Storming the Pages by Doing Soul Aerobics Using Writing Prompts

There is nothing like a good writing prompt to help me redefine my boundaries and write something remarkably different.

A good starter sentence or question that makes those nostalgic moments swim around your brain, is a great way to get your mind flowing and the words onto the page.

I find prompts to help me to dive deeper into my strengths because they force me to think before writing something startlingly new; almost as if I am doing soul aerobics to storm the page with the sweat of my newfound energy. 

 A little direction and I am writing with a new supply of ideas that take me beyond what I would normally write. What I put on the paper is then crafted with warmth, realness, and soul.

Not only that, a good starter sentence or question gets me into the groove of yielding something surprisingly good and I really love that.

If you are a writer like me who enjoys using prompts every now and then to get the words rippling through your body, then maybe this new book is for you.

I created a book of prompts that I think you might enjoy. The book is entitled Storming the Page; Soul Aerobics. It features over 50 prompts for writers to ignite their passion and release their brainstorm.  Each prompt features three writing pages behind it for the writer to let loose. It has been said that writing three pages a day can increase your creative and ideating flow. Perhaps this book will be the perfect addition to your writing tools library.

Storming the Page; Soul Aerobics is now available on Amazon here: https://a.co/d/eibB7Pr.   Get your copy today.

Q is For the Quintessential Moment of a Queen Ushering Her Quillionth Day In

“Speak life into your vision by dressing for the vision”

– Valorie Burton

I have been on this earth for about a quintillion of days and just thinking back is almost like looking at picture after picture over my experiences that laid the groundwork to this moment.

I can’t say that I have treated every moment with gentle care. Some days I fell totally short of being in control of my responses to the world around me. I won’t claim that I had to hurdle over many hardships, but the foolish mistakes that I was able to overcome gave me all the ambition in the world to continue on this interesting journey, one step at a time, with my head up.

I was raised around a circle of strong women. Seeing my mother and two sisters in action always filled me with hope. I knew that I’d one day root out of the dirt of my parent’s little garden with much creativity because of them.

I loved music ever since I saw Michael Jackson moon-walking across the television. I got so excited that the orange juice I had in my sippy cup jumped out of the container into the television my mother had propped in front of us. 

He knew how to croon a tune from the heart. Him and many other artists gave me a good dose of feeling and I continued to listen out of love.

Whitney Houston made me want to sing to the four corners of any room I was in at the loudness of the music that was playing on my little boombox. I guess that is why today I can sing so loud, I don’t really need a microphone to reach anyone in a room that could even seat about 5500 people.

I used to love New Kids on the Block and started collecting their trading cards to share with my elementary school friends that loved them just the same. I knew every song they had, watched their videos on VHS tapes my parents got me and could sing all their lyrics word for word. I even had their poster on my wall.

The same happened when I started to like Basketball in high school. I still get chills reminiscing over the exciting games I used to watch the NY Knicks play. That was my team. Watching them made me feel good; especially John Starks. The more I watched, the more he became my favorite bball player. 

He had this loose, flexible style when he played. He would sweep down the court like a tornado and make the most incredible perimeter shots and I loved that. But I won’t lie, he was a great player but was was kind of good to look at too. 

So good that I started collecting basketball cards and had a poster of him on my wall dunking over Michael Jordan. I hoped one day to meet him in person and never thought that quenchable moment would ever come to satisfy my hunger for it.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege and honor of performing with the Bartlett Contemporaries at Pat La Frieda’s Chop House at Citifield in Flushing, NY. It was a cool night in a great place with some of the most beautiful people. 

The night like any other night where live music is involved, took on a life of its own. Music cut through the silence and the band played to a room of people who were receptive, singing along and dancing.  I always have fun when playing with this band because they really enjoy doing what they do and get crazy; so crazy that they don't want to stop. Just play and play and play on. 

I felt really positive that night because I was about to usher in to the 2020^th chapter of my life the next week and it left me with this mature and powerful aura. So positive, that I decided to wear these quippy four-inch heels which I never do because, I’m getting old and my knees can’t take it. LOL! But that night, I did.  I guess it’s a Queen thing. I used to dream about wearing heels and twitching with this confidence like my mom used to do. I was feeling the 2020 coming over me and it felt quite Queenly. 

That’s when it happened. John Starks walked across the room and my eyes couldn’t help but wander behind him as he walked past us to the other side of the room and I hadn't seen him again. But then as the night went on, there he was standing at the bar, watching us musically do our thing. That is when the band leader Carl Bartlett Sr said, let’s do Natalie Cole’s “Inseparable.” 

That is a song I really love, and I thought to myself, why not walk over to him and say hello. And I did. While Carl Bartlett Jr quadrated to the beat with his saxophone solo, I asked John Starks to dance and there we were on the dance floor in the midst of my song and I got to sing to him and everything.

My voice rang with confidence while my favorite basketball player from childhood was dancing in my arms and I was tall enough to talk to this 6 ft 2-inch man that I had admired since I was a teenager.

 If anything, to say that 2018 was a good year for me, that moment was the quintessential. My hope went from being propped in front of my television watching him through a tube from the confines of my bedroom to in real time where the opportunity presented itself to actually say hello in person. I couldn’t help but to capture the moment and to frame the keepsake for my mantle.You can check out the full video on YouTube here if you are interested: https://youtu.be/dqf-BVutH2w

I laugh it off now, but I never thought I’d feel nervous meeting someone famous but during our little exchange, I felt like I was back in my little high school uniform and was almost too shy to formulate my request. But thank God I rose above my fear though because that earth moving moment is a moment that I’ll never forget. Still brings me chills now. It may have been just a dance, but the memory will forever remain in the clutches of my heart. 

Perhaps, it was the heels!

Four Fives For Tuesday; Thoughts on Art & Music

Here we are! Another day, minute, hour and second of life that we were not promised and are very fortunate to see. What a blessing!

I am still amazed that the year is going by so quickly, that the weather in NYC has been so cold lately and that Thanksgiving is not only next week but, we have a little over 50 days until 2018 makes its welcome into our lives. How crazy is that? But thank God, for blessing us to see these exciting times.

And just as any other day, writing seems to just flow out of me like blood from a wound. Mama Kat posts these cool prompts every week on her website and I felt like joining in because it was an interesting one and hopefully you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed populating the information in this post which is like an introduction of sorts to who I am. Maybe some of these things will be similar to the way that you think. 

Five Things That You Might Not Know About Me

1. I love Shakespeare and everything he writes. I have loved him ever since a high school professor of mine made us memorize and recite a monologue from his play “Hamlet.” I loved him so much that I started to notice his language; so much that one day when reading the King James Bible, I noticed how Elizabethan the language in it was and after doing research, came to find out that Shakespeare was one of the translators of it. 

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Knickerbocker Classics)

I love "Romeo & Juliet," "Taming of the Shrew," still can recite the monologue from "Hamlet" word for word today and I consider his sonnets to be a template of how to write a song. The first 8 lines are the verse and the last two are the chorus. I love the way he wrote; beautiful works!  

2. Amel Larrieux has become my favorite singer. I love everything she sings and have every single one of her albums including from when she was in the group Groove Theory. I have seen her in concert four times and really enjoy the way she sings her songs. MY favorite song by her is “Even If” off of her first solo project Infinite Possibilties. There was a time when I would spend my evening singing all of her songs from every album to the four corners of my basement. Her sound is very unique and I love what she can do with her voice.

3. Aladdin is one of my favorite movies and though it is a cartoon movie, I can sit and watch it on any day or time, laugh, cry and sing along to every song that is featured in the movie. I never grow tired of it and watch it anytime it is on television and also have the DVD to it. Great classic animated film.

 

Aladdin (Two-Disc Set DVD, Special Edition,2004) English/French/Spanish

4. I was working as a choir director at Mt Moriah Baptist Church in Harlem, NY over the youth. It was interesting for me because I always wanted to work with kids and with music. The dilemma was reaching through to the kids. I came from a Roman Catholic background and I loved hymns. Still do. But, the kids did not like it so much. Every week I would come in with one of my favorite hymns and they said, “I don’t like that one miss Stephanie,” and every week I would leave crying. Then one week, I decided to no longer leave crying. I set a goal to create my own music to share with them and using Cakewalk Sonar software and my Korg Triton LE Music Workstation, I created my first ever collection of works of music. It was an album of Christian works featuring 14 tracks: intro, outro, two interludes and ten full length songs.

I Know is just one of them created for this project to teach the kids songs that I thought they’d like. Turned out that NYC bassist Ozzie Jones Jr liked my bass line on the song so much that he plugged into my system and did some live bass overdubs over it and the song was created. You can check out that tune here: https://soundcloud.com/stephanay-jnote/stephanay-jnotes-tracks-1

By the way, yes, I did meet my deadline and had a cd for every kid ready to give them with a bag of other goodies for Christmas. I worked night and day until the production was completed which was on Christmas eve of that year with cases, cd covers with photos, artwork on each cd and a track listing on the back. “I Know” is the only song I have shared publicly from it with anyone else.

5. I used to think that Miles Davis was mute because I saw this recording of a concert he did years ago and he did not speak to the crowd at all. He had his back turned to them most of the time. I didn’t understand his demeanor until when doing my college thesis and came across his autobiography where he spoke about being a student at Julliard and ideologies. I also read a few articles where he was interviewed and spoke about his views about society, jazz, racism and being accepted into segregated establishments only to provide a service.  Then I saw a video that was presented on Youtube of an interview where he actually had dialogue and that cleared up everything. I fell in love with who he was after reading his autobiography and he became one of my favorite jazz musicians of all times. I was excited to hear that there was a movie out about his life but decided not to see it because I was told that many of the aspects that I found interesting about him as an individual in this society that were featured in his autobiography were not included in the film and instead, the movie was based on the rumoresque side of his life.

 

Miles

Five Things I Am Knowledgeable About

1. Video Editing

2. Cakewalk Sonar

3. Live Musical Stage Performing

4. The Culture of Jazz

5. Composing

Five Things I Know Nothing About

1. Snapchat

2. House of Cards

3. Playing a horn

4. Driving in NYC without getting an attitude

5. Iphone 7 and up

Five Things I Believe

1. Christmas is the best holiday of the year and the best season is autumn because of all the beautiful colors and fashion designs made for it. 

2. A broken language does not mean that a people bastardized though they were forced to learn it. It means that they used their intellect to be able to effectively communicate in a language that was never theirs to begin with

3. Every hour of the day is rush hour because everybody has become so impatient lately. It seems like the more electronic and fast processing information becomes, the attention span of people and their ability to wait even for a second is too long. I think soon all positions where humans interact with each other personally will dwindle down and everything will be online without any real human interaction

4. God is the source of all my strength and the strength of all my life. Without him I’d be nothing. I can lean on him and through his faith, I do not have to worry about too much because he always provides a way; even out of no way.

5. I have a great library of music featured on Spotify that you definitely should check out and add to your music playlists here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6WUF7BBajYlCVnn4phqIeU

Your Turn

Care to share? I would love to know some things about you that might be similar or different. What are five things that would surprise people to know about you?

Thank you for reading my post and thank you for sharing your thoughts. God bless! 

Music Gives Wings to The Mind

There are so musicians, bands and songs that inspire me as a vocalist. It is always pleasurable for me to  listen to music and to discover new sounds and artists.

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind,

flight to the imagination, & life to everything”

-Plato

Spotify has this challenge to create a playlist of the top 100 songs and I can say that I have been listening more and more to the different artists and music on Spotify lately; especially since I currently have a new project on the platform entitled “We Are People United” on there.

You can check out the album here: https://open.spotify.com/album/3BWB0RVMeXhAnWORuEzHLf

Prompts and Ideas

I am always up for a good challenge or ideas to be prompted by; especially in writing because I want to be able to write as much as I can. Through the process of trying to gain ideas, I came across this book that has benefitted me a lot to put pen to paper and write new songs, poetry, blog posts and more. The book is entitled 365 Journal Writing Ideas Plus 400 Quotes: A Year of Daily Writing Prompts, Questions & Actions To Fill Your Journal With Memories, Self-Reflection, Creativity & Direction by Rossi Fox and I really like it.

It is sorted by the day of the year and has prompts that can make you reflect and gain ground in storming. This is always a good benefit for any writer in my opinion because this is a way to prevent writer’s block when getting into the process when scribing is necessary. For me, it seems like it is a need everyday as is water and sleep because, I can honestly say that there is not a day that goes by without me writing something. This book  helps with more directional writing if needed. Perhaps it can help to enhance your writing as it has for me in many ways. 

365 Journal Writing Ideas

One of the prompts read like this: List your favorite musicians, bands and song. And so, here we go, exploring my favorite five on my favorite topic that the world has to offer; music.

Five of My Favorite Musicians

“I was born with music inside of me.  Music was one of my parts.

Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart.

Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene.

It was a necessity for me.  – like food or water.”

- Ray Charles

1. Sarah Vaughan

I have loved her for a very long time. Her voice was amazing. I don’t think that there is anything that she couldn’t do with her voice. Her range was amazing. And my favorite thing about her voice was her low tone. 

A friend of mine knew that I loved Sarah Vaughan so much, that he gave me a DVD that featured about 500 songs that she has done in her musical career. Of all the artists out there past and present, she is who I listen to the most.  
I currently have just over 18 hours of music in my library that feature her voice.  I also have two DVDs featuring her live concerts. I am constantly searching for new live footage of her on Youtube and also indulged in the book Sassy: The Life of Sarah Vaughan which I found quite interesting to take a deeper look into her life and her being, aside from just the music. I love her.

Sassy: The Life Of Sarah Vaughan

2. Prince

I think Prince was amazing. There are so many layers to him and so much music by him that I am discovering. I think he was a genius at writing and getting into the groove of the music. His songs are tight and so enjoyable. And I really like his voice.

I read a book on his life entitled I Would Die 4 You by Toure and it was excellent reading about his life, musical journey and everything about what made him who he is. 

I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon

3. Miles Davis

I have always loved listening to the way that he played his music but I don’t think I liked him as much as I do now after conducting research to write my college thesis on jazz, identity and racism, came across his book Miles: The Autobiography and read some really interesting things about his life and his personality. I loved his response to stigmas and I appreciated how he came across growing as a musician and individual in the world. He played that trumpet so well and I really like listening to his music. 

Miles

4. Whitney Houston

I can’t think of a day that I did not love Whitney Houston. I don’t think I was as devastated hearing of a musician’s passing as I was when she did. I cried as if she was a family member because I have lived her since I was a little girl.

If I could credit to anyone for the big voice I have that can carry very loud and fill an auditorium without a microphone, I would give it Whitney Houston. I used to spend entire afternoons singing her songs to the four walls of my basement and used to always choose songs by her to go out and sing in live settings.

I have every album she has ever made and can actually claim as my truth that I will always love her voice, her movie The Bodyguard and the songs that she was known for; especially Saving All My Love which is still my favorite song by her. 

The Bodyguard (Special Edition)

5. Dizzy Gillespie

I love Dizzy Gillespie. He was an amazing musician and I love the music that he contributed to the world. I have grown to love his personality more and more as I watched many documentaries or interviews where he was speaking with an interviewer. I love how he spoke with such knowledge, intelligence and attitude. I also read a few excerpts from his book To Be or Not to Bop and I really loved some of things he talked about in regards to the culture of jazz and its music. I listen to his music a lot and I admire what he contributed to the world as a world-class musician. 

To Be, or Not . . . to Bop

Five of my Favorite Bands

1. Wilerm Delisfort Project

This is a current band that is often performing live at Smoke Jazz and I love the music that I hear coming from them. Slick sounds and fresh to the ear.

If you have not heard them yet, you definitely need to get down to Smoke Jazz located at 2751 Broadway in Harlem, NY for their Sunday late night session to see them live.

I think you will really enjoy them.

2. Paradyce

A nice group of musicians who recently released a studio project entitled East to Egypt featuring seven really cool jazz tracks of songs that you will just be bopping to. The NYC based group features keyboardist Steve Palmer, drummer David Griffin and saxophonist Saxy Ric. I recently had the opportunity to interview them on my radio show, Jazz on the JNote which originally aired on WNYE 91.5 FM on August 6, 2017. You can check out Part one of the interview here: https://youtu.be/QIobFFVze4c

3. Sade

Who doesn’t love the group Sade? And who can say that they do not enjoy listening to the lead singer Sade Anu sing away? I think I can sing all their songs back and forth and I love everything that they do. Such cool songs and a great, mellow vibe that comes from them. This is one group that I never get tired of listening to. Beautiful tone, amazing songs.

4. Out of Eden

I love out of Eden and I can listen to their music all day long. Out of Eden is an all-girl Gospel group of sisters which featured Lisa Kimmey, Andrea Kimmey-Baca, and Danielle Kimmey. I learned about them years ago through this music promotion site who would introduce artists and their music, I think the site was called What’s Hot Now.

But anyway, they have some amazing soulful Gospel songs sung to R&B influenced beats that I just love. I was even able to teach a few of their songs to the youth choir at Mt Moriah Baptist church when I was the choir director there and the young people loved it.

They had six studio albums which I have all of them, with my favorite being No Turning Back: an album that featured ten up-beat and beautiful songs that I simply love. 

No Turning Back

5. Earth Wind & Fire

I love, love, love Earth Wind & Fire and everything that they sang and the fire they brought onto the stage with them each time that they performed. I never get bored listening to their songs with my favorite being Sing a Song because that is my favorite thing to do; sing. LOL!

I also appreciate many of the songs that they wrote for many of the artists I enjoy listening to such as Deniece Williams and the Emotions.

Five of My Favorite Songs

1. Who Ja Bless by Qew Lunel

Beautiful words. Very uplifting. Nice sound. Great song. https://open.spotify.com/track/1PW2SEzE4l7Ej518M2aJTB

2. Wherever You Are by Stephanie Jeannot

Still a favorite of mine. I think I love that I wrote and produced the entire song it is such a special tune for me. I love performing it and it is one of the few tunes I have shared at a live setting here and abroad.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6CumcrYYlWFftRwHcFrFv6

3. Courage by Sarah Vaughan

I love the words on this song. Such a pretty tune. I love the way Sarah sings this song and every time I hear it, it leaves a beautiful feeling inside.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3Bw5XsDIJXhcsFu3PFihZK

4. Back for Good by Take That

I have loved this song since I was in high school. The job I worked at used to play 106.7 Lite FM all day long and this tune was constantly being aired. I have adored it ever since. Such a pretty melody. I love it a lot.

https://open.spotify.com/track/4CPTAJth9JiuKYaMIemmDD

5. Aint Misbehavin by Fats Waller

I love this song. I started liking it when I first saw my favorite movie Stormy Weather and saw the composer of it, Fats Waller,  being his humorous self on the piano, tickling away and singing this song. Awesome tune and once of may favorites to perform live.

https://open.spotify.com/track/7yLb6yUwkC3bwms84drCBW

Stormy Weather

Et Vous?

It would be wrong of me to not include you into this musical favorites theme. I would love to hear about the musicians, bands and songs that you love the most. Care to share? 

Perhaps you can guide me on a new path of discovery. I would love to hear your favorites. Who do you love to listen to and what are your favorite songs? 

Here and There Throwbacks Tweeps!

Last week I tweeted two things on twitter that I want to share.

On the first one, I wrote “this video shoot got me like Oooh Oooh!” Here and the on the second one, I wrote “All of a sudden I'm a shoeaholic again; these shoes though, definitely ain't for walking” There.

And so, I did a video shoot for one of my songs off the "Finally JNote" album and executive director and producer of the video, Keisong Powell, had us sprinkled about the oasis of Jamaica Queens, NY and we put our gentle focus on shooting a car scene with me driving this beautiful, convertible Lexus through the busy traffic of the Van Wyck expressway with a camera mounted on the side. Imagine driving someone else’s expensive vehicle which is delicate and though you are used to using your heavy foot to rear through the streets like a stray bullet, you have to drive like a novice avoiding all sharp edges and with hopes that the camera mounted on the side will not fall and break.

I had the perfect shoes on for it though; these beautiful and sexy heels that you can only walk in for so long but for driving, lol, you could have your foot pumping the gas all day.

We got through the first stretch of the video for my song "Time Machine" and it was an amazing shoot and I am excited. If you have not heard my song “Time Machine" yet, you can take a listen to it on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/track/6PX6lWw1RWc115RkjmU72I

I look forward with confidence at the day when I can actually share with you the official music video for it coming soon.” Thank you for reading my post inspired by a writing prompt by Mamakat. Always a great way to get started in the writing process and I am thankful that you took the time to read it. 

God Bless!  

Learning from the Birthday Boy, President Barack Obama: Yes I Can!

The only knowledge you need in life is to know that you will be alright. We all find ourselves dealing with miseries sometimes because life is not easy. But walking around with a distorted vision of you is not right because all of a sudden, you become a victim of your own prejudice. The simple truth is, you are on a pioneering path and you need to know the great amount of influence you electrify the world with when you strive; even those big steps you take moving forward with which you find yourself coming up short. Yet still, don’t be so reluctant to believe that you cannot be a leader but also have glitches.

Just because you are carrying the weight of life on your shoulders does not mean that it has to dull your shine. Nobody said that you had to be driving in the hottest Italian sports car to be worthy of a robust life. Nobody said that to be seen as intelligent, you have to know every James Baldwin novel from cover to cover. There is nothing that says that one must eat 7 ½ servings of whole grains a day in order to be taken seriously. Don’t let these stigmas strip you of your supply of faith.

Stop wrestling with your doubts and letting the war in your mind deflate your willingness to continue pressing on. You don’t always have to be readily available for those invitations to lunch from your wounds and instead, you can find fuel from your passions and continue on with your unlimited expectations of what is to come. Remember, we all come up short sometimes from our own expectations of what life is supposed to be at the moment, detour, and lose our bearings, but don’t emotionally react so quickly to what may seem to be the pinnacle of your dreams. If you have envisioned the fruit at the bend of the rainbow with your own eyes, then you must first learn to tolerate your flaws and come to peace with who you are.

Keep your heart grounded in God’s greatness and love while also allowing him to heal your wounds. Target the opportunities, even through your personal struggles. I mean, what is discussing your dilemmas and aspirations with God if you are not going to let him do what he does? Move along the line with confidence and know in truth that the best is yet to come. Press on in the race and never give up. You are thoroughly equipped to gain momentum.  Life is all about taking chances.  It’s about fighting like Jack Johnson for what you want. But remember, God is bigger than all your problems. 

Love yourself, even with the abrasions, bruises, chatter-about-you and drama. These things are meant to be distractions for a reason. Nothing that an open-flow conversation with God can’t fix. They can be so transforming, if you hold on to God’s faith. A simple declaration such as the famous “Yes I Can” affirmation that the birthday boy, President Barack Obama uses can also change your nature. The most important opinion of you should be the one you hold of yourself. 

 You must also remember that not every aim at the basket will be nothing but net. You might gain momentum on the court with your heart beating wildly and the basketball falling under your spell until you shoot and miss. This is not a reason to be full of vexation; especially if you are keenly aware of who you are and what the end goal is.

What is life if you have to walk a tight rope to well adjust to it? Time to pay a visit to a different strategy. Enough with the wallowing in self-pity. Your mishaps are not chained to a slave castle in St Croix. It would be hard to change your mind with it racing 65-miles per hour. Stop being a slave to the things going wrong in life and instead, emancipate yourself and applaud the good things. A different perspective is all that is needed to endure the journey and to tap into the internal joy that no one or nothing should be able to take away.

Walk proudly towards what you crave to see in your life and be patient while working towards your achievement. I mean think about it. If every test you took was met with an A, there would be no reason to study or aim for higher. Things gained without working for it is not as appreciated as those you bust your butt to attain. So keep pushing forward.  

Time to put this trivial ego-buster out in the trash and regroup for those ample opportunities. But don’t sit on the veranda thinking for too long. Trying again should not be beneath your dignity. Especially when you have eyes filled with curiosity of what that opened door for you would mean. Let your action of trying repeat itself and do it with a fresh supply of faith unless you want to make God insanely jealous by giving into your doubts. Even in a premature stage, giving life to your dream matures you. Experience life! 

The important thing to remember about life is that sometimes you win your battles and sometimes your tries might have disastrous results. Then there are times when you are so at peace with who you are that you find yourself reclining on that veranda, looking back and laughing out loud at yourself at the sticky situations you got yourself into while striving for excellence.