Friends On Friday PresentsLatrice Fowler 12/21/07

Latrice, we have never met in person but I feel like you are family. Your spirit just
exudes warmth, love and grace and I am so grateful to have met you!
Thank you so much for saying that. I really think
that we’ve been put together for a reason. I thank
GOD everyday for placing me with people like you. GOD
Bless!

When you cook, do you cook with the same spirit of love and fervour?
I really do! I love seeing the enjoyment in people’s
faces when they’ve tasted my food. They’re
expressions show their love for the food I’ve spent so
much of my time and love into making. I get more of
my own enjoyment from watching reactions then I do
creating tasty vittles.

What are your passions?
_ GOD!
_ Self-Love (Becoming the person I’m suppose to be!)
_ Family
_ Present & Future Legacy
_ Being a Positive Community Figure

We met on the WomenforHire network, which has been such a great networking tool, had
you begun your entrepreneurial quest or were you motivated to accomplish things frommeeting the women there?
The Women For Hire Network has been an exceptional
networking tool for everyone that has been privileged
to find it. My mother is so big on networking and
after seeing a segment on GMA about WFH I immediately
logged on to the site and signed up. Although I had
already started developing my businesses before
joining WHF, it has definitely helped grow, and several
opportunities have evolved from being apart of that
online community.

What are your aspirations?
_ Obeying GOD
_ Continue to love and respect myself!
_ Elevate my family to our highest potential, and
continue to build our legacy!
_ Inspire the uninspired!

Tell us a bit about your businesses.
Fowlerville Publishing – A digital publishing
powerhouse. (Launching and excepting new clients
April08)
1. Raising Chefs…not just good cooks! (eCookbook)
2. ModelGirlUSA eMagazine (My daughter’s modeling
magazine, for girl about girl ages 6 – 14)
3. Blackpreneurs Social Network/eMagazine
4. Dirty South Locals eMagazine (Hip Hop Culture)
5. Macaiah eMagazine (Premier Client)
_ Going Pro @ Home Productions
1. Raising Chefs DVD Video
2. Food Photography & Food Styling (Print/Web)
3. Southern Artist Promotional Videos
_ Other Non-Business (Self Promotion)
1. Weekly Column – Un World Radio Show Magazine
(Latrice’s Tasty Treat Thursday)
2. DoubleDutch Magazine Recipe Submission DEC & FEB
3. Girlz In Transition Recipe Submission
4. Radio, Print, Online Interviews & Features
Other things are also in the works, so stay tuned, because
there are more wonderful and exciting things up our
sleeves.

How do you see your pursuits positively affecting your children? They are so involved,
what a great education.
I wanted them to be surrounded by someone who was
positive and making dreams become a reality. They
have absorbed everything they’ve seen me do and have
come up with goals of their own. They’ve executed
those dreams and goals and are now seeing them come
full circle. They believe that if you work hard at
something you love and understand that things will get
hard along the way. Sticking with it will expose
sacrifice and dedication. They are the most awesome
kiddos I’ve every met and I thank GOD everyday for
trusting that I would be a great fit as their mother!
What are some of your short-term goals for the civil rights work you do?
_ To continue to be able to mobilize our resources. Be
in a position to help were there’s a need. Create
awareness on issues within our communities.

What are the long-term goals?
Basically the same as the short-term goal. Raising awareness is an ongoing focus!

Latrice, Have a wonderful holiday! Thank you SO, SO much! We will check in with you soon! Kiss the kiddies and all the best to your family!

Friends On Friday Presents Janet Snell! 12/14/07

Self-portrait by Janet Snell

Janet, you mention on one of your sites that you began art with oil
painting in the 70's. What prompted you to take an art class? What were youinto before that? Anything artistic?? What influenced you?
I went to the Maryland Institute College of Art, and studied with the
abstract expressionist Edward Dugmore. He, and the city of Baltimore
inspired me. I have the link to an interview he did for the
Smithsonian on my Scattered Light
blog that will help you to see why. It reflects his iconoclastic
personality. By the way, the photo of Cheryl and me on that blog was
taken by his wife Edie in their New York loft.

You and Cheryl have this phenomenal ability to capture and hold an
audience's attention delicately ( when I am observing both your works I feel
cradled and safe like I'm a baby free to experience whatever it is you both
are sharing--even if its not something nice), was your home life suitable
for encouragement of the arts, or did you both cultivate the love forexpression later in life?
Throughout our childhoods, Cheryl and I painted for fun with our
mother, an excellent realist painter. Our dad did not paint, but he
did write stories with an Edgar Allen Poe feel, and played many
musical instruments. He was even in a Dixieland band with some other
physicians once. He was the one who got me started on the violin. He
was a great influence and inspiration--he had a dark sensibility
balanced with a huge sense of humor. He died at 52, after suffering
with heart disease all of his life.

My sister and her work is another influence.I think in images and she
can extend the metaphor with words, so a collaboration between us is
more like two takes on a similar idea, instead of one art explaining
the other. I send her photos of whatever I'm working on, and if the
idea sparks a response in her, she'll make a poem for it, then send it
back to me for comments. The work on the Admit 2 site happened that
way.

Does your environment inspire you? Please give us a little insight as to how you work and what motivates your visions.
Often, I'll make drawings of images, which may come from musing about
the man/woman thing, or from listening to Hendrix, Dylan, or the
Doors, or from reading Jean Genet, for instance. Those images will
find their way into my linocuts or paintings, sometimes intact,
sometimes altered. Funny, but classical music doesn't bring up actual
images for me, although it does give me ideas.

What are you working on right now that you can share with us?
Right now I'm working on my third volume of art and words. It's
tentatively called "At The Gates", and I've attached the painting of
the title piece for you.

At The Gates by Janet Snell


Can we check in on you from time to time?
I'd love to be checked on! Thanks so much for this opportunity.


More images can be seen here

This has been wonderful! Thanks, Janet!

Friends On Friday Presents ~ KELLY MADIGAN ERLANDSON 12/7/07

Photo of Kelly Madigan Erlandson, LADC, courtesy of Helen Stringfellow


Your site details a series of creativity retreats that seem very ruminative, almost like a pensive adagio, how did you come to this approach? They seem so wondrous!
Thank you. The workshops/retreats have been a collaborative effort. For my part, I have tried to create experiences for people that I myself have needed: great discussion about the creative process; time in or near the river; a day of quiet, side-by-side writing. These were things I longed for in my twenties, but I didn’t yet know how to manifest them.
The rich part of it, from my end, is the community of interesting people that have been drawn together by these occasional offerings. I have benefited greatly from our campfire discussions.

Kelly's Writing Workshops

Kelly, you have shared recently that you have begun exploring Nebraska rivers. Tell us about that. Does it provide tranquility for life's stressors? Does it serve as inspiration for material? Or is it just about peace and enjoying creation -- OR all of the above! Feel
free to expound.
From my earliest memories, I have needed to spend time in wild areas. I have a theory that the human body, the mammal body, is designed in concert with the earth, and requires direct connection with the planet to recharge and inform itself—much like a docking station for an IPod or Blackberry. So many of us live lives removed from natural states. We walk on asphalt and concrete; we live and work in buildings, sometimes several stories or more above the earth’s surface. We are raised up from the ground by our vehicles, separated from our natural environment by rubber and steel.

I have searched for ways to remedy this in my own life. I need the energy and the information that direct contact with the ground provides. Many Nebraska rivers are remote and isolated places, and exploring them by canoe or kayak insures I will be climbing up and down muddy banks, and will be sleeping in places where I can hear the coyotes in the middle of the night. Due to my novice kayaking skills, it also insures I will be occasionally baptized in river water.

My goal is to canoe or kayak every navigable Nebraska river. I’ve been on ten of them so far.

What have you found on your journeys?
I have been teased about my interest in scat, but the truth is I love nothing more than the opportunity to tear apart a pile of animal droppings with two sticks and try to determine what animal left it, and what it might have been eating recently. I collect jawbones, and I love the patterns on wild turkey feathers. I’ve been known to bring home the sun-bleached skull of a small animal, which sometimes freaks out my family members.

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Thanks Kelly! My prayers and thoughts are with Nebraska during this difficult time ~ Good Luck to you, please keep us posted on all of your great endeavors~~~

Friends On Friday Presents ~ CHERYL SNELL 11/30/07

Well, yesterday was a bit of an emotional challenge for me, but thankfully I made it through with flying colors!! Speaking of flying colors, today's guest writes with such imagery and follow-through that it reminds me of flying colors. Earlier this week, we shared in her piece Stone. Strong yet almost light and fragrant.

As I said earlier, just what one needs to unleash the mind's constraints. Funny how life has a way of putting what you say to the test. I went home and read through Cheryl's work again, and it broke me down. Her works are about life, which is not typically pretty or poetic. But skillful use of syntactic arrangement can take the most obtuse aspects of our world and still manage to bring the mind to a place of reconciliation, SO Thank You again Cheryl, today your work was not only thoughtful and the focus of "Friends On Friday" it became my pacifier! Exactly what good work should do! NOW, onto our chat with Cheryl!

Cheryl, Your work is both provocative and characterized with words that emote realism. What I find most amazing about your work is that you can go from writing poetry to stories seemingly effortlessly. Can you please share with us are you able to write consistently, or do you go though phases where you prefer to write one and then the other.
Thank you for the compliment! I try to put real toads in my imaginary gardens.
I do genre-hop, slowly. I’ll work for a long time on several poems, for instance, revising and shaping them until I’m empty of ideas. Then I switch to prose, and write until my concentration frays. Fiction demands a particular type of attention. There’s a sense of urgency to get the story told. Poetry feeds fiction, gives the language color and character.

You are also musically inclined. What does music mean to you? Which of your crafts are most important, or are they like children -- there are no choices, you love aspects of them all equally.
I begin every day by playing Bach at the piano. There's something about his nuances of harmony that transcend the ego and ground me at the same time. And then I read until my head is full of language. Music and writing have so many elements in common-- line and dynamics and rhythm---that it’s difficult to assign value. I’m immersed in all of it, and the process of mastering a piece of music is not unlike getting a piece of writing right. When at last I set whatever it is aside-- for days, weeks, or months-- the work continues underground. I’m always amazed at the way a switch of focus can untangle a particular difficulty.

What inspires you? What do you do when you get blocked, if you get blocked and if you do get blocked -- what was the longest period you were stricken?
I live in Washington DC, a culturally rich city where sources of inspiration are plentiful. I like old music and new art. I’ve written many poems based on my sister’s paintings. My husband, a mathematical engineer, communicates a reverence for how things work that is very inspiring. He’s also a great raconteur. His stories about growing up in India have filled my novel, Shiva’s Arms.

I don’t get blocked, partly because I’m willing to “kill my darlings”. At times, I’ll revise a work until there are only a few of the original words left in it. Ned Rorem, the composer and writer, revises everything, too. If he’s reading a book by Henry James, for instance, he “puts blue pencil in the margin…may circle a "perhaps": There are too many perhapses in this book. I'm a walking blue pencil.”

I really like the computer for revision, the ease with which phrases can be moved around, sparking new ideas. A sense of play is important. It leads to fresh connections, new ways of looking at the world. These endless possibilities can lead to other problems, of course. Ralph Ellison couldn’t finish his second novel, and it grew to thousands of pages.

Are you an artist as a way of life or must you hold a day job as well?
After years of teaching and performing, I am free to follow my bliss.

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Thank You So Much Cheryl!!!! Cheryl is also culinary, her recipes will be published as an add-on to the novel, Shiva's Arms.

Cheryl's Publisher's Link

Also please visit the Snell Sisters here FOR GREAT INSPIRATION

K.R. Copeland 11/16/07

Today we will be celebrating the works of K. R. Copeland. She is a writer, a poet, an editor (thank you very much), artist and a friend.
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You are a celebrated poet and writer. When did your voice come alive? Did you nurture it or was it a lifeline; something you had to do to live? Have you always felt it?
I remember as a small child being entirely mesmerized by the polysyllabic fodder on the nightly news programs my parents watched. It was as if the correspondents were speaking in some strange tongue, some secret language. I knew I HAD to one day know all the fabulous words they so freely flung. Thus, my lexiconic love affair was born.

I began reading voraciously…children’s books, newspapers, the dictionary (yes, the dictionary). I was especially fond of poetry, Shel Silverstein’s, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and anything Seuss. I began to develop an ear and an appreciation for the musicality of language.

In fourth grade, we had to write some story or another, though I’ll be darned if I can recall the topic. What I DO recall, was my teacher, Mrs. Ambercrombie, taking me aside and praising me for my writing ability. She also encouraged me to continue to hone my talents; I’ll never forget that, and to this day, credit her with inspiring me to write on. During my teen years I wrote poetry prolifically, although, looking back on it, it was your typical angst-ridden drivel. I didn’t start to actually study craft until in my twenties. I read every poetry handbook known to man, ingested volumes and volumes of poetry, both the classics and contemporary, and began participating in critical forums, all of which were invaluable.

I began submitting poems for publication roughly 7 years ago. At that time, I also volunteered as a poetry judge for the literary magazine, Beginnings. I did that for a few years and once I had several publication credits under my belt, then began getting my chapbook, “Anatomically Correct” together, which was published by Dancing Girl Press, a small, independent press, right here in Chicago, owned and operated by fellow poet, Kristy Bowen. I have had umpteen poems published, both here in the U.S. and abroad, and am in the process of putting together another compilation. I also volunteer as Art Director for the political lit-zine, Unlikely 2.0. and act as co-administrator of an online poetry discussion group, A Wild Iris Poetry.


How do you incorporate who you are literary wise with who you are as a mom, wife, and sister? 
Sometimes it is hard to be a passionate incantation while you have life responsibilities, tell us how you handle your calling.
I’m not entirely certain my writing life permeates these relationships, except for the fact that I try to instill a love of literacy in my kids. I run stuff by them, (which often times goes over their heads), and they humor me. We read together daily and, during poetry month, I even got my daughter to commit to writing a poem a day, which was wonderful! They have been terrifically understanding and patient with me (as has my husband) if I’m working on something, as I can become utterly engrossed when the muse is present, putting everything else on the back burner. Luckily, I have been able to stay at home the past couple years making it less of a balancing act.


How does writing make you feel? You once said " I have been entranced, awed, and utterly consumed by the written word, by the infinite possibilities language allows." Tell us about this deeply personal and profound revelation.
Writing, as it has been said, is a lot like giving birth (only much less painful). I view each of my poems as an extension of myself. The process is both exhilarating and nerve-wracking. I love the daunting task of putting pen to paper and the very act of creating something from nothing, never really knowing ahead of time what the end product will be. It is in fact a passion, and something I’d not choose to relinquish. My goal, first and foremost, is to entertain, to dispel the preconceived notion many have about poetry (having been forced to read the often vapid, academic works) and also to be an integral part of what I only hope will be a widespread resurgence of and affinity for the written word.

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Thanks K.R.!!! We will be printing more works of K.R.'s soon!!

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LaTonya Baldwin & Color Online 10/1/07

Found a new phenomenal outreach that is accepting donations of books and gift cards. This spectacular person has taken her time to help empower young women between the ages of 14 and 21.


You may read more about Color Online through:

http://www.shelfari.com/groups/12777/about

or visit http://coloronline.blogspot.com/

I was given the opportunity to ask the founder a few questions and would like to share the exchange with you. Enjoy:

Houseonahill: Why do you feel supporting these young women is important?

LaTonya: I know what kind impact positive role models had on me. I think most of us could use support as we try to navigate our way through adolescence to adulthood. It was teachers, mentors and coaches who kept me buoyant during some tumultuous times. If we don’t invest in our youth, who will? Our young people need us and frankly we need them to become productive, free-thinking, strong leaders of tomorrow.

Houseonahill: In formulating this alliance, what impact do you hope to make and is there a spoken or unspoken committment that once you have left or graduated the program that you return and somehow give back?

LaTonya: My hope is to communicate that someone cares and someone believes in them and is willing to commitment the time to supporting them in their development. Our relationship is reciprocal from the onset. Everyone has something to give. We teach and support each other. Color Online members are required to give back to the community. There are no shortages of opportunity.

Houseonahill: When choosing your literature, what ideals are you hoping to bring into discussion?

LaTonya: I consciously choose literature with strong, flawed, authentic female characters. No one is all good or all bad. I look for works that deal with personal growth, responsibility, accountability, struggle and triumph. Sometimes works are political. Sometimes they are intimate examinations of self. Others are about our relationship with our community or society. I try to select works where the reader is evoked, compelled or challenged to consider her own views and to form her own opinions.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share this inspirational program.
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Mentoring today can be as easy as this. Check out the links to find out how you can become involved! Shape a journey, embrace a mind!!