Big Sole Blog (BSB)

This story reminds me of Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw's movie, Love Story, but this story is true and the people are African-American.I discovered this true love story through a friend who shared it on Facebook via Clutch Magazine. LaKeasha Monique Rutledge-Draft and NFL free agent Chris Draft, the couple in a very moving weding video, were married on November 27, 2011, and one month later,

I am saddened to report that author Leslie Esdaile Banks has passed away. You may recognize her under the name L. A. Banks. I learned of this news through Tananarive Due's Facebook page, but I have confirmed it through other sources. Ms. Banks wrote the The Vampire Huntress Legend series, and I first discussed her fiction in a piece called "The Indisputably Black Vampires of Jewelle Gomez, L.A.

I knew I had forgotten something in my Aretha Franklin tribute. Tonight I was listening to Aretha's "Chain of Fools" and then remembered this entertaining dance scene with John Travolta and ladies in the movie Michael.

Thinking about Aretha Franklin's diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and writing my Aretha Franklin tribute for BlogHer.com, I mentioned Luther Vandross but not the feud he had with the diva. I just learned about that through Google Books. There you can read old issues of Jet Magazine like the one below. (click the picture to read the old Jet article.) You can also read my full post at BlogHer

The news about Aretha Franklin is not good, not good at all. Reports from her family earlier this week say the 68-year-old singer, pop culture icon, Detroit resident, and first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has pancreatic cancer. The illness has a high incidence rate among African-Americans, according to John Hopkins University researchers, but it's also the illness that