Written By: Jordannah Elizabeth

I really believe that if Harriet Tubman could come through those tunnels again, she’d beat the shit out of them. Debbi Blackwell-Cook on Beyonce, Rihanna and female R&B Pop stars of today

When you listen to actress and singer/songwriter, Debbi Blackwell-Cook sing, you hear an ease in her voice that denotes a natural confidence and an effortlessness.  Blackwell- Cook has sang backup for major artists like Michael Buble and the late, great dancer and entertainer, Gregory Hines.

At the beautiful and wise age of 61 years old, she is experiencing another career peak with a musical collaboration with Phil Collen (guitarist of the larger than life 80s British rock band, Def Leppard) called DELTA DEEP. The band also features a former member of Stone Temple Pilots and India Arie.

As extraordinary as Debbi Blackwell-Cook’s life seems to be on the surface, she wades through life holding the burden of a great loss in her life. She lost her son due to a violent robbery in 2013. This tragedy was a catalyst that brought DELTA DEEP together as songwriters, as Collen, his wife, Helen Simmons and Cook worked to write songs to commemorate the memory of her son and to bring hope to people who survive intensely painful experiences like hers. Continue reading →

By: Sjimon Gompers

Sjimon Gompers, creator of the weekly Impose Magazine music column, Goldmine Sacks, was kind enough to compile Publik / Private’s 14th mixtape. Every Friday, Gompers chooses the best of the best in national, independent and underground artists to feature, sharing his distinctive voice through in- depth interviews and insightful commentary.

It is obvious the individuated attention he gives each band. He carefully constructs each piece with an unparalleled breadth of knowledge and wealth of insight. We are at a loss as to how he is able to produce such a lengthy column in just six days. He is truly a force of nature!

Give Sjimon’s mixtape a good hearty listen, then listen again and again!

Photo By:  Ivy Jones

“INSPIRATIONS FROM THE HEART OF TODAY’S UNCONSCIOUS ANARCHY”

“The arts of writing, recording, drawing, painting, filming and sketching express identity, places, and time. These outlets and mediums allow us to make sense of our world when our worlds and environment don’t make any sense and even provide a portal of escape to somewhere we’ve never gone, imagined, or dreamt up before. These conduit devices that relay vision and voice are for many of us the sole purpose that makes each day, week, month, and year bearable and provides a self-designed alternative to everything happening around, and a chance to embrace something new that has never existed before. Continue reading →

Written By: Jordannah Elizabeth

American pop star, Rihanna is not a stranger to the exploration of BDSM and grotesque imagery in her music videos. Her vivid video for her 2008 single Disturbia, shadowed the concept of the 2007 thriller of the same name. No one gives nods to the connection between the film Disturbia and Rihanna’s music video, but if you check the plot of the Shia Labeouf film, you’ll learn that the film is based around the main character spying on a neighbor from the window. If you watch Rihanna’s music video closely, you’ll see the opening shots of the pop star performing near and staring outside of a window.

Only film buffs and culture vultures with a poignant eye and knowledge of film genre and trivia would pick up Rihanna’s artful eye and nods to European and American horror and psychological thrillers. The untrained eye would rightly take Bitch Better Have My Money as a commentary on the ongoing race war and imbalance of power in American culture.This video may certainly be grounded in those elements, but we also have to separate ourselves from the idea that all American pop artists are merely shallow narcissists, hiding behind a cloak of production teams who sculpt there talent without adding thoughts of their own. Continue reading →

Written By: Jordannah Elizabeth

No one wants to be forced into a set of rules and regulations that have no true value. Any rule that doesn’t promote or create the safety or protection of a collective’s health, or coordinates order in circumstances that would otherwise become chaotic and dangerous is only based on the ruling class’ tastes and social standards. There is no reason to feel like one truly has to adhere to the philosophical or moral boundaries of self assigned leaders, taste makers and industry professionals.

How you handle yourself professionally, particularly as an artist and independent contractor can be a completely malleable, and one should hope, creative and personally innovative process. Your manager, PR professional and publicist may have a model and idea of how to do things. If you do have a promotional staff, it is important to be confident in the fact that they work for you to promote the best synopsis of your own self image. Their involvement in your promotion is completely up to you, whether you’re led to believe otherwise has a lot to with how much creative control you allow the people you surround yourself with.

Conscious Self Promotion isn’t all about how spiritual you are or how aware you are of the sociopolitical climate of the nation your reside in. It has to do with how conscious and aware you are of what you project when you are sharing information about yourself to the world. Continue reading →

Editor’s Note:

I spoke with Chad Smith of The Red Hot Chili Peppers who has given so much time and energy to the nonprofit organization, Little Kids Rock that he was given an honorary award for his service at Facebook Headquarters on May 16, 2015. As a lobbyist and crusader for free and mandatory music education in public schools, Smith spoke about his early years being sculpted by the music classes in the public schools he attended right outside of Detroit, Michigan. Among other things, he also shared how the impact of those music classes inspired him to work to help children attain the same free music education he received when he was growing up.

Take a listen to our conversation on Publik / Private Podcast w/ Jordannah Elizabeth. Continue reading →

Written By: Jordannah Elizabeth

(this photo is missing one of my grandmothers. She’s in my heart and with my spirit)

I lost my great aunt and my grandmother this year. I lost my grandmother on my mother’s side a little over a decade ago. I was very close to all three women. I spent many hours at their houses as my courageous and beautiful single mother raised my two brothers and I.

My two grandmothers and great aunt probably served over 100 years in the church between them all. They were devoted, powerful, loving and committed women. I will mourn their lives with gratefulness and respect. I would not be the woman I am without their guidance. I would not be spiritual, passionate, feisty, penetrating, strong, compassionate, honest and maternal without their unwavering love and general influence.

Whenever I was home and I missed my mom, I would bury my entire 6 year old body in her hanging clothes and inhale as hard as I could, just to get a whiff of her perfume laced fabrics. My mother’s closet always smelled sweet. She was and is glamorous and beautiful. Continue reading →

There are times when I become tired of talking. Words are my life: ideas, questions, essays, articles, conversations, blogging, podcasts, television and radio. I live my life in different cities and work to maintain a healthy balance of privacy and happily fulfilled expectations.

The balance of Publik / Private.

Sometimes, it’s best to be quiet. Speak less, feel more – enjoy what isn’t being said.

There are some realities about life that are hard to deny. If you ask any woman about the difficult process of keeping and maintaining female friendships, there is a very high probability that she will have a number of stories to tell about experiencing a falling out with more than one of her female friends. Author, Nina Gaby explores female friendships in her new book, Dumped: Stories of Women Unfriending Women.   Gaby is a writer, widely shown visual artist, and psychiatric nurse practitioner whose essays and fiction have been published by Lilith Magazine, Creative Non Fiction’s In Fact imprint, Seal Press, Paper Journey Press, Wising-Up Press, The Prose-Poem Project and on Brevity.com.

Pre- order Dumped: Stories of Women Unfriending Women. The book will be released on March 3, 2015 by She Writes Press.

Continue reading →

Written By: Joyce Riha Linik

Image By: Taty Lopez

Joyce Riha Linik has a Master’s degree in creative writing and English literature from Portland State University.  She started her writing career as a “madwoman” copywriter at an advertising firm in New York City. She’s now based in the Pacific Northwest where she works as a freelance journalist, and was selected as a national EdPress Distinguished Achievement Award finalist for an article called “On the Road to Oz,” published in Education Northwest Magazine. Joyce has been nominated an won a number of writing awards.

She’s contributed this steamy short story to Publik / Private, and we’re so pleased to start off the new year with a sexy piece of literature. This is NSFW!!!

~

Jack’s eyebrows had grown together years before I met him, no doubt by the end of puberty, and hair now covered his back as well as his chest. It was as thick as fur in some places, something many of my female friends found disgusting. I, however, having grown up in a family full of hairy men, found it familiar, even comforting. Sleeping with Jack was a bit like snuggling up on a sheepskin rug. And having just moved out to this unfamiliar terrain from the East Coast, I welcomed his warm, if shaggy, embrace, particularly during the rains that fell for months on end here. Continue reading →