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[sablesouls]

James stated,"I think fashion should always be playful, comfortable, and unexpected. Denim is a great canvas from which to develop your outfit; you can really take the day and your outfit anywhere when you are starting with jeans. These days I am in love with a pair of great-fitting Gap jeans and one of its go-to wool sweaters. Also, I’m Canadian, so the concept of a Canadian tuxedo really runs through my bloodline. I believe denim (and animal prints) to be a neutral and wear it as such. It matches everything. We even use denim in our shoes." #brothervellies #shoes #designer #blackdesigner #aurorajames #africa #sablesouls

[sablesouls]

"All the countries in Africa are so different, but I will say, growing up in Canada I saw commercials about Africa, and it looked sad and horrible. But, during my first few trips, I was just struck at how happy everyone was. I would visit a lot of local communities where people have almost nothing, but they are very happy, grateful for what they do have, and grateful for the opportunities that come their way. It’s a much more positive place than what people expect and what they see in the media. It’s also a huge continent. I don’t think people understand the size of it." #aurorajames #brothervellies #shoes #shoedesigner #sablesouls #africa #blackdesigners

[sablesouls]

Toronto native and New York transplant ⚜️Aurora James⚜️ founded Brother Vellies with two specific goals: to introduce her favorite traditional African footwear to the rest of the world, and to create and sustain artisanal jobs in Africa. Handmade in South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia and Morocco, Brother Vellies shoes maintain the spirit and durability of their ancestral counterparts. While the company offers a variety of styles including boots and sandals it was built on the enthusiastic recep tion of its first model, the velskoen. Relatively unknown outside of Africa, traditional velskoen (pronounced “fell skoon,” and known colloquially as “vellies”) paved the way for the modern day desert boot. #aurorajames #shoes#designer #candian #blackhistory #blackdesigners #sablesouls #brothervellies

[sablesouls]

At the company’s workshop in Kenya, a small group of men and women assemble a few dozen pairs of shoes a day by hand, using techniques refined over multiple generations. All of the Brother Vellies workshops are open spaces that welcome artisans of all genders, sexual orientation, backgrounds, and tribes. James a former model agent and curator now finds herself traveling to and throughout Africa regularly to work with the local artisans, experience the diverse culture of the continent, and unearth new inspirations for the brand. #sablesouls #aurorajames #shoe #designer #blackdesigner #blackhistory #kenya #brothervellies

[sablesouls]

The Toronto native left a journalism program at Ryerson University for a series of creative stints: working as a production assistant, consultant, model agent, and curator. "I dropped out of school, but [Ryerson] tweeted that I graduated," she mentions as she recounts her path from Canada to Los Angeles and then Brooklyn. "I'm wondering if that's going to translate to an honorary degree. I'm going to send them an e-mail." She has that spark best summarized as hustle: naturally inquisitive, savvy, unintimidated by newness. "I've always been someone who's very hands-on," she explains. "That's how I learned about shoes, by getting into workshops and physically doing it." #aurorajames #sablesouls #shoe #designer #blackdesigner #kenya #africa #brothervellies

[sablesouls]

Bentley (now aged 30) moved to Los Angeles to live with her mother in a small California bungalow. She was able to maintain some success , particularly during World War 2 when many homosexual bars proliferated on the west coast (capitalizing on the influx of gay men and lesbians from the military) Once again, Bentley carved out a niche for herself in this subculture and environment. Many lesbian women came to see her shows at "Joquins' El Rancho" in Los Angeles and "Monas" in San Francisco, although on occasion she did have legal trouble for performing in her signature male attire. In 1945 she recorded 5 discs for the Excelsior label (still not daring to use lesbian lyrics in recordings) including "Thrill Me Till I get My Fill," "Find Out What He Likes", and "Notoriety Papa". However in the 1950s the limited tolerance that had been eroding since the Great Depression, finally collapsed disastrously. The McCarthy "witch hunts" were particularly vicious towards homosexuals. #gladysbentley #lgbt🌈 #harlemrenaissance

[sablesouls]

Advertisement for Mona's Club 440 in 1942, with the explicit use of the word "gay" featured prominently. The word "gay" during the 1940s also denoted "happy," and to the casual reader even the reference to "butch," meaning masculine in gay argot, might have escaped attention. However, the discerning, sophisticated, 1942 reader would quickly understand that Mona's Club 440 catered to an almost exclusively woman audience during World War II. Gladys Bentley carved out a place for herself amidst this curiosity, playing at rent parties and the legendary speakeasies of "Jungle Alley" at 133 between Lenox and Seventh Avenue. She would transform popular tunes of the day with raunchy naughty playful lyrics. Dressed in signature tux and top hat , she openly and riotously flirted with women in the audience. Her popularity and salary was ever increasing , as she was frequently mentioned in many of the entertainment columns of the day. #gladysbentley #lgbt🌈 #butch #harlemrenaissance #harlem #monasclub400

[sablesouls]

Gladys Bentley was born on August 12, 1907. She was the eldest of 4 children born to a Trinidad born mother, Mary Mote (Bentley) and an American born father, George L. Bentley. Gladys left home at 16 years old. Like many African Americans of her generation she ended up in New York City's Harlem, the capital of "The New Negro ". For Gladys, her lesbianism made her need to strike out on her own all the more urgent. As she would recall many years later in an Ebony Magazine Article, "It seems I was born different. At least, I always thought so....From the time I can remember anything, even as I was toddling, I never wanted a man to touch me...Soon I began to feel more comfortable in boys clothes than in dresses". Bentley left Pennsylvania at 16 to be part of the Harlem Renaissance and come out as a “bulldagger”. She began singing at rent parties and buffet flats and moved on to speakeasies and nightclubs. later she would headline the popular speakeasy the Clam House as well as the Ubangi Club. #gladysbentley #harlemrenaissance #harlem #butch #lgbt🌈

[sablesouls]

⚜️Gladys Bentley⚜️ (stage name, Bobbie Minton) was a Harlem Renaissance blues singer and cross dresser. She was one of the most well-known and financially successful black women in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. She was a pioneer in pushing the envelope of gender, sexuality, class, and race with parody and exaggeration, personally and professionally. #gladysbentley #crossdresser #lgbt🌈 #harlemrenaissance #harlem

[sablesouls]

Morgan led what turned out to be the last session of his life in September 1971. On February 19, 1972, Morgan was performing at the New York club Slug's when he was shot and killed by his common-law wife, Helen Morgan. Accounts of exactly what happened vary; whether they argued over drugs or Morgan's fidelity, whether she shot him outside the club or up on the bandstand in front of the audience, jazz lost a major talent. Despite his extensive recorded legacy, Morgan was only 33 years old. Many of his unreleased Blue Note sessions began to appear in the early '80s, and his critical standing has hardly diminished a whit. #leemorgan #helenmorgan #murder #slugz #infidility #drugs

[sablesouls]

By the time Morgan completed those albums, he had left the Jazz Messengers to begin leading his own groups outside the studio. He was also appearing frequently as a sideman on other Blue Note releases, working most often with tenorman Hank Mobley. Morgan was extraordinarily prolific over 1966-1968, cutting around eight albums' worth of material (though not all of it was released at the time). Highlights included Delightfulee, The Procrastinator, and the decent-selling Caramba!, which nearly made the Top 40 of the R&B album chart. His compositions were increasingly modal and free-form, stretching the boundaries of hard bop; however, his funkier instincts were still evident as well, shifting gradually from boogaloo to early electrified fusion. Morgan's recording pace tailed off at the end of the '60s, but he continued to tour with a regular working group that prominently featured saxophonist Bennie Maupin. This band's lengthy modal explorations were documented on the double LP Live at the Lighthouse, recorded in Los Angeles in July 1970; it was later reissued as a three-CD set with a generous amount of extra material. #leemorgan #jazz #blackhistory

[sablesouls]

Morgan returned to New York in late 1963, and recorded with Blue Note avant-gardist Grachan Moncur on the trombonist's debut Evolution. He then recorded a comeback LP for Blue Note called The Sidewinder, prominently featuring the up-and-coming Joe Henderson. The Morgan-composed title track was a funky, danceable groover that drew from soul-jazz, Latin boogaloo, blues, and R&B in addition to Morgan's trademark hard bop. It was rather unlike anything else he'd cut, and it became a left-field hit in 1964; edited down to a 45 rpm single, it inched onto the lower reaches of the pop charts, and was licensed for use in a high-profile automobile ad campaign. Its success helped push The Sidewinder into the Top 25 of the pop LP charts, and the Top Ten on the R&B listing. Sales were brisk enough to revive the financially struggling Blue Note label, and likely kept it from bankruptcy; it also led to numerous "Sidewinder"-style grooves popping up on other Blue Note artists' albums. By the time "The Sidewinder" became a phenomenon, Morgan had rejoined the Jazz Messengers, where he would remain until 1965; there he solidified a long-standing partnership with saxophonist Wayne Shorter.

[sablesouls]

His first session as a leader was cut for Blue Note in November 1956, and over the next few months he recorded for Savoy and Specialty as well, often working closely with Hank Mobley or Benny Golson. Later in 1957, he performed as a sideman on John Coltrane's classic Blue Train, as well as with Morgan's early sessions showed him to be a gifted technician who had his influences down pat, but subsequent dates found him coming into his own as a distinctive original stylist. That was most apparent on the Blue Note classic Candy, a warm standards album completed in 1958 and released to great acclaim. Still only 19, Morgan's playing was still imbued with youthful enthusiasm, but he was also synthesizing his influences into an original sound of his own. Also in 1958, Gillespie's big band broke up, and Morgan soon joined the third version of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, which debuted on the classic Moanin' album later that year. As a leader, Morgan recorded a pair of albums for Vee Jay in 1960, Here's Lee Morgan and Expoobident, and cut another for Blue Note that year, Leeway, with backing by many of the Jazz Messengers. None managed to measure up to Candy, and Morgan, grappling with heroin addiction, wound up leaving the Jazz Messengers in 1961. He returned to his hometown of Philadelphia to kick the habit, and spent most of the next two years away from music, working occasionally with saxophonist Jimmy Heath on a local basis.

[sablesouls]

Edward Lee Morgan was born in Philadelphia on July 10, 1938. He grew up a jazz lover, and his sister apparently gave him his first trumpet at age 14. He took private lessons, ddeveloping rapidly, and continued his studies at Mastbaum High School. By the time he was 15, he was already performing professionally on the weekends, co-leading a group with bassist Spanky DeBrest. Morgan also participated in weekly workshops that gave him the chance to meet the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and his idol Clifford Brown. After graduating from high school in 1956, Morgan -- along with DeBrest -- got the chance to perform with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers when they swung through Philadelphia. Not long after, Dizzy Gillespie hired Morgan to replace Joe Gordon in his big band, and afforded the talented youngster plenty of opportunities to solo, often spotlighting him on the Gillespie signature piece "A Night in Tunisia." Clifford Brown's death in a car crash in June 1956 sparked a search for his heir apparent, and the precocious Morgan seemed a likely candidate to many; accordingly, he soon found himself in great demand as a recording artist. #leemorgan #bebop #jazz #philadelphia

[sablesouls]

⚜️Lee Morgan ⚜️was one of hard bop's greatest trumpeters, and indeed one of the finest of the '60s. An all-around master of his instrument modeled after Clifford Brown, Morgan boasted an effortless, virtuosic technique and a full, supple, muscular tone that was just as powerful in the high register. His playing was always emotionally charged, regardless of the specific mood: cocky and exuberant on up-tempo groovers, blistering on bop-oriented technical showcases, sweet and sensitive on ballads. In his early days as a teen prodigy, Morgan was a busy soloist with a taste for long, graceful lines, and honed his personal style while serving an apprenticeship in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. As his original compositions began to take in elements of blues and R&B, he made greater use of space and developed an infectiously funky rhythmic sense. He also found ways to mimic human vocal inflections by stuttering, slurring his articulations, and employing half-valved sound effects. #leemorgan #bebop #jazz# #philadelphia #artblakey

[sablesouls]

Mildred was on her way to becoming a full-time actress and studio heads were very satisfied with her previous work and beauty but it was her untimely death in late 1933 that stalled her escalating screen career. During an major earthquake in the spring of 1933, Mildred developed appendicitis when she fell running for cover from Graumans Chinese Theatre. Her death was caused by peritonitis following appendicitis, she died on a Thursday afternoon at the White Memorial Hospital during surgery. She was 28 years old. Her funeral was a star- studded one with many black and white stage and screen stars. #mildredwashington #earthquake #sablesouls #blackhistory #graumanschinesetheatre

[sablesouls]

Mildred was one of the few, very few, beautiful black women who played the maid roles ,she wasn't overweight or homely but beautiful, engaging, and scintillating, often stealing attention in scenes from leading white stars because of her beauty, talent and sex appeal. Her persona was certainly in the same fashion as Clara Bow, Alice White, and Jean Harlow. Though, Mildred had little to do on screen in a few of her movies, she still took advantage of getting herself recognized. Her maid costumes was just that...a costume, it didn't define her or her talent and that's what the black community loved about her. Mildred got fan mail, requests for her autographed photo, and she was featured in many leading black publications and newspapers. Whether Hollywood wanted her to be a stereotype or not is not the question, she took it upon her own initiative to present herself the way she wanted and she took her roles seriously and presented them the best she thought would entertain the public. "Hearts in Dixie" was one of the first black cast films made in Hollywood where Mildred co-starred, Mildred was said to have gave an excellent performance, the reviews were in Mildred's favor but sadly the film is believed to be lost. Her best role was in "Torch Singer" starring Claudette Colbert, in which she played a maid/confidante to Colbert. In this particular film she showed her awesome versatility and sincerity, where she went from dramatic to comedic naturally in good timing and she did some hot dancing. She was just so marvelous in her role that one would forget she was suppose to be a maid. #mildredwashington #sablesouls #blackhistory #1930s #blackactress