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[bruwho]

seen at @_youthclub

[cosmicwizdom]

“Good things come to those who wait. But better things come to those who work for it.”

— - unknown (via cosmicwizdom)

[kureousology]

[champagnelifexhotsexxx]

champagnelifexhotsexxx

[fitzsimmvns]

“ Thanks for knocking out that gas bill Dad! ”

[twofingerswhiskey]

- when you act like the child’s basic needs as set out by law are somehow luxuries to make your children feel guilty over 😤

[fandomsandfeminism]

Also, hey, Gratitude is something that needs to be modeled. If your children don’t recognize things that they should be grateful for or don’t express gratitude for things in their life, it is because they haven’t been taught HOW and don’t see it modeled by those around them.

Children often don’t recognize the work and effort that goes into things like the utilities and food because they ALWAYS HAVE THEM and haven’t had gratitude for those things modeled.

Model gratitude, talk to your children about the things YOU are grateful for, why you are grateful for them, what it looks and feels like to be grateful for the things and people around them.

[eyetosky]

THROW OFF THE JANGLY YOKE OF OPPRESSION

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

“WE ARE THE FUTURE RUDOLPH, NOT THEM”

[dr-archeville]

M: “What’s your name?”

R: “Rudolph.”

M: “What’s your real name, Rudolph?”

R: “… Red-Nose.”

M: “Quite a talent you have there, Red-Nose.”

[dr-archeville]

[miscreant-side-puffs]

The only holiday post worth the season

[vintageblackglamour]

In honor of my first book signing tonight at The Studio Museum in Harlem (144 W. 125th Street - 6 to 8pm!) I am showcasing classic Black art legends. This is Lady Bird Cleveland, mother of legendary model Pat Cleveland photographed by Carl Van Vechten on November 16, 1954 with her painting in oil of Eartha Kitt. Now known as Lady Bird Strickland, she is still painting today. She told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2013 that her calling is “to paint black history from the heart.” Photo: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. 

[vintageblackglamour]

If I had only seen this photo before I finished the book…

I can’t imagine that you don’t know exactly who she is - but did you know that she was born and raised in Brooklyn? You know she co-wrote the theme from “The Jeffersons”, right? And, of course, you know that she was “Willona” on “Good Times” in the 1970s. In this photo, Ja'Net DuBois is shown in 1964 at the time she shared the Broadway stage with none other than Sammy Davis in “Golden Boy.” She is also a co-founder (with Danny Glover and Ayuko Babu) of the Pan African Film & Arts Festival. Photo: John D. Kisch/Separate Cinema Archive/Getty Images. 

[vintageblackglamour]

Happy 75th Birthday (75!) to the One and Only Tina Turner!!! Photos: Jack Robinson (black and white) and Getty (color).

[vintageblackglamour]

Bricktop - born Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louisa Virginia Smith in what she called “West-by-God” Virginia in 1894 to a former slave and a barber, took on her famous nickname in homage to her bright red hair. In 1924, she met Langston Hughes, then a starving artist, on her first night in Paris. Accustomed to playing big clubs, she literally cried when she saw the small size of Le Grand Duc, the club she was to play in the French capital. Hughes was a waiter at the club and assured her that most clubs in Montmartre were just as tiny. “Bricktop was simply a good old girl of the kind folks call regular,” Hughes once said of his friend who was able to attract demigods like Noel Coward, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, and Cole Porter when she opened her first club in 1924. Even the Prince of Wales was a friend and he hosted the opening night for one of her later clubs. Cole Porter gave her the idea to name her club “Bricktop’s” and asked her to teach him and his friends the ‘Charleston’. She was also the inspiration behind one of the most famous songs by the great composer, “Miss Otis Regrets,” after she relayed the story of man who had been recently lynched in the South, ending with the line, “Well, that man won’t lunch tomorrow.” Photo: Carl Van Vechten (1939) Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

[vintageblackglamour]

The great Redd Foxx (1922-1991) was born John Elroy Sanford 92 years ago today in St. Louis, Missouri. This photo of Mr. Foxx with Nina Simone in 1959 is one of my favorites. Photo: G. Marshall Wilson.

[vintageblackglamour]

Merry Christmas VBG Friends! I hope you are having a great day with family and/or friends today. I have already seen an Instagram post or two with a few people who received Vintage Black Glamour under their tree this year. If you got VBG for Christmas, let me know in the comment section! This photo is of actress Judy Pace in a 1968 promotional photo from her time on the ABC television series “Peyton Place.” Ms. Pace had a role on the last season of the show in a plot line that brought an African-American family to town (Ruby Dee, Percy Rodriguez and Glynn Turman).

[vintageblackglamour]

Happy New Year to my dear Vintage Black Glamour readers and friends! I am a writer but…. I do not have adequate words to express my gratitude and the elation that I feel about everyone who purchased my book this year - and supported VBG from the (social media) beginning in 2011. The wonderful critical media reception was one thing - but you guys? ALL of you who showed up at The Studio Museum in Harlem and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams in DC to hear me speak and get your book signed? I am beyond humbled. Beyond grateful for your support and enthusiasm over this labor of love of mine. I love you guys and I love my guys at Rocket 88 Books in London who worked their fingers to the bone just like I did to make this book happen. 2015 for Vintage Black Glamour is going to be epic. EPIC I say! From the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library on Jan. 20th and beyond, I am excited to see and experience what the year will bring. I am on my way over to my cousin’s house now to cut up and bring in the new year so I am going to have to resort to that New Year’s VBG classic - the Three Degrees with champagne glasses - and wish you all the very best. Happy New Year!! All my best, Nichelle Gainer.

[vintageblackglamour]

Opera legend Marian Anderson receives a kiss from her mother, Anna Anderson, after her debut as Ulrica in Verdi’s “Un ballo en maschera” at the Metropolitan Opera 60 years ago today on January 7, 1955. Ms. Anderson, who was 57 years old at the time, was the first African-American soloist to sing at the Met. Her mother worked as a laundress to support her early in her career. Photo: Frank Mastro, Bettman/Corbis.

[vintageblackglamour]

Well, as you know, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born 86 years ago today in Atlanta, Georgia. In January and February 1967, Dr. King wrote the first draft of his final book, “Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” in Ocho Rios, Jamaica at a rented, secluded house with no telephone. He was joined by his wife, Coretta Scott King, his aide, Rev. Bernard Lee, and his secretary, Dora McDonald. The pictures I used for this collage and more appeared in the June 1967 issue of Ebony magazine. According to the article, Dr. King responded to news reports about him taking a vacation by saying, “I’m working as hard as ever. I’d like a vacation when I finish the book.”

[vintageblackglamour]

Eartha Kitt was born 88 years ago today in North, South Carolina. In this 1948 photo, she is shown during her days as a Katherine Dunham dancer performing in Street scene, part of Motivos, choreographed by Ms. Dunham. Photo: Roger Wood, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

[vintageblackglamour]

Happy 84th Birthday to James Earl Jones! Mr. Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi. This photo was taken on May 29, 1961 by Carl Van Vechten. Photo: Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

[vintageblackglamour]

Billie Holiday and Hazel Scott enjoy each other’s company at party in 1957. In “Lady Didn’t Always Sing the Blues,” a 1973 article in Ebony magazine, her friend Ms. Scott said, “The thing I hope the kids don’t miss – the ones who are just discovered Lady – is that she took a lot of the tragedy of her life and made something beautiful out of it; something very beautiful.” The photo was taken by the legendary photographer Roy DeCarava (1919-2009).