Category Archives: Celebrities

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Tasha Cobbs Leonard’s Album Release Party Recap for HEART.PASSION.PURSUIT…(PHOTOS+VIDEO)

Hello World,

Friday night, I ventured over to the Dec at The dReam Center Church of Atlanta to check out the album release party for Tasha Cobbs Leonard’s third album HEART. PASSION. PURSUIT. (Motown Gospel). First of all, the dReam Center has moved and grown! A few years ago, it used to be in North Atlanta in a kind of medium-sized industrial building and now it is in large traditional church building just past South DeKalb Mall. Secondly, although Tasha Cobbs Leonard is a multiple Stellar and Dove Award winner and, GRAMMY®-Award winning recording artist, I honestly didn’t expect the onslaught of folk that were trying to get up in the church. The parking lot was full, folk parked in the surrounding neighborhood and an overflow parking lot nearby the mall was getting action too. I ended up parking in the grass and almost got in a tiff with two older ladies who had their eye on the parking spot that I was trying to stake out! LOL. But after that, everything flowed pretty smoothly.

This is the stage/altar area of the dReam Center…Pretty traditional…

So just ahead of me I noticed Shekinah Anderson, who is the best friend of Tiny Harris and a reality star in her own right. Of course, I had to look around for Tiny or T.I., but I did not see them. I also noticed Egypt Sherrod, former radio personality and current realtor and host of HGTV’s “Property Virgins.”

So I’ve never seen a church with this type of sign affixed to the architecture…”Get In Where You Fit In.” Okay…not traditional…

Pastor William Murphy asked everyone to turn on their cell phone lights (so I don’t know how to do that LOL) because in his words, “It’s about to be a ‘lit’uation.” “Light it up and let the world know who Jesus is.”

That’s pretty, huh?

So Pastor Murphy told what I thought was a pretty powerful story about when he first stated the dReam center on Jan. 15, 2006. He said he thoroughly prepared for the sermon he delivered on that Sunday. Although there were roughly 350 people there, only one person joined the church. He said he tried to act like he wasn’t bothered by the fact that only one person joined. That person, however, was Tasha Cobbs. This was years before she recorded her first album, but look at the impact she has had in the name of God since then. It just goes to show that through one person you can impact the world, and you never know who will be that one person! I mean it was standing room only at that church for Tasha Cobbs Leonard, and I saw a few people who were turned away…

Pastor Murphy also shared how Tasha Cobbs Leonard’s album HEART. PASSION. PURSUIT. was recorded nearby where the Interstate 85 bridge in Atlanta collapsed in March and how he thought that was significant as the goal of the album is to build bridges between different races, cultures and ethnicities.

Then it was time for Tasha to saaang….

If you look closely, you can see her hubby Kenneth Leonard, just behind her to the right, looking like he’s supervising everything…Photo Credit: Tonya Reeves & Michael Walker/UMeek Images

I like this photo because everyone’s hands are lifted up, but she is getting down…

Tasha Cobbs Leonard and Kierra Sheard. Kierra is featured on the song “Your Spirit.” So I kept looking around for Nicki Minaj, who is featured on “I’m Getting Ready,” but I guess she wasn’t there…Photo Credit: Tonya Reeves & Michael Walker/UMeek Images

 So this teenager or preteenager (The older I get, the harder it is for me to tell…) came up during the middle of the concert and pressed some money in Tasha’s hands….Obviously, she was moved…Photo Credit: Tonya Reeves & Michael Walker/UMeek Images

And even her fellow singers were moved…

A Holy Ghost dance…

Attorney Phaedra Parks, formerly of the “Real Housewives of Atlanta” was there and feeling it…See Pastor Kim of the “Preachers of Atlanta” behind her…

At the end of the concert, Tasha Cobbs Leonard gave an altar call and spoke about the purpose of her album….

Also in attendance were Jimi Cravity, Breona Lawrence, Anna Golden, Bishop Paul S. Morton, Catherine Brewton, Bishop Travis Jennings, Pastor John Gray, Aventer Gray, Y’Anna Crawley, Todd Galberth, Bryan Pierce and more. So I hope you feel like you were there at Tasha Cobbs Leonard’s album release party…

The highly anticipated album, HEART. PASSION. PURSUIT. (Motown Gospel), from multiple Stellar and Dove Award winner and, GRAMMY®-Award winning recording artist Tasha Cobbs Leonard, is available now in stores, and online everywhere.For more information about Tasha Cobbs Leonard visit: www.TashaCobbs.org
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Greenleaf Mid-Season Premiere Recap, Season 2 Episode 10: Call Not Complete…

Hello World,

Whew! Part 2 of the Mid-Season Premiere packed a wallop, didn’t it? I won’t dillydally anymore. Let’s just dive into this OWN’s “Greenleaf”  Mid-Season Premiere Recap, Season 2 Episode 10!

Call Me Maybe…

This episode begins and ends with a call. Lady Mae calls her estranged sister Mavis to invite her to their brother Mac’s memorial service of sorts to be held on Moss Lake at sunset on Saturday. Mavis doesn’t answer the call so Lady Mae must leave this information in her sister’s voicemail. In addition to describing the logistics of the service, she tells her sister that this may be a new beginning for everyone. Mavis may or may not call her sister back.

Grace and Darius seem to be moving right along with their new relationship as she sleeps over at his place although they don’t sleep in the same bed. I should hope not, Pastor. Although she is the associate pastor of Calvary, Grace does opt to skip Sunday morning service. Darius tells Grace that he is considering a job offer in New York, particularly since they agreed that he won’t write about Grace even though her murdering the Man of the Year is the hottest story in town.  In every episode since Season 2 began, Grace seems to be drifting farther and farther away from her calling to preach. Was she really called in the first place? Maybe…(Aside: Her bruises healed fast, right?)

Jacob believes he has been called to preach outside on his land to people without the burden of a building. He tells the small gathering, “I asked God what should I do?” particularly since he has no money. He says the Lord said to him, “You know what to do.” “He told me to feed my word to my sheep.” So Jacob preaches a word and then hands out food to the people with his supportive wife and beautiful children at his side. Of course, Jacob’s open-air preaching does not go unnoticed by the other Greenleafs across the street. Lady Mae tells Jacob. “The two of you didn’t learn anything from your season with Basie.” (Where is Basie, pray tell?) Bishop is plainspoken with his criticism, telling his son he is following in Basie’s footsteps all the way to hell! If you can’t say, “Amen,” say “Ouch!”

Sophia seems to be fulfilling her calling at the children’s church as she demonstrates the permanence of God’s love with a candle atop a cupcake that won’t blow out no matter how many times you blow on it. The children squeal in delight! Oh to be a child again when all was solved with a cupcake and a candle!

Although Charity is the baby of the Greenleaf siblings, she is definitely grown as her ex-husband has vanished like a ghost! It looks like Kevin told her that he is gone for good in that note from last night’s episode! Lady Mae asks Charity to get in touch with Kevin and find out what’s going on with him. She calls him and leaves a message. “It’s the person who you called your best friend.”

Like her cousin, Zora has a calling of sorts as she helps her father set up a website in the style of a Go Fund Me page where they solicit donations to support the ministry. Despite her support of her father, she hasn’t completely left Basie and the Triumph church behind. Sophia and her boyfriend Roberto along with Zora and one of Roberto’s friends go bowling. Obviously, Sophia and Roberto hope his friend can lure Zora away from Isaiah but Zora doesn’t seem to be feeling Roberto’s friend as she gives him the bland face the entire time they interact at the bowling alley.

Your Body’s Callin’…

Bishop asks his bride out to lunch and tells her, “What a pleasure it it to have you as  partner this life.” How sweet! Lady Mae agrees to have lunch her holy hubby who is planning a seven-part series “From the Pit to the Palace.” I wonder who was in the pit and who is now in the palace…Anywho, he is considering turning the series into a book. But his plans to have an intimate lunch with Lady Mae are shelved when a major donor, a Ms. Rochelle Cross (LeToya Luckett) wants to have lunch with Bishop and his wife. He asks his wife if she doesn’t mind a “threesome.” Lady Mae opts to bow out of the lunch as she is not feeling up to meeting someone new but encourages her husband to meet with the woman without her if the woman’s check has cleared the bank.

Charity approaches Aaron about hiring a private investigator to find Kevin. Before Aaron obliges though, he leaves yet another message on Kevin’s voicemail telling him that Charity is looking for him and lets him know that if he wants to remain hidden, he doesn’t have to tell anyone where Kevin has found himself. Where do you think Kevin has gone?

Obviously Bishop has not met this mysterious Ms. Cross before and automatically notices her leopard booties and bare legs. I love her pixie cut! I’m not sure why Ms. Cross made such a sizable donation to Calvary but apparently she was once a member of a Gethsemane Baptist Church. Is that the name of the church that Bishop burned down where Basie’s father the caretaker apparently died? Remember Bishop didn’t think the caretaker had a son. He remembered that the caretaker had a daughter…Could she be the caretaker’s daughter and ready to get revenge? As a major donor to the church, Bishop offers her a membership in the Bishop’s roundtable which comes with access to the church jet apparently…Okay…But Ms. Cross says the only access to a roundtable that she needs is the roundtable where she and Bishop are meeting. I guess that mean’s she wants private access to the man. With that, Bishop takes out his handkerchief and wipes moist droplets of sweat from his face. “Check please,” are his final words.

Instead of meeting in a restaurant, Grace and Charity take a trip over to the parsonage to have dinner with their brother and his wife Kerissa. Although Grace missed church on Sunday, she heard that her brother is forming a church across the street. Although it is not a building, the most important part of a church, the bodies, are making his endeavor hard to ignore. In addition, the three Greenleaf siblings haven’t spent time together apart from their parents in a while and they need to catch up with each other.

Almost immediately, Jacob and Kerissa ask Charity about Kevin and why did the two of them break up. For the first time since Kevin and Charity’s marriage began to deteriorate, Charity admits the exact reason why. “Kevin is gay,” she says before she starts laughing. What a weird reaction. And then Jacob starts laughing. But at the same time, I understand. Sometimes, a situation is so painful and startling that you just have to laugh or you will cry. She also explains that Kevin doesn’t want to be gay and maybe that is why he has disappeared.

Now that the ice has been broken, Grace can get into the ultimate reason why she wanted to meet with her brother. “I want to get a sense of how committed you are to this street corner preaching.” She further explains, “it was a crazy idea when Basie had it.” Obviously, Jacob and Kerissa are offended. Kerissa says, “Do you think you are only person who God talks to?” But then Grace offers to let Jacob have her job as associate pastor and challenges him to be there for the family since Bishop is sick. “You cannot desert the family.” “Like you did,” Kerissa responds. “Somebody is needed to manage things,” Grace continues.  Jacob says he likes the freedom of not having to worry about raising money for upholstery and paint, etc. Grace tells them she is thinking about moving to New York since her views don’t seem to fit in with the church’s views. Please, she just wants to be with her new man.

Call Him Up…

When Bishop returns to the estate, he finds Lady Mae in their red living room. She tells him, “I’m waiting for the Lord to guide me to the right scripture for Saturday.”

As Grace and Charity come into the family home, she calls out Grace for her hypocrisy as she was gone for 20 years until recently. “You want to accuse Jacob of deserting the family?”  She continues, “We put in our time so it’s your turn now.”

Zora and her father take a look at his website and discover that donors have contributed roughly $3,100 to the ministry. Jacob wants to use the money to buy food for the people, and Zora tells her father she is proud of him. But Kerissa suggests the money be used to create a building fund and does not seem as committed to Jacob’s ministry calling as she did at the beginning of the episode. “Not unless the Lord wants me to build,” he says. It seems that Jacob is content to have a simple ministry but maybe Kerissa feels that his outreach should be a stepping stone to a larger ministry like the one across the street…

Later, Aaron approaches Lady Mae in her office and tell her that he must leave Calvary. She tries to convince him to say. In the end, she accepts his resignation. “Would you give your father my fondest regards.” I’m guessing the only way that Kevin will come back is if Aaron goes.

Grace decides to tell the whole story of what happened in her fight with Mac to Darius and says he can write about it he chooses to do so. Darius has something to tell her as well. He is not taking the job in New York.  To me, if you are called to do something, you must be willing to make sacrifices for the calling. Obviously, at least for right now, Grace and Darius are called to be together. They kiss…And just maybe Grace is still called to Calvary although she needs to call Jesus and get some direction from Him and Him alone…

In the final scene, the family meets on a rock in the middle of a creek (not a lake) for their memorial service for Mac. Surprisingly, Grace shows up and even releases a tear as Mac’s ashes are released into the water. Mavis doesn’t show up though and it doesn’t seem like she even acknowledged her sister’s message. More will be revealed I know…

Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Mid-Season Premiere Recap, Season 2 Episode 10 and my other recaps so far.

If you would like to keep up with OWN’s “Greenleaf,” and my recaps, please click on this link to subscribe to my blog 🙂!

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Greenleaf Mid-Season Premiere Recap, Season 2 Episode 9: The Bear…

Hello World,

Clutch your Bibles to your bosoms, the Greenleafs courtesy of OWN are back! (This Greenleaf recap is brought to you by the letter “B.”)

Bad Boys…

The episode begins right where the Mid-Season Finale ended with Grace and her Uncle Mac on the glass-littered floor of his apartment. She’s coughing and he’s writhing as blood spews from his jugular. She summons enough strength to get the upper hand and croaks out, “Tell me where my daughter is!” Mac pleads with his niece to call for help, but she refuses to comply unless he answers her. By the time she finally understands that he is saying, “I don’t know,” Mac dies right there on the floor, but not before his final two words are: “I’m sorry.”

Only then does Grace call 911 and explains to the police that Mac slammed her in the wall and tried to choke her. She tell them that she thought he had her daughter, and they tell her the bottle that was used to fatally wound Mac bears her fingerprints.  Mac, the bad boy we all love to hate, leaves in a body bag while Grace goes to the hospital.

It’s the morning after for Aaron and Kevin who are no longer just boys kickin’ it. Aaron is fast asleep in bed while Kevin sits up in bed next to him, contemplating what they’ve done. He hears his son Nathan crying on the baby monitor and leaves Aaron to tend to his son in the nursery.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, like an episode of “COPS,” pictures of Grace and all the wounds covering her body are taken. Grace asks a detective, “Am I under arrest?” He replies, “No, pastor, you are free to go.” Bishop and Lady Mae worry in the waiting area hoping to see Grace soon. While they wait, Lady Mae begins to reminisce about her deceased brother, but Bishop nips that in the bud. “Our daughter nearly died tonight so pardon me if I ask to be excused from hearing some fond memory of the man who tried to kill her.” When Grace finally appears, Lady Mae says, “I’m so relieved that you are alive. I know it was self defense.” In a rare moment of affection for her daughter, Lady Mae tells Grace that she loves her and Grace tearfully responds with, “I love you, Mama.”

Back at the Greenleaf estate, Grace finds her own daughter asleep on a sofa. Once she awakens her, she is stunned to discover that Mac had nothing to do with Sofia’s whereabouts. She had been with Zora at a recording studio all along. While Sofia is glad to see her mother alive, she doesn’t hesitate to call her out on her bad behavior, pointing out that Grace went to Mac’s home after she promised that she was done with her vigilante justice.

Finally free from the grip of Bad Boy/Pastor Basie Skanks, Jacob and Kerissa hatch a plan to get back in the good graces of Bishop since they now own the property where Triumph 2 was going to be built.

Buck the System…

Charity has bucked the system by being the happiest divorcée ever it seems. She totally skipped over the mourning period of the death of her marriage and is kee keeing it up with Jabari in his Nashville recording studio. Wearing a black and white striped, tight dress, she is elated that a girls group is singing one of her songs in front of them. When Kevin calls, she tells him that she is happy they can be friends. Kevin seems to agree with her, at least verbally, but a tear drops from his eye and slides down his face at the same time. I’m not sure if he misses Charity or feels guilty about his night with Aaron or a bit of both.

Grace goes back to her office at the church in an effort hold her head high and not appear to be hiding away due to guilt. Darius, whose call she did not answer the night before, is waiting on her in her office. They discuss her ordeal as they proceed to the sanctuary of the church. Grace has to convince the police that she did not go to Mac’s house with malicious intent. Good luck with that. Darius, who is not a religious man, bucks the system and asks the pastor has she prayed about it. “It might be a good time to toss one up,” he says. They embrace in front of the altar.

Bearing good news, Jacob meets with the Bishop in his office and tell him what happened with Basie and the fact that he now owns the property across the way from Calvary. Bishop calls Basie a “diminutive demon!” LOL. Jacob suggests with Basie and Triumph out of the picture, he and his father can be co-pastors of Calvary and use the land however the two of them see fit. Bishop bucks the system and shuts his son down yet again. “I don’t need a co-pastor anymore than I need a cane to walk with.” Y’all know the Bishop has Parkinson’s disease, right?

While Aaron and Kevin may have shared a bed, Kevin has bucked the system, avoiding Aaron by leaving the Greenleaf estate too early to have contact with him and avoiding his calls as well. Aaron leaves a message on his voicemail, hoping to hear back from Kevin at some point.

Cousins Sofia and Zora discuss the incident in which Isaiah confronted Zora about expressing an opinion about his music and how he came off like he wanted to throw some blows with his girlfriend as a result. “You shouldn’t see him again,” Sofia tells Zora. At first Zora bucks, but then says, “I’ll dump him but you have to help me find a new bae.”

Although Kevin put the brakes on Aaron, the Greenleaf counsel still has business to conduct. He tells Grace how to buck the system before an interview she has with the police. He instructs her to tell the police that she only picked up the bottle because she was afraid she was going to die and after that, she remembers nothing.

But for the Grace of God…

Despite following Aaron’s direction, Grace is worried that she could go down for killing her uncle. She makes her father promise that he will do all he can to hold on to Sofia as she is worried that Sofia’s father, Ray, will try to get her to come with him since she may be off to jail. Bishop tells her that she is not going to jail. Grace responds, “I wish I had your faith.”

At Calvary, Kevin busts into a Fortitude for Families meeting and yells, “I screwed up!” He continues, telling the people gathered in the room that “it’s all a lie. All of you are lying to yourself.” He was trying to remain in God’s good graces by attending these meetings but obviously feels betrayed that the meetings did not help him at all.

Grace seeks the grace of God as well as she finally kneels in front of the sanctuary’s altar and says, “I’m so sorry. I tried to do the right thing. You know my heart. Don’t take my daughter away.”

Back at the Greenleaf estate, Charity comes back in a hurry after Kevin tells her what happened with Grace. When she goes into Nathan’s nursery to check on her son, she finds a note from Kevin that is so painful she begins to cry. What did that note say?!!! I guess we will find out tomorrow!

While Lady Mae is glad that her daughter is the one who survived the death match with Mac, she admits to her husband that she is still grieving for Mac. She also and finally admits that his abusive behavior may have been something he learned from their father. “Maybe Mac became the way he was by watching Daddy do what he did to me.” So yes, Lady Mae was molested like her daughter Faith was molested. But for the Grace of God, her life could have ended the same way her daughter’s ended.  For some reason, Lady Mae was able to continue living while daughter Faith chose to take her own life.

While Grace is her bedroom, Aaron comes to tell her some good news. “The prosecutor’s office is not going to pursue charges against you,” Aaron says before hugging her. Grace doesn’t quite believe him but then he says, “Sometimes the bear gets you and sometimes you get the bear.”

With that, Grace runs outside to take the good news in, sho nuff evidence of God’s grace, on the lake which is where Faith drowned. While she is there, somehow, mysteriously, she hears the voice of Mac. “You know how many times I prayed not to go to jail? Hundreds.”

Hmmmm….Is Mac really dead? Maybe not although I’m not sure how. In my interview with GregAlan Williams, who portrays Mac McCready, last week, he told me, “As to whether he [Mac] will live or die, I will say this to you: every goodbye ain’t gone.”

I can’t wait till tomorrow night!!! Check out a video preview below…

Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Mid-Season Premiere Recap, Season 2 Episode 9 and my other recaps so far.

If you would like to keep up with OWN’s “Greenleaf,” and my recaps, please click on this link to subscribe to my blog 🙂!

Any thoughts?