Mydreamalive.com presents the Iconic Leontyne Price

What does it take to change the face of African-American culture?

A person that believes in what they believe and does not care what anyone else thinks!

One of her favorite quotes:

Accomplishment has no color

                                                         Leontyne Price

What an amazing person, performer, and voice like no nother.

Born in Laurel, Mississippi on February 10, 1927, Leontyne price grew up with  the love of music stirring inside of her veins. Like most African-American children, Leontyne got her music chops and internship in church, growing up listening to the type of music that could stir a soul. She new right then and there that she was going to make music, and affecting people’s lives, her  profession.

Now here is where the story gets interesting.

She chose to pursue a career in Classical/Operatic music and not jazz or gospel music!

huh??

This is where the disconnect happened for many of good ole down home black folks.

She went to Central State College in Wilberforce, Ohio and got encouragement and inspiration to further her love for the genre.  Leontyne went to college to become a music teacher. While hearing her sing one day in a Hall, the President of the College, Dr. Charles H. Wesley encouraged her to change her major from education to voice.

Leontyne Price earned her B.A. in June 1948, and headed to New York to study at the Julliard School of Music where she had won a full tuition scholarship. At Julliard, she received voice training from Florence Ward Kimball, a distinguished teacher, and, in her last year, she gave a strong performance as Mistress Ford in the student production of the opera, Falstaff. Upon seeing her in this production, Virgil Thompson immediately invited her to star in a revival of his opera, Four Saints in Three Acts, which ran on Broadway for three weeks in April 1952. Less than two months later, Price made her debut in Dallas, in a role that would carve her name in the minds of audiences everywhere; she appeared as Bess in a revival of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

Leontyne Price achieved one of the greatest artistic victories of her career on January 27, 1961, when she debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore. This performance ignited a 42-minute ovation, one of the longest in the Met’s history. Critic Harold Schoenberg wrote: “Her voice was dusky and rich in its lower tones, perfectly even in its transitions from one register to another, and flawlessly pure and velvety at the top.”

Over the years, Leontyne Price has won 15 Grammy Awards for vocal recordings she has made, and she has been on the cover of Time and 27 other magazines. In addition, she was the only opera singer to be represented in the list of “Remarkable American Women: 1776-1976″ in Life Magazine‘s Bicentennial issue in 1976. She now lives quietly in a cozy house in New York’s Greenwich Village.

Even with her amazing popularity in Europe, her status as an African-American Icon has yet to be truly celebrated!

There is more than enough evidence, rewards, reasons, and accolades to make this happen today!

Derrick Butler is CEO and Founder of Mydreamalive.com which has a mission of changing the negative images that media portrays as African-American heroes, to positive images that are true African-American Icons.

See, today I sold my first “William Alexander Leidesdorff” T- shirt and when I saw my report I had to check it twice just to be sure I was reading the report correctly.

A little history….

I started Mydreamalive.com 3 years ago..( wow..yes made it through the dreaded 2 years)….and I have never sold a William Alexander Leidesdorff  T-Shirt.

In fact, there maybe a bunch of you…the 6,000+ people who have read my blog,that are fans of African-American History, but don’t know who William Alexander Leidesdorff is.

Let’s say this…. William Alexander Leidesdorff is the FIRST…repeat the FIRST African-American Millionaire.

It is indeed a shame that a bunch of people don’t know the name and another shame that he does not have a day, or stamp in his honor.

Here is a picture:

First Black Millionaire

Just some highlights of his illustrious career:

“..a prominent civic leader and pioneer in the successful quest for California to become the 31^st state in the United States.  He was elected Treasurer of the City of San Francisco, owned the largest home in the city, constructed the first City Hotel, built the first commercial shipping warehouse, and donated the land to build the first public school in California.”  

So why is he such a big secret? Why does he not get credit? If anyone can answer that, please do post a comment.

He here is more info on him: Click here

and if you would like to own your own T Shirt: Click here

There are so many successful African-American stories that are yet to be told.

We need to get these stories out of the books, and onto the movie screens.

I applaud “Red Tails” for sharing the incredible story of the Tuskegee Airman.

Although there were some parts missing, and a little fiction.. at least it was an

epic African-American story…that was more than ready to be told.

Thanks for your time…

Derrick

Derrick Butler is founder of Mydreamalive.com a company founded in 2009 to  change the negative images displayed in media to positive images, and allow all African-Americans to see all sides of the American opportunity.

Have you seen this new show on the Style Network, The Glam Fairy? In fairness, I only made it through about ten minutes of the show, but it appears to be about a boutique beauty salon owner whose mission in life is to convert “ugly ducklings” to sex kittens, one smoky eye at a time. In the ten minutes I made it through, the salon owner managed to insult a group of four stay at home moms and break up a fight between two of her employees. That is a lot to fit in ten minutes, right? I’m all for empowering women, and I can even get behind teaching women how to properly apply makeup to play up their assets. But the idea that it’s necessary to wear eyeliner an inch thick in order to be beautiful is not one I can endorse. And teaching people that it’s ok to act like the cast of the movie Mean Girls in the workplace is just another thing I can’t agree with. While the quality of reality television leaves much to be desired as it is, this show takes thing to a whole new level of terrible. Don’t take my word for it; check the show out on direct tv.

Washington (CNN) – Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum sought to clarify their support of a pledge that contained a controversial preamble suggesting black children born into slavery had better family structures than black children now. The excerpt has been removed from "The Marriage Vow — A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family," a pledge issued by the conservative Christian organization The Family … Read More

via CNN Political Ticker

The Terrible Duo

 What in the world are the Republicans drinking? You can not tell me that their line in the sand is the continued manipulation of the tax dollars by Billionaire corporations and the richest 1%. How in the world can you have a talk about deficit without revenue. Did Newt and Mitch go into a deep slumber during the President Bill Clinton years. Where their panties up their butts so tight that they missed one of the most ( If not the best!) deficit reducing years in American History. The Tax increases that Bill Clinton initiated not only reduced the deficit, and brought in 241 Billion in five years. It took both cutting of wasteful spending and revenues to turn the country around.

Now President Obama comes to the table with the Revenue and the Republicans come to the table with the Reductions, and now we have what we need to turn the country around.

I for one feel that the Holy Grail of the Democratic party – The Incredible FDR New Deal initiatives after the Great Depression should not be touched! Economists around the nation agree that Social Security is not a problem and only needs to be funded to last to the next couple generations. So I strongly disagree on putting it up as an offering to the republicans!

Do not cave in on this one.. we need the revenue and the cost cutting measures to turn the country around. For once, let both parties work together for the good of the country and not the good of their and their constituents pocket books!

Derrick Butler is Founder of My Dream Alive find out more at www.mydreamalive.com

Follow me on Twitter @DerrickButler

Shop and Save at www.become.com

         You all probably don’t know, but I have worked in the Advertising industry for over 14 years now providing Small to Medium sized businesses ways to increases their revenue by attracting new customers to their businesses.

I fell in love with the publishing industry young, and as a third generation publisher (Grandad, Mom, Me ), I have really enjoyed leaving a legacy of helping businesses reach new levels of sales, and provide income for their families. As I watched my Mom sell ads to businesses as a young child, I realized that if you can help (1) one business, then they will tell 10 friends about you, and you would have the opportunity to help them a well.

One of the tactics I always talk about is Couponing, and providing a way for customers to try your product. The (3) three most powerful offers are: (1) Free (2) Buy 1 get 1 Free, and (3) 50% Off.  It is important to start with the most powerful coupon of all FREE and let people try your product. You can always set a limit to how many FREE coupons you give out, but imagine if you were to give out 25 – 50 FREE products that worked. The word of mouth would be amazing and you would get your money back 10 fold. If you were to do a Buy 1 get 1 Free offer, then you will get two customers at a time coming in to try your product. This is still a very powerful way of building your business.

The old saying, ” You have to spend money to make money” is indeed true and has been proven time and time again. In my 14 years of  Advertising experience, I have seen businesses that down right refuse to coupon, and have watched an enormous amount of businesses fail. I have watched them come and go, and each time I meet with a new customer I say, “Do you plan on being in business in 3 years?” Knowing that 50% of businesses fail in the first year, and a staggering 85% fail in the first 5 years! The number one cause of failure is Revenue!

Saving money is huge these days and http://www.become.com is an awesome site for saving money. You get a change to save money on big-ticket items, and to do comparison shopping on one site. Small Businesses and Consumers use http://www.become.com to shop from everything from Office Supplies to Baby Items. If you are in business or a consumer looking for ways to save money then you have got to go to http://www.become.com and see what they have!

I have always said that SALES is the most important department in ANY business, because if you have no revenue then you have no company.

But, I do believe that a penny saved is a penny earned!

So….Get to Selling…. Let’s GO!!

Derrick Butler is Founder of My Dream Alive the largest Black History Clothing line on the Web. Find out more at www.mydreamalive.com and Follow Derrick Butler on Twitter @DerrickButler

I’ve never been one that wears a whole lot of makeup. Instead, I like to concentrate on making my hair look perfect. You could say that it’s become kind of obsession of mine since I was about in middle school. So a few years ago I started my own hair and beauty blog, well mainly just about hair. But I think that now it’s about time to actually move my blog over onto my own website.

I searched around for a while to find a good place to buy a URL and found the site www.Domainnames.com. I signed up for a URL that’s identical to the name of my regular old blog and have been working on moving over all my stuff and setting it up

I think that having my own site will make it so much easier on me in setting everything up. Plus, I think that it will be easier to organize things into pages that I want, rather than just following the format of the blogging platform like I have been up until now. The better to show off my hair how-tos!

The Origin of ALL Life

      What a question? Can we all come together and create a African History movement that encompasses the African History that most of the African-American know nothing about, with the African-American History that most Africans know nothing about.

African History is the true history that we should be sharing with generations. Connecting ourselves with Africa and then bringing history forward to the present. To much of the history that comes up in February is about the Civil Rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ” I Have a Dream” movement. We have to go back further and we also need to include more of the people who made this dream life of ours possible.  Even though we have not reached the utopian level of society that Dr. King envisioned, this life is still a far cry from the civil unrest in the 60′s.  The ultimate example of how far we have come is the first African-American President Barack Obama.  Our generation needs to see the amazing rich culture of the Egyptians, and also understand the complexity of Booker T. Washington. Understand how Madame CJ Walker became the 1st African-American woman Millionaire, and how the great ruler of Ethiopian Yohannes IV ruled from 1872-1889. Until we can unite the two continents we as African Americans will continue to fight to find ourselves in this  caucasian dominated nation.

Do you feel it is possible to unite the two continents together?

Derrick Butler is Founder of My Dream Alive Black History Clothing that Inspires, Motivates, and Educates. Find out more at www.mydreamalive.com and stay up to date by following me on Twitter @DerrickButler

Ways to make money in a Recession

        Mydreamalive.com is all about removing the obstacles that are in your way to make your dreams come true.  I am often asked, How do you know if you are on the right road? Let me be clear that there is only one way to be sure that you are on the right road. You must be Connected to the Holy Spirit! Yes, that is the way and the only way. Once you are on the right road, you will be connect to the amazing anointing and the road will be a true road to the purpose that God has in store for you. I have often been faced in life with challenges, and these challenges usually come when I am doing what I want to do in life and not do what God wants me to do. I often get my mind straight and decide that I am going to go in a direction that doesn’t have anything to do with the purpose that God has in store for me. I get on this road, and destruction happens. Now when the destruction happens, I then get on my knees and pray, “Oh Lord, please help me out of the mess I am in.” Thank goodness that God is a forgiving and passionate God, because if he wasn’t he would have left me a long time ago because of the crazy messes I get myself into.

Salon Chairs filled with customers what a great thing!

I was recently talking to a young lady about starting a Hair Salon, and she did not know where to get started.  I told her the first thing you have to do is pray, to be sure that you are going in the right direction. Then go to http://www.domainnames.com  to find and purchase a  url that speaks to the type of salon you want. Then write a business plan that spells out what she is going to do in terms of operations, marketing, and finance. Once all those ducks were in a row then she needed to do pray again, just to be absolutely sure. In all my life I have never seen a women go without getting her hair done. I don’t care if the women did not have food in the house, or pay her cable bill, she was going to make sure she was in the shop getting her hair done. So a Hair Salon is a very good way to go. Women spend so much time with their hair, I am amused watching my wife and daughters spend hours at a time deciding on how they are going to wear their hair that DAY! Every day it is the same routine, wake up shower, dress, and spend 1 hour deciding on the right style/look of the hair. Men we have it soooo easy. We go the barber every two weeks, and until we get to the point where our wifes/lady friends tell us its time to go, we don’t even think twice about our hair.  Perhaps I should go to http://www.domainnames.com and secure www.hairmadness.com! I bet I could get a whole lot of traffic and sell hair products…lol

People, whether you ar trying to figure out if you are on the road of anointing, or deciding to open your first business. You have to commit to moving forward.

Stay in the grace of GOD and take action..and the rest will fall in the place.

Remember:

“Seek you first the kingdom of GOD, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you”

Matthew 6:33

Derrick Butler is Founder/CEO of My Dream Alive Inc, the largest producer of Black History Clothing Online. Find out more at www.mydreamalive.com

  TRIBUTE TO ALL FATHERS WHO ARE WITH US & FOR THOSE WHO GAVE US THEIR LIFE AND WHO ARE NOW NO LONGER WITH US "THE LEGENDARY FATHER" – By Just A Poet [Note: *The first letter in each stance spells FATHER*] Fables, stories, tales and myths, and even the oldest of legends, tell of a strong faithful man, who held the whole world in his hands. Able, funny, cool and kind, a man unlike any other, his will moves the mountains high, and his smile bri … Read More

via Natjames1's Blog