#ByeBye2016 ~ The Legends Are Passing The Torch – (Poetry + Pics)

Hello Friends,

Been a minute. Hope this blog post meets you in good health and great expectations for the coming new year. Compliments of the season to you.

2016 has been somehow somehow but we still give thanks to our Creator, we are alive to continue to pursue our passions and add value to the earth and fellow humanity.  This 2016 has seen a lot of deaths, famous people who have contributed their quota to life, old and young, some sadly gone too soon, people we know and people we don’t know. I believe our legends are passing the baton. Are you one of the ones to take it and keep the creativity flow going? Are you ready to create your own legacy, create something new, of value that you will be remembered for?  We’ve lost so many great ones this year. Especially in the arts and entertainment industry. Their works live on and their legacies remain in memoriam.

Below, I share with you a poem written by a talented young poet and master of words who I connected with on Facebook who goes by the pseudonym ‘Happy Prince’.  Read below, after this tribute video courtesy “Do You Remember?” Facebook page, which is a live video being updated as time goes by as we are sadly, being surprised daily of news of sudden deaths.  May the souls of the departed rest in peace. Amen!

Gone like the day,
Like its sun,
Your journey is like today,
Tomorrow it will not return,

Torn from existence,
Your race has known its end,
No matter the strength of resistance,
Your remains no longer on this air depend,

As you shook hands with death,
Your legend was born,
Ferried through all the earth,
Who says you are done,

Your light brightened the path of many,
Your voice knew no race,
You shared love with people diverse and plenty,
Leaving hatred no trace,

Let the sun shine,
Let the moon glow,
Let the birds travel at ‘half mast’ in a straight line,
Let the land whiten with snow,

Let eyes bleed tears,
Let voices shake with emotion,
Let dirges ring in both ears,
For another train has left the station,

You conquered though outnumbered,
We celebrate your bravery,
Your name will ever be remembered,
We will tell you’d story,

A story hot on history’s lips,
Generations will hear and learn,
The least of the secrets it keeps,
Even time will pen,

Rest in the light.

************** ************#Happy Prince ****************************

“no man is self-made” – Happy Prince

celebrities are fan-made, team work makes the dream work 

**************************************************************************

On a beautiful note, I leave you with visuals of a round up photo shoot for 2016. Shot by budding Atlanta Photographer  – Simeon Fabunmi  and beautiful quotes to start off the new year.

I wish you the best of 2017 and may it be better than 2016! 

Simeon Fabunmi

Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset

Processed with VSCO with b5 preset

Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset

Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset

Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset

Processed with VSCO with hb2 preset

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset

Beautifully Dreaming, Positively Doing… See you in 2017

xoxo

Tosinger

Advertisement

As Featured On – Thirty Beautiful Photographs of Black Girls Slaying on National Headwrap Day

CurlHairStyles selected their favorite Instagram photos from #NationalHeadWrapDay and I am honored and humbled to be one of them.  That’s why it’s good to subscribe to a service like ‘Mention’ if you are a brand (*hint hint), I wouldn’t have known  about or come across this. Thanks CurlHairStyles.com

View the beautiful selections below, all credits to instagram handles beneath the photos:

Quoting  CurlHairStyles.com:

November 20 was National Headwrap Day. A lot of people took to social media to share their flawlessly wrapped crowns. Although, how the acknowledged day came about is not quickly recognized, individuals have been celebrating the day on the web as far back as 2013.

Catch some of our favorite looks from the day beneath: 10 of 30 

Instagram: sagaleeyaa

Instagram: soleysentials

Instagram: biancalashawn

Instagram: __lipstickncurlss__

Instagram: bleu_majik

Instagram: moe_dadiva

Instagram: jd_winters

Instagram: tosinger

Instagram: niaknows

Instagram: rinnyriot

Beautifully Dreaming.. Positively Doing.

Tosinger

 

Mutua Matheka (@truthslinger) | Photographer |#ForGarissa | #147NotjustAnumber | #Kenya

Very sad news from the continent as Garissa, capital of Garissa County, Kenya, East Africa came under attack.  On Thursday, April 2, a deadly Islamist militant group; al-Shabab massacres Christian students while praying at Garissa University College,  killing nearly 150 students, most of them at the prime of their youth,  aged between 19 and 23 at the university in the country’s east. A social media campaign reflects the outrage and grief of the people of Kenya and Africa at large.  We continue to pray for comfort of the families affected. Terrorism has to stop!!!

 

Mutua Matheka – Kenyan Photographer

Mutua Matheka, a Kenyan Photographer, documents the vigil/ three-day period of national mourning under the hashtags  | #ForGarissa | #147NotjustAnumber |. Families, friends, journalists and others also attempt to humanize and honor those lost, rather than have them reduced to a mere statistic.

Here are some of the touching images he captured –

| #ForGarissa | #147NotjustAnumber |

| #ForGarissa | #147NotjustAnumber |

| #ForGarissa | #147NotjustAnumber |

| Follow the Light |

| Do not be dismayed, neither should you be afraid |

Kenyans attend a candle lit vigil late Tuesday at Uhuru park in capital Nairobi in memory of the people killed in last week’s deadly attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College, on April 7, 2015. Via Time.com

Kenyans attend a candle lit vigil late Tuesday at Uhuru park in capital Nairobi in memory of the people killed in last week’s deadly attack on Kenya’s Garissa University College, on April 7, 2015. Via Time.com

 

May the souls of the departed rest in peace and the wicked desist from their ways.

 

Each Passing Day – Photo Exhibition at The Lagos Photo Foundation

The Lagos Photo foundation will be hosting an opening reception of Akintunde Akinleye’s solo exhibition entitled Each Passing Day, which will take place on Sunday, April 19th, 6PM at the Red Door Art Gallery, 51 Bishop Oluwole Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. Nigeria.

 

Each Passing Day is a careful selection from the hundreds of thousands of single images, extracted from different documentary projects and spot news events, which were inspired by the Nigerian space during the last decade and now. 

This exhibition showcases Akintunde’s photography documentation of Nigeria by bringing together photographs categorized to reflect series of unrelated events and activities of the daily lives of ordinary citizens in Nigeria. 

The pictures depict a truthful rendering of each passing day in the life of resilient Nigerians and show the political, social and physical landscape in which we exist.

Akintunde Akinleye, is the first Nigerian Photographer to have been awarded a prize in the prestigious World Press Photo, Netherlands in 2007 with an iconic photograph of a man rinsing soot from his face at the scene of an oil pipeline explosion in Lagos, December 2006. An award fellow of the National Geographic Society- All Roads photo project, Akintunde currently lives in Lagos and works for Reuters covering breaking news, documentary pieces and human interest stories.

The Akintunde Akinleye Exhibition is brought to you by The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria with its joint venture partners and the LagosPhoto Foundation. 

Beautifully Dreaming… Positively Speaking

Tosinger

LAGOSPHOTO FESTIVAL 2015 (@LagosPhotoFest) : TALENT CALL

LagosPhoto Festival is the first and only International Photography Festival in Nigeria. LagosPhoto is on the lookout for photographers working in Africa and from the African Diaspora telling unique and interesting stories.

• send  5 low res images (preferably from one project), project synopsis, your CV+ bio + date of birth to: outreach@lagosphotofestival.com The subject line: Talent Call_your name
• Submission policy: Due to the high volume of submissions, they  will contact you if they are interested in working with you. They are interested in all genres of photography. Get in touch!

For more info, visit their site at http://www.lagosphotofestival.com/news/article/lagosphoto-talent-call-2015

ABOUT LAGOSPHOTO
Launched in 2010, LagosPhoto is the first and only international arts festival of photography in Nigeria. In a month long festival, events include exhibitions, workshops, artist presentations, discussions and large scale outdoor prints displayed throughout the city with the aim of reclaiming public spaces and engaging the general public with multifaceted stories of Africa. LagosPhoto aims to establish a community for contemporary photography which will unite local and international artists through images that encapsulate individual experiences and identities from across all of Africa. LagosPhoto presents and educates about photography as it is embodied in the exploration of historical and contemporary issues, the sharing of cultural practices, and the promotion of social programmes.

HAABRE, THE LAST GENERATION- “Hââbré is the same word for writing/scarification” in Kô language from Burkina faso. Scarification is the practice of performing a superficial incision in the human skin. This practice is disappearing due to the pressure of religious and state authorities, urban practices and the introduction of clothing in tribes.” © Joana Choumali.

Beautifully Dreaming…. Positively Doing…

Tosinger

FOR THE LOVE OF AFRICA – Photography + Dance/Film

Hello Friends,
Lovers of the Arts and Africa,

I am spotlighting two artsy fundraiser projects that are telling the African story to  dispel preconceived perception and media projections.

1.  Photography by Andre Washington –  AFRICA TRAVELOGUE

Africa Travelogue‘s mission is to share photographs and travel journals to tell the stories that showcase the intense beauty of Africa – in all its culture rich variety – in order to bring new insight valuable to seeing, understanding, and truly appreciating this magnificent continent.

The aim of this project is to magnify the importance of this kind of work that pertains to seeing Africa in a different light.

Andre Washington, Curator of Africa Travelogue says:

Andre Washington, Africa Travelogue

“Africa Travelogue urgently needs the help and support from friends, followers, and you in order to continue the work and mission of revealing the magnificent beauty of Africa.

I desperately need to raise these funds especially in a time when the entire continent of Africa will now face the lopsided stigma of the Ebola crisis. My work can and will provide an accurate balance in imagery and reporting”.

To learn more about Africa Travelogue and give your support by purchasing a limited edition gallery print or making a donation, here is the link and password to the private fundraiser for a limited edition print sale for Africa Travelogue:

http://www.fundafricatravelogue.weebly.com

Password: SupportAndreAfrica

You can also inbox or friend Andre Washington on Facebook for questions or more info to support.

Thank you so much for your support!

**************************************************************************

2. Film and Dance – #TDMP: The Dance Movie Project. Africa’s 1st AFRO BEAT Dance Film.

On October 6, Lexxistalking Production, a film production company based in New York City, announced the launch of an exciting rewards driven Indiegogo campaign for ‘#TDMP: The Dance Movie Project,’ a new drama film set in Lagos, Nigeria that is based on real life events about the richness of Africa’s dance culture, the prevalence of diabetes in Africa and encouragement of African elders to nurture its youth’s natural talents.

Alexander “Lexx” Ore, Creator of #TDMP  says:

“I wanted to create an attention-grabbing story that shows the world what’s going on in Africa, particularly in countries like Nigeria where the prevalence of diabetes is on the rise. I also wanted to create a motion picture that would stimulate dialogue around the dance talents of African youths, particularly in ways that will exceed people’s preconceived notions about Africa . When completed, #TDMP will be the world’s first Afrobeat dance film.” – Alexander “Lexx” Ore

We hope that #TDMP will not only cultivate public awareness of the rich dance arts culture in Africa, but that it will also be the beginnings of a movement to inspire public health change. Additionally, when you support #TDMP’s Indiegogo campaign, you are proclaiming to the world that you believe that the raw talent of African youths should be developed and nurtured.

Watch video:

For more info, to support and stay updated on the project, please visit https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-dance-movie-project/x/390330

Beautifully Dreaming… Positively Doing

Tosinger