Freshen Up Your Look - Vibe Vixen

Beauty Tips: How to Freshen Your Overall Look

Posted by VIXEN on Dec 5, 2012

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Whether for a work conference or a not-so-great extended outing, you’ve been going non-stop. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to look and feel your best.

What most people don’t realize is that long trips are the times that should be taken advantage of when it comes to taking care of your skin. Even though a change of weather, stress or exhaustion, can take a toll on your skin, if you care for it well during these times, it can be considered a little mini rejuvinization.
First and foremost, you can forgo the makeup. Yes. I know you can’t live without it sometimes, but it’s good to give your face a break from all the things that cake up your pores and take forever and a day to put on. This is when you can take the opportunity to moisturize, moisturize, moisturize your face, hands and body.
You can also use this time to reduce puffiness by…

…putting cold compresses or washclothes on your eyes. Let your natural eyelashes breathe and give your nails a break from the polish. Now just because you’re foregoing the makeup, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to pay attention to some parts of your face. Use moisturizing and healing lip balms (like Blistex) that will medicate your lips and give it a little shine. If you feel the need to give yourself a little shine, dust on some bronzer.

If you can, get lots of rest on your trip. The best way to look your best is to be well rested.

And there you have it, Vixens! -Afiya Augustine

Are You an Awkward Black Girl? - Vibe Vixen

Are YOU an Awkward Black Girl?

Posted by VIXEN on Oct 1, 2012

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I will admit it. I am absolutely in love with Issa Rae’s Awkward Black Girl series on YouTube. Not only do I love how hilarious the characters are in the series (like the really dorky one-night stand co-worker), but also I love the idea that we’re finally getting to see a person that I can honestly identify with–an awkward black girl.

I’ve been awkward for most of my life. Of all my friends, I’m always deemed “the quirky one” or “the weird one.” I was never good when it came to approaching my crushes. I usually sent notes with my friends reading something like “Smile, someone likes you” on the outside and “Laugh, it’s not the girl who gave you this note” on the inside, along with my confession of how I really liked him.
Those never ended well…


And as I got older, my awkward only grew with me. My tastes in music varied more than the average teenage black girl from “the hood” of Brooklyn. I wasn’t the girl wearing the latest in fashion and I wasn’t the girl that was the most boisterous in a group of people. And in the boys department, I found myself liking guys who were followed by the pretty harpy who rolled in a crew of mean girls. And it didn’t stop there.

The fact that I was never a person big on being expressive, people would think that I was really shy, really quiet or just apathetic. Many people were confused when I became a cheerleader in college.
“Oh my goodness! I can’t believe it!” That’s the response I would get on my Facebook when people saw the pictures of me online. They couldn’t figure it out because I wasn’t the smiling type. And they were right. The main reason I joined the squad was because of the athleticism. It was the closest thing to gymnastics, which was something I had always wanted to do.

But I digress.

Once I started working, my awkward continued to follow me. I was quiet, only speaking when I needed to. I kept my nose in my work and didn’t bother to join all the cool office people who went out to lunch together. By this time, I acknowledged that I was who I was and there was nothing that I could do to change it.

Then I saw Issa Rae’s Awkward Black Girl, and I laughed. I immediately felt that I wasn’t alone. I found a friend on YouTube, chronicling things that I and other awkward people go through. It wasn’t long before I had friends texting me, “Have you seen ABG on YouTube? I thought of you the moment I saw it.”

And after that, I was more than proud to be an Awkward Black Girl.–Afiya Augustine

Road Trip - Vibe Vixen

Making the Best of a Holiday Road Trip

Posted by VIXEN on Dec 10, 2012

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If you’re road trippin’ with friends or family, there’s always a chance for boredom to set in. You know that feeling: you’ve played every song on Rhi’s Unapologetic at least 6 times, eaten all the snacks from the last pit stop, and you’ve heard every single ‘knock knock’ joke from your little cousin. You’re literally dying. We feel your pain, and we’ve complied a few tips to get you through the toughest road trips. - Afiya Augustine
Play Good Music! Music is the glue that holds people together. Include music that will get you moving in your seat. Not only will it keep you up, it’ll make the drive interesting. Can’t decide which songs to play? Switch off being the DJ, so everyone can get a piece of the action. This way, you’ll hear different types of music, which will hopefully ignite…
Good Conversation. The makings of a good trip are laughs and intense conversations. Start with current events and entertainment news. If you’re with a group of old friends, reminisce about times you guys had before and the stories will pour out.

Play Games. Okay, we get it. Playing games seems childish, but it keeps a trip alive. Try Taboo, where it’s more mental than physical. If you have space, playing card games is a fun way to pass the time. But, leave your iPads and tablets at home—engaging everyone is what gets the people going.
Eat! The quickest way to ruin a trip is to have hungry and cranky folks around. Having non-perishable items like nuts, fruit, jerky is a great way to save cash on the road, and will keep you energized. Be sure to have water to keep you hydrated for the miles ahead.

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The Rules of a Proper House Guest - Vibe Vixen

The Rules of a Proper Houseguest

Posted by VIXEN on Dec 10, 2012

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When I visit a friend or a family member’s home, I always try to be a great houseguest. Growing up, my mother was a stickler for being courteous, and after having a string of not-so-great guests of our own, I’ve come to learn what hosts appreciate and abhor. Follow these steps and I’ll you’ll always have a place to stay. - Afiya Augustine

Make Arrangements. The first and foremost important thing to do is call ahead. Do not arrive unannounced. Everyone has plans and it’s never good to infringe someone else’s. Make arrangements that are are comfortable for all parties involved.
Don’t Bring Additional Guests. It’s simple: if your friends aren’t invited, don’t’ bring them. Just because you were given the opportunity to stay, doesn’t mean you have the right to include others. It’s rude and selfish. Please don’t be that girl.

Be Tidy. Do make sure to keep your belongings in an orderly fashion. No host likes a guest who treats their home like the bottom of a laundry basket.
Don’t’ Be Judgmental. It’s bad for business. You’re a guest, not  Jesus. So what if they have an annoying cat, or the kitchen could be neater. Keep your comments to yourself.
Don’t Eat Everything. Be considerate when it comes to food and toiletries. No one likes a hog. Even better—offer to help pay for groceries. And if you’re up for it, ask to prepare the meal.
Give a Gift. It’s always nice if you can give a small gift when you arrive or right before leaving. A bottle of wine or flowers are great tokens of appreciation.

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When Do You Know? - New Piece for VibeVixen.com

Check out my new piece for VibeVixen.com

When Do You Know You’re Ready?

Posted by VIXEN on Oct 1, 2012

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There’s a guy you’re attracted to. He’s funny, sharp, well-groomed and (the best part) he’s seemingly into you. You can feel your attraction to him growing after only one conversation. Your body is reacting, giving you all the signals that you want to move things to the next step. Do you?
Most female friends I know would protest a strong “no,” saying that sex with a guy on the first night is a surefire way to demonstrate that you have no form of self-respect. But does it really mean you have no self-respect, or you don’t respect what society expects of women when meeting men?
I remember watching shows like Girlfriends where Joan Clayton (played by Tracee Ellis Ross) would not sleep with a guy she was dating until the three-month mark. Among my inner circle of girlfriends, there were similar proclamations: “I won’t have sex until after the third date” or “I have sex after a month.” While I can acknowledge their choices to reserve sex until a regimented period of time, I always wonder, what exactly are we looking for in this guy before we give up the goods?

The old adage “he’ll never buy the ice cream truck when you’re giving out the popsicles for free” comes to mind when I think of it all and the double-sided stigma that is placed on women in society. If you have sex with a guy right away, you may be looked down upon because you’re not supposed to have sex with a guy you’ve only know for a few minutes. This woman is not looked at as a sexually liberated, empowered woman who knows what she wants and takes charge of a potentially rewarding situation. Oh no. Men are the ones allowed and even rewarded for having sex with multiple women in one day after only one chance encounter.
Is it the fact that we have more to lose than men do? Think about it. If you slept with a guy you had an actual interest in (not just a one-night stand) after a few hours and a pregnancy resulted from that, he would be free to walk away, while you would have to figure out how to rearrange your entire life.
Sure, hormones and alcohol may be tripping up the senses, but I suggest waiting game! If you spend more time learning about your partner, then you may have an idea of where his head was at in the event of something sexual happening between you two. You’d know if he was in it for the long haul or if he was just looking for a new partner for cuffing season. It makes sense to make a guy wait, but at the end of the day, do you still know him enough to spend a night with him? You could sleep with him after three months and then learn that he has two wives in another city of five baby mamas…
At the end of the day, only you can really know when you’re ready to take that step with a guy. If you feel a connection, go for it. But if you want to take your time, you’re within your right to. Vixens, what is your personal deciding factor of when it comes to taking a guy to bed and when do you know that you’ve reached that threshold?–Afiya Augustine

Radha Blank's 'SEED' Takes Roots in Harlem

Radha Blank’s ‘SEED’ Takes Root in Harlem

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Post by Afiya Augustine in Culture > Art on Oct 11, 2011 at 12:24 pm

The off-Broadway production SEED explores the present day situation of children growing up abandoned and confused, while touching on class struggles. The play begs the question, how far would a person go to make sure a child is safe?  Written by Radha Blank and directed by Niegel Smith, the play is one of two works the National Endowment of the Arts awarded a $90,000 grant to in November 2010.

The play centers around Anne Colleen Simpson, (played by Bridgit Antoinette Evans) a ‘burnt-out social worker’ leaving at the pinnacle of her 15-year career to write a novel of her great triumphs and knowledge of the field. Upon leaving her job, she encounters a young boy named Che-Che (played by Khadim Diop) who is more than just what meets the eye. This chance encounter turns both their lives and those of the people involved up-side down.

The stage provides the audience  with sounds and sights of the Harlem neighborhood thriving projected onto a large screen. Cleverly crafted to look like real life scenes, the play adds elements of spoken-word, street vernacular, and realistic dialogue that leaves the audience filled with a comical and almost jarring taste of modern-day real life situations that for some may be close to home.

Image courtesy of Columbia University School of the Arts

As the story progresses we learn more about Anne, who actress Evans describes as a person “who’s greatest gift is over-identifying with the children she serves. This also means she’s not able to let go when her job demands it and she’s asked to confront some those relationships.” Anne captivates the audience within the first fifteen minutes, as she delivers a seminar mixed with spoken-word and prose, detailing the accounts of children who were products of homes that couldn’t care for them. Bridgit’s portrayal of the character is endearing, as we see the wounds and failures of this woman break down her already fragile strength.

Of these failures, we encounter probably Anne’s biggest failure personified in Rashawn. An inmate for murder, Rashawn was quite possibly the biggest blemish of Anne’s career; a blemish that we learn she continually tries to redeem in multiple ways. The play takes a dark and harrowing turn when Pernell Walker (below) takes the stage as the young woman she herself describes as “left to raise herself, with no guidance, no adult and left to her own devises.” When Walker takes the stage it’s hard not to ask how she was able to play such a broken and complex character:

“I grew up with a lot of Rashawns in the South Bronx. She is the personification of what was left in the the 80′s crack epidemic, sexual abuse and drug addiction. She is an amalgam of everything that was happening and a survivor of the system, even though she’s been aged out.”

Image courtesy of Times Square Gossip

Khadim Diop plays Che-Che (whose real name is Cherokee) and is received as an intelligent 12 year-old caught between worlds within worlds. Already dealing with societal pressures of growing up in “the hood,” he constantly struggles with being what his mother wants him to be and who Anne knows him to be. There is no real compromise in the matter and this alone adds a great deal of friction in this already gripping drama.

The play is not without some comic relief to sweeten the dramatic scenes. LaTonya, Che-Che’s mother, provides a street smart sass that garnered plenty of laughs from the audience. LaTonya raises Che-Che in a Harlem project housing, all the while working the register at a Duane Reade and attending GED classes.LaTonya believes that she’s protecting Che-Che the best way she can, despite obvious instances of verbal and light physical abuse.  Jocelyn Biop, the actress who plays LaTonya, describes her as “a strong-willed, opinionated, sassy and protective. But at the heart of it all, she’s hurt.”

This hurt stems from LaTonya’s former lover and Che-Che’s father Twan (as played by Jamie Lincoln Smith) who we initially think is a dead-beat dad though he’s anything but. Twan, (who is allegedly based on the playwright’s brother, takes the stage with a loving embrace of his son. The two are apparently close, though we are asked the question if this is enough to ensure that Che-Che will grow up to be the bright, well-adjusted upstanding man he can be.

“Twan is a struggling to prove that he’s not a dead beat. He’s a strong guy, and a construction worker who thinks that he’s doing the best to provide for his son…until he meets the social worker.” The audience learns of the beginnings of Twan and LaTonya’s relationship and how Twan’s late education ultimately broke them apart. Now, education has returned as the underlying issue with regards to raising their child.

For the cast, this play is truly a labor of love, with all members coming to the project in almost a predestined way. For Diop, getting the part of Che-Che came  by through his mother’s connection with Blank- “Radha went to college with my mother and saw me grow up and knew that I really liked acting.” For Walker, it had been that Blank had seen some of her work, sought her out and the pair “hit it off.” Smith learned of the part through a friend who was also a playwright and friends with Blank. Bioh had seen the workshop and became enamored. She tried out for the part and got it with ease and as for Evans this play came to her literally a day after she decided to get back into acting and after only a day of preparation, she earned the part of Anne and dazzled the audience in an emotional performance.

SEED opens the audience’s attention to the little real-life situations that happen right under our noses everyday and forces us to open our eyes to the consequences of our actions on the lives of the generation after us. As Che-Che struggles to find his place in the world with his educational talents, we see the adults in his life try to do right by him at all costs, though we are left wondering if the adults in charge understand what’s right for him. With a phenomenal troupe of actors, stylized dialogue, minimalistic setting and deep rooted message, SEED thoroughly shines through the shadows of other Off-Broadway productions.

SEED ran in its last show at the National Black Theater in Harlem on October 9th.

THE POP-UP: 2011-13-09

THE POP-UP: 2011-13-09

By AAugustine

Hollywood moves fast, so we keep the pace for you. “The Pop Up” brings you the latest news happening in pop culture, to keep you up to speed in your daily conversations. We weed out the wackness, and deliver quality links that will make you the go-to person for the inside scoop.

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the death of rap legend 2-Pac. Recently, hip-hop group and friends of Tupac The Outlawzdeclared they they actually smoked some of his ashes in a blunt, as it was a ‘request’ made by Tupac Amaru Shakur in the song “Black Jesus”: ’Last wishes, n—-s smoke my ashes.’ Outlawz member E.D.I. said “that was a request that he had. Now, how serious he was about it? We took it serious.” Check the video here for further details. Well, if you can’t remember him with a blunt, check out2pac.com, the official site of the Shakur Estate. From September 13 – 18, the site will be featuring articles about the rapper’s work, a vid about his life and music.

In case you missed it, Leila Lopes of Angola was crowned Ms. Universe 2011! The 25-year-old beauty beat out 88 other competitors for the coveted crown in the wold’s largest beauty pageant. Audience members in Sao Paulo, Brazil all remarked that she deserved win, despite beating their country’s representative and that she had them when she spoke in their common language of Portuguese, answered her questions with the best possible answers and dazzled them with her smile. Leila is the fourth African winner of the Ms. Universe pageant.

In an ironic twist in fashion week, designer John Galliano was found guilty of his anti-Semitic rants in Paris and has been given suspended fines of 6,000 euros ($8,400). The remarks came about two separate incidents occurring in February of this year and October of 2010. The designer, who was prompted fired by Dior for his arrest on the matter, is adamant that he is not racist and that the remarks were the result of both his alcohol and drug dependency due to his ‘stressful job.’

WHAT WOULD THEY SAY: MAD MEN’S DON DRAPER SELLS AMERICAN DREAMS

WHAT WOULD THEY SAY: MAD MEN’S DON DRAPER SELLS AMERICAN DREAMS

By Patrice Peck
Written By Afiya Augustine

What’s better than having a juicy conversation on the latest pop culture happenings? Listening to your favorite pop culture characters have a conversation about it! In the WWTS blog series, we re-imagine pop culture through the eyes of your favorite characters in movies, television and more.

This week, Don Draper from the hit series Mad Men delivers one of his Draper-esque monologues on remembering 9-11.

Don Draper: This Sunday will be September-11^th, a day that is to be remembered in American History as one of the greatest terrorist attacks on American soil. Now let’s put aside for a moment all the conspiracy theories and government faults that many have complained about for a minute because this even is bigger than an individual person. We have to remember first, that we are Americans, and that and we pride ourselves on the values that we’ve created for all those who walk on this country soil. It’s not about how strike fear into the Islamic communities that shook the nation with its heinous act; it’s about how we can be better ourselves as Americans and glorify what it means to be a proud American. What it means to be a confident citizen of a country built on our strength and courage.

We must look at our children, growing up in an ever-changing world and maintain that sense of innocence and nostalgia that we held dear before the towers fell. We should help them to grow up with the all-American vision in mind. They should not feel that they should cower in fear, but rather walk with their heads held high because they did nothing wrong but live a life that can only be defined as the American dream.

This will be a time to look back on of all the 9-11 workers who risked their lives for this country. They felt their sense of Americanism flowing through their veins and gave up their lives to keep that blood pumping…going. We have to their memory alive and keep the values that they had in them very much a part of us. And as for the fear mongers- let them know that on Sunday, we will not look back and remember the fear that these terrorists set into us, but rather the bravery that they unlocked within us all.

Peggy Olsen: Wow Don…that was beautiful.

Don: I know. But I’m just speaking from my heart here…

Betty Francis: I didn’t know you had one of those Don…

Pete Campbell: Good job selling America, Don. Who are we pitching this one to again?