Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Wednesday News in January

The Winter Olympics will take place soon from February 9-25, 2018. It will take place in Pyeongchang County, South Korea. Every four years, athletes globally come together in a total exercise of excellence, inspiration, and common brotherhood plus sisterhood. This Winter Olympics represents a great deal of competition, history, and new realities. We live in a political age and an age of social activism. Also, we live in the midst of an American President who is an overt racist. Not to mention that it is important to give credit to all of the competitors who qualified for this quadrennial games. There will be 102 events in 15 sports. The four new sports in this specific Olympics will involve the following: big air snowboarding, mixed doubles curling, mass start speed skating, and mixed team alpine skiing. There will be eSports tournaments like (for StarCraft II and Steep) organized by Intel (part of the Intel Extreme Masters series) and supported by the IOC as a demonstration sport prior to the Opening Ceremony. Almost 100 countries will be involved in the games. Also, historical firsts will be involved in the Winter Olympics too. It will feature the first Nigerian bobsled team in history. The members of the bobsled team are:  Seun Adigun, Akuoma Omeoga, and Ngozi Onwumere.

Erin Jackson becomes first black woman U.S. Olympic long track speedskater in history. Erin Jackson is from Ocala, Florida. She is extremely happy and has expressed excitement about the situation. Maame Biney becomes the first black teenager (she is 17 years old) U.S. Olympic speedskater (she is from Reston, Virginia). Jordan Greenway becomes first African-American on U.S. Olympic men hockey team. The historic The U.S. Women’s Bobsled National Team include athletes like Kehri Jones, Brittany Reinbolt, Aja Evans, Lauren Gibbs, Elana Meyers Taylor, Jamie Greubel Poser, Lolo Jones, and Briauna Jones. On the men’s side, there are two black men: Adrian Adams, a former North Carolina A&T State University football player, and Chris Kinney, a former Georgetown University hurdler. Alpensia Sports Park is one of many venues of where the events will take place. The purpose of the Winter Olympics is the same as for other international events. The Olympics desires to advance teamwork, international cooperation, competition, tolerance, and respect given to athletic excellence. Therefore, we all welcome the existence of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea.

Yesterday was the Birthday of the late Sister Aaliyah. She was a woman whose great personality and talent certainly inspired her generation. She lived a short life, but her legacy is wide ranging from influencing music, fashion, and style. She was born in Brooklyn, NYC and she was raised in Detroit. From her youth, she loved music and human expression. She had many friends and had fun with her family. Her songs represent the diversity of experiences that we go through as human beings from joy to pain. Aaliyah was a very young legend whose graciousness and humbleness certainly was awe inspiring. She loved to be around people and she loved friendship. She was an actress too. Her beauty was found in her compassionate spirit and her awareness of the value of kindness. She worked with Timbaland and Missy Elliot (who are 2 human beings from my state of Virginia as the 757 is always in the House). She passed away in the year of 2001. She was a kind woman and a very mature human being. Rest in Power Sister Aaliyah. Sweet Dreams.


There are many artists in a generation that transcends time. Sade is one such artist. Yesterday was her Birthday today and she is 59 years old. For decades, she has shown classic,magnificient music that stirs up the soul and makes us have self-reflection about the concept of life itself. She was born in Oyo State, Nigeria. Her whole name is Helen Folasade Adu. Her middle name, Folasade, means "honour confers a crown." She lived in England during her youth. She worked in fashion design in London. Later, she was part of a musical band during the early 1980's. The band was called Pride. The band's debut album called Diamond Life won an award and sold over 1 million copies. Your Love is King and Smooth Operator are classic records of Sade. Those records can lighten the mood and possess great serenity. Sade continued to make albums like Stronger than Pride and Love Deluxe. Love Deluxe include timeless songs like Cherish the Day, Kiss of Life, and No Ordinary Love. She made her huge comeback with Lovers Rock back in 2000. I was a senior in high school when that album was released. By Your Side is a great song from the album with its video with exquisite colors. Her 2nd comeback was the Soldier of Love album on 2010. She won a Grammy with that album too. She is a legendary artist and I wish Sister Sade more blessings.


Yesterday was the Birthday of Sister Debbie Allen. She is now 68 years old. A trailblazer in dance and television. Debbie Allen has multifaceted, excellent talent. She has always been a free spirit and she was born in Houston, Texas. Her sister is the famous actress Phylicia Rashad. She graduated from the great HBCU of Howard University in classical Greek literature, speech, and theater. She holds honoris causa Doctorates from Howard University and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She loves dance as dance is great to stir up human creativity and it can strengthen the human body in terms of developing great flexibility too. She choreographed people worldwide. She is a television director and producer too. Fame (which was a famous show) was a part of her life in terms of involvement and she was a producer of A Different World (which is one of my favorite shows). She is member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. Also, she has a husband and 3 children. I wish Sister Debbie Allen more Blessings.




By Timothy

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