World AIDS Day 2009

Today is World AIDS Day. HIV/AIDS affects millions around the globe, so we are dedicating this post to all of those out there dealing with the disease. Cut It Out! strives to empower females to take control of their health, inside and out. We encourage everyone to be proactive in living healthier lives and part of that involves taking better steps to prevent contracting the HIV/AIDS virus. We support those that are living with the virus and encourage them to seek the most suitable treatments available to prevent the onset of AIDS.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC), Act Against AIDS website provides factual information about HIV/AIDS, disease prevention, ways in which to delay the onset of the disease, and how you can get involved and volunteer.

Want to know what women can do to prevent the disease? Please read the information on prevention we've posted below, (provided by the CDC):

"Your risk of getting HIV or passing it to someone else depends on several things. Do you know what they are? You might want to talk to someone who knows about HIV. You can also do the following:

• Abstain from sex (do not have oral, anal, or vaginal sex) until you are in a relationship with only one person, are having sex with only each other, and each of you knows the other’s HIV status.
  • If both you and your partner have HIV, use condoms to prevent other STDs and possible infection with a different strain of HIV.
  • If only one of you has HIV, use a latex condom and lubricant every time you have sex.
• If you have, or plan to have, more than one sex partner, consider the following:
  • Get tested for HIV
    • If you are a woman who is planning to get pregnant or who is pregnant, get tested as soon as possible, before you have your baby.
  • Talk about HIV and other STDs with each partner before you have sex.
  • Learn as much as you can about each partner’s past behavior (sex and drug use) and consider the risks to your health before you have sex.
  • Ask your partners if they have recently been tested for HIV; encourage those who have not been tested to do so.
  • Use a latex condom and lubricant every time you have sex.
  • If you think you may have been exposed to another STD such as gonorrhea, syphilis, or Chlamydia trachomatis infection, get treatment. These diseases can increase your risk of getting HIV.
• Even if you think you have low risk for HIV infection, get tested whenever you have a regular medical check-up.
• Do not inject illicit drugs (drugs not prescribed by your doctor). You can get HIV through needles, syringes, and other works if they are contaminated with the blood of someone who has HIV. Drugs also cloud your mind, which may result in riskier sex.
• If you do inject drugs, do the following:
  • Use only clean needles, syringes, and other works.
  • Never share needles, syringes, or other works.
  • Be careful not to expose yourself to another person's blood.
  • Get tested for HIV test at least once a year.
  • Consider getting counseling and treatment for your drug use.
• Do not have sex when you are taking drugs or drinking alcohol because being high can make you more likely to take risks.

To protect yourself, remember these ABCs:

A=Abstinence

B=Be Faithful

C=Condoms

If you are a woman, there are even more things you can do.

DO

Use a female condom.

Get tested, especially if you’re pregnant.

If you are pregnant and have HIV, talk to your doctor about taking medicine so your baby does not get your HIV.

DO NOT

• Do not use spermicides that contain nonoxynol-9 (N-9). This product may help keep you from getting pregnant, but it will not protect you from HIV. In fact, using N-9 often may actually make it easier for you to get HIV.
• Do not count on most birth control methods to protect you from HIV. The following birth control methods will NOT protect you from HIV:

• The pill
• Diaphrams
• Shots
• Implants
• N-9

Do not douche. Douching removes some of your body’s natural protection."

Source: CDC

To learn more, visit World AIDS Day.

Remember, if you are sexually active, it is extremely important that you get tested and take the proper preventative measures to protect yourself.

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Made You Look!!!

(Marvelous Mo with Teyana Taylor
Photo Credit, Marvelous Mo twitpic)

Mo is rocking a Cut It Out! My Name Is Not Shorty tee in this pic and is ALWAYS supporting CIO! We appreciate you!! Mo is a great writer, you can check her blog here.

(Mo and Teyana having a "Shanaynay" moment
Photo credit, Marvelous Mo twitpic)

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Cut It Out! x In Her Shoes Blog

Cut It Out! has been featured on In Her Shoes blog's Fly Female Entrepreneurs section!!!

We are delighted to be a part of such a great blog. We want to send a tremendous thank you to the wonderful Renae Bluitt for the feature.

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National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is National Breast Cancer Awarness Month. This year NBCAM celebrates 25 years of "Awareness, Education and Empowerment"!!

Women are always encouraged to get annual breast exams and mammograms (age appropriate), but during this month there is special attention given to helping women to become more aware of Breast Cancer prevention, treatment and the overall care of our bodies.

For more information, please visit the NBCAM website

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The Danger of The Single Story by Chimamanda Adiche

Every so often, we choose to use space on our blog to post issues, topics, etc. that are extremely noteworthy. The following video of Novelist Chimamanda Adichie, is an important piece where she talks about "The Danger of a Single Story." In this particular video, Adichie talks about how:

"Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. [She] tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."

Adichie's talk was completely on point as she touched upon how we are in danger of creating one story to define who we are, as well as others. The talk was empowering and we especially appreciated these following quotes from her speech:

"All of these stories make me who I am, but to insist on only these negative stories is to flatten my experience and to overlook the many other stories that form me."

"The single story creates stereotypes and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but, that they are incomplete. They make one story become the whole story."

"Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people but stories can also repair that broken dignity."

Destroy Stereotypes!!

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Cut It Out! x Afrobella GIVEAWAY

Cut It Out! Apparel has teamed up with the wonderful Afrobella to offer devoted blog readers one of our Cut It Out! Tees!!! Head over to the blog and find out how you can be a part of this contest!

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Made You Look!! NYC

Fab stylist U-U, rocking a Cut It Out! DOPE tee...

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Cut It Out! @ Rock The Block!!

(Click the image to visit the website)

Rock The Block is going down on August 15, 2009!!! We'll be there, will you?

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Cut It Out! @ Youth Empowerment Day 2009

(click image to view larger size)

The ladies of Cut It Out! will be out at Youth Empowerment Day today, August 1!! Please come out and enjoy a full day of exciting activities! We'll be there from 12-7pm! We hope to see you there.

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Made You Look!!! NY to CA

Cut It Out! Girl Moenise, representin' NY in our Destroy Stereotypes Tee!!

Cut It Out! Girl LaSonya, rockin' it out in CA with our Dope Tee!!

Cut It Out! Girls Tirinda, Janay and Noricia, goin' hard in NYC @ Libation!!

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Cut It Out! x Lil Raggamuffin Summer Camp

make a difference...

Here at Cut It Out! Apparel, we are always seeking ways in which to help support our youth. Our friends over at Born As A Raggamuffin need our help in funding their summer camp for under privileged youth in Jamaica. The Lil Raggamuffin Summer Camp is now in its third year; and this year, with your help, they can continue to challenge and inspire our youth to be confident, determined and artistic. Here are just some of the programs planned for this year:

• Courses in craft skills, including beading, crocheting and painting
• Workshops on the value of eating healthily
• Lessons in eco-conservation
• Forums designed to tackle social and complex issues

DONATE

You are also invited to attend their Earring Loft Fundraiser, this coming Friday, July 24, beginning at 7pm. The event will be held at 131 Duane St, NYC. All proceeds from the fundraiser will help to support the Lil Raggamuffin Summer Camp.

For more info visit their webiste: Lil Raggamuffin Summer Camp

Camp kick off is in 18 days…Let’s help make a difference!!!


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RIP Michael Jackson - Pop Culture ICON

(August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009)

Hearing the news about the death of Michael Jackson was a complete shock and the feeling is still so surreal. We at Cut It Out! Apparel would like to dedicate this post to the KING OF POP. 

We thank you for your music that so genuinely moved, grooved, soothed and touched us beyond belief. You were a brilliant artist, humanitarian and entertainer, who dazzled us with your ONE OF A KIND moves...and fashion.  We are truly blessed to have had the time we spent with you. You will always be remembered in our hearts...and your music will live on forever!

We welcome any comments on your fondest memory of MJ! 

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Cut It Out! Apparel x BAMcinematek Afro-Punk Festival

(Click picture to visit BAM Afro-punk site)

Cut It Out! will be out at the BAMcinematek AFRO-PUNK Festival this Sunday, July 12 from 12-8pm. Be sure to come check us out. We'll be featuring some new styles!!! Hope to see you there.

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Made You Look!! South Africa

Our Destroy Stereotypes Tee!!

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Made You Look!!! Brooklyn NY

Cut It Out! Apparel was asked to donate some of our tees for a good cause to The Vanguard Parent/Teacher Fashion Show in Brooklyn, NY. The fashion show was held to raise money for the children's afterschool program. We attended the show and had a great time, check out a few pics we captured from that evening...

Cut It Out! Logo Tee...



Thank you for the pictures lady. We enjoyed ourselves and we love supporting our community!

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Made You Look!!!

Check out Cut It Out! girl Christina Rodriguez, of South Richmond Hill rocking our Game Over tee...


Thanks for the photo Christina!!!

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Made You Look!!! New York, NY

Cut It Out! Logo T-Dress

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Cut It Out! Recognizing Great Black Women during Black History Month

bell hooks
(September, 1952 -)


Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by the pen name bell hooks, is an American author, feminist, and social activist. Her writing has focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and gender and their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination. She has published over thirty books and numerous scholarly and mainstream articles, appeared in several documentary films and participated in various public lectures. Primarily through a postmodern perspective, she has addressed race, class and gender in education, art, history, sexuality, mass media and feminism. (more)

Source: wikipedia.org

Cut It Out! Recognizing Great Black Women during Black History Month

Marian Anderson
(February 27, 1897 – April 8, 1993)

Marian Anderson was an America contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century. She possessed a rich and vibrant voice with an intrinsic quality of beauty. Most of her singing career was spent performing in concert and recital in major music venues and with major orchestras throughout the United States and Europe between 1925-1965. Although she was offered contracts to perform roles with many important European opera companies, Anderson declined all of these, prefering to perform in concert and recital only. She did, however, perform opera arias within her concerts and recitals. She made many recordings that reflected her broad performance repertoire of everything from concert literature to lieder to opera to traditional American songs and spirituals.

An African-American, Anderson became an important figure in the struggle for black artists to overcome racial prejudice in the United States during the mid twentieth century. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) refused permission for Anderson to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall. Their race-driven refusal placed Anderson into the spotlight of the international community on a level usually only found by high profile celebrities and politicians. (more)

Source: wikipedia.org

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Cut It Out! Recognizing Great Black Women during Black History Month

Nina Simone
(February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003)

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone was a fifteen-time Grammy Award-nominated American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil rights activist.

Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is generally classified as a jazz musician. Simone originally aspired to become a classical pianist, but her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles besides her classical basis, such as jazz, soul, folk, R&B, gospel and pop music. Her vocal style is characterized by intense passion, a loose vibrato, and a slightly androgynous timbre, in part due to her unusually low vocal range which veered between the alto and tenor ranges (occasionally even reaching baritone lows). Sometimes known as The High Priestess of Soul, she paid great attention to the musical expression of emotions. Within one album or concert she could fluctuate between exuberant happiness or tragic melancholy. These fluctuations also characterized her own personality and personal life, worsened by bipolar disorder with which she was diagnosed in the mid-1960s, but was kept secret until 2004.

Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, the biggest body of her work being released between 1958 (when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue) and 1974. Songs she is best known for include "My Baby Just Care for Me", "I Put a Spell on You", "I Loves You Porgy", "Feeling Good", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", Sinnerman", "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", "Ain't Got No/I Got Life" and "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl".

Her music and message made a strong and lasting impact on culture, illustrated by the numerous contemporary artists who cite her as an important influence (among them Mary J. Blige, Elkie Brooks, Alicia Keys, Jeff Buckley, John Legend, Lauryn Hill and Peter Gabriel. (more)

Source: Wikipedia.org

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Cut It Out! Honors Black History Month

In honor of Black History Month we wanted to highlight a few of the women who have made an impact on Black History in America. We will be continually posting throughout this month. Here is our first woman of honor:

Hallie Quinn Brown
(March 10, 1850 - September 16, 1949)


Educator, lecturer, clubwoman, reformer

Daughter of former slaves, Hallie Brown grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Chatham, Ontario. She graduated from Wilberforce University in Ohio and taught in schools in Mississippi and South Carolina. In 1885 she became dean of Allen University in South Carolina, and studied at the Chautauqua Lecture School. She taught public school in Dayton, Ohio, for four yeas, and then was appointed lady principal (dean of women) of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, working with Booker T. Washington.

From 1893 to 1903, she served as professor of elocution at Wilberforce University, but served on a limited basis as she lectured and organized, traveling frequently. She helped promote the Colored Woman's League which became part of the National Association of Colored Women. In Great Britain, where she spoke to popular acclaim on African American life, she made several appearances before Queen Victoria, including tea with the Queen in July, 1889. She also spoke for temperance groups and represented the United States at the International Congress of Women, meeting in London in 1899. She took up the cause of woman suffrage and spoke on the topic of full citizenship for women as well as civil rights for black Americans. In 1925 she protested segregation of the Washington (DC) Auditorium being used for the All-American Musical Festival of the International Council of Women, threatening that all black performers would boycott the event if segregated seating were not ended. Two hundred black entertainers did boycott the event and black participants left in response to her speech. (more)

Source: About.com

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Made You Look!!

Random Photos of Summer 2008

Cut It Out! Girl, Tirinda rocking a "My Name Is NOT Shawty! Tee...with Dave of De la Soul at Rock the Bells (DC).

Tirinda with Mase of De la Soul at Rock the Bells (DC).



Brooklyn We Go Hard! TastyKeish donning an orange CIO Logo T-Dress...

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At Last - Barack and Michelle Obamas First Dance at the Neighborhood Ball

Just in case you missed it.

Beautiful, graceful, love...

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USA President Elect Barack Obama Takes Oath as 44th President

Congratulations to our 44th President!!!

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Happy Birthday - Martin Luther King Jr.

Cut It Out! x Westside YMCA Teens

Yesterday evening (1/14/09), we had the pleasure of speaking to teens at the Westside YMCA's Teen Center located on 63rd St in the city. We were invited to speak to the group for their Career Week and got to share the mission and inner workings of Cut It Out! Apparel.

The teens were very receptive. They asked a number of questions, gave us some feedback and solicited us for advice on business. We gave away shirts to teens who answered questions on what they learned about Cut It Out! and ended with handing out stickers, and information about our brand. (photo above of teens that won the shirts)

The teens at the Westside Y were a fun group and we enjoyed spending time with them. We would like to thank the Teen Coordinator of the program, Gia Harris, and the Westside Y staff for inviting us to the center and for the warm welcome.

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Michelle Obama - USAService.org

Make sure to do your part!

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It's 2009!

Nneka - Heartbeat

Hello everyone!!! We hope you enjoyed the holiday season. :)

We wanted to kick the new year off with some ear candy - Nigerian artist, Nneka. This video, Heartbeat, is just a taste of how dope her music is...check it out!

Here is her brief bio, (courtesy of www.Deezer.com):
"Born in Nigeria, Nneka relocated some10,000 miles to Hamburg, Germany, at the age of nineteen to pursue acareer in singing along side a degree in Anthropology. Having landed inthe German port, the singer hooked up with DJ and Hip-Hop beatmaker DJFarhot and ever since, their strong musical relationship has been thebackbone of Nneka’s success. Her influences reflect her younger days inNigeria as well as her time in the Western world. The distance she has traveled shines through in her voice as does her diverse musicalinfluences. She cites famous compatriot Fela Kuti and legend Bob Marleyas well as contemporary rappers Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Mobb Deep and Lauryn Hill as key influences in her pursuit of musical recognition." (READ MORE)

We wish you much love and prosperity for the new year.

Make sure to visit our blog for updates on our Spring 2009 line of tees, and upcoming events.

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