Author Archives: Valerie Fraling

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it […]

“Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.” Robert Schuller “Take me out to the ball game” “Ain’t the beer cold” What […]

“I will say that if you’re alive you’ve got to flap your arms and legs, you’ve got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at the very least think noisy and colorfully, or you’re not alive.” ~ Mel Brooks The festive crowds arriving at Little Havana […]

“I will say that if you’re alive you’ve got to flap your arms and legs, you’ve got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at the very least think noisy and colorfully, or you’re not alive.” ~ Mel Brooks The festive crowds arriving at Little […]

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.” – Sojourner Truth “I’m every woman.” […]

“If someone had told me that one day I would be standing in the White House and an African-American president would be presenting me the Medal of Freedom I would say, are you crazy? Are you out of your mind? It’s just an impossible dream.”- Rep. John Lewis In honor of Black History month, we […]

“I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11. “Through the mirror of my mind time after time, I see reflections of you and me; reflections of the way life used to be.”- Diana […]

“I am a black woman, the daughter of a dining car waiter; a black woman who could not buy a house eight years ago in parts of the District of Columbia. I didn’t start out as a member of a prestigious law firm, but as a woman who needed a scholarship to go to school. […]

“Once, when my feet were bare, and I had not the means of obtaining shoes I came to the chief of Kufah in a state of much dejection, and saw there a man who had no feet. I returned thanks to God and acknowledged his mercies, and endured my want of shoes with patience.” – […]

“This is the source of our confidence–the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.” – President Barack Obama I arrived early to attend Morgan State University’s inauguration of their 12th president, Dr. David Wilson of this historical college. The impressive 40-minute processional included faculty, students, colleges and university presidents proudly strutting […]

“I would like to recapture that freshness of vision, which is characteristic of extreme youth when all the world is new to it. “- Henri Matisse “Living the Champagne Life” at the “Saturday Night Fish Fry” was the theme for my “one-night- only” birthday celebration at Maceo’s Lounge. We drank Moet champagne, ate fried fish, […]

“As a Negro, for instance, I do not need to go looking for ‘happenings’, the absurd, or the surreal, because I have seen things that neither Dali, Beckett, Ionesco, nor any of the others, could have thought possible.”- Romare Bearden The “summer wind” like Joe Turner has come and gone so quickly. Now we are […]