Sofia Quintero

Born to a Dominican- Puertorican family in the Bronx of New york. She has written hip- hop novels Explicit Content, Picture Me Rolli and Burn, and a fourth novel Diva Don't Yield, and two screen plays,Corporate Dawgz and Blind Date, as well as co-edited the anthology Friday Night Chicas. Her fiction and film, which are intented to reach a multi-cultural audience, seek to inspire young people to turn their lives toward creative problem solving and self- determination. Pronounced one of the "New School of Activists Most Likely to Change New York" by City Limits Magazine, Quintero she is also the co-founder of Chica Luna Productions, a non - profit organization that supports women of color who use popular media to engage social justice themselves.
Now that you know a little about her you can understand why I say this she is amazing and I love everything that she represents. She is a strong, beautiful, and intelligent Latina and I love it. Its beautiful to see part of me embraced. Her presentation to the class was very good, which I can say because it held my attention. My favorite part of her presentation was the silent movie titled "Slam" . I liked how we had to interpret what we thought was going on in the film through the actors actions. To hear the classes responses was very funny. Some thought the girl was pregnant and the guy was angry and many assumed that they were having a cultural bash amongst each other about who was the blackest. It turned out that they were arguing about him excepting his responsibility's. I thought the message was deep and wanted to see more of the film. She made alot of great points as well, especially sense most of the class is going into the media industry.
1.) All media is trying to sale you something.
2.) Go for your dreams
3.) Anything is possible

I also think that its hot that she started a non- profit organization called Chica Luna Productions, a young minority organization helping females make urban films. I think thats HOT!

I enjoyed her and everything she stands for, keep doing your thing mami ....

¡representando ser más fuerte.... amor qué usted hace y hace lo que usted ama!

(representing a stronger being.... love what you do and do what you love!)

Dr. Cornell West

Dr. Cornell West a graduate of North Carolina Central University's prestigous School of Law, came a year ago and put on what I would have to say an incredible and inspirational speech. He spoke of dreams and reality. The dream to perspire and the reality was to see what the world really was. I found just about every word to be true. He spoke of the younger generation and our ways. He spoke of the older generation and what they became. He stated that Boys today walk with their heads down and their pants low. But not the men of the past, they walked with their heads held high and their shoulders back. He also stated how they had respect for one another and the people that surrounded them such as women. Which all of that is true. Men today for the most part are rude and degrating. They play with women and dont cater to them as they did way back when. That's where the saying" Chivalry is Dead" was born. I loved the peacock and the eagle. He says that you have to be what you wanne be and do what you dream. " The peacock struts so pretty because it can't fly such as an Eagle can, so soar my Eagles SOAR!"

Bishop Eddie Long

In class we watched a tape of North Carolina Centrals University's 2004 graduation. The guest speaker was Bishop Eddie Long. He spoke of the future and what it held for NCCU graduates. I love his African Proverb about the lion and the Gisele.

"Everday when the gisele awakes he must run faster than the lion and the lion must run faster than the fastest Gisele"

He was a graduate frrom NCCU and I loved the fact that he spoke 0f people who told him that he was never going to be anything. I think that was very inspirational to many students. Believe it or not many students were told that as well. I think that his word was very inspirational, watching it I felt as if I was in church. He got the audience very intune.....the students were saying praise and keeping their eyes and ears open for the next big thing to come out of his mind!

Dr. Mcdonald

I really enjoyed our speaker on wed. in class. She opened my eyes up to a lot, I found just about everything that she said to be inspirational. During her speech we discussed how positive things could come of positive speaking. That's really something that I need to work on. I feel as if sometimes I can give off negative energy. We also discussed the 3 keys to an amazing life. 1.) Faith. Even though I am a christian sometimes I feel as if I could be closer with God and believe more in myself. I think that would make my life more fulfilled, sometimes I feel an emptiness inside myself, hearing this helped me realize this is exactly what it was. 2.) F.O.C.U.S- frequent optimism causes ultimate sucess.3.) inter guidance, basically believing that anything is possible and being dedicated enough to go through with what you want to happen. Dr.McDonald is what I call brilliant! Hearing her story was very inspirational to me and I think the rest of the class as well. What I learned from this speaker was to believe in myself, surround myself with positive people, focus on the positives and not the negative, and Keep my faith strong. I am what the average person would call a "worry wart" I was just able to really relax and tell myself that God wouldn't burden me with anything that I couldn't handle. I use to panic and work myself into a frenzy because I felt there would be no way out in a situation that I may have got myself into. I have to surround myself with positive people! I feel as if I don't I will only tare myself down and they would only help me do it. In my camp I have wonderful parents and relatives that believe in me, actually more than I believe in myself sometimes, and I have a best friend that any girl would die for. She supports me no matter what the case is and she points out my strong and weak points. They say things happen for a reason, Wednesday I almost missed class due to not feeling well, I believe that God made me feel good enough to go because he knew that I was feeling down within myself, and needed to hear what she had to say. I'm so grateful to her advice and inspirational message. - Thank you

Martin Luther King jr. Price of Freedom

I felt that the film we watched may have been old but at the same time our generation could relate. I personally have never really had any racial issues or believed that I couldn't do anything because of what my race(s) are. I grew up in straight SURBURBIA.....Ive never had to want for anything or felt like I went without....my father is a sucessful bussiness man in our community, along with his brother and my mother just recently started working. So when we were in class and we were discussing moving out of the projects and living in a black community I could understand what they were talking about but I couldn't relate to it.....I've never lived in a black neighborhood anytime I went out and played with the "neighborhood kids" they were white. It wasn't until I transfered to Enloe high school that I really surrounded myself with african americans. When Discussing the black owned bussinesses i believe that many black people don't support there own because they hate to see one another do well....it sounds bad but for the most part its true...... Blacks are always bitter against one an0ther and quick to bring each other down. I enjoyed the panel discussion it was somewhat educational but nothing new.

In Class Video.......

I enjoyed watching the video in class on monday. Learning about Outkast and other big hip hop artist. It was interesting to learn about the people in the background such as Blue the manager for outkast, he kept the group basically on their toes. All day contstantly he was on the phone and running errons, the only time he got to sleep was when he was on a plane to Puerto Rico. I didnt realize exactly how complicated the music industry was. Its easy to get in but its even harder to stay!

Writing my Obituary

Writting my obituary was some what was fun . It was like planning my life out how I wanted it to be. I got to plan out who I wanted to marry, how many kids I wanted to have and careers. I had fun with thisassignment because I got to marry Will Demps, a New York Giants free safety that I adore. I also got to chose the gender of my children 2 boys and a girl. I was very sucessful as well. I was a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, a childrens author, a mom, a wife, a cosmetitian and a popular designer. At first I thought it was going to be scarey and somewhat freakish but it wasn't at all it was actually fun!