Posing Beauty Giveaway Winner












The first ever Style Noir giveaway has arrived just in time for the holidays! Deborah Willis' recently released Posing Beauty: African-American Images from the 1890s to the Present features hundreds of inspired-- and inspiring-- depictions of Black Americans, beginning with the turn of the century and continuing to the present day, and I've got a copy to give away to one lucky Style Noir reader. Keep it for yourself or gift it-- although this will be difficult after you thumb through it, I promise-- to your favorite budding shutterbug.

Entry is simple: leave a comment about the best holiday gift you've ever received by midnight on Friday, December 11th. On Saturday, I'll toss all the gracious participants' names into a virtual hat and randomly select a winner. For two entries and two chances to win, fan Style Noir on Facebook, where I'm prone to posting lil' tidbits that don't appear here.

Bonne chance!


WINNER: Congratulations to AMINA, who doubled her odds by becoming a fan of Style Noir on Facebook. Thank you all for your participation-- some of the answers were truly lovely! Bryant, have fun in China! Amina, email your mailing address to stylenoir at gmail dot com and we'll ship your treasure out to you ASAP. Enjoy!

19 comments:

December 8, 2009 at 3:44 PM Unknown said...

The best holiday gift I ever received was a re-gifted teddy bear. My father orginally gave me the bear after I went through surgery at five years old. About three years later my older sister wrapped that same teddy bear up in newspaper and presented it to me as a gift on Christmas day. It was kind of weird and pretty funny but it was great!

December 8, 2009 at 4:46 PM shannon said...

this book looks fab!
my best christmas gift was a digital camera.

December 8, 2009 at 5:38 PM Joseph Clinton Bembry IV said...

GI Joe with the Kung Fu grip, circa Xmas 1977. I'll let you know where to send that book!

December 8, 2009 at 7:24 PM enisio said...

The best holiday gift I've ever received was a set of Audrey Hepburn movies. Absolutely loved them!!

December 8, 2009 at 10:57 PM Divalocity said...

The best Christmas gift that I've ever received was a bicycle that I had wanted all year. I was 9 years old and I had been taking piano lessons, in which I hated because I could not go outside and play with the other kids and had to practice for hours.

That bike was the prettiest thing that I had ever seen while at the hardware store with my parents. It had a basket with flowers and a white floral banana seat and that was my dream bike.

Finally on Christmas Day, after watching my brothers and sisters open their presents and I opened mine, there was no bike in sight. My little heart was devastated, but I did my best to hide it.

My father asked me to play some Christmas music that I had learned from my lessons. I had taught myself to play "Silent Night" and "The Little Drummer Boy" which is my favorite.

I pulled out my piano stool and positioned myself at the piano and banged away "The Little Drummer Boy." Everyone oohed and awed at my amateur playing skills.

All the while that I was playing, I had no idea that my father had brought the bicycle into the living room. Just imagine my surprise we I finished my impromptu recital, I was happy as a lark!

I got my dream bike, and no I did not stick with the piano after eight years of lessons and my father sold the piano to a church, to this very day, I wish had.

To create that memory again, I went out and bought my own piano and will start taking piano lessons again, this time I'll stick with them.

December 10, 2009 at 12:53 AM Danielle Scruggs said...

Actually, the best holiday gift I received was a collage of photos of my Grandma. My mom put all these different photos of my Grandma from different decades (70s-00s) in a wooden frame and gave them to me so I would always have her around. She passed on three years ago and I live in a different city than my parents so it's nice to have those photos there as another reminder of home.

Next best gift would have to be a new Canon camera my parents sent me this year, to replace my camera that conked out on me a few months ago. Totally unexpected and much appreciated!

December 10, 2009 at 11:05 AM Style Noir said...

Thanks for sharing, everyone!

December 10, 2009 at 5:14 PM Niki McNeill Brown said...

The best holiday gift I ever got was simply a sweater from the GAP.

What's so great about a sweater from the GAP you may wonder? Well this particular sweater was sold out in my size everywhere we looked within a 30 mile radius, and I'd saved up my lil babysitting money and wanted it so bad. I'd given up hope getting it being that this was pre-Ecommerce and there was no GAP.com where I could order it.

So when Christmas morning rolled around and I unwrapped THE sweater I wanted, I was overcome with thankfulness because for the first time I had a direct example of how much my mother would do just to make me (and my sister) happy. She'd driven all over NC just to find that sweater.

And let me tell you, I felt even better going back to school with the sold out sweater everybody wanted :)

Gotta love moms!

December 11, 2009 at 10:59 AM bryant terry said...

a two-week trip to china courtesy of my mom-in-law. leaving monday!

December 11, 2009 at 11:15 AM JustBeInc said...

I heard you were giving away copies and came right over!! This book is beautiful..

The best holiday gift I ever received was Christmas of 1992 when as a college sophomore I asked my family to please, please all gather for Christmas that year, it had been several years since we were ALL in on house and I sat in my dorm with quarters calling EVERYBODY! Don't know why, I was just compelled...It was a wonderful holiday, we had so much fun, saw cousins that I hadn't in years. It ended up being the last holiday that we spent with my grandfather who passed suddenly that Spring.

The pictures from that holiday are ones that I cherish to this day!

December 11, 2009 at 11:31 AM Unknown said...

The best christmas gifts I ever received were the fists full of cash my mother has been giving me since Ive been a student. They come in handy evverrry year. lol.

December 11, 2009 at 11:49 AM Green Tee said...

Great-looking book! A trip to my most favorite place in the whole entire world (so far) - Maui! It was given to me by my boyfriend after only dating me for 2 months. Probably why I'm still with him today! : )

December 11, 2009 at 11:57 AM Hope Hyder said...

The best Christmas gift I ever received was one that I gave. I was living in NYC and the day of my flight to travel to my birthplace of Kansas City, MO to visit my family the weather was a wintery mix of snow, sleet and ice. After I learned that my flight was cancelled and I wouldn't be able to fly out for a few more days I called my mother to give her the news that I wouldn't be able to come home for the first time....ever. The sound of disappointment motivated me to do something I never thought I would do, get on a a Greyhound Bus and take a 22 hour ride from New York to Missouri. The ride was magical, grueling, illuminating and resulted in me making a new friend and also getting a cold. However my taking the journey to be home for my family for Christmas demonstrated to them just how much their joy means to me. Their happiness was and is a great gift to me....

December 11, 2009 at 12:46 PM therese said...

The best gift i ever received was edna lewis' "taste of country cooking" from my high school computer teacher. I was 17 and had plans to go into computer programing as a career. I had applied to Rutgers for early admission and had spent every summer doing internships in the field, but while i had aptitude I didn't have passion. I did however love to cook, so he gave me a copy of ms.lewis' book that he'd had forever with the inscription "follow your heart not your head". I thought about it and as I read her beautiful book, researched her life and career i realized I could make a life as a chef. I ended up changing course and have never looked back. I am living my destiny and that book and insight was the light bulb moment I needed!! A few years ago I gave the book to a young woman I met from C-CAP who had no idea how deep and rich the black contribution to food in America is with the provision that when he time came she would pay it forward to some other person in need of culinary inspiration

December 11, 2009 at 1:40 PM Sharon B. said...

The best gift I ever received was tickets to see The Color Purple on opening night in NYC. That has to be my favorite movie and when I learned it was coming on Broadway, I wanted to go so badly. My best friend bought our tickets and away we went.

December 11, 2009 at 3:46 PM maki said...

Very nice book.

Best Christmas gift: Lionel Train w/Satellite Launching Car circa 1960's. Didn't get much growing up, but this gift was the best. Thanks Mom and Dad.

December 11, 2009 at 4:14 PM Anonymous said...

in 1993 while i was in undergrad our family home burned down to the ground. we were staying in a little rental house and decided not to put up a tree, but a couple of days before christmas that year we ran around searching for one. that expereince distilled christmas down to what was important. having family near and safe.

December 11, 2009 at 11:12 PM KH said...

The best gift I received was a quirky star neckalace that I looked at but couldn't afford with my daddy. On christmas morning he had my brother give it to me. It was my only gift that year and I love it!

December 22, 2009 at 6:06 PM andrea said...

Oh wow, I just pre-posted this to my site for tomorrow. It looks like an amazing book. I can't wait to see it in person.