#1-I Dreamt It Was Heaven- written by Leonce Gaiter

“Hanging Judge” Isaac C. Parker; Notorious half-black half-Indian outlaw Cherokee Bill; one-quarter Cherokee “gentlemen bandit” Henry Starr, relative of the notorious Belle Starr; and the worst of the lot—half-black, half-Indian Rufus Buck. These real-life historical figures collided during the fateful summer of 1895, when young Rufus Buck formed a gang of teens to drive whites from Indian Territory once and for all. His vicious rampage is legend. Learn more at http://buckrampage.com

Never Dead written by Jumata Jones
Emerson McGee has spent most of his life living with a secret, and the first-year law student’s menacing struggle with his sexuality is only the half of it. His wife, Danielle, has her own scars of adolescent heartache—which she thinly veils behind her façade as an upper-middle class princess. The newlywed’s cookie-cutter marriage is abruptly interrupted when they make a reluctant move into the quaint house Emerson inherited from his deceased grandmother. Unbeknownst to them, there’s already something else living there: A malevolent entity hell-bent on exposing its connection to Emerson and the tragic secret they share. While a mysterious narrator recounts the details of his abject life, the McGees’ vengeful poltergeist pulls Danielle deeper into a mystery that has haunted an impoverished ghetto in South Baton Rouge—aptly called “‘Da Bottom”—for nearly a decade, and spills into the provocative world of New Orleans hoodoo. Before its final scare, Never Dead concludes with a bloody twist the McGees never saw coming.

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Major Richard Robert Wright Sr., a former slave, believed that there should be a day when freedom for all Americans is celebrated. While living in Philadelphia towards the end of his life, he invited local and national leaders to meet to organize a movement for a national holiday to commemorate Lincoln’s signing of the 13th Amendment. The resulting National Freedom Association proposed having a memorial date to call attention to the continuing struggle for freedom for African-Americans. Since President Lincoln had signed the 13th Amendment on the first day of February, that date was chosen to celebrate National Freedom Day. The first commemoration took place on February 1, 1942, at Independence Hall. As it has every year since, the remembrance included laying a wreath at the Liberty Bell.

On June 30, 1948, President Harry Truman signed a bill proclaiming February 1 as National Freedom Day. [2] It is not a federal holiday; government offices and banks are open for business.

In the U.S. Code of Ethics at Cornell University National Freedom Day is written in the law books as:

§ 124. National Freedom Day The President may issue each year a proclamation designating February 1 as National Freedom Day to commemorate the signing by Abraham Lincoln on February 1, 1865, of the joint resolution adopted by the Senate and the House of Representatives that proposed the 13th amendment to the Constitution.

National Freedom Day has been observed since February 1, 1948 when Truman signed a bill proclaiming the day occur February 1. On this day many towns have festivals, while other citizens reflect on the freedoms that the United States honors and to appreciate the goodwill of the United States. Wreath-laying at the Liberty Bell has also been a tradition to mark National Freedom Day for many years. Symbols of the day may include a theme about freedom for all Americans.

According to americaslibrary.gov National Freedom Day is defined as: “[t]he purpose of this holiday is to promote good feelings, harmony, and equal opportunity among all citizens and to remember that the United States is a nation dedicated to the ideal of freedom. Major Richard Robert Wright Sr., a former slave, fought to have a day when freedom for all Americans is celebrated. When Wright got his freedom, he went on to become a successful businessman and community leader in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Major Wright chose February 1 as National Freedom Day because it was the day in 1865 that President Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution…. The 13th Amendment outlawed slavery in the United States. Wright gathered national and local leaders together to write a bill declaring February 1 “National Freedom Day” and President Harry Truman signed the bill in 1948 making it official.

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Read: Gallery: Monuments Dedicated To Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In calling for earth and heaven to “ring with the harmonies of Liberty,” they could speak out subtly against racism and Jim Crow laws—and especially the huge number of lynchings accompanying the rise of the Ku Klux Klan at the turn of the century. In 1919, the NAACP adopted the song as “The Negro National Anthem.” By the 1920s, copies of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” could be found in black churches across the country, often pasted into the hymnals. In 1939, Augusta Savage received a commission from the World’s Fair and created a 16-foot plaster sculpture called Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing. Savage did not have any funds for a bronze cast, or even to move and store it, and it was destroyed by bulldozers at the close of the fair.

The lyrics are ones  of empowerment

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith
that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope
that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chast’ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way
that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path
thro’ the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from a gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam
of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places
Our God where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world
we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

During and after the American Civil Rights Movement, the song experienced a rebirth, and by the 1970s was often sung immediately after “The Star Spangled Banner” at public events and performances across the United States where the event had a significant African-American population.

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In Maya Angelou’s 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the song is sung by the audience and students at Maya’s eighth grade graduation, after a white school official dashes the educational aspirations of her class

In 1990, singer Melba Moore released a modern rendition of the song, which she recorded along with others including R&B artists Anita Baker, Stephanie Mills, Dionne Warwick, Bobby Brown, Stevie Wonder, Jeffrey Osborne, and Howard Hewett; and gospel artists BeBe & CeCe Winans, Take 6, and The Clark Sisters. Partly because of the success of this recording, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” was entered into the Congressional Record by Del. Walter Fauntroy (D-DC),^[3] as the official African American National Hymn.

he Howard Gospel Choir of Howard University sings “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (The Black National Anthem) at Jerusalemskirken (Church of Jerusalem) in Copenhagen, Denmark [Europe] as a part of our Northern Scandinavian Tour in February 2010.

Unfortunately,because there a drive to start the “christmas selling period” there is a misunderstanding that Christmas ends promptly on Christmas Day. That is 100% wrong.

The Twelfth Night of Christmas is always on the evening of 5 January, but the Twelfth Day can either precede or follow the Twelfth Night according to which Christian tradition is followed. Twelfth Night is followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January. In some traditions, the first day of Epiphany (6 January) and the twelfth day of Christmas overlap.

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Over the centuries, differing churches and sects of Christianity have changed the actual traditions, time frame and their interpretations. St. Stephen’s Day (or Boxing Day), for example, is 26 December in the Western Church and 27 December in the Eastern Church. Boxing Day, the first weekday after Christmas, is observed as a legal holiday in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations. 28 December is Childermas or the Feast of the Innocents. Currently, the twelve days and nights are celebrated in widely varying ways around the world. For example, some give gifts only on Christmas Day, some only on Twelfth Night, and some each of the twelve nights.

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So enjoy the season!

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Christmas should be a time of peace, not of fear and unrest.  We fear we may overlook someone on our gift list, or maybe they won’t like what we bought them, or perhaps they will think our gift too cheap.  For some, Christmas brings the added tension of bringing together fractured families.  Instead of peace, they dread the inevitable conflicts.  Yet, Christmas should be a time of peace.

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Christmas should be a time of hope.  Think about this, Christmas is poised at the end of one year and the beginning of the next – at the crossroads of the past and the future.  A previous year, with its blessings and its trials, is gone.  A new year looms ahead, full of uncertainty.  Yet, here is Christmas – the celebration of a birth that took place 2000 years ago – a perennial bright spot on our calendars – because God has give us hope.  Christmas should be a time of hope.

Christmas should be a time of love centered around the greatest love story ever told – the story of God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.  Christmas is the story of God’s greatest gift given to meet our greatest need – because God is Love.  Christmas should be a time of love.

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The Christmas story – a tale retold year after year, yet it never loses its majesty; it never ceases to fill our hearts with wonder.  I want you to see three facts – three certainties – that if you will let them find room in your heart today, they will fill this Christmas with peace, hope, and love.

Let’s first think of the reality of this story, It contains scandalous behavior. She was found with child.  Forget, for a moment, the part about “of the Holy Ghost.”  You and I know that now because we have it written in the Word of God.  But only Mary knew it then.  For five, maybe six months she had been able to keep her condi-tion a secret.  But the day arrived when her pregnancy could no longer be hidden.  She was found with child.  She was found out. Into the midst of this confusion, with all its conflicting thoughts and emotions, Joseph receives a word from God.  And let me say, that is what we need when our lives spin out of control.

A tiny baby came into a grim and dark world, shining light across the barren landscape – a light that still invites men to come into the warmth of God’s grace and find there peace, and hope, and love.

Read: Elev8′ers Watch A Special Christmas Message Here

I wish you and your family peace this holiday season-

Oretha Winston Elev8- Lead Editor

Here at last, after 12 days, is the final day of lights.

Make sure to enjoy the the last 11 days:

• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day#2 -“You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch”
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day#3 -“Wizards Of Winter”
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day#4 -“Jingle Bell Rock”
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day#5 -“Joy To The World”
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day#6 -“This Christmas Day”
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day#7 -“Carol Of The Bells”
• 12 Days Of Light Shows –Day#8 “Do You Hear What I Hear?”
• 12 Days Of Light Shows – Day#9 “Little Drummer Boy” Plays On
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day #10 “Jingle Bells” Comes To Life
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day#11 Amazing Creative Grace
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day#12 -The Saks Window

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It’s time to leave when:
1.  There is abuse involved.  Whether it’s physical, sexual or emotional abuse, that is a clear sign that the relationship needs to end.  Abusers nearly always escalate the abuse.  It’s a vicious cycle that traps the victim into uncertainty, low self esteem and an inability to trust his or her own judgment.  Unfortunately, this is usually when the relationship continues long after it should have ended.
2.  You’ve grown apart and neither of you wants to work on improving the relationship. This one’s fairly simple.  You can usually end the relationship amicably with a no-fault divorce.  Many times, couples stay together long after the relationship is over for the sake of the children.  You’re not doing anyone any favors by doing that.  Studies have shown that kids need one present, loving person in their lives to grow into emotionally stable adults.  They don’t need an intact nuclear family if it’s not a happy one.
3.  You have serious problems- usually around lacking trust- and one or both of you are unwilling to work on the issues at hand.  In order to heal these kinds of problems, most people need professional help.  Seeing a therapist or a life coach to help you heal is a sign of strength, not weakness.  Just understand that if you don’t want to heal them during this particular relationship, they will surely resurface in your next one.

It has sold tens of millions of copies and has been covered by hundreds of artists. The song tells the story of of the arrival of angels proclaiming the arrival of the Christ child.

Make sure to view the other days:

• 12 Days Of Light Shows – Day#9 “Little Drummer Boy” Plays On
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day #10 “Jingle Bells” Comes To Life
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day#11 Amazing Creative Grace
• 12 Days Of Light Shows- Day#12 -The Saks Window

How to Avoid The Ghost Of Christmas 2011 [INFOGRAPHIC]

For the 28th year, the financial services company PNC’s wealth management team has calculated the current total cost for one set of the gifts given in the classic carol. For 2011, the price tag comes to $24,263.18. That’s 3.5 percent, or $823.80, more than last year.

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Really, really love your significant other? Then tally the cost of the song for every time a True Love gift is sung about.What PNC calls the “True Cost of Christmas” comes in 2011 to $101,119.84 for 364 gifts, and that makes it the most expensive year ever.

The song itself is filled with meaning. Read the following:

A partridge in a pear tree is Jesus.
Two turtle doves refers to the The Old and New Testaments.
Three French hens would be  three kings bearing gifts.
Four calling  birds are the four Gospels.
Five gold rings is The Torah or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament.
Six geese a-laying is  the six days of Creation.
Seven swans a-swimming would be  the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
Eight maids a-milking are the  eight Beatitudes.
Nine ladies dancing are the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Ten lords a-leaping are thee Ten Commandments.
Eleven pipers piping are  the eleven faithful Apostles.
Twelve drummers drumming are the twelve points of the Apostles’ Creed.