N.A.I. Magazine July - September 2022
Sea Moss Reimagined Leela's Pure Goodness Pages 12-15
Sea Moss
Leela Spriggs
Reimagined Page 12
Welcome to the DMV
Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash
Three Years of Success and Counting
Thank you for your support! N.A.I. Magazine - Page 4
Declarations of Faith According to Psalm 91 Greetings! We are still in the midst of a pandemic. How are you holding up? I know for some it has been a challenge having to stay at home and even having to wear masks and gloves when having to go out. How we go through tough times is based on our perspective. With that being said, let me give you the perspective that although things are not the way we would want them to be at the moment, we are still around to experience the moment. Let's stay encouraged and connected as we go through these turbulent times. PSALM 91: I DECLARE I will dwell in the shelter of the Most High God. I DECLARE I will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I DECLARE that God is my Refuge and my Fortress. I DECLARE that you are my God (Hallelujah) in whom I trust and with great confidence and whom I will rely. I DECLARE that God will rescue me from every trap and protect me from every disease. I DECLARE I am covered and protected by His outstretched arms. I DECLARE that God's faithful promises are my armor and my protection. I DECLARE I will not be afraid of the terrors of the night nor of the arrows that fly in the day. I DECLARE I will not dread any disease that stalks in the darkness nor any disaster that strikes at midday. I DECLARE that because God is my Refuge and the Almighty the God of my home no evil can befall me and no plague can come near my dwelling. I DECLARE that God has ordered His angels to guard, defend and protect me and my house. I DECLARE that God's armies of Heaven will keep me from falling. I will walk unharmed and kick anything that's evil from my path. I DECLARE that because of God's love for me, I'll call on Him. He'll set me above all my troubles. He will deliver me from all my fears and He will honor me with His presence and power. I DECLARE He will reward me with long life and He will show me His Salvation. **The above declarations are an excerpt of the message, 'Confessions and Bringing Order to Your Life', from Dr. Creflo Dollar, Jr., Founder and Senior Pastor of World Changers Church International (WCCI) in College Park, Georgia** N.A.I. Magazine - Page 5
Keep Our Workplace Safe! Practice good hygiene Stop hand shakes and use noncontact greeting methods Clean hands at the door and schedule regular hand washing reminders
Disinfect surfaces like doorknobs, tables, and desks regularly Avoid touching your face and cover your coughs and sneezes Increase ventilation by opening windows or adjusting air conditioning
Stay home if...
You are feeling sick You have a sick family member at home
source: cdc.gov
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 6
Limit meetings and nonessential travels Use video conferencing instead of face-to-face meetings
When video calls are not possible, hold your meetings in well-ventilated rooms and spaces
Suspend all non-essential travels and trips
Take care of your emotional and mental wellbeing Outbreaks are a stressful and anxious time for everyone. We're here to support you! Reach out to hr@reallygreatsite.com anytime.
Founder & Publisher, Editor, Creative Officer Danielle N. Pope
About N.A.I. Magazine Greetings Readers!! Welcome to New & Inspiring (N.A.I.) Magazine. N.A.I. was created to introduce newcomers to the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area and to their new neighbors and new community.
Contributing Writers: Leela Spriggs Leela's Pure Goodness Terri B. Culturally Speaking N.A.I. (New & Inspiring) Magazine is published four times per year. Reproduction, whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The opinions expressed by writers for articles published by N.A.I. are not necessarily those of the magazine publisher. For information in advertising in N.A.I., please click here to access the N.A.I. Magazine Media Guide.
Please allow N.A.I. to be one of your 'go-to' resources as you navigate your new surroundings. Relax, put your feet up, have your favorite food and beverage and enjoy as you peruse this issue of N.A.I. Magazine.
Photo Credits
STAY CONNECTED Facebook Pinterest Twitter E-mail: naimagazine19@gmail.com
Cover: Photo by Canva Inside Front Cover: Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 7
July - September 2022
N.A.I. Magazine
TABLE OF Talk of Town Community News Page 10
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 8
Leela's Pure Goodness Page 12-15
N.A.I. Magazine Marketplace Pages 16
July - September 2022
N.A.I. Magazine
CONTENTS
The Reading Room Page 17
Culturally Speaking: The Case of the Neo-Sphnixes Page 18-22
N.A.I. Magazine Directory Page 23-27
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 9
Talk of Town Saturday, July 16, 2022 Small Islands Caribbean Fest Howard County Fairgrounds West Friendship, MD CLICK HERE for more information.
SEPT. 2022 AUG. 2022
JULY 2022
COMMUNITY NEWS
August 12 - 14, 2022 DMV 8th Annual Shades of Blue & Gold Dance Extravaganza 2022 Arlington, VA 22203 CLICK HERE for more information.
September 3, 2022 2022 National Book Festival Washington Convention Center CLICK HERE for more information.
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 10
July 30, 2022 A Taste Of The DMV: Food, Culture & live music festival Gateway DC Pavilion Washington, DC 20032 CLICK HERE for more information.
August 27, 2022 Wine & Food Festival - NOVA Bull Run Dr Centreville, VA 20121 CLICK HERE for more information.
September 21, 2022 SALSA UNDER THE STARS Frederick Arts Council: Sky Stage CLICK HERE for more information.
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. but I can't accept not trying.” ~Michael Jordan
Palatable Pleasures
Sea Moss
Reimagined
e r u P s s ' s a e l n e d e L oo G
Leela’s Pure Goodness Facebook
(540) 661-6444 Instagram
E-mail:leelaspuregoodness@gmail.com
Palatable Pleasures
Leela Spriggs started Leela’s Pure Goodness in April 2020. She resigned her position as a background investigator with OPM in April 2021 and has since gone full time in her business and hasn't looked back.
I began baking keto treats during my weight loss journey after many failed attempts at different diets. Deciding to commit to keto made me realize that sweets were going to be my problem being on this diet. Baking and sharing my keto treats with friends and family, quickly transitioned into taking orders from other keto dieters that I met on a keto dieter's platform. At this time, I was just testing the market to see how customers liked my Keto treats and looked forward to their reviews. I also tried vending at a farmers' market, but that was short lived due to my nervousness of the pandemic, so I decided to start talking to stores to see if there was any interest in my treats being sold in local N.A.I. Magazine - Page 14
Keto Peanut Butter
Vegan Guava
Palatable Pleasures stores. My first 'Yes' came from JR’s bakery located inside the Dutch Farmers Market in upper Marlboro. At this point I was baking keto sugar free, gluten free, low calorie mini cakes, cookies and brownies as well as Vegan cookies. Later, Stoltzfus Bakery, located inside the Laurel Dutch Farmer's Market quickly added my products. Now my treats can also be found at Gold's Gyms in Crofton, Bowie, Ritchie Station, Glen Bernie, Marley Station, David's Natural Market in Gambrills, MD and Brown's Market in District Heights MD. I have since added a variety of other products that include St. Lucia Sea moss which I grew up having a direct connection to as it is part of my heritage. These products are sold as gels, powders and dried sea moss available in 3 varieties, gold, purple and green. Sea moss infused skin care products are also available. Sea moss gel can now be found at all Yes! Organic Markets, in MD and Washington DC , Gold's Gyms, Amish markets, David's Natural Market and Brown's Market in District Heights MD. What started out as a part time hobby has grown into a very successful business that has allowed me to do what I love and help other people along the way that share my struggle with weight loss. Never did I ever dream that a girl that came to the United States as a teenager with nothing but a dream, would now own and operate a business that is such a big asset to my community. Currently, I'm in the process of building out my own commercial kitchen in Capital heights MD and can’t wait to see where this journey takes me. In 5 years, I would like to see my products in more organic/natural food stores. I also would like to have launched my frozen keto and vegan cookie dough so that customers can bake their own fresh cookies at home. My aim is also to have secured a partnership with a company like Crumble Cookies to offer my healthy cookie options on their menu as well. I would also like to have started building my first retail location that will offer my specialty cookies. Long shot but I would like my cookies to be an option for kids in school lunches.
Keto White Chocolate Pistachio
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 15
N.A.I. Magazine Marketplace Welcome To The DMV [Disclosure: When you use the links below to buy products, a commission may be earned].
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 16
The Reading Room Ruth and the Green Book
Authors - Calvin Alexander Ramsey, Gwen Strauss
Disability: An Anecdotal Field Guide...
The 5 Love Languages
Tracee Garner
Gary Chapman
To Purchase: Click Book Cover N.A.I. Magazine - Page 17
The Case of the NeoSphinxes
lly ra ng tu ki ul a C e Sp
Just about everybody knows something about the Great Sphinx of Giza — that massive lion-like figure with the head of a pharaoh who sits commandingly just outside of the three gigantic pyramids in Egypt and faces from west to east to meet the rising of the sun. This imposing creature has a body of a lion and the head of a human, and it was the protector of the pyramids and persecutor of the sun god Ra. Many visitors who travel to Egypt list this mysterious and mythologically based creature as one of their top destinations. However, in spite of the Great Sphinx’s popularity and association with the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, it is important to keep in mind that the concept can be traced to the traditions of ancient Greece and Asia as well. These forms are usually female, having wings and sometimes has a tail. One of the most gruesome of those peculiarities belongs to the oral traditions of ancient Greek mythology. She was the daughter of Orthus, and either Echidna or Chimera--- a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature, composed of different animal parts. Like her parents she had a challenging visage and was described as having a human head, the body of a lion, the face of a monster, the breasts of a woman, wings of an eagle and the tail of a serpent—a conglomerate of many features. Whatever or however, she was perceived, everyone can agree on one thing--she was pure evil! Moreover, she was sent by Hera (the goddess of women, marriage, family and childbirth in the ancient Greek religion and mythology) as a curse on the city of Thebes. She had a diabolical riddle. It went like this: anyone who entered the city would be greeted with the traveler’s question. If answered correctly, this vile being promised to grant them safe passage---otherwise they would be killed and how?
Riddle: Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed, two-footed, and three-footed? Answer: Man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two feet as an adult, and uses a stick in his old age. Alas, those who could not answer the riddle would be strangled and devoured. She was not to be trusted. You guessed it! There was another riddle: N.A.I. Magazine - Page 19
There are two sisters, one gives birth to the other and she, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters? Answer: day and night
After many were duped and met their unjust rewards, Oedipus, the nephew of King Creon, accepted the challenge and answered both riddles correctly. Unable to accept defeat, the Sphinx jumped from the rock where she stood and died immediately. Now let’s move the 21st century when the concept of the sphinx has again captured the imaginations of two of the most exciting artists working today: Kara Walker and Simone Leigh. Both Walker and Leigh are African American women who are at the top of their game. Walker’s work is essentially large paper silhouette murals, and her preferred themes explore such social issues as race, gender, and Black history. Known for her daring and confrontational compositions of cutouts in black paper on a white background, they signify an undercurrent of debauchery. Walker’s themes are often hypersexual and delegated to the slave held plantations of the old south. These works expose or do they really: personages who appear to be engaged in numerous lewd acts or debauches? Such characterizations are highly suggestive but camouflaged in shadow--- making their anonymous participants engage in the lewdest of acts that would not be mentioned or alluded to even in not so polite society. Could it be that the viewer actually imagines or concocts the deeds?
Kara Elizabeth Walker N.A.I. Magazine - Page 20
The 53-year-old, Brooklyn-based Walker was born in Stockton, California and was raised by her father —who was a painter. At an early age she decided to become an artist and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. Since the late 1990’s her work has been shown in major museums and galleries in this country and abroad. In 1997, Walker received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation genius grant at the young age of 28. Lastly, perhaps Walker’s most adventurousness and bold undertaking was the monumental public work she built in 2014 in a closed sugar factory in Brooklyn—a sphinx made of 80 tons of white sugar: A Subtlety: or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, an Homage to the unpaid and overworked Artisans who have refined our Sweet tastes from the cane fields to the Kitchens of the New World on the Occasion of the demolition of the Domino Sugar Refining Plant. This was her first sculpture, and it was 75 feet long by 35 feet high. Walker’s sculpture bore the face of a Mammy archetype--- a representation of a slave woman who was accustomed to onerous labor. This gigantic female was surrounded by
little boy helpers— supportive beings, much like the putto or the naked and occasionally winged, chubby little boys who symbolized passions in Baroque paintings in Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries. A Subtlety melted daily and was fully destroyed as soon as the exhibition ended or just a few weeks later…. but not before some 130,000 viewers saw it.
A Subtlety: or the Marvelous Sugar Baby This year (2022) at the Venice Biennale, the prestigious international cultural exhibition or art fair that has been held annually since 1895, one can be amazingly overwhelmed by the dynamics of the installations of Simone Leigh (b. 1968, Chicago, IL). Leigh, an African American woman, is concerned with feminism, African art and most often with the marginalization of women of color. N.A.I. Magazine - Page 21
Simone Leigh
In fact, she is the first woman of color to represent the United States at Venice and only the third African American. Her presentation for the American Pavilion was awarded one of the two Golden Lion prizes. (The other went to the British black woman artist Sonia Boyce, also representing her country as the first black woman.) Leigh uses various media including sculpture and video performances.
One of her show stopping works is that of a sphinx—the slithering female version. Most likely having some traits akin to those of the riddle sphinx. The title of the installation is Sovereignty: which refers to the power of a state to do everything necessary to govern itself—making laws, collecting taxes, war/peace, etc.
If you cannot get to the Expo (which goes through November 27) to see this installation, keep your hopes up because the works for the U. S. Pavilion in Venice will be featured in Leigh’s first museum survey exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in 2023 and then it will subsequently tour museums throughout the U.S. Lastly, Leigh lives and works in New York, and she is a graduate of the Quaker institution, Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. Have a safe summer!
Terri B. N.A.I. Magazine - Page 22
N.A.I. MAGAZINE Business Directory 2019 - 2022
N.A.I. MAGAZINE Business Directory
Carolyn R. Owens, CEO Career Strategist, Leadership, and Life Coach Infinity Coaching
Toby M. LeVan Certified Personal Trainer Mac Fitness, LLC
LaShawne Holland, CEO Wealthy Life Architect and Financial Coach Born To Multiply
Sharon Asonganyi, PhD Entrepreneur and Nonprofit Strategist
Chef Iris Francis Owner & Head Chef Steve's Cuisine
Danielle N. Pope, CEO Administrative Support Specialist Pope Consulting, LLC
Shavon J. Smith, Esq. The SJS Law Firm Business Attorney and Strategist
Shannon Wilkerson Shanni Wilke Company Writing Services, Mentorship
Melanie Rivera Breaker 28 The Leader's Coach
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 24
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Business Directory (cont'd)
Rashelle Butts, CEO The Breadbox Woodworks Handcrafted Wood & Leather Designs
Shynette Hall, Realtor Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Penfed Realty
James and Cynthia Greene Marriage Built 2 Last Marriage Strategists
Joyce Daniels Cosmetologist & Creative Artist FB-Joyce Daniels
Shawn Rouse JamRouse Excursions Travel Agency
Shezell Alexander The Alexander Collection FB-Shezell Alexander
Brennae Brooks, Esq. Veterans Disability Benefits Born To Serve, LLC
Florence Foster Inspirational Dimensions Artist/Photography
Sheena Moton She Love Gems
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 25
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Business Directory (cont'd)
Vinson A. Hill Primerica
Herman Copelin Tarry Hearken Solutions
Tiffany Barber Tiffany's Tasty Cakes
Jenn Brazelton, Doula In Love Birthing, LLC
Ayana Burch Polished Editing, LLC
Kidpreneur - Mischa Smith Cosmos Cosmetic and Curios
Tina Wolridge Certified Fitness Trainer Fitness Fitgirl, LLC N.A.I. Magazine - Page 26
Wanda “Sistah Soldier” Petty SHE VET™ MEDIA
Lawrence Lee Certified Personal Trainer Swatfitcoaching
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Business Directory (cont'd)
Howell's Standard Raw Honey Innovators
Leela's Pure Goodness Sea Moss Reimagined
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 27
Awareness
Photo by Karolina Kolodziejczak-7CLArMn7TCM on Unsplash (1
Photo by freestocks-nss2eRzQwgw on unsplash
JULY Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month Live Yes - Arthritis Community
N.A.I. Magazine - Page 28
AUGUST Children’s Eye Health and Safety Awareness Month National Eye Institute
SEPTEMBER Child Obesity Awareness Month Preventing Childhood Obesity: 5 Things You Can Do at Home