Category: Best of 2020

Top 5 Post in 2020

Baltimore Artist Contracts Coronavirus on Halloween and Infects 2 Seniors at Owings Mill Red Run Stream Valley Trail (Halloween Recap)

Halloween 2020 is a little different this year because of what’s happening all over the world. People are being more cautious celebrating because of the country’s current status and are uncertain when making decisions navigating how to live during these covid times. Times are crazy and I decided to be a visual representation of what’s causing chaos around the world in 2020.

[Read I Wanted To Be Triggered for Halloween on Doc’s Castle Media]

I dressed as a coronavirus germ this year because it was literally all that was talked about in mainstream culture. I started hearing about Coronavirus towards the end of January before the virus reached the United States. At the time, I wasn’t so sure that disease would reach Americans. It seemed so far removed from my life as Wuhan, China was shut down on the opposite side of the world. Every day I rode public transportation during peak hours to work at the office in Downtown Baltimore. But now, 7 months later, sitting on a packed train never seemed so dangerous in my life.

[Read timeline of how coronavirus got started on ABC News.]

This world being consumed by Covid 19 affects not only human bodily functions. It’s infectious to our everyday lives affecting us in every area and physical function. People are seeking ways of dealing with mental stress and financial hardships. I’ve even seen churches battle with government policy to continue having Sunday service. This disease affects everyone everywhere even if you don’t contract it. 

The holiday season is here. It doesn’t come as a surprise that many people are finally peeking out of their doors to explore the new world. We’re ready to socialize with our friends and family after being quarantined for nearly a year. Sadly, covid cases are still rising. Earlier in the week, American’s were warned of a third Covid 19 surge taking place as predicted. So I chose to be a walking reminder of what’s lurking in our atmosphere ready to penetrate our respiratory systems if we decide to ignore the rising cases.

The makeup artist behind this masterpiece is Nelli from GlambyNelli on Instagram. Nelli is a Baltimore Artist well versed in a multitude of talents but she wow’s us away with this project! I told her my vision and boom! She turned my head into a covid germ and still made me look pretty!

Nelli began taking her Halloween makeup artistry seriously just a year ago in 2019 while doing makeup for family and friends and sharing images of her work on social media. But she’s always had a love for art. While visiting her art studio for my appointment, I found she surrounds herself with inspiration from her own creations. She told me she’s an artist for many years. I learned she’s a makeup artist, painter, and photographer. She absolutely loves creating. I could tell from the creative aura that surrounds her studio.

I was drawn to contacting Nelli for my services after seeing her recreation of the 2009 science fiction film Avatar. The makeup was done so well, the client looked exactly like an actor from the movie. I had to see if she would accept my challenge to make me germy. I believe she had it in her to do it. She definitely succeeded.

Afterward, I went to find a safe socially distanced park where I could take pictures of me infecting others with my germs. It was so funny to hear people murmur to each other their guesses of my costume. “She’s so pretty,” was not what I intended to hear but it’s nice to know that I’m an attractive infectious disease. I continued my stroll through Owings Mills Red Run Stream Valley Trail with CtrlMyCamera taking shots of me jokingly pretending to spoil the other walkers on the trail. 

View more from my Coronavirus photoshoot in the slideshow below. *I do not own the rights to this music. The song is titled Coronavirus by Imarkkeyz on YouTube.*

I hope that people remain cautious while celebrating the holidays this season. These are crazy times we’re living in. We should have empathy for human life during these times as always. Even though it sucks as our more thankful and merriest time of the year approaches, we’re pressured to keep socially distancing. We should remain vigilant in protecting ourselves physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally as best as we can while socially distancing. We can still be there for one another. Humans need to stay connected. But we should be extra cautious and remember what steps to take to remain safe as we visit and spend time with the people we love.

Are dressing up for Halloween? Have you seen any cool costumes? Let me know in the comments below.

#PrayForLove: Support #BLM Murals in Patterson Park & The North Avenue Window Joint for September 2020

Outside art exhibitions are one of the best things to emerge out of this 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. I spotted another art exhibit in Baltimore worth visiting if you’re looking for something to do but still want to social distance. Patterson Park is holding Black Live Matter Murals after recent George Floyd protests in Minneapolis.

Photo Credit: CtrlMyCamera

The “invisible enemy” Covid-19 has required businesses of all industries to maneuver differently because infection rates in America are at record-breaking highs. Restaurants, bars, casinos, and nightlife are closed or open with limited capacity throughout the state of Maryland. It wasn’t until last Friday, September 4th, Governor Larry Hogan announced Maryland is ready to move forward into phase 3 of reopening. As news that infection rates continue to rise in Baltimore city, there doesn’t seem to be any new changes with the city moving fully forward into Phase 2. Restaurants dining increased to operating at 50% capacity or with outside dining. Masks are required in every place of retail. Baltimore city must continue operating like there is a huge risk at stake.

There are precautions being taken at many Maryland businesses, and new creative avenues are being explored for how to continue conducting business as usual. For art galleries and museums, there are fundraisers, window exhibitions, and virtual workshops considered as options in this industry during these trying times. In Baltimore, there is no exception. Art lovers can find alternative options to continue enjoying popping up all over the city. Labor Day weekend, Baltimore creative Alanah Nichole hosted The North Avenue Window Joint opening reception for the window exhibition at the Impact Hub in support of financially helping artists during the pandemic.

Source: The North Avenue Window Joint/ Station North Facebook

The North Avenue Window Joint will be in Impact Hub on North Avenue until October 31st. 

Companies opened for business highly encourage patrons to take safety precautions by practicing social distancing with face masks and utilizing hygiene stations. But at the start of the pandemic, it never crossed my mind how a virus could affect almost every social activity humans partake. It’s really changing how we operate in our daily lives. I see people being affected, and for the first time, I saw the entire world react in either fight or flight mode. It’s weird that we’re still in the midst of it, but also awesome to see how new opportunities are created.

[Read: Baltimore Creatives Become Forefront Activists for the Perception of Baltimore Housing and Community Change (Support Vacants Tour and The People United Exhibition]

Alanah isn’t the only activist making things happen during COVID. I saw a post of a #BLM mural shared by Baltimore based artist Jasmin Manning via Instagram. But didn’t expect that the following week I’d stroll past it while on a mission to get fresh air and clear thoughts from Covid-19 isolation at my house. I found several Black Live Matter murals along the sidewalks of Patterson Park.

http://www.instagram.com/p/CE8BjZJph9i/?igshid=1vrtksc4qqcd6

According to a post shared to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum Facebook page, these #BLM murals were “erroneously removed by park rangers. They were loaded into the back of the truck with the intention of taking them to the city dump. Due to the vigilance of the Patterson Park community, the removal of legally displayed murals was halted.”

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum located in downtown Baltimore, MD will display these selected murals in Fall 2020 if you fail to get the chance to head over to Patterson Park in Baltimore to view these great works in person. The murals will be part of an exhibition on the power of protest.

Have you seen any art exhibitions or attended events during the pandemic? Let us know what cool things you’ve done while social distancing in the comments below.

Baltimore Creatives Become the Forefront Activists For Perception of Baltimore Housing and Community Change (Support Vacants Tour and The People United Exhibition)

From arts and culture to small business successes and housing developments, the entire country is looking at Baltimore, MD with a microscope wondering what defines who we are and how we compared to other metropolitan areas. 

I’m proud of my city being a leading example of peaceful protests after the death of George Floyd because sometimes a painted narrative that Baltimore is bad and vastly promoted negative visuals of violence and crime in a 3rd-world-looking neighborhood does not help create an optimistic view for potential. It’s good people of Baltimore that can prove to doubters the positivity that comes out of here.

Source Andrew Burton (Getty Images and NPR)

Since the world had it an eye on Baltimore during the 2015 Uprising, outsiders discovered it to be a visually neglected community which faced years of increasing neighborhood blight. National and international media caught images of an area that had many in disbelief in the conditions of the neighborhoods in Baltimore. But what people were seeing was how the population declined rapidly for decades and the city’s inability to keep up with the costs of these growing vacant communities appeared.

Source: The Washington Times

In 2017, it was reported over 16,000 vacant homes in Baltimore City with plans from organizations like Project C.O.R.E. to rebuild in underdeveloped neighborhoods suffering blight. Over 16 thousand vacant buildings is a large number. But that’s an improvement from 1997 when the city’s census was depleting and over 40,000 abandon buildings were accounted for as vacant homes. Even still two decades later, the city continues to have a declining population but at least the vacant numbers reach a point of stabilization. In June 2019, Baltimore celebrated a breakthrough from blight as it marked the 4,000th building unit demolished over a four-year period through a special state-city partnership started by the governor.

Some of the city’s largest organizations, corporations, and institutions get involved in the evolution of the Baltimore architectural emergence. Big names like John Hopkins helping bring new homes to East Baltimore, and Underarmour’s $5.5 billion investment in the waterfront development plan for Port Covington, just to name two, play a major part in the improvement. There are questions about how some organizations get approved for funding projects and raise eyebrows about the inequality of urban investments. In 2017 there was an analysis done by the city, “Looking at budgeted capital spending over five years in neighborhoods where more than 75 percent of residents were either white or black, the analysis found that white neighborhoods got an average of $15 million for projects and minority neighborhoods got only $8 million.” It raises concern for why lower-poverty areas receive more funding than that of communities with high poverty rates.

http://www.instagram.com/p/BvEtgs0g6HD/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Multiple Baltimore creatives step to the forefront being the activists for the perception of Baltimore. Many are creators who live, breathe, and eat everything that is the Baltimore city lifestyle. The creatives who take pride in Baltimore continue to bring everyone back to the message and show onlookers what needs to be done to make a difference.

Outsiders to Baltimore are intrigued by how people still have pride in neighborhoods that look like this. They wonder what possesses someone to stay in these neighborhoods or get involved with sharing the history of Baltimore. But these creatives become activists to share a message that people see what is only surface level and a result of years of neglect in broken promises, not the proper resources being put into the communities, and a simple disinterest in preserving these neighborhoods. There are people who take pride in where they come from and how it’s shaped their life experiences. These people are working to improve and create new origins for emerging generations. 

Vacants Tour

Cheyanne Zadia created a project coined from Baltimore’s housing crisis called “Vacants” with a group of other Baltimore artists to “spread the message which is really to spread love, to seek self and to spread community.” Starting Juneteenth, they performed six pop-up styled concerts on street corners from East to West Baltimore. The project has now evolved into a tour featuring Zadia, Al Rogers Jr, Josh Stokes, Brandon Woody, Bobbi Rush, Mike C, TAli, Prettiman and AyeFinney; all accompanied by live instrumentation.

[Donate to the Vacant Tour.] 

Another project you can support in Baltimore is The People United Exhibition located in the display windows of the Baltimore art gallery Current Space.

Photo Credit: CtrlMyCamera

I went to The People United exhibiton to support some photographer friends who are advocates of documenting the changes in Baltimore city’s neighborhood developments. 

http://www.instagram.com/p/CDFjVYRpCtb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Each photo exemplifies life in Baltimore. Each image possesses the in your face message that can never go ignored if you’re a resident of the city. These artists document history, a story of how Baltimore was and its current status. They do it in hopes of a bringing attention to these neighborhoods for an optimistic future because these streets and blocks are home. 

Check out the work of some of these awesome artists at their Instagrams below:

Devin Allen @bydvnlln

Cynphany Brown @curiouscyn_

Rob Ferrell @bmore_radical

Andrew Koritzer @drew.koritzer

Charles Mason III @traem3

Shae McCoy @shae.mccoy.photos

Philip Muriel @philip.muriel

Would you donate to artists with these very visions to share their love for their hometown? Visit the Vacants Tour GoFund Me page.

#Thirsty30body: Are You Motivated to Get There? Four Tips to Get Started

So you guys want some #Thirsty30Body tips, huh?

I did a poll via the Doc’s Castle Instagram and Facebook pages and found out 88% of followers would like me to share a few tips towards my #Thirsty30Body. 

Eff the 12% of haters who said no. 😂 Agreeing to share what I know about becoming more fit will help me stay motivated to stay on track, as well. So boo to you and hooray to everyone else who’s helping me stay motivated. I will be posting blogs, videos, and tips regularly to Doc’s Castle in hopes that some of you will want to join in with me.

As I am entering into the second half of Thirsty 30 Body Challenge, I want to share four starting tips that I keep in mind as I prep for these next coming months. Here they go:

  1. Get in the mind frame to get healthy, not only to look good.

When thinking of getting healthy, I frame my thoughts to focusing on what makes me feel good and what are good habits to have. I’m not the type to worry about having an hourglass figure or needing a big butt or chest because the attention it awards isn’t what I want. It’s already hard on women when we feel the pressures of wanting to feel attractive and there are thousands of images being pushed of models and celebrities half-naked in the mainstream media. Those pressures I’ve never embraced. It’s nice knowing that I look good. But I welcome compliments that uplift me and enjoy getting attention based upon my intellect for what I do. I want to keep it like that. So what makes this weight loss journey a “Thirsty” one?

“Thirsty” defined in the urban dictionary means:

  1. An adjective used in describing a person deliberately fishing for compliments, attention, etc.
  2. Too eager to get something (especially play)
  3.  Desperate

But I’m defining what “Thirsty” means for me in year 30. I’m encouraging healthy living and hopefully aspiring to be thirsty for a healthier lifestyle. So it begins with what it means to look and feel healthy. It’s not about the physique though I will reap those benefits. The #Thirsty30body is the perfect body for ME! Thirsting for wealthy health.

  1. Spend time getting to know yourself.

Knowing how much I weigh, though it’s good to start with, wasn’t enough for me to get moving and actively exercising because, as I said in the intro to the #Thirsty30Body Blog Series, I never looked at myself to be “big.” My motivation sparked after hearing results from my doctor’s visit to my primary care provider. As preventive care, it’s important that I know everything inside of my body is copacetic because I have things to accomplish, goals to achieve, and a life to live with people that I love. So I like to get bloodwork and vitals taken annually. I do this to be aware of what’s happening in my body so that I can control what happens to and within me. 

I like to live by this saying: No one should know you more than you know yourself mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically. It just seems foolish to me to go an entire life doing what is told of you at all times. If you live your life questioning things, you learn new things about the world and yourself. I apply this to everything I do. It makes sense to do it while on this journey as well. So I say do more than weighing yourself on the scale. Really get to know your body past the numbers. Really get into the anatomy and understand what makes you feel good or bad.

  1. Set your Goals and tracking system for accountability.

After getting my measurements, vitals, and all that is needed to understand my body, I went into the “Taylor University” mode, which is when I spend time meditating with my journal. Healthy living is better than simply losing weight because I prefer to not hear the same disappointing results again the following year. So I use my journal to make goals writing out everything about my body in its current state, and I keep track as often as I want of my progress.

There are multiple other ways that helped with tracking that don’t necessarily require you to drag around a notebook, like joining and participating in fitness groups and clubs online where people can help encourage you, taking and saving pictures whenever weight loss milestones are met, or simply regularly recording your weight loss in a monthly calendar. All these activities helped hold me accountable and motivated me in some way to stick to #Thirsty30Body. 

  1. Be kind and patient with yourself and keep pushing through it.

This is probably the most important tip I could give because at the end of the day, you are responsible for holding yourself accountable for getting healthy. People forget how hard they can be on themselves when critiquing their own work in whatever they do. They can start off strong, then fall off so fast because they didn’t pace themselves to be realistic in their journey. After that, they give up. Be kind to yourself and don’t get lost in disappointment if you haven’t quite met your goal. Be patient and allow a realistic timeframe to meet those goals. But also know when to pick yourself up to get the work done to achieve what you’ve started.

Something my mother would say whenever we’d talk about going through hard times is “There’s Always Tomorrow.” She’d say this whenever we’d hear crazy things happen like mass shootings or awful dealings that ended in demise or turmoil. Though resulting in thinking like this might be a little extreme for pursuing losing weight, it works perfectly for me. It won’t hurt me if I haven’t met a goal to lose 2 lbs in one week. I can dust myself off for the following week, and I’m not saying that without revisiting “Taylor University” to make changes to finally meet that goal at some point. I just keep pushing through it. Eventually, I’ll lose those two pounds. So be kind to your mind and body, and also remain determined.

What are somethings that you do to help prepare to lose weight? Leave your answers in the comments below. Also, subscribe to get updates to your email for the next #Thirsty30Body post via subscription form below.

What the Heck is a #Thirsty30Body?

Following up on a vision from my 2020 Vision Board, it’s finally that time to write out my plans for “Thirsty 30 Body” to fruition.

#Thirsty30Body: the sexy, drop-dead gorgeous ideal body physique met by the age of 30 years. 

[Read “2020 Vision Baby: Sharing My Vision Board” on Doc’s Castle.]

My weight-loss journey started in 2018. Nothing to do with it being about losing weight because I never viewed myself to be “big.” I was going through a moment I was falling off of a path of knowing what I wanted to do in life. It’s the first time I would publicly admit I was going through a moment of depression. I had recently quit my job as a dental business assistant, was dumped by my boyfriend at the time, and unfortunately was getting physically sick very often. I wasn’t feeling like my usual self. My journey started as another escape route from my self induced coma of writer’s block from updating DCM, as well. I thought why not go to the gym because I’m not doing anything else but working just to get off work to lounge all day. After hitting the gym a few times, I notice I felt more energized. Then I connected losing weight to feeling better which was the little motivation I needed to get out of a bad mood. 

http://www.instagram.com/p/BNpPuOzDd7p/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

In 2015, I took an interest in studying how to strengthen my “will-power” muscle as a way out of some “drama.” So much so, self-discipline was my focus word coming into 2015, before I started making vision boards. It was another dark period for me. But I considered it an era where I truly started to understand my place in Baltimore’s Arts and Underground Culture, as well. I started taking the same mini habits and principles I learned and valued about myself during that time as a blueprint for how to get back to my sane place in 2018.

By little habits, I mean, I used my knowledge of the small habits about myself I’ve jotting in my notebook to push me forward. I already knew so much about fitness and weight loss because I’m a daughter to a dietitian. Since elementary school, I’ve known the food guide pyramid from corner to corner. Ask any of my friends about the foods I like to eat when we’re dining out, and they’ll say I’m the only person they know who’d order a salad as an entre for a meal. In this new journey, I decided to focus on the little parables, habits, and principles I valued as a way to help me set and achieve goals towards losing weight.

Here’s five examples of what I mean by habits, sayings, and principles I jotted in my notebook:

  • If I carry a small notebook and flip through reading its pages often, it’ll inspire me to write and track new ideas in it often. (Using a notebook to keep recipe notes, nutritional tips, and shopping lists).
  • If something is constantly in your face, view it as a notification that needs to be swiped away. (This helped me with posting notes of weight-loss goals everywhere I looked often and taking them down whenever I completed them.)
  • “It takes 28 days to form a habit.” (Kept this in mind to help build my habits to eating new foods and drinking water daily.)
  • The rule of 3 and 5 when completing my To-Do lists. (I used this while following Meal plans and completing challenges.)
  • Making and completing mini-challenges are additional ways to developing steps for reaching your set goal. (Knowing this helped me to set squat challenges and not eating white carbs for a week challenges.)

I used simple ideas I always thought about as a foundation for building a productive lifestyle and as a way to form a healthy persona I wanted to meet. 

I officially began pursuing what I now call the #Thirsty30Body challenge at the end of summer 2019 on a whim when I decided to join a 6-week fitness Boot camp named Hero Fit in Columbia, MD. I did it seeking to find another way to “self-discipline” and strengthen my will-power muscle because I reached another period in my life I believed I needed to regain focus. But this time I thought, “Hmm, what if I put a deadline on it?” That’s where 30 came into play.

Hero Fit reeled me in with their enticing incentive to reward anyone who met their challenge of either losing 20 lbs or 5 % body fat by 6-weeks. Winners could get $500 reward, have a trip for two to Las Vegas, and a 6-month membership for the fitness gym and resources. Hero Fit provided all their clients with an accountability coach and nutritionist to assist each member with carefully crafted fitness plans provided at the start of joining the 6-week challenge. People who join the boot camp gain friendships and plenty of useful information to aid in achieving a healthy lifestyle.  

I didn’t win the Hero Fit challenge though I was short of the reward by only 3 lbs. I continued to take everything I did while enrolled in boot camp with me because what I found out was that my accountability coach and nutritionist knew as much as I did about my body. My meal plan and workout routine remained the same regardless of being enrolled there. It’s the accountability that gets me to where I needed to be and the best results.

Ding ding! It’s accountability and tracking that literally keeps me together in anything I choose to do. So I stuck to my notebook of simple notes and habits as a way to stay on track of my fitness goals. I believed in myself. I believed in my own accountability to reach my goal so much so that I betted on myself to do it without throwing money at things I wasn’t contributing to using on a regular basis, like my Planet Fitness Membership or subscribing to detox or fasting. All these things some people would think are absolutely necessary to lose weight. I canceled my subscriptions, memberships, and attention for everything I currently used for weight loss, and resorted to free resources and “habits” I knew I would actually enjoy doing to get me to my halfway mark of the #Thirsty30Body challenge.

At the start of the #Thirsty30Body Challenge, I weighed in on the scale at Hero Fit at 226 lbs. At the halfway point of July 1, 2020, I weighed in at 204 lbs. I lost a total of 22 lbs and I feel great! I’m not done. But definitely feel better. And weirdly so…this journey doesn’t feel hard at all because I’ve created new healthy habits that become normal daily actions. My body is starting to look like BAM and I like it. 

Hey! Support Black Businesses! The above photoshoot was taken at the new production studio located in Baltimore, MD. TR3 Productions & Distribution Inc. is “a total solution to all media and audio production. From music production to radio broadcasting, TR3 supplies the resources needed for shaping and building a company’s branding message.” TR3 is currently renovating a new production studio in West Baltimore and is expected to open for operation in late summer 2020. Follow TR3 Productions & Distribution Inc. for more updates via their Instagram @TR3.Productions.

As I shared my pictures on my IG, people reached out for advice on how I stuck to losing weight. If you would like me to share some challenges I do to keep up with my #Thirsty30Body challenge, write “Do it” in the comments section below.