ME! ME! ME! Leaving BWAF Ediccione

Addendum: Next public event:August, 3 2007 at Wow Cafe Theatre 59 East 4th Street (Between 2nd Avenue and Bowery), New York, New York 10003Cost : $10.00CX features her music and writing, CDs and chapbooks at this popular NYC wimmin's cabaret. Contact (212) 777-4280 or visit www.myspace.com/riversofhoney or email riversofhoney @ gmail.com For more info and complete calendar please visit thyself http://www.myspace.com/cassendrexaviermusic




ME! ME! ME! Leaving BWAF Ediccione



ME! ME! ME! The Cassendre Xavier Newsletter

the “Leaving BWAF” ediccione, if you will. (As it were.)



Sunday, July 22, 2007



TABLE OF CONTENTS



1) GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONAL DEVICES

2) NEWS FROM THE COMMUNITAY

3) THE NITTAY UND ZIE GRITTAY

4) FAN MAIL, WHOO-HOO!

5) REJECTION LETTER – WHOO HOO!

6) VIDEO TREATS FOR THEE!

7) RENAISSANCE NEGRESSE CATALOG & CALENDAR

8) FAREWELL BLESSING



CONTENTS OF SAID TABLE THERE



1) GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONAL DEVICES

Hi, everyone! How are you? I hope you’re doing really well! Check to see if I’ve added your name to my links page. If you enjoy receiving his newsletter, please put the email address it came from on your friends list to ensure that it arrives. Oh, the serious stuff: If you’re getting this newsletter, I either have your business card from one of my gazillions of elbow-rubbing opportunities, or you signed my mailing list or bought a CD at a show or online, or wrote me an email regarding my writing or music or something like that. You can remove yourself from the mailing list at anytime by following the very quick and simple instructions at the bottom of this here email. And of course, if you dig it, you are wholly encouraged to forward this email to all of your friends and lovers!

Thank you to everyone who has ever supported my work or being in any way. All those positive vibes are much appreciated when the challenges in life come, as I am aware is the case for you, which is why I squint really hard to bring forth the most humor and inspiration as I can in each wee missive, if you will! (As it were.)

Now, let’s see, what have I been up to? I’ve been writing a lot. I mean a LOT a lot. I’ve always written a lot but now most of my time is spend writing. Somehow the Universe has supported me in living my dream of a full-time artist since December 2006. Whenever I start to worry about money, I just remember that, and continue to focus my thoughts on the abundance in my life and how I have paid my rent and most of my bills, without a “paycheck job” since then.

In recent years, I’ve gone back and forth about whether or not to write this newsletter. For a while I thought I “should” (and those “shoulds” really do getcha every time!) be more “professional” and not spill my guts about my challenges, be more private, and basically try to look like some kind of celebrity or something. So I announced that I was going to stop the newsletter and instead start advertising and have people only find out about me by coming to my shows. But then I didn’t really move on advertising or booking to the level where I should’ve. Finally, through trial and error, mostly error, I decided that ME! ME! ME! IS my advertising. I realized that sharing my journey does help people, and I started really taking to heart the compliments I would get, and not take for granted or minimize the healing power of humor. One of the biggest reasons I’ve returned to writing this newsletter is because many of you, my readers, have missed it and been asking for it. There’s something wrong if your fans are begging you for something. Give it to them, I say! Give!

What I’ve been up to: Reading, studying, meditating, sleeping, writing manuscripts soon to be published at Lulu.com, preparing to start recording my own albums using Apple’s GarageBand program, creating communities of self-recording musicians on MySpace, Lulu, and Yahoo to support my GarageBand learning, deciding to be now the celebrity that I want to be and womanifesting the tools that I need to make my dreams come true including the results of: free gym, free weekly yoga/pilates, free food, and therapy for $3 a session. (More on how to wo/manifest in future issues.) Negotiating family of origin issues as a survivor. Eating more healthily and removing myself from toxic or codependent relationships. Inner child and rage work. And much, much more! Quickly onto the newsletter now, and I’ll return in a week or two!



2) NEWS FROM THE COMMUNITAY

Power 99FM radio programmer & host Tiffany Bacon says: If you can please spread the word about my weekly jam session and open mic in Germantown. I would love to see you there.... Either way, please get back to me so we can catch up! Miss speaking with you my Aquarius sister :) [Tiffany, her mother, and I all three have the same birthday! –CX/ARah]
This event is EVERY Tuesday night. Spread the word.
The Barrett Charles Restaurant
5920 Greene Street
Phila, Pa 19144
7pm to 11pm
Admission $10 (half price if you bring two friends who pay $10)





Walidah Imarisha’s Going Away/Birthday Philly Poetry Party 7/27/2007!

[Walidah is an amazing poet, performer and activist who has brought a lot to Philly’s culture in recent years. –CX/ARah]

Click here to read message details: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BWAFphilly/message/1565

Walidah’s “Good Sista Bad Sista” website: http://www.poetryoffthepage.com/



Local author gets PhD, writes a ton of books the next week! Well, okay, not exactly, but almost. Check out Dr. Niama Leslie William’s Lulu Storefront at www.lulu.com/DrNi Dr. Niama also has a nifty official website www.DrNi.homestead.com which has info about her workshops, classes, writing services and radio show.



Happy Sisters' Sanctuary Self-Love Day –an inspiring newsletter from Lacey C. Clark! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BWAFphilly/message/1570



Spoken Word Concert - On Saturday, August 11, 2007, Renaissance Media presents "BrothaBlackManBluesSong", a multi-media presentation of spoken word-poetry, live music, song, dance, comedy, video, fashion show, art exhibit, and reception to celebrate the Reuben Jones debut CD. To be held at The Rotunda, located at 4014 Walnut St. (right next to "The Bridge" movie theater) FREE admission. Show starts promptly at 7:30 pm. To reserve a seat, contact: Renaissancemedia @ aol.com or call 267-304-9716.



3) THE NITTAY UND ZIE GRITTAY

(German translation for “nitty gritty”. Or maybe not really.) The subject of this newsletter is “Leaving BWAF”. That means I’m leaving the Black Women’s Arts Festival – an event I founded in 2003 that became annual and now is in a nonprofit incubator program. I decided to focus on my self-care, self-discovery, and actualizing my lifelong dreams of being a musician, writer, actor, visual artist, and overall life adventurer! I loved the Festival, but the more it grew, the more work it was, and the more I realized I didn’t come here this time around to be the director of a nonprofit organization. That’s not my calling. My calling is music, writing, lots of other kinds of artmaking and living passionately while entertaining and assisting others on their similar paths. Ironically, it’s the BWAF that has helped me over the years in increasing my self-love, and getting to the truth of who and what I am, that has caused me to come to the place of needing to leave it. I’m not sure what the future holds for BWAF, but whatever the outcome will be, I’m fine with. I held on to it for a long time, even though so many other aspects of my life were suffering, and even though my hair was falling out from the stress, because I just couldn’t fathom it not being in the Universe. But once I chose myself, I had to let go of needing anything else to be a certain way, and to just go with the flow of what feels real, right, and true for me. And what feels real, right, and true for me is making music, recording, and writing fiendishly in all the ways that I do. What feels right is doing spiritual, creative, and physical exercises that fully engage in me in the process of life. And none of those things involve running a nonprofit. There was a time, 3 or 4 years ago, when BWAF was a small thing I could do on the side. Just make some calls, book some folks, find a venue and boom, it was done. Oh, how fun those days were! But now the beautiful creature has grown to need much, much more. And I, too have grown, as an artist, as a woman, and I needs me some mo’! There may be folks out there who aren’t needing to create as much as I do nor in the ways that I need to, that would be perfect to run BWAF. People who would see it as a perfect day job or pre-day job activity. There was a time BWAF was a perfect day job for me (minus the day job pay!), but I dreamed and worked to make it a future paying day job. It is my dream and hope that the future still holds this possibility—that BWAF still continues to flourish and becomes a thriving nonprofit that does pay the salary of a growing staff of interested and interesting women of color artists and administrators. That is my dream and my hope, but no more my intention. My intentions have changed to some projects which you’ll read about below! I also think that the best thing I can do at this point to inspire and motivate my melanin-enriched sistren types is to follow my dreams of being an a successful artist and sharing my lessons and resources along the way. For more about my resignation from BWAF and other news about the organization, please read the latest Black Women’s Arts Festival Newsletter at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BWAFphilly/message/1584





4) FAN MAIL, WHOO-HOO!

My column “BlackOut” appears on the 3rd Friday of every month in the award-winning Philadelphia Gay News paper and website. Clicketh thyself on the following linkational device to read the latest one, then read the message below the link for a kind response from a reader (whose name I removed for anonymity): http://www.epgn.com/072007/3blackout072007.htm



READER RESPONSE: hello ms. xavier, i just wanted to tell you that i just read your story on being mugged and i'm very sorry that this happened to you..... i can relate to that quite well. i am a white male , 36 now but this happened in 1997 when i was quite younger , haha. i was out clubbing and i was on my way home. i was heading up to 12th and market to the frankford el stop and there were 3 black guys ahead of me, well 2 stayed back and the other kept walking ahead of me, well something was telling me to go another way but i just kept going... just to make a long story short, the 2 behind me hit me on the left side of my jaw and i suffered a broken jaw... :( i must have passed out because the next thing i knew, i was in the middle of market street flashing down cops.... all for a measly 10 dollers and my i.d. i had to get my jaw wired shut for 6 weeks and it was killing me. i cant believe that my mom said i deserved it cause i was by myself and the time that this happened, i told her, it can happen to anyone regardless what time it is and also it can happen to a group of people, not just one, or 2. and i really don't think it was a hate crime for me either.... i was away from woody's and i'm very straight looking. i think i was just at the wrong place, at the wrong time deal. thank-god, or as you put it, thank-goddess, that everything turned out fine with my mouth and jaw.... it was gruelling... so ever since that night, i take caution all around me... i would never want that to happen to anyone, gay or straight. So i sympathise with your story, i'm glad you didn't get hurt in the process... my thoughts are with you in this crazy world... sincerely, (name removed by CX/ARah)



CX: This column was part 1 of a 2 part about the mugging. Next month I’ll discuss some street safety, and of course work a little humor in there also for you good people :-) (Never let it be said!)



5) REJECTION LETTER – WHOO HOO!

Some of the niftiest stuff I’ve ever read period, but also about publishing is from SARK (Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy). She has a page on her website dedicated to encouraging pre-published authors http://planetsark.com/resources_publishing_guide.htm. She also has a MySpace page I just discovered http://www.myspace.com/PlanetSark. I don’t recall if it was her who said this or someone else, but basically we can be happy about getting rejection letters from publishers. Rejection letters just let us know we’re doing what we should: submitting our manuscripts for consideration! Every time I get a rejection letter now, I’m happy, because I know that I’m closer to getting a Yes to my first publishing deal! I’ve had close calls and negotiations which didn’t pan out, which is another reason I have to be positive about it. Lastly, I liken it to one of my most dear things: the craft and profession of acting and/or the theater. And that is auditions. Actors aren’t really doing their work unless they’re dealing with a very high level of rejection in the early part of their careers. When I think of it that way, sending manuscripts out is as hip and fun for me as auditioning. I suppose it helps that I really do think of acting as a thing that helps me to be a fully realized person. Most people work out to get a date or just to be skinny. I work out because as an actor and musical performer, my body is my instrument. If I want to someday be on the stage (again, or in a larger capacity), I’m going to have be able to move it and have it look like the character that I’m playing is supposed to look. So that’s fun for me. Also, it’s never been my primary art, so nothing is that loaded for me. Rejections from auditions don’t hurt. Same with writing. I write, I love it, I send stuff out, sometimes it gets published (and I’m amazed to get exposure and compensation for something so fun) and sometimes not (and I’m still just as happy to be have had my work read, even if only by one or two editors.

That said, without the long story of how I found this publisher (I’m a long-time associate of one of their multi-title authors), or what I submitted for consideration, here is a copy of the email I recently received from them letting me gently know: Thanks, but no thanks, Lady!



July 3rd, 2007

Hi, Cassendre.

Thanks for writing and for your interest in Suspect Thoughts Press. Owing to
the amount of contracted books into 2009 and those still under
consideration, we've stopped reading anything new for consideration for at
least the next year or so. I'm sorry. I wish you good luck finding a home
for your work.

Greg

###

Greg Wharton, publisher
Suspect Thoughts Press
The queerest little press on earth...
www.suspectthoughtspress.com

"With its wide-open definition of the word queer and fearless publishing
choices that ricochet from risky to risqué, San Francisco's Suspect Thoughts
Press has made the book world a more interesting place to inhabit. Suspect
Thoughts has swiftly become the hot press for connoisseurs of transgressive,
intelligent literature."
--SF Bay Guardian



Re: Cassendre Xavier Submission 3/30/07



CX: Notice I wrote them in March and they wrote back in July. See? 4 months isn’t too long to wait. So send in your stuff by the fistful every single week!



6) VIDEO TREATS FOR THEE!

Well, luckily for me, the key to ME! ME! ME!’s success is spilling all. My weakness and addictions as well as Moi’s successes and breakthroughs. One of Moi’s biggest additions these days is ye olde YouTube. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Being Aquarianly inclined—I dig all things media. Madam Oprah is an Aquarian, and you see what she’s done with the media. But anyway, I remember when YouTube first started getting big. People would joke about how it’s full of junk, and how anyone can post totally useless things there. But that’s not what I seem to focus on and find, or how I use it. I use YouTube to find footage of interview of people I really admire and whose working styles I would like to emulate and am learning from, like Prince, Madonna, Robert De Niro. I also watch television shows that are no longer on air, such as Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder, Matlock, Hunter, all that fluff your mother probably likes :-)

Here are some things I’ve enjoyed lately, plus some commentary that is designed to heighten your viewing pleasure!



CATEGORY: MUSIC FROM “BACK IN THE DAY”

Princess – After the Love Has Gone

I have been thinking about this 80s hit for a long time. I practically cried from so much shrieking joy when I saw that YouTube had it. Thank the good baby jesus for YouTube! http://youtube.com/watch?v=IiccEDMSquo



Princess - Say I'm your Number 1

Same chyk, different song. Now I know why I was led to find her again. Her hairstyle is giving me some ideas for my future “look”, heh-heh! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucWT1tvS1Po



CATEGORY: DIVA STUDY & WORSHIP

How to Be a Diva

Watch this footage of Lena Horne accepting an award and then singing a song. I’m breathless every time I watch it. Her presence, her soul, beauty, style, and the fact that she was 64 years wise and such a vibrant, sexy full-filled woman! She’s amazing and still making appearances. Check it out! Video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=odxZqAVEKlE



Another Diva – Tania Maria (Performing “Come with Me”)

A major model and mentor for me, this Brazilian singer, songwriter, composer, jazz pianist. Hot stuff! The first 50 seconds of this video are a jazzy intro, but then it slides into the funk! http://youtube.com/watch?v=nt6pSVqN3Iw



Plastik – a Big, Beautiful Woman Video

A fun and inspiring anti-montage for anyone who has ever felt slapped in the face by Vogue magazine and the stick-thin model industry (though I have nothing against stick thin people).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=iE5Zytj45fI



CATEGORY: MUSICIANS I STUDY

B.B. King and Gary Moore performing The Thrill Is Gone

I absolutely love this version, performed by one of my favorite guitar players and a mentor, Irish blues man Gary Moore. I love the deep sultry tone of Gary’s signature Les Paul guitar and the sweet, melodic solos that he plays. Interesting side note: Gary Moore is left-handed, but taught himself to play standard guitar right side up. Most guitarist either play standard guitar upside down, or get left-handed guitars, which can be pretty expensive. Lefty Beatle Paul McCartney joked once that when he couldn’t afford a left-handed guitar, they were nowhere to be found...but now that he’s loaded, he gets them as gifts! King/Moore in concert: http://youtube.com/watch?v=lqAuuIDU2sw



Chrissie Hynde “I Shall Be Released”

This video means a lot to me for many reasons. When I was an adolescent, in art class I created a papier mache on wire frame sculpture of a black woman with long dreadlocks wearing a black long jacket with a music symbol on the back, black pants, and playing a red electric guitar. I was trying to capture the pose of a tennis player serving, and so she was somewhat her toes. Looking back now, I can see that I wanted to be that chyk. In this video, Chrissie is wearing a black jacket, black pants, and playing a red electric guitar. Her rocker swagger is inspiring to me, even though it brings up a lot of “stories” I have about rock guitar and how I couldn’t do it because... (I’m black, I’m not skinny, I don’t like to be around a lot of male musicians... and most really successful chyk rockers are white, skinny, and have a lot a male musicians around them)... I still am inspired. I’ve just decided to be myself and do what I want to do. I’ve read interviews with Chrissie Hynde and she doesn’t do music ‘cause she’s thin and digs guy musicians. She does it cause she’s a frikkin’ musician. So, someday that will be me, wearing black, and playing an electric guitar. But instead of playing rhythm like Chrissie here, I’ll be playing lead like G. E. Smith is playing. Usually when I watch a guy playing solo, I’m all, “That’s so fast. It will take me a long time to play like that...” But G.E.’s solo is very slow and within the reach of my ability. Since then, I’ve been finding more and more slowish solos that tell me I could do it too! But enough about me. Here’s Chrissie, G.E., Sheryl Crow on background vocals, Paul Shaffer on keys, and others. http://youtube.com/watch?v=0YSoDaTcH8g



(If you can handle the soul) B.B. King & Bobby Blue Bland performing a medley of blues tunes to make you cry and smile at the same time. A friend (hi, Kym!) once told me she thought that was a beautiful image-a smile through tears. So there ya go :-) http://youtube.com/watch?v=2iWuUncDqaA



7) RENAISSANCE NEGRESSE™ CATALOG & CALENDAR

Products, services, and appearances of Cassendre Xavier a.k.a. Amethyste Rah



album coveralbum coveralbum coveralbum coveralbum cover

album coveralbum cover









Available for a limited time only!



Custom Affirmation Songs: A 3-Month Self-Empowerment & Healing Audiocassette Program. With Cassendre's coaching, use the power of song to heal and strengthen your body, and otimize your life!

Are you familiar with the power of affirmations? Have you used them to heal and empower yourself and your life, and experienced the benefits of their effective use? Are you musically inclined or sensitive? Do certain jingles stay in your mind, or do you find yourself humming or singing them days after you’ve heard them on the television or radio?

Do you wish there were non-denominational, non-religious songs that affirmed your abundance, health, progress, and success in a positive, spiritually open yet engaging and enriching way?

Perhaps you’ve found songs you enjoy (such as those of Karen Drucker) but longed to have lyrics that are specifically written for you and your situation.

Award-winning singer-songwriter, recording artist, self-help author, and longtime affirmations/visualizations user/advocate Cassendre Xavier (a.k.a. Amethyste Rah) is offering, for a limited time only, to write songs specifically for you and your own, unique challenges, show you how to create your own for optimum benefits, and coaches you along the way.



This comprehensive empowerment/healing package consists of:



a) Three jingle-length songs (on audiocassette only) that are written lyrically and musically for emotional effectiveness and musical catchiness

b) Instructions on how to create your own very powerful affirmation cassette (or CD depending on your/the client’s available technology).

c) Free, limited telephone and email coaching and support by Cassendre



How do I get started/How does it work?



You will need to mail in the following typewritten details about your growing (and glowing!) life:

a) Your top 3 worries.

b) What you feel would be the best possible outcome for those situations.

c) Your top 3 most wonderful dreams for your life (100 word maximum).

d) Your signed agreement that Cassendre may use the song in any future performances or recordings, but that you may not ever sell or distribute the song for any reason. (Part of the reason for this initial offer in cassette, rather than CD, is to minimize the likelihood of piracy. Another reason is that most clients do not have computer recording technology to make their own voice affirmation recording.)

e) You are asked also to agree to email a 300 word-max testimonial or “progress report” in 3 months to report on the effects of the affirmation songs.

f) A money order (no checks please) in American funds made out to: Cassendre Xavier Enterprises, POB 30204, Philadelphia, PA 19103-8204 USA. International inquires please email cxmusic @ gmail.com.

Songs will lyrically be composed in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person. For example, if your name is Judy or James and money is your concern, your song might include a phrase like “I, Judy, have funds flowing abundantly throughout my life. You, Judy, have funds flowing abundantly throughout your life...She, Judy, has funds flowing abundantly throughout her life, or “I, James, etc.” Then you will be instructed, by enclosed cassette insert and/or other accompanying literature, to record the song again, in your voice. Over the next several months, you can listen to both my and your cassette, as they both have different effects and gifts to offer.



The cost for the entire 3-month program is only $79.95!



Don’t miss this wonderfully unique opportunity!

More about Cassendre Xavier a.k.a. Amethyste Rah:

Cassendre has over 16 years of experience as a musician, songwriter, recording artist, self-help writer and founder of several self-help initiatives including Sisters Healing Together (for Women Survivors of Incest/Sexual Abuse with a Special Focus on Compulsive Overeating) and Artists in Motion (AIM). Her motivational writing has been circulating and publishing nationally since 1991 and she actively lives a passionate abundant life partly through the events she has founded such as the Black Women’s Arts Festival and the Women’s Writing & Spoken Word Series.



The CUSTOM AFFIRMATION SONGS SELF-EMPOWERMENT HEALING PROGRAM will give you years of use.



Millions of people around the world tout the fast, powerful, and everlasting results of the effective use of affirmations. You may be one of them! If not, why not try it?



This is not therapy or medicine. Cassendre is not a medically or psychologically trained professional. This package is being created, distributed, and sold for educational and information purposes only. However, she is very qualified to advise her clients in a creative and emotional capacity.



If you’d like to treat yourself to this wonderful opportunity, please don’t hesitate! (Once order is received, please allow up to 3 weeks for delivery.) For more information, please email cxmusic @ gmail.com.





Next public event:

August, 3 2007 at Wow Cafe Theatre
59 East 4th Street (Between 2nd Avenue and Bowery), New York, New York 10003
Cost : $10.00

CX features her music and writing, CDs and chapbooks at this popular NYC wimmin's cabaret. Contact (212) 777-4280 or visit myspace.com/riversofhoney or email riversofhoney @ gmail.com

For more info and complete calendar please visit thyself http://www.myspace.com/cassendrexaviermusic





AFFIRMATIONS FOR SURVIVORS: SELF-LOVE Free complete tracks of the album in progress (due Summer 2007) available to listen at www.myspace.com/amethysteaffirmations. Also due this summer: Affirmations for Survivors: Self-Love mp3 download, companion book & e-book.



8) FAREWELL BLESSING

May the road always rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun always be on your head. May the rain always be on your garden. May the snow always be shoveled by a neighbor. May the leaves always be raked by a youth who doesn’t charge you much for landscaping fees. May the dust never settle on your furniture. May the pets fur always be brushed and sofa be vacuumed. Love yourself!



Cassendre Xavier a.k.a. Amethyste Rah

renaissance negresse™ & ARTrepreneur

www.cassendrexavier.com



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ME! ME! ME! and its contents (with some exceptions) Copyright

© 2006-2007 Cassendre Xavier Enterprises. Permission granted to copy and forward up to 300 words as long proper credit and www.cassendrexavier.com are included.





The below are sweet things sent to me. They are not mine, and I believe general clip art not the property of those who sent them to me, either. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did :-)