SUPPRT BAP LIVING

Have BAP Living social networking site, BAP Living Radio, kg yoga life practices, or Artist/Author Ananda Leeke 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, Ananda's healing arts company. 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.

BAP Living on Twitter



BAP Living Facebook Group

BAP Living Myspace Group


Bookmark and share BAP Living blog posts with others using AddThis, a social bookmarking tool (includes Digg, Reddit, Stumble It, Mixx, Delicious, and others).

Click on the AddThis button below.

Blessings All,

My debut novel Love's Troubadours - Karma: Book One is Lorraine Hansberry-inspired fiction that tells the story of Karma Francois, a BoHo BAP ... Bohemian Black American Princess. Many readers have asked me why I decided to write about a BoHo BAP. My answer has been that I write about my personal experiences and what I have witnessed in life, literature, art, music, and culture. These experiences and insights helped me to accept and express my BoHo BAPness.

The first time that I heard the title Black American Princess was when my mother gave me the nickname in my late teens. Many years later, I discovered The BAP Handbook: The Official Guide to the Black American Princess. I thought that The BAP Handbook was an entertaining and humorous read that shed light on the various lifestyles of Black American Princesses. I especially enjoyed the BAP Quiz. One summer evening, my mother and I were reading the book for fun and took the quiz together. We learned that:

1) She was a Butterfly BAP, a BAP who did not come from a prominent family, but discovers her "BAPness" in college; and

2) I was a BoHo BAP, a BAP who comes from a prominent family, but is unorthodox in her style and her behavior.

The next day we continued our conversation by tracing my womanline and discovered that I was the descendant of a long line of BAPs on my father’s side. His grandmother, mother, and aunts all passed the BAP quiz with flying colors. That gave us a big laugh. It left me with a question: What is a BAP?

For me, a BAP is a woman who is:

B - Being
A - At
P - Peace

Being At Peace with who I am and who I am becoming as I walk Mother Earth clothed as an African American woman is a lifelong process that calls me to discover, embrace, and accept my whole self ... the stuff I like and the stuff I hide from... my fears, anger, mistakes, shame, guilt, weaknesses, and emotional wounds ... all of my multi-layered complex identities.

As I have walked the path of Being At Peace, my BAP experience has deepened. I have discovered that BAP has several additional meanings:

BAP Meaning #2

B - Becoming an
A - Authentic
P - Person

BAP Meaning #3

B - Be
A - Aware of my
P - Power, Passions, and Potential

BAP Meaning #4

B - Bring my
A- Absolute best self to the
P - Playing field of life

BAP Meaning #5

B - Brilliantly shine my
A - Amazing light so that it
P - Produces goodness

BAP Meaning # 6

B - Blessing the world with
A - All my gifts and talents
P - Puts value in my community and Mother Earth

BAP Meaning #7

B - Begin right where I
A - Am to give myself
P - Permission to speak my truth

BAP Meaning #8

B - Break down
A - Any barriers that hold me back through
P - Prayer, meditation, and affirmations.

BAP Meaning #9

B - Be my own
A- Advocate for health, healing, wellness, creative expression, safety, fulfilling relationships, satisfying career choices, and financial responsibility by
P - Practicing self-care, self-love, self-empowerment, and self-discipline.

BAP Meaning #10

B - Boldy
A - Applaud and give thanks for my own efforts and the efforts of others with
P - Praise

BAP Meaning #11

B - Bask
A - Always in the land of
P - Positivity

BAP Meaning #12

B - Bear in mind that
A - my Attitude directly impacts my
P - Presence in my own life and the lives of others

BAP Meaning #13

B - Be willing and able to
A - Apologize for and forgive
P - Past, present and future actions that hurt, harm, and wound myself and others


BAP Meaning #14

B - Battle with no one, not even myself
A - Ask Creator for support and wisdom on how to
P - Put things in order

BAP Meaning #15

B - Basic kindness and compassion
A - Are mine as long as I
P - Pause and live in the present moment with mindfulness and an open heart


My intention is to allow my spiritual practice to frame my existence as a BAP ... a woman Being At Peace ... a woman Becoming an Authentic Person who offers herself compassion and forgives as she overcomes her fears, heals her wounds, learns from her choices, improves her communication and relationships skills, trusts her intuition, releases emotional patterns and choices that no longer serve her greater good, takes responsibility for her actions and choices, speaks her truth, and lives as Creator made her to be one breath and one step at a time. It is a journey that I humbly walk with Spirit and the ancestors leading my way. My prayer is that I always live my best life knowing what Lorraine Hansberry wrote:

“…life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and—I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations.”

Peace and BAP/EBW Love,

Ananda Leeke


Note: The statement above is an excerpt from Leeke's book That Which Awakens Me: A Woman's Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery (published in Spring 2009 by iUniverse, Inc.). The BAP acronyms and meanings are trademarks of Kiamsha.com, LLC.

Blessings All,

I think that an EBW refers to an educated Black woman who (may or may not have a college degree) knows, relies on, and surrenders to the Creator (known by many names) as her source of wisdom, knowledge, guidance, identity, power, abundance, peace, truth, and LOVE. When she taps into the Creator's love and power, she becomes still and is able to think, speak, and act from her center. An EBW loves and accepts herself first. After she is able to love herself, she can give love to her partner, spouse, significant other, family, friends, communities, and world. She is a WORK IN PROCESS AND PROGRESS. She learns as she loves and lives. An EBW affirms and gives back to her family, friends, communities, and world with balance and mindfulness. She follows the guidance of Author and Poet Audre Lorde:

"If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive."

She also respects and appreciates the differences among people. She recognizes that she is one with all people and everything in the universe. She keeps it real as she laughs and has fun walking her life path.

Peace and BAP/EBW Love,

Ananda Leeke

PS: Read a blog post on stuff EBW like by "Ike," founder of Fly Funky Diva.