Feature: Love's Troubadours
By Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke
Love's Troubadours - Karma: Book One tells the story of Karma Francois, a thirtysomething California-born BoHo BAP (Bohemian Black American Princess) with Louisiana roots and urban debutante flair. Karma is a daddy's girl from her head to her toes. She is also a HBCU graduate (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) of Morgan State University and sorority sister (Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.) who is accustomed to living extremely well. Karma is a natural woman with a unique style. She could easily pass as the twin sister of Celia Faussart, one of the Afropean sultry hip-hop songbirds commonly known as Les Nubians. Passing would probably be her first choice since her relationship with her twin sister is emotionally distant.
Reddish-brown locs crown her head. She sees the world through cocoa eyes. Her skin is the color of burnt sugar. The French call it caramel. And like caramel, Karma's personality is a contrasting force of salt and sugar. She epitomizes the Sanskrit meaning of her name: the total effect of a person's choices, actions, and conduct during her lifetime.
Karma also represents a new type of Black woman who is a Love Jones cohort, a member of a vibrant population of Black middle class women who are young, remain single, live alone, and continue to accumulate personal, spiritual, and sensual wealth. Karma is a departure from the video vixens and stoic matriarchs. The way she wears her womanhood as she confronts the effects of her poor life choices and embraces a spiritual journey of healing and love, makes her a 21st century archetype that everyone can relate to.
Love's Troubadours - Karma: Book One shows how a woman uses therapy, yoga, meditation, art, music, poetry, and support from family and friends to confront the effects of her poor life choices and embrace a spiritual journey of healing and love. The novel was written to encourage self-discovery and healing, celebrate poetry and jazz, cultivate financial literacy, illustrate the diversity of loving relationships (straight, lesbian, and gay), emphasize the importance of yoga and meditation practice, and develop HIV/AIDS awareness. It was also written to celebrate Black history, art, culture, and music; Washington, DC neighborhoods such as U Street, Shaw, Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle; and the cultural connections that African Americans share with Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and Latin America.
Love's Troubadours' characters are members of service organizations such as the Links, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Many are graduates of Morgan State University, Howard University, Bennett College, Xavier University (New Orleans), Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Savannah State University. Several characters participate in spoken word events, HIV/AIDS awareness activities, and grassroots healing work to help the African American community overcome homophobia.
Love's Troubadours pays homage to Black female writers including Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, Lorraine Hansberry, bell hooks, Ann Petry, Nella Larsen, Connie Briscoe, Zora Neale Hurston, Thulani Davis, Ntozake Shange, Dorothy West, Paule Marshall, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, Pearl Cleage, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Sandra Kitt, Sheneska Jackson, Donna Hill, and Tajuana Butler. The novel also celebrates the music of Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, India.Arie, Amel Larrieux, Omar, Eric Roberson, Fertile Ground, Julie Dexter, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Les Nubians, Stevie Wonder, Omar Sosa, and Susana Baca. In addition, Love's Troubadours references artists and photographers from such as Lois Mailou Jones, Kara Walker, Renee Stout, Yayoi Kusama, Faith Ringgold, Chris Ofili, Ansel Adams, Marion Perkins, Elizabeth Catlett, Francisco Mora, Alexander Calder, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Maria Izquierdo, Jean Michel Basquiat, Andre Derain, Annie Lee, Betye Saar, Alison Saar, Amalia Amaki, Joyce Scott, Lorna Simpson, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Archibald Motley, and Adrian Piper.
Love's Troubadours was published by iUniverse, Inc. in August 2007 and is available through Amazon.com, Barnesandnobles.com, Borders.com, Target.com, and Bookamillion.com.
For more information, visit www.lovestroubadours.com. Be sure to watch the Love's Troubadours' YouTube video channel - www.youtube.com/kiamshaleeke.
Reddish-brown locs crown her head. She sees the world through cocoa eyes. Her skin is the color of burnt sugar. The French call it caramel. And like caramel, Karma's personality is a contrasting force of salt and sugar. She epitomizes the Sanskrit meaning of her name: the total effect of a person's choices, actions, and conduct during her lifetime.
Karma also represents a new type of Black woman who is a Love Jones cohort, a member of a vibrant population of Black middle class women who are young, remain single, live alone, and continue to accumulate personal, spiritual, and sensual wealth. Karma is a departure from the video vixens and stoic matriarchs. The way she wears her womanhood as she confronts the effects of her poor life choices and embraces a spiritual journey of healing and love, makes her a 21st century archetype that everyone can relate to.
Love's Troubadours - Karma: Book One shows how a woman uses therapy, yoga, meditation, art, music, poetry, and support from family and friends to confront the effects of her poor life choices and embrace a spiritual journey of healing and love. The novel was written to encourage self-discovery and healing, celebrate poetry and jazz, cultivate financial literacy, illustrate the diversity of loving relationships (straight, lesbian, and gay), emphasize the importance of yoga and meditation practice, and develop HIV/AIDS awareness. It was also written to celebrate Black history, art, culture, and music; Washington, DC neighborhoods such as U Street, Shaw, Adams Morgan and Dupont Circle; and the cultural connections that African Americans share with Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and Latin America.
Love's Troubadours' characters are members of service organizations such as the Links, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Many are graduates of Morgan State University, Howard University, Bennett College, Xavier University (New Orleans), Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Savannah State University. Several characters participate in spoken word events, HIV/AIDS awareness activities, and grassroots healing work to help the African American community overcome homophobia.
Love's Troubadours pays homage to Black female writers including Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, Lorraine Hansberry, bell hooks, Ann Petry, Nella Larsen, Connie Briscoe, Zora Neale Hurston, Thulani Davis, Ntozake Shange, Dorothy West, Paule Marshall, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, Pearl Cleage, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Sandra Kitt, Sheneska Jackson, Donna Hill, and Tajuana Butler. The novel also celebrates the music of Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, India.Arie, Amel Larrieux, Omar, Eric Roberson, Fertile Ground, Julie Dexter, Miles Davis, Wynton Marsalis, Les Nubians, Stevie Wonder, Omar Sosa, and Susana Baca. In addition, Love's Troubadours references artists and photographers from such as Lois Mailou Jones, Kara Walker, Renee Stout, Yayoi Kusama, Faith Ringgold, Chris Ofili, Ansel Adams, Marion Perkins, Elizabeth Catlett, Francisco Mora, Alexander Calder, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Maria Izquierdo, Jean Michel Basquiat, Andre Derain, Annie Lee, Betye Saar, Alison Saar, Amalia Amaki, Joyce Scott, Lorna Simpson, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Archibald Motley, and Adrian Piper.
Love's Troubadours was published by iUniverse, Inc. in August 2007 and is available through Amazon.com, Barnesandnobles.com, Borders.com, Target.com, and Bookamillion.com.
For more information, visit www.lovestroubadours.com. Be sure to watch the Love's Troubadours' YouTube video channel - www.youtube.com/kiamshaleeke.
About the Author:
Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke is a registered yoga teacher, certified Reiki practitioner, artist, writer,
creativity coach, and life entrepreneur. She owns and operates Kiamsha.com, LLC, a company that allows her to share her healing arts gifts. Currently, she works as an artist-in-residence for Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts (www.smithfarm.com) at Howard University Hospital. As an artist-in-residence, Leeke engages patients and medical staff in creative expression, guiding them to tap inherent creative and cultural roots through breathing, relaxation, and reiki healing touch exercises; and a variety of mediums including visual arts, music, storytelling, and creative writing.
Since 1995, Leeke’s mixed media collages, wire sculptures, and paintings have been exhibited in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, North Carolina, and Kentucky. The Women’s Collective and Howard University Hospital own Leeke’s wire sculpture collections dedicated to communities of color living with HIV/AIDS. In 2001, her artwork was featured in Heart and Soul Magazine.
Leeke’s poetry is featured in Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century edited by E. Ethelbert Miller. Leeke has also self-published several books of poetry and women’s creativity workbooks. In addition, Leeke has facilitated expressive arts and self-care workshops for women of color living with HIV/AIDS; cancer patients, their caregivers, and health care providers; interfaith communities attending the Washington National Cathedral’s women’s spirituality conferences; children with unique learning styles; and lay ministers.
Leeke is a graduate of Morgan State University (B.A. in French, 1986), Howard University School of Law (J.D., 1989), and Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M. in Securities and Financial Regulation, 1991). Her memberships include the Yoga Alliance, Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington’s Business Volunteer Program, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., All Souls Unitarian Church, and Insight Meditation Community of Washington’s People of Color Sangha. Leeke lives and plays in Washington, D.C.’s historic U Street neighborhood.
For more information, contact kiamshaleeke@yahoo.com.
Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke is a registered yoga teacher, certified Reiki practitioner, artist, writer,
creativity coach, and life entrepreneur. She owns and operates Kiamsha.com, LLC, a company that allows her to share her healing arts gifts. Currently, she works as an artist-in-residence for Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts (www.smithfarm.com) at Howard University Hospital. As an artist-in-residence, Leeke engages patients and medical staff in creative expression, guiding them to tap inherent creative and cultural roots through breathing, relaxation, and reiki healing touch exercises; and a variety of mediums including visual arts, music, storytelling, and creative writing. Since 1995, Leeke’s mixed media collages, wire sculptures, and paintings have been exhibited in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, North Carolina, and Kentucky. The Women’s Collective and Howard University Hospital own Leeke’s wire sculpture collections dedicated to communities of color living with HIV/AIDS. In 2001, her artwork was featured in Heart and Soul Magazine.
Leeke’s poetry is featured in Beyond the Frontier: African American Poetry for the 21st Century edited by E. Ethelbert Miller. Leeke has also self-published several books of poetry and women’s creativity workbooks. In addition, Leeke has facilitated expressive arts and self-care workshops for women of color living with HIV/AIDS; cancer patients, their caregivers, and health care providers; interfaith communities attending the Washington National Cathedral’s women’s spirituality conferences; children with unique learning styles; and lay ministers.
Leeke is a graduate of Morgan State University (B.A. in French, 1986), Howard University School of Law (J.D., 1989), and Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M. in Securities and Financial Regulation, 1991). Her memberships include the Yoga Alliance, Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington’s Business Volunteer Program, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., All Souls Unitarian Church, and Insight Meditation Community of Washington’s People of Color Sangha. Leeke lives and plays in Washington, D.C.’s historic U Street neighborhood.
For more information, contact kiamshaleeke@yahoo.com.
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Posted by: Viagra Woman | July 08, 2009 at 10:47 AM