New Year, New Decade

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Here's a moving self portrait of how I'm setting myself up nicely for the #newyear. "Legend has it that #collardgreens and #blackeyedpeas are said to represent a prosperous new year, with the #greens symbolizing #cash and peas #coins. American currency, however, is nothing like the dark green hue of cooked #collards and at no point have we used puny, white pea-sized balls as change. While some may still eat collards and #peas for this reason to ring in the new year, the tradition dates hundreds of years back in American history and even further back across the Atlantic." For more -- @mic: Collard greens and black eyed peas: The history of why we eat them on New Year's https://www.mic.com/articles/163513/collard-greens-and-black-eyed-peas-the-history-of-why-we-eat-them-on-new-year-s > #foodporn #yummo #foodpornography #foodporno #letseat #instagram #insta #websta #webstagram #newyorkcity #nyc #harlem

A post shared by Queen Esther (@thisisqueenesther) on Jan 1, 2020 at 11:12am PST

Start The New Year Right -- Register To Vote!

“What one does realize is that when you try to stand up and look the world in the face like you had a right to be here, without knowing that this is the result of it, you have attacked the entire power structure of the Western world.” -- James Baldwin

“Apathy gets you the government we have today.” – Gil Sery

When I was a kid, all the Southern black folk around me took their civic responsibilities very seriously.  Election Day was a solemn moment, one fraught with a reckoning to the past and the full understanding that once upon a time, the simple act of casting your ballot in a local election could get you and perhaps your entire family killed, or at least run out of town on a rail. To vote was to stand shoulder to shoulder with those who couldn't -- and I figured if the powers that be were going to work this hard to keep me from doing something, I should do it.  Voting became synonymous with adulthood.  I would couldn't wait to grow up so I could move to New York City, live in Harlem, live the life of an artist (whatever that meant), and vote. 

So far, so good.  



I can't explain why white women voted for Trump in droves, many of them knowing full well that their vote would have elected Hillary -- and yet they showed up for a record-breaking women's march on Washington, DC the next day. 



I suppose I could blame the electoral college. Still and all, I don't know why half the country didn't bother to vote in the last presidential election. I can't tell you why most people don't vote in mid-term elections. I can tell you this: Way too many people genuinely don't care -- and unfortunately, the first sign of bad nutrition is apathy. 

I can also tell you that 2018 midterm elections will be fire. 

If you want to stick your toe in the water, here's some tasty apps. I'm already at the other side of the pool -- eating clean, running and working on a new song cycle.  It's 2018, folks. #GetYourLife!

1. Click here to get all the information you need so you can register to vote!
   
   * General election: November 6, 2018
   * State primary: September 11, 2018
   * Federal primary: June 26, 2018
   
2. Voter -- Matchmaking for Politics!
   Answer a few simple questions and find out which politicians truly have your best interests at heart, and have a track record to back it up.
   
   Because advertising is one thing -- but who your favorite politician really is? That's probably something else.
3. Countable
   An app that makes it easy to pester your Congress member.
   
   
   
   If you'd like to know what your representative is up to in Congress, you can use this handy app to  find out. And then you can use the app to contact them directly, tell them how you want them to vote on legislation and you can see their voting record -- so if they're half-baked, you can vote them out in the next election cycle. 

Start over, every single day...

I'm goal oriented and I work to keep my priorities in order so my only real New Year's resolution is the one I tell myself everyday --  don't give up.  Still and all, that monthly assessment is in order. Here's what shook loose, off the cuff.

1. I have to physically wear myself out everyday or I'll go nuts.   It can't be any one thing, with the exception of boxing, which makes me very happy.  ClassPass could be the answer to my prayers.
2. I've made a lot of progress physically but I hit a wall after Thanksgiving. To climb over it, I'm going to combine RealAge and the Eat Clean Program as a birthday present to myself.
3. If I don't practice guitar every single day for a few hours, I'll forget everything I've learned in a matter of minutes. At least, that's the way it feels, so far.  I can't even talk about my banjo.  I'm getting a grip on all this by taking voice/piano/theory lessons with Nancy Marano, starting at the end of the month.
   

There are some habits I'm glad I never picked up, like smoking cigarettes (or anything else), recreational drugs or drinking copious amounts of alcohol.  There are other habits I'm glad I started way early, like slathering my entire body with sunscreen and moisturizer everyday. Monthly spa visits and a gym membership didn't hurt, either. Now it's time to surrender the rest of whatever it is that I'm holding onto for dear life -- but for the moment, I'll start with processed sugar, salt and corn, soy and wheat gluten.

Starting today, I've got 21 days to eat clean. Let the games begin. 

That Last Selfie of 2015...!

A photo posted by Queen Esther (@thisisqueenesther) on Jan 1, 2016 at 12:17am PST

Happy New Year!

This is the last selfie of 2015 -- I'm wearing Byron Lars, thank God -- and fittingly, I'm in the infamous Hampden-Booth library at at The Players Club on New Year's Eve, finishing up with soundcheck.  I always wanted to be a librarian. I'm constantly doing research.  And I love books.

May 2016 be "the" year, for all of us.  God bless us, everyone.

Happy New Year!

I slid sideways into the new year, starting on New Year's Eve Eve when I sang at Lincoln Center to a packed house (with a line out the door, down the street and around the corner!) with the JC Hopkins Biggish Band.

Here we are at a well-attended soundcheck in the Lincoln Center Atrium.

From there, I sprinted downtown to The DL for The Salon's annual New Year's Eve Eve fete. (That was a sold-out situation -- three floors, over 50 performers, two orchestras, lots of burlesque. Crazy.) 
Thankfully, I left after my set so I could sing my heart out at Minton's (which was filled to capacity) with the Biggish the following night.  The band was all the way live.  Truth be told, the party we were having onstage was as hot if not hotter than the party in the room -- or next door at The Cecil, which had its own boogie down going with The Kennedy Administration and their New Year's Eve party, Forgive and Forget. Somewhere in there, Jazzmeia Horn gave birth to a baby girl -- after 40 hours of labor.  (WOW!!!) 

Needless to day, I slept until I could sleep no more. After a long movie with MPB (The Hobbit), a long walk and some righteous, incredibly unpedestrian Chinese food, I felt recalibrated.  I'm shifting my life around in bold ways, shaking new ideas loose and reconfiguring my goals and priorities for the year in weekly/monthly increments. Its easy to get lost in all of the pop and verve in my head if everything is all over the place.

I'm going to start this year by breaking some bad habits and creating new ones. Once upon a time, scientists believed that it took 21 days to create a good habit. As it turns out, it can take anywhere from 2 to 8 months.  A habit takes time to stick and how long that takes depends on the individual, amongst other things.  Commit to the process will have to be my mantra.

The first thing on tomorrow's agenda? Running shoes.

Winter Bucket List 2013 -- The Harlem Edition (Kwanzaa, Kwanzaa, Kwanzaa!)

Comedy Central

None of the winter bucket lists I see online ever resemble mine. Not that I wouldn't want to go on a carriage ride or make gingerbread houses. That sounds cute but I'm way more likely to be found staying up all night making Kwanzaa presents or sipping my specialty Mexican hot chocolate at a black folk pot luck.

There's no getting away from Christmas once it explodes sometime in the fall (!!!) but the truth is, Kwanzaa has nothing to do with Christmas, it's not religious and it's not an anti-white people holiday alternative. Like a lot of things black folks do, Kwanzaa is something that we do for our selves -- to unite us, to honor our past as African-Americans, our collective history and our ancestors, and to reconnect with our purpose, as individuals and as a community. If white people are down with that and want to participate, hooray. There's always plenty of culture to go around. If not, oh well. It's really not about them.

Kwanzaa is much more fun than Christmas -- and for me, it's very personal. You have to make the gifts you give -- something that stymies a lot of people I know, until they realize that the gift doesn't have to be tangible.  The day you give the gift can infuse it with even more significance. If you're not craftsy, educational gifts are encouraged.  The Kwanzaa gifts I have given are pretty out there, I suppose.  You give what you have. You give who you are. I have been a pretty good wingman, agony aunt and third wheel in times past. I've given a voice lesson and a performance clinic here and there.  Once I even taught a friend how to smother a chicken.  And my pound cakes -- as well as my tomato pies -- are kind of legendary.

There are hard and fast rules but I don't live and die by them. I make them my own. Will you light Kwanzaa beeswax candles? Maybe.  Truth is, my libation ceremony will probably be cocktails with a few sisters at a speakeasy.

Lemmie put it to you this way. Christmas means running around in malls and bouncing around online and buying presents -- and if you run out of ideas or time or patience, Christmas means sending gift cards or cash money. You must send something. Kwanzaa means giving someone something very personal, something that you make with your own hands, something from you that will hopefully resonate with them in some way. You must give of yourself.

Here's a winter bucket list that may look a lot like yours.

1. Get a wreath for your door -- or better yet (in the spirit of Kwanzaa),  make two and give one to a friend. 
2. If you haven't already, it's probably a good idea to start assembling your Kwanzaa presents. (Un)fortunately, (most of) the things I make are edible. This year, I'm getting especially craftsy for a select few. (Finally!)  Otherwise, I'm locked in my kitchen for beef stew (Evan), smothered pork chops (Jane), several quarts of Mexican hot chocolate (you know who you are) and -- of course -- pound cake.
3. Wait until that (Southern) ATL visit and go sit on Black Santa's lap at Greenbriar Mall. You know that's my story.  Black Santa, baby. (More on that here.)
4. You wanna watch a holiday movie? Forget Elf. Watch Bad Santa with a bunch of black folk -- unedited, of course.  You'll laugh so hard, you'll scream.
5. Go to The Apollo Theater's Kwanzaa Celebration: Regeneration Night on Friday, December 27th.
6. Go to American Museum of Natural History's Kwanzaa 2013: 35th Anniversary Celebration on Saturday, December 28th.
7. The dance company Batoto Yetu will celebrate the seven principles of Kwanzaa with movement and festivities at Aaron Davis Hall on Saturday, December 28th.
8. From December 26 - 28, The African Burial Ground has a pretty spectacular Kwanzaa celebration -- the 10th Anniversary Observance of the Rites of Ancestral Return -- that includes short film, visual art, live music and performances that run the gamut from spoken word to The Black Nutcracker. And yes -- all of it is free and open to the public but reservations are required.
9. The Studio Museum in Harlem has Hands On Kwanzaa Celebration -- art making activities and an interactive performance program for kids -- on Target Free Sunday, December 29th.
10. Skip the Bridge and Tunnel crowd, the tourists and the rest of the amateurs and celebrate New Year's Eve Eve instead of New Year's Eve.  (That way, you can enjoy First Night and still have fun with revelers. More on that here.) You can catch me and my jazz quintet The Hot Five at The Player's Club in Grammercy Park on Monday, December 30th for The Salon's annual fete and December 31st for The Player's Club and their New Year's Eve gala.

wait, what happened to me in 2012?

i can't remember the last time i made a new year's resolution. it's probably because i list my goals constantly -- dated, well organized, layered -- and i make every effort to prioritize them. that bright, shining end of the year moment is kind of lost on me because i'm resolving to do things every day -- and then i do them, by any means necessary.

every year is more and more of a blur, so instead of dwelling on what i didn't do last year, i decided to make a list of exactly what i did do.

let's see now...2012 was the year that i

sang harmonies with joseph arthur on the david letterman show

was featured as a jazz dancer -- doing the black bottom, of all things -- on boardwalk empire. (that's my second time on that show, folks.  jazz dancing is a fun gig, but i won't quit until i'm a gangster's moll...)

had two stellar sold out performances at the apollo theater's music cafe of the billie holiday project, a show i performed in and wrote.

opened for and sang with the legendary jazz vocalist jon hendricks at the 35th annual harlem stage gala

got accepted to the nyu/tisch school of the arts mfa program

wrote a bunch of rock and roll songs with my bennett guitar

got a banjo (on permanent loan, sort of -- thanks michael!) and started learning how to play it (fingerpicking is hell on earth.)

started to get really good at boxing -- and LOVE it
(hitting men strategically, with power and velocity, and outmaneuvering them, is sublime.)

was selected as a semi-finalist in the performance category of the unsigned only music competition 

won a blue ribbon at the jazz age lawn party's pie contest -- twice!  (fyi: the first one in june, best savory, was a tomato pie and the second one in august, most unusual, was a vinegar pie. dee-lish!)

threw myself a birthday party with plenty of cool friends and low country fare

danced again (something i was always told i was lousy at, by the way) for a new idea i'm growing with the francesca harper project at the first annual harlem arts festival in marcus garvey park -- on my birthday!

toured europe singing in guitarist james "blood" ulmer's black rock experience that included g. calvin weston on drums and mark petersen on bass

accompanied myself on guitar (for the very first time ever!) and premiered a few of my original country tunes at a sold out gig deep in the heart of brooklyn

recorded ruler of my heart, an allen toussaint song made famous by irma thomas, for a tribute album dedicated to him -- with the little big band swingadelic

sat in with the hot sardines and sang sweet sue at the vintage subway swing party/train ride

got a beautiful soprano martin ukulele as a christmas present from mpb

performed with my quintet the hot five in the salon's fifth annual new year's eve eve fete

sang in the new year at the astor room

yeesh. i guess 2012 was kinda dope... 

the state of things as they are

happy new year, more or less.

i can't remember the last time i made any new year's resolutions. once i learned the difference between a goal and a priority, and then hinged it all on a deadline, stuff began to get done with a quickness in every area of my life. still and all, there is always the effort to stay objective, to stay open and to grow. because i don't like reaching beyond my comfort zone, circumstance almost always shoves me into the great wide open, kicking and screaming all the way. this year is no exception. the challenges keep coming and i welcome them, for all of what they will turn me into, much sooner than i think.

bad habits are falling away as good habits are falling into place. my daily ritual involves guitars and boxing, and a lot of writing and rewriting. and running. i absolutely drop-dead hate running. i love the stamina its giving me but God help me, i hate every second of it.

some days feel so easy, so forgiving. but lately, everything is so much work, so much discipline. even when i'm having a soak, i'm working that dead skin off my backside. but i'm fighting for the body i want and when i get it, i will fight to maintain it.

and that ain't all. but more on all that later.