Powerful, captivating, inspiring, unbelievably beautiful… there is just so much that can be said about Yveno’s special guest Imani Woomera.
We both love spoken word and Imani’s work speaks to the heart. She is truly a multidimensional artist who lives to the fullest and reflects her zest for life in everything she writes and performs. Born in Hawaii and raised in Nairobi from the age of 11, her style is an eclectic mix of alluring imagery,titillating rhythms and a ridiculously wicked vibe.
If it was ever possible to ooze soul – Imani has mastered the art of it.
This young spoken word artist’s work has taken her to perform and conduct workshops in countries around the world including Thailand, Brazil, Canada, England, South Africa, Spain, and The United States. She has worked with groups of young people from the slums of Kibera and Soweto to those in the inner city high schools and youth correctional facilities of Minneapolis. She has performed before politicians, presidents, United Nations delegates, ambassadors – consistently receiving standing ovations. She spearheaded the spoken word scene in Nairobi with her monumentally successful event ‘Slam Africa’ and her poetic music video titled ‘Jupiter’s Daughter’ continues to receive rave reviews. Check it out and be inspired as we were:
Her new album ‘Talking Story’ is finally available to download from her website www.imaniwoomera.com and also happens to be her last official spoken word album. Constantly redirecting her artistry, Imani is exploring her passion for singing and song writing. The album is a compilation of some of the poems she has worked on over the last couple of years in Kenya, Ibiza, and the US and features the talented French Brazilian producer/percussionist David Villefort.
A ‘master manifestor’, mother and visionary. We were more than excited to have Imani feature as one of our special guests.
First of all a big thank you to a faithful reader, friend and super blogger — Balmoi Abe (check out his page on http://balmoiabe.tumblr.com) for forwarding this weeks discussion topic. The title is taken from a new book release ‘Is Marriage for White People? How the African-American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone’ by Ralph Richard Banks, esteemed Stanford law professor.
According to Imani Perry, a contributing writer for the New York Times, the unmarried black woman is a figure of cultural fascination in this day and age. Usually, the phenomenon of the unmarried black woman is explained in either of two ways: black men are promiscuous and irresponsible or black women are aggressive and unreasonable. However in his book, Banks presents a different, more lucid picture of romantic life in black America. For one, he looks at the lives of middle class black women, turning away from the myth that failure to marry is an underclass phenomenon. In addition, he sets out to answer the question: Why are black women “half as likely as white women to be married, and more than three times as likely as white women never to marry”? From 100 different interviews with African-Americans on their experiences with marriage and dating, he draws some interesting conclusions in the realm of social science research.
Apparently, black women significantly outperform black men in high school and college. As a result, the black middle class is disproportionately female and the black poor are disproportionately male, and the gap is widening. Extraordinary rates of incarceration for black men, and the long-term effects of a prison record on employment, exacerbate this situation. Despite this imbalance, there is still enormous social pressure on black women to only marry black men in order to “sustain” the race and build strong black families. This essentially means marrying black men even if they are less educated or earn less money. In short, no matter the personal cost, black women are encouraged to marry “down” before they marry “out.”
Harsh right?
Lets examine more closely this concept of ‘marrying down’. Banks cites film maker Tyler Perry and author Hill Harper among others, as largely responsible for promoting the notion that black women who lack good relationships are victims of their own elitism and snobbery. Black women need to open their eyes to the virtues and long-term potential in working class black men. A successful black woman with a six figure salary should not be concerned with the fact that her ‘black male hubby to be’ is a toilet cleaner or drives a truck. For further clarification on the Tyler Perry’s film link, check out the trailer for his film ‘Daddy’s Little Girls’.
Tyler’s films have come under a lot of criticism from other black film makers including critically acclaimed Spike Lee who refers to his work as ‘coonery buffonery’. Have a look at the interview below:
How legitimate is the representation of black people in Tyler Perry’s films? Perhaps a discussion for another day. But for now, is the question of marrying down within the black community a relevant one? These kinds of messages tell a black female lawyer, for instance, that she should be enthusiastic about dating a carpenter or a plumber — and if she’s not, then she is the one with the problem. If the idea behind marriage is love, mutual respect and goal sharing — does it matter if a lawyer marries a janitor?
Julia Roberts played a prostitute in Pretty Woman (one of our top movies of all time) and she finds love with Richard Gere — a successful business man. Did this precipitate a wave of successful men ‘marrying down’? Arguably, yes.
Should it matter if it is the other way around? Possibly, no.
Banks new book raises several interesting questions and we are looking forward to hearing what you think!
Do you remember the days when making a daisy chain and then putting it around your head was a crucial thing to do during a summer playtime on the field at school? Surely you all know what we’re talking about — making a little slit in a daisy and threading another daisy through it…! Well, if like us you wish you could wear daisies in your hair without looking like you’re having a semi mid-life crisis, then you’ll understand why we’ve featured the beauty above!
The stunner is nineteen-year-old Samantha Rogers who is a student at Leeds Trinity University College in the UK. Not only has she totally rocked wearing daisies but she has completely achieved the “hot hippie” look. Although fashionistas like Samantha, Sienna Miller and Kate Moss make looking like a trendy hippie seem like an effortless task, it’s not as easy as it looks. Lauryn Hill (bless her heart) has demonstrated recently in performances just how crucial it is to remain trendy while looking like a hippie. Check out Lauryn Hill’s outfit below and let us know if we’re being mega mean-girls or not?!
Now don’t get us wrong, if Lauryn Hill’s look is what you’re going for, then we take our hats off to you for being so brave!In fact, dressing like any kind of hippie (trendy or not) is a bold move to make. After all, the hippie look is far more than just a look — it is symbolic of a bold movement. There’s a lot about hippie history that’s deeply fascinating and despite the looks popularity, a lot of hippie history is widely unknown.
What comes to mind when thinking about a hippie? Weed smokers, tie-dyed clothes, unkempt beards, people forever smiling and making peace signs…the list is endless. Although this image has elements of truth, it’s a stereotype that ignores a far more complex identity.
To start with, the original hippies did not call themselves hippies. In some areas on the West Coast in America, hippies were originally called “fringies”, as they were “on the fringe of society”. To understand why an uprising of young people took place in the mid-1960s in the U.S and then spread to other parts of the world, we must look at those circumstances that preceded the birth of the hippy movement.The following 1964 song by Bob Dylan gives a good insight to what was going on in the late 50s and early 60s.
Many hippies that dressed expressively (as opposed to the norm), were not being rebels without a cause. Young people were frustrated with society and thus sought to free themselves from societal restrictions, (including ‘normal’ dressing) and choose their own way and find new meaning in life. Much of hippie clothing was self-made in defiance of corporate culture, and was often purchased from flea markets and second-hand shops. Overtime, hippies became a visual symbol of people who respect individual rights and are willing to question authority.
Powerful stuff ey?! It’s a shame that much of the positive aspects about the hippie culture is omitted in people’s minds. But whether you sometime dress like a hippie to make a political statement, look trendy or even for fancy dress, if you manage to channel enough sublime grooviness…well, you will look as free and happy as Samantha below!
The glasses (from H&M) are a perfect touch to this already uber cool outfit!
A big thank you to Samantha for sharing her grooviness with Yveno! We can’t wait to get our hippie on!
Would you like to be featured on Yveno’s Fab Finds? We aim to make a story out of your outfit. Email us a picture with details of where your outfit is from and you could just be the next fashionista to be featured!
After an action packed day and night full of dancing, mingling, laughing and even a bar quiz, we began our journey back home to Brooklyn, ready to jump into our respective beds. Only we didn’t make it back to our beds as our companions (including a peer-pressured Eno) decided that it was too early to end our fiesta. So at 4.30am we found ourselves on the D train going to Coney Island!
A very tired Yveno!
Coney Island is a New York City neighborhood in Brooklyn quite like no other — we literally felt like we had left New York as soon as we got out of the subway and saw the Cyclone. This wooden roller coaster was built in 1927 and is still in operation today.
Neither of us had ever experienced watching the sun rise over Coney Island so we were both excited at the prospect of sharing the adventure with you guys (ignore the bags under our eyes in the above picture, we were excited!)
Coney Island is a peninsula (a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland) and beach that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. It’s no wonder so many people swarm to Coney Island as there are so many things to do there — albeit less to do at 5am! But we found many things to keep us entertained despite one of the main attraction being unavailable — the infamous amusement park. Check out Eno and a friend getting as close to the rides as they could!
Don't ask...!
If we had arrived earlier, we would have been met with large groups of people of all ages enjoying rides and games just as people have done for decades. Between 1880 and World War II, Coney Island was the largest amusement area in the United States, attracting several million visitors per year. What makes the rides in Coney Island so special? Not completely sure! Although we could have mega fun on them (Yvonne could if she was dragged on) we’ve been on better rides. However, New York certainly believes the rides are special as three of them are protected as designated New York City landmarks and are listed in the National Register of Historic Places!
Our first destination after our brief encounter with the gated amusement park was the beach. With nearly three miles of sandy beaches, the sound of rolling waves and the sun rising, we felt as if we had found the perfect getaway. We braced ourselves and ran into the water and had an absolute blast running around splashing each other and generally acting like kids! See below!
We may have felt like we were in paradise (probably due to exhaustion as we were unfazed by the trash scattered on the sand) much of the residents couldn’t feel further from it. For nearly as long as people have enjoyed what the Island has to offer, many Coney Island residents have had to face poverty, unemployment and crime.
Although Coney Island had been a hugely popular holiday destination for Americans, in the 1950′s, as a result of air-conditioning, inexpensive travel, television, and the popularity of Jones Beach (Long Island), Coney Island went into sharp decline.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, Coney Island became a symbol of urban decay and decline. It was seen as an impoverished neighborhood where drugs, crime, and hopelessness prevailed. According to Charles Denson, Coney Island hit rock bottom around 1975. He writes in his book, Coney Island: Lost and Found, “NYC was broke, the boardwalk was crumbling, landowners were abandoning their property, pollution closed sections of the beach, and successive fires destroyed historic buildings…The rows of new housing projects were often referred to as Coney Island’s ‘tombstones.’” The city bulldozed tenements and modest houses and replaced them with housing projects, whose residents were blamed for the surge in crime.
Watch the video below of residents in Coney Island fed up of the dire situation in their neighborhood.
Yet despite a long history of shattered dreams, there are signs that a rebirth for Coney Island is in the offing. The stadium for the minor-league Brooklyn Cyclones draws full houses, the New York Aquarium attracts almost 800,000 visitors yearly and the first new roller coasters to be built at Coney Island in 80 years were opened in April as part of efforts to reverse the decline of the City’s world-famous theme park.
There are so many things we didn’t get the opportunity to experience so we will definitely visit again. Our first stop will most likely be at Nathan’s Famous (a fast food restaurant chain that specializes in hot dogs). Eno is determined to try another corn dog there as she’s convinced that this particular Nathan’s (which is the original Nathan’s) serves the best corn dogs ever! But we’ll also be sure to check out the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, circus sideshows and even the annual tattoo and motorcycle show! We weren’t exaggerating when we said there were a million and one things to do on Coney Island!
Look out for more ‘Yveno Does’ soon and let us know if there’s anywhere you think Yveno should visit.
Yveno appreciates all the love we have received from you folk for giving you more so we have decided to show our appreciation by giving you even more! Yveno will now include guest vlogs/blogs from talented people who share our motivation to give you more facts, tips, food for thought and entertainment.
We’re incredibly excited to share our first ever guest vlog with you by the talented and delightfully funny Ola The Comedian.
Check out Ola summarising this month’s news via his hilarious self-devised character Dwayne Wayne.
Ola, (born Idris Olawale Gbaja-Biamila) is a stand-up comedian, writer and actor with natural originality and great stage presence. Renowned for his intelligent, edgy humour, the 23-year-old has already achieved great success in his career. Ola was a finalist in the FHM Search for A Stand Up Hero, which was broadcast on ITV4 and an anchor member of The Jason Lewis Experience team, as both writer and actor. Ola has also appeared on MTV Base.
Ola The Comedian
Ola’s first solo 1-man special, “21″, was a huge hit with audiences and his stage work includes The Lion and the Jewel by Nobel prize winner, Wole Soyinka.
Want to connect with Ola?
For bookings/interviews call Beyond Compere: 08454599916
Most of us have probably had an internship at some point in our lives. In 2008, the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 50% of graduating students in the U.S. had held internships, up from the 17% shown in a 1992 study by Northwestern University. Great news… right?
Gone are the days where an internship consisted of remembering to ask for a soy latte instead of low-fat milk for your egotistical demanding boss. These days, internships tend to challenge people, teach on-the-job skills, provide the necessary foot in the door and allow interns to complete assignments as good as the work produced by someone who works in the company. It is the latter point of this internship goal list that troubles Yveno the most — many of us at some point have produced great work for free!
Now don’t get us wrong, we are in no way disregarding the benefits of getting great experience while preparing/waiting to land your dream job. We have met amazing people over the years during different internships that we are still in touch with today. Some of our former internship employers are our current go-to people for a reference.
Ideally internships should benefit both the intern and the company but the former tends to get the shorter end of the stick more often than not. Instead of being trained during an internship, many interns are made to do full-on work, which violates the definition of an internship (although the definition continues to evolve within the courts).
According to a statement released August 2, 2011 by the National Association of College and Employers, an internship is, “a form of experiential learning that integrates knowledge and theory learned in the classroom with practical application and skills development in a professional setting.”
There appears to be an incredibly thin line between an intern and an employee…dare we say, a thin line between an intern and a slave? Before Moses lead the Israelites out of Egypt, the Israelites created astounding work free of charge. We correctly understand that they were not just unpaid workers but slaves… #JustSaying!
However, for the most part (unless it’s a course requirement for students while studying) no one is forced to do an unpaid internship. It’s a choice many willingly make. Nevertheless, it is fundamentally important that a company that cannot for whatever reason pay its interns, makes sure that it doesn’t exploit interns either.
Sadly on a global scale this has not always been the case. The Japanese government was accused of running slave labour working conditions after 27 foreign interns died in one year following months of working more than 16 hours a day. The majority of the victims were in their 20s or 30s and were among an estimated 200,000 trainees from developing countries that were working there under the Japanese International Training Corporation Organisation. This is an extreme case but a real case nonetheless.
What bugs Yveno nearly as much as unpaid internships existing are the companies and organisations that refuse to pay their interns more than expenses! Many far from out of pocket companies pay their interns a big fat nothing! Watch the video below of an intern talking about her unpaid internship with the government and let us know if you think she should be paid.
The most startling piece of information within the video is that in the government, 18,000 hours of work is completed per week by unpaid interns! Surely politicians who claim absurd expenses, could claim some lunch money for interns so they could at least get a meal deal at M&S? Rutland and Melton MP Alan Duncan claimed more than £4,000 over a three year period in expenses for gardening costs until he agreed with the Commons Fees Office that such claims “could be considered excessive” and stopped. Yes Mr. Duncan, excessive sounds just about right.
Even Oprah Winfrey, the only African-American on the Forbes 2011 Billionaire list, doesn’t pay most of her interns a dime! What could possibly be Oprah’s excuse? Surely she isn’t oblivious to the fact that unlike other internships that offer both college students and graduates pay, her OWN doesn’t? Doubt it. Like countless other companies, Oprah’s OWN Network receives free labour because no one has stopped her from doing so.
A survey carried out by YouGov found that almost a fifth of British businesses have admitted to using unpaid interns to “get work done more cheaply” and prop up company profits during the recession. The survey also found that 95% of the 218 UK managers who responded agreed that interns were “useful to their organisation”.
All this could (fingers crossed) be a thing of the past with more and more people campaigning vociferously against unpaid internships. Unfortunately it seems some Conservatives believe the best way to combat unpaid internships is to make people pay for them! At a Conservatives’ Black and White Party, millionaire Tory supporters paid around £3,000 each for their children to have the golden opportunity of spending a couple of weeks with top finance companies and banks. Just think, if all goes according to plan, they’ll land a full-time job, joining the ranks of City tycoons who earn multi-million pound bonuses. Who said privilege couldn’t be bought?
A quick aside: Nepotism in the workplace is usually unethical but not usually illegal in the workplace — including when the position obtained is an internship. However, there are limited circumstances, where engaging in nepotism can land an employer in trouble. In America, if an employer hires friends or relatives to the point where they fail to consider people of other races, creeds, sexes, or ages, they may be violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating against these groups in regard to hiring. Secondly, if an employer creates workplace conditions that effectively force out an existing employee to make room to hire a relative, the employer may be liable, and therefore, made to pay damages to the forced out employee.
In order to put a stop to unfair and illegally unpaid internships from companies that can easily afford to give interns some cash, we all have to educate ourselves about laws surrounding internships. The YouGov study also found that only 12% of company managers and 10% of young people knew unpaid internships could be illegal under employment law. Yes, around the world, there are laws that decide what a legal internship is. You just have to do the homework to find out, to avoid being exploited. In the U.S. there are some circumstances under which individuals who participate in “for-profit” private sector internships or training programs may do so without compensation. Watch the video below to see the six criteria that must be applied when determining if an intern can work without pay.
How many of you that have completed an unpaid internship in the U.S. now know that you should have been paid?
Again, as avid internship go-getters, we must reiterate that we are not trying to discourage any of you from getting an internship, even if it’s unpaid. We just want you to catch Yvenoitis, which will make you do your research before you accept an unpaid internship. Don’t get exploited but please don’t pay for an internship either!
Any comments, suggestions or questions for future ‘Yveno Talks’? Let us know!
Casey is an associate at Betsey Johnson. Dress -- vintage from a thrift store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Boots -- also vintage from www.shopnastygal.com
The best thing about punk chic is how simple it is. So many people identify punk with puffy prom dresses and split tights — after our great conversation with Casey, we realized that it really is more than that! For one, you don’t have to be into Avril Lavigne or Kesha as style icons. Grunge or punk rock need not appear on your top 25 most played on your iPod and you don’t even have to rip holes in all the items in your wardrobe! Just follow our three simple steps for instant punk chic.
Step 1: WEAR WHAT YOU WANT!
Punk has no defined set rules, it’s all about expressing yourself through cheeky accessories, one of a kind pieces and mixed up trends. Punk style is essentially rebellion through clothing — so mix and match different styles. It’s completely ok to wear converses with a floral print skirt and motorcycle boots go with ANYTHING (as does anything in leather). Graphic tees are a favourite purely because they express a theme or an idea in loud print. In addition, wristband, chokers and bright hair bows make the perfect accessory to take something from the norm to punk.
Step 2: Be Creative with your Makeup.
Punk is bold, outright rebellion from the norm. Let that show in how you do your make up — it could be anything from some extra bright eyeshadow, leopard print eyelashes, neon coloured nail polish… the point is, go crazy with it! Step out of your comfort zone and have fun with bold and bright prints that you would normally shy away from. Have a look at the following make up tutorial for some inspiration!
Fashion, clothes and accessories are all nothing without confidence and a bit of attitude! The punk look is guaranteed to get you a couple of stares and awkward looks — it is after all rebellious and in your face! The key is in how you carry yourself. Walk like you own your look and it will automatically translate into that.
A big thank you to Casey for the great chat and tips. We love Betsey Johnson as a brand and look forward to more great fashion finds from them!
Would you like to be featured on Yveno’s Fab Finds? We aim to make a story out of your outfit. Email us a picture with details of where your outfit is from and you could just be the next fashionista to be featured!
