New Year's Resolutions!

Benita's Lesson of the Day: In making your New Year's Resolutions, remember to include a plan of action. Good luck!

Happy Holidays from Benita Charles Music!

Dear Friends:

Happy Holidays! I wish you and your family a very safe and joyous season.

Thank you so much for your interest and support of my music in 2011. Your encouragement, attendance of my performances and purchase of my music mean the world to me.

Take care and enjoy the season.

Much love,

Benita Charles Music

Spreading love through music for your inspiration & entertainment!

Artist Website: benitacharles.com
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Benita-Charles-Music/88019945536
Twitter: twitter.com/Benita_Charles
Youtube: youtube.com/BenitaCharles

A Very Special Thank You: Benita Charles & Friends Holiday Show/Toy Drive 12/18/11

Dear Friends:

I'd like to send a very special thank you to all who attended my holiday show and toy drive last night at Bar Thalia!

Thank you for the wonderful toys you brought. I am so grateful to you!! With your help, we were able to fill the large box from the Toys from Tots organization with toys that will bring joy to many special boys and girls this Christmas season. Thank you for making our toy drive a huge success!!!

A very special thank you to Staff Sgt. Anderson and Sgt. Montana for taking the time to come out to the show, speak to us about the charity and collect the toys.

It was such a beautiful evening! Thank you for sharing it with me.

I would like to wish you and your families a wonderful season.

Much love,

Benita Charles Music

"Spreading love through music for your inspiration and entertainment!"

http://benitacharles.com

Tomorrow: Benita Charles & Friends Holiday Show/Toy Drive 2011

Dear Friends:



I hope you can join me tomorrow for the Benita Charles & Friends Holiday Show/Toy Drive 2011 at Bar Thalia - Symphony Space at 8:00 pm. In addition to great music and entertainment, we will present our 3rd annual toy drive for Toys for Tots. There's no cover but we're asking everyone who attends to bring an unwrapped toy for a boy or a girl. The marines will be present to collect the toys on behalf of the Toys for Tots organization. Together, we can make this the best toy drive ever!! See you at the show. bit.ly/uyV5Av (Benita Charles Music)

NY-Vocalist Benita Charles Presents Third Annual Holiday Show/Toy Drive - 12/18/11

(New York, NY): NY-based vocalist, Benita Charles presents her third annual holiday show/toy drive on Sunday, December 18th at 8:00 pm at Bar Thalia at Symphony Space on the upper west side of New York City.

Ms. Charles will perform holiday favorites, R&B, jazz and original music with her band, The Benita Charles & Friends Band, to spread holiday cheer.

Ms. Charles requests those who attend to bring an unwrapped toy for a special child in need this holiday season for her third annual toy drive for the Toys For Tots organization. A representative from the U.S. Marine Corps will be present to collect the toys. Let's make this the best toy drive ever!!

The Toys for Tots program is dedicated to helping less fortunate children throughout the New York area experience the joy of the holiday season. Ms. Charles is honored and proud to partner with the U.S. Marine Corps in this endeavor to serve and improve our local community. For more information, visit: http://brooklyn-ny.toysfortots.org.
To RSVP for the Benita Charles & Friends Holiday Show 2011, send email to starent99@hotmail.com or call (212) 802-9249.

Show Time: 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm

Admission: No cover (unwrapped toy requested)

Location: Bar Thalia at Symphony Space is located on the upper west side at 2537 Broadway (at 95th Street) in New York City.

For more information about vocalist, Benita Charles please visit: http://benitacharles.com

Strive for Excellence!

Benita's Lesson of the Day: Always strive for excellence. You never know whose life you will impact.

Happy Thanksgiving from Benita Charles Music!

Dear Friends:

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

On this Thanksgiving, I am so grateful to you for your continued support of my musical endeavors. I hope you find my lessons helpful and meaningful! As long as I continue to live life, I will continue to share with you the things I've learned. :)

Take care and I hope you have an enjoyable holiday!

Much Love,

Benita Charles Music
Spreading love through music for your entertainment & inspiration!

Artist Website: http://benitacharles.com

Benita's Lesson of the Day: Fear

Benita's Lesson of the Day: You have to face your fears!

Vesta Williams - R.I.P.

I'm sorry to hear about the passing of R&B great, Vesta Williams! My thoughts and prayers are with her daughter & her family.

One on my all-time favorite R&B songs: "Congratulations" by Vesta Williams (R.I.P.)

Sept 11th: We will never forget!

Just like today, it was a clear, sunny day that changed the world forever. We will never forget: 9.11.01.

Benita's Lesson of the Day: Experience

Benita's Lesson of the Day: Life doesn't have a "how-to" manual. Experience is the best teacher.

Grandfather - John Gooden shares about his life

At 93, my grandfather shares about his life.

Happy Father's Day!

Dear Friends:

I'd like to wish all the fathers of the world a very Happy Father's Day! I hope you enjoy your day.

Much love,

Benita Charles Music
http://benitacharles.com

"Spreading love through music for your inspiration and entertainment!"

Happy Easter!

Dear Friends:

I'd like to wish you and yours a Happy Easter!

Much love,

Benita Charles Music

“Spreading love through music for your entertainment & inspiration!”

Benita's Lesson of the Day: Everything Happens for a Reason

Benita's Lesson of the Day: "Everything happens for a reason."

Sometimes in life, things happen and you don't know why but there's always a reason. You won't always know the "why" right way. Sometimes it takes years for the why...sometimes you'll never know why something happens but the reason is always there. Knowing the "why" is helpful and can really shed a lot of light on a situation and help you understand things.

But, when you don't know the why, it changes everything. You're often confused, misguided and frustrated. If the why is not revealed you can't worry about it. It's not important. What's important is what's happening at the moment and you have to act accordingly. Because if you get too caught up with the "why" you'll miss somethings that are happening in the now.

That being said, just know that whatever is happening, there is a silver lining. There is a lesson that can be learned and there is something positive that can come out of the situation.

--Benita Charles Music

www.benitacharles.com

Benita's Lesson of the Day: Driver's Seat

Benita's Lesson of The Day: "You are in the driver's seat on the road of life. Life is what you make it."

The statement: You are in the driver's seat - really hit home for me. When I said it to myself, all of a sudden I felt more powerful. That's what it's all about - realizing our power we all have and applying it.

There are things in life that we can't control but the one thing we can control is our mind and our attitude. This fact will help you through a lot of life's challenges.

Remember: In the driver's seat, you can steer in any direction. I hope you're on a positive path.

Benita's Lesson of the Day: Dare to Dream

Benita's Lesson of the Day: "Dare To Dream!" Today, we honor the memory of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King - a man who had a vision and dared to dream of a better world!


Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's
"I Have a Dream" Speech - August 28, 1963


I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of hope to millions of slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the colored America is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the colored American is still sadly crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chains of discrimination.

One hundred years later, the colored American lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the colored American is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our Nation's Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed to the inalienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given its colored people a bad check, a check that has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice.

We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.

Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.

Now it the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.

Now it the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God's children.

I would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of it's colored citizens. This sweltering summer of the colored people's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the colored Americans needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the colored citizen is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.

We cannot be satisfied as long as the colored person's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.

We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for white only."

We cannot be satisfied as long as a colored person in Mississippi cannot vote and a colored person in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.

No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of your trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality.

You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our modern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you, my friends, we have the difficulties of today and tomorrow.

I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as s)sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi and every mountainside.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King


*Prepared by Gerald Murphy (The Cleveland Free-Net - aa300) Distributed by the Cybercasting Services Division of the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). Permission is hereby granted to download, reprint, and/or otherwise redistribute this file, provided appropriate point of origin credit is given to the preparer(s) and the National Public Telecomputing Network.


DARE TO DREAM!