Tell us what type of reader or person would most enjoy your book WooSah – Bitter Sweet Blessings:

This book is about strength, love, and opening up and away from fear of love because of your past. Learning and living a fearless life and being successful in your life.

I feel this book is for readers of all ages who are considering participating in adult activities and women who may have experienced domestic violence, single motherhood, and allowing men in their lives who should not be there.

It’s about using your voice and living a life that your child will benefit from so they can see you as a SHERO.

Men are included in the target audience with this book as well because it shows true love and that of a man knowing if he wants to marry you from the beginning. It doesn’t take being with him 10 years to know if he wants to marry you or not.

A person in the arts would love this book; poetry, music, entrepreneur building, and people at different stages in their lives.

It’s funny, it’s serious, it’s real, it’s truth, and it’s about love, relationships, and those who are Christians will enjoy as well.

Your book My Mama Said is an urban knowledge children’s book. What is the #1 lesson that our youth need to learn?

The most important is to love yourself! I have four short stories in this book and all have a moral at the end of each story.

In urban areas, we face so many different variables about life, and some are in the home, and some are in the outside environment.

Learning to love yourself and love God, and obey our parents our children will learn some valuable lessons to carry them throughout  various areas of their lives.

Below are the titles and the morals of each story.

Don’t be a Victim, “There will always be vultures preying on the curious and the weak, making you the victim. You have to learn how to not be a follower, be a leader, and be strong enough to say “NO” and do not fall victim.”

Proper Decisions, “There will always be a temptation in your life, especially when you are young, but always hear the voice of reason even if it’s not your own.”

Pretty Little Black Girl, “Love you…. in your own skin and do not change how God made you.”

Oh, No You’re Not, “Always be a leader and never do drugs! Make your mama proud, by using what she taught you, and never be a follower.”

April is National Poetry Month. Share one of your favorite poems that you’ve written with us:

Sure. Actually, I would like to share two. One is from my book of poetry, Desire My Dream Poetry, and another is a recent one I wrote about Black love.

I wrote this after speaking with a former supervisor in her office with a closed door.

Am I in a Jar?

Am I in a jar, is the lid shut tight?

Am I walking around breathing air?

Hard to discriminate between the two

Feel like I am suffocating

Can someone loosen the lid?

Can I just cut a hole in the jar?

But with what tools

I have no tools inside

Outside I have some tools

When I am in this jar

The lid is so tight

I cannot reach my tools

Why are you trying to suffocate me?

When all I want to do is breathe

Use my tools to succeed

Hold me back for what, my persona, my color

Just because

Loosen the lid and let me succeed

Let me breath

Because I will not change

I will always stand tall.

By Juanita Betts – Graves

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This one I wrote thinking about the strength of Black love.

That African Drum Beat (Black Love)

Our love rhythms like African Drums with the harmonious tribal bliss sound

that sends a fire into our veins when we embrace,

The passion so intense that we’ve learned to contain ourselves before

we devour each other like animals of the wild, only not to fatally kill,

but to portentously release the burning desires into the atmosphere.

Do you know this type of love?

It has dwindled down from our ancestors to fill your veins with that

unwavering love that not even Harriet Tubman could free,

This love dwells and beats like the African Drums…

No, we won’t get lost for the Drum beats you hear are effervescent …

like the North Star to freedom.

When making love it’s the African Drums we hear in the music

…as we flow along with the beat.

When loving one another the realization of royalty consumes us

 …to not ever allow another to intervene in its purity,

and why we act like animals when it is breached,

to protect and provide and talk about in the streets…

the black love that lasts a lifetime to reminisce,

for that African Drum which… mirrors your heartbeat

…as Kings, and Queens of its uniqueness.

This our ancestors demand to remain for our descendants…

to know of Black love in its infinity deepness.

By Juanita Graves

 

April is also Black Women’s History Month. Who are some Black women that have influenced you as a person or inspired your work?

The main Black woman influence in my life is my mother, Evelyn Lee Gibbs – Betts, she is the most loving, kind, intelligent woman I first met in my life whom showed strength in all that she has done and still does in her life.

She taught me to be a strong mother,a strong woman and how to be a woman. Although along the way we all get sidetracked thinking we’re grown at a young age because we left home, I still get advice from her.

Maya Angelou, my favorite poet and strength of a woman. Her writings are so beautiful and truthful with the inspiration of a songbird which gives your ears peace after the world has closed down on you for the day as the breath on the seeded dandelion which blew away on a sunny day to lift your spirits to fly with your dreams.

Ntozake Shange, for her poetry and her book titled, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf. This book saved me from thoughts that hindered me at an early age. I began to learn more about myself as a Black girl.  

I have changed my style of writing poetry since my first book because now I know why Ntozake states capitalized first words in poetry bore her. For me it was a style but it’s not my style anymore because what I have to write doesn’t need a style, it just needs to be said.

Like her, my words talk to me, they sing to me, they tell a story as I write and then I will re-write just as life can be re-written.

Nikki Giovanni and Angela Davis because I have some civil rights activism in my blood and don’t know what to do with it just yet. My poetry at times if I let it speak louder could be a start of a revolution.

Oprah Winfrey, the second Black woman to own their own network, OWN. The first was Cathy Hughes, owner, and founder of Radio One.

Michelle Obama, classy, intelligent, and beautiful.

In the music and acting business, Queen Latifah, Angela Bassett, MC Lyte, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Mary J Blige, Monica, Anita Baker, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, just to name a few.

Motivational speakers inspirational for me are Lisa Nichols and Iyanla Vanzant.

Black women comedians, you can’t forget about them. They influence me to just keep laughing because life is hard at times and laughter is good for your soul.

Black women pastors and gospel singers are definitely an influence in my life because I love God. Juanita Bynum, Kim Burrell, Shirley Caesar, Tamela Mann, Yolanda Adams, Kelly Price, Mary Mary, Dorothy Norwood, Tramaine Hawkins, Kierra Sheard, Karen Clark – Sheard, and Ce Ce Winans.

All these women and more have influenced me on various levels because they talk to my spirit.

If my spirit is content, then you are noble for my life.

 

Your company is named Desire My Dream Productions. Are your dreams becoming a reality?

Yes, I believe my dreams are becoming a reality. I sort of stepped away from following my dreams for a brief moment because life happenings, but I came back to everything with a new book. There were times in between when I wanted to come back but didn’t have much to offer and I wasn’t ready.

Today, I have so much more to offer because I am beginning to know my purpose and what I should be doing. I am not continuing what I started because those things did not prosper into completion, so I will continue to follow my dreams, although our dreams can be shifted into something totally different due to circumstances and or God has a different plan out of our control.

Yes, my dreams are becoming a reality. I started this company in 2007 and it’s now 2018, but it takes a long time to build a legacy. It takes a long time to build a brand, and Desire My Dream is my brand because I have been desiring my dreams for a very long time and there is no time period for them to fall into place, you just have to keep moving along and don’t stop no matter what other people say, think or don’t believe in you.

You believe in yourself and have the courage to do what’s in your heart toward success and happiness. Always do what’s necessary for a positive light and always keep the faith because sometimes you may have to step out on that faith to get your blessings. 

My goals are to mentor and to inspire on various levels of life which I have lived and see happening in other peoples lives, and which I have gained God’s wisdom.

I love to share my knowledge and I love to learn each day. Innovation is a great aspect of our lives if we allow it into existence.

Words of wisdom you’d like to share with Black women and girls worldwide:

This is the question I have been waiting to answer out of all the others. I have been through a lot of things in my life and if I could leave you with something to think about or plan to do is this:

• Live your life! Do not think about what people say about you, to you, or around you.
• Do not allow your emotions to make life decisions which aren’t positive.
• Talk to God daily as though you are talking to your BFF and put him first, not man.
• If you love to write, write. If you love to dance, dance. If you love to sing, sing. If you love to cook, draw, garden, sports, build, do it!!!
• If you want to become president, take those political steps.
• If you want to be a doctor, a lawyer, then do it. Be it.
• Do not allow your age to detour you from your dreams, aspirations, talent, love, or whatever because age is really just a number. It’s all about your mindset and not so much of your physical.
• Do not let your environment or your household choose your life.
• If you have children your life is actually just beginning because it gives you a greater perspective, it’s definitely not over.
• Do not allow yourself to be mistreated and blinded by love when it becomes a physical, mental, or an emotional burden. When the red flags flare, you RUN!
• Do not be a victim, be a Victorious Girl/Woman!
• Do not allow a man to use you for sex, money, your house, credit, etc.
• Do not allow any man into your home around your children especially if you just met them.
• If your children tell you something, believe them.
• Always empower your child for greatness from an early age!
• Do not let life consume you to believe you have nothing to live for because everything, every situation, every incident, everything is just temporary. You get another chance at it tomorrow.
• Just because a man works at McDonald’s, security, retail store, etc. doesn’t mean his money isn’t large enough for you. His pockets do not define his character. It’s obvious he has a work ethic. It’s obvious he cares about himself, it’s obvious he is leading a legal lifestyle, and not lazy and it doesn’t mean he cannot grow. This too is temporary; he may just have a magnificent plan for his life. This is just a stepping stone, so do not judge the man and stop thinking negative.
• Get your money straight first before you bring someone into your life
• Do not depend on anyone to straighten it out for you. Vulnerable times attract nothing but will lead you further downhill, and that you do not need when you are going uphill.
• Last, but not least, if you are not together do not bring someone into your life, get yourself straight first especially if you are just getting back into the job market, looking for a new place to live, have bills you’re trying to pay off or bring current.

I listed a lot of do’s and dont’s because life is about that in many ways, and variables. Be smart, and hopefully it’s not looked at as tedious because someone may need to hear this today.