“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our minds.” – Redemption Song by Bob Marley

So today Oprah had Wyclef, Rihanna, Maxwell and CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta on for her Haiti special today which was dedicated to last week’s catastrophic earthquake in Haiti.

R&B artist Maxwell [his mom is Haitian] sang “Fistful of Tears,” and he also shared how his Haitian roots inspired him to spend years fighting to end hunger there and why he believed something positive will come out of the recent devastation.

Here is video of Rihanna’s live performance of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” on the “Oprah Show” today.  “Redemption Song” is the last track on Bob Marley and the Wailers’ ninth Island music album, Uprising. The song was originally released by Bob Marley in 1980, the same year, Zimbabwe got its independence [groovy trivia, my momma  took my sister & I to see Bob Marley perform for Zimbabwe's first independence celebration in April 1980].

Maxwell performed

And one of Haiti’s biggest champions, Grammy-winning singer Wyclef Jean, shared a firsthand account of what he found when he traveled back to his native land just days ago.

Here is Wyclef’s moving recount of his trip to Haiti…

…this stuff is real!

Both songs Maxwell’s Fistful of Tears & Rihanna’s Redemption Song are available on iTunes, with proceeds going to the relief effort in Haiti, including the Red Cross, UNICEF, Oxfam America and Partners In Health.

Please leave us your comments…love to hear what’s on your heart & mind…

Love ya for it!

Photo: Essence

Mad shout-out for all of you who have helped and who continue to assist Haiti!

I was relieved to hear that my friend Sekuru Bob‘s family in Haiti is ok. Keeping my friend Dell Isidor in Canada in my thoughts & prayers, he has family in Haiti. Fashion Expose, founded by Haitian couture designer, Prajje Jean-Baptiste is reaching out to help those in Haiti that are suffering from the recent tragedy through EDE Haiti. For more on EDE Haiti join their FaceBook Fanpage to find out more information on how you can help!

So Wyclef Jean‘s non profit organization, Yele Haiti has had some negative pub recently regarding the organization’s finances. Wyclef responded to The Smoking Gun’s “funny money” accusations against his organization. Apparently Yele Haiti has already raised more than $2 million to help earthquake victims, since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti this past Tuesday. Peep Wyclef’s video response below…

The U.S First Lady, Mrs. Michelle Obama’s did an PSA for the Red Cross for Haiti. Check it below…

Talking about the First Lady, the Obama’s gave People magazine their first interview of 2010…

According to Jezebel.com, here are snippets of the interview…

As a woman under 50, would she [Mrs Obama] stop getting annual mammograms in light of the controversial new guidelines on breast cancer? She replied:

I do [get annual mammograms], and I’m not going to change. I tend to err on the side of caution in every aspect of my health. The broader message to women is that we have to own our health. Listen to advice, but ultimately we’ve got to take care of ourselves.

Can Tiger Woods be rehabilitated? President Obama says:

Absolutely. I don’t want to comment on his personal relationship with his wife and family, but I’m a strong believer that anybody can look within themselves, find their flaws and fix them. I’m sure he feels terrible about what happened, and I suspect that he will try to put his life back together again.

Asked if she’s unnerved by the security breach at the White House State Dinner First Lady Michelle Obama said:

The state dinner was an outstanding success. It’s just the follow-up after it. I look at the reporting on the state dinner and go, ‘Is that all that happened? Really. Because I sat in a phenomenal dinner where the prime minister and his wife were, felt, so connected to the United States and they were so proud to be there. And the evening was so wonderful and it was so well orchestrated,” she said. ‘For me the other stuff that everyone is talking about is a footnote to what the state dinner actually was. So I wouldn’t do that over.

As for Senator Harry Reid‘s comments about candidate President Obama having a good shot at the presidency because he’s a “light-skinned” African American who had “no Negro dialect,” First Lady Michelle Obama refused to add to the controversy, saying:

Harry Reid had no need to apologize to me. Because I know Harry Reid. I measure people more so on what they do, rather than the things that they say.

First Lady Michelle Obama Reviews First Year In White House, Discusses Aims For 2010 [The Washington Post]
Our First Year [People, not online]