55 Secret Street

My Little Brown Eye... Cupcakes, Cocktails & Charms

I had a great time on Monday night in Williamsburg at Cupcakes, Cocktails & Charms, hosted by my same-name bud Nichelle Stephens and her Cupcakes Take The Cake partner Rachel Kramer Bussell.
The event was held at the adorable Brooklyn Charm, owned by Tracie Howarth.

The cupcakes (by Intoxicating Confections, using Svedka vanilla vodka) as expected, were amazing.  The charms merit a $55 and Under column of their own: super cute, affordable and unique.  My keychain was made on the spot (ditto for the other party guests) but you can make your own charms too, if you are so inclined.  

 

My Little Brown Eye... 'Silver Sparrow', 'When Beautiful People Do Ugly Things' & Wines from "Italy's Heel"

You remember my friend Tayari Jones, the Cozbi-loving, turkey-carving Slanket enthusiast? Well, her third novel, Silver Sparrow, the story of two sisters - the public and the secret daughter of a bigamist - who have more in common than they think, debuts on May 25th.  You can read an excerpt here.  Tayari's book tour (40+ stops at libraries and independent bookstores across the country) officially kicks off this week with a launch party and signing at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn.  She is also featured in the June issues of Vogue and O, The Oprah Magazine and NPR's All Things Considered with Michele Norris.

Lemon Ginger Martinis for everyone!

 

Another pal, director Monica Mingo (also featured previously on 55 Secret Street) just returned from the Cannes Film Festival with her film When Beautiful People Do Ugly Things.  Monica and her team at Team Sizzle Worldwide (Baltimore Ravens star Terrell Suggs co-wrote and produced the film) were featured in the Short Film Corner on May 11th.  I was lucky enough to see extended clips from the film and believe me when I tell you, I can not wait for it to be available at a theater near you very soon.

I was sorry to miss the next installment of a Greek wine tasting I so enjoyed last year (the picture on the left is from that day) because I could not miss my sister Charrell's graduation (she is now a DPT - Doctor of Physical Therapy!) So, I thought I would make up for it by attending a tasting for Puglia: a taste from Italy's Heel.  "Heel" meaning, as you may have guessed, the heel of the famous "boot" on Italy's map.  I misheard one of the winemakers (his accent was heavy and my Italian is non-existent) and asked him why the region was referred to as "Italy's Hell." Haha! He got a kick out of that one...

The tasting featured wine from some of Puglia's top wine producers, including: Cantine Botromagno, Casaltrinita, Masseria Celentano - Alberto Longo and  Cantine Teanum. Every vendor presented wines culled from grapes from the Apulia region (Aglianico, Primitivo and Nero di Troia).  I enjoyed the Primitivo from Cantine Teanum, a smooth, slightly sweet white reminiscent of Pinot Grigio and the Pier delle Vigne, a blend of Aglianico and Montepulciano.  The latter literally translates to "Peter of the vines" and is named after Pier delle Vigne, the right-hand man of Frederick II of Swabia. He was the one who introduced the first red-wine grapes to the area. 

Meanwhile, my newest online venture Vintage Black Glamour was recently featured on TheRoot.com as one of  The Root's Faves: The Top 12 Tumblrs and has a healthy following on Facebook and Twitter.  All very encouraging as I continuing working on the book...

My Little Brown Eye... A Brilliant Catastrophe

“I think I confuse people,” she says. “In this country, there is a bias against people who have a certain look or style. I have fought this all of my life. People only see this package, and it’s a tall and vocal package. So people think, Wait a minute, you can’t be this stylish and intelligent, too. I take people out of their comfort zone. At 50, I have learned who I am. I am not going to change who I am. But I will work hard to make people feel more comfortable. For me to change who I am would be the end of my soul. But I can keep this in consideration as I am talking, socializing, and enjoying other people.” Desirée Rogers [Chicago magazine]

No, it never was going to be easy, but someone needed to put creative sweat into this one, to reach for cinematic solutions to the theatrical challenge. All Perry does is force conventional plots and characters -- utter cliches without lives or souls -- into the fabric of Shange's literary work. The hackneyed melodramas get him from one poem to the next but run roughshod over the collective sense of who these women are.

Then, when Perry arrives at the next poetic passage, the switch in writing between him and Shange is jarringly pronounced. The words belong to different worlds. [Hollywood Reporter]

 

A Brilliant Catastrophe is a good thing by the way... 

Meet Brian Slade, or @BSlade, the artist formerly known as Tonex. He caused quite a stir in the gospel music world when he came out of the closet and confirmed the rumors that always followed his career. Now that he is truly being himself, his music reflects that, brilliantly.  He has released several mixtapes in the last year or so, but my favorite is his latest, A Brilliant Catastrophe. If you are old enough to remember the late, great Sylvester, brace yourself and listen to him tear up Sylvester's iconic disco jam, You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real). The video above is Slade's "Sylvester Screen Test," the ever hawt Get Over You.  Don't be distracted by the B. Scott silky smoothness of his hair - and check out the run at minute 2:12! [Anovelista.com]

My Little Brown Eye... Let's Play Catch-Up

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week begins today in New York and my sister Charrell will be covering Farah Angsana and Concept Korea tonight for 55 Secret Street.  I will begin my coverage tomorrow with backstage beauty at Georges Chakra, Ports 1961, Doo.Ri and Nicole Miller.  We will also be doing a few events for Fashion's Night Out, although I may skip some of the mayhem and go into @Anovelista mode in Brooklyn for RingShout: a Place for Black Literature.  It will be an evening of readings by four top African-American writers, Ta-Nehisi Coates,  Jeffrey Renard Allen, Danielle Evans and my friend Tayari Jones. Another buddy, black rock evangelist Rob Fields will be providing the music, so it's pretty irresistable to me.

In the meantime, I wanted to post a few of the pictures I took at the Blog Her conference in Manhattan last month. I was not an official attendee, but I was definitely in the house and I had a ball!  I hitched a ride with my same name buddy, Nichelle Pace, Chief Fashionista at StyleMom.com in the Ford Hybrid Escape she was test driving, courtesy of the people at Ford.  We were both a little freaked out at the noiseless start, but it was definitely a smooth ride.  A few weeks prior to Blog Her, I attended a style and trends panel hosted by Ford where they featured the Ford Fiesta, which  actually has the ability to tweet and check you in to Foursquare.  I was hoping the hybrid did the same thing, but I guess we'll have to settle for it being one of the greenest hybrid SUV's out there - for now.

That's me in the first picture with Shaunequa of Temple of Glam, Kathryn of The Budget Fashionista and  Alissa of Stylish Curves.  The second shot is me cutting up with Lianne of The Makeup Girl and Kristin from Fashion.Style.Beauty, both of whom will be hosting  Cocktails & Couture this weekend for fashion week at Ted Gibson's salon.

I was also very happy to meet so many bloggers I had not met before like Pam aka @Accessory Whore,  Jennifer of the @BaptistWineClub, Lindsay, Rachel (who owns Touch'd Bath and Body Products. I can't wait to try the bath sachet she gave me!) Cheryl of The Budge Bunch and the Funkidivagirl herself, Sherrelle.  I was also very excited to meet several of my @Anovelista buddies from Twitter: Cheryl of Jack & Jill Politics, Pam of Pam's House Blend, Lizz, co-creator of The Daily Show and Shireen, aka @DigitalSista.

 
Let me also give a quick shout out to Unilever, for the lovely Unilever Penthouse they hosted at The Royalton Hotel.  Dove and Vaseline were among the featured brands at the beauty and tasting suites and yes, those are indeed bedazzled Vaseline jars in the picture!

Vaseline, which recently celebrated 140 years on the market, offered custom-blended lip glosses and eyeshadows in their suite.  We were able to select the pigment of our choice to be expertly blended with Vaseline. I requested a deep plum berry color and I think it turned out pretty well.

 
In the Dove suite, I joined a group of my fellow bloggers as we made our own custom flip-flops.

 

That's StyleMom Nichelle in white, Victoria Pericon and Aly Walansky glue-gunning and bedazzling their hearts out.  Since I am not particularly crafty, I kept my Dove flip-flops simple.  Very simple: