Spotlight—Lovie Ray Johnson, Jr.

The world has a peculiar way of stealing the innocence of its children while turning a blind eye to the travesty it has committed. Producer/Director/Writer/Actor Lovie Ray Johnson, Jr. seeks to change that with his current film project, “Supernal Darkness,” which focuses on the world of child sex traffic. It is an underbelly Johnson believes powerful forces in real life society perpetuate.

Johnson’s own childhood was not as picture-perfect as many might have perceived a black military family like his to be. One may think that a church going family in the ‘70s would be immune to the sicknesses of depraved souls but Johnson was not so lucky. His first abuser would be a good family friend, his Sunday school teacher. He was 6. The trauma of this experience saddled Johnson with a huge sense of loss. “It opened my eyes to a world you should not be open to at that time,” he says.

The next abuser would be even more shocking. Shortly after moving to a new military base and settling in, Johnson, in retrospect, recalls a close family member began to groom him for the sexual abuse that would follow for several years. His greatest disappointment was that even when he presented his family with the fact that he was being abused they did nothing to address it and protect him. His childhood could be summed up as one one rife with emotion abandonment and betrayal.

All the while, his family was faithful churchgoers. Johnson himself found solace in the church. “It taught me about Jesus. [Because of that] I embrace everybody and realize everybody is trying to find their way to God.”

As soon as Oklahoma City University came calling, Johnson was out the door. Fortunately, he had a talent for basketball that won him a scholarship. He was a tenacious player and recalls playing three to four games with a broken finger. His team was amazed by this but for Johnson working through pain was nothing new. He remembers thinking, “This is what I am, this is what I do.” It wouldn’t be long before he would meet his wife on campus, a lovely Indian American woman. They wed on his birthday.

Johnson’s future looked brighter than a Jumbo-Tron. However, an unforeseen tragedy would rock his world. After receiving a professional contract to play basketball in England and being voted Player of The Year, his wife suffered complications in their first pregnancy. He flew back to The States to care for her. Subsequently his first child, a boy, died in the hospital.

His team sent their condolences with his jersey and a basketball signed by all the players. Johnson would not return to basketball and says he buried the game with his son. Today, his daughter Daesja is the light of his life. His marriage did not survive once he took to the bottle. After 7 years they called it quits and now have an amicable relationship.

Johnson sought to rebound by taking up coaching and personal training. However, he found a groove in acting. Through theater, he could exorcise the demons of his past. He decided to use his talent to tell the story of sex trafficked children, the children without voices.

For “Supernal Darkness,” Johnson teamed up with Dream Propaganda/Osse Prop to create a companion graphic novel.  The Supernal Darkness movie trailer, directed by Jeff Frentzen, is available on YouTube and is gritty and visceral. 

Johnson believes that the absence of both parents in the home lends itself to the vulnerability of children to predators. “We can help prevent a lot of trafficking by paying attention to our children,” says Johnson. “You have to be actively involved with your child. We need to believe our children. The way the world is today there is no one home to take care of them.”

He points a finger at western culture for sexualizing children. Recently we’ve seen an underwear line for 10 year olds at Victoria Secret. Abercrombie & Fitch sold girls’ underwear with the words “eye candy” across them. And let’s not forget those darn pageants.

He sees a connection between the sexualization of children and an underground society of pedophiles who pledge allegiances to satanic worship. “There is so much twisted up in this,” says Johnson. “When you look at kids being taken for sacrifices, the numbers go up during certain times of the year [for ritual sacrifice]. Just because we don’t believe in sorcery doesn’t mean that other people don’t.” He goes on to say, “Evil exists because powerful people want it to exist.”

In 2013, there were 462,567entries for missing children under the age of 18 into the FBI's National Crime Information Center. According to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as many as 2,183 children are abducted each day, many by a family member. 

Johnson is currently assembling a team to complete “Supernal Darkness.” In the meantime, he is also trying a hand in the beverage business with a brand of loose-leaf teas with David Edwards at the New Mexico Tea Company. “10 percent of what happens to you is 90 percent how you deal with it,’ says Johnson. “Everyone needs to do their part. Everyone has to pick their part. I’ve chosen my fight.”

Are Rioting And Looting Ever Valid?

By Andrea N. Jones 

So, tell me how America has changed in the new millennium? How America loves your black or brown skin now that we've reached, according to some of all races, "post-racial America?"

Ferguson, MO isn't too different from Lakeland, FL in 1938, as captured here.

Is rioting ever valid? I say, yes, it's valid. The anger is valid. A riot is quite symbolic. Black communities are treated as "liquid money," as we are called by some whites who notoriously profit in our communities where black business cannot. Most businesses in the hood are non-black owned, which is a travesty in itself. It's a stark contrast from back in the day when black businesses ruled in black communities during the segregation era. 

Integration has proven to be problematic for black communities all across the country as black businesses struggle to find a market when blacks have taken their business into other communities. 

Gentrification and, what I call "The Great Migration"-- the recent displacement and movement of folks in historic numbers at of the beginning of the 21st century-- has left black communities in shambles. Urban Triage, an unofficial state policy which allows the community to essentially spin out of control and let it's black citizens literally dying in the streets, is real. 

Rioters destroy, what Stephen King might call, "needful things" that

 they are oppressed by. What are we talking about? We're talking about shiny shit that a cop will shoot you dead for to protect his or her bosses and the business/corporate community's profit margin. It's about a bunch of crap made in China because the U.S. deindustrialized 50 years ago, cutting these communities off from life-saving employment. 

People who riot do so in a deliberately defiant act against American Consumerism. This is not rocket science. The only thing the government and business understand are interrupted profit. You tell me, why should we protect the wolves (very well insured dogs) in our very communities? What, may I ask, have they done for you lately?

White folks had very little before "discovering" Africa in 1443. This, I believe, is why white people are obsessed with material things, placing them over people. Hell, they've made corporations people in this country, like that's even possible literally or even esoterically. However, it benefits the power structure/paradigm so they make it law. 

The white power structure goes to great lengths to protect worthless material things and to subjugate black people in our own communities. They stole us from Africa, stole our resources and labor and continue to steal the resources and wealth of the black community in various "legal" ways.

It's time we truly unite against what in Africa is called Maafa, The African Holocaust, and be heard. What will you do to end police brutality against black and brown? Every voice matters which is why God gave us voice to begin with as we evolved from up to 2 mllion years ago (by current scientific estimates) in to the original people. 

All so-called races evolved from African ancestors. In this sense, all people are evolved straight outta Africa. Black people are white folk's ancestors but they want us dead. 

In the Belly of The Beast, black people continue to be marginalized, oppressed and murdered. By best estimates (mind you because data are not accurately kept by the federal government on nationwide) every 28 hours a black person is killed by a non-black officer (root of "officer" is "overseer," by the way) or vigilante.

White folks' ancestors were so sick and twisted that it's hardly any wonder why society is crazy as hell today. They came to us in 1443, presenting us with, what I call s.s.-- shiny shit, glass beads, mirrors and various cheap trinkets. We welcomed them. They destroyed us. Over 570 years later and Maafa continues. 570 plus years of stealing/killing Africans and "legally" pillaging our riches; yet (due to the dominance of our genes and skin), we still stand! 

AIDS, Ebola, the lengths the world has gone to rape it's very own mother and subjugate its ancestors. If you think the white man saved us, think again. We saved him (He was dying in his own filth in Europe)! We don't need them. They need us and what is rightfully ours! Don't EVER get that twisted, k? 

Racism/White Supremacy is so sick and twisted that I can hardly breathe. Looking up to white folks as a standard to live by is simple lunacy. African people everywhere are the moral compass of the world! Souljahs, unite! Its time to wake up!

Mike Brown's murder in cold blood, like all these cases of men, women and children, deserves justice. So, I ask, what will you do to stop police brutality and take the law to task? Some still think we aren't really ready for a real fight. I say the only way to prepare is to ACT prepared. Do you agree? 

Wanted: Black Women and Black Men To Build A Nation!

As of late I've engaged in heated debates with other black women who are ready, willing and able to date men of other races out of frustration with how many black men mistreat, neglect, disrespect or abandon them. I, on the other hand, still value nothing higher than the black family. I also have a high opinion of black men still. It's perpetual. My love spans over 200,000, when Lucy was my mother, ya dig? Enough metaphysics. I say all that to say that Black Love dates back to an unfathomable antiquity. 500 years of Maafa, The African Holocaust, cannot wreck that for me. This is why I love films like "The Wiz" (with that great opening scene of Auntie and Diana Ross Dorothy around the dining table, 20 deep; talking, laughing and connecting), Maya Angelou's only Hollywood directing gig, "Down on the Delta," Diane Carroll's "Claudine," etc. Listen to this smart, young sistah breakdown The African Diaspora's dire situation and how badly we need to come together to strengthening the black family for the good of our communities around the world.

Calling All Foodies!-- Celebrity Chef Brian Stansberry Says, “It’s About the Food”

Vallejo-Bred Celebrity Chef Brian Stansberry Says, “It’s About the Food!”

By Andrea N. Jones

Brian Stansberry, 44, Executive Chef of the well-esteemed Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota and owner of High End Catering, is responsible for providing 11,000 students, along with faculty, breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day. With 43 employees to supervise at the school, he manages a $2.8 million operation. Stansberry has carved out the time to be a celebrity chef to boot with big plans to take his high end food on the road with his brand new venture, Flavor Face! Food Truck, with which healthy, locally produced ingredients and American comfort-classic gnoshes he plans to fill bellies big and small, up and down the California Coast.

Keen on cooking green, Stansberry wants African Americans and everyone else to know that they can eat healthy food and it can still be good to their taste buds.  He will tell you that he is all about preparing the freshest of foods, grown locally, to create food fare so appetizing that his reputation has come to precede him. He has been tapped to cook delectable meals for celebrities such as Snoop Dogg and E-40 as well as dignitary like Rev. Jessie Jackson and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Stansberry’s cuisine is not just for the “Who’s Who.” In fact, the Culinarian from Vallejo has every intention of taking America’s newest food revolution to the people.

              
Taking a note out of the playbook of conventional wisdom, he states his motto about cooking, “I believe the best way to a person’s heart is through their stomach.” At 18, while working  his first kitchen job he started at first just to pay the  bills, Stansberry fell in love with food. At San Francisco’s world-famous Drake Hotel, he was assigned to line setup which involved cleaning 100 pounds of squid, daily. Not everyone could contend with such a demanding task, but Stansberry took it in stride. At 21, Stansberry moved on to Seattle where he was the youngest staff member at the acclaimed Metropolitan Grill steak house. Assigned the broiler, he worked over an 800degree stove and got a taste for high end cooking—the place where fine ingredients, perfectly-timed preparation and skillful presentation meet.

              
Eventually he settled in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After working at the Radissons Hotel for five years perfecting his craft as sous chef he was offered a position in Uptown Minneapolis at the Green Mill Restaurant and Bar that he had dreamed of, Executive Chef. “I learned the culture of Minnesota. The food they like.” His most popular dishes were the parmesan encrusted Wall-eye, bacon-wrapped jalapeño poppers and tomato-basil soup. While there, he implemented policies that turned a $1 million business into a $3.5 million enterprise in just three years. Stansberry said he made that happen by working closely with his staff, telling them, “It’s not about us, it’s about the food.” Eventually he would move on to Executive Chef at the 4-star Crowne Plaza in the twin cities.

From working at the Crowne Plaza he received an advantageous offer to partner in the opening of a wireless internet coffee shop/deli, wine bar and mid to upscale restaurant, located on the foot of St. Olaf College, the Ole Store Cafe. The accolades began pouring in. Within one year, Brian was in two featured items in the Star Tribune, Minnesota’s top newspaper, a special segment on Minnesota’s CBS affiliate WCCO-Channel 4 and received “Best Restaurant Worth the Drive” honors from Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine.

So, it’s no wonder why Stansberry was called upon one night to prepare a meal for Snoop Dogg when he came through the Twin Cities. “Snoop wanted friend chicken, rice & gravy and macaroni & cheese,” recalls Stansberry. “People think fried chicken is the easiest thing to cook, but it’s not.” Stansberry hesitated at first as to whether he wanted the undertaking. Could he pull it off in the amount of time he had? Traveling to Snoop’s hotel, would his fried chicken lose its heat and crisp?  In the end Stansberry knew he could make it happen. ”They loved it,” says Stansberry.  “They absolutely loved it.”

              
When asked about cooking for E-40, Stansberry fondly speaks of the rapper. “I grew up with Earl Stevens,” says Stansberry (Stevens being E-40’s birth name). “When he was touring in Minnesota he called me up and said, ‘Hey, B. What can you do?’ I asked him what he would like and he said he wanted seafood. So we did Garlic Roasted Cherry wood-smoked Dungeness Crab.” 40’s entire team devoured the food. Now everyone from B-Legit, Juvenile and Keak Da Sneak to Too Short call Stansberry when they are in town and Chef Brian happily hooks them up.  Recently his team hit the set of his brother’s, the video directing phoneme Taj Stansberry  (who directed the YouTube record smashing Hit The Floor featuring Pop Sensation J. Lo) set feeding featured Kingpins of Rap Rick Ross and Lil’ Wayne.  2Chainz and Swiss Beatz (Alicia Key’s producer husband), also have recently enjoyed the chef’s food fare.

             
He’s also cooked for global politicos. Reverend Jessie Jackson dined on Bronze Salmon, Hillary Rodham Clinton enjoyed the Caramelized Ginger Lemon Torte and for the President of Bolivia, Stanberry prepared an authentic Bolivian dinner, replete with ingredients he had to source out of state. He is currently preparing a menu for the king and queen of Norway. Not star stuck but very humble, Stansberry will tell you in a heartbeat that it’s not about him. It’s about the food.

Right now, Stansberry is really into perfecting his sauces, rue in particularly as he is really into gumbo right now. He also has taken on fusion cuisine—taking two world cuisines and combining their ingredients to create innovative food experiences. “I’ll take two cultures, like Italian and Mexican and create something,” he says.

Stansberry is most excited to throw his chef’s hat into the food truck ring by taking his high end food to the streets. He sees a street food revolution happening in America from coast to coast. “I believe the food truck revolution is really serious,” says Stansberry.” You don’t have to pay the property taxes, you don’t have to rent a big building and you can go everywhere to serve people your talents.” Stansberry states that America is beginning to catch on to street food, but it’s been a common way to chow around the world. “If you travel to Thailand, Australia, Italy, Jamaica, they all have street food and vendors,” says Stansberry. “[The food] is not pretty, it’s not expensive but it’s done well and from the heart. It’s done straight from the soul, like music.” As many as 2.5 billion people around the globe eat street food every day. In fact, Chef Brian will be touring Thailand later this year to do his on study on street food vending.

Stansberry has envisioned a statewide food tour up and down the California coast in his spanking-new truck company, Flavor Face!, that will cater to The Stars beginning January 1. The menu will feature Chef Brian’s signature “Stick-N-In-Movin’“ items: Mac-n-Cheese on a Stick, Spaghetti-n-Meatballs on a Stick and  Tuna Tartar on a Stick.

“Music, food and people go hand and hand,” he states about his appeal to the Top Artists he feeds.  When he goes H.A.M. (Hard as a Mutha) in the kitchen, he sets his timers to his own playlist. It’s not uncommon to find this celebrity chef cooking to Sade, Confunkshun or George Benson. However, when he goes real hard in the kitchen, it’s all about bumping Mac Dre or Ice Cube.

Stansberry might say that the two hearts he loves nourishing the most with his food belong to his two daughters, the both of whom he’s is currently putting through colleges. Stansberry sees cooking as both an art form and a way to make it out of tough circumstances. “A lot of my friends are dead; a lot of them are in prison. [Cooking] has been a way to stay off the street and work at my craft. It’s a way to be better as an individual. To young, prospective chefs, he offers words of advice: “Eat everything, taste everything and travel as much as you can. Learn other cultures, languages and terminologies. And look and listen.”

-Contact Chef Brian Stansberry, owner of High End Catering at bdown66@yahoo.com, on Twitter @FlavaFaceCo or on Facebook.

A Poetess Breaks Maafa Down for the People

Post by Yacub Majeed.

Poetess Sunny Patterson holds no punches. Pow...pow, pow, pow! Take that, Beast!

Love & Vodoo--The Curse

"There are wonders enough out there without our inventing any."
-Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark


Commitment is more than an involuntary stay in a sanitarium. In a romantic relationship, any significant personal relationship, for that matter, commitment is fundamental to the love and positive energy that flows through the union. What's real tends to last. What's not tends to fall apart easily and disappoint.

But really, at the end of the day, for me every since I saw my first disaster movie called "The Day After" in the early '80s, I've been mildly concerned with survival should the shit hit the fan. So, for me, I'm thinking who is not going to ditch me, but love, care for and be with me should the Zombie Apocalypse actually go down, you know? Who's going to have my back should civilization unravel tomorrow but me? As I have no children, my primary concern will be for my aging parents. I must prepare, as I just hit 40, to be my own savior. Wow.

After I found out my sophomore year of college that Walt Disney was a known racist, I ditched all hope in the princess fantasy. It was bull, a simple product; and at 20, completely obvious as it was hard to find a gentleman, let alone a prince. Do some women get a taste of it? You bet. But only about half the people who take "the plunge" and have "the wedding" can get through the tough times to actual sustain long marriages. It is a rarity in these days and times for people to be married 40, 50, 60 years. If so, I wonder, how many of those years are spent truly happy? How many are tested by infidelity, mental and physical disorders and acute boredom? How many bounce back?

I was actually confronted with the news that chances were I would never be happy in love around the age of six. Yes, six. My grandmother, the matriarch of my mother's family, delivered the bad news. By this time in her life she was an ordained minister and missionary, so it was only appropriate she deliver this oral history down to me. I was her youngest grandchild.

One summer night in the San Bernardino Valley, as the desert wind howled and the window a/c unit chilled the dining room air, we sat around the dining table after dinner one night and she told me about our family curse. She spoke in hushed tones. A terrible pox was put upon us because of jealousy and  romantic love. You see, my grandmother's mother started the whole thing.

My great grandmother Helen Young was from a well-to-do African-American family. Upon graduating college, no small feat for a Black woman at the turn of the 20th Century, her father arranged a marriage for her with an African prince. If great grandmother Helen would have gone through with it, explained Grandma, we would all be princesses today.

Great grandmother Helen had other plans. By a twist of fate she met and fell in love with a half Black, half Irish musician with a penchant for booze. Grandma actually minced no words, describing her father John Russell as a "bum." However, he was her mother's heart's desire. Upon cancelling her engagement to the prince she was disowned from her family. What's more, the prince, distraught, was said to have gone to his witch doctor for retribution against his runaway fiancee. The witch doctor then put the curse on our blood that no Russell woman would ever be happy in love.

One might believe from the family track record that the curse took. Cut off a couple of my fingers and I could still add up the happy marriages on my mother's side, with one hand. I think that curse followed me back to The Bay.

I've wondered what, if anything, that old witch woman had to do with the situation I find myself in now. Pushing 40, a successful relationship had eluded me. I've had passionate relationships, even lengthy ones (seven years lengthy), but not one I could say was with the person I've really been looking for. The person I've always wanted possessed qualities I'd never experienced in a partner; foremost he would accept me at the place I showed up at and would be willing to grow and build a life with me.

My current relationship of nearly three years has by far been the most promising. We love and respect one another as we are. Our greatest challenge has been the two thousand miles that has separated us the majority of the time. After careful consideration I have decided to close that gap by moving to his state so we can get on with building a life together. It's a big step for the both of us. I'm not taking any chances. Sage, myrrh and frankincense will be burned in our space before I even unpack. My second biggest challenge will be controlling my mind. I'm sensitive and I tend to over-think everything. I suppose because of my life experience often being dictated by Murphy's Law, I just realized how often I wait for the other shoe to drop; in other words, for things to fall apart.

My boyfriend thinks my "curse" is hogwash and says we create our own fate. Part of me agrees. My Great Grandparents had many good years crisscrossing the country in a traveling jazz band, having eight kids along the way. The other part of me isn't so sure. For all of civilizations advances, life is still a great mystery. Who's to say that witch doctor didn't conjure up a magical link between this and the spirit world so strong that it may affect the outcome of this love relationship that I'm working on being my last? Ahh, there's that over-thinking again.

Curse or no, I must believe in the power of our love to overcome all the new trials and tribulations we will be facing together. For, in my heart, I truly believe that living in love creates the best luck of all.