Episodes

  • Concerts
    Sep 13 2023
    Concerts --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/support
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    4 mins
  • Motivation & Inspiration toward Success
    Apr 9 2021
    Today's episode touches on the area of success, motivation and inspiration.  Many teens and adults are dealing with depression and lack of belief in themselves and their progress in their careers and overall life. How many little boys and girls dream of making their school team, let alone play at the college or professional level? How many young adults have considered the path to go to an HBCU or an Ivy League school?  What about living abroad and learning multiple languages? Imagine learning new cultures and adapting to a lifestyle that you choose.  How about making it to the big leagues in NFL, or Wall Street?  Or being in charge of an aspect of a college campus? These are some of the areas the panelist had to consider and strived to reach the level of success.  All of the following men and women had to fight to reach the top and did so skillfully and with dignity, class and grace.  On this episode we get to hear from them and what or who inspired them to reach their goals or to even start them.  We will hear insight on what advice they offer for young people to have the chance of success in their future.  I hope you enjoy the episode when I was able to gather 4 magnificent people together and share their insight on their success.  Take some notes and enjoy. Aaron Lombard; Michael Boley; Maryam Niyako; Robert Hill; --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/support
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    48 mins
  • Last Chance U: Season 6. Interview with the JUCO "ELAC" basketball Coach, Rob Robinson
    Mar 31 2021
    A Netflix Original, Sports Documentary. Coaching in East Los Angeles for the JUCO "ELAC" takes a faithful and unrelenting belief in each player and serving the basketball team with strong convictions, while leading young men who hope to fulfill major college potential and powerhouse athletes.  The Emmy Award winning series brings the season on the court. Rotten Tomatoes gave Last Chance U; Baskeball Season 6 100%  for both Tomato-meter and the Audience score.  Dailycardinal.com says "It's an intense, emotional whirlwind." Pop Sugar, Esquire, Forbes, Vulture, The Guardian, Men's Health, Daily Cardinal, Buzz Feed, The Prairie, The Ringer and even Good Housekeeping.  Article after article and review after review across the United States and Internationally have given Last Chance U: Season 6 BASKETBALL Documentary raving reviews. This Episode entails the interview I had with one of the ELAC coaches; Rob Robinson.  We discussed the experience of COVID, being in a Netflix series, what it takes to be a player and coach for a JUCO basketball team, and more. I hope you enjoy todays episode with Coach Rob Robinson.  Netflix: Last Chance U: Basketball Trailer.  https://youtu.be/b-YCKtBb0L4   Photo Credit Netflix Original Documentary Cover for Last Chance U Season 6 Basketball  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/support
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    52 mins
  • "Speaking Truth to Power"- Dezie Woods Jones; Vice Mayor and City Council for Oakland, CA & President of Black Women Organized for Political Action ( BWOPA)
    Mar 16 2021
    "Speaking truth to power." Titled for this segment as a quote from my guest, Dezie Woods Jones, touches on how we need to speak up and tell the truth and bring power in our words. Speaking up brings us to our energy, better actions and helps us to show interest in our community and the significance of our world. Dezie Woods Jones, at 79 years young, is a strong example of a profound community activist yesterday and today. Dezie offers encouragement to speak your truth, to find time to be an activist within your passions and learn as much as you can about our world with travel. (after COVID has calmed down of course ) Mrs. Dezie, or Mother Dezie as Dezie's daughter calls her, is the strength for young women in politics, who have been directly affected by the broken parts of our American History. With the strength of her mother and father, organizations like CORE, as well as working alongside US Representatives such as; Maxine Walters, Dianne Watson, Barbara Lee, and her inspiration she drew from Amy Garvey, the wife of the famous Marcus Garvey of UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association). Mother Dezie has embraced her fate to stand up for the rights of those who feel voiceless or are fascinated with politics. We often lack the knowledge of the strength and solidity that comes from a strong woman who had to fight for herself and for those who did not have the support. Dezie Woods Jones, an influential woman who wears many hats, was just the kind of woman that many young women needed as a mentor in politics and just life decisions. Fighting for civil rights is definitely one aspect of her legacy but her current fight for her passion in guiding young women who are seeking their rightful place on the political stage. I was blessed to meet and speak with such dynamic and instrumental women for her community and especially black women in politics and really for her whole community. I hope you enjoy my interview with the President of BWOPA ( Black Women Organized for Political Action) and former Vice Mayor and City Council of Oakland, CA. She is also a woman who has paved the way for many younger women to follow. I am grateful she took some time to talk with me and share a little bit of her power into my ears and yours to listen. Enjoy today's episode on Black Women in Politics with Dezi Woods Jones. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/support
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    40 mins
  • An analysis of Becoming Michelle Obama
    Aug 13 2020
    Analysis of Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/support
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    37 mins
  • Emily Bronte' and the analysis of Wuthering Heights, the first wave of feminism and the love/passion of the characters; Catherine and Heathcliff
    Aug 2 2020

    A literary analysis of the Gothic/Romantic Novel written by  Emily Bronte'. The connection of the single novel written by a young literary artist during the Victorian Period and the pre-feminist period. Two years prior to Emily's book, that was originally a flop, the proto-feminism wave had begun, and soon after Wuthering Heights would be a novel considered throughout the ages. 

    Charlotte Ballet.org states the following examples of Withering Heights in Pop culture;

     "Though the novel is now considered a literary classic, Emily Brontë did not receive such praise at the time of its publishing. Wuthering Heights shocked the public, and critics mentioned it could not have possibly be written by a women. Being rejected by publishers, Brontë had to self-publish the 1847 novel and use a male name, Ellis Bell, as the author. The next year, 1848, she died at age 30 from tuberculosis, thinking that her book was a failure." 

    https://charlotteballet.org/2017/04/07/wuthering-heights-in-pop-culture/

    "The first “bad boy” of literature | Author, Christina Bartholomeo’s states Heathcliff is an unforgettable archetype and “is the original “bad boy”; without him, so many great bad boys of literature might not exist, from Dracula to Jay Gatsby to James Dean.”

    The Twilight Series – Eclipse | Stephanie Meyer, the author of the popular Twilight Saga novels, drew inspiration from each book in the series from literary classics: Twilight on Jane Austen’s Pride and PrejudiceNew Moon on Shakespeare’s Romeo and JulietEclipse on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, and Breaking Dawn on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. here are also many allusions to Wuthering Heights in her novels. Bella says it is her favorite novel and is worn out from reading it so much. In EclipseBella and Edward both compare themselves to Catherine and Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights, as the love triangle between the two and Jacob relate to that off Catherine, Heathcliff and Edgar.

    Special Guest, Ella Han from Beijing.   Ella will read a poem that she wrote in reflection to the poetry Emily Bronte has written as well as her famous novel, Wuthering Heights. I will give a brief analysis of the love and passion that Bronte builds to cause friction, revenge, resentment, love and passion with the theme of the story, the four seasons.  How would you compare each of the love relationships to one of the four seasons?  Please take the time to view the website where the Bronte Parsonage Museum shares the literary legacy of the Brontes.  https://www.bronte.org.uk/about-us

    In addition credits go to;

    Litcharts.com, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emily-Bronte, https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Feminist-Ideas-in-Emily-Brontes-Wuthering-Heights-FK83ES5H3GEZ, 

    --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/support
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    25 mins
  • 1984 Part 3 Book 2
    Jul 27 2020

    1984 continues to the end of Book 2.

      An analysis of 1984 sharing direct quotes from the text by George Orwell, analysis points from Litcharts.  and a shared clip from BBC news, https://youtu.be/EuVYvkdTYWc

    Clip from "Pattern Integrity Films"  speaking; George Carlin 

    Manipulating the past, creating fear and hatred out of nothing, and wiping out the existence of individuals; reality control once been applied will demolish people’s freedom. In 1984 Oceania built a dictatorship of totalitarianism. The party rules with fear, brainwash, and manipulation. History may be regarded as truth from the past, but it sometimes can also be a means to convey ideology or patriotism in modern society. If the government wants their citizens to remember a defeat in history that was shameful they will write accordingly in the textbook, so the next generation can hold the same agreement. The extreme measure of manipulating history is described by George Orwell as reality control in the book.

    --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/support
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    25 mins
  • 1984 Part 2
    Jul 19 2020

    1984 continues to the end of Book 1.  An analysis of 1984 sharing direct quotes from the text by George Orwell, analysis points from Litcharts.  and a shared video from BBC news, https://youtu.be/EuVYvkdTYWc 

    Manipulating the past, creating fear and hatred out of nothing, and wiping out the existence of individuals; reality control once been applied will demolish people’s freedom. In 1984 Oceania built a dictatorship of totalitarianism. The party rules with fear, brainwash, and manipulation. History may be regarded as truth from the past, but it sometimes can also be a means to convey ideology or patriotism in modern society. If the government wants their citizens to remember a defeat in history that was shameful they will write accordingly in the textbook, so the next generation can hold the same agreement. The extreme measure of manipulating history is described by George Orwell as reality control in the book.


    --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebeautifulletters/support
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    19 mins