Editor's Edict~

Welcome to the first issue of the Brown Betties Gazette. If you've had a chance to catch "Harlem's Night…Giving Cabaret A Story", then you know what you're in for with this literary slice of apple pie since the Gazette takes its name from the Cabaret's bodacious female performers, the Brown Betties. Its content, which circles relationships like a watchful hawk, comes from the show's generous song titles. For example, the Cabaret performance song Momma Said speaks of when I was a little girl and was told to "Always be a Lady". Basically, that meant to keep my heart open, but keep my legs closed. Here, my mom, Vicki Rogers, comments on what her Momma Said when she was a little girl. I'm sure Momma was trying to help me avoid the painful "Non-Relationship Relationships" with Bad Boys. In this issue, Najeem tells how Bad Boys can sometimes be nice. I've tried unsuccessfully to turn a Bad Boy into a Lady's Man and found that I usually wound up Unzipped and crawled into a ball clutching a glass of wine wallowing In My Solitude. Below, we get a little tease from "Cars and Stars"-- a playful tale of being unzipped in the back of a car. Ronnivashti Whitehead lets us know that Solitude is A-Okay. Twins Courtney and Leigh Hughes give us Two Sides to love and I let you know why Mrs. Morenike Efuntade Evans is this month's featured Brown Bettie. So, grab some coffee, relax and enjoy your Brown Betties Gazette.

~xo

Peppur Chambers