Monday, December 28, 2015

ASA Cultural Fashion Show

December 5, 2015, we put on a show to present to the University of Arizona the diversity in our culture. We created a cultural fashion show to expose local Tucson and Phoenix designers and allow members of ASA (African Student Association) show the beauty behind our African culture. Being a member of ASA, I can easily say that I've been blessed with a group of students who celebrate their African culture in a way that is undeniably, beautiful. Many students on our campus don't have an idea of how beautiful African culture truly is. Being the minorities on campus, there are not a lot of opportunities for us to come out and display Africa as the beauty it is. That is why I'm grateful to have been given the opportunity to be a part of this show. I'm grateful to be a part of the exposure of that beauty at the University of Arizona.

This show was also an opportunity for members in our group to gain exposure to the companies they
have been working to build. My good friend, Olachi Uzoma, is a University of Arizona graduate. She is involved in the plus-size fashion within Arizona and is the founder/creator of Lachy's Closet. Lachy's Closet was her personal style blog that she used to promote positive body image through her individual style. Her motto in life is, "Confidence is key, and is important in building one's self-esteem." Not only is Olachi my Naija sister, but she's also my inspiration. She debuted her line of "Confident Curves" sweatshirts at the cultural fashion show.

Another group of young Africans who are continuing their rise to success are the brothers behind, King Krucial, Edward and Steven Jallayu. As they say, "Everything in Life is Krucial." Krucial Clothing is the new urban street wear to hit the market. Edward and Steven are two brothers who started up this clothing company and have taken over Tucson in the process. As they continue to expand and reach a larger audience, they presented a line of their clothing at the cultural fashion show. It's been an honor to not only know, but work with the two of them and support the work of other Africans in our group.


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Monday, November 30, 2015

I Will Not Apologize For My Dark Skin



As thanksgiving break comes to an end, and the end of 2015 is in the horizons, I wanted to take some time to reflect some things I am grateful for, as they have all contributed to who I am today. As always, I am grateful for my family and close friends who have kept me grounded and have played a part in making me the young women I am today, and are patient with me as I learn and grow into my future self. 
My family specifically has always persistently been a great support system, pushing me to find my best self, and gain full confidence in who I am. Despite a great support system, I’ve had my struggles with self love and self esteem as most of you can probably relate. As I reflect on the many things I am grateful for, I also want to acknowledge how far I have come in my journey in self acceptance.

I grew up in a predominately white area, where I was one of the very few black kids within my school and even more of a rarity within my classes. The setting was place where negative notions on skin color and identity, were first introduced, and now that I reflect on it had a large impact on shaping who I am. As I look back on my childhood, I find it unbelievable that I allowed others to make a mockery of my blackness. Both kids and adults both knowingly and unintentionally made me feel like my skin and ethnic identity was an issue. If you haven’t guessed by now I am black girl (Nigerian American) with a dark complexion.

To other girls I was not pretty. My hair was not long, it was not straight, and coiled up at the slightest sight of moister. It was no secret that my skin was not pale like the other girls, and I did not at this time recognized that my melanin was actually a blessing.

I asked myself, “why am I so dark” or pondered about ways to alter my complexion. I remember commenting to my mother that I was too dark and I wanted to look for a way to make my skin lighter. I used to put perms in my hair in an attempt to make my hair straight, like the other girls. I didn’t appreciate myself fully. I didn’t love myself fully.  My academic surrounding had a greater weight than my loving family. And I consistently carried the weight of false happiness, when I truly wasn’t.

Entering high school, there was the issue being “black” enough. I was soft spoken and shy, which came off negatively to the kids who looked like me. There was constant push to fit into a category, or identify myself   as something specific in order to be “good enough”. So not only was I struggling with being a black female with a dark complexion, but also with peoples perception of what I should be.

All of these things hindered me from growing into a confident young woman.

Being a female “light skin is the best skin”, was term I heard a lot. No one would be interested in you if you were too dark because who wants a dark skinned child? Who wants a nappy-headed child? It gets so bad that even people in my own race will turn their backs because they don’t like something that I couldn’t control. My dark skin wasn’t attractive to others. My hair wasn’t attractive to others. And no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I wished that I wasn’t this was, I couldn’t change it.  At the end of the day, I cannot change who I am and that was the hardest thing to accept.

I wish I had told people that I am proud of my dark skin. I wish I had told people that I am not “acting white”, but am carrying myself in way that would make my parents proud. I wish I had told people that being Nigerian did not make me any less exposed to the ignorant comments of being Black in America. I wish I had told people that my hair isn’t ugly and too nappy, but actually a blessing. All of these things are blessings and I never recognized that until I came to college, even then, I still struggled with it.

​I am now proclaiming that I am a beautiful Nigerian American Dark Skinned Female.

I will not apologize for being Nigerian.

I will not apologize for being a Female.

I will not apologize for being nappy-headed.

I will not apologize for being Dark Skin.

I will not apologize because I’ve been blessed. My melanin skin is a blessing. My hair is a blessing. My body is a blessing. So I will no longer apologize for whom I am, but love myself because I have been blessed and for that I am grateful.


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Friday, November 27, 2015

New Beginnings

A lot has been happening over these past couple of months, and I've failed to keep up with this blog as I hoped to do so. I've decided to start again, and try to be more consistent, especially now that my Senior year has calmed down. Today, I took my sister out to talk her Senior Pictures (which I will post later this weekend), and I decided to take a few shots of what I was wearing. Since I've been saving up a bit a money, I decided to splurge on a few outfits/shoes these past two weeks. I try to dress a bit comfortable when I'm out taking pictures for friends/family, so this is what I decided to wear today.



Top: Forever 21
Pants: H&M
Shoes: Converse
Watch: Fossil 

I'll also have to give a review on my hair because I'm basically in love with it! As far as my outfit goes, I'm a big fan of prints. Any kind of print, you'll probably find in my closet and that's why I reached for this top when I saw it for sale at Forever. I decided to keep it simple with pairing it with my army green pants and white hightop converse for comfort! As always, I got my favorite silver fossil watch (thank you, mom), although it's the battery is currently dead. (I'll get around to fixing it sooner or later lol)

In other news, I've started a new website, with a good friend of mine. It's called "WooManhood". We wanted to create a space where we could give women of different backgrounds the opportunity to post their personal narrative. We felt as though, there aren't enough opportunities for women to come together and be one. I think it's very important to not only be able to identify what I struggle with as being as women, but what others struggle with as well. We want it to become a place where all women and men can uplift one another in all of our beauty and flaws we possess. I'll post more about the site in my next post, but for now, check it out!


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Friday, May 29, 2015

Photography: Ms. Livingstone

As I said before, I've been trying to get back into photography for the past few years, but I never took much time out to actually start again. Just recently, I had the opportunity to take some photos for my dearest friend, Nalani, after begging her to model for me. (thanks again, Nalani) She finally said yes and I couldn't be happier with the result. Again, I don't have much experience other than the photo classes I took back in High School, but I really enjoyed taking these photos and editing them! We took some pictures around campus and at random spots here in Tucson. Here are a few of them for your viewing and I'll be doing a lot of different photo projects this summer, so look out for more!


                                    

   


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377 Days


It’s been 377 days since my last post and I’m happy to say that I’m finally back. I took some time away from this blog (well more than expected) because of school and other things, but now that it’s the summer time, it’s time to start posting again. I have a number of projects that I’ll be posting about throughout the summer and continuing throughout the school year. I’ve learned a lot about myself in the last year and there are a lot of experiences I want to share with you all on this blog, so I hope you guys stay tuned and I’ll promise to be more present.




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Saturday, May 17, 2014

Very Inspiring Blog Award


Woohoo for Blog Award Nominations!! Thank you, Daniella from http://realnotideal.blogspot.ca, for nominating me for another blog award. This one is for “Very Inspiring Blog Award”.

Rules:
1.       Link the person who nominated you
2.       List and display the rules
3.       Share seven facts about yourself.
4.       Nominate 15 other blogs and let them know they have been nominated.

Here are my Seven Facts:
  1. I still listen to the Cheetah Girls. Yes, every once in a while, I’ll log onto spotify and play the Cheetah Girls. Hey, they were the reason why I had any confidence as a child, and they’re music is still amazing.
  2. I want to be an OB/GYN. I don’t think I can explain on this post how amazing I find pregnancy. What the female body can do is absolutely breath taking. My obsession is to the point where I read books on pregnancy and I’ve realized that I don’t have a problem watching childbirth either. You may say it’s gross, but I think it’s a miracle. I think it would be such an honor to deliver the baby of any family. Yes, there will be devastating moments, but there will be moments where I’m witnessing a miracle.
  3. I am Beyonce or Beyonce is me? As every other person on this planet, I have an obsession with Beyonce. Come on, you know everyone loves them some Queen B.
  4. This one is a little bit embarrassing, but it corresponds with my first fact. As a child, I learned every dance to the first 2 Cheetah Girls movies (Raven wasn’t in the 3rd so I never bothered to watch it) and I also knew the dances to the first High School Music. Now you might be wondering, what does that have to do with anything, Idara? Well…I still remember those dances to this day.
  5. I am now President of my acapella group Dolce Voces. The ladies in this group are absolutely amazing and I don’t think words can describe how much I love them. Plus, look at how beautiful they all are:
  6. In high school I was voted “Most Swag”…. just let that sink in.
  7.  I have a love for poetry, writing, and singing. I never really get the chance to do those things during the school as much as I would like, but that’s what the summer is for!

Nominations:
Since I'm new to the blogging world, I need some time to find 15 people to nominate haha I'll post them here soon! 




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Saying "Bye, Bye" to College and "Hello" to Summer Vacation




Summer is now in session! As you can tell, it’s been way too long since my last post (two months to be exact). School was a crazy ride, but I’m proud to say that I am officially
finished with my sophomore year in college. I am now home and ready to enjoy a beautiful summer with my family, friends, and of course, my summer courses. Since it’s been over two months since my last post, I decided to make a few changes. I changed the entire layout of this blog because I figured that I'm basically starting all over. I plan on utilizing this blog a lot of my summer, and hopefully with better time management skills, I’ll be able to post while I’m in school.

So without further or due, I do have some outfits I’ve been planning on posting for a while now. Majority of them (like the one above) are from my spring break. I had the honor of shooting with a good friend of mine, Tim Nichols, and I had an absolutely amazing time with him! Tim, is not only an amazing friend, but an amazing photographer. Below, I will list his contact information just in case anyone would like to work with him. I promise you won't regret it. 
This outfit is a bit different from what I usually war. I wanted to go with a bit more of a street look instead of the timid neat look I usually go for. Other than my shoes, everything that I found was from Forever 21. Below are some more pictures from one of my shoots with Tim, this past spring break! More pictures and posts will be coming soon, as well as updates under the "Style" button. Thank you! 






                           


Email Tim Nichols if you're interested in working with him: 
t.nichols2@yahoo.com




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About Me


Hi! My name is Idara and welcome to She Sings Style, a blog full of some of the beautiful things in my life-my family, fashion, projects I'm working on, college experiences, and my journey throughout life. I hope you can find some inspiration here and embark on this journey with me.

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