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Blaxploitation film diva Pam Grier was recently honored at The Wellness Community's first annual Cancer Health and Wellness Weekend in Los Angeles. The 'Foxy Brown' star was presented with the Champion of Challenge Award for surviving cervical cancer. During the event, Grier, who recently released her autobiography 'Foxy: My Life in Three Acts,' candidly addressed attendees and opened up about her battle with the disease. She counts the award as her "most important achievement in life" and believes the work that The Wellness Community is doing will continue to help others get through their cancer battles.
"It offers guidance to the family around you...to give you strength," the 61-year-old Emmy Award nominee shared. "The disease impacts everyone around you. You have to determine how and who you advise of your need for support."When she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 39, which spread from her cervix to her uterus, Grier immediately took a non-traditional course of action.
"Listen to your doctors and to your bodies," she encouraged.
"My MD located my oncologist [and] after a series of surgeries and therapies, I was sent to Chinatown, to investigate the eastern theory of wellness. I drank teas, mixed herbs and applied acupuncture and yoga," she explained to Blackvoices.com
The Wellness Community, which is celebrating its 28th year, raised money to open a wellness community hired a minority therapist and is hoping to continue to raise funds to open a satellite office in the African-American community in Los Angeles. According to a spokesperson, the organization is the largest cancer support non-profit in the world and offers services for free to cancer survivors no matter what stage of their disease.
BV on Books: Hot List for This Season
BV on Books' Hot List for This Season
BV on Books: Hot List for This Season
In 'The Porn Star Guide to Great Sex' (St. Martin's Press, $24.99), porn star veteran Mr. Marcus pens a guide that will set the house on fire. Yes, the whole house, honey! He does not just recommend tricks in bedroom; the Guide comes complete with illustrations and gives tips on how men and women can be better lovers and mates.
BV on Books: Hot List for This Season
In 'The Cheating Curve' (Dafina/Kensington, $15), Paula T. Renfroe spins a captivating yarn about marriage, infidelity and friendship. Can a friendship survive when a woman, whose husband's infidelity nearly tore her apart, learns that her best friend is cheating on her husband?
BV on Books: Hot List for This Season
In 'Visible Lives: Three Stories in Tribute to E. Lynn Harris' (Kensington, $15), Terrance Dean, James Early Hardy and Stanley Bennett Clay join forces to write moving tributes to the celebrated best-selling novelist with hot tales of sex and the search for love by gay black men.
BV on Books: Hot List for This Season
In 'Black is the New White' (Gallery, $15), Paul Mooney, the talented comic presents a sobering memoir about growing up in the Deep South and moving to Hollywood and New York City to write for some of television's most successful shows, including 'Chappelle's Show,' 'In Living Color,' 'Saturday Night Live,' 'Good Times,' and 'Sanford and Son.' But his formidable talent for making jokes about race propelled him to the forefront of the comedy scene as if he were a comedian himself.
BV on Books: Hot List for This Season
In 'Butterfly Rising' (Create Space, $15), Tanya Wright, who portrays the recurring role of Deputy Kenya Jones on HBO's hit drama 'True Blood,' writes her debut novel, which tells the story of an unlikely friendship between two women, a grief-stricken young singer and the town's seductress. The two end up taking a road trip that transforms their lives forever in this heartwarming story.
BV on Books: Hot List for This Season
In 'Luke Cage Marvel Noir' (Marvel Comics, $14.99), artist and illustrator Shawn Martinbrough brings dark comic book character Luke Cage to life with his colorful and striking drawings in this absorbing tale about a "bad, bad man.'' Even if you're not a big fan of comics, you will be hooked on this story. In the fourth of the series, Cage returns to Harlem after 10 years behind bars, hoping to find his old flame, but he gets drawn into a complex web of murder and darkness.
BV on Books: Hot List for This Season
In 'Foxy: My Life in Three Acts' (Springboard Press/Hachette Book Group, $24.99), by Pam Grier with Andrea Cagan, the iconic actress, who immortalized roles such as Foxy Brown, Coffy and Friday Foster, reveals the darker side of what appeared to be a glamorous life in this heartrending memoir about love, survival and restoration.
BV on Books: Hot List for This Season
In 'My Father's House' (St. Martin's Press, $24.99), posthumously released by E. Lynn Harris, the author weaves a powerful story of love, desire, deception, murder and absolution around the life of Bentley L. Dean III, who takes a gamble on losing his family inheritance when he reveals his homosexuality.
BV on Books: Hot List for This Season
In 'Till You Hear From Me' by Pearl Cleage (One World/Ballantine Books, $25), the award-winning author highlights her unique storytelling ability by capturing the heartbeat of America with the tale of Ida B. Wells Dunbar, a 35-year-old presidential campaign worker who wins a job at the White House. The story underscores the difficulties of parlaying hard work into fair game in the shifting world of politics. It also intersects with a post-Obama America and the civil rights movement.
