"Belle" - In Movie Theaters

"Violet" On Broadway

This post is going to be be all about the histrionics portion of this blog. Nothing edible.  I've just seen two pieces of performing art that are demanding my complete attention and I'm giving it to them. I'm excited to write this entry because the only entertainment I believe that's worth creating is the kind that provokes thought.  And since most entertainment that's out nowadays is thoughtless, these two gems gave me hope that all is not lost. 
You see, I've been struggling with some things for all of my life and these two pieces forced me to look at them. I don't know where I am now, but I've been forced to look at myself.  Well...this part of myself at least.  I know these themes are ones every woman faces at one time or another. The two women here, Belle and Violet, have it much harder than most of us do.
To give you a short synopsis of each so that you know where I am going in this post, Violet is a woman who was disfigured as a young child. She decides to go on a journey to a faith healer to get healed after her father passes away.  She is the town "freak" and no one looks her in the eye. Her Father never did either.
In the movie "Belle", Dido (Belle) is a bi-racial woman raised in a high ranking political household. Because the standards of "propriety" at the time hold her back from fully engaging in "high society" she finds herself not knowing where she stands or who she is. Sort of lost, in a constant state of having one foot in and one foot out. Neither of her own choosing.
The common themes of these stories are beauty, accepting your own and the desire to be accepted by others. Love, being loved for who you are, totally and completely.  Self-acceptance, inner healing, father-daughter relationships and the enormous impact they have on a woman's identity and the ability to love herself and others.
Growing up as a minority with two well educated parents in the suburbs in the '80s and '90s, you find yourself always the "token' one.  You get so use to it that you don't ever really notice or pay attention to it because that's always been your life. You have the friends you have and they're just people and you and them don't pay much attention to color. Or at least, that's what I thought. 
There is a scene in "Belle" where the title character is sitting at her vanity looking in the mirror just after a terrible encounter with her soon-to-be brother-in-law. She strikes herself as if trying to get away from her color. As I watched both of these women struggle with their own self-hatred so viscerally, I was once again reminded of my own. I'm a person yes, and this is a common struggle, yes. But the difference for me has been that I've been the only one for so much of my life. Not black enough to be fully accepted by my own race but still clearly a minority and not able to be completely understood by my friends of other races who have loved and accepted me.
And when I watched both women struggle in their love lives, because they were different, I was struck to the core. I watched my mail be read on screen and on stage and I thought, "I'm not the only one who is dealing with this? I'm not alone?"  I'm blessed, I've never been told I'm unattractive. People can look me in the eye. I don't get whispered about behind my back like the two women above. My parents loved me and edified me all of my life. But rejection and I have also known each other my whole life. From the kindergarten teacher who faced me to the back wall for an entire year, to all the unrequited loves of my life.
There's that nagging thought in the back of your mind that maybe you aren't good enough.  If you lost weight, changed your hair, dressed differently, wore make-up or sometimes, yes, even were a different color, things might be different.   When I was a child this was at the forefront of my mind. You can tell a little girl she's beautiful, but if she is rejected by those she wants to be accepted by, it leaves scars. Maybe the scars aren't as visible as the ones on Violet's face but they are no less real, deep and affecting.
So, now I'm an adult. I've finally gotten to a place in my life where I love my skin color, I love my hair and I accept those things as gifts from God. Things aren't any easier but I take the responsibility that comes with these gifts as an honor.  Just as I took my charge to become a New Yorker as a great honor.
Don't get me wrong...I still struggle with completely accepting myself as beautiful.  There's this messed up stigma on women that if you say or think that about yourself than you're arrogant. It's part of the burnt toast theory, I think.  If you tell me you don't struggle with this you're lying to yourself.  You're not lying to me because I have your number and I know what you're doing. At least own up to it, learn from it and begin to grow and heal in a REAL way. Lying to yourself will not work.
At the end of Violet and Belle's stories both women stopped allowing everyone else to tell them they were worthy of loving and being loved.  Once they accepted it the things they wondered if would ever be offered to them were.  Belle was even able to change the world and make it a place I can live in as a free black woman. She was one of the "Esthers" of my race and I am indebted to her for her contribution.
So, where does this leave me?  I have only one choice and that is to daily remind myself that I am worthy of being loved and I need to be active in loving others well.  And when I fail, having grace for myself to try again, and when others fail extending that to them. So that when you learn how to love yourself and others well you become more beautiful.  For this is the beauty of God that should shine through all of us. This is how the world is changed, when we know our worth and worthiness.
And one day, if it be God's will, I may meet a man intelligent enough to see my truth and love me well as these two women found. One should NEVER be loved, "in spite of" or "because of".  One should just be loved.  All of you just "because".
And whether or not that happens, I will choose to love myself and others in that way because I am loved that way by my Creator. So, I leave you with this, You are beautiful, worthy, accepted, known, understood, appreciated and loved.  Walk in THAT truth my friends. Accept no other.

Love,
Ebony

I watch the Tony Awards every single year without fail.  Even when critics pan them, I love them! Just click on Neil Patrick Harris' face to see the opening number. :-)

 

 Being that I am a true nerd not only do I watch the Tony Awards but I go to the red carpet and throw a Tony Awards viewing party whenever possible.  To date, my favorite year was 2011 when I sat with my theater kids and watched the Tony Awards while we noshed on pizza, ice cream and movie candy that were props for a show we were doing.  We only needed the boxes so we had to eat ALL of the candy, right?

This year, I decided to step up my culinary stylings a bit from frozen pizza and movie candy.

When you are having a party with a group of people, a good host takes each persons palette into consideration.  This is not to say that you can't get one out of their comfort zone every once in a while but, you need to be considerate, this is a mistake I have made before.

Luckily, my guests and roommates are not picky eaters.  In fact, my roommates have broad palettes and love spices, as do I.  We also like heat but two of my guests did not like heat and one is not one for a lot of spices.  Though saying that, I still decided to make a thai inspired chicken. The difference here is that the flavors were all flavors I new she could handle and nothing was over-powering.

Because I knew that my roommate was making bruschetta and purchasing dips from a local Israeli store; I decided against making a salad to go with the meal because people would be very full.  So, in the end I made Cilantro Lime Rice from Nikki in the Kitchen's Blog which is based off of Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice.

This particular picture is from Nikki's blog where you can go for the recipe: http://nikkisfixins.blogspot.com/2012/01/cilantro-lime-rice.html

When I made her rice, I took her suggestion of making it a bit healthier and I used Brown Jasmine Rice instead.  I cannot tell you how WONDERFUL the smell is once you mix all of the beautiful flavors of the lime, fresh cilantro, and garlic together into the rice.

During this process I was teaching my second roommate, who is new to cooking, how to make it and she said, "So, we have to wait until tonight to eat this?" Since we were going to the red carpet at Radio City Music Hall it gave the rice time to sit in these wonderful flavors and it tasted even better once we returned.  When you first mix them all together and taste it, you can literally taste every single flavor.  It really was remarkable to me.

But the "piece de resistance" came from Alexa over at the "Artsy-Foodie" Blog.  Alexa was kind enough to allow me to talk about her chicken recipe here on my new blog.  Here is a link to the original recipe: http://www.artsy-foodie.com/2008/09/wonderful-tasting-chicken-breast-recipe.html

Instead of using chicken breasts I decided to use a whole roasting chicken.  Why?  I knew it would last much longer and it gave folks the opportunity to control their portions a bit better.  Not one bite was wasted!  I must confess, this was my first experience roasting a whole chicken so I am grateful that it came out beautifully! 

For the whole roasting chicken I used dried Cilantro and increased the recipe measurements exponentially:

Cilantro Thai Chicken

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 cup dried cilantro 

 2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

I marinated the chicken overnight and then baked the 4lb chicken at 350F for 3 hours on Sunday.  After it was cooked I turned off the oven and let it sit inside of the oven and rest.

Alexa uses fresh cilantro which I will probably do next time also but, I have to say the taste was delicious in spite of using dried herbs.  I basted the chicken pretty frequently for the last hour and a half and it was juicy, fall of the bone tender and flavorful.  Thank you Alexa for your genius recipe!

My friends loved it and I had a lot less of the chicken for leftovers than I anticipated.  Not too shabby, huh?

Now on to the Tony Awards 2013 red carpet and viewing party!!

I am lucky enough to live in New York City.  I LOVE this place!  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to a majority of the shows nominated this year but, I do my homework.  So, as we stood among the masses, gawking at the famous and Broadway famous I commented on who was who, what play or musical they were involved with, etc.  I'm so loud that I had a little bit of a following and one guy said, "You have to say the names in German so we know what you mean too!"  It was too much fun!  There are really wonderful people here in New York!

But these...these pictures are my favorite moments from that night, apart from sitting with friends.

         This is Cicely Tyson.  If you don't know her, IMDB her and go see any one of her movies.  You won't be disappointed.  My Mother did not raise a fool so, I've grown up watching her films.  All night I kept saying to anyone and everyone who would listen, "I just want to see Cicely!  If I can just see Cicely we can go home!  I just want to see Cicely, she's the only famous person I care about!"  So, as the line dies down and we contemplate leaving, a limo pulls up.  No one comes out for a while.  Then the young black man in the picture standing next to her comes out street side.  You see a ton of people standing on the opposite side of the limo and everyone is deadly quiet except me who yells, "I bet it's Cicely!!  I know it is!! It's her!"  Well finally the person steps out but they are so tiny that you can't see them, not even the top of their head.  Finally the limo pulls away and I yelled, "Cicely!!!!  Cicely!!!!" as loud as humanly possible.  She turned, smiled, waived and my life was made.

  Now I just have to get over to the Stephen Sondheim Theater to see her in "The Trip to Bountiful" for which she won a Tony Award that night!  Of course, everyone has said that her performance is one that should not be missed.  So, head on over to the site: http://thetriptobountifulbroadway.com/#sthash.AXwkTUGg.dpbs  buy a ticket and support my girl in her play.  It'll change your life, I promise.