts sayin’ how he was mesmerized by the bounce of some girl’s behind. Said the fringe on her panties was shakin’ harder than the ice workin’ to make a dry martini. I had to picture what that would be like and figured she had to be shakin’ her ass pretty damn hard!”

Harlem sucked on the sweet ice cream. It gave her something to concentrate on. Kept her from revealing just how well she knew about the fringe on the panties that were shaking so hard. She listened patiently so see where Cora would go next…

“You know I had to ask about that girl!”, Cora exclaimed too loudly. Her father, the owner of “Cora’s Ice Cream Parlor” shot her a pinched glance. Harlem wondered if Cora’s dad regretted naming the shop after his unruly daughter. Harlem figured he’d thought his only daughter would grow up graceful, and charming, and soothing…like ice cream. Instead he had a kid that was better suited to selling wool socks.

Cora continued, “Loud and clear I asked the cute fella where he saw such shakin’-- ‘cause Harlem, you know, I got to know about any new place that got some kind of underground business goin’ on. I’m a young woman and I got to live. I got to experience things!”

Harlem tried to avert Cora from this tricky topic by asking, “What did Harold say when you started talking to that cute boy?”

“Harold ain’t got nothin’ to say ‘bout who I’m talkin’ to. He knows where it’s at. Plus, I could see his eyes perk up too when he started picturing somebody’s ass movin’ – he likes it plenty when I--” she caught herself. The girls shared quite a bit with each other about many things; this was not going to be one of those things.

Harlem let her off the hook and reverted back to subject. “So, what’d he say?”

“He said girls be dancin’ almost every night like that at this jumpin’ joint called The Brown Betties Lounge,” Cora whispered. Her eyes were simply on fire with excitement.

“The Brown Betties Lounge…? Sounds naughty.”

“I knoooooooooow!!!” Cora squealed. One of the older women in the parlor sucked her teeth at Cora. Cora paid her no mind. She whisked her white hand towel around her head like a ceiling fan on “high”. She then cork-screw shimmied behind the bins of ice cream in the freezer while rubbing the towel on her big butt like she was polishing silver.

Harlem couldn’t help but laugh. But she sure shut up when Cora’s dad yelled, “Cora!! Go home. Now!”

Cora pretended to be solemnly sorry for acting a fool. She pushed out, “Sorry, Daddy” as she hung her head, and untied her apron. With her head down low, she whispered to Harlem, “We gonna go see them Brown Betties, Harlem.”

For a split second, Harlem thought maybe it would be OK if Cora knew of her secret. But she quickly changed her mind.

(c)2007 Pen and Peppur LLC

Momma Said:
By Vicki Rogers (my momma)

Corn Fever

At work in the lobby of our building where we greet our parents as they drop off their children for the day, my boss, my co-worker and I were talking about the menu for our annual Rodeo Breakfast Event that our program offers to our families. The Tucson Rodeo is a big event in here. It brings in large dollars and gives us time to reach into the “Way-Back machine” and examine our roots. Schools take the event very seriously--to the extent of allowing the schools to close. For us, that means in our program we then have children all day instead of taking them to the public school they normally attend. Enter the “Rodeo Chuck Wagon Breakfast”.

I was trying to convince my co-workers to change the menu from the usual pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and the like, to something that would have been served from a chuck wagon. With this also being Black History Month, I started thinking about what Black cowboys would have eaten on the trail in “Wild Western” days. Naturally when people are put in new environments, they borrow from what and whom they interact with. I thought they would probably eat things that wouldn’t spoil and could be carried easily, like beans, beef jerky, and corn. Corn is a staple in the Southwest. It has been found in prehistoric dwellings of indigenous peoples here and is incorporated into the “family” of some native cultures as being known as one of the three sisters (squash and beans complete the trio).

I proposed -- to the wails of my co-workers -- that we serve pinto beans, whole or mashed like refried, corn tortillas, grits, cornbread or corncakes. (FYI: Corncakes, like pancakes, were also called “hoe cakes” during slave days by my ancestors because they could be baked on the blade of a hoe.) I would concede bacon, even though I thought a dried beef chile’ would be better. A roar of disapproval was raised in the lobby. My enthusiasm now was really warming up. Why Not have a “corn” meal? That was it! I started polling parents as they stepped in the door as to what was their favorite corn product. I disguised my inquiries as “the Question of the day”. Most parents gave me a puzzled look but generally responded with “cornbread”. Fuel for the fire. This most certainly could be a breakfast food. As my quest continued, I became more eager to talk to my next contestant as it were. Slooowwly I inched my way closer to the front door so I could get to them with the least possible lag time from when they released the door handle. It was amazing to see the wheel turning as they thought about their answer. A surprising few said “popcorn”. My mother said as a girl she used to eat popcorn for breakfast with sugar and milk--more validation as a breakfast food. Other entries were hominy, corn on the cob, polenta, green corn tamales, hush puppies and scalloped and fried corn. Only one parent said “Kelloggs”. Such an icon in the corn kingdom that no other words were necessary. As my coworkers Booed and Hissed at my “crazy” ideas to bring something different to the table, I implored them to just think about it!

It’s not that I have a passion for corn exactly, but more so for the idea of using things differently. How do we take something as mundane as corn and explore it and celebrate it? Can’t we change what we think a thing should stand for and just have corn for breakfast?

Editor’s Edict:

It’s already mid-month of this brand new year and surprisingly, I think I’m pretty settled into it. Are you? Somehow I feel like this year will be like an amazing jacket you bought three years ago, put it in your closet with the tags still on and you are just now finding it…something old, yet new.

Whatever your situation may be, let’s take off the old jacket we’ve been wearing; it has done its job, it has run its course; it’s time to change!

Maybe you’re discovering old talents you’ve let lie dormant and are realizing once you blow the dust off ‘em, these talents can make you “change” (literally and figuratively – think $$)! Maybe you’re changing your outlook on life or the way you do things which will help you make a significant shift in your current position since changing a stagnant position can bring on growth.

The Gazette is due for a positioning change. Since I was a teenager reading “Seventeen” magazine and realized I wasn’t represented on those glossy pages, I’ve wanted to have my own magazine -- hence, the birth of The Brown Betties Gazette. This year we’ll be working to turn BBG into an actual online, flippin’ mag (see here). We will be accepting advertisements and donations to make this happen (click on the Paypal logo!). If you are interested in advertising with BBG, email us at brownbettiesgazette@yahoo.com!

Somehow, I think my mom and grandma win this month with how they have had to change…uhh, read her article, “Momma Said” and you’ll see what I mean. We have some wonderful poetry from Cecilie Davis Carter for “In My Solitude” and Tanya Alexander-Henderson asks you to defy what you hear with her piece in “The New Haiku”. Sidney Gaskins offers you a 2009 Challenge in “Love. Hate. Want. Need.” I’m a “Mocha Mogul” (so is Sidney), and came across a blog written by Nicole, also a Mocha Mogul, that was perfect for “Unzipped”. I hope you’ll enjoy it as well as the eighth fiction installment of "Harlem's Awakening"...the back story to Harlem & Joe of “Harlem’s Night Cabaret” as performed by the Brown Betties.

Our featured January Brown Bettie is my dearest friend, Miata Fuller…she is the perfect woman to jump off 2009 simply because she is who she is!

Thank you for reading; please forward to a friend; and don’t forget to visit www.brownbetties.com! If you have any comments, feel free to hit me up at brownbettiesgazette@yahoo.com

xo
The Hot One

ps. The biggest change of all: GO OBAMA! I still cry when I think of it.

Here are pics of me and some friends on that wonderful night he was elected. Photos by friend, Adrian Pitts.

Panorama of all watching the election unfold.

Un-believable. Couldn't stop crying.

Obama Girls!

Love. Hate. Want. Need.

By Sidney Gaskins

Each month, Sidney breaks down what she loves, hates, wants or needs.

What happens at the beginning of every 365-day cycle? There is a collective resolution-making frenzy. People spend the end of the prior cycle reflecting on the past and thinking of ways to bring it in the future with their New Year’s Resolution. What would happen if New Year’s Resolutions were called “New Possibility for Change”? What if this year you changed how you thought about a resolution and made it a challenge for your self, but stuck to it?

The Challenge: 2009 The Year of BOLDNESS, FREEDOM, and HAVING IT ALL.

In all areas of life these three elements can bring change if taken on as though Life depends on it. Let’s break it down in specifics to “Love”:
1) In love, BOLDNESS can break down walls; build strength and closeness; and even open an avenue for healing.
2) FREEDOM, injected into a love relationship or family situation cultivates comfort, security, acceptance, and the opportunity to speak your heart and your truth.
3) Planting the seeds of boldness and freedom can result in HAVING IT ALL in love. (Do not think that “love” necessarily has to do with an intimate relationship. Apply it to the people you love in your Life. Apply it to the most important person in your Life: YOU. Are you willing to change your love relationships this year?)

With BOLDNESS, FREEDOM, and HAVING IT ALL as a model for 2009 and beginning a regimen of love, it follows that shining the light of love on all areas of life can extricate hate, attract wants, and fulfill needs.

If I may interject, it is not an accident that I happen to be writing this at this time. Everything in this column happens to be what I am taking on. The truth is that boldness, freedom, and having it all are necessary ingredients for me to live the life I love in all areas. From 2008 to 2009 there were changes that happened but I allowed them to happen without taking action to have it go another way -- without taking true responsibility for where my Life was going. However, being on the rollercoaster is over and taking the reigns is in store so that I can have what I want. Most of all, to have the vision I see come to fruition, change is the order of the day. That vision is something that will take me outside of my comfort zone and requires change.

For me, my challenge includes: I would love to see the vision; hate to make the changes; want to be present; and need to embrace the boldness, freedom, and having it all to have 2009 be The Year of BOLDNESS, FREEDOM, and HAVING IT ALL. Will you take the Challenge with me?

Sidney Gaskins, Family and Business Consultant/Coach, is the CEO/President Enterprising Life in metropolitan Atlanta, GA. Enterprising Life encourages individuals and businesses to look outside of the box to unleash their dreams and achieve success. For more information visit: www.EnterprisingLife.com or call 678.886.3174 .