1Blessed Natural Mag

Samantha Diaz on American Idol  NYC subway singer, Samantha "Just Sam"  Diaz stole the hearts of American Idol fans and judges on Sunday night's premiere of the show. The 20-year-old became overcome with emotion when she began singing "You Say" by Lauren Daigle, realizing she was living her dream. American Idol judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan comforted her and told her she was safe. Diaz ended the singing portion of her audition with a slam dunk by belting out "Rise Up" by Andra Day. Before her audition, it was revealed that Samantha Diaz was adopted by her grandmother and grew up in the Frederick Douglass projects in NY. Diaz said she lived a hard life but made it through it all. After seeing her on American Idol, I wanted to know more about her story, especially her life as a subway singer. I found out that there is a documentary about the subway singer by TOPIC on YouTube. Check it out and let me know what you think! ...

Janelle Monae in Antebellum movie (photo cred: Matt Kenedy/IMDB.com) Article Updated 5/20/2020 - On Friday, August 21, 2020, a new movie starring Janelle Monae called Antebellum hits theaters! At first glance, the teaser trailer comes off as being mysterious, but if you've read the Black science fiction book Kindred by Octavia Butler, then you might have an idea of what the movie is about. Both the movie Antebellum and Butler's book Kindred share the element of time travel.  In Antebellum's trailer, you see Janelle Monae, Gabourey Sidibe, and their co-stars enjoying an evening out, taking selfies. Next thing you know, Janelle Monae appears in a field as slaves. There is also a creepy little girl who appears in the trailer. It is said that if an unknown "they" choose you, no one can save you. It's also important to note that Antebellum is produced by the same directors, Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz of Jordan Peele's  horror films  Get Out ...

Hair Love Short Film by Matthew A. Cherry Wins Oscar! Tonight, the short film Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry won an Oscar for Best Animated Short at the 92nd Academy Awards at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, California!  The Sony Pictures movie competed against 4 other short films in the category. Hair Love is about a little African-American girl name Zuri whose father, Stephen learns how to do her natural hair. Cherry took to Twitter to express his excitement! He posted his original speech and a cute photo of Zuri hugging an Oscar. His caption said, "Thank you.  💜  #HairLove   #Oscars." He also dedicated his award to Kobe Bryant, who was the first athlete to win in that category for Dear Basketball. We first told you about Hair Love  in 2017 when Cherry surpassed his campaign goal on Kickstarter. Since then, the Hair Love book has been published and a short film released. Vashti Harrison is also the co-author and illustrator. Hair Lo...

Kobe and Gigi Bryant's Memorial Date Set for 2-24-2020 at Staples Center  Updated 2/14/2010 - The public memorial "A Celebration of Life for Kobe and Gianna Bryant" is scheduled for Monday, February 24, 2020 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Kobe's wife, Vanessa announced it on Friday. The information about how to obtain tickets has not been released yet. Tickets are now available on the official Staples Center website via Ticketmaster until 10:00pm PT on Monday, February 17, 2020. The date is symbolic for several reasons. The number "2" is the number of Gigi's jersey for Kobe's girl basketball team he coached called Team Mamba. Twenty-four is the number on the back of Kobe's Los Angeles Lakers jersey. Vanessa Bryant also said the year is symbolic. She said, "...#20 years as a Laker and the amount of years Kobe and I were together" in an Instagram post. Today marks 2 weeks since Kobe, Gigi, and 7 other p...

1BlessedNatural: Dealing with the Fear of Human Trafficking (photo credit: Raquel Santana) Hey, my blessed naturals, I've been wrestling with myself for a couple of weeks on how to talk about human trafficking and our mental states on this blog. If you're like me, then you've seen numerous posts including articles and videos warning us, as Black women about human trafficking. You've also seen the news stories about people getting kidnapped. You've heard figures like "64,000" and "75,000" Black women gone missing in the U.S. The idea of us as Black women being under attack does something to you. The question is: What does all of this do to us mentally? For example, now when I go to stores or any place for that matter, I am on high alert. High alert means that I am not only looking around for any suspicious activity, but I find myself living in fear and what some may call paranoia. The truth is that we are living in crazy times where a...

Happy Saturday, my blessed naturals! I hope you all are having a good weekend. I wanted to update you on my hair.  Latest Styles: The Cornrow and Twisted Crown Style was done about 3 weeks ago on stretched hair. I kept it in about 2 weeks before putting mini twists back in my hair. If you've read my past mini twist posts, you know I love them when I have the patience to do them. Taking them out is a different story! lol. Last week, I trimmed my hair with the twists still in.  The Style: The Cornrow and Twisted Crown Style took  about 45 minutes to create. I used Let's Jam Extra Hold Gel for the base of the cornrows because I got so tired of my scalp itching from regular gel. The hair was cornrowed until I got about 1/2 to 1 inches away from my scalp, and then I two-strand twisted the rest of the way.  Update on Detangling: In one of my last natural hair posts I told you about how I was using the Denman brush to detangle my hair. H...

1BlessedNatural:  Tracee Ellis Ross with her natural hair in Bantu knot out (photo cred: Tracee Ellis Ross/Instagram) Yesterday, Tracee Ellis Ross announced her new hair care line called Pattern. The Black-ish star said the products were for people with "curly, coily, and tight textured hair" specifically types 3b to 4c. The line is set to launch online at 9 pm ET on September 9th.  Ross said she'd been working on the line since 2008 when the show  Girlfriends ended. The actress also spent an additional 2 years working closely with chemists on the products. She said that all of the ingredients were safe and tested by herself and her panel."I tried 74 different samples to get these samples to phase one," Ross said. View this post on Instagram BRAIDS ~ @blackishabc A post shared by Tracee Ellis Ross (@traceeellisross) on Aug 27, 2018 at 4:47pm PDT The 46-year-old said Pattern ...