Life is Like Music with Poetry as Lyrics

Lonette McKee’s career began in the music industry in hometown Detroit, Michigan as a child prodigy, where she began playing keyboards composing music and lyrics, singing and performing professionally at a young age. At fourteen she recorded her first record, “Stop Don’t Worry ‘Bout It” which became an instant regional Pop/R&B hit. McKee wrote the title song for feature film “Quadroon” when just fifteen. She has written and produced five solo LPs: “Natural Love” “Lonette” “Words and Music” “Acoustic Tracks” and “Lonette McKee” McKee scored the music for a well-received cable documentary on the lower Manhattan African Burial Ground, as well as numerous infomercials. She has toured extensively throughout the world in concert performances, including the JVC Jazz Festival at Carnegie Hall. McKee continues to write and produce music and will score her feature, “Dream Street” which she has written and will mark her directorial debut.

Feature film credits include; ‘Sparkle’, ‘Cuba’, ‘Which Way Is Up’ and ‘Brewsters Millions’ - both opposite the legendary Richard Pryor; ‘The Cotton Club’ and ‘Gardens of Stone’ for Francis Coppola; ‘Lift’, for which she earned a Black Reel nomination. Other films include ‘Honey’, ‘Men of Honor’, ‘Round Midnight’ for the great filmmaker Bertrand Tavenier, ‘A Day in Black and White’, ‘Fast Food Fast Women’ ‘Paper Mache Chase’and ‘Jungle Fever’, ‘Malcolm X’, ‘He Got Game’ and ‘She Hate Me’ for Spike Lee. Television mini series and films include; ‘Women of Brewster Place’, for which she received an NAACP nomination, ‘Having Our Say’, ‘Queen’ with Halle Berry, ‘To Dance with Olivia’ and ‘For Love of Olivia’ - both opposite Louis Gossett Jr. for CBS television network and ‘Blind Faith’ for Showtime Cable Network. Lonette also received an NAACP nomination for her appearances on the long-running CBS soap opera ‘As The World Turns’.

Recently, Lonette did a recurring role on the NBC hit drama ‘Third Watch’ and ‘Missing’. She was recognized in People Magazine’s ‘Fifty Most Beautiful’ issue. She studied film directing at The New School in New York and apprenticed film directing with Spike Lee. Lonette is producing her feature film ‘Dream Street’ and has production companies in New York NY. Lonette is conducting her acclaimed Actor’s Workshop at City College of New york starting Feb 2012. Lonette is also producing the first ever ‘Sparkle Live Concert’ series, which features the original cast from the film performing together live. Lonette is featured in the new ‘Honey 2’ movie and ‘LUV’ movie opposite Common, which received accolades at Sundance Festival.

Most of us realize that our own strength is not always enough to get through some of the situations that this life brings. I am one of those people right now. 

At those difficult times, it is wise to call on God for extra strength and for His strength to help sustain you when your own strength fails. (Psalms 28:8 and Isaiah 40:29): 

Lord, you are Holy above all others, and all of the strength that I need is in your hands.

I am not asking, Lord, that you take this trial away. Instead, I simply ask that Your will be done in my life. Whatever that means, that is what I want.

But I admit that it’s hard, Lord.

Sometimes I feel like I can’t go on. The pain and the fear are too much for me, and I know that I don’t have the strength on my own to get through this.

I know that I can come to you, Jesus, and that you will hear my prayer. I know that it is not your intent to bring me to this point just to leave me in the wilderness alone.

Please, Lord, give me the strength that I need to face today. I don’t have to worry about tomorrow.

If you just give me the strength that I need today that is all I need.

Keep me from sinning during this trial. Instead, help me to keep my eyes on you. You are the Holy Lord, and all of my hope rests in you.

Thank you for hearing my prayer.

In Jesus’ name. Amen

Janet Jackson is a visionary and trendsetting, international music icon who has created some of the most innovative, electrifying and highly personal work in pop music history.

“I like to think that my future and my past meet in my present, Janet says.They merge to make me who I am. For half of my forty years on the planet, I’ve been an independent artist. For good or bad, I’ve made my own choices. That’s a beautiful blessing. And this is a beautiful moment to consider where I’ve been, where I’m going and, most of all, where I am now.”

In 1986, Janet Jackson exploded on the international pop music scene, enlisting Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis to help her gain Control. As a child, teen and adult actress, she has acted in a variety of sitcoms and TV dramas including Good Times, A New Kind of Family, Diff’rent Strokes, Fame, The Love Boat, and Saturday Night Live. Jackson has also appeared in feature films such POETIC JUSTICE with Tupac Shakur, and NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS with Eddie Murphy.

Her second album, Rhythm Nation added to Janet’s public persona something new: a fierce social conscience that addressed the issues of racism and societal intolerance. She dominated the Grammys with her slew of number one hits and her Rhythm Nation tour, the first of her career, set box office records around the world. Her superstardom was firmly established. Her first record of the nineties Janet, widened her musical aesthetic to include the exploration of deep and lyrical sensuality. A Rolling Stone cover photograph quickly earned iconic status. With its wall-to-wall hits, Janet became the biggest record of her career. Again a #1 single from the album, was nominated for a Golden Globe and Academy Award.

Later in the nineties, the Velvet Rope became the most introspective of her albums. Another runaway smash, it was time for Janet to fearlessly take her fans behind the Velvet Rope of her private thoughts, dreams and desires. The new century produced two platinum-selling successes: All For You and Damita Jo, bold ventures into her unique style of autobiographical storytelling.

“I’m proud that for twenty years people have responded to my work, Janet says reflectively. I’m proud to have stayed in the game and survived. And I’m proud that I’ve remained true to myself…” Janet gave us extraordinary range of her talent in 20 Y.O., her last album. As she has done for the past two decades, she not only co-wrote the songs but co-produced the record as well. 20 Y.O. moves ahead, even as it borrows from hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa in Get It Out Me, a song that, according to Jackson, deals directly with freakery.

“I’m excited—and so lucky—to have fans whose devotion has sustained me over two amazing decades,” she says. Janet is currently at work on her next album.

Now that gets 3 sNaPz

The Rev. Joan R. Harrell, M.Div., M.S. is an ordained American Baptist clergy woman, public theologian, and director of public communications at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois. She is an award-winning broadcast journalist and producer host of the weekly syndicated podcast series, Empowering Voices Uplifting the Voice of the Voiceless.

While working as vice president of media relations for Hill and Knowlton Public Affairs Worldwide, she wrote, developed and implemented public communications programs for clients in Africa, North America and South America.

In honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday and work for civil and human rights; recently Joan worked with the Chicago Occupy the Dream Movement to organize a multicultural and interfaith gathering of 700 children, teenagers, women and men, on January 16, 2012 to nonviolently protest the significant number of home foreclosures in America, particularly in the African American and Latino communities, and the astronomical student debt loan —  students face before they receive their college and graduate school degrees.

During the 2008 Democratic Primary and Presidential Election, Joan was a crisis communications practitioner for Trinity United Church of Christ. She developed the “Reclaiming our Sacred Space” campaign and introduced it at the April 4, 2008, national press conference, where a multicultural and interfaith group of religious leaders stood in solidarity with the members of Trinity United Church of Christ to support their right to practice prophetic witness and social justice.

The Reverend Joan R. Harrell is currently a doctoral candidate at Chicago Theological Seminary where her research topic is “How Does the Intersecting of Media, Religion, Racism, Alterity, and Politics Perpetuate Oppression in the Public Square?” She received a B.A. in communications media from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, a masters of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Jounalism in New York City and she was a Post Graduate Schumann Fellow at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

I had the opportunity to meet Ms. Harrell through my mentor, Lauren. Ms. Harrell came to Mizzou to speak at the 2nd Annual Black Women Rock! She was awesome! 

3 sNapz