Alexis Masino: Goddess


.

 

.

Photography, Text, Video Interview by Alexis Masino, Copyright 2017

.

GODDESS

.

A feminist is “the person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes,” as told by esteemed scholar Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her famous TED talk. Feminism has come a long way, but there are still dramatic gender inequalities, and an obvious need for the persistence of the feminist movement. However, there is a less spoken and equally important issue inside the movement itself, and that is the racial divide within feminism. While it is true that there has been general progression for women, white women specifically maintain an economic and political advantage over women of color, just as men maintain an advantage over women. Generally, white women hold control of the conversation about feminism, which does not allow much room for women of color to speak out for their own equality. At the same time feminism shows obvious exclusion of black women, civil rights movements based on race tend to focus mainly on men and are led and maintained by men. So where does this leave black women? Often isolated by both feminism and civil rights, at an intersection between the inextricably bound issues of sexism and racism. Black feminism, to which Black Lives Matter is currently contributing and working to revitalize, is a form of identity politics that focuses on intersectionality of issues and inequalities especially between races and the sexes. In its essence, as discussed by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, a leading scholar in feminism and the civil rights theory, black feminism seeks to emphasize the idea that the experience of being a black woman is not accurately described in just terms of being black or of being a woman. This is a movement for black women, by black women and at this time, it is essential for people of all genders and races to celebrate and support them and the pursuit of equality.

.

https://youtu.be/N5lkJlKZezY

.

About The Author: Alexis Masino is a freshman enrolled in the College of the University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2020

.

Portrait of Alexis Masino by Noel Zheng, Copyright 2017
Processed with VSCO with a6 preset

A.H. Scott: Fairy Tales & Four Years

Trump_Impeach_portrait_artist_Christopher_Suici_manchild_crazy_people_insane_fairy_tales_four_years
IMPEACH!
 

 

Poetry by A. H. Scott, Copyright 2017

.

Portrait of Trump: Christopher Suciu, Copyright 2017

.

FAIRY TALES & FOUR YEARS

.

Mumble, Fumble, Grumble, Stumble, Gamble and Ramble

Grimm soul is putting us all in a shamble

Eyes so cold, belies a sorrow untold

Takin’ a boy from the borough of Queens and lettin’ him play in the towers of glass and metal has a score to settle

Fee-fi-fo-fum! Look at how far Son of a Drumpf has come!

Overcompensation and exaggeration can’t be held back from his forked tongues’ pout

It’s his world now, ya’ better watch out

More dangerous than a hydrogen bomb, is what comes out of his mouth

Only thing he’s spinning is a yarn of lies

Encased in tacky gold is his puny heart

Turn on the castle lights and them beady eyes shift into diamonds

Son of a Drumpf thinks when he awakens in the morn the revolving planet around him starts

Not so fast, false fool of obliviousness

There are still a few of us out here who calls ’em as we see’s ’em

He peddles it well, he shovels it deep

Cult of the Cotton Candy hair is in a trance-like sleep

Decorum be damned, as he thumps his chest and puts fear in the marrow of anyone in his wake

False Prophet of Populist rage snarls as he stomps across the world stage

The game he knows well, as the media tries to keep up

But, the liar of golden fluff is a cold-blooded prick who gets off on being tough

Grumble, grumble, mumble, and fumble

This ain’t no fairy tale, kiddies

Lady Conway and Count Barron stroke the throne

Egomaniac with a stranglehold on false facts has taken truth out back for 400 whacks

Nauseating nightmare is what we all are living

Just remember it’s only the beginning

Ain’t even been two months

Survive the day, survive the night

Batten down the hatches, cuz’ this is gonna’ be one hell of a fight

1,460 days might be too far in sight

Four years? Four years?

Am I losing my mind?

Oh, no Alice…only down the rabbit hole this nation has gone

Positioned pieces upon Destiny’s chessboard, we are now the pawn

 .

About The Author: A.H. Scott is a poet based in New York City and frequent contributor to Tony Ward Studio. To read additional articles by A. H. Scott, go here:https://tonywardstudio.com/blog/h-scott-trumps-inaugural-address/

 

Portrait of the Day: Judge Robert Bork

Tony_Ward_Photography_early_90's_portraits_star_ring_light_famous_judges_robert_bork_Saturday_NIght_Massacre_Watergate_Justice_Yale_University
Judge Robert Bork. Author of Saving Justice.
 

.

Photography and Text  by Tony Ward, Copyright 2017

.

Former Judge  Robert H. Bork, a former solicitor general, and acting head of the Justice Department at the time played a role in the Saturday Night Massacre, 1973, by agreeing with orders issued by then President Richard  Nixon, to fire Archibald Cox, special prosecutor appointed to the investigation of President Nixon and his involvement in the Watergate conspiracy. Bork was later nominated by President Ronald Regan on July 1, 1987 (after a promise made by President Nixon) to serve as an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Senate, with 54 Democrats, rejected his nomination after  very contentious senate hearings, 42-58. During the hearings Senator Ted Kennedy famously remarked:

“Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens.”

.

To see more portraits from this series, go herehttp://tonyward.com/early-work/close-ups-1990s/

 

Racquel Ward: The 60’s Are Back

 

Photography and Text by Racquel Ward, Copyright 2017

.

THE 60’S ARE BACK

.

Washington D.C. expected 200,000 women and men to show up at the Women’s March last Saturday.  Los Angeles expected far less. However, as I approached Perishing Square in downtown LA, the site was truly unprecedented. I weaved through the crowd and sighted women with their shirts off, men carrying signs to support their wives, children with peace signs painted across their faces and a host of characters that used this occasion to dress up in their most eccentric outfits for the sake of self-expression. People chanted and raised their arms. Many were crying and laughing. Some were engaged in political debate. Kids climbed on street posts to get a better view of the stage, and the MC exhilarated the crowd with anti-Trump rhetoric. The sky lit up with a sea of posters – many were funny and all spoke to the need for social justice.

As a millennial, I hadn’t experienced this type of march since the Bush era. My friends and I in New York City would take to the streets to protest the war in Iraq. This march felt different. As a child, my parents schooled me on what it was like to grow up in the 60’s and how people started a cultural revolution through uninhibited marches and protests with no fear and a message of peace. This felt like that. The Women’s March was not about protesting against a war. It was about speaking out, in sheer numbers, across the country and the world, against a man who seeks to go backward for the sake of power and privilege instead of move forward for the benefit of mankind. The 750,000 people who showed up in downtown Los Angeles showed me that this is not a one-off march. This is the start of a cultural revolution. I am grateful to be part of it and to be counted as 750,001.

.

About The Author: Racquel Ward is a writer and educational therapist living in Los Angeles. She holds a BA in Culture and Media studies and a BFA in Contemporary Music from the New School University – Manhattan, New York. Racquel also holds a Master’s of Science in Teaching. She has been published on ThoughtCatalog and most recently finished her first children’s book.

Racquel_Ward_head_shot_photography_Tony_Ward_studio_selfie
Selfie by Racquel Ward, Los Angeles 2017.

.

To read additional articles by Racquel Ward, go here: http://thoughtcatalog.com/racquel-ward/2015/03/6-different-situations-when-you-must-ask-questions-to-get-what-you-want/

 

 

A. H. Scott: Trump’s Inaugural Address

Tony_Ward_Studio_flag_montage_distortion_america_politics_democracy_A_H_Scott_writer_trump_inaugural_address-bw
Divided State of America

A.H. Scott: Trump’s Inaugural Address

.

I didn’t see THE speech. I read the TRANSCRIPT. And, I thought I’d just shrug and roll my eyes as I read it. But, then it happened! 

“When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.” – President Donald J. Trump, Inaugural Address

As my eyes skimmed the text of his speech, I figured there was probably nothing really new in this man’s spiel. But, then, this one line ‘whistled’, or should I say ‘dog blared’ out to me. Seems like it could have been just a toss away line that he decided to use. But, then again, he waltzes with that dark right with the greatest of ease; as Steve Bannon probably sprinkled this line into his ear to add to that speech. 

I think Mr. Orange in the Oval Office is playing verbal jujitsu with implying that if you open your heart to loving this country, of course there would be no feelings of hatred towards those who you consider the ‘other’. He ran a campaign drenched in the venomous swamp of disdain and ridicule. This isn’t Men In Black and Trump can’t turn on a machine to make us all forget the hell of his own words and actions of the past months. He ain’t gonna get off that easy. He’s going to have to have a ‘come to the mirror of his own past sins’ moment and have to take responsibility for it. He can’t hide behind President Obama and  First Lady Michelle Obama’s graciousness or even some kind of religiously cloaked desire to have every man woman, and child in America gather round the flag pole of his own making so that he’ll be made to feel that adulation he craves most. 

Oh no he didn’t, thinking that brotherhood could be slapped together like a Coke and a smile would come like a sprinkle of stardust! No! No! No! Not so easy, Mr. Newly Minted President of the United States; that decadent dessert which you may see as a steaming fresh of plush apples and sweetness, seen in the view of different eyes of other Americans as a festering stew of arrogance’s acidity and heartbreaking strange fruit. 

DING DONG! 

So, he better take a page from the Isley Brothers, cuz’ he’s got WORK TO DO!! (If he wants to bring us all together) 

.

About The Author: A.H. Scott is a poet based in New York City and frequent contributor to Tony Ward Studio. To read additional articles by A. H. Scott, go herehttps://tonywardstudio.com/blog/h-scott-childhood-memories/

.

Photo Montage by Tony Ward, Copyright 2017