Ms. Afrika Abney - Consultant Branding Blog

 Blended families consist of warm colors, cool colors and neutral colors. "Warm colors are created using just two colors: red and yellow. These primary colors combine to make orange."  "Unlike warm colors, there is only one primary color, blue, in the cool colors. So to get other colors in the palette, you mix some red or yellow with blue to get green and purple. This makes green and purple warmer than blue, which is a pure cool color." "Neutral colors consist of brown, which is a combination of all three primary colors, and the two remaining colors: black and white. The more muddied or gray a color is, the more neutral it becomes."  When I think of utilizing all three colors on the color wheel, I think the composition, technique, and materials used to create my painting. For example, if I want to create a painting just using cool colors to represent blended families, I will use blue. Blue is the one color that I use to create more colors. In or...

    In 2020, Esther Productions, Inc hosted it's 1st Reconciliation Week. Please join Esther Productions, Inc for Reconciliation Week 2022. THE NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK was created around the belief that family is the institutional foundation for everything—the individual and society. If it is weak or unstable, then the individual, without interventions, also will not possess the necessary strength of character and purpose to achieve in life. A community without cohesive, strong and loving families will be marked by various socio-economic and debilitating challenges. The program is held each June and features an array of experts, practitioners and creative healers whose focus is to assist individuals, families and communities in becoming their best selves through a reconciliation system as developed by jonetta rose barras.  The National Reconciliation Week: For Self and Family                       ...

    Upon reading the book, Discover Me... Without You edited by Jonetta Rose Barras and published by Jonetta Rose Barras and Esther Productions, Inc, I found that the book very therapeutic for as an adult woman who grew up without her father. I believe that each of the authors wrote about the various symptoms that around this global issue very well and were very fortunate to be apart of such contribution to society. This is the first book that was recently published from the contest participants. Reviewed by Ms. Afrika Abney May 13, 2020   Discover Me..Without You Chapbook - Available on April 4, 2020 Discovering Me...Without You book title came from the Annual Personal Essay Contest that took place from September 2019 - November 1, 2019 and was designed for teen girls 14-17 and to aid in the healing of fatherless girls by using the personal essay to help them discover their personal strengths and resilience.  ​ ​Order at  https://www.estherproductio...

  Commissioned Photography for Baba Djimo Kouyate Smithsonian Folklife Festival, 1997, Washington, DC Photograph by Ms. Afrika Abney   "Djimo Kouyaté (August 16, 1946 - August 1, 2004). Djimo Kouyate was from the Malinké tribe, a sub-group of the Mandingo people. Born in Tambacounda, Senegal, he was from a distinguished family of griots who trace their ancestry back to the thirteenth century. A master kora player and a fine singer and dancer, Djimo also played a variety of other instruments including balafon (wooden xylophone), drums, and other string instruments. He worked with the Senegalese National Ballet as a singer and dancer since 1960, and was a founding member of the National Instrumental Ensemble of Senegal."

  "Dunham Technique is a vibrant African American dance form that engages the body, mind and spirit! Created by dance pioneer Katherine Dunham, the technique is informed by the traditional dances of the African Diaspora, as well as by modern and ballet." I studied Dunham Technique from Dr. Sherrill Berryman Johnson.    " Katherine Dunham Legendary dancer, choreographer and anthropologist, Katherine Dunham was born on June 22,1909 in Chicago, to an African American father and a French Canadian mother. She sang in her local Methodist Church in Joliet; but for a financial crisis at her church, she might never have sung anything but gospel songs. At age eight, she amazed and scandalized the elders of her church by doing a performance of decidedly non-religious songs at a cabaret party, in order to raise money. She never thought about a career in dance. Instead, she consented to her family's wish that she become a teacher and followed her brother, Albert Dunh...