Riding the wave is a phrase I use to describe optimizing current events to market your brand, business, or organization!
My primary creative muse is cowrie shells with my handcrafted fashion accessory brand Accented Glory. There are beautiful cowrie shell accessories through out The Woman King movie trailers. I’m encouraging my customer base to embrace their inner warrior and adorn themselves with my accessories when they go see the film!
Whenever there’s a popular current event, think of how your business ties into it and promote it! Click on Amazon to shop for my cowrie shell designs.
The month of March is Women’s History Month. The Vine Events is commemorating the accomplishments of women around the globe. Visit our social media pages for daily post honoring women.
International Women’s Day is also celebrated in March. Our very own, Tonya Cross, was featured in Donnatela Blog for International Women’s Day! To read blog in English, log on to your laptop and select English in translator drop box. Thanks Lidia Evangelista for inclusion among a list of GREAT women!
Photo Source: Accented Glory Website Pictured: Tonya Cross, Founder of The Vine Events and Accented Glory.
Our specialty is informative events such as, Q&A parties, screening dialogues, interpersonal workshops, and community forums. We offer both face-to-face and online event designs. Contact us today for a “free” consultation for your next meeting/event.
This month, The Vine Events is commemorating Women’s History Month. National Women’s History Project (NWHP) theme for 2014 is “Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, and Commitment”. Visit our social network pages for daily post about great women and their accomplishments. For more information about Women’s History Month and NWHP click here.
During March, we’re also hosting an online dialogue about African presence in the Bible. We’ll be discussing chapter 2 of Bishop J.W. Hood book “The Centennial of African Methodism” (click here to read). Bishop Hood was one of the founders of Livingstone College and Hood Theological Seminary was named after him. Both institutions are located in Salisbury, NC. Our dialogue will be on Tuesday, March 25th at 9pm EST. Visit Upcoming Events to RSVP.
Our specialty is informative events such as, Q&A parties, screening dialogues, interpersonal workshops, and community forums. We offer both face-to-face and online event designs. Contact us today for a “free” consultation for your next meeting/event.
Join our Google+ Community @ The Vine Events Chat Cafe!
We asked some of our guest from our screening of “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” to share their thoughts about the film. Our third guest blogger is Dustin Wilson. Thanks Dustin for your support and sharing!
It was a great night on May 29th as Hannah (my wife) and I got the chance to attend the viewing of “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” with our good friends Anthony and Toni Smith. This documentary was about a professor and activist Angela Davis who took a stand for justice for the oppressed in the midst of difficult times in the 60s and early 70s. This documentary was beautifully painted by the film’s director Shola Lynch.
Here are the few things that stood out to me.
HERO or TERRORIST?
Growing up in the 90s as a young white boy, I never heard stories about Angela Davis. I did hear stories about Ronald Reagan and also Richard Nixon but not like I heard them in this documentary. As I watched the story of Angela, my eyes were opened once again to the fact that when someone goes against the powers that be, to some that person might be a terrorist but to others, a hero. In this case, I believe that Angela Davis was a hero to the oppressed in the face of angry, power-hungry white males that did not want to see things the way that they were during the 60s and early 70s.
Story Teller
In a way, what Angela Davis did was read the story of society as it was displayed during her day and then wrote a new story of how it should be. Her story was for justice and for freedom. She used her well-educated words to speak out for equal rights. Just like when you are reading a book that you do not like, you close it and put it down, the folks that were in power tried to do the same thing by closing the book. They wanted Angela Davis quiet. They wanted to shut her book. But just like a book that cannot be put down, people wanted to hear Angela Davis. Through the “new” story telling of Angela Davis, a revolution was birthed and lived out.
Race Issues/Women Rights Issues
Angela Davis challenged white men and people of power to see things through different eyes. She spoke up for the voiceless. The 60s and early 70s were full of racism in the deepest form and women were also not viewed the same as men. As I see it, we live in a society where race is still an issue and justice is sometimes one sided. We, like Angela, need to see the story of our society and call for justice. Not only do we need to call for it, but also, as Angela, do our part to rewrite the story.
I would like to thank Tonya Miller Cross with “The Vine Events” for organizing this event. There was a great turn out and I look forward to
future events by The Vine.
Dustin Wilson lives in East Spencer, NC. Dustin is co-organizer/missionary of Freedom Journey – a missionary effort in Rowan County journeying toward reconciliation of people to God, neighbor to neighbor and church to community. Dustin is also apart of a kingdom experiment in Salisbury, NC called Mission House.
We asked some of our guest from our screening of “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” to share their thoughts about the film. Our second guest blogger is Whitney Peckman. Thanks Whitney for your support and sharing!
Seeing Free Angela and All Political Prisoners was both a learning experience and a trip down Memory Lane since I am a year older than she. I remember, at the time, the disbelief in the white community – disbelief at what so many saw as audacity (that blacks would take such an independent stand without fear – though, of course, there was plenty of fear!), as incredulity (that “they” had anything to complain about…after all, the Civil Rights Bill was a done deal!), and, as events continued to evolve and invade living rooms with the evening news, growing fear. Would this be the revolution? (Would this be when “they” got back at us?) And, there were some, mostly on college campuses (and amazingly, on farms!), who could see the truth, as is well shown in the film. Thank God for institutions of higher learning!
My personal life, in those years, was greatly in turmoil. I had spent several years living in a mixed community and on college campuses. Looking back, and watching people come together over what was such a righteous cause, made me wish I had driven across the country, my two-year old by the hand, and joined the picket line. Angela was a bright shining star – an enormously intelligent woman in control of her choices because she took control of them. Others of us came more slowly to that achievement.
And so, I watched the film with a much greater understanding of those hard fought battles. I wonder if Angela knows, really understands, what a giant leap she made – for all of us…black, white, women, men, Americans striving to live up to our vision of this land of the free. One could not sit in that audience and fail to understand that the same struggle goes on today. The struggle continues, and every high school student should see Free Angela.
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We asked some of our guest from our screening of “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners” to share their thoughts about the film. Our first guest blogger is Anthony Smith. Thanks Anthony for your support and sharing!
On May 29th Toni (my wife) and I hung out with our friends and gospel co-conspirators Dustin and Hannah Wilson to see the new documentary about professor, activist and revolutionary Angela Davis titled “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners”. The event was hosted by The Vine Events, a local group that curates educational, cultural and community events whose lead organizer is Tonya Miller Cross.
Free Angela covered the events surrounding Angela Davis’ imprisonment in California during the late 60s and early 70s. The documentary itself did a great job in weaving her personal story within the larger social and cultural tumult of the 60s.
Rather than a re-cap I’d like to just simply point out random ideas, thoughts and observations that emerged for me on that night.
1. It only takes a handful of committed change-agents to demonstrate that another world is possible. In particular, Davis’ connection with various organizations within the black power movement, Communist party, and other radical movement groups during this period. These folks literally saw themselves ‘ushering in’ another world characterized by equality and freedom. Today, we need more leaders with this kind of mindset. Reminds me of the conversation in larger liberationist movements that focus on pre-figurative politics and what some followers of Jesus would describe as a kind of eschatological politics….whereby a group of people demonstrate in the present moment a more just and peaceful lifestyle in the midst of societal oppression. Will you play a part in ushering a different more just world?
2. You don’t need permission to start a revolution. I was inspired by Davis’ self-possession. She had a strong sense of self and identity as a woman, revolutionary and human being. Her courage to distinguish herself from the patriarchy and nationalism of some of the black power organizations demonstrated her willingness to be about revolutionary projects that fit her own particular story. Also her ability to see herself unfolding within a larger story with different streams pouring into her personal story. She did not distance herself from all that made her who she was and is. She weaved into her story her life as an entrenched Continental Philosopher, child of the Jim Crow South (hailing from the black elite in Birmingham, Al); an elite education and other elements you’d think would disqualify her from solidarity with the oppressed and marginalized. Her elite education did not stop her from joining in the social revolution. But she realized she had to dig in and get her hands and feet dirty. She was not afraid to be her own person thus demonstrating her equality whether it was recognized or not. What revolution will you start?
3. Raison d’etre. This word was used a couple of times during the documentary. I was asked its meaning by someone watching it with me. It is a French phrase that means ‘reason for existence’. It also means to possess a sense of purpose or direction. Dr. Davis represented a human being who discovered her raison d’etre. Also, someone that made an intentional decision to unfold and flourish in it. Unfortunately, the graveyard is overflowing with people who never discover nor walk out their raison d’tre. What’s yours?
Anthony Smith lives in Salisbury, NC. Anthony is one of the co-hosts (along with this wife Toni Cook-Smith) of Mission House, a kingdom experiment in Salisbury, NC. He is the ‘resident emerging theologian’ of an Emergent Village cohort in Charlotte and a co-host of the emergent cohort in Statesville, NC. He also serves on the leadership team of TransFORM, a global network of missional leaders and communities. He facilitates a blog, Musings of a Postmodern Negro, that is an investigation into the intersection of theology, philosophy, race, popular culture, politics, and emerging culture
Women’s History Week was initially created by the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission (California) on the Status of Women in 1978. It was chosen during the week of March 8th so that it would coincide with International Women’s Day. In 1981, Women’s History Week received national recognition by a joint Congressional resolution. In 1987, Congress extended into a month-long celebration. Today, Women’s History Month is an international celebration.
This year’s theme for the commemorative month is “Women’s Education – Women’s Empowerment”. The Vine Event Planning will be commemorating Women’s History Month by thinking outside the box for our monthly online event on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheVineEventPlanning. We understand that school or college is not the only place education occurs. We will highlight women who educate and empower women from various aspects of education. So, from the hair stylist to the workout instructor and from the poet to the professor; we will cover it all!
This month, we encourage you to celebrate women by researching the accomplishments of women in your area of interests and/or by simply holding a causal conversation about a woman you admire with a fellow employee or friend. To find more information about Women’s History Month go to http://www.infoplease.com/womens-history-month/.
The Vine Events 