N O V E M B E R 2020 E D I T I O N
Regina BELLE
freedom!
EDITORIAL
From The Desk of The Editor Reginald Kearney Editor
Corretta L. Doctor
Brandon J. Jolly
Business Manager
Layout Designer
Yvonne Medley
C. NaTasha Richburg
Writer
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Musa Bangura
Anita Davis-DeFoe
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Bridgette Alfred
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Sarah Jefferis
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Claudia Newby-Tynes
Dr. Sharon H. Porter
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Urban Sentinel Magazine Address: 102 Discovery Ct. La Plata, Maryland 20646 Phone: 301-661-3989 Editor Reginald Kearney Advertising Inquiries Phone: 301-661-3989 E-mail: reginald.kearney@marylanddailyexaminer.com Website: www.urbansentinel.com
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The end of the year is approaching fast as we move into the month of November. Many families are preparing to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, but the celebration will be different this year because of the social distancing requirements due to the Covid-19 virus. It is being suggested that we scale back the family gatherings and stay at home with a small group of family. As we know, this too should pass. Let us continue to pray for everyone that is affected by this virus and let’s not forget our essential workers when we pray. This month’s cover features the great songstress, Regina Belle. There are many beautiful voices in the world of music, but her voice is her fingerprint. Although her soulful voice is very recognizable, there is much more to the career and industry presence of Regina Belle; her talents are widely respected, and she is a special force in this world. Regina Belle is a successful artist who is also a wife, mother, minister, and caregiver. She has traveled the world and gleaned many insightful lessons which she will impart upon the readers of the Urban Sentinel magazine. This issue features a plethora of great stories that are filled with heart warming sentiments and words of encouragement. We are excited for you to turn each page and enjoy the articles from front to back. We are striving to be a favorite magazine to readers around the world. We are reaching homes across nations and sharing stories of empowerment, inspiration and entertainment from the film, music and literary industries. In keeping with our broad approach to bringing you the very best information in a highly professional manner, we are striving to be the best. We value the feedback from our readers because it helps us to grow. Please email us at reginald.kearney@marylanddailyexaminer.com with your feedback. If you would like to advertise with us, send an email with the word ‘Advertise’ in the subject line. Like us on FaceBook at The Urban Sentinel, follow us on Twitter at @UrbanSentinel and you may follow us on Instagram at @theurbansentinel . Visit our website at www.UrbanSentinelMagazine.com . I invite you to view our new show, ‘Urban Sentinel Live’, which can be viewed on Facebook @UrbanSentinelLive on Monday nights at 8:30pmET. It is a half hour show that features guests that have been featured in the Urban Sentinel magazine. Thank you for your continued support. The Urban Sentinel magazine and talk show are great ways to share amazing stories about amazing talent. We thank you in advance for sharing our brand with your fans, family, and followers. We hope you enjoy all of the great stories in the November 2020 edition.
SUMMARY
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African Americans Are Languishing in the Vast Wasteland of American Values
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Caregiver Month Spotlight: Jenell Brown
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James C. Birdsong Jr.-Creating a Godcentered Legacy
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Honoring the Mother-Artist
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Agree to Disagree and Still Walk in Love
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Are You Pivoting and Positioning Yourself For Work
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The Importance of the Makeup Artist
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Regina Belle: Caring From Her Soul
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Have You Sharpened your Personal Skills in your Business
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Takia Ross: Baltimore’s Beautiful Beacon of Light
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Give Thanks... Regardless
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Change Your Thinking
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I’m Speaking
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Diabetes and Nutrition
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A Decade of Impacting the Lives of Children in Street Situation
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Thanksgiving
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this support that James C. Birdsong Jr. is providing through his 501c3 non-profit organization BABA. Birdsong Association of Broadcasting & Arts, Inc. will help today’s African American youth in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and will expand to New York, especially our inner cities to pursue their dreams and careers of performing arts and media broadcasting. The organization will do the following: • Various Programs and Initiatives • Scholarships • Fundraising Activities • Workshops • Sing Out Loud! An Evening of Gospel Music – Our yearly annual benefit Gospel concert and Pre-Concert VIP Awards Gala • Partnerships – Atlanta Public Schools, Los Angeles School Districts, 38 HBCUs (Including Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse, and Spelman), Etc. • Major Media Marketing Campaign Andrea Ashmore, Managing Partner – The ACT Team: Marietta, Georgia • Contacts to celebrities, elected officials, corporations, etc. The vision of this organization is “Preserving arts and broadcasting for today’s youth as future leaders on a platform by being advocates in the African American community from an artistic and media perspective. The dreamers of today will become achievers of tomorrow as a voice for change”. BABA offers six programs, and James will partner closely with members of the community to fulfill the needs of the youths: Speak Your Mind: Young aspiring actors, actresses, vocalists, dancers, and musicians to prepare themselves for auditions and improve their skills. This program will obtain the services of professional actors, actresses, dancers, musicians, and instructors. Next Generation Producers: Youth will learn to be successful in music production and obtain hands-on experience with an established producer in the recording studio. This program will obtain the services of producers to provide the expertise of the production process from recording to mastering. Behind the Camera: The youth will learn how to produce films and operate the camera. This program will obtain the services of filmmakers and camera operators to provide the expertise of film making and camera operations. Write the Script: Teaching young playwriters to write scripts for films, musicals, and stage plays. This program 10
will obtain the services of playwriters from independent and major productions. Sound the Airwaves: Preparing the next generation of media personalities in television and radio broadcasting. This program will obtain the services of media personalities and instructors in mass communication. Step Up for College: Provide aid to high school students preparing themselves to attend college as arts and broadcasting majors at HBCUs (Historical Black Colleges and Universities). We will develop a partnership with Atlanta-based institutions such as Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse, and Spelman College. Additional HBCUs throughout the United States will be included in this partnership. James C. Birdsong, Jr. is an aspiring Gospel vocalist, songwriter, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, advocate for our children, and author of an inspirational memoir, The Best is Yet to Come: A Testimony of One Young Man’s Redemption. It took him one year to write the book and it takes people through a journey of his life with historical events. His journey through gospel music started with hearing his father listen to iconic gospel artists such as the Caravans, Reverend James Cleveland, Reverend Cleophus Robinson, and Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers. His father was a gifted and talented singer in his own right who had opportunities to record but did not pursue it. When he was growing up in Richmond, California he listened to the Gospel station KDIA and had his cassette tape ready to record. At 11 years old, he was in the church choir and later had a vocal coach. In high school, he would go to the library and research the Gospel artists, and he decided he wanted to learn the business. It was while he was in 10th grade, he wrote a paper about the Gospel music industry and earned an “A” it had inspired him to learn and grow. My favorite story he told was about when he was on a field trip, he went to a Virgin Records music store and he bought “Gospel Today Magazine, May/June 1997” with some of the money his mother gave him for his trip. He said he read it and then subscribed to it for 5 years. He credited this magazine for teaching him and igniting the enthusiasm he shares with the world regarding Gospel Music. James C. Birdsong Jr. and his mother stepped out on faith and moved to Atlanta in 2005. He said, “If you want to pursue your dreams you have to go where it is.” It was there that he got connected with people in the Gospel industry and was able to make his mark. Pursuing his dreams included higher learning,
joining organizations, and earning numerous awards and accolades. In 2010, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Education from Beulah Heights University in Atlanta. Most recently he earned a Graduate Certificate in Marketing at the University of Phoenix in Phoenix, AZ. He has a professional affiliation with the Global United Fellowship, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Gospel Music Workshop of America, the GMA Dove Awards through the Gospel Music Association in Nashville, and the Stellar Awards through the Stellar Awards Gospel Music Academy in Chicago.
going to bless other people. When God’s favor is on your life, he is going to take you places you will never imagine. In his words, “When my assignment is over in this world, I want to leave a legacy as a person who did the best I could to help people, especially children. I must do what God has purposed me to do.” Visit and bookmark Mr. Birdsong’s website to stay updated with his endeavors. www.jamescbirdsongjr.net https://www.babaonline.org/
Dedication and passion for his craft paid off with the impressive award of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and multiple listee in Who's Who in America. The Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honor of distinction by Marquis Who's Who Publications. Past recipients include former Secretary of State Colin Powell and business magnate Warren Buffet. He was also nominated for the 2020 4th Annual Gulf Coast Gospel Music Awards for Kingdom Influencer of the Year. Even a man as busy as James C. Birdsong Jr. knows how to have fun. Although Covid-19 slowed down some of what he loves to do, he shared that he loves to spend time with family, amusement parks, and historical landmarks. A fun fact is when he was younger, he liked video games and the vivid memory of playing a karate game made him smile. Although 2020 slowed down some of his plans he is ready and determined to resume the events to talk to the youths in 2021. He sends his prayers to people who lost loved ones. He said like the MC Hammer’s song he is “Too Legit to Quit“ and stated that, when something is built on a solid foundation it is going to stay strong. I asked him what he would put on a billboard in the middle of Times Square and his answer was consistent with the theme of our conversation. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) God has blessed his dreams to come through. This Godcentered life is a part of his family legacy and I know that James will continue to be successful and impact the lives of young people and the Gospel music Industry. His advice for young people in the industry is that they should put God first, connect with the right group of people, learn how to market, and study the industry because it changes every day. If the music is promoting a positive message it is URBAN SENTINEL MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER
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place emotionally, and I had this fear of becoming like
we as readers are placed in the position of her unborn son.
my mother, and I was thinking about what do I take from her, what do I get from her, what is mine, not mine.” Bell’s
Letter to My Son, in Utero
mother, Chana, whose name means grace, is also a poet,
You are not the first.
and her legacy of honoring both ritual and verse lives in
Before you, another seed took hold,
Elana’s books and in her life.
and every morning your father rubbed my belly in wonder at what she would become.
Elegy for Mother, Still Living
When the doctor said no heartbeat, the air went out of me.
The Lord gives everything and charges
My dead baby, I thought.
by taking it back.
They would not call it that. Embryo embryo embryo they
—Jack Gilbert
said, a padded word meant to keep me from what I knew:
I was formed inside the body
Something had lived in me its whole small life and was
of a woman who wanted me
gone.
as she wanted her own life,
Forgive me for loving another before you.
allowed to drink the milk
Forgive me also the weight of my love for you, already
made only for me.
heavy with death. Forgive me. I am a Jew.
I was given mother-love,
In the middle of the celebration, I always smash the glass.
its bounty and its cocoon of those first years without language.
This book places Bell in the legacy of other
It is right to mourn the rocky hills
mother artists- Plath, Sexton, and Clifton,
of Crete where we walked, my small
mothers who wrote short poems because they
hand in hers for hours. The hidden
were writing and nursing, poets who wrote
beach where we swam naked
on the backs of envelopes while cooking and
then baked on the fine sand. Lazy
organizing and running households. This book
afternoons in her lap, her thick
challenges the myths of White Supremacy
hand stroking my curls.
and Patriarchy, in particular, the idea that we
Her fingers have stiffened.
all succeed alone. Bell reminds us of the need
Her eyes, the eyes of an animal in pain.
for community and the importance of rising
I hold my mother
together.
against the woman she is. Bell believes that creativity is our birthright Bell is a poet whose tune resonates with the Universe, and
and wants people to know they can access their
the more we talked about poetry and broke bread, the more
creativity at any given point in the day or any
I began to trust my intuition. She models how to do that in
given moment in their life. “Creativity belongs to
her life, and one can’t help but begin to mirror that same
everyone. Creative expression and connection
assurance when you are in her company. She has this magic
to that part of our selves is synonymous with
in her last lines in the poems. Her last inevitable lines hold
life force. The creative impulse is in every living
the present moment/image of the poem and simultaneously
thing. For some people, the expression of that
open up to a global historical truth. She is I and We-singular
has been dangerous. Others have had teachers
and universal at the end of her poems in her collections. In
shut them down. I want to help people connect
one poem, she writes to her son about the miscarriage, and
back to that life force inside of them.”
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Rin Gong. Elana reminds us all that “We have the power I have witnessed firsthand the healing power of authentic
to alchemize our lived experiences into creative expression,
creative expression in Bell’s Creative Fire Circle, a virtual
and in doing so, we claim our stories, we claim our lives,
creativity circle that embodies creative practices to calm the
and are transformed.” In this Creative Fire Circle, we rise
nervous system and quiet the inner critic. She begins with
together, as women, as artists who honor our voices. Bell
a vocal release practice. “Take whatever you have inside
will offer another workshop in 2021, and you can find out
you—whatever state you are in, joyful, angry, grateful, and
more https://www.elanabell.com/creative-fire-circle. If you
give it sound. When it is stuck inside the body, it does not
would like to order a copy of Elana’s book, you can do so
have air. Emotions need space to move.” In this circle, we
from her publisher https://www.boaeditions.org/products/
also participate in sound meditations where Bell plays the
mother-country.
Monolina: a sound healing instrument designed to go on the body, or the North Indian Shruti, a drone instrument
To find out more about Elana, you can visit her website:
with a bellows, similar to an accordion, or the Japanese
https://www.elanabell.com/
Elana Belle's Bio Elana Bell is a poet, sound practitioner, and creative alchemist. She facilitates artistic rituals and processes that support people in accessing their authentic voice and alchemizing raw experience and emotion into artistic expression. Whether through her soul-stirring poetry, her sacred sound journeys, or through her inspiring workshops, Elana creates a space where all people’s voices and stories are heard and deeply valued. Elana is the author of Mother Country, out this fall from BOA Editions, which examines questions of motherhood, fertility, and mental illness. Elana’s first collection of poetry, Eyes, Stones, received the Walt Whitman award from the Academy of American poets and brings her complex heritage as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors to consider the difficult question of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She holds a certification in Sound and Music Integration from the New York Open Center’s Sound and Music Institute, and leads one-on-one and group Sacred Sound Journeys using a variety of instruments and voice to support participants in tapping into a deep state of relaxation and healing, allowing space to release emotions and open the creative channel. Elana currently teaches poetry to first year acting students at the Juilliard School and sings with the Resistance Revival Chorus, a group of women activists and musicians committed to bringing joy and song to the resistance movement. URBAN SENTINEL MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER
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History Month she released it. As we spoke, she acknowledged that “Freedom” is as relevant today as it was a decade ago and it is unfortunate that the social injustices continue for Blacks in our country. I asked her what message she was sending to the world with the song “Freedom”? She explained that the song is a “classic story” and remained relevant for a decade. Regina Belle wishes this narrative was different and there was no reason to put out a song like “Freedom”, which reflects where we are today. She said, “We are better than this and don’t have to stand for it.” This is truly where her love for history resonated because knowing where she came from has helped her to embrace her beauty as a black woman and teach others to embrace and love themselves. She passionately stated, “We must make our voices heard so history will not repeat.” Freedom starts in the mind and Regina talked about other classic songs like Donny Hathaway’s, “Young Gifted and Black”, that have lyrics that can touch the soul and create a positive call to action for us. Regina Belle has an extensive musical journey, and it was fitting that I asked her how can music change the world we live in today? She stated that “Music reflects society as it is today, and we must be cognizant of the power it has. It has the power to upgrade as well as it has the power to downgrade.” She recognizes that each artist comes with different gifts and they tell the stories that are true for them as they see the world. She talked about songs such as Kirk Franklin’s, “Smile”, and the effect that it has when we listen to it. As she spoke, I smiled because the effect was contagious. As she stated, a song will initiate a thought in our minds and we can use music to ease our anxieties and as an artist, she has the responsibility to feed our souls with songs that will upgrade us as a race of people. She stated that the world does not love us, and we must take care of ourselves and each other. In her words “No other race of people is going through this, and it makes me want to sing the words of Marvin Gaye’s “Make Me Wanna Holler.” Although we know Regina Belle for her superpower of soulful music that stretches over 33 years, there are many
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while in the custody of the City of Baltimore and I lost team members while having to make the hard decision to close our brick and mortar location while trying to keep the business afloat. We’ve seen our fair share of ups and downs. What I have learned is that everything that my team and I have gone through, every trial and tribulation, every joy and triumph have prepared us for this moment. Now, all I have to do is show up. I am learning to stop asking, Why me?, and start asking, Why I am learning this? Once you change your mindset, you will change the trajectory of your life. Once you realize that things are not happening to you they are happening for you, you can push through the hard times toward greatness. All you need is the strength to hold on to that mustard seed of faith and the drive to keep moving! According to Lao Tzu, “Every journey begins with a single step.” Takia has taken many steps thus far as she trains students in her craft while calling women “Beautiful.” Find out more information about Takia Ross at: https://www.accessmatized.com/
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Give Thanks... Regardless S P I RI T UA L N O U RI S H M E N T B RO U GH T TO YO U B Y THE URBAN SENTINEL AND UPSHIFT GLOBAL by dr. anita davis-defoe for the urban sentinel Whether it is the stress and strife of daily living, today’s
joy into our worlds.
common financial worries and woes felt by many, the impact of COVID-19 on your life, the numerous
With Thanksgiving Day fast approaching, and although
inconveniences that have come from weathering a
there are a variety of viewpoints and feelings about this
natural disaster, health concerns, bias and prejudice
holiday and its origination, each and every day should
that is at an all-time high, rampant social injustice, or
be a day of thanks, a day filled with gratitude for the
concern about the safety of loved ones, it can become
many blessings received.
so easy to focus on what was lost or what will never be, rather than all the numerous other blessings and good
Each of us no doubt is filled with personal hopes, dreams
things that dominate our lives.
and expectations, but many of us do not understand how to go about using our talents or know how to achieve
I would like to suggest that each of us should strive to
our innermost personal desires. Few of us understand
develop an attitude dominated by gratitude. To enable
that in life so much of getting is tied to how much we
yourself to navigate life’s superhighway with all of its
first give.
twists, turns and unexpected detours and still soar with your inner spirit intact, I encourage everyone to
Existing all around us, are the divine laws of life, and
begin a practice of giving thanks always and above all‌
one of these is the Law of Abundance. The Law of
regardless. Yes, regardless of challenges that come your
Abundance is rather simple and tells us that by giving
way; yes, regardless of feelings of disappointment, hurt,
you receive. This divine law tells us that we cannot truly
betrayal, doubt or delayed gratification.
enjoy the riches of the universe until we are willing to share them with others.
Developing an attitude of thanks enables us to maintain a sense of purpose, faith and hope. The truth of the
Understand, abundance does not mean merely
matter is that if we stop and reflect, even in the midst of
accumulating
our most tumultuous life storms, there is still something
possessions. For it is very easy to accumulate material
to be thankful for, something that brings some level of
wealth and abundance, while neglecting the nurturing
material
wealth
and
numerous
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