Hello E'rybody . . .I know it's been a long time since I've posted an update.  Forgive a sista  but things have been very hectic (in a good way) in my world.

First let me tell you all that Sistaz Coloring Outside Of The Lines is still in full effect.  There are some major changes comin' tho' that have kind of put things on hold for just a little bit.

Here's what's goin' on:

*Sistaz Coloring Outside Of The Lineswith the help of Shonia Brown (the owner/producer of Nghosi.com and The SCOTL radio show- She's retiring the Nghosi website and moving on to bigger and better things and I'm happy to say that SCOTL has kinda outgrown Myspace - we'll stay here to get our network on , but the content is gonna need more space, ya feel me?) The new Sistaz Coloring Outside Of The Lines Website will be interactive and will feature sistaz in ALL areas of the fine arts and beyond who are coloring outside of the lines.

The main focus was and always will be Sistaz who are on indie labels or unsigned  . . that mission will never change.  So don't fret folks   I'm just opening another path for th' other sistaz who are doin' their thang.

There will also be an archive where all of the interviews that I've done with the Sistaz here will be available.

There will be artist pages for any of the sistaz who are interested that have been featured or who will be featured (it'll be a spot for the sistaz to promote their work and announce their shows as well).

There will lotz more (and I'm lookin' for input from you all as well(especially my artists, tell me what you'd like to see on the site)

*Also, coming soon will be a Sistaz Coloring Outside Of The Lines Live.  I've been offered the opportunity, by a local venue here in Detroit, to host a monthly live show featuring the sistaz I feature here. It's in the planning stages so keep checking back for that.  It will be a prelude to the annual Sistaz coloring Outside Of The Lines festival.

Now with all of that said, I'm looking for writers who are willing to write for a "by" line only (remember, I'm tryna get my non-profit status for SCOTL so we ain't gotz no money right now)

I'm looking for sistaz to interview/review, etc my sistaz in photography, film, dance, stage, literature, etc.  I gotz the music covered.

So if you're interested let a sista know and we'll talk about it.

I'm looking to launch the website in July.  In the mean time for all of my sistaz waiting to be interviewed . . . we're gonna do those inteviews and you all will be the first ones to appear on the all new Sistaz Coloring Outside Of The Lines website.

So folks please be patient and please stay tuned and if you have any suggestion, comments etc. feel free to drop 'em here.

Much, Much Luv 'n' Stuff to you all, Torri

I love you all madly for the constant support!!!!!

(CNN) -- Singer and actress Eartha Kitt has died, her publicist, Patty Freedman, told CNN on Thursday.

Kitt, 81, died in New York, where she was being treated for colon cancer, Freedman said. Her daughter, Kitt Shapiro, was by her side.

She was performing almost until the end, taping a PBS special six weeks ago in Chicago, Illinois. The show is set to air in February.

Her recording of the saucy Christmas song "Santa Baby" was certified gold last week.

Kitt was well known for her distinctive voice and made a name for herself in her portrayal of Catwoman in the television series "Batman." That role produced Kitt's recognizable sultry cat growl.

She worked in film, theater, cabaret, music and on television during her lengthy career. According to Kitt's official Web site, she was nominated for a Tony three times, a Grammy and Emmy twice.

According to the biography on that site, Kitt lived in Connecticut near her daughter and four grandchildren.

Kitt was ostracized at an early age because of her mixed-race heritage, the biography says. At age 8, she was sent from the cotton fields of South Carolina by her mother to live with her aunt in New York City's Harlem neighborhood, the site said.

As a teen, she auditioned for the famed Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe, was hired as a featured dancer and vocalist, and toured worldwide with the company.

This launched Kitt into a life of roles in the entertainment field.

According to the book "Contemporary Black Biography," she was adored in Europe in the 1950s as a cabaret singer.

In the United States, her dance career led to a critically acclaimed stint on Broadway, including the play "New Faces of 1952," which was later made into a movie.

Broadway stardom landed Kitt a recording deal that led to a string of best-selling records, including "Love for Sale," "I Want to Be Evil," "Santa Baby" and "Folk Tales of the Tribes of Africa." She recorded more than 20 albums, worked in hundreds of television and movie roles, and was invited as a guest to the White House several times.

CNN's David Daniel contributed to this report.

Here's the rare individual that actually gets it, that understands that nobody is trying to take anything from him . . . nobody is asking for special privileges  . . . that folks are just asking for the same right to show love for and legally protect the ones they love!!!!

Text Version below:

By Keith Olbermann

Anchor, 'Countdown'

msnbc.com

updated 40 minutes ago

Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment on the passage, last week, of Proposition Eight in California , which rescinded the right of same-sex couples to marry, and tilted the balance on this issue, from coast to coast.

Some parameters, as preface. This isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics, and this isn't really just about Prop-8.  And I don't have a personal investment in this: I'm not gay, I had to strain to think of one member of even my very extended family who is, I have no personal stories of close friends or colleagues fighting the prejudice that still pervades their lives.

And yet to me this vote is horrible. Horrible. Because this isn't about yelling, and this isn't about politics. This is about the human heart, and if that sounds corny, so be it.

If you voted for this Proposition or support those who did or the sentiment they expressed, I have some questions, because, truly, I do not understand. Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships, these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option. They don't want to deny you yours. They don't want to take anything away from you. They want what you want—a chance to be a little less alone in the world.

Only now you are saying to them—no. You can't have it on these terms. Maybe something similar. If they behave. If they don't cause too much trouble.  You'll even give them all the same legal rights—even as you're taking away the legal right, which they already had. A world around them, still anchored in love and marriage, and you are saying, no, you can't marry. What if somebody passed a law that said you couldn't marry?

I keep hearing this term "re-defining" marriage. If this country hadn't re-defined marriage, black people still couldn't marry white people. Sixteen states had laws on the books which made that illegal in 1967. 1967.

The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn't have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it's worse than that. If this country had not "re-defined" marriage, some black people still couldn't marry black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not "Until Death, Do You Part," but "Until Death or Distance, Do You Part." Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are gay.

And uncountable in our history are the number of men and women, forced by society into marrying the opposite sex, in sham marriages, or marriages of convenience, or just marriages of not knowing, centuries of men and women who have lived their lives in shame and unhappiness, and who have, through a lie to themselves or others, broken countless other lives, of spouses and children, all because we said a man couldn't marry another man, or a woman couldn't marry another woman. The sanctity of marriage.

How many marriages like that have there been and how on earth do they increase the "sanctity" of marriage rather than render the term, meaningless?

What is this, to you? Nobody is asking you to embrace their expression of love. But don't you, as human beings, have to embrace... that love? The world is barren enough.

It is stacked against love, and against hope, and against those very few and precious emotions that enable us to go forward. Your marriage only stands a 50-50 chance of lasting, no matter how much you feel and how hard you work.

And here are people overjoyed at the prospect of just that chance, and that work, just for the hope of having that feeling.  With so much hate in the world, with so much meaningless division, and people pitted against people for no good reason, this is what your religion tells you to do? With your experience of life and this world and all its sadnesses, this is what your conscience tells you to do?

With your knowledge that life, with endless vigor, seems to tilt the playing field on which we all live, in favor of unhappiness and hate... this is what your heart tells you to do? You want to sanctify marriage? You want to honor your God and the universal love you believe he represents? Then Spread happiness—this tiny, symbolic, semantical grain of happiness—share it with all those who seek it. Quote me anything from your religious leader or book of choice telling you to stand against this. And then tell me how you can believe both that statement and another statement, another one which reads only "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

You are asked now, by your country, and perhaps by your creator, to stand on one side or another. You are asked now to stand, not on a question of politics, not on a question of religion, not on a question of gay or straight. You are asked now to stand, on a question of love. All you need do is stand, and let the tiny ember of love meet its own fate.

You don't have to help it, you don't have it applaud it, you don't have to fight for it. Just don't put it out. Just don't extinguish it. Because while it may at first look like that love is between two people you don't know and you don't understand and maybe you don't even want to know. It is, in fact, the ember of your love, for your fellow person just because this is the only world we have. And the other guy counts, too.

This is the second time in ten days I find myself concluding by turning to, of all things, the closing plea for mercy by Clarence Darrow in a murder trial.

But what he said, fits what is really at the heart of this:

"I was reading last night of the aspiration of the old Persian poet, Omar-Khayyam, " he told the judge. It appealed to me as the highest that I can vision. I wish it was in my heart, and I wish it was in the hearts of all: So I be written in the Book of Love; I do not care about that Book above. Erase my name, or write it as you will, So I be written in the Book of Love."

South African musical legend Miriam Makeba dies

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who wooed the world with her sultry voice but was banned from her own country for more than 30 years under apartheid, died after collapsing on stage in Italy. She was 76.

In her dazzling career, Makeba performed with musical legends from around the world — jazz maestros Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon — and sang for world leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Nelson Mandela.

"Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us," Mandela said in a statement.

He said it was "fitting" that her last moments were spent on stage.

The Pineta Grande clinic in Castel Volturno, near the southern city of Naples, said Makeba died early Monday of a heart attack.

Makeba collapsed on stage Sunday night after singing one of her most famous hits "Pata Pata," her family said in a statement. Her grandson, Nelson Lumumba Lee, was with her as well as her longtime friend, Italian promoter Roberto Meglioli.

"Whilst this great lady was alive she would say: 'I will sing until the last day of my life'," the statement said.

Castel Volturno Mayor Francesco Nuzzo said Makeba sang at a concert in solidarity with six immigrants from Ghana who were shot to death in September in the town, an attack that investigators have blamed on organized crime.

The death of "Mama Africa," as she was known, plunged South Africa into shock and mourning.

"One of the greatest songstresses of our time has ceased to sing," Foreign Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said in a statement.

"Throughout her life, Mama Makeba communicated a positive message to the world about the struggle of the people of South Africa and the certainty of victory over the dark forces of apartheid and colonialism through the art of song."

Makeba wrote in her 1987 memoirs that friends and relatives who first encouraged her to perform compared her voice to that of a nightingale. With her distinctive style combining jazz with folk with South African township rhythms, she was often called "The Empress of African Song."

The first African woman to win a Grammy award, Makeba started singing in Sophiatown, a cosmopolitan neighborhood of Johannesburg that was a cultural hotspot in the 1950s before its black residents were forcibly removed by the apartheid government.

She then teamed up with South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela — later her first husband — and her rise to international prominence started when she starred in the anti-apartheid documentary "Come Back, Africa" in 1959.

When she tried to fly home for her mother's funeral the following year, she discovered her passport had been revoked. It was 30 years before she was allowed to return.

In 1963, Makeba appeared before the U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid to call for an international boycott of South Africa. The South African government responded by banning her records, including hits like "Pata Pata," "The Click Song" ("Qongqothwane" in Xhosa), and "Malaika."

Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording in 1966 together with Belafonte for "An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba." The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid.

Thanks to her close relationship with Belafonte, she received star status in the United States and performed for President Kennedy at his birthday party in 1962. But she fell briefly out of favor when she married black power activist Stokely Carmichael — later known as Kwame Ture — and moved to Guinea in the late 1960s.

Besides working with Simone and Gillespie, she also appeared with Paul Simon at his "Graceland" concert in Zimbabwe in 1987.

After three decades abroad, Makeba was invited back to South Africa by Mandela, the anti-apartheid icon, shortly after his release from prison in 1990 as white racist rule crumbled.

"It was like a revival," she said about going home. "My music having been banned for so long, that people still felt the same way about me was too much for me. I just went home and I cried."

Makeba courted controversy by lending support to dictators such as Togo's Gnassingbe Eyadema and Felix Houphouet-Boigny from Ivory Coast, performing at political campaigns for the veteran leaders even as they were violently suppressing the movements for democracy that swept West Africa in the early 90s.

The first person to give her refuge was Guinea's former President Ahmed Sekou Toure who was accused in the slaughtering of 10 percent of the population.

Makeba, though, insisted that her songs were not deliberately political.

"I'm not a political singer," she insisted in an interview with Britain's Guardian newspaper earlier this year. "I don't know what the word means. People think I consciously decided to tell the world what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us — especially the things that hurt us."

Makeba announced her retirement three years ago, but despite a series of farewell concerts she never stopped performing. When she turned 75 last year, she said she would sing for as long as possible.

Makeba is survived by her grandchildren, Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Monique Lee, and her great-grandchildren Lindelani, Ayanda and Kwame.

___

Associated Press Writer Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed to this report.

Hello all, I know it's been a very long time since I've updated you on what's happening With Sistaz Coloring Outside of the Lines.

Well, I've been away for awhile and taking care of lotz of things, including exchanging vows with my significant other

AnyWho, SCOTL will be back on the air starting September 12, 2008 which also marks the 2nd year anniversary of Sistaz Coloring Outside Of The Lines.

It will still be on Nghosi.com which is also in the process of being revised and revamped, but I'm also considering running the show on BlogTalk Radio ( I will be scouting for a co-host too, so keep that in mind any of you who may be interested . . . I might hold some sort of contest when I'm ready for that depending upon the feedback I get from you all.

That way the show will air live and all of my good folks here in SCOTL can actually call in with questions and comments . . . . I wanna get some feedback from you all on how you feel about that and if you will support the format if I go that way.

The first guest to be featured on the upcoming show will be the lovely and talented Candida Rose

Make sure you stop by and check her out in advance and make sure you tell her that your heard about on the Sistaz Coloring Outside The Linesand Torri sent you   Candida has also made available one her songs "Too Late To Turn Back Now" for download for one week - so make sure you get your download of this beautiful song by this lady with the most beautiful voice.

Candida Rose <~~~ click here to check her out

Candida Rose
"Born, raised, and currently residing in New Bedford, MA vocalist Candida Rose captivates her audiences with the golden aura of her radiant presence and stirs them with a uniquely compelling voice that combines the overtones and undertones of jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel with just the right touch of international spice." ~taken from the bio on her page~

Much luv 'n' stuff to all, Torri

Isaac Hayes, Deep-Voiced Soul Icon, Is Dead at 65