It’s no secret that I’m a total stan for my sister-in-law, Angelou, and not just because she’s smart, accomplished, passionate and fly. I can’t say it enough: She’s an inspiration (and she lets me rock all her shoes, purses, and cute tops!). An attorney by trade, Angelou founded a little over a year ago her own non-profit environmental education program for kids, GREENING YOUTH, to help encourage and teach children—particularly kids in communities of color—how to be stewards of our Earth. She’s got literally a rainbow coalition of kids from the third grade through college preaching the virtues of recycling everything in sight, taking two-minute showers to preserve water, shopping with recyclable bags, learning how to clean up and preserve everything from historical sites to unused green space, and, most importantly, learning how to appreciate the lands that God made.

To further her mission—and to raise funds for her FREE six-week, hands on program that takes environmental education directly into classrooms throughout Georgia—Angelou is having her second annual GREENING YOUTH FOUNDATION GREEN CARPET FUNDRAISER. This year’s fundraiser honors the next generation of leaders in the green movement and highlights the myriad of partnerships the foundation has formed over the past two years to help enhance its work, including the Atlanta Job Corps Center’s Culinary Arts Institute, the Georgia State University AmeriCorps, the Atlanta Job Corps Center, the National Park Service, and Atlanta’s Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.

Green Carpet attendees also get to hear from Atlanta Falcons fullback Ovie Mughelli, who will be announcing the winners of the Ovie Mughelli “Eco-Challenge,” in which participants in GYF’s 12 school-based programs were asked to present creative campaigns to tackle an environmental challenge in their community.

The Green Carpet fundraising event, which is being sponsored by REI, promises to be a fabulous evening with great food, live music and basket giveaways. The November 14th gala will be held at the Georgia Tech Student Success Center, 19 Uncle Heinie Way in Atlanta.

Tickets are $55 per person; $500 to sponsor a table of 10. To purchase tickets, make a donation, or get more information, click HERE, call 678.252.2187, or email Catina Fynn at cwhite97 at aol dot com.

When I was little, new books weren’t easy to come by: My teachers never seemed to have time to take the class to the library, my parents worked, so rides to the public library were few and far between, and though they recognized the importance of books, my mom and dad didn’t really have a lot of cash to spend on them. Needless to say, my love affair with stories would come in fits and starts—a Judy Blume book here, a Beverly Cleary book there, a few Nancy Drew mysteries cobbled from friends. When there was nothing new—which was often—I’d reread old favorites; I wore out “A Little Princess” and “The Secret Garden,” both by Frances Hodgson Burnett. They made me laugh. They made me dream. They comforted me.

They were my friends.

These days, I collect children’s books—mostly titles for, about, and by African Americans—and I’m constantly trolling stores for great books for my girls, particularly Mari, who is as voracious a reader as I was at her age. I don’t care how much the book is or how little I have in my pocket, books are going to get bought. I recognize this is a blessing. There are way too many children who, for many reasons, don’t have access to quality books, and so they never get the chance to appreciate the beauty of stories well told—to find laughter and dreams and best friends in the pages of a good book.

But a program my friend Gretchen hipped me to aims to change that. The program, In2Books, is a non-profit organization created in 1997 to help get kids in low-income, culturally diverse neighborhoods reading, discussing and writing about great children’s literature. The way In2Books works: The program connects students with carefully screened adult pen pals, and then the two read five books and exchange online letters about the books they’ve read. Teachers then reinforce and extend the learning with in-class book discussions and related literacy teachings.

On the In2Books website, notes from teachers who participated in the program testify to the beauty of the organization—especially how it touches the children’s learning lives. Witness:

“The most amazing thing was how everyone supported my students and helped them to grow not only academically and personally. So many of my students did not want to say goodbye and wanted to write all summer long.” — Gwen Kitzan

“I had one little boy that couldn’t believe that he actually got to keep the first book. He kept trying to return the book to me. I kept telling him over and over again that the book was his to keep! His comment was, ‘You mean I get to keep it forever?’” — Sherry McMahan

“Many times your letters caused them to revisit their books and think about them in ways they had not thought of before. Most of all, students enjoyed reading about your lives and connecting with a positive adult. Thank you!”— John Bingea.


I can’t think of a better way to touch a child’s life through the power of words. Gretchen is participating for the second year in a row, and I’m signing up to be a penpal—it’s free, save for a $6 donation you make to help cover the background check In2Books will conduct to make sure you’re an adult who doesn’t hurt kids. A small price to pay for helping a child to a lifelong love of reading.

Won’t you be a part of this wonderful program? To learn more about In2Books or become a penpal to a young reader, click HERE.

Thanks, Gretchen, for telling me about the program and encouraging me to share it with MyBrownBaby readers!

Black radio apparently is facing an uphill battle against a bill that would charge radio stations millions of dollars in fees to play music for the masses, and a few outspoken station owners are sounding a rallying cry for listeners to stop the measure by fighting the powers that be. I have to say that though I respect the history behind black radio, I’m finding it ridiculously hard to grab picket signs, show up to hearings, and call my local congressman to implore folks to save the institution, particularly when it seems the institution really doesn’t respect or care about me as a listener. I wrote this post, about why I’ve banned black radio when my kids are in the car, when I first started MyBrownBaby, back in Fall 2008. I think it stands to reason that not much has changed. Much respect to black radio, but if you want my help, maybe you need to consider making some changes. I’m just sayin’.

By DENENE MILLNER

So I’m in the car on my way to Target with my daughters when I realize I pulled out without my pack of homemade kid-friendly/mom-approved CD mixes. Now, this isn’t an issue if I’m driving alone—I simply tune into talk radio (Warren Ballentine has my ear during morning errands, Michel Martin’s NPR show Tell Me More is on in the afternoon, and I smile all the way to my exercise torture… er, African dance class listening to Farai Chideya’s News & Notes in the evenings). But Mari and Lila neither understand nor appreciate the finer points of intelligent black thought on the RNC convention and the Kwame Kilpatrick fiasco (hey, they’re nine and six—have an exhaustive talk about SpongeBob, Raven-Symone, or snot, and they’re all in). So I turned on the radio. It was nine in the morning. I live only about five minutes from Target. “How bad could it be?” I asked myself as I punched in my local R&B station.

And wouldn’t you know—on comes Lil’ Wayne’s “Mrs. Officer,” with Bobby Valentino contributing a chorus of police siren noises and dirty talk about what he’s going to do to the lady cop when he gets her in the backseat of her ride. It took Lila, the 6-year-old, all of three seconds to tap into her inner Beyonce and join along: “When I get all up in ya/We can hear the angels calling us/We can see the sunrise before us/And when I’m in that thang/I’ll make that body sing/I make it say Wee Ooh Wee Ooh Wee…” she sang with much gusto and way too much glee.

When I tell you I almost crashed the ride into a ditch trying to change the station?

A rambling black-out lecture immediately followed—I think the words “inappropriate” and “mommy’s not mad, really,” and “since you’re not grown,” tumbled from my lips. But mostly, I remember the look of confusion and fear on my baby’s face. Why, I could tell she was wondering, is my mother bugging out over a song?

Here’s why: Because Lil’ Wayne with his “Lollipop” and Bobbi Valentino with his “Wee Ooh Wee Ooh Wee,” and black radio, with its devil-may-care playlists blasting in the afternoons for all of the Elmo set to hear, are k-i-l-l-i-n-g this generation’s ability to hear and appreciate good music. And frankly, I’m tired of it.

Now don’t get it twisted: I love Hip Hop and R&B. I’m a product of it in every way—sat by the stereo in my parents basement every Friday night listening to Red Alert and Mr. Magic; blasted Run DMC, LL Cool J, and Rakim from my stereo in my college dorm room; got through my year living away from home and on my own listening to A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, Mary J. Blige and Jodeci and; covered some of the greatest lyricists and singers ever as an entertainment reporter for The Daily News in New York. I’m prone to blasting Jay-Z, Nas, Lupe Fiasco, T.I., Ludacris and music by countless other artists whose lyrics are astounding.

But the babies don’t know nothing about them.

That’s grown folk music.

And I just wish that somebody who has control over what’s played on my local radio station when I’m driving the kids to school, or picking them up from swim practice, or driving them to Target would act like they know this, too. I mean, I distinctly remember as a teenager listening to legendary radio jock Frankie Crocker explain why nobody would ever hear Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing” before 9 p.m. on his watch. The subject matter, he said, wasn’t for the kids to hear. I didn’t fully comprehend what the big deal was, but then, Crocker wasn’t talking to me, right? He was helping out my mom and dad, who, while at work, just didn’t—and couldn’t—control what my brother and I were listening to on the family stereo.

Sadly, there are no Frankie Crockers, it seems, on the scene today—just deejays who are quite happy to tell moms like us that they just play what the audience wants to hear and if we don’t like it, oh well.

With apologies to black radio, and at the expense of sounding like a played-out mom too old to recognize cool when I hear it, I’m just going to go on ahead and tune out when my girls are in the car, thank you. And for other moms considering the same, I’m attaching a list of kid-friendly, mother-approved R&B and Hip Hop hits both you and your kids can enjoy the next time you’re in the car, without fear (all of these can be downloaded off iTunes). If you want to add on to this list, go on ahead and do it in the comments section. Happy listening!

1. Alright, Ledisi
2. UMI Says, Mos Def
3. Mi Swing Es Tropical, Nickodemus & Quantic, featuring Tempo
4. Summertime, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
5. Mind Control, Stephen Marley
6. Still In Love, Kirk Franklin
7. I’d Like To, Corinne Baily Rae
8. Honey, Erykah Badu
9. Let Go, Lalah Hathaway
10. Sittin’ In The Middle, Raul Midon
11. Teenage Love Affair, Alicia Keys
12. Golden, Jill Scott
13. Get By, Talib Kweli [Note: Get the “clean” version; there is some cursing on the explicit one, but it’s a great message song you’ll appreciate the kids hearing.]
14. Need U Bad, Jazmine Sullivan
15. Magic Touch, Robin Thicke
16. Ordinary, Wayne Brady