On Sunday, May 15, First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the 2011 graduating class of Spelman College, a historically Black liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia for women. Please take a moment to read her message to graduates.
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On this final day of Women’s history Month 2011 and until the end of time we celebrate Ruth J. Simmons, President of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island for her commitment to truth by appointing, in 2003, the ‘Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice’ to investigate the University’s historical relationship to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.
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(BBN Editors: The promotion of Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews to Vice President of News for CBS is a welcome kick start to Women’s History Month. We look forward to her extensive journalism experience and the added value of her personal worldview in news coverage at CBS.
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BBN Editors: We honor a trooper in the often challenging world of news-journalism for journalists of color. Whether you are a journalist or a consumer of news and information, the life and death of Vivian Aplin-Brownlee deserves our attention.
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(salon) We had wonderful times together, my sons and I. The parks. The beaches. The swing set moments when I would realize, watching the boys swoop back and forth, that someday these afternoons would seem to have rushed past in nanoseconds, and I would pause, mid-push, to savor the experience while it lasted. Now I lie awake at 3 a.  More...

(lat) In the '60s, allowing hair to go naturally into an Afro was seen as a political act of defiance. But now, as seen in the videos, the zeitgeist seems to be shifting. Outdated stereotypes seem to be losing their hold, thanks to factors as disparate as reality TV, the Internet, multiethnic families and a biracial president. Within the beauty industry there has been an explosion of individual expression. The diversity can be seen in the range of hairstyles worn by African Americans — styles that are copied by people of other ethnicities.  More...

Hour Children is committed to the compassionate and loving care of children of incarcerated women. Our outreach includes support and empowerment for mothers upon reunification with their families. All persons are encouraged to live and interact with dignity and respect. The name of the organization was chosen by our dear friend, Jean Roulet, because the children's lives are dictated by the "hour" of the mother's arrest, the "hour" of the visit and the "hour" of her return. wereworthit.  More...

(nydn) Just 23% of women make their partners use condoms during anal sex compared with 61% of men, a new Health Department study says. The practice was most common among women ages 18 to 24, and Asian women. Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said the HIV risks of unprotected gay anal sex are widely known, but the study found "a large number of women are also putting themselves at high risk. " Farley urged all New Yorkers to "use a condom every time. " .  More...

(LSM-wapo) One evening in 1992, my husband-to-be and I were at an Italian café in Pittsburgh, sipping wine and falling in love. "I really want to travel," I said. "Me, too," he said. "I want to live near the ocean," he said. "Me, too," I said.  More...

(LSM-wapo) One evening in 1992, my husband-to-be and I were at an Italian café in Pittsburgh, sipping wine and falling in love. "I really want to travel," I said. "Me, too," he said. "I want to live near the ocean," he said. "Me, too," I said.  More...

(T. Anderson/blackaids. org) The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recently released a revised set of recommendations about Pap smears, which screen for cervical cancer. Doctors now suggest that women get their first screening when they turn 21 instead of within three years of becoming sexually active. They also recommend that the tests be done less frequently--every two years instead of every year.  More...

(Elizabeth Weil/nyt) I have a pretty good marriage. It could be better. There are things about my husband that drive me crazy. Last spring he cut apart a frozen pig’s head with his compound miter saw in our basement. He needed the head to fit into a pot so that he could make pork stock.  More...

(nyt) LET’S say you have what you believe to be a healthy marriage. You’re still friends and lovers after spending more than half of your lives together. The dreams you set out to achieve in your 20s — gazing into each other’s eyes in candlelit city bistros when you were single and skinny — have for the most part come true. Two decades later you have the 20 acres of land, the farmhouse, the children, the dogs and horses. You’re the parents you said you would be, full of love and guidance.  More...

(livescience) Couples who shack up before tying the knot are more likely to get divorced than their counterparts who don't move in together until marriage, a new study suggests. Upwards of 70 percent of U. S. couples are cohabiting these days before marrying, the researchers estimate. The study, published in the February issue of the Journal of Family Psychology, indicates that such move-ins might not be wise.  More...

(Jenée Desmond-Harris) Those of us hoping to find suitable mates in a dating landscape that is, statistically speaking, pretty grave, are absolutely giddy about the very existence of the first family and especially about the possibility that we could find our own Barack. But if we’d first encountered him the way Michelle did, as a regular guy, under the glow of office lights instead of the spotlight, would he have made our lists at all?. . . .  More...

(mayoclinic) A woman's sexual desires naturally fluctuate over the years. Highs and lows commonly coincide with the beginning or end of a relationship or with major life changes, such as pregnancy, menopause or illness. However, if you are bothered by a low sex drive or decreased sex drive, there are lifestyle changes and sex techniques that may put you in the mood more often. Some medications offer promise as well. Even researchers disagree about the best measure of low sex drive in women.  More...

(nyt) Consider the perils of parenting in the White House. There is a movie theater, a bowling alley, a horseshoe pit, a swimming pool, five full-time chefs and dozens of household staff members ready to dish up ice cream at all hours. There are trips to foreign lands, dinners with kings and celebrities, swarming paparazzi and blaring motorcades, all with the potential to transform sweet little children into bossy, self-important ones. (Or lonely, dysfunctional ones. ) What are presidential parents to do? Lay down the law, according to the newest parental unit in the executive mansion.  More...

(telegraph)David Upchurch escorted the then 18-year-old Michelle Robinson to the prom at Whitney M Young High School in Chicago in 1982. Now a customer service representative and divorced father of three living in a modest house in Colorado Springs, he said that their romance went nowhere. "I was a screw-up, plain and simple," he told the Enquirer magazine. He claimed he had "pretty much forgotten" their prom date together and couldn't even recall if it ended with a kiss. Mr Upchurch, the first of Mrs Obama's former boyfriends to speak publicly about their relationship, knew her family from an early age as they were both raised in Chicago's South Side.  More...

(cnn) Black men and women respond respond to the question of marriage. . . . .  More...