Thank you for your patience. I know I’m off of my regular posting schedule but I had to take a mental health break. I’m juggling lots of freelance work (Thank God) in addition to my journo job so I had take a mini-break…But pray for me because I am still racing toward some deadlines…Anywho…on to today’s post…
Gospel music’s rising star and former lead singer of musical trio Zie’l, Keyondra Lockett, is set to embark on the “Diamonds & Pearls” multi-city tour. The “Diamonds & Pearls” tour will kick off in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, April 30th at the Riverside Epicenter (135 Riverside Pkwy, Austell, GA). JubileeMag.com’s Kim Ford will serve as the host for the tour kick-off in Atlanta.
The special title “Diamonds & Pearls” is lifted from a track on Keyondra Lockett’s current EP, “Bring Me To“, and serves as a simple reminder to women that they are beautiful in God’s eyes. “You are a special girl, and you mean the world…you were made in his image,” are just a few lyrics from song.
The one-of-a-kind tour will feature an evening of spirit filled worship, empowering conversations with gospel music industry leaders and a fashion show. Gospel singers, Kierra Sheard (BET “Sunday Best”) and Y’Anna Crawley (BET “Sunday Best” season two winner) will join select cities in song. Bishop T.D. Jakes’ daughter, Cora Jakes Coleman, will join in selects cities giving words of inspiration lifted from her debut book, “Faithing It.”
Buzzworthy stylist, Kim Lockett, will take lead in empowering women through fashion. Kim Lockett will present a fashion show sponsored by TJ MAXX that showcases appropriate styling for all areas in a woman’s life (career, church, motherhood and dating).
After you’ve celebrated the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with your family this Easter Sunday today, settle in tonight at 10 p.m. with some reality TV! Bravo Media’s larger-than-life Tankard family returns bolder than ever when Season 3 of “Thicker Than Water”premieres. Leading the charge are Ben and Jewel Tankard with their self-proclaimed “Black Brady Bunch” which includes Brooklyn, Britney, Benji, Cyrene, Marcus, with his wife, Tish, and their newborn son Micah.
This season, preacher and patriarch, Ben faces the stark reality that the Tankard household has become an empty nest and also realizes there are deep emotional wounds that need to be healed within the family, mainly between him and his eldest daughter Brooklyn. Embracing a new chapter in her life, Jewel prepares to welcome her grandchild and launch her very own nationally syndicated television talk show while trying to reconnect with Cyrene, who went to her freshman year of college meek and mild, but reemerged as a certified wild child. Meanwhile, Britney, healthier than ever, is unable to shake the notion that a baby is what’s missing most in her life and embarks on a journey to make her dreams of motherhood come true while Benji and Shanira eagerly await the arrival of their first child. Marcus plans to expand his ministry into Nashville but can’t hide his frustration with his family’s adamant criticism of his wife’s parenting skills.
From an eye-opening girls trip to Jewel’s hometown of Detroit to a traumatizing secret haunting Cyrene, it’s a season of breakthrough and transformation that forces the family to embrace each other and move forward to a place of joy and love. See my interview with Ben & Jewel Tankard about Season 3 of “Thicker Than Water” below:
1. How do you like being empty nesters?
Ben: I love my kids, and now that they’re pretty much all out it’s a challenge trying to keep everybody engaged and connected with each other so we won’t be like ships passing in the night so we know a little bit more about each other than what we see about each other on social media.
Are there any things that you’re looking forward to doing now that you are empty nesters that maybe you couldn’t quite pursue when you had the hustle and bustle of everyone around you?
Ben: Me and mama we gettin’ a whole lot more sexy on. (Laughter) C’mon tell ‘em about it Jewel.
Jewel: (Laughter) Yes, it’s definitely a whole lot more freedom there. It’s a whole other level of playfulness and creativity that I’m really enjoying in our marriage. And for Ben and I both, we are able to spread our wings and really do things we weren’t able to do before. I had my own talk show (The Jewel Tankard Show) on Impact last year. It was the first season, and I got signed for a second season. It was a lot of fun. I got the chance to interview some people that we really love and admire like David and Tamela Mann, Phaedra Parks, Tameka Raymond and the list goes on. We also covered some real heartfelt issues like overcoming molestation. We had some really great topics and great people. I wouldn’t have been able to do all of that before because we didn’t want to be gone from the home so much.
Is there a talk show host example that you want to emulate?
Jewel: I’m sure a lot of people feel this way, but I would have to say I definitely love Oprah. I think Oprah has done a phenomenal job at starting as talk show host but then continuing to evolve. She started the Oprah show, then behind the scenes with Oprah, then Lifeclass and now she owns a network. And she continues to improve herself personally, emotionally and then do the same thing for her viewership, and it’s been a whole journey. She is so much more than a talk show host. And I can really relate to that. I have a passion for women being financially educated. I have a Millionairess Club, and what we have done is insert some of my core values where finances are concerned in the talk show. And that has been very powerful because it fits my brand and what I believe perfectly.
2. Also, during this season, Benji is getting ready to be a father for the first time. Do you feel that Benji is ready to be a father?
Jewel: Ben has grown tremendously. I definitely had a lot of concerns, but I think you guys are really going to have the opportunity to see his process. He is very vulnerable and transparent, and I think it will be relatable for a lot of men.
3. And what are y’all concerned about as it relates to Tish’s s parenting skills?
Ben: (Laughter) This is her first time around, and I’m just having a ball just watching how engaged she is. I’ve said to her, ‘You’re going to break the boy in half. Let him have some breathing room!’ It became a competition between her and Shanira because Shanira is a couch quarterback. She hasn’t had the baby yet, but she’s making all of these assessments and saying how much better she is going to be than Tish. And we try to referee this debate between these two first-time moms. It is hilarious. I cannot wait until you guys see it!
4. Now, tell me about this girls trip to Detroit and what was so eye-opening about it.
Jewel: I think the fact that I opened up to my girls about my past in areas that I had not. And I think I was concerned for many years, probably like a lot of parents are, ‘I don’t walk to talk about that,’ or ‘That’s not good.’ But you know what? It was my truth. And I think I had to do it in order for us to go to the next level in our relationship. And I think it gave them a lot of insight into me like, ‘So that’s what was going on with you back in the day,’ and ‘that’s why you are so passionate about certain things.’ We had conversations that I had never had with them before.
I guess you can’t give a preview of what you hadn’t told them before?
Jewel: (Laughter) You have to watch.
Ben: It’s so funny watching the kids challenge Jewel on her behavior when that’s the same thing she’s challenging them on right now. So they’re like,‘Mom, how can you tell us not to smoke weed when you used to smoke weed? Or what about this, you did it?’ It is so hilarious to watch Jewel squirm this season.
5. Ben, I understand that you recently lost 40 pounds. How did you lose this weight?
Ben: I had to make a decision to let the doughnuts go. (Laughter) The devil is a liar! I had to stop the bread and the sweets, the late night eating out. I’ve always been an athlete and into working out. I would get up and go to the gym and play ball with my buddies, but then I’d leave there and go eat hamburgers and hot dogs and a lot of bread so I had to let the bread go and the sweets. I’d like to be as healthy as long as possible so I can enjoy these grandchildren.
Ben: Absolutely. The Full Tank Life is all about being the best that you can be in every area. There is a section on inspiration, spiritual maturity. It’s an all-around self-help book including health.
7. During Season 1, you were criticized for being all about bling bling or being a prosperity gospel teacher. Do people still respond to you and the show that way now that you are in Season 3?
Ben: Oftentimes, if people don’t know you, they will make an assessment about you. And there were some parts of my testimony that got exposed in Season 1 when I said, ‘I’ve been poor. Now I’m rich. Rich is better.’ What people did not hear is that I used to be poor, but God has blessed me through my career to become successful and now I can be a blessing to other people therefore rich is better for me. What they heard was rich people are better than poor people. And so it went viral. But after people kept watching us and seeing that I don’t make my money from my ministry, I make my money from my music and my career and my talent, they fell in love with us. I have to say from the first season although we had a lot of negativity, it still worked out for our best because people were so mad they wanted to tune in to see who the heck are these Tankards. And then they fell in love with the family.
Below is a video snippet of Season 3:
Season 3 of “Thicker Than Water” premieres TONIGHT, March 27th at 10pm ET/PT on Bravo.
Simultaneously while many Americans are having the darnedest time (as we should, Lord help us) choosing between Bernie Sanders & Hilary Clinton; and Donald Trump, Ted Cruz & John Kasich, many of us are also struggling with feelings of sadness and nostalgia as we collectively say goodbye to the Obamas. From David Brooks’ op-ed piece “I Miss Barack Obama” to “Proud of Obama’s Presidency, Blacks Are Sad to See Him Go,” both from The New York Times to the viral video with the little girl who bawls about not being ready for President Obama to leave the White House, it’s obvious that we just don’t quite what know what to do with all of this emotional residue….we are so in our feelings about this…Intellectually, we know it’s time for the Obamas to leave, but our hearts haven’t caught up with our minds…
So when a situation happens like this one in my personal life, when my heart hasn’t quite caught up with my mind, I got to get some good ole gospel music out so I can saaang my blues away and then hand them over to the Father so He can make things right or at least help me accept when thangs just aine gon be right no matter what I do…Y’all don’t hear me…
To that end, I want the Obamas to commission a gospel soundtrack chronicling their highs and lows that I can pull out when I want to remember what it felt like to have a White House in which lived a blackety black man with his proud African last name with his blackety black wife who don’t take no stuff and their blackety black kids who never got in trouble because even when their parents were gone their blackety black grandma was there….not to mention their blackety black dog Bo :). I hope I’m not right but it just feels like their time there was one of those once-in-a-lifetime type of situations…I hope America can see that other black Americans are qualified for the highest office in the land in the future, but I just don’t know…
Commissioning a gospel album wouldn’t be a stretch for the Obama administration. I mean the First Lady just commissioned a song “This is For My Girls,” which includes Kelly Clarkson, Chloe x Halle, Missy Elliott, Jadagrace, Lea Michele, Janelle Monáe, Kelly Rowland, and Zendaya for charity. And last year, the Obamas hosted The Gospel Tradition: In Performance at the White House. And President Obama did a very competent rendition of “Amazing Grace,” but more on that later…
So in case someone in the Obama administration reads this post, below are my picks for the Obamas’ gospel soundtrack….First of all, the title should be “Never Would Have Made It” because the Obamas would have never made to the White House without God…
“Victory is Mine” by Dorothy Norwood. This song captures the mood when President Obama won the election in November 2008. “I told Satan to get thee behind. Victory today is mine.” Halleluyer!
“It’s Not Over (When God Is In It)” by Israel & New Bread featuring Jason Nelson and James Fortune. Although many presidents tried to get universal healthcare for Americans, it took President Obama to get the job done although he was challenged at every step and sometimes it looked like it wasn’t going to happen. But “When God Is In It, There Is No Limit. When God Is In It, Its Not Over.” The Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama on March 23, 2010 and ultimately upheld in the Supreme Court on June 28, 2012.
“Get Up” by Mary Mary. In February 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama launched “Let’s Move!”, a campaign combat epidemic of childhood obesity. Read HERE to see all that she has accomplished since the campaign launch. Like Mary Mary said, “Get Up. Don’t sit there. Get Up.”
“Go Hard” by Lecrae. Although I’m somewhat of a pacifist, I understood why President Obama had to get buck with it and ultimately kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden on May 11, 2011. As Lecrae said, “Go Hard or Go Home.”
“I Don’t Know Why” by Katie Sankey. President Obama demonstrated that he was just as perplexed as the rest of us about the senseless shooting of Trayvon Martin when he said, “You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” during a speech he gave on March 23, 2012. No other president before him could empathize about the lives of black boys being treated as if they are disposable. “I don’t know why I have to cry sometimes, I don’t know why I have to sigh sometimes. But there’s gonna be a perfect day trouble get outta my way, I don’t know why, but I’ll find out by and by.”
“War” by Charles Jenkins & Fellowship Chicago. So every once in a while First Lady lets us know that she does come from the Chi…Remember when in December 2013, Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt took a selfie with President Obama at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service and First Lady looked none to pleased, giving her killer side eye…I know Denmark is one of our allies, but Helle Thorning Schmidt looked like she was gonna get told…”You can’t have my family. You can’t have my increase. You can’t have my breakthrough.”
“This Love” by Mary Mary Featuring Fred Hammond. Speaking of Barack and Michelle and their unbreakable bond, their love has got to qualify them as one of the most romantic couples to live in the White House. ” When after all these years it’s still the same. Just as strong as it was on the first day. This love, this love. The only love that comes down from the heavens.”
“How I Got Over” by Aretha Franklin with the Southern California Community Choir. Not only are the Obamas the first black couple in the White House, they brought in some other “first blacks” with them such as Eric Himpton Holder, Jr., the first black Attorney General of this country and subsequently my soror Loretta Lynch, the first black woman and the second woman overall to be confirmed for the position. “How I got over, how I got over. My soul looks back and wonders how I got over.”
“Amazing Grace” by President Obama. President Obama singing this gospel classic during the funeral of South Carolina State Senator and Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Pastor Clementa Pinckney in June 2015 demonstrated that we have to turn to God always but especially during tragic times. “Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. Tis Grace has brought me safe thus far, and Grace will lead us home.”
“This Place” by Tamela Mann.106-year-old Virginia McLaurin fulfilled her dream of visiting the White House and meeting the First black family in the White House this past Black History Month. “Been a lot places seen a lot of faces. But I never been in this place.Time and time again never thought I’d win. But I never been in this place.”
