Words from Nina Foxx/Live From Los Angeles

Los Angeles and Burbank with The Femmes was fantastic. (Pun intended). It was great to be back in the saddle again. I'd missed my girls and didn't know how much. Carmen Green, Lori Bryant Woolridge and I were joined by guest authors Reshonda Tate Billingsley and Trisha Thomas. We spoke at a fundraiser organized by The Kindred Spirits book club. The charity was an IRS charity, one that gives sholarships to African Americans in order to get them interested in IRS careers. I mean, who knew that such a thing even existed?

I knew I have to blog about it eventually. Someone had to set the record straight, tell the folks the real deal. We arrived the night before for our Femme Board meeting, and ended up at the Tonight Show. Jay's head is bigger in person but he seemed like a nice guy. Calista Flockhart was a guest and she looked so stoned that even the other guests made fun of her. They film the show at about 3 in the afternoon in real time. We were done early and that's when we discovered a secret about LA. There are no damn cabs there. It was damn near impossible to hail a cab. It's just not done. It wasn't a New York kind of thing where they don't stop for Black Folks, there weren't stopping for anyone. There were a group of other women there too. We had to practially run our into traffic to make note of the numbers on the sides of the cars whizzing by, all from our out of town cell numbers. After a good hour, a cab showed up and the waiting white ladies turned it down, saying they hadn't called that compoany. We'd called three or four times so The Femmes and I jumped in, leaving them standing on Wilshire Blvd.

At the event the next day, we were joined by Trisha Thomas and Reshonda Tate Billingsley.
Lori opened up by telling everyone the story of how The Femme Fantastik came to be. They say a piture is worth a thousand words, so a moving picture must be worth a million. You know I love my girls but sometimes they get the story twisted, so I was prepared. I videoed it so you could get the story first hand.
Check out Lori:



And then I had the opportunity to tell the REAL story, how we really got together:
Be patient with this one, we had Carmen as Diretor of Photographer. The camera does eventually stop moving. And just to set the record straight, I do not eat only from a sippee cup.




And then of course, we had to follow up with Carmen Green, otherwise known as Mama Carmen. She had to lay down the wisdom rather than read from one of her 47 books.

Our guests were wonderful speakers. Trisha Thomas (Nappily Ever After) lamented the boobiliciousness of the Femmes. Yes, girl, a C cup or better is a requirement for membership. (Just kidding). Read Trisha's comments below.

And Reshonda Tate Billingsley (Help! I've turned into My Mother) added her own special brand of Arkansas-bred Humor. That girl is funny. If you haven't read her, run, do not walk to the bookstore.