Maintainin’ In The Madness
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maintainin.bsky.social
Maintainin’ In The Madness
@maintainin.bsky.social
420 followers 170 following 8.5K posts
🎶, 📚, 📺, 🎥 & whatever else helps bide the time.
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maintainin.bsky.social
Maintainin’ In The Madness @maintainin.bsky.social · Mar 1
My ♥️ beats notes 🎼 (scales), drums🪘, chords, keys 🎹 , strings🪕🎸, horns 🎺 🎷, and vocal 🗣️sound… 🎼…music.
Reposted by Maintainin’ In The Madness
blaqdocdown.bsky.social
Eternal Black Shining Prince
February 18, 2026 at 6:53 PM
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mdstamper.bsky.social
“Fire in Her Eyes” by Jennessa Burks (American) - Acrylic on canvas / 2020 - Worcester Center for Crafts (Worcester, Massachusetts) #WomenInArt #JennessaBurks #Burks #WorcesterCenterforCrafts #BlackArt #BlackArtist #SocialJusticeArt #art #artText #Blueskyart #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists
American artist Jennessa Burks has described this painting as rooted in conversations with her daughter and questions that grew more complex as they talked about equity and the ways people are treated. In that context, the “fire” is not anger for its own sake, but a dawning moral clarity showing the heat of awareness, the ache of empathy, and the refusal to accept unfairness as normal. The close-up portrait shows a young woman in profile, her face turned toward a warm, ember-like glow at the right edge of the canvas. She has a medium-brown skin tone. Her head is framed by a dark hood that blends into the shadowed background. Light catches the bridge of her nose, the curve of her cheek, and the soft fullness of her crimson lips, while her face dissolves into shadow. Her eye is sharp, reflective, and slightly narrowed as it becomes the focal point. Her left hand rises near her chin, fingers loosely bent, as if she’s thinking through something hard to say. The brushwork is visibly layered as smoky grays and blues deepen the darkness, while tans, copper, and gold skim across the skin like heat. The surrounding space feels atmospheric and more like moving flames of air so we take in the scene as an inner moment that is quiet, watchful, and charged. Painted in 2020, this work sits in a year many families remember as heavy with disruption and public reckonings. Here, that weight is carried in a girl’s gaze. She is likely still young and still tender, but already braced against what she’s learning. Burks, a Worcester-based self-taught artist and educator, channels that lived, teaching-and-parenting intimacy into a portrait that feels both protective and honest. The light insists on the girl’s dignity, while the shadows acknowledge what it costs to keep seeing clearly. The result is a generational image of purpose so that hope is made visible as resolve.
February 17, 2026 at 7:12 AM
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mdstamper.bsky.social
"Armelle" by Elizabeth Colomba (French) - Oil on canvas / 1997 - Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #ElizabethColomba #Colomba #TheMet #BlackArt #BlackArtist #art #artText #BlueskyArt #PortraitofaWoman #WomenPaintingWomen #MetropolitanMuseumofArt
American artist Elizabeth Colomba painted her cousin Armelle while thinking with (and against) the language of canonical portraiture. The pose and polish nod toward John Singer Sargent’s "Madame X," but the remake shifts what is centered. It's not spectacle, not rumor, but presence and Black womanhood held with dignity and specificity. Armelle stands in an elegant interior, her body angled slightly while her face turns in profile. Her eyes look up and to our right, toward a framed painting on the wall. Her skin is a beautiful warm brown tone under soft, controlled light. Her black hair is gathered into a neat bun, and small earrings catch a faint highlight. She wears a crisp black-and-white ensemble with a white, button-front top with a deep black collar and black trim at the sleeves, paired with a long black skirt that falls in a smooth, heavy drape over a white underskirt hem. One hand rests lightly on a small wooden table, fingertips relaxed. The other hand holds a single pale pink flower on a long stem, hanging downward like a quiet punctuation mark. The floor beneath her is a bold black-and-white checkerboard, sharpening the geometry of the room. In the upper right, the framed picture shows an outdoor scene with a standing figure beneath palms. It's an image that pulls her attention and organizes the whole moment around looking. Armelle’s sideways glance toward the “painting-within-the-painting” (a 1885 watercolor painted in the Bahamas by Winslow Homer called "Under the Palm Tree" at the National Gallery of Art) creates a triangle of looking: we look at her, she looks toward art history, and art history looks back ... all reframed through family, roots, and choice. Colomba has described beginning from an existing story and remaking it to feel true to her mixed French and Caribbean inheritance. Here, that remaking reads as both critique and care, claiming the museum’s visual grammar as a space where Black beauty is not an exception but a standard.
February 18, 2026 at 5:42 PM
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openculture.bsky.social
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Discover the Secrets of the Bible’s Oldest and Strangest Texts
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Discover the Secrets of the Bible’s Oldest and Strangest Texts
The appearance of the Dead Sea Scrolls was the most important document discovery of the twentieth century. Yet, in some sense, they didn't deliver what many assumed to be promised within: that is, the...
www.openculture.com
February 17, 2026 at 5:45 PM
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gr8flbluejay.bsky.social
Harmonia Rosales, Afro-Cuban American (1984- ), Portrait of Oshun, 2019, oil on linen and gold leaf
February 18, 2026 at 1:57 PM
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bklynbee.bsky.social
morning mood music ☕️🎸🥁🎵🎼🎶

george benson - breezin

#jazz #jazzsky #smoothjazz
February 18, 2026 at 2:33 PM
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lizzslockeroom.bsky.social
Watch--> The way she sat the glass down after Ed Bradley asked her that question... whew .... her response 🙌🏾. This video clip is amazing

Remembering Toni Morrison on her birthday (February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019) 🩷💚🕊
February 18, 2026 at 1:59 PM
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joshjohnsoncomedy.bsky.social
Hi Friends. Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson sat with me for a conversation on the IMO podcast. It comes out in less than 3 hours. It’s always wild to find out who watches my sets on YouTube and this whole conversation was really special. I hope you all enjoy it. Available everywhere
February 18, 2026 at 12:43 PM
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madame-noire.bsky.social
Victoria Mboko is that girl. Get to know the rising tennis star, who is quickly making her mark in the world of tennis.

#MadameNoireHeadlines l Read More: https://madamenoire.com/1659189/who-is-victoria-mboko-rising-tennis-star/
📸: Getty
February 18, 2026 at 4:17 AM
maintainin.bsky.social
What a wonderful way to
Hold space for history & Make your mark at the same time. ❤️ this! 🤗🫶🏾
Forty Acres Fresh Market ⬇️
How a Black woman’s grocery store in Chicago is reclaiming the promise of '40 acres'
Forty Acres Fresh Market, a Black-owned grocery store in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, is expanding fresh food access and reclaiming “40 acres.”
thegrio.com
February 18, 2026 at 3:27 AM
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honeybadger10.bsky.social
I’ve seen so many pics of Jesse today that I’ve never seen. Preserve the history at all costs. 🥹💙
February 17, 2026 at 11:48 PM
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lizzslockeroom.bsky.social
"Because they died, your generation has the power."

The people he named who died fighting for the right to vote, registering people to vote or died just for being Black is several of many reasons why I as a Black woman will NEVER be "Uncommitted" or "Leave It Blank." I will always vote.
lizzslockeroom.bsky.social Strictly 4 My Navigators @lizzslockeroom.bsky.social · 1d
Got it off the other site. I can't fit the whole thing on here. If anyone wants to see it. Here's the full version via YouTube.

Rest easy, Rev. Jesse Jackson 💙 🕊🙏🏾

youtu.be/KUDQhdKxjH8?...
February 17, 2026 at 5:02 PM
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newsoneofficial.bsky.social
Jackson’s rebuke of the Reagan administration offers a clear framework for challenging political extremism and economic exploitation today.
https://newsone.com/6850237/jesse-jackson-blueprint-defeating-american-extremism/
February 17, 2026 at 7:14 PM
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rockthebells.bsky.social
Wherever the culture is, Rock The Bells is there.
Ms. Corrie Renee showed up on the red carpet at the 8th Annual American Black Film Festival Honors and got into it with some of our favorites. The love was real and the vibes were immaculate.

More coming. Don't miss it.
#americanblackfilmfestival
February 17, 2026 at 6:17 PM
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nattyzaddy.bsky.social
Jesse Jackson aint got no business being taken from us during Black History Month 😭💔. Rest In Power ✊🏾
February 17, 2026 at 2:10 PM
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elleemmejaye.bsky.social
“An inside look into the effort to preserve Philadelphia's ballroom scene, a black LGBTQ safe-space that has endured for 30 years. A film produced by The Philadelphia Inquirer's Emmy-winning video team.”
LEGENDARY: 30 Years of Philly Ballroom | FULL DOCUMENTARY
YouTube video by The Philadelphia Inquirer
youtu.be
February 16, 2026 at 7:17 PM
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arqandtheclouds.bsky.social
#BlackHistoryMonth

b.1896 to an abused child mother, Ethel Waters rose to become a pioneering legend

Some of her firsts as a 🖤woman:

1️⃣ to perform StLouisBlues & StormyMonday
1️⃣to star in integrated Broadway cast (by Irving Berlin)
1️⃣ to star in own TV show
1️⃣to sing on 📻
1️⃣ nom Emmy award
February 16, 2026 at 10:07 PM
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arqandtheclouds.bsky.social
#BlackHistoryMonth

Ethel Waters #UnderAHarlemMoon 1933

I first learnt about this song & the way Ethel adjusted the lyrics to turn this into a resistance song from Rhiannon Giddens

m.youtube.com/watch?v=gLue...
Ethel Waters - Underneath the Harlem Moon (1933)
YouTube video by vintage video clips
m.youtube.com
February 16, 2026 at 10:09 PM
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jeniusj.blacksky.app
I try to stay in the moment, ride the wave of goodness and feel gratitude.

Vividly aware and knowing nothing lasts forever, but for now, savor the feeling because that alone is a blessing to cherish and live fully within 🫶🏽
beequammie.bsky.social Bee Quammie @beequammie.bsky.social · 2d
What do y'all do when good things are happening and you start to worry that they're too good and eventually the other shoe is gonna drop?
February 17, 2026 at 1:09 PM
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dytsras.bsky.social
As of this morning, only one of the men who was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel that fateful evening is still living.

Since Brother Jesse passed at 84 this morning.
MLK Jr and his lieutenants standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in April 1968, including James Bevel, Jesse Jackson, and Ralph Abernathy Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young reunited on the Lorraine Motel balcony much closer to the present
February 17, 2026 at 12:11 PM
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dvdlindenberg.bsky.social
www.pbs.org/show/making-... caught part of an episode of this today from 2022 and low and behold @davarianbaldwin.bsky.social popped up on my TV. A welcome surprise! Now need to watch the whole series.
Making Black America
This four-hour series introduces a vibrant world at the heart of the Black experience.
www.pbs.org
February 17, 2026 at 1:01 AM
maintainin.bsky.social
He did his best
Now he takes his rest
& may we continue the legacy to fight the mess👊🏾
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, leader of Civil Rights Movement for decades, dies at 84
Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate who led the Civil Rights Movement after the revered leader's assassination, died Tuesday.
www.pbs.org
February 17, 2026 at 12:05 PM
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bklynbee.bsky.social
day 15: a song built around a jazz sample

#BHMChallenge

a tribe called quest - electric relaxation 🔥🔥🔥🔥

(catching up)
February 16, 2026 at 10:36 PM
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lb-1.bsky.social
youtube.com/watch?v=b5qV...
Black Men Trust Black Women Roundtable Presented by SisterSong & BLD PWR
YouTube video by SisterSong Women of Color
youtube.com
February 16, 2026 at 3:21 PM
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dradambanks.bsky.social
One of my favorite tribute songs ever, Cannonball Adderley's tribute to Jesse:
Country Preacher - Live
open.spotify.com
February 17, 2026 at 9:48 AM