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Erykah Badu Plans to Switch Careers

The natural (or is it au naturel?) diva has decided on another vocation beside entertainer. After assisting a friend giving birth, Badu wants to become a doula, or midwife. Now at least the appropriate person, the baby, will be nude.

Women-Owned Roofing Company Makes SBA History

Atlanta's Advantage Building Contractors, Inc. has made its mark in construction. In August, Advantage won the first federal Women-Owned Small Business construction contract. The work is at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, the main research facility for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. British-born Lynn Sutton is CEO of Advantage, and her partner and president is Trish Summers. The company also has a $1.4 million federal contract to install a LEED- and Energy Star-certified reflective roofing system for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Mobile Applications Created by African-American Inventors

Black inventors are moving into the mobile apps development field, and it's about time. Apple's App Store sells more than 425,000 mobile apps for the iPhone. Its rival, Android Marketplace, has more than 30,000 apps available. 

Last year I wrote about a pair of brilliant Spelman women, Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller, who won the 2010 AT&T National Mobile App competition. Their creation was the HBCU Buddy. Accoridng to the website Today's Drum, "It educates users about historically black colleges and universities. It has customizable social networking features and information about every HBCU."

This year the duo's innovation is joined by Inky-Apps! a Web store created for the "promotion, advertisement and development of mobile applications for the undeveloped and undiscovered mobile markets." Richard Fields, the founder, who graduated from Long Island University's C.W. Post Campus, was a senior network technical analyst at Hewlett-Packard. Listen to Fields on BlogTalkRadio.

Another popular application, Multiple Madness, was created by Veda Rogers, an Android mobile-application developer.

Made in America: The Economics of Black Art

The Atlanta Post published an informative piece that tracks the rising value of African-American art throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and explores how it has become more popular and, naturally, more expensive. In 2007 New York City's Swann Auction Galleries created a new department specifically to sell these treasures.

In the article, Dr. Imo Nse Imeh, assistant professor of art and art history at Westfield State University in Massachusetts, says that the cultural and identifying racial themes affect the value and price determined by the art world. "One must always keep this in mind: The white artist is the mainstream artist. Mainstream art is a white world. It is controlled by a white circle, therefore determining who can purchase art."

The Bottom Line Bookshelf

In his new book, The Wealth Cure: Putting Money in Its Place, Hill Harper, 45, wants to help readers avoid personal and financial pitfalls. There is nothing unexpected in Harper's approach, but his commonsense suggestions for handling personal-finance, budgeting and spending issues should resonate. The actor, author, Ivy Leaguer and philanthropist urges readers to think of money as a tool, not as a result.

Recently, Harper spoke to The Root about his cancer diagnosis and what he was thinking while writing The Wealth Cure. He is also the author of Letters to a Young Brother and The Conversation: How Black Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships.