Eat for LIFE!

I spent an exciting day on the set in Harlem with Chef Kenny Minor for his new show "Eat For Life with Chef Kenny!" I've never been a terribly unhealthy eater, but I also never gave myself a limit with portions nor any kind of limit with sweets! At my age now, my lack of portion control and love of sweets is finally catching up with me. I have got to gain control of managing my hectic schedule with managing more quick and healthy meals. Chef Kenny showed me how! 

He made a lima and white bean salad, with multi-grain vinaigrette (various mustard seeds, 'cause this girl had NO clue where the actual multi grains came from. lol) ; a wheat crust pizza with avacado sauce, topped with red cabbage, fennel and chorizo; and a BANGIN' smoothie made with a Vitamix blender! It was the perfect, refreshing mix of kale, ice, vanilla soy milk, cinnamon, ginger, mangoes and a green apple. GREEN PERFECTION IN A GLASS! It blended so smoothly, and the Vitamix automatically shut itself off after blending, and it apparently cleans itself too!

Anywho, it was a great day in Harlem, all in the name of healthy cooking and eating!

January 1954-2014: The Dream Continues

January 1954. 
My parents would be born this year into the segregated south, into a society that pitted whites against blacks.

January 1972. 
My parents were seniors in high school, and although Brown v. Board passed the year they were born, this would be the first year that South Carolina would integrate public schools.

January 1983.
Dr. Martin Luther King day was signed into law as a federal holiday by President Reagan.  
I was born a year before this.

January 2000.
All 50 states recognized MLK Day for the first time.
Now, as I would come to learn, although all states recognized this as a holiday, not all employers did.
While a newspaper journalist, we were given the option to chose MLK Day or Memorial Day as the holiday we wanted off. I never hesitated to chose to take a day off to honor the life of Dr. King and participate in a service project or community event.

January 20, 2014.
UNCF held its 24th annual MLK Awards Breakfast in Queens, hosted by our faithful team of alumni. More than 600 attendees came out to the event, which was a fundraiser for UNCF. The dynamic keynote address was delivered by my pastor, Rev. Michael A. Walrond, of First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem. Three points that Rev. Walrond shared that stuck with me that we should all have:

1. Passion for the possible
2. Commitment to Creativity
3. Hunger for Healing

We must believe that all things are possible and put our fears aside to achieve them. We must also humble ourselves to help others in need --whether they hunger for food, for physical healing or for peace of mind. Can you really imagine the pressure Dr. King must have felt to be the voice for so many black Americans, fighting to gain equality, while knowing everyday that adversaries wanted to kill him?! But yet he persisted because he believed his dream was possible. He found creative --and non-violent--ways to oppose resistance. He hungered to heal those in need and that hunger is what has brought us together today.

In my 31 years, and from the 60 year perspective of my parents, I've seen how American society has changed --for the better (and some, for the worse) from my parents generation until now. There are many things that I believe Dr. King would be proud of - advancements in educational access, more minorities in elected positions, including President Obama. But there are so many parts of our culture that he would probably shake his head  at (and I won't begin to name them all).

I just hope that we can learn from his strength and his works and be doers of good works; and not just hearers.

-OrAKAle 

1908 made it great!

The legacy of the pearl began on the campus of South Carolina State College. It was 1973 in Orangeburg, S.C. A skinny girl with a pretty smile and afro puffs from Anderson, SC pledged her prettiness to Alpha Kappa Alpha. That  woman, my beautiful mother Rose Stevens, then paved the way for her younger sister, my Aunt Sandra Baker to pledge AKA! Meanwhile across campus, my father was sportin' some gold boots and a big-behind 'fro pledging Omega and he would be #18 on his line in 1973. Thirty years later, I joined the Mu Xi Chapter of #AlphaKappaAlpha at Winthrop University, where I was #18, OrAKAle, because we all know I'm a wise prophetess. ;-)

Got on my 20 pearls. Pink nails. Pink & Green scarf, singing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY AKA!" Wishing an exquisite Founder's Day to alllllll my lovely sorors of#AlphaKappaAlpha! #Skeewee! 

Introducing my long overdue Blog: The Random Musings of OrAKAle

HELLLLLOOO WORLD!

Well I am LONG overdue (like, 50-11 years overdue) in finally creating a blog, but here goes!

To tell you briefly about myself: 

• My gub'ment is Ashlei Stevens
• native of South Carolina
• Moved to NYC with no job and lots of dreams in 2009
• my former boss was caught "hiking the Appalachian trail" the week I left my job for New York
• 2 brothers; I'm the middle child and only girl
• 2 loving parents who met at a Historically Black College (yayy!) and have been married 37 years and counting
• lover all of things chocolate, media and Brooklyn
• saved by grace, and designed to be of service
• talk show host
• education advocate
• believer in the beautiful (<--whatever that means)

In this blog, I'll share my take on interesting news stories, meaningless celeb gossip and random musings of my daily life as OrAKAle --the name given to me while pledging the Mu Xi Chapter of Allllllllpha Kappa Allllllpha Sorority, Inc. at Winthrop University in the Fall of 2003. 

The name Oracle means:  a person giving wise or authoritative decisions or opinions.

Yep. That's pretty much right.

LOL!

So, come along, enjoy the blog, and get a good laugh, or some insight (or more laughs) from my blog.

Peace,

OrAKAle