Yes, it’s true. We have nepotistic tendencies and were taught early on that sharing is caring. So, from time to time, you’ll be hearing from US (i.e. UPTOWNSOCIAL) whenever we have goodies to share with the rest of the family.

This time, we have an invite for you to join online shopping destination Ideeli.com.

Join here or use invite code “uptownsocial.” Hurry, it expires April 30!

So, if you don’t sign up before then, you’ll miss sales like – oh say – the ones from Christian Lacroix and Emilio Pucci that go live this week.

Billed as the ‘first invite-only shopping community’ in the U.S.A., Ideeli regularly features sales by brand partners Celine, D&G, and Michael Kors. All events have secret starts and limited durations – sell outs have happened in under four hours.

If you were already a member of UPTOWNSOCIAL then you would have gotten the invites to join ideeli and the other sites that appeared in our “Online Sample Sales: All the pleasure…a fraction of the guilt” article from March 12.  Members do have access to the archives, though (hint, hint).

Become a member today and you’ll get lifestyle news on diversions, excursions, enculturation, savories and more – delivered right to you inbox – courtesy of UPTOWNSOCIAL. And follow US on twitter …remember all the news ain’t fit to print.

stay tuned for more – mwah!
chrystal

And read more of Sekou’s take on cell phone etiquette during dates, HERE!

If classical, jazz and spoken word had a love child, it’d sound like: Black Thought of The Roots orating as an omniscient Langston Hughes, ?uestlove adding banging beats in the background and the harmonies of opera singer Jessye Norman, vocalist Tracie Luck and jazz crooner de’Adre Aziza singing the spirit of the Renaissance back from the dead.

On Monday, I got to experience every music and literary lover’s dream come true, when I attended Ask Your Mama, a concert presentation at Carnegie Hall based on the Langston Hughes text Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods For Jazz. After the show, while overhearing (read: eavesdropping) other people’s opinions of the production, some thought that it was good but it wasn’t “Hughes”. But for me, it was a sensory high that only comes around every few years like an eclipsed sun. For me, it was the multimedia experience that I never thought I’d see at Carnegie Hall—hip hop artist Black Thought and actress/singer de’Adre seated at the right hand for our father Hughes, and herald opera singer Jessye Norman and soprano Tracie Luck on the other end, backed by a full orchestra (music by Laura Karpman) that included ?uestlove. Meanwhile, video reels played during the show, highlighting noteworthy African American entertainers, to assist in re-telling the story of 12 Moods For Jazz, a work the poet began in 1961 after attending the Newport Jazz Festival. So for me, it was—dare I say— great.

And although I was seated so far up in the balcony Black Thought looked like a dapperly dressed pixel grooving along with the ensemble, there was no mistaking the lyricists’ commanding presence and pride in reading Hughes’ work to an audience of every creed, color and context. There was something truly special happening in that moment. Langston would be proud. Aren’t you?

If you attended the event, leave a comment and tell us what you thought. And if you haven’t had the pleasure of participating in any of the HONOR! series events, curated by Jessye Norman (This March only, at Carnegie Hall) get more information here.

Also, find out more about Ask Your Mama here.

*Photo Credit: © Steve J. Sherman 2009

To see Part One, click here!

SekouWrites drives luxury cars fast (real fast) at Supercarlife!

So, I’ve always been a fan of theater (yeah, there’s a frustrated actor inside me somewhere). I especially enjoy theatrical pieces that explore the black male experience. I suppose that’s a holdover from a play I was in years ago that explored similar themes. Maybe one day I’ll get back on stage but in the interim: Brook Stephenson is a writer-friend and Morehouse brother who shares my passion. This post, then, is less my personal perspective and more of my effort to support black theater … albeit vicariously. Brook, you don’t mind, do you? For Passing Strange story, click here. -Sekou