Book About Hurricane Katrina

27. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Books, Jihad

From Taneya:  I’ve created an account on the blog for Jihad now so he can be a guest author.  Below is his first post. :-)

I am reading a book called Ninth Ward.  It is about a girl named Lanesha who has a grandma named MaMa Ya-Ya.  Well Lanesha is a 12-year old girl that lives in New Orleans.  Lanesha has been seeing ghosts since she was an itty bitty baby.  But Lanesha has been having hard times at school because she has been seeing ghosts everywhere at her school.  She says they all look sad.  MaMA Ya-Ya is a very nice lady who raised Lanesha and took extra care of her.

The reason I am reading this book is because it is educational and tells you how bad Hurricane Katrina was when it hit New Orleans and how it killed a lot of people and flooded homes.  I am also reading this book cause when you read it it actually tells you in the book how people were in Hurricane Katrina and died or drowned.  My schoolteacher has the whole class reading this book because the author of the book, Jewell Parker Rhodes, is coming to our school, LEAD Academy, tomorrow to read to us and my teacher wants us to be prepared.

The book is great so far because I like how they descibe the ghost in the book cause I always wanted to know how ghost look.  I also think about this book so far how Lanesha survies Hurricane Katrina and saves Spot (the dog).


 

 

Saturday Fun

27. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Family, Photos

Yesterday we had a nice family day – the weather was beautiful and we had a great Saturday.  We began by attending a puppet show at the Nashville Public Library – Alice in Wonderland.  It was actually a mix of live performers + puppets and it was CROWDED! We went as part of the birthday celebration of one of Kaleya’s friends – he turned 4.   While Kaleya has been to many of these types of performances, I’ve only been to one other, so it was fun to go again.

Alice in Wonderland in progress

Kaleya MUST have her library hand stamp!

After the show, it was off to the park to celebrate with cake and ice cream.

the birthday boy looks over his cake

Kaleya plays

Kaleya, Jihad and friend

After leaving the park, we then went by a local comic book store, The Great Escape.  They were hosting a book signing by 12-year old Luke Robinson.  Luke, from nearby Dickson County, TN, was diagnosed with leukemia at age 3.  He then had several years of chemotherapy treatment and his cancer is now in remission.  He conceived an idea for a comic book that he hopes will help other kids cope with treatment.  The Make A Wish Foundation helped him bring his concept to reality and enlisted the talent of Ryan Dunlavey to write and illustrate it.  The first comic, Super Shot, was published this month.

Great Escape had a book signing so we went and got one for both Jihad & Kaleya.

Luke signs for Jihad

Jihad starts reading and finished it before we left the store!

The rest of the afternoon and evening we spent at home watching movies.  Lovely, lovely day!

 

Making Snow Angels

21. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Kaleya, Video

Random snow fun from earlier this month!

Kalonji’s Knowledge Korner

21. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Kalonji

Can I just start by saying that I am so incredibly proud of my husband????!!!

In December, Kalonji decided to pursue his passion and founded his own non-profit agency, Kalonji’s Knowledge Korner.  The program will function as a summer and after-school youth mentoring program for our community here in North Nashville.   The first phase is expected to begin in June as Kalonji partners with friends & colleagues to offer a two-month summer program.

Over the past few months Kalonji has been actively working to getting all the pieces in place.  Part of that of course is a website.  We set up a basic site for the organization in January, but were never truly happy with it.  Well, over the past few weeks I’ve been redesigning the site and the new site is now live!

www.kalonjisknowledgekorner.com

On the site you will find various aspects:

  • read the 4 Kornerstones page for an overview of the program framework
  • a blog where Kalonji will post from time to time with news & education/technology related news
  • a “Get Social”  graphic area to connect to his various online spots.   He now has a new Twitter account so while there is not much there yet we expect to get him up and running over the next several days
  • you can sign up for E-mail receipt of the blog posts if you’d rather it come directly to your inbox
  • and what would a non-profit organization be without the Donate option?

Yours truly is his webmaster and social media strategist.  However, my master plan is to teach Jihad how to use all of these technologies so that he can eventually take over.  Admirable goal for a 12-year old huh! I’m also going to be helping with the incorporation of genealogy & local history research with the kids as a way to promote information literacy.  No surprises there right? :-)

Kalonji also spoke at Cumberland University last week for their Black History Month Vigil – read his blog post about it.  We hope you will continue to stay abreast of his activities and let us know if you have thoughts, suggestions, and/or ideas for activities & collaborations.

Our Valentine’s Weekend

17. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: Family, Photos

Hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Weekend! Ours was pretty nice.  On Saturday, Kaleya traded a small present with one of her buddies.

Kaleya trades Valentines

On Sunday, we ventured over to our favorite meat & 3 place here in Nashville – Harper’s restaurant.  It’s owned by Paul & Thelma Harper and we go there at least once a week it seems.  On Sunday evening they hosted a Valentine’s Dinner and featured a local band to play the evening – BlackDiamond.

The kids came along with us for we celebrate with the whole family ya know. :-)

advertisement for the band

Kaleya hugs Jihad

the trio at dinner

We had a nice evening.  I did not get any pictures of the band but you can learn more about them at www.blackdiamondmusic.net or follow their new Twitter account.

Conversation with Tavis Smiley

05. February 2011 · Write a comment · Categories: General Ramblings

Tonight our family went to go see Travis Smiley speak at a local church.  Hosted by Riverside Chapel Seventh Day Adventist Church, the speech was excellent and I am glad to have had an opportunity to see him in person.   He spoke on a number of topics and touched on education, politics (namely Obama), gentrification, finding your true passion in life,  and of course, black history.   We resonated with much of what he said, and he had the audience crackin’ up!

After the speech, Tavis answered questions from the audience which made the experience even more personal.  It’s been awhile since I’ve listened to Tavis on a regular basis, but I just may have to tune in now to keep up with him.   The turnout was a nice size, and there were some familiar Nashville faces in the audience.  State Senator Thelma Harper was there (we go to her family restaurant, Harpers, quite often), and local media reporter, Justin McFarland was there also.  It also turned out that I have served on a committee with the pastor’s wife! Small world :-)

Thank you Tavis Smiley & Riverside Chapel for a motivating and inspiring evening!