Posts by Ashia R. Sims

I have a friend who I consider my emotional hero. We’ve had many conversations about our beliefs and how we think we should conduct ourselves as women but recently I’ve really seen her put her words into action. On two separate occasions (that I witnessed directly), she was put in a position where she had to make a tough decision. She’s had to deal with people in a way that made her vulnerable and opened her up to lots of different outcomes. In one situation, she had to share some really bad news with someone that she knows. Then she had to have a very direct and open conversation with someone else. She approached these situations head on and dealt with them in an almost fearless way. I know she wasn’t comfortable doing what she did, but...

Sept. 11 is a day that gives me mixed feelings. Usually I’m fairly numb to the ceremonies of remembrance an the media storm that surrounds the day but this year I was angered by everything. See, I was in New York on Sept. 11. It was my first trip to New York (a city that I have always been intrigued by and couldn’t wait to visit) and I was there working on a concert tour. I was so excited and overwhelmed by everything already. We were staying at the Hilton in Times Square which was across from the venue that the concert was going to be at. I was up that morning getting dressed to go run some errands with the show’s stylist and I was watching Good Morning America when everything happened. Thank goodness I had the initial presence of mind to call...

In the last couple of months, I have gone through quite a few changes financially and health wise. Without going into the gory details, I’ll just say that I’ve had two hospital visits, one for emergency surgery. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be a huge financial issue but I do not have medical insurance so all of these new bills are falling on me. It’s a stressful situation in itself, not counting the other stressors I encounter as a full time freelance consultant who works in the video production industry in Atlanta. However, in spite of occasional bouts of frustration, I have remained generally calm in a period where a complete freak out would be entirely understandable. I think I can give credit to a decision I made a few...

This morning I was poking around this interesting website www.bigthink.com. I discovered it thanks to a fabulous blog, Creatives Culture, written by Wanda Weithers, a cool lady who is currently following her creative dreams. I’ve been in a rut lately and working to push myself to take those necessary next steps on the path to my destiny. While she shared a different video in this post: Is Your Big Idea Worth Sharing?, I came across the below video and thought it a wonderful thought for the week. Even if you don’t have your own business, the spirit of entrepreneurship can be created as an employer as well....

First off all, why does it have to be versus? Clearly both of these gentlemen are filmmakers who create films for different audiences. Tyler Perry got his start with comedy and Spike Lee with socially conscious, artsy films. Why is it that people are intent on pitting them against each other? I’ve seen several Spike Lee films and I’ve seen several Tyler Perry films. I can see the merit in both and I appreciate that we have this type of diversity in mainstream black cinema (even though I do miss the Spike Lee voice since Miracle at St. Anna in 2008). However, there is still a very small number of black filmmakers contributing to mainstream cinema. Yes we have Rainforest Films (go Rattlers!), F. Gary Gray, John Singleton and The Hughes Brothers to name a...