BOOKS: "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo (the best story I've ever been told!), "Kindred" by Octavia Butler (a book that inspired me as a girl)
AUTHORS: Truman Capote, E. Lynn Harris, Michael Cunningham, James Baldwin, Jane Austen, Ian McEwan, Carl Weber, Augusten Burroughs, Zane, Mario Puzo, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Kimberla Lawson Roby, Philippa Gregory, Angela Winters...(the list is too long to continue)
POETS: Countee Cullen, Robert Frost, Sonia Sanchez, Anne Sexton, Billy Collins, Tupac Shakur, Arthur Rimbaud, Adebanke Fagbenle, Rita Dove, William Shakespeare, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nikki Giovanni...(the list is too long to continue)
MAGAZINES: The Washingtonian, Writer's Digest, Poets & Writers, Mosaic, Glimmer Train, True Confessions, Black Romance
MUSIC: Old/Contemporary Jazz, Blues, Opera, Hard/Arena Rock, Hip Hop, Neo-Soul, Reggae, World Music (African, Salsa)
SPORTS: Boxing (Go De La Hoya!) Baseball (Go Yankees!)
ACTORS/ACTRESSES: Don Cheadle, Heath Ledger, Tom Hanks, Forest Whitaker, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington, Al Pacino, Phillip Seymor Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, James McAvoy; Gerard Butler, Johnathan Rhys Meyers, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hillary Swank, Meryl Streep, Ruby Dee, Renee Zellweiger, Alfre Woodard, Sally Field, Kathy Bates, Natalie Portman
COMEDIANS: Richard Pryor, Dave Chappelle, Adam Sandler, Dane Cook, Katt Williams, George Carlin, Martin Lawrence, Mike Epps, Jonah Hill
FOODS: Anything Italian, Steak, Spare Ribs, My Mother's baked beans, My Sister's meatballs, My Aunt Chris' potato salad, My Grandmother's 7-UP cake, cobb salad, Alaskan crab legs, tiger shrimp, butter brickle flavored ice cream, anything with chocolate, caramel and toffee
DRINKS: Red Wine, Spumante, Mimosa, Crystal Light Fruit Punch, Vitamin Water
TV SHOWS: Sex and the City, ANTM, The Tudors, The Real World, Desperate Housewives, Hell's Kitchen, Roseanne, Six Feet Under, True Blood, U. S. of Tara