The Circle of Sisters Expo 2008

Yesterday afternoon I decided to check out The Circle of Sisters Expo 2008 at the Jacob Javits Ctr in NYC. I scooped my friend Marco at Penn Station and hopped on the bus over to 11th Avenue. The plan was to check out the expo, come home and change into some party shoes, then come back and check out Jennifer Hudson (who was scheduled to perform) then head downtown to check out my friend Rosie's birthday party.

Of COURSE it didn't work out that way....lol....even as I was writing this I realized how dumb an idea it was....

Anyway, from the moment we got off the bus, I began to see people I hadn't seen in a long time and folks were recognizing me left and right (I love it when that happens...lol). I checked out the cooking demonstrations and was surprised to see the Food Network's Sunny Anderson (Cooking For Real) absolutely holding it down on stage - with personality to spare family. My girl had my people eating VEAL outta her hands ya'll!!! Sunny is much prettier than what you see on television - mama is QUITE beautiful ya'll!!

I stood and watched her demonstration and noticed that quite a few of the Food Network stars had come down and given demonstrations.
I saw on the program schedule that Chef Jeff Henderson (The Chef Jeff Project)
and Aaron McCargo Jr. (Winner of The Next Food Network Star 08) had presented earlier at 11am. Baby!!! I am already a big fan of Aaron McCargo Jr. but CHEF JEFF JUST DOES IT FOR ME!!! Not only is he a cutie but his show is one of the most inspirational reality shows I have seen in a minute. If I'd known these brothers were going to be presenting....I would have been down at the Javits at 8am!! For Real!!

As I walked around and took notice of all of the different vendors and displays, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the expo has grown and gotten better over the years. There was a great amount of variety in the vendors and thankfully we weren't bombarded with just the usual fraternity & sorority items for purchasing. I checked out Rev. Al Sharpton broadcasting live from the WBLS-FM booth and tasted some new flavors of Carolina rice.

I saw a fabu chocolate sister named Georgi who I used to model with during the Apollo Model days (remember that ya'll?) and my girl Michelle Luck-Harper who I haven't seen since my "He Didn't Have To" musical theater days! Michelle looks amazing and she is working with at risk youth to keep them out of trouble and to show them another path their lives can take. Then I spied actress Vanessa Williams (Soul Food) who was on hand to promote her new book of poetry. The city gym boys were also out promoting their new calendar and looking REAL good! There was a booth for foot detox therapy and this sista must have been INGESTING the damn toxins that were coming through her feet! Look at that water ya'll!!! YUCK!

I also ran into plus model Shanna and some of her friends who also came to check out the expo as well as this delicious looking brother....(dang...there's just something about chocolate that I simply cannot resist!
I saw my old colleague exotic dancer Flava (who I hung out with in Guyana a few years back)! The brother STILL looks good and he was out promoting his new book about the life of a male exotic dancer. He says it gets raw and real....hmm....I might actually try to check this one out!

I ran into PR Guru Raychelle LeBlanc, my friend Goldie & her mom, a sista named Angel from my Encore Models days, my former classmate Sandra Jennings & her daughter Demetria (thanx for the tix Sandy!), designer Deborah Williams (Her Game 2) who I hear now has her line of clothing in Macy's (You GO Girl!!) and a whole bunch of my fans (yay!). I looked around for Rasheeda Wallace (the Queen of Street Soul) because I was SURE she was going to be there but alas I couldn't catch up with her.

We were having such a good time that time absolutely flew and I realized that we would never make it back downtown in enough time to catch J Hud's set. Also scheduled to perform was Deborah Cox, Lyfe Jennings & Kindred & The Family Soul...as you can imagine the line to get in was ridiculous and I had no intention of hitting Rosie's party with sneakers on. So we said our goodbyes and quickly made our way towards the exits and after a brief stop for a bite to eat, we headed uptown to Harlem to freshen up and prepare for our next event. But more on that later.......

Thanks again Sandy! Loved the Expo this year fam!!

"Where there is unity there is always victory."