It’s The Arts! in Feb, oh how lovely! Let’s get on with the features! – But first! Some individual picks for those who bemoan Valentine’s as Singles’ Awareness Day, I spotted these a while back and they’re great for a chuckled no matter whether you are spoken for or not.

Get Busy Committee – I Don’t Care About You

I love short films and I thought this one was incredibly cute!

The Grinch Who Stole Valentine’s 

And here’s a small love bug plug: Feeling lonely? Adopt a pet from your local shelter!

Now that those are out of the way, let’s begin:

Savage Love
Weekly in the Baltimore Citypaper would I read the bodacious sex columnist who is not one to mince words. Living in the inner city, just about any perspective on sex is either not healthy, inaccurate, more myth than fact or a combination. It’s nice to hear or read outside perspectives on sex and not by those with an agenda. Dan Savage, the writer of Savage Love, makes for appealing reading and perspective. Be forewarned, he’s pretty raw with his wording but his no-nonsense, direct approach to the variety of questions he gets was so noteworthy to me that I learned to adapt said no-nonsense approach when I would do divination for others because, hey, what’s the point of sugarcoating?

In addition to being a great columnist, Savage is also an outwardly gay columnist and big on fighting homophobia and challenging hetrosexist perspectives. Recently, in effect of the rash outbreaks in gay young adult suicides, Dan Savage created the youtube program, “It Gets Better” for those to make videos of personal testimonies to console closeted and out-of-the-closet gay young people that the problems that they are currently going through may be bad now but it will get better in the future. It may not be 100% perfect but it is getting better the more people are aware that treating someone cruelly based on their sexuality (or skin or religion) is not alright and is not tolerable.

Wanna read his column? It’s right here on The Stranger. He’s also has a podcast that you can listen to and even call in on his site. Read and listen!

Shihan
It isn’t oft – okay, isn’t at all – discussed on the column but instead of being a columnist all these years, I actually was a writer and poet. I really love poetry and spoken word so it’s really nice to see something like Def Poetry and all the performances it featured. Shihan’s was very remarkable, especially in a subject that usually makes me roll my eyes when it comes to poetry: love. Here, listen:

I thought it was very touching indeed! I really got into his stuff and he really is talented! Here’s another, titled “The Auction Network” (caution, the n-word is used but wait till the end, you’ll get why. I don’t use the word myself but this vid is one of the few that use it smartly)

If you want to see more of his work, here’s where he’s easily reachable: his website!

Shihan’s Back

Black Comic Book Convention/Black Superhero.com
*gasp* It’s so purdy.

I am very excited to discover (more like rediscover) Black Superhero.com, the online museum of every Black superhero ever made! Think they would have a tiny list? Nope! There’s a slew of Black superheroes from well known to little known ranging from Marvel, DC, online comics and more! A fun way to embrace Black history and Black nerdom alike!

And guess what I found! That for the past ten years there has been a Black Comic Book Convention and I didn’t know about it! Here’s the flyer (click for a bigger picture):

 

It shall be awesome and I shall be there in my lolita terrorizing the locals. Will you be there? Visit the website, Black Superhero.

That’s all The Arts! for today. Next week is Ask Black Witch, send in your questions! Also, next month starts the Fandom and the Fan series. What’s it about? Wait ‘til next week and you shall see!