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TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Cover
Story / Kellita Smith: Smith
really opens up about her near death experience,
anticipating the role that will send her to
the Oscar’s and much more! Read
more ...
Music
/ FKA Twigs:
Twigs’
art is not of the stripped-back, real me,
acoustics-and-grubby-jeans variety. She arrived
on the scene in 2012, whispering like Tricky,
clattering like the xx, ... Read
more ...
Health
/ Dr. Sherita Hill Golden:
Dr.
Golden has had a successful career as a physician-scientist
focused on diabetes epidemiology, health services
research and disparities. Read
more ...
Events:
Like
your Networking pages we post our events but
you can also add your events to our page as
well by posting in our twitter account or
joining the Black Professional Women Events
page on Facebook. Visit the Events page here
...
The
Arts / Dionne Figgins:
Ballet Tech, which each year introduces hundreds
of New York City public school children to
the beauty and rigor of classical dance, today
announced Dionne D. Figgins as its new Artistic
Director Read
more ...
Special
Edition / Black History:
Mary Elizabeth (Eliza) Mahoney becoming the first Black woman to graduate from an American school of nursing. ... Read
more ...
Fashion
/ Ashunta Sheriff: Ashunta's
has worked with some of today's hottest and
biggest stars such as Zendaya, Janelle Monae,
Rihanna, Meagan Good, Taraji P. Henson, Tracee
Ellis Ross, Alicia Keys,Tessa Thompson, Tika
Sumpter, Jennifer Hudson, Read
more ...
Life
Style / Dr. Cynthia Allen:
I
was sincerely and deeply honored to receive
an Honorary Doctorate in Humanity, a Presidential
Lifetime Achievement,Read
more
Travel:
Learn
about travel protocols local and internationally.
Read
more ...
Restaurant
/ Biruk Alemayehu :
Alemayehu
left her native Ethiopia as a teenager and
moved to Louisiana years later to study at
Southern University in Baton Rouge. Today,
she's a professor at Southern University at
New Orleans. Read
more ...
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Games:
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online games available ...
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Dupre / Administrator / Publisher
Mitchell Dupre Sr. / Webmaster
Contributors:
Websites and Artists*: 123rf.com, Pixabay.com,
Pixels.com, Unsplash.com, Freeimages.com,
nappy*, Christina Morillo*, Cflgroup Media*,
Asa Dugger*, Starkvisuals*, Explorer Bob*,
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and many others.
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She’s joking, but both incidents indicate the same
thing about her. Twigs is a worker. She moved to
London from Cheltenham when she was 17 and spent
a few years as a back-up dancer, hired to shimmy
behind stars such as Ed Sheeran, Kylie Minogue and
Jessie J. Even now that she’s an artist in her own
right, she flips between being in charge, as a musician
and director, and being directed, when she’s dancing.
She’s more inclined to the
former, though doesn’t mind being told what
to do if she’s learning and she thinks the
work is good. She likes collaboration, and “I
have a good taste barometer”.
Anyhow, she wants to talk more
about fibroids, because she had never heard of them
until she got them, even though many women suffer
with them, especially women of Caribbean origin
(twigs is half Jamaican). She’s learned that
they can be managed through stress management and
diet: it’s important to avoid sugar and foods
with oestrogen, she says – soy, dairy, non-organic
meat. Also, receipts.
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| In
concert in New York in May this year.
Photograph: Getty Images |
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Receipts?
I say, wondering if I’ve heard her wrong.
“Yes.
The paper they use, the ink, there’s something
about it that’s got a lot of oestrogen and
you ingest it through your skin.”
Hmm,
I say, but when I check later, I discover twigs
is right: receipt ink contains BPA, an artificial
oestrogen, which can be absorbed through contact.
God, what a tricky thing. She also avoids tap water,
because it has traces of the pill in it, and can’t
use hormonal contraception: “I’m a believer
in western medicine, but there are other ways, depending
on how your body works.” She has been really
careful, but still her fibroids grew back within
three months. Now she has six more, which she is
managing. “As soon as I had my operation, I
felt so much better,” she says, “like
all these trapped-up feelings were released. But
I’ve never felt the same since. I’m different.”
She has thrown herself into getting
immensely fit. She knew that she wanted to pole
dance for the video for Cellophane and it took her
six months of training to get strong enough to do
it. She is a true athlete now: she has learned how
to do an aerial cartwheel, she is proficient in
a type of sword kung fu called wushu, which she’s
been using in her live shows. She chose to learn
this, she tells me, because it’s the opposite
of pole dancing, very grounded and “weighted
in the pelvis”, requiring her to use her legs.
She is stronger than she’s ever been.
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