"Dreamgirls" star Jennifer Hudson has won a Golden Globe for outstanding performance in a supporting role. She is also a candidate for an Oscar. Can she win? Why or why not?

photos by Harry Kemp

Jennifer Johnson: "Yes, Jennifer Hudson can win the Oscar because the Academy is becoming more versatile in their selection of Oscar winners. The doors have been opened by Halle’s win, and she is the favorite by far!"

Michelle Johnson: "As much as I would want to celebrate an Oscar win for Ms. Hudson, I don’t believe I will have the opportunity to do so. The Academy voters, sense that they have satisfied their obligations to Black actors, so will now turn their attention toward another group."

Fred Hill: I feel she shocked the world with her stage enthusiasm, charisma and determination as a Black woman."

Kenneth Allgood: "Yes, it would be nice for another African American woman to win the Academy Award."

An African American holistic Web site for women who want to be healthy, wealthy and wise

Houston, Texas (BlackNews.com)--Welcome Divas! Papyrus Publishing is proud to announce the launch of its new African American Holistic, Wealth Management, and Spiritual Healing Web site designed with the Black woman and mom in mind (www.thedynamicdiva.com).

African American women make up 13.1% of all women in the U.S., but have the highest mortality rate than any other ethnic/racial group for such diseases as: heart disease, breast cancer and diabetes (NWLC, 2000). Financially wise, Black women head 44% of Black families, make less than $35,000 per year and struggle with financial management. Moreover, mental health plagues close to 2/3 of Black women but they do not seek professional help compared to 35% of White women who do.

Elon Bomani, African Holistic health expert and self-made millionaire, has put her heart and soul into creating a wonderful safe haven were Black women can come together to guide, nurture and support each other to eradicate these dismal statistics that afflict Black women.

If you are a professional women or a work-at-home mom, you will find at www.thedynamidiva.com African holistic health information, wealth management education, and daily inspiration.

At this interactive, user-friendly Web site, you can peruse polls, contest, message board, and diva tool that supports a healthy, fit body, encourages gratifying relationships, an awesome career and the financial means to enjoy them all. Also, sign-up for your free newsletter that will come biweekly, via email, filled with wealth, health and spiritual tips and advice on how to live a more dynamic life today!

by Jackie Jones--BlackAmericaWeb.Com
Valentine’s Day is the day we express love: romantic love, family love, even classmate love (Remember delivering those cards, or hoping to receive one?). It’s a day to tell others we care and, we hope, get some positive reinforcement from those we care about.

It may be even more important to Black people, who often feel put upon at work, at school, by media images and those who judge us by height, weight, occupation, skin tone and hair texture.

"There’s nothing wrong with who we are," says Linda Jones, founder of A Nappy Hair Affair, a support and service organization that promotes a positive image and self-concept of people of African descent. "I’m using hair as a way to say it’s okay to be who we are."

Jones, an award-winning journalist who has written about the lifestyles and culture of Black people around the globe, founded A Nappy Hair Affair in 1999 after a gathering of friends in her Dallas home to groom their natural hairstyles essentially grew into a movement that has grown to embrace performance art, a newsletter and legions of fans.

"I never thought to stretch a nap that far," Jones told BlackAmericaWeb.com with a laugh. That first gathering brought out 20 women on a Sunday afternoon and lasted until 1 a.m. "It was more than grooming. It was bonding, socializing, connecting, feeling they were in a safe place.

From there, Jones said, "I decided to do something that would boost self-esteem. It just evolved. I didn’t say I was going to get on my trusty steed and start yanking people out of beauty parlors."

From the gatherings at her home, A Nappy Hair Affair has expanded to include a newsletter, a "naptionary" of hair terms and Jones has gone on the road, making appearances at homes, salons and stores around the world. She even includes performance pieces that get to the heart of the matter.

It’s not really about hair, Jones said, but that hair is a metaphor for the greater issues that affect the way Black people see themselves as much as how others see them.

Some say the need for love is a 24/7, 365 endeavor.

In his blog, The Feed, earlier this week, Eric Deggans, media critic for the ‘St. Petersburg (Florida) Times," noted similarities between Black History Month and Valentine’s Day, when it comes to showing love to Black people.

"I know a few Black columnists who hate Black History Month. To them, every month should honor the achievements of Black folks, and I don’t disagree," Deggans wrote. "But I more often compare Black History Month to Valentine’s Day. Sure, you love your special someone every day, but does it really hurt to have an occasion when you make sure to pay tribute?"

Deggans pointed to remarks at an event in Tampa, Florida, last weekend by scholar, author and radio host Michael Eric Dyson who, Deggans said, "regaled the crowd with his plea for the Black middle class to drop its ‘Afro-amnesia’ and resist condemning poor Black people for the negative choices they make. Instead, he encouraged leaders to reach out and encourage--acting as ‘Trojan horses’ by bringing the sensibilities of Black culture inside the boardrooms, classrooms and newsrooms where we all tread."

"It is easy, or easier, to love people that we know and people who do things ‘right,’" said Patrice Gaines, a BlackAmericaWeb contributor, author and cofounder of the Brown Angel Center, which assists women who have been incarcerated. "It’s harder to love people like the women we have come to know who have served time for murder or for stealing or child abuse or things that we consider very wrong.

"In working with people who have been incarcerated, we have this kind of measuring stick--that there are some things that can be forgiven, and there are things that cannot," Gaines told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "I think that the whole purpose of love is to help the person that loves as well as the person who receives it. By giving that love, the person who gives it is healed from judgment, from ego, from the things that haunt us and keep us from being as lovable as we can possibly be."

She advises people to "find the hardest person to love and love them, even if you love them from afar," said Gaines, who admitted she finds it hard to love someone who may have sexually molested a child, but "whenever I hear about a case like that. I silently send that person some love.

"Valentine’s Day is fun, and cards are all about celebrating the love we give easily, and that’s fine," she said. "But on Valentine’s Day, the challenge is to love the people who are the most difficult to love."