Meet Maya Hope. Double-dipped in cocoa with brick-house curves, she's a lover of jazz, a political poet, and a sociologist. Her best friend and roommate, Athena Jackson, is her opposite in every way -- a petite ex-cheerleader who's always blaring rap, grinding out rhymes, and ready to take the next man home. When Maya is forced to pinch-hit in an audition and bust Athena's rhymes, she finds herself on an undercover escapade in the wild world of hip-hop as the raw, sexy, roughneck Jezebel. After striking a deal with her own personal devil, Maya sets off on the tempting roller-coaster ride of a lifetime -- finding music, more fun than she's ever had, and even a man or two...but not without consequences. Brimming with electric sensuality, Dare is an unforgettable, envelope-pushing odyssey of two gutsy women playing by their own rules.
Passionate Living Coach, Author and Media Personality Abiola Abrams writes, broadcasts and gives advice about self-esteem, wellness, relationships, lifestyle, empowerment and how to live with passion. In the past year the Lifestyle Expert & Love Interventionist has: been a featured Love Columnist on sites like Yahoo Shine and gURL.com, an MTV Teen Dating Empowerment Coach on the docu-reality series "Made," reported on celebrity relationships as a BBC Radio Entertainment Correspondent, talked about and written about love for Essence, blogged on her lifestyle site "Abiola's Passionista Playbook," and hosted/produced her award-winning "Abiola's Kiss & Tell TV" web talk show and advice vlogs. In addition, she is a recurring Love, Self-Esteem & Lifestyle Guru on talk shows like the CW Network's "Bill Cunningham Show."
Abiola has hosted lifestyle TV shows like BET's "The Best Shorts," HBO's "The Buzz" and NBC's "Source: All Access" and appears as a pop culture talking head on networks like FOX. As a social experiment the lifestyle journalist most notoriously went undercover to star as "Miss Picky" on VH1 matchmaker "reality" series "Tough Love." As a part of her ongoing safe sex education initiative she directed the award-winning and critically acclaimed feminist erotica art film, "Afrodite Superstar." Her social issues short films and documentaries about race, gender and relationships have been shown in festivals, museums and universities from Berlin to New York City.
Abiola's upcoming book, The Official Bombshell Handbook, is part humorous memoir, part fun handbook, about using the power of the feminine to live with passion. She is reclaiming the word "bomshell" to mean a woman who owns herself. Dare (Simon & Schuster), a hip hop love story, Abiola's popular debut novel was taught at Amherst College and her provocative writing has been published in anthologies such as Behind the Bedroom Door, Dirty Words, Say Word: Voices from Hip Hop Theater and Eve Ensler's A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer.
Abiola Abrams talks love, dating, self-esteem and lifestyle in documentaries such as Michael Baisden's "Do Women Know What They Want?," Therese Shechter's "How to Lose Your Virginity" and "In Our Heads About Our Own Hair" directed by Hemanset Angaza. Abiola has also given keynote addresses on empowerment at many schools such as NYU, The New School for Social Research and Howard University and for women at conferences like Single in Stilettos and the upcoming Momentum Convention.
Abiola Abrams has a BA from Sarah Lawrence and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Abiola is also a Certified Wellness Coach. She created and curated the Chashama Gallery Manhattan exhibit "Hos, Putas and Dragon Ladies: Our Sexuality Remixed," "The Goddess Factory" at Rush Arts and VDay's "Until the Violence Stops Film Festival" at the Museum of The City of NY and the Museum of TV and Radio.
