By Lema Abeng-Nsah

It’s been a little over one week since Whitney Houston died. I was at a Valentine’s day party last Saturday Feb 11th organized by my alma mater in which I was an emcee looking over the program and preparing to kick things off, when a friend walked in and told me Whitney Houston had died. Like millions of fans worldwide, I felt a deep sense of sadness … the news was sad, unbelievable and very shocking, but not quite surprising. When he told me she had been found submerged in a bath tub in a Beverly Hills Hotel, I felt an incredible sense of loss. How could this have happened right in front of the eyes of the world: from pop queen, America’s princess, to her struggles with drugs and now this untimely death?

Now, let me back up a little bit. I am not writing this article to point fingers or speculate on the life of this extraordinary talent, but to discuss what can be taken away from those experiences she gracefully shared with us – the lessons learned. Whitney Houston was a woman with a voice that rang across the world, touching the hearts of women, men, young girls and boys hundreds of thousands of miles away, even in small unknown African towns like the one I grew up in, with hits like “I am every woman”, “I will always love you”, “Heartbreak Hotel”, “Where do broken hearts go” and many more; uniting the human race regardless of whether you were black, white or between.

Whitney’s life “after the glory years” was public knowledge and her struggles with substance abuse were no secret, but in my heart and that of many, she still was always WHITNEY HOUSTON the ICON. In those not so good years, I watched her interviews and every time, I saw a woman who was strong, spoke her mind, passionate, eccentric sometimes, but always classy, regal and beautiful. She was a fighter.

I especially remember the 2009 interview she did with Oprah Winfrey, as she was launching her latest album. Oprah states that before the interview began, away from the glare of the cameras, she asked Whitney what her intentions were for doing the interview and Whitney replied that she just wanted to have a real talk. I was struck by this as I believe we can only learn from REAL DISCUSSIONS – no holds barred, no topics off-limit and from speakers who pour their hearts out as did Whitney on that September day.

This interview was recently aired again on Oprah in ‘Remembering Whitney Houston’; you can read my tweets as I watched. In light of her death, there were deep seated lessons and life truths in her words.

Here are the lessons learned from the life, death and legacy of this wonderful gift that graced the world for such a short time:

Never dim your lights for anyone

“I had to play it down. I was Mrs Brown,” says Whitney.
“So you started to dim your own light?” asks Oprah.
“Yes …”
When Houston talked of her marriage to R&B superstar and bona fide bad boy Bobby Brown, she talked of a deep love that somehow went wrong. She felt he might have had difficulties dealing with just how big of a celebrity and worldwide sensation she was, and became jealous of her fame because wherever they went, she was the one that shone, the one everyone wanted a piece of her. She shared “it does something to a man when a woman [their spouse] has that much power“. Whitney believed this made Bobby Brown resent her. He cheated on her, abused her mentally and verbally; he put her down, going as far as spitting on her.

As a woman who desperately wanted to make her marriage work, Houston tried to make herself not so big. She didn’t want to be Whitney Houston, she says, she wanted to be addressed Mrs Brown. That gift to sing with such a golden voice started to mean nothing to her as she emerged herself in her marriage … and in drugs, drugs and more drugs. Because she took her marital vows so seriously, she would rather be seen at hubby Bobby’s side in court on numerous occasions where he answered to charges ranging from spouse abuse, speeding, to failure to pay child support. Mrs Brown stood by her man and in the process lost herself.

Watching Whitney Houston’s downward spiral and listening to her trying to make sense of it all, I was able to look inward and somehow equate it to our everyday lives. I believe that whenever we try to make ourselves less of who we are, or more of what we are not, we inevitably become unaligned with why we were created – our gifts, our purpose, and what we do best. Un-fulfillment creeps in and we begin to try to fill the void with “things” – drugs, alcohol, prescription medications, material belongings, some seek fame and hug the limelight, while others retreat into a shell … weaving a complicated web around ourselves. Drugs became Whitney’s ultimate demise. The marriage she fought so hard for ended in 2009; her voice was gone, eroded by many years of drug and alcohol use; the life she cherished, that precious gift from God, coming to a painful and tragic end on that day when the candle of her life burnt out, leaving a void in the hearts of many.

Real love is always there

The question remains, how about the ones who loved her most and through it all, uplifted her, stood by her and wanted only the best for Whitney? This brings me to my next life lesson: focus on the ones who love you, cherish you and appreciate your gifts. Whitney, like most in the limelight and like everyone of us in living rooms across the world, had insecurities. She worried about being accepted, were they going to like her? She feared she wasn’t good enough as expressed by co-actor of The Bodyguard Kevin Costner during her home-going ceremony.

Everyone wants to be liked, true! But the reality is that not everyone is going to like us. Houston had millions of fans who adored her, but somehow the few who didn’t, got to her and messed with her mind.

The ones who hurt most

I thought it was interesting that on the evening she died, the Clive Davis pre-Grammy award party in which she was scheduled to perform, went on. While the stars were walking the red carpet, paramedics were rushing to her room in the same hotel, working fervently to resuscitate her; her daughter breaking down, family members and friends overwhelmed and completely devastated. As those she was supposed to be mingling with sat sipping champagne from fancy glasses – not because they didn’t care, but because life will go on for many, time did stand still those who loved her best and have cherished her the longest. Life lesson: the ones who really love will be hurt most, think about them before you make certain decisions; for everyone else, including several so called friends, life will go on.

Our prayers are with Whitney’s daughter Bobby Christina, mom Cissy Houston, her siblings, family members, close friends and ex-husband Bobby Brown.

I pray for the repose of Whitney Houston’s soul and I say “thank you” for making us all proud. Because of stars like Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson RIP, Bob Marley RIP, James Brown RIP and others, the human race is more united and most importantly, in my opinion, the black race has been lifted up … no longer viewed as just slaves and poverty-stricken villagers, but as powerful, productive and highly gifted human beings. For that I say thank you! RIP.

I would like to end with this quote from my favorite Whitney Houston song Greatest Love of All – “The greatest love of all Is easy to achieve; Learning to love yourself, It is the greatest love of all.“

We will always love, Whitney.

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By Juliette Goddard

Tate Britain presents an Exhibition exploring British Art shaped by its Migration. Featuring in the Exhibition are included the works of Anthony van Dyke sixteenth and seventh century artists, John Singer Sargent and many of the artists who moved between Europe and the United States.

David Bromberg, Frank Bowling, Steve McQueen, Donald Rodney and Sonia Boyce, some of the most outstanding artists are represented in these exhibitions as the show illustrates artists in Pursuit of an International Language, and New Diasporic Voices with the Black Audio Film Collective. The real zest behind Migrations focuses on the 50’s and 60’s artists who came to Britain from the Commonwealth, artists being Black British – those artists who settled as Migrants considering themselves stateless global citizens.

Steve McQueen’s extremely powerful 35mm film transferred to HD with colour and sound called “Static 2009” really demonstrates the power of vision photography including sounds of the United States; also illustrating a powerful pursuit of the Statue of Liberty with the helicopter circling around the statue in a seven minute loop; for migrants entering the united states by boat, the statue of liberty depicts a woman escaping the chains of tyranny that lie at her feet, she is referred to as the mother of exiles.

British Art has long been informed by the country’s long and intricate history of its peoples’ movements to and from different countries. One great example of the power of this is painter Frank Bowling, the very first artist born in British Guyana (Caribbean) whom since residing in the United Kingdom has become a Royal Academician (RA) at the Royal Academy of Arts, one of the most powerful establishments in the United Kingdom.

The very first black RA in its history, at his home and studio, he expressed the difficulties of inclusion in the establishment. He recalls on May 26th, 2005 a phone call from London that informed him of his election to the Royal Academy…. alleviating his continuing anxieties about the failure of British Art establishment to recognize his contributions as a British artist, despite being singled out and recognized some forty years ago as talent to watch. The historical nature of this is best described on his Wikipedia profile: On May 26, 2005 Bowling was elected a member of England’s Royal Academy of Arts. Bowling was among about a dozen artists proposed to fill one of two vacancies in the eighty-member academy, and is the first Black Artist to be elected a Royal Academician in the history of the institution.”

The most interesting facts behind Frank Bowling RA’s entry was that he had always been an award winner, notably during graduation at the Royal College of Art where David Hockney (considered one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century) took the Gold and he was awarded the Silver medal … they were both students of this institution from 1959 to 1966. His early commissioned works included Shakespeare Quarto-Centenary canvases; “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by another name would smell sweet”, a quote from Shakespeare and the inspiration behind the works.

After leaving for the United States, exposed to the notion of Black Art from an American perspective, one of his first major exhibitions in the USA was in 1971 when he had a one person exhibition at the “Whitney Museum” in New York … it was an opportunity to do some large scale paintings. Broad divisions of colour suggested flagships of African Carribean countries stenciled and stained maps on canvas. From the windows of the East River the dreams lived on.

His connections in the US were strong; staying at the Hotel Chelsea he had an opportunity to work on larger paintings – he experimented on works referencing to his childhood in British Guyana. His mother’s Varity store, the dress maker and seamstress skills she had were commemorated in drawings of her and color stained canvas made paintings. His childhood at Bartica, with mud flats, swamp cypresses and mango groves, the landscapes and crossings of the Atlantic with sounds of birdsong, jazz and ambiguous luminosity of the English Landscape he painted. The abstract expressionist artwork he is well known for were extremely influential, especially “Who’s Afraid of Barney Newman” a 1968 acrylic paint on canvas represented in Migrations, of green, yellow and red colours using his concepts of maps and South American contaminants.

Frank Bowling’s true heros at the Royal College were Francis Bacon, he was in awe of how he painted – great brush work, very exciting; Mary Feddon one of Bowling’s tutors alongside Sandra Blow, Carol Weight coached his early figurative painting “An Example of Abortion” included in the RCA Black exhibition, which demonstrates the strong ability Frank had to paint in the figurative tradition angst or munch.

Life drawing at the Royal College was very much included as an activity, and a critical part of his professional journey. Frank believes once you make it from the Royal College you are an artist.

Painting: Who’s Afraid of Barney Newman by Frank Bowling. Photo provided by Juliette Goddard

Juliette visited Frank Bowling studios and here are some photos she took:

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The first European immigrants to Brazil were of Iberian origin, primarily Portuguese. Some Portuguese settlers were of Jewish or Moorish origin but most of them had converted to Christianity. There were also some Dutch immigrants to the Northeast in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Portuguese intermarried with the Amerindian population, which was decimated by conflict and disease.

During the colonial period, after Indian slavery proved difficult to enforce, the colonists imported hundreds of thousands of slaves from Africa for labor on the sugar plantations, in the mines, and later on coffee plantations. At first, slaves outnumbered the white settlers in many areas, but the balance eventually changed because of their high mortality and low fertility. However, as slavery became economically and politically less feasible after 1850 and the British blocked the slave trade, Italian immigrants began replacing the slaves on coffee plantations in São Paulo. During the same period, settlers from Europe, primarily Germany, Italy, and Poland, established farming colonies in parts of the South.

Brazil’s racial mix was made more diverse with the arrival of Japanese and Middle Eastern immigrants in the early twentieth century. At first, the Japanese worked in agriculture in São Paulo and the Amazon, while the Lebanese, Turks, and Syrians became involved in commerce in many parts of the country. During the 1900s, the Japanese descendants, who constitute the largest community of Japanese outside of Japan, except for Hawaii, became primarily urban residents, especially in São Paulo. In the 1970s, intermarriage with non-Japanese became common.

As emphasized by anthropologists such as Gilberto Freyre and Darcy Ribeiro, all the racial and ethnic groups that arrived in Brazil intermingled and intermarried, with few exceptions. This led to increasing mixtures of all possible combinations and degrees. Many individuals are, therefore, difficult to classify in racial terms. Questions on color were included in the demographic censuses of 1940, 1950, 1980, and 1991. Although the answers involved self-classification and may not have been objective, it was clear that the proportion of blacks decreased while that of mulattoes increased. There was a simultaneous process of “whitening.” The self-declared proportions in 1991 were 55.3 percent white, 39.3 percent mulatto, 4.9 percent black, and 0.6 percent Asian.

Because of the lack of a clear color distinction and a strong cultural tradition of tolerance and cordiality, as well as longstanding explicit laws against racial discrimination, Brazil has been touted as a “racial democracy.” However, “racial democracy” is a myth. There is a very strong correlation between light color and higher income, education, and social status. Few blacks reach positions of wealth, prestige, and power, except in the arts and sports. Although discrimination is usually not explicit, it appears in subtle forms: unwritten rules, unspoken attitudes, references to “good appearance” rather than color, or simply placing higher value on individuals who are white or nearly white.

In the 1960s, black consciousness began to grow, although the very lack of a clear color line in biological or social terms weakened racial solidarity of the nonwhite population. The prevailing notion that Brazil was a “racial democracy” also made it easy to dismiss black movements as un-Brazilian. For the most part, the movements did not press for changes in government policy, which was already officially against racial discrimination. Instead, they emphasized racial pride and the struggle against subtle forms of discrimination and the often covert violence to which blacks were subject.

Source: U.S. Library of Congress

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by John Halcyon – posted on Flickr in 2008

Grandpa & MLK; photo from 1962 Rocky Mountain News article.

For my whole life, the real world and the world of myths was connected through the above picture.

The image of my grandfather, working with MLK as peers…it had a profound impact on me. It showed me that great men were not the creations of story books. But were the very same people as you and me. The picture was a reminder to me of the potential of every one of us.

This is the first year that both the people in the photo are no longer here physically.

Thankfully, the lesson is burned deep into my core.

May you remember the lives of the giants whose shoulders we stand on. And may you remember your brilliant potential today!

p.s. My Grandpa wrote the following in his blog a few years ago:

I have been asked:: “Who is the greatest Person you ever met? In my 88 years on this Planet the answer for me is ‘Martin Luther King, Jr.’ None of you heard him but he preached in our First Baptist Church of Denver. When Carol and I were pastoring there.

I had a week with him , chauffeuring him to various speaking assignments. The Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta Georgia had recently affiliated with our American Baptist Convention. That was his home Church.

I’m thankful to have known and worked with both him. Martin was one whom God used in immeasurably ways in making a better country and world. HE PULLED RACISM OUT IN THE OPEN and shared it’s cancerous and odorous forms before the world. This embarrassed our nation. The nonviolent philosophy learned from our Savior and Gandhi worked miracles of change.

In one of his closing sermons he said:

“If I died tomorrow I would like for people to say I tried to clothe the naked and visit those who were in prison. I tried to be right on the war question. I tried to love everyone. If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for justice, and for righteousness. All of the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I wont have luxurious things to leave behind. I want to leave behind a committed life:

“If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or a song, if I can show somebody he’s traveling wrong, then, my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the Master taught, then my living will not be in vain.”

…I rejoice in the memory and example of this great man. Thanks for scrolling and I hope you will squeeze every day making meaningful and fulfilling relationships.

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Website: www.hugnation.com

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