Esoterica
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This work by Mikki Kendall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
 
 
 

Do you know the Queen of Sheba?

magdalilly:

imageimageimageimageimageimageimage

I was born and raised in the 70s and Sheba was BIG then in my world. 

Sheba

A somewhat nebulous figure, the Queen of Sheba (fl. 10th century BCE)—known also as Bilqis and as Makeda—figures prominently in Judaic, Islamic, and Ethiopian traditions. Her legendary voyage to meet Solomon, King of Israel, has inspired centuries of speculation about her kingdom and influence in the ancient world. Modern-day Ethiopians believe her, as the mother of their first Emperor, Menilek I, to be the ultimate maternal ancestor of the dominant Ethiopian royal dynasty.

A Queen of Legend

“Little has been verified about the Queen of Sheba’s life—in fact, even such basic details as her given name and the exact location of her kingdom remain uncertain…

well-attested in three major ancient sources: the Biblical Old Testament, the Islamic Qu’ran, and the Ethiopian Kebra Nagast (Glory of the Kings). These three perspectives on the Queen meld to create a picture of one of the relatively rare, powerful female monarchs of the ancient world.”

http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Queen_of_Sheba.aspx

“The Queen of Sheba - an exotic and mysterious woman of power - is immortalised in the world’s great religious works, among them the Hebrew Bible and the Muslim Koran. She also appears in Turkish and Persian painting, in Kabbalistic treatises, and in medieval Christian mystical works, where she is viewed as the embodiment of Divine Wisdom and a foreteller of the cult of the Holy Cross. In Africa and Arabia her tale is still told to this day and, indeed, her tale has been told and retold in many lands for nearly 3,000 years.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/cultures/sheba_01.shtml

http://www.sourcememory.net/veleda/?p=571

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18526428

HEY LOOK!!!! AN ONLINE DOCUMENTARY:

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/queen-of-sheba-behind-the-myth/

Pam Grier IS “Sheba, Baby!” check out the retro 70s movie promo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xahdFpTq2JM

MOST OF THE IMAGES/PICS/ILLUSTRATIONS OF THIS QUEEN ARE RARE, OBSCURE, MODERN because she is ANCIENT.  But I found some portraits that moved me and that seem inspired.  OF COURSE THERE ARE THE REQUISITE IMAGES THAT SHOW A WHITE/EUROPEAN FEMALE TO PORTRAY AN ETHIOPIAN QUEEN……………. I didn’t even go there.  they can BITE ME and kiss the Queen’s ass!

“Since the Queen was from Ethiopia, it’s highly unlikely that she would be a Caucasian woman as so many early renderings and even more modern films depict. Moreover, there is further evidence of this in the Bible chapter The Songs of Solomon, apparently written by Solomon for one of his lovers, perhaps to Makeda herself:

I am black but comely
O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
As the tents of Kedar,
As the curtains of Solomon,
Look not upon me because I am black,
Because the sun hath scorched me.

Clearly this, along with other tales of the queen that existed in such texts as the Torah and the Quran, would have provided quite a bit of evidence about how the queen may have looked. Of course, with attitudes toward people of color being what they were, it is no surprise that this became an early case of whitewashing.” -(MY NOTES- RACISM is as old as Dirt, just filthier.  And WHITEWASHING of history and in religion is even older…….)

http://persephonemagazine.com/2012/05/08/the-queen-of-sheba/

ANYWAY………………………………………………………………………………………..

PLEASE ENJOY this heavenly classical work heralding The Queen’s Arrival

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C66XCqWkhmw

After opera’s decline of popularity in England during the 1730’s, Handel switched to writing oratorios. These were lengthy choral works without operatic staging or scenery, his most famous of these being Messiah. Another such work, Solomon, brings us the Entrance of the Queen of Sheba.

Written for mallet ensemble and two flutes, Entrance of the Queen of Sheba allows the musicians to demonstrate how well Baroque music adapts to percussion instruments. In an age where contemporary music sometimes dominates percussion concerts, this will provide a nice contrast that not only highlights the beauty of Handel’s music but welcomes the addition of woodwinds into the mix.

This arrangement of Entrance of the Queen of Sheba has been heard worldwide on the popular CD “Bach on Wood,” which helped garner Brian Slawson a Grammy nomination for “Best New Classical Artist.”

 
 
 
 

More Queen Charlotte info…….

magdalilly:

Origin of Charlotte: French, feminine diminutive of Charles

Meaning of Charlotte: “free man”

Charlotte is an elegant royal name, with a host of widely varied role models, from Charlotte Bronte to the spidery Charlotte of E. B. White’s Web to the more recent Charlotte York, aka the prissy one, of Sex and the City. Charlotte is appealing to a wide range of parents because it sounds feminine yet grownup, sophisticated yet lush.

England’s Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III who ruled in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, was the mother of fifteen children and a patron of Mozart and Bach. Charlotte and George ruled England during the French and American revolutions; Charlotte was called “The Mulatto Queen” and was rumored to have African ancestry, a claim that American abolitionists used to support their cause.

Check out these links which reference Her Majesty:

http://www.africaspeaks.com/reasoning/index.php?topic=1513.0;wap2

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/singers/sfeature/ward.html

http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/tocn-mla000473-ancestry-of-british-royal-family

http://entertainment.webshots.com/photo/2882357510094285158QpETxJ

THIS LAST LINK HAS AN OUTSTANDING COLLECTION OF PAINTINGS OF THE QUEEN!

http://ourstorian.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/charlotte-of-mecklenburg-strelitz/

That statue of her can be found in Charlotte, North Carolina in the U.S.

 
 

So according to the ashy dick mothafuckers, focusing on Black women first is MISANDRY!!

sourcedumal:

Well please enlighten me, ashy dick niggas

Who the hell is going to give a shit about us Black women first and foremost if we’re focusing on you ALL THE DAMN TIME?

WHO?

Because you sure as hell ain’t.

But apparently, because us Black women are apparently getting more jobs than they are (despite the fact that Black women are paid LESS than Black men on nearly ALL educational levels) it’s MISANDRY!!!!

Us caring about OUR LIVES in the face of that 60% of sexual assault and 35% higher domestic abuse rate is MISANDRY!!!

Exactly when the fuck are we supposed to give a damn about OUR LIVES?

Oh right.

We aren’t.

We’re supposed to worship the Black man even if he’s strangling us to death.

 
 

Black people who believe that misogyny is not a problem in the Black community are deluded.

 
 
Dear God. Someone can please make tarantino die in a fire. Or skin him alive

lavienoire:

How is that he has this fantasy of a cutified situation of slave black women and how white slavers can “love their ponies and make them their wives” and if it all were such a harmless thing. The level of dehumanization, people.

Rich white straight cis men, people. Rich white straight cis men.

 
 
ladymargo: thecivilwarparlor: Rare Photograph Reveals Details about pre-Civil War Slave in Baltimore Martha Ann “Patty” Atavis holds Alice Lee Whitridge, one of the children in her care. The Maryland Historical Society recently acquired the rare photograph and documents that shed light on Atavis’ life as a pre-Civil War domestic slave in Baltimore. Historians plan to use the new information to learn more about urban slavery in Baltimore and around the country.  “Daguerreotypes of slaves by themselves are incredibly rare, let alone ones that have information as to the sitter. The auction package w/photo included documentation about Atavis, including an 1839 bill of sale that identified Atavis as a “slave for life.” Her previous owner, Ruth McCubbin, sold Atavis to Whitridge for $200. Atavis was about 23 years old when she was sold.  The images and documentation are currently on display at the Maryland Historical Society. For more information, please call the Historical Society at 410-685-3750 orhttp://www.mdhs.org/. The look on her face. I mean, both of them.

ladymargo:

thecivilwarparlor:

Rare Photograph Reveals Details about pre-Civil War Slave in Baltimore

Martha Ann “Patty” Atavis holds Alice Lee Whitridge, one of the children in her care. The Maryland Historical Society recently acquired the rare photograph and documents that shed light on Atavis’ life as a pre-Civil War domestic slave in Baltimore. Historians plan to use the new information to learn more about urban slavery in Baltimore and around the country. 

“Daguerreotypes of slaves by themselves are incredibly rare, let alone ones that have information as to the sitter. The auction package w/photo included documentation about Atavis, including an 1839 bill of sale that identified Atavis as a “slave for life.” Her previous owner, Ruth McCubbin, sold Atavis to Whitridge for $200. Atavis was about 23 years old when she was sold. 

The images and documentation are currently on display at the Maryland Historical Society. For more information, please call the Historical Society at 410-685-3750 orhttp://www.mdhs.org/.

The look on her face.

I mean, both of them.

 
 
faboomama: The photo above is flying around the Internet today: Keesha Patterson of Fort Washington got down on one knee and proposed to her girlfriend Rowan Ha at President Obama’s victory rally Tuesday night in Chicago. (via Two Maryland women get engaged at Obama rally in Chicago - Rosenwald, Md. - The Washington Post)
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md4uy8yiu61qzxatno1_1280.jpg

faboomama:

The photo above is flying around the Internet today: Keesha Patterson of Fort Washington got down on one knee and proposed to her girlfriend Rowan Ha at President Obama’s victory rally Tuesday night in Chicago.

(via Two Maryland women get engaged at Obama rally in Chicago - Rosenwald, Md. - The Washington Post)

 
 
 
 
Why is Breast Cancer Killing So Many Black Women?

girljanitor:

Although 1 out of 8 women will develop breast cancer in the United States, it remains deadliest for Black women.  A recent study by the Sinai Urban Health Institute in Chicago, IL reveals that African-American women are more likely to die of breast cancer not due to genetics, but because of racial disparity and inequality in health care.  Subsequently, nearly five Black women needlessly die everyday because they lack the proper information and quality services.

The realities of inadequate health care, access, and poverty in the Black community are also mixed with fear, silence, and suspicion of the medical system who only fifty years ago purposefully infected 400 poor Black men with syphilis in a medical study known as the Tuskegee experiment. 

Mistrust and historic disenfranchisement greatly impact those battling breast cancer, a disease that has a 98% survival rate if caught early.  In an interview with Dr. Regina Hampton of the Capital Breast Center the Washington Post writes of this skepticism:

“… Hampton and others think [Black] women also carry angst stemming from a historically unhealthy relationship between African Americans and a medical system that was inaccessible. Often lacking the money or insurance for preventive care, many [Black] people didn’t seek medical help until they were seriously ill.”

In addition to Black women, Black male breast cancer patients and survivors like African-American icon Richard Roundtree who played John Shaft in the 1970s Blaxploitation action film Shaft, face the same barriers compounded with the social stigma with having an illness that rarely impacts men.  Because male breast cancer accounts for just 1% of all breast cancer diagnoses, Black men are even less likely to visit their healthcare provider upon discovery of a lump.  Roundtree, a breast cancer survivor since 1993, is an outspoken advocate male breast cancer and encourages others to break the silence and seek treatment.

Yet beyond the silence, institutional barriers and discrimination in the American healthcare system persist.  In Texas, Governor Rick Perry recently moved to cut $5 million in funds to the Texas Women’s Health Program allotted to Planned Parenthood.  The “war on Planned Parenthood” launched by Republican politicians and the pro-life lobby threatens the organization, which provides millions with vital breast cancer screenings and mammograms nationwide.  With the rate of uninsured African Americans rising to 20.5% in 2010, Planned Parenthood has seen an increase in Black patients rise to 36%, including an increase of 27% of Black males.

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month and October draw to a close, the efforts to spread awareness of breast cancer and secure life saving services should continue.

Early detection and screenings remain critical and The American Cancer Society recommends the following::

●      Breast self-examination starting in the 20s

●      Yearly mammograms starting at age 40

●      Clinical breast exams as part of a periodic health exam and yearly for those over 40

Check out “The Wisdom of Survivors,” featuring African-American breast cancer survivors sharing personal experiences and how they overcame the disease and the barriers to access here.

(note on article content: during the Tuskegee Experiment, the men experimented upon were never told they had it and never given information or an access to the cure-instead, they withheld treatment, allowed them to spread it to their wives and children, and watched 400 men go insane and die of a horrific disease that would have been easily cured with antibiotics. I’m unaware of any evidence that shows that the men were initially infected on purpose, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they weren’t, nor does that make it any less terrifyingly nightmarish.)

 
 
 
 
 
 
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