Sitting in front of a quaint little deli in Chelsea, I look up and notice a familiar face. Though we never formerly met before this rare occasion, I felt like I knew her well. This may have something to do with a little thing called social networking and the entire blogosphere. Samantha Smikle, better known as O.M.O Writes, was standing in front of me.

Samantha, known by most as a blogger, is also known for a very interesting accessories line [...]

Go to any bookstore in any city. Ask the lady at the desk, the one with the glasses, where the teenage section is. She’ll say something like “YA? In the back on the left.” Yep, “YA” is what she’ll say. Stands for Young Adult. It’s OK if you didn’t know. It’s been a while since you were a “YA.” And if not, well, maybe it’s been a while since you’ve bought a YA book.

When you make it there, to the [...]

The 1984-1985 famine that struck Ethiopia and Eritrea was not only disastrous but unfortunate.  Roughly one million Ethiopians died from results of this famine and the world watched in horror. The effects of low rainfall caused at least four Ethiopian provinces to fall short of natural resources and food. This famine was also made worse by government revenue being disbursed among the wrong people and places.  In March of 2010, BBC News reported that investigators found that millions of dollars [...]

When I was first introduced to computers the screen was black, the words were green and the only game I could play was Tortoise and the Hare. You can pretty much figure out who won every time. The PC was huge and the screen sat on top. This was the computer that was in my home and school. As I’ve gotten older I am now starting to realize that I grew up in the technology era. I was in the [...]

Stylist, photographer, model and writer – Kia Chenelle does it all. After spending four years as a dutiful government employee, she took a hard look at what she really wanted to do for a living, and needless to say, it wasn’t working for someone else in an office…

BarrelHouseBKLYN Presents “The Rise”, a documentary shot by Slick Jackson, reflecting the lives of the teenagers that have ignited a youth culture movement in Brooklyn, NY. In this documentary, you can expect to get more personal with the lives of this Brooklyn team. You will see the good, the bad and the not so easy road to success of a group of talented individuals.

BarrelHouseBKLYN :The Rise (Trailer) from slick jackson on Vimeo.

Keeping true to a “quixotic” lifestyle, the [...]

Entering a room and “bragging” about yourself isn’t always an easy task for some people. But networking is essential and the key to success in building business relationships. Most of us find it hard to walk up to a stranger and promote ourselves, but once we get over the initial nervous stage we can possibly land a new job or contract. The benefits to networking are endless. I have been awarded the opportunity to work on projects from television to [...]

For the baby-boomer generation, the salvation from all of life’s inconsistencies was the cubicle. The front line of every social change movement started to fade, and teenage legs grew tired, especially after the death of almost every thought leader of that time. So they took shelter in millions of corkboard walls and doorless offices all over the country, only to look back and tell a tale of fearlessness to their offspring. They sacrificed their ingenuity and their gumption and bowed [...]

If you’re looking for a ray of hope and positivity in this world of crazy carryings-on, an organization called beGlobal will surely lift your spirits. beGlobal is a young non-profit founded by Quenesha McNair in 2007. Her inspiration drew from her interest in the new and fascinating world beyond her hometown of Pinetops, NC – and far be it for her to deprive herself! Her experiences encouraged a program that gets young people from rural United States the opportunity to [...]