Home designing is so important in our lives.  However, we often get so busy that we fail to fully recognize our surroundings until they don’t serve our needs and feed our soul.

In this living room, I accented the existing furniture with naturally inspired bamboo pillows, a natural jute rug and a tropical inspired accent lamp to reflect the client’s love for traveling to tropical places. With her artwork and memorabilia, I adorned her walls. To allow my client to enjoy her backyard and to allow the outdoor feeling to come into her home, I accented the sliding glass door with brown and beige sheers wrapped around its frame. Plants and nature are always a calming influence, so I took advantage of the open sliding glass view and placed plants in the living area.

As an interior designer, one of my greatest joys is helping you discover your style and having you say how much you love your new living room, bathroom, kitchen, or any other room in your home because you feel warm, comfortable and happy in that room.

Yet, interior design can be an afterthought for the chronically busy and priority-driven. When you really think about how important it is to your well-being, home designing becomes more of a priority.

I often meet people who need more than new window dressings. They often need clarity in understanding and assistance with discovering how thorough decorating and arranging their home can lead to a more exciting and fulfilling life.  

If your home does not refresh you the minute you walk in the door, take the following free assessment, read about the possibilities for you home and start making plans to design your home for your soul.

ASSESSMENT
Answer the following questions about you and your home:

1. Does your home look and feel the way you’d like it to?
2. Do you see furnishings that long ago passed their expiration date?
3. Would you like your home to become more “green,” which not only positively affects the environment but also saves you money?
4. Does your home give you energy or does it deplete you of energy?
5. Are there ways you can make your home beautiful?
6. Do you feel you’d like to have a space in your home that gives you more energy?
7. Do you feel you’d like a space in your home that allows you to feel more peaceful?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, we have work to do and you should read on.

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The September 2012 issue of the Underground Railroad Free Press (URFP) announced the winners of the 2012 Free Press Prizes in Preservation, Advancement of Knowledge and Leadership.  The Underground Railroad Free Press reports on organizations and individuals who work on behalf of the Underground Railroad especially the identification of Underground Railroad safe-houses, preservation efforts, programs and threats to sites or programs. 

The URFP accepts nominations from the public. Contact the URFP about 2013 nominations.

• Angela Bassett, Lamman Rucker, Rev. Al Sharpton, Eric Benét, Kim Coles and other celebrities in "Occupy the Vote" video
• Obama Ad: Scarlett Johansson, Kerry Washington and Eva Longoria
• Obama Ad: Morgan Freeman
• Binders Full of Women

The Anacostia Art Gallery (BZB) teamed up with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to present Art of the Diaspora in Terminal A (old terminal) at National Airport in Washington, D.C.  BZB will hold a closing reception Thursday, October 25 from 6p to 8p. However, the exhibit remains in Terminal A’s Gallery Walk until Tuesday, October 30. There is no admission charge.

The exhibition includes works by artists from Larry “Poncho” Brown of Baltimore to Ernani Silva of Bahia, Brazil. Also included in the exhibition is the creativity of photographer Kim Johnson of Washington, D.C., whom we featured in the Aug 2005 - Oct 2005 POH, and quilter Cynthia Wilson of Bowie, MD. (Click video to view POH interview of Wilson and to view her work.)

Baltimore – Washington

The Malcolm X Drummers and Dancers
Potters House
1658 Columbia RD NW
Washington, DC.
Fri, Oct 19, 8p, $15 (suggested)

Feel Good Spaces
Official Book Signing Launch/ Fundraiser
(Benefiting District Alliance for Safe Housing)
Akwaaba DC- Victorian Bed & Breakfast
1708 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC
Sun, Oct 21, 2p-4p, book purchase ($21.95)

Wearable Art Show
(includes Millee Spears)
Seregeti Gallery
7919 Central Ave
Capital Heights, MD
Sat, Oct 20, 2p-7p
Sun, Oct 21, 1p-5p, free

To Cuba and Back
the 11th Havana Biennial
Brentwood Arts Exchange
3901 Rhode Island Ave
Brentwood, MD
Sat, Oct 20 4p-6p, free

Art of the Diaspora Closing Reception
National Airport, Terminal A
Washington, DC
Thu, Oct 25, 6p-8p, free

Reclaiming the Goddess at Home: 
Workshop & Book Signing For
Feel Good Spaces
Imagine Yoga and Wellness Center
3120 Belair Drive 
Bowie, MD
Sat, Oct 27, 1p–3p, $25

Invisible Man
Studio Theater
14th and P Streets, NW
Washington, DC
Extended to Sun, Oct 28, $

• See POH review
• enter drawing for two free tickets (drawing Fri, Oct 19 noon. Winner announced via e-mail by Fri, Oct 19 2p. Winner must respond by Sat, Oct 20 noon).
  

A POH Snippets Event - - Film Screening
African-American Pioneer Muslimahs
Alexandria Black History Museum
902 Wythe Street
Alexandria, VA
Sat, Nov 17, 2p-4p, free

Europe

African Book Festival
Free Word Centre
60 Farringdon Road
London
Fri, Oct 26-Sat, Oct 27, $

14th Annual Gathering of Africa’s Best (GAB) Awards
Hilton London Paddington
146 Praed Street
London W2 1EE
Sun, Oct 28, 5p-11p, $

“Normally when people talk about the European Renaissance, they speak of only European contributions. This exhibit is different, it documents the African contributions and influence,” offered A.J. Starghill of Baltimore after viewing the new Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance exhibit at The Walters Gallery in Baltimore.

Maria Salviati de Medici and Guilia de Medici. What is Guilia's racial identity and why was her image painted over?

The exhibit reveals a number of amazing stories from the naming of the famous resort town of St. Moritz, Switzerland for the Egyptian Saint Maurice (also Moritz, Morris, or Mauritius) to the racial identity of a missing girl, Guilia.

For many, the picture of the little girl (Guilia) in the Portrait of Maria Salviati de Medici and Guilia de Medici is the portrait of two White persons, until you see the picture of Guilia’s father on the opposite wall. 

When Henry Walters acquired the painting in 1902, it showed only an older widow. In 1937, the painting was x-rayed in preparation for cleaning. To everyone’s surprise, the x-ray revealed an image of a child beneath an added layer of paint. Then the question arose:   Who was this formerly missing child?

After much research by Walters’ curator Edward King, he identified the widow and knowing that she had only one child, Cosimo,  King tentatively identified the child as him. There was a problem though: the braided hair and clothing are those of a girl. The girl is in another Walters’ Italian portrait of the same period and has the same hairstyle.  In 1992, a scholar demonstrated that there was a little girl in Maria’s life: her ward Giulia de’ Medici - - the newly-found multi-racial girl. Interestingly, Guilia has descendants that are currently alive.

Students React to Exhibit

A result of the exhibit stemmed from the museum’s outreach program with a Baltimore elementary school.  After the completion of a project related to the exhibit, the students wrote the publisher of their text book simply asking why they did not mention any Blacks in their coverage of the European Renaissance.

The exhibit closes Inauguration Day, which is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 21, 2013, and is open Wednesday through Sunday 10a-5p. Admission is $10, $8 for seniors, $6 for students (18-25), and free for those 17 and under and who are members.  The exhibit is free Thursdays from 5p-9p.

• Sexual Freedom Summit Encourages Americans to Talk About Sex
• (for mature audiences only) erotic dancing from a wheelchair
• Eating Kenyan in Bethlehem, PA