10 Rules for Living and Thriving in a New World

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

Tonight is my last night as a Buckeye. Tomorrow, I leave to move to NYC, but I take along my 10 rules for living. My friend Robert Maverick nick-named them "Tah Rules", and the name has stuck. I developed the rules during a particularly tough time in my life, but in shaping a road map for the future, I also found a degree of peace and I found this future. Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad journey following the North Star is the inspiration for the rules, and I hope they would make her proud.

One day, I plan to write a biography with each rule as the theme for each chapter. I hope they serve me well in the big city:

• Tah Rule #1. FOLLOW one passion.
• Tah Rule #2. BECOME your ideal.
• Tah Rule #3. PROMOTE your passion
• Tah Rule #4. REMEMBER why you started--"Celebrate".
• Tah Rule #5. KEEP Sundays for family.
• Tah Rule #6. PROTECT your partners.
• Tah Rule #7. FINISH what you start.
• Tah Rule #8. ASK to receive.
• Tah Rule #9. Give CREDIT due
• Tah Rule #10. CONTINUE your journey.

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James Ensor's Wicked Sense of Humor on View at MoMA

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

"Calvary" (1886) by James Ensor (b. Belgian). Pencil, crayon, and oil on paper, 6 3/4 x 8 3/4"

NEW YORK---The Museum of Modern Art presents James Ensor—the first exhibition at an American institution to feature the full range of his media in over 30 years. Ensor (1860–1949) was a major figure in the Belgian avant-garde of the late nineteenth century and an important precursor to the development of Expressionism in the early twentieth. In both respects he has influenced generations of later artists. The densely presented exhibition of over 100 works, examines Ensor’s allegorical uses of light including in his religious art, along with his wicked satire which takes shape in his obsession with carnival masks that are both fantastical and frightening.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA): "James Ensor" (Ends September 21, 2009); 11 West 53 Street, Midtown Manhattan Precinct, New York; moma.org

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12 Months: A Faith to Freedom Story

THE ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

It took engagement with followers of Buddha, Mary, Muhammad, Krishna, Eve and many others to turn me to the task of building the Alpha & Omega Project for Contemporary Religious Arts. The people listed below are those I wish to thank for their special help and encouragement. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to tell this story. Leslie Kreines and Angela Corley who gifted me with my first works of religious art....And my husband Gregory and mother Vernieda who pushed me forward when I had doubts we could really succeed. This is a spiritual journey that began as an escape from with injustice.

• CHAPTER 1 Remembering Good Fridays: "Never wound a snake; kill it."
• CHAPTER 2 From Faith to Freedom: "Lord, I'm going to hold steady on to You and You've got to see me through."
• CHAPTER 3 My Introduction to Religious Art: "I grew up like a neglected weed - ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it."
• CHAPTER 4 A Lenton Journey: "Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world."
• CHAPTER 5 The Promise of Religious Art: "I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other."
• CHAPTER 6 Leading by Collecting: "I would fight for my liberty so long as my strength lasted, and if the time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me."
• CHAPTER 7 Inspiring Artists to be the very best: "If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I could have freed thousands more." 
• CHAPTER 8 Leaving a Legacy: "I never ran my train off the track, and I never lost a passenger."
• CHAPTER 9 Organizations Moving Religious Art Forward: "Quakers almost as good as colored. They call themselves friends and you can trust them every time."
• CHAPTER 10 New Artists, New Directions: "You'll be free or die!"
• CHAPTER 11 Celebrating Easter: "I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land."

INDEX

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