The Nahmias Cipher Report

Reblogged from the jazzmonger: Esperanza Spalding! I have made my admiration for this beautiful, talented lady a recurrent theme here on thejazzmonger blog. Now, I am pleased to report that she is the subject of an excellent article in Newsweek and it’s affiliate The Daily Beast. Abigail Pesta’s piece begins, as most Spalding features do, with [...]

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 13:30 PM EDT, 27 April 2012 First Published: 15:03 PM EDT, 15 January 2010 LONDON, England – Helen Folasade Adu “Sade”, 53, who was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, has come out with a follow-up single to “Soldier of Love,” aptly titled “Love is Found.” It is amazing to watch [...]

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 23:56 PM EDT,  1 March 2012 A fellow blogger and follower of the Nahmias Cipher Report read one of our posts and commented on it. We returned the courtesy, and stopped by to peruse their website, the Opinionated Duck. They featured a post simply titled ‘Prejudice,’ accompanied by a video [...]

In an interview with the author which is currently broadcasting on Radio Netherlands Worldwide, a song plays in the background that her mother listened to during their travails. Many listeners inquired about the name of the singer and the song; and in response we have posted a video of Mrs. Mahalia Jackson from the famous movie “Imitation of Life.”

This weekend HBO featured Lady Gaga’s ‘Monster Ball Tour.’ It was during a channel surfing session, that I happened upon the show midway through the concert. It was a captivating spectacle beyond belief. The costumery was so imaginative and outlandish I remained riveted to the program even though the music she was performing at that moment was difficult to hear and overshadowed by the choreography.

Earlier in the day news releases announced that Lady Gaga has more than 10 million followers on Facebook. According to the report, she beat out this era’s other most controversial, charismatic global personality, President Barak Obama by nearly 1 million followers.

My mother constantly amazes me and perhaps many people believe this of their mothers as well. Lately, what amazes me most about my diminutive, powerhouse, sixty-seven year old, Southern Baptist minister mom is the diversity, scope and breadth of her knowledge of popular culture.

The other day I was speaking with her about Russell Simmons with regard to his business acumen and how instrumental his philosophy of giving back has contributed to his ability to have amassed a personal fortune of roughly $400 million. She then goes on to mention that his brother is Run D.M.C. and that he is the co-founder of Def Jam Records.

I had to laugh, my mother knew more about the rap music industry than her daughter. It was a poignant and sweet moment that reminded me that we are only as old as we allow ourselves to be. I mention this because later in the week she called me to tell me that I should record a concert of Matisyahu’s “Live at Stubbs” in Austin, Texas.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today in the nations capital it is gray and overcast and people continue to examine and prevaricate about the death of Osama Bin Laden with the latest assertions that he hid behind the skirt of his wife in an effort to avoid being shot. A claim which has subsequently been proven false.

In any case since I am going to focus on some serious topics in the next few posts, I thought I would lighten the mood with a video that provides a funny take on the vagaries of temptation.

Hope you enjoy it.

2face Idibia sings a wonderful anthem to the beauty of African women in his anthem song “You Are My African Queen.” It is a video that resonates with me and I am sure it will with you as well.

Not only are each of us unique but the women of Africa are vastly under represented in terms of beauty and strength because the Western media typically highlights the struggle and wretchedness of the lives of these women and their children.

Though this is a reality in many parts of Africa, the women of Africa a nonetheless striking, strong, incredibly diverse, intriguing and enchanting. The African beauties most familiar to Western cultures are the Nilotic women from Ethiopia, Eritrea or Somalia. Woman like Iman and Liya Kebede who grace the runways and covers of Eurocentric magazines.

Famed Lena Horne died yesterday at age 92. An iconic figure in Hollywood and on stage, Lena Horne was a pioneer who forced the film industry to evaluate casting African-American women in roles other than stereotypically safe and culturally preferred maids and ‘mammies’. Blazing the trail in presegregration America, Ms. Horne used her intellect, talent and ambition to forge a career that spanned six-decades. Ms. Horne was an extremely talented and accomplished vocalist, and one of the first African-American actresses to sign a significant contract with a major studio. She continued to break barriers through her marriage to a Jewish conductor and bandleader Lennie Hayton in 1947. This was a bold move at a time when miscegenation laws were on the books in 30 states.

“In the United States, the various state laws prohibited the marriage of whites and blacks, and in many states also the intermarriage of whites with Native Americans or Asians. In the U.S., such laws were known as anti-miscegenation laws. From 1913 until 1948, 30 out of the then 48 states enforced such laws. Miscegenation was finally ruled unconstitutional 12 June 1967 through the case Loving vs. the State of Virginia effectively ending legal enforcement of this practice nationwide.