Fly Girl: Solange in Honey Magazine

How dope is Solange? She beats to her own drum and truly doesn’t give two cents to what others think, care or feel about her. She comes across as a poised, confident, young mother and her last album was hot!

Check her interview in Honey Magazine by clicking here.

Fly Beauty Find: 70¢ Makeup

Glamour magazine is celebrating it’s seventieth anniversary, and all 99¢ Wet n Wild products will be 70¢ until April 10, 2009 at Walgreens. I haven’t used Wet N Wild products in a while but I took a look at their selection in Walgreens and they have really cute stuff that could hold you over until you hit up your favorite make-up counter. As a bonus their products are cruelty free.

Try Wet n Wild Mega Eyes Trio in Egyptian Sands and their Megaliner Liquid Liner.

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Speaking of Glamour, I must acknowledge my fellow fly friend, Kari Fulton, who is featured in the April issue of Glamour! Ms. Fulton was honored in part of Earth Day and Glamour's seventieth anniversary, as part of 70 female eco achievers.

In her work as a campus climate challenge lead organizer for the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, Kari challenges students to get involved. Ms. Fulton is black but thinks green! Check Kari in action by clicking the video below and click here to meet Kari and the other eco heroes.

Fly Girl of the Week: Sissieretta Jones (1869-1933)

Sissieretta Jones was a world-famous soprano, and the first African American to perform at Carnegie Hall. Touring internationally in the late 1800s and early 1900s, she sang both classical opera and performed in musical comedies with her own troupe.


Born Matilda Sissieretta Joyner on January 5, 1869, in Portsmouth, Virginia, she was the child of Jeremiah Joyner, a pastor, and Henrietta Joyner, a singer in the church choir. After moving with her family to Rhode Island when she was six, Sissieretta began singing in the church choir, which was directed by her father. When only fourteen, she married David Richard Jones, who became her first manager. Later, she formally studied voice at the Providence Academy of Music, the New England Conservatory, and the Boston Conservatory.


Following her New York City debut in 1888, she was nicknamed “the Black Patti” after being compared to the Italian prima donna Adelina Patti, well-known at the time. The nickname stayed with her throughout her 30-plus year career, although she preferred to be called Madame Jones. During the 1880s, she performed at Madison Square Garden, multiple times at the White House, and became the most highly paid African American performer of her day. In the 1890s, she formed Black Patti’s Troubadours, taking advantage of the popularity of black musical comedies, originally called “coon shows.” Jones sang opera selections and spirituals at the end of the show, rather than closing with the typical cakewalk.


The group was one of the most popular shows on American stage, touring throughout the United States; the careers of numerous black performers were launched by their initial appearances with the Black Patti troupe. African Americans began to see the black musical comedies as reflecting negatively on their race, and the group’s tours wound down, with a 1915 last performance at New York City’s Lafayette Theater. Jones moved back to Providence, Rhode Island and cared for her mother and her two adopted children.


Her husband’s gambling and lavish misuse of their money had led Jones to divorce him in 1899. In spite of her many years of high earnings, toward the end of her life Jones needed to rely on financial assistance from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Sissieretta Jones died of cancer on June 24, 1933 at the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.

Taken from:www.blackpast.org

Fly Girl of the Week: Dr. Rebecca J. Cole (1846-1922)

Sadly, as is the case with many records of the achievements of African Americans of her generation, no images have survived of Dr. Rebecca J. Cole.

Dr. Rebecca Cole, an original fly girl and the second African-American woman to receive an M.D. degree in the United States, in 1867. Dr. Rebecca Cole was born and raised in Philadelphia and she completed her secondary education at the first co-educational high school for African Americans in the city. She then enrolled at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania near the end of the Civil War, and worked under the supervision of Dr. Ann Preston, the first woman dean of the school, after graduation, Dr. Cole went to work at Elizabeth Blackwell's New York Infirmary for Women and Children to gain clinical experience. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell assigned Dr. Cole the role of health visitor in the local community. She was responsible for dispensing practical advice to mothers living in poverty about the best ways to keep their families healthy.

Dr. Blackwell thought Dr. Cole had the ideal character for such work, and mentioned in her autobiography that she had "carried on this work with tact and care." Dr. Rebecca Cole practiced in South Carolina for a number of years, before returning to Philadelphia. In 1873, she opened a Women's Directory Center to provide medical and legal services to women and children in need. In January 1899, Dr. Cole was appointed superintendent of a home in Washington, D.C. run by the Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children. In her years of caring for families living poverty in the city of Washington, she was most appreciated for the difference she was able to make. As mentioned in one of the annual reports from the association: "Dr. Cole herself has more than fulfilled the expectations of her friends. With a clear and comprehensive view of her whole field of action, she has carried out her plans with the good sense and vigor which are a part of her character."





Source: National Library Of Medicine

Fly Girl of the Week: Annie Turnbo Malone (August 9, 1869- May 10, 1957)

Born one generation away from slavery, Annie Turnbo Malone, discovered that there were few cosmetic products available for African American women. Ladies of her time, used products such as goose fat, oil and other harsh products on their hair to achieve the looks they wanted.

With a keen interest in chemistry, Malone started to experiment with concoctions of her own. Malone created a variety of hair care treatments, including the first patented hot comb, a device that is still used today. She developed a line of products called, “Poro”, a name which, means physical and spiritual growth. By 1900, Malone and her assistants were soon selling Poro, door-to-door as well as in local stores.

In 1902, she moved to St. Louis, to expand her Poro line of hair products. During the 1904 World's Fair, Malone opened a retail outlet. Visitors to St. Louis responded favorably to her products, prompting her to embark on an innovative marketing campaign aimed at distributing the product nationally. In addition to going door-to-door, she and her trained assistants traveled to black churches and community centers, providing free hair and scalp treatments. She held press conferences and advertised in black newspapers. Malone traveled throughout the South at a time of racial discrimination and violence, giving demonstrations in black churches and women's clubs. Everywhere she went, she hired and trained women to serve as local sales agents. They, in turn, recruited others. By 1910, distribution had expanded nationally.

Malone was committed to community building and social welfare. To that end she built Poro College in 1918, a complex that included her business's office, manufacturing operation, and training center as well as facilities for civic, religious, and social functions. The campus was located in St. Louis's upper-middle-class black neighborhood and served as a gathering place for the city's African Americans, who were denied access to other entertainment and hospitality venues. The complex, which was valued at more than $1 million, included classrooms, barber shops, laboratories, an auditorium, dining facilities, a theater, gymnasium, chapel, and a roof garden.

Many local and national organizations, including the National Negro Business League, were housed in the facility or used it for business functions. The training center provided cosmetology and sales training for women interested in joining the Poro agent network. It also taught students how to walk, talk, and behave in social situations. During the early 20th century, race improvement and positive self-image were seen as a way to increase social mobility. By teaching deportment, Malone believed she was helping African American women improve their standing in the community.


She is one of America's first major black philanthropists. Malone donated large sums to countless charities. At one time, it is believed that she was supporting two full-time students in every black land-grant college in the United States. She gave $25,000 to the Howard University Medical School during the 1920s that, at the time, was the largest gift the school had ever received from an African American. She also contributed to the Tuskegee Institute.

A $25,000 donation from Malone helped build the St. Louis Colored YWCA. She also contributed to several orphanages and donated the site for the St. Louis Colored Orphans' Home. She raised most of the orphanage's construction costs and served on the home's executive board from 1919 to 1943. The home was renamed the Annie Malone Children's Home in 1946. Malone also gave generously of her time in the community. She was president of the Colored Women's Federated Clubs of St. Louis, an executive committee member of the National Negro Business League and the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, an honorary member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and a lifelong Republican. She died in 1957.

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A true fly girl in her own right, Malone believed in making women fabulous, one hair product at a time. I believe Malone would have loved my hair revelation, click here to read how I learned that my hair didn’t define me.

Fly Girl of the Week: Janet Collins (March 7, 1917 - May 28, 2003)

A girl who doesn’t compromise her morals and her beliefs makes them truly a fly girl. Janet Collins is billed as the first African American prima ballerina. Born in New Orleans in 1917, Collins studied toe dancing since the age of 10.

“You would make a wonderful character,” said the choreographer of the Ballet Russa de Monte Carlo, to the ambitious teenager. “The only trouble is,” the choreographer continued, “in order for you to belong to the company, I would have to paint you white. You wouldn’t like that, would you?”

“No, I wouldn’t want that,” was Collins response to her Monsieur choreographer. Collins was so talented and skilled that others would want the very fair-skinned Collins, in her natural beautiful color. Trained in modern dance and ballet, Collins gained popularity as a theater and concert performer, in the 1940s she appeared in the Hall Johnson’s Run, Little Chillun and studied under Katherine (Queen Mother of Black Dance) Dunham.

In 1951, she became the first Black artist to perform on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House. Starring in the production of Cole Porter's Out of This World, Collins won the Donaldson Award, signifying the best dancer on Broadway. She remained with the Met until 1954, dancing in Carmen, Aida, La Gioconda and Samson and Delilah, after which she toured the United States and Canada in solo dance concerts. She retired and resided in Seattle, Ms. Janet Collins died in June 2003 in Forth Worth, Texas.

“Seldom indeed is anyone able to convey meaning and mood as does Miss Collins," said the Los Angeles Daily News, "for not only is her pantomime telling, her grace matchless, but she has the rare talent, even in her almost stylized numbers, of reaching out to her audience and making them share emotions that her characters are portraying.”

Fly Girl of the Week:Namoi Sims (May 30,1949-)

Fly girl, Naomi Sims made her mark as the first Black model to gain world wide recognition in the Sixties. Naomi rocketed to the top of the fashion world when she broke the color barrier in modeling and was emulated by Black women everywhere.

When, in the late 1960's, Naomi Sim's face graced the cover of the New York Times magazine supplement, Fashion of the Times, African American women rejoiced, especially those of a darker skin tone, because Sims unlike models Dorothea Towles and Donyale Luna, wasn't light-skinned.

Naomi Sim's was featured on the covers and inside numerous top magazines such as Vouge, Ladies Home Journal, Life , Cosmopolitan, who before her had given no evidence that they thought Black was beautiful.

She is the author of five books on health, beauty and success for the Black woman. Such writings have earned her the reputation as the foremost expert on health and beauty for the Black woman.

Born in Oxford, Mississippi and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, she attended Fashion Institute of Technology and New York University. In 1976, she launched the Naomi Sims Collection sold in department stores and specialty stores. The Naomi Sims Collection has since expanded to include skin care, hair care and cosmetics for the Black woman.

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" Each of us has been provided with the raw elements of beauty. Elegance, grace, refinement, confidence, style, and cordiality are well within the grasp of every Black woman; these are the elements of which beauty is made-not a well-turned nose. A healthy body and mind are the first prerequisites; then and only then can we consider the aspects of cosmetic beauty. If you remember only one thing from this book, I want it to be the necessity for regular medical examinations to prevent and control illness, not how to apply lip gloss. Without health, there can be no beauty." - Taken from the second edition of All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman (1986) by Naomi Sims.

Fly Girl of the Week: Charlotte Hawkins Brown (June 11,1883- January 11, 1961)

Charlotte Hawkins Brown was definitely a fly girl in her day, she was ambitious, educated and she constantly challenged the Jim Crow laws. Born on June 11,1883 in Henderson North Carolina though she grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts when her family moved in 1988. While in Cambridge, Dr. Brown attended Cambridge English High School and Salem State Normal School.

While she was a student at Salem State, Dr. Brown was offered a teaching position in the North Carolina by the American Missionary Association. Dissatisfied with the lack of educational opportunities for African Americans in the South, Hawkins accepted. The eighteen year-old returned to North Carolina in 1901 to teach rural black children at the Bethany Congregational Church in Sedalia, North Carolina. The school closed after one term, but young Dr. Brown decided to remain in the community and establish her own school.

Dr. Brown turned a pitiful church school in Sedalia, North Carolina, into the Palmer Memorial Institute founded in 1902 by much hard work and expert fundraising. Under the leadership of Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Palmer Memorial Institute became a nationally recognized and respected preparatory school for African Americans. The Institute was fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools at a time when few black high schools enjoyed this recognition.

During her 50-year presidency, over one thousand students graduated. They had gained not only a diploma but also a firm idea of their own individual worth. Dr. Brown had taught them well - they would be "educationally efficient, religiously sincere, and culturally secure."

Charlotte Hawkins Brown was a woman with pride in herself and her people. She had a deep belief in the American principles of freedom and justice for all human beings and she expressed this commitment eloquently. She succeeded in showing for the entire world to see "what a young black woman could do."

Dr. Brown died in 1961. Ten years and three administrations later Palmer closed its doors.
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Along with her prestigious school, Dr. Brown’s work included a charm book for young ladies and males. Her tips would put Mo'nique’s charm school to shame, The Correct Thing To Do-To Say-To Wear was published in 1941; her book was a required reading for decades at HBCU’s and in Black homes.

The Correct Thing To Do-To Say- To Wear: “At Home Tips”:

• Don’t save your table manners until company comes. You and your family are just as good and deserve just as much consideration as any of your friends or acquaintances.

• Be Saving. Don’t burn lights unnecessarily. Be sure that the hot water faucet is turned odd. Don’t leave the hose on too long in the back yard. Don’t drive the automobile around the corner when you can walk. Don’t turn the radio on in the morning and let it run all day. Don’t leave the outside doors wide open when the furnace is going full blast.

• Never permit Mother or the woman at that head of the houses to make more steps than necessary to give you service. In families where there are no maids, children may easily take turns at waiting tables.
  
  
  Her twenty-four tips for “At Meal Time” included:

• Sit with your knees together and both feet on the floor, not on the rounds of the chair to wrapped around the legs.

• Keep elbows and arms off the table.

• Use the knives, forks, and spoons in the order placed. When in doubt, observe the hostess.

• All food should be put into the mouth with the right hand.

• Eat a little less of everything than you might. Shrink from the slightest appearance of greediness.
  
  “The Earmarks of a Lady,” according to Dr. Brown, a lady:

• Passes behind people.

• Does not chew gum in public.

• Avoids loud and boisterous laughter and conversation.

• Is always well groomed, appropriately dressed, scrupulously dressed clean in body and attire with hair carefully arranged.

• Does not seek dark and secluded places in which to socialize.

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It seems that in 1941, Dr. Brown was writing the original fly girl guide!