Welcome to Love's Troubadours, a
Lorraine Hansberry-inspired novel series about people learning and living as they love.Ananda
Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke (www.anandaleeke.com) is the author of the series. Click here to find out how it was made: www.lovestroubadours.com/id7.html.
The first book in the Love's Troubadours'
series is entitled Love's Troubadours - Karma: Book One (iUniverse,
Inc. - August 2007). It tells the story of Karma Francois, a thirtysomething Oakland-born BoHo B.A.P.
(Bohemian Black American Princess) with Louisiana roots and urban debutante flair. The novel begins with Karma's
life in an uproar. Her relationships and the museum curator career that she struggled to form in New York City have crumbled,
leaving no viable options to rebuild. Relocating to Washington, DC, Karma struggles with denial, depression, and debt.
A lack of full-time employment opportunities forces her to craft a gypsy existence as a Jill of Many Trades: yoga teacher,
art consultant, and freelance curator at Howard University Gallery of Art. Unable and unwilling to appreciate these jobs as
gifts, she wallows in a pool of lost identity-and doesn't see a way to keep from drowning. When she looks in the mirror, Karma sees a woman whose choices have dishonored her true character.
Now, for the first time in her life, Karma must learn to see herself for who she really is.
Love's
Troubadours - Karma: Book One is available on Amazon.com for $20.95. To purchase a copy, click on the link below.
Ananda teaches Pink October Yoga online classes for Breast Cancer Awarness Month
Happy Early October!
I am launching Pink October Yoga, an online yoga class series for
computer users, on October 6, 13, 20, and 27 from 8:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Stickam.com to honor Breast Cancer Awareness
Month and my grandmothers Frederica Stanley Roberts Leeke (1915 – 1996) and Dorothy Mae Johnson Gartin (1912 –
present). Click here to take the class with a live stream and web chat discussions: www.stickam.com/anandaleeke. If you miss the live class, don’t panic. You will be able to watch a recording of the show. To learn more
about breast cancer, visit The National Women’s Health Center’s Breast Cancer web site: http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastcancer.
My grandmother Frederica died of breast cancer in June 1996. My grandmother Dorothy learned she had breast
cancer at the age of 95 in 2008. The news of my grandmother Dorothy’s her breast cancer made me want to do something
for people impacted by breast cancer in my local community.
So I started the first annual Frederica Stanley Roberts Leeke and Dorothy Mae Johnson Gartin Breast Cancer
Awareness Yoga Weekend in Malcolm X – Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C. This year I am teaching two classes
on October 24 and 25 from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for the Breast Cancer Awareness Weekend. Click here for more
information: http://yoga.meetup.com/584. If you are in the D.C. area, please join me for a kind and gentle yoga class dedicated to individuals impacted
by breast cancer.
Social Media Maven Ananda Leeke Discusses How Authors Use Social Media at Capital BookFest on October 3
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 28, 2009 – Washington, DC - Ananda Leeke, an author and social media strategist, will discuss
how authors can use social media to market their books and build a reader audience during a panel discussion on “Everything
You Wanted to Know about Getting Published” held on Saturday, October 3, from 12:20 p.m. to 1:20 p.m. at the fifth annual
Capital BookFest in Largo, Maryland. Authors Kevin Johnson, Donna Hill, and Charisse Carney Nunes will also participate in
the panel discussion held inside of Borders Bookstore, 931A Capital Centre Boulevard, Largo, MD 20774. For more information,
visit www.captialbookfest.org.
Leeke (www.anandaleeke.com) is a lawyer turned blogger, online community manager, radio host, social media strategist, author, artist, creativity coach,
and yoga teacher. She currently serves as the D.C. Social Media Examiner for Examiner.com: www.examiner.com/x-24564-DC-Social-Media-Examiner. Her first Internet encounter occurred when she heard AOL’s “you’ve got mail” in 1995. It was
love at first click! A year later, she began working for The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc., an investment bank and financial
software firm, where she established an intellectual property protection program for the firm’s Internet products and
services. Leeke served as an online content contributor for NetNoir.com's Gospel and Women's Channels from 2001 to 2002. She
launched her first blog in 2005 and used social media tools to market her books, Love’s Troubadours – Karma:
Book One (2007) and That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery (2009).
She enjoys attending blogging conferences such as Blogging While Brown, Fem 2.0, BlogHer, and Blogalicious.
Yoga Teacher/Author Ananda Leeke Uses Social Media to Celebrate National Yoga Month 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 28, 2009 – Washington, D.C. – Ananda Leeke, a yoga teacher, author, and social media
strategist, recently launched the OM A Day Campaign and Stickam.com online yoga classes during National Yoga Month 2009. The
OM A Day Campaign is an online effort that promotes yoga and relaxation exercises for computer users by posting daily yoga
tips, videos, and resources on kg yoga life practices' blog - http://kgyoga.blogspot.com.
Leeke also celebrated National Yoga Month with a series of radio show interviews on the following days:
-September 12th episode of The Ananda Leeke Show (www.talkshoe.com/tc/15820) featured a conversation with yoga teacher and life coach Yael Flusberg, founder of Y Elements http://yelements.com;
-September 13th episode of BAP Living Radio (www.talkshoe.com/tc/18598) featured a conversation with yoga teacher Shawna Renee Madison, founder of Cocoa OM (www.cocoaom.com); and
In addition, Leeke used Stickam.com to launch her first online yoga class for computer users with live
streaming and a chat room on September 19. A recording of the show is available on www.stickam.com/anandaleeke. She will host a series of Pink October Yoga online classes on October 6, 13, 20, and 27 from 8:00 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. (EST)
for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Leeke took her online campaign offline when she began teaching free
yoga classes as a part of kg yoga life practices Meetup Group’s annual Global Mala Project for Peace Awareness from
September 9 to September 17 in Malcolm X – Meridian Hill Park in Washington, D.C. kg yoga life practices‘ Global
Mala Project for Peace Awareness series seeks to remind individuals that they have the power to create more peace in the world
through mindfulness in their daily lives. The classes also honor individuals and countries impacted by the terrorist attacks
of September 11th, United Nations International Peace, and Autumn Equinox. Leeke launched the Project in support of
international yoga teacher Shiva Rea’s Global Mala Project (www.globalmalaproject.org) in 2007. The Meetup Group also held its first annual OneWebDay (http://onewebday.org) yoga celebration for Internet users on September 22 in Malcolm X - Meridian Hill Park. To learn more about kg yoga life
practices Meetup Group, visit http://yoga.meetup.com/584.
Social Media Maven/Author Ananda Leeke Becomes New D.C. Social Media Examiner
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 28, 2009 – Washington, DC - Examiner.com recently named Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn
Leeke as the new D.C. Social Media Examiner. Leeke’s first article discussed Blogalicious, the first annual conference
for women bloggers of color, which will be held on October 9 to October 11 in Atlanta, Georgia. To read the entire article,
visit www.examiner.com/x-24564-DC-Social-Media-Examiner.
Examiner.com was launched as the insider source for everything local in April 2008. It is a division
of the Clarity Media Group which is wholly owned by The Anschutz Company. Examiner.com currently serves 110 major markets
across the United States.
On October 3, Leeke will share her insights on how authors can use social media to market
their books and build a reader audience during a panel discussion on “Everything You Wanted to Know about Getting Published”
from 12:20 p.m. to 1:20 p.m. at the fifth annual Capital Bookfest in Largo, Maryland. Authors Kevin Johnson, Donna Hill, and
Charisse Carney Nunes will also participate in the panel discussion held inside of Borders Bookstore, 931A Capital Centre
Boulevard, Largo, MD 20774. For more information, visit www.captialbookfest.org.
Leeke (www.anandaleeke.com) is a lawyer turned blogger, online community manager, radio host, social media strategist, author, artist, creativity coach,
and yoga teacher. Her first Internet encounter occurred when she heard AOL’s “you’ve got mail”
in 1995. It was love at first click! A year later, she began working for The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc., an investment
bank and financial software firm, where she established an intellectual property protection program for the firm’s Internet
products and services. Leeke served as an online content contributor for NetNoir.com's Gospel and Women's Channels from
2001 to 2002. She launched her first blog in 2005 and used social media tools to market her books, Love’s Troubadours
– Karma: Book One (2007) and That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery
(2009). She enjoys attending blogging conferences such as Blogging While Brown, Fem 2.0, BlogHer, and Blogalicious.
Has Artist/Author Ananda Leeke's work made a difference
in your life this year? If yes, then click on the PayPal button above
and make a donation to Kiamsha.com, LLC, Leeke's healing arts company. PayPal offers Visa, MasterCard, and American Express
secured payment options.It also offers a PayPal card that you can use for other purchases. Many thanks
in advance for your gift. It is greatly appreciated!
Kiamsha.com, LLC promotes creativity through coaching
and expressive arts, teaches contemplative practices (i.e. yoga, Reiki healing touch, meditation, breathing exercises, journaling,
affirmations, and prayer), and builds community that awakens your soul and transforms your life.
AKOMA is a Ghanaian Andinkra symbol that represents the heart and
means keep an open heart filled with compassion.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud It
is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil,
but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
WHAT IS LOVE'S
TROUBADOURS?
Love's Troubadoursis a healing fiction series that features stories told by people who are learning and living as they
love. The healing fiction series is deeply rooted in the storytelling traditions of the West African griot and troubadours
of the French Middle Ages. To learn more about these traditions, read the sections below.
Senegalese Griot, 1890
WHAT IS A GRIOT?
A griot is a West African poet, storyteller, historian, advisor, arbitrator, and wandering musician
who serves as a repository of oral history tradition. Griots are walking history books who memorize traditional songs
and teachings, folktales, cultural history, and family relationships. This information is passed down through generations. Griots
also marry them with current events and chance incidents to create praise songs and stories with wisdom teachings, comic relief
and satire, political commentary, and gossip. Today, griots live in Senegal, Mali, Gambia, and Guinea. They are present among
the Wolof, Serer, Mande, Malinke, Bambara, Fula, Tukuloor, Wolof, and Mauritanian people. There are several African names
for griots including jeli (a word that means "blood in the Manika language that is derived from ; northern Mande areas),
jali (southern Mande areas), guewel (Wolof), gawlo (Pulaar, a Fula language), and igiiw (Hassaniyya, an Arabic language).
WHAT IS A TROUBADOUR?
Troubadour is derived from an Old French word "trobador" which comes
from the verb "trobar" that means to invent or compose. When you put it all together, troubadour refers to a composer
and performer of lyric poetry. The French Middle Ages (1100-1350) gave birth to the troubadour tradition in the eleventh century.
The tradition defined troubadour lyric as poetical, rhetorical, and musical fiction. They dealt mainly with themes of courtly
love, chivalry, nature, life, and death. Most troubadour lyrics were metaphysical, intellectual, and formulaic. They also
included many genres including alba (morning song - the song of a lover as dawn approaches, often with a watchman warning
of the approach of a lady's jealous husband), canso or canço (the love song, usually consisting of five or six
stanzas), dansa or balada (a dance song with a refrain) ensenhamen (a long didactic poem, usually not divided into stanzas,
teaching a moral or practical lesson), enuig (a poem expressing indignation or feelings of insult), escondig (a lover's
apology), partimen (a poetical exchange between two or more poets in which one is presented with a dilemma by another and
responds), planh (a lament, especially on the death of some important figure), salut d'amor (a love letter addressed to
another, not always one's lover), and tenso (a poetical debate which was usually an exchange between two poets, but could
be fictional).
ODO NNYEW FIE KWAN is a Ghanaian Andinkra symbol that means the power of love.
Copyright 2009-2012 by Madelyn C. Leeke. All rights reserved.
The
slogans "Love's Troubadours"; "Be love, love light, and live as the spirit of life"; "YOGA is Your
Opportunity to Graciously Accept yourself"; "Honey I'm OM"; "OM on My Mind"; "Our Womanist Spirit";
"BAP Living"; "Black American Princess...BAP Being At Peace"; "Sisterhood, the Blog"; “Ananda
Leeke TV”; “The Ananda Leeke Radio Show”; and "That Which Awakens Me" are the intellectual property of
Kiamsha.com, LLC. They may not be used without the prior consent or licensing by Kiamsha.com, LLC.
