Art Opening Today at Sunrise Mansion

Indea Vaher invites you to the opening of an art exhibit mounted at her lovely Sunrise Mansion on Isla del Sol. Come enjoy High Tea in your spring frocks, straw hats and seersucker suits while enjoying the beats and tunes of DJ Bro Cos. Show your love and appreciate the vibrant visual works by Lucky Barak, Spirit Wingtips, Dmitri Tharnaby, Darque, Ivory Rexen, Orchid Easterwood and Chriscloud Loon, which include RL photographs from around the Diaspora, SL screenshots from around the metaverse, RL paintings, and SL portraits of interesting and beautiful avatars. If you are looking to start an art collection for your SL home, or just want to add a little additional color to your SL environment, you will certainly find something here to fit the bill. Thanks to Indea for opening her home and her heart to black art and culture in SL, and I can't wait to see what she hosts next!

Strange Fruit: A Tribute to Billie Holiday

I don't know if I would have found this machinima made totally in SL if I hadn't dropped by Dancing Liberally tonight. Fall Films produced this lovely short film, creating a Billie Holiday avatar, and setting the whole performance in the Cotton Club in Virtual Harlem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Wo4RAmJcU

Sunhead Mind Cafe

I had to return to Kiko Life to do some more shopping after swooning over my demos, and I was glad that I took some time to also check out the teleport system on the sim. I discovered high in the big tree hovering over the stores Sunhead Mind Cafe, billed as Second Life's first and only black bookstore. The cafe holds live events, is connected to the web so that visitors can buy books in RL and get free books for your SL. Owner Osuntomi Melendez also invites visitors to join the bookstore's group, and link your Facebook account with your AV; you can also purchase SL versions of RL artwork and much much more. There is a second location of Sunhead on Publishing Island, so black books are being represented in the larger reading community in SL, too. What other surprises does Tomi have in store for visitors? I recommend you TP by and look...

Kiko Life

A notice from Fashion Consolidated invited me to visit another skin maker promoting their creations as the best and most glamorous offerings in SL, so I felt a responsibility to follow up on the invitation and check out what was being advertised. I was not surprised to find that this was yet another store where the darkest skin available for female AVs was presented as a Latina skin, or at least implied by the name given to it, Eva (as in Eva Longoria Parker). No, I was not surprised, but again, I am disappointed to find that people of color continue to be an afterthought in the minds of so many creative people in SL, at the same time that the parameters of acceptable or available skin tones that can be created within the combined software interfaces of SL as a virtual world and Photoshop as a space where images are processed for digital use make it so difficult for a true variety of skin tones to be designed. Needing my faith in the vision of a multicultural SL restored, I remembered that I had spent the previous evening in-world quite pleasantly fascinated with the African Diasporic shapes and styles available for purchase at Kiko Life. The main store is on a sim also named Kiko (204, 23, 28), and there are currently satellite locations at University City, Rosewood Piazza, New Jack City, Atlantislove, and most recently, Saminaka--I certainly hope more are on the way. From the names of the different shapes available for demo to the style cards included in the packages available for sale, my faith was definitely restored! For example, shapes for female avatars are named for Adenike, Amira and Ayo, Lucayan, Niara and Nyoka, among others, and the style sheets show vibrant and contemporary urban fashions defining each AV's style, along with many textured hairstyles (also for sale on the Kiko sim, in neighboring stores Street Dermatology, Twist Out, Shelly's Bootylicious Gear, and Divahtoos). The hair styles included cornrows, finger waves, twists and Afros. The shape demos that I sampled offered a true variety of sisterly bodies--full-hipped, thick-thighed, and high, rounded behinds, along with a real range of breast sizes and proportionate shoulders. I was also very pleased to find that the designer Osuntomi Melendez had taken the time to give each of the shapes distinctive facial features that include noses that are not all tiny and narrow, nor arms that are just sticks. When I visited, 30 different shapes for women were on offer, along with about half as many for men. Kiko Life's men and women look strong and sexy and really, genuinely, beautifully black, and I can't wait to see what shapes and styles will be added next!http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kiko/193/29/28/

Skinthesis

Skinthesis is dedicated to providing you with quality hybrid skins in a wide range of looks that will work with almost any shape! Cane Sutter is pleased to present to you the first wave of products, the Mindi skins, which come in 6 tones and a growing range of makeups to suit your every fashion need. Skinthesis skins are created using both handpainting and photo-sourcing from Cane's own collection of personal images to achieve a nice balanced look that will provide a touch of realism to your avatar without going overboard and making it look out of place in Second Life. Cane does custom work if you're interested, so if you have a specific makeup request, or want your own personal distinguishing marks such as moles, scars, or tattoos, please state your interest in a notecard so Cane can get back to you with details and a price quote. Among the demos that I tried out were these really cool metallic skins; if you are inspired to make your own Bond-style Goldfinger video for You Tube, for example, you could wear the Gold Dust Woman version of the new Mindi line. In an imaginative fantasy tribute to my own name, I might just have to rush back to the store and get my own copy of the Bronzed Goddess, which sounds and looks so perfect! There is also the warm, coppery Lucky Penny, which made me feel like Beyonce, and the truly cosmic Silver Lining, which makes for a wonderful opportunity to create a very interesting and playful costume. The Mindi line also comes in Dark and Ethnic variations which suit women of African descent; although it would be nice to have more designers take on the challenge of representing a greater, more realistic range of skintones for women of color, Sutter has created some lovely makeups that have face-flattering dimension and gloss. Mindi in Dark or Ethnic skins has fourteen options for day and evening, plus the Revelry Collection, which is a great foundation for special events, even more interesting costuming such as 17th-Century French courtesan roleplay, and very dramatic runway shows. For all of you looking to reminisce about the 80's when you pop in to the themed parties with your miniskirts and mohawks, leggings and tunics and rubber bracelets, there is the makeup of the Radical Collection. You too can have shiny fuschia lips and deep slashes of blush, just like Robert Palmer's model-perfect video vixens! A recent addition to the store is the Flapper Collection, so you can be Daisy to your Gatsby with heart-shaped deep red lips and a charming beauty mark right where it should be. I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille!http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sterling%20Pointe/148/150/22/

Shapes and Tats at Divahtoos

Divah Latte makes tattoos and shapes and takes portraits; her shop Divahtoos has locations at Tahitian Dreams' SuperNova Enterprises Complex and the Hot Tropics sim. Divahtoos are perfectly and dramatically visible on darker skins, and themes range from the sweet (butterflies, hearts and swirls, and stars) to the sexy (Lick!) for women, and totally thuggish for the guys--tear drops, anyone? Her Everyshape line includes pregnancy shapes and voluptuous plus sizes as well as a child shape; the adult women are grown-ass, sweet-faced sistas--no snobby, twiggy models here! Divah offers thirteen Everyshapes currently that have hips and breasts and thighs, very hourglassy, very curvy shapes that your special friend will love to hold, and I expect that more are on the way, as what she has displayed is listed in ABC order, so there is room for thirteen more, at least. she also makes custom shapes and custom tats. Her portrait studio offers a number of choices for combinations of textures and poses at affordable rates with stylish personalization on display. I can't wait to see what she makes next!http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20City/228/144/282/