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King Kendrick and the Night ‘Sankofa’ Happened at the Grammy Awards
In 1993, Haile Gerima directed the groundbreaking movie Sankofa, a film about the Trans-
Atlantic Slave Trade and how its lessons helped to evolve a Black model, Mona, from her superficial understanding of life and back to her African roots. Named for a term in the Ghanaian Akan language, Sankofa means to go back and look toward the past, for wisdom and hope, in order to be able to make progress in the future. It means to be grounded in one’s African roots and African past—it reminds us to return to the source.
On the 58th Annual Grammy stage that aired Monday February 15th, 2016 Hip-Hop artist Kendrick Lamar embodied the very meaning of Sankofa in his stage performance and medley of songs from his five-time Grammy awarded album and seminal work, To Pimp a Butterfly.
He was amazing!
Dressed in all blue and in chain-gang formation, Lamar was chained and shackled with an all-Black male ensemble and surrounded by jail cages from which a saxophone wailed. With the chains on his hands and wrapped around the microphone, Kendrick Lamar declared:
“I’m African-American. I’m African. I’m black as the moon. “
Not long after this declaration, the Sankofa transformation began under a strobe of black lights illuminating the white patterns all over Lamar’s clothing and the neon colorful spirits standing and dancing along with him.
He proceeded to give us what we needed and we were reminded that every race starts from the Blacks. African drumming further encouraged the Sankofa process to take place as beautifully adorned and spirited women dancers circled Kendrick Lamar amidst the bonfire backdrop, symbolically giving birth to a Kendrick Lamar Renaissance. This was just as much our rites of passage as it was his. He became King Kendrick. The ancestors orchestrated his coronation and we watched it happen thinking were watching a Grammy performance.
Brilliant.
In a climatic testimony with only a spotlight and a microphone, Kendrick Lamar reminded us that freedom isn’t free and that it requires a kind of transformation in the mind that means seeing Compton in Africa and acknowledging the African in each of us.
Is America Being Black-Maled?
July 17th. August 5th. August 9th.
Eric Garner. John Crawford III. Michael Brown.
All Black. All dead by the hands of Police Officers.
None of their killers were indicted.
Since these killings occurred (and even before), more Black men and other non-white men (and women) have been killed by police officers. The institution of policing has decided it is just too risky to “apply the law” to the fate and futures of Black men and the others it reportedly fears. Instead, this institution has opted to rely on antiquated, non-transparent justice. In each of the aforementioned cases, there has been widespread departmental and institutional cover-up, the mishandling of evidence, discrepancies in witness testimony, and convenient, in-house remixing of policies and procedures. The institutional accomplice absolving killer cops of criminality is the Grand Jury–a clandestine and ubiquitous entity that has netted a zero and three return for justice.
Repeatedly, these secret jurors have decided that in the midst of the evidence collected by state’s prosecutors and District Attorneys, none of the evidence has even been strong enough to charge the officers involved with a crime. In each of the Grand Jury proceedings, none of the jurors have been able to hear all of the evidence because the defendants, now made to look like the perpetrators, are all defenseless and dead.
Why is America being Black-Maled?
Black men, no more perfect or flawed than any other men in the United States of America, are the nucleus of America’s fears and the targets of police officers’ guns. It’s as if Black men are to blame for everything wrong with America and white men are the reason for all of its rights…even when these white men, acting as police officers, are in the legal and moral wrong, indicted or not.
The latest police shootings have been committed by young, mostly white officers not fully vested in their careers, and who all seem to use the same two excuses for shooting Black men–“accidental” and “fear.” But, we know fear is not accidental; rather, it is a learned emotion under which to hide after being taught a particular racial and gender demographic is not valued and is prone to criminality. America is Black-Maled today for the same yesteryear and historical reason–systemic, institutional and structural racism.
It is rampant, metastasizing, and stifling.
And, America’s future will not survive unless we make urgent changes now.
Black men, killed every 28 hours, are being forced to pay a debt to society they owe no more than the rest of us; and, they are hunted down like “hogs…in an inglorious spot” by bullets they cannot outrun in order to settle this mounting tab.
They are also young, like 18-year old Michael Brown and 12-year old Tamir Rice, who never had opportunities to declare careers. But, regrettably they were both given the equal opportunity of death from a police officer’s bullet.
We can no longer continue Black Male-ing America because when we do, we fail terribly.
This nation, my nation, through the use of grand juries that will not indict killer cops, is attempting to manipulate the feelings of our society by presenting killing as the the only lawful solution for indifference when one is Black and male. Morbidly, the message also being communicated is that Black men are not suited to walk this Earth and breathe its air. America incites us to hate and fear them and justify why justice should elude them. The overall verdict forced upon us is that Black men are not even worthy of justice. Therefore, I appeal on the basis that, when regarding Black men, there is but one truth I hold to be self-evident, #BlackLivesMatter!
HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY, TAVIS SMILEY!
“You can‘t LEAD the people if you don’t LOVE the people. You can’t SAVE the people if you won’t SERVE the people.” Motto of the Tavis Smiley Foundation, Youth 2 Leaders
Barnes and Noble, September 2014 NYC
On Thursday, September 11th, 2014, I sat in an audience of people—friends, supporters, and employees of Tavis Smiley—in New York City’s Union Square Barnes and Noble for the signing of his seventeenth and latest book, The Death of a King: The Real Story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Final Year.
While on the stage underscoring his level of commitment to his work, he called my name, told the audience I worked with the young people in his foundation—Youth 2 Leaders—and led me in completing the motto of the foundation. I was in the notes section of my iPad trying to take down his most salient and thought-provoking points (there are so many all the time) so I was initially caught off guard, but I fell right in line with him in reciting our motto. Tavis responded, “See? She understands it. That’s what this work is all about.”
For nearly 20 years (I first met Tavis Smiley when I was 19 years old), I have been a student of Tavis Smiley. I have learned that he is deeply committed to the growth and development of all people, and particularly to Black people.
“I believe if we make Black America better, we make all of America better.” Tavis Smiley
I can appreciate the unapologetic resolve in that premise.
Fail Up Book Signing, 2011 NYC
For ten (10) years, he provided a platform for many of our community’s intellectuals and cultural critics; and, they gained national notoriety from their inclusion and involvement in the State of the Black Union symposiums. As a spectator and as an attendee, I would look at the panelists and think to myself, “If Tavis Smiley included this person, they must be something!”
Tavis has always been my barometer of intellectual excellence and my go-to example of critical curiosity and inquiry. And, he fits perfectly into the cast of leadership. Through the publishing of books such as the Covenant with Black America (2006), and my all-time favorite, Fail Up: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure (2011), Tavis has consistently provided an entry point for Black communities into discussions of politics and socio-economic growth. While his vocabulary is impressive and vast, his approach to giving our community the wings to fly in areas that sometimes compromise our esteem, has been practical, doable, and enumerated in a way that keeps many of us from getting lost or resorting to the comfort of believing our inability for doing better is because of not knowing how.
March 2014, Georgia
What I know for sure is that Tavis Smiley has always done what he has publicly said he would. I respect that on his imprint (Smiley Books), he publishes books that help to guide our ways of thinking about issues. Through media outlets in television and radio, The Tavis Smiley Show is what he uses to package his voice and his truth, on his terms. I also know that Tavis is personable, engaging, loves Black people, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
I like Tavis Smiley!
At his young age, Tavis Smiley has done so much and he has not nearly tipped the scale in the more to come.
Happy 50th Birthday, Tavis Smiley!
Internalizing Hopelessness: Why Ferguson Erupted from the Michael Brown Killing
“Fu*k the police/ coming straight from the underground / A young ni**a got it bad cause I’m brown / And not the other color so police think / They have the authority to kill a minority / F*ck that shit, cause I ain’t the one…”
These were the protest lyrics from the 1988 song, “Fuck tha Police”, written by Compton’s Niggas With Attitude, known around the world simply as N. W. A.
This song foreshadowed the 1992 L.A. Race Riots that happened in Los Angeles, CA as a result of California Police officers being seen on a March 1991 video, mercilessly beating Los Angeles (LA) civilian, Rodney King. Two of the officers were acquitted. And, on April 29th, 1992, LA erupted into protests, violence, rioting, looting, arrests, and some deaths.
On Saturday August 9th, 2014, Michael Brown, an 18-year old teen visiting relatives in Ferguson, Missouri was shot and killed by the police.
This picture was posted by one of Michael Brown’s friend to Facebook and posted by Colorlines.com
Although the circumstances surrounding the killing are still being investigated, what is clear is that Michael Brown was unarmed and shot multiple times by a police officer as Mr. Brown was attempting to run away from the officer.
As a result of yet another nationwide killing at the hands of law enforcement, it is this Michael Brown killing that has caused the residents of Ferguson, Missouri to erupt with anger, violence, looting, rioting, arrests, and to simmer in a place of hopelessness. Ferguson now joins the list of cities that have seen young, unarmed men killed at the hands of the police, but Ferguson’s reaction has not been reticent. Rather, it is loud, brash and further adds to the city’s conflict with lawfulness.
This sounds awfully familiar to the response of LA’s citizens in the wake of the 1992 verdict regarding justice for the late Mr. Rodney King.
For many of Ferguson’s residents, at least as it appears from the marching, protesting, and violence, they are fed up with the imbalance of justice. According to all reports, Michael Brown’s slain body remained on the ground for four and one half hours, in the summer, broad daylight of Missouri. According to witnesses, Michael Brown’s hands were raised in surrender, yet he was still killed by a yet unidentified police officer.
The despair that the people feel in the seemingly unjustified killing of Mr. Michael Brown has added to a further breakdown of Ferguson’s civility. News coverage has shown those of us around the nation on our sofas watching flat screen televisions, people looting products from local merchants–gas stations, beauty supply stores and other places. We have even seen the store in which Michael Brown was allegedly shoplifting burn down.
People are seen throwing rocks and kicking police vehicles as they drive by. Protesters have carried signs with the reminiscent 1960s slogan, “I Am A Man”“. We have witnessed the hurt of a mother that has had to identify the body of her once college-bound, now deceased son, as a result of being killed by a police officer. Also, from our spectator spots, we have heard Ferguson police officers refer to the people as “animals”.
Is the behavior of Ferguson, Missouri what happens when people internalize hopelessness?
Yes.
I have read numerous posts throughout social media, some in defense of the people’s behavior and many adamantly against the people’s actions. At best, I can surmise that some of Ferguson’s citizens have internalized the same hopelessness they feel the police have toward young, unarmed, Black males in Ferguson and across the nation. It is the same internalized hopelessness the people of LA had when the officers in the Rodney King beating were acquitted after what the world saw on tape that looked very criminal and inhumane. In the people’s hearts, they knew justice would not be served therefore they destroyed establishments to take out their frustrations and to show a rage that their bodies and emotions could not facilitate.
Michael Brown’s mother, Ms. Lesley McSpadden, pleadingly stated to a news reporter:
“You took my son away from me! Do you know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school to graduate? You know how many Black men graduate? Not many! ‘Cause you bring them down to this type of level to [sic] they feel like, “I ain’t got nothing to live for anyway…they gone [sic] try to take me out anyway!”
Perhaps in the case of Ferguson, the people are unable to fathom, in this moment, how those charged with protecting and serving them, are disproportionately maiming them. This altered reality has created a horrible lapse in judgment, and the people have now reduced their behavior to that of one officer’s breach of his or her civic and professional contract to the people; so, they destroy the establishments. While the officer may have individually pulled the trigger that shot multiple rounds of bullets into the body of teen, Michael Brown, the people have internalized one officer’s actions as institutional behavior of all police officers and that cannot be changed right now.
I get it.
I don’t have any judgment to pass on the actions of the people, right or wrong, because I have never been moved to “loot”, even when faced with injustice—as a teen I was on the receiving end of two police officers’ violence. I have been moved to protest, to tears and I have questioned many of the actions of some of America’s oldest institutions. In my inquiry, I have condemned the lack of sensitivity, professionalism and care that they show toward groups of people and still I have never been moved to violence. I have been moved to write about my feelings with systemic practices so that in my process, I may begin to understand the “other side.” But I have remained hopeful that better people with greater consciousness can and will infiltrate these systems enough to create change. But every time I read on my Twitter or Facebook timelines, watch a news report, or read in the newspaper about another unjustified killing, I realize that my hopefulness has not yet been met.
And, what I understand about the people of Ferguson is that they are hurt. I imagine that many Ferguson, 18-year old, Black teens may perform a psychological facelift where they are the ones lying in the morgue in place of teen, Michael Brown. I also understand that when these events happen, just like other incidents of racial injustice of Ferguson’s distant and recent past, the people feel isolated from the protection of their police officers and more like targets.
I completely understand how the citizens of Ferguson have internalized hopelessness, and hopefully changes in the practices of the police will move them beyond it. Until then, I keep my television on and my sofa space ready…
Click on the links below to learn more about Michael Brown’s mother’s reaction and the latest on the Michael Brown fatality:
Lesley McSpadden–Michael Brown’s mother, CNN
Lesley McSpadden–Michael Brown’s mother, NewsOne
Police Officer calling Ferguson citizens “animals” http://m.colorlines.com/archives/2014/08/police_officer_calls_ferguson_protestors_animals.html
President Obama Talks To Black Americans Like That
Today August 7th, 2014, NewsOne writer Donovan X. Ramsey posted an article on NewsOne.com with the title, “Why Can’t Obama Talk To Black Americans Like That?” My Fraternity Brother and friend, Donald Anthony Wheeler tagged me in it on a Facebook post and asked for my thoughts.
This article questioned why all of the encouragement and praise President Obama recently offered the 500 African fellows in the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), which was a part of the greater U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit held in Washington, D.C. from August 4th – August 6th, 2014, is not extended from President Obama to Black Americans.
To the YALI fellows President Obama offers the following:
“I want to thank you for inspiring us with your talent and your motivation and your ambition,” he said, looking out to the fellows. “You’ve got great aspirations for your countries and your continent. And as you build that brighter future that you imagine, I want to make sure that the United States of America is going to be your friend and partner every step of the way.” Later in the speech, he added, “So the point of all of this is we believe in you. I believe in you. I believe in every one of you who are doing just extraordinary things.”
In this very frank article Mr. Ramsey supported that President Obama’s inspirational words to these African youth were “uncommon” to Black Americans, specifically when reviewing earlier messages and speeches President Obama has made to Black American audiences And, Mr. Ramsey even goes a step further to say that this encouragement made him a little bit “jealous.”
I think we all get a little bit jealous whenever someone, other than ourselves, gets a little piece of President Obama’s highly warranted attention And, even deeper, I understand where Mr. Ramsey is coming from, too. The idea that there are throngs of young, Black, youth living just outside of the White House, and all over America, but yet he creates a Young African Leaders Initiative is hard to swallow.
But, if we look at it another way, President Obama is doing what he has been fated to do, and I’m okay with his decision.
In 2013, I was a witness to President Obama’s visit to a Brooklyn, NY high school–Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), the school in which I currently teach. Just in knowing President Obama would visit the school sent an understated hysteria that resonated more like the anticipation one has when he or she is about to meet his or her hero for the first time. Ultimately, when President Obama spoke to this predominately Black (Black American, Caribbean, African and Afro-Latin@) population, he shared a very similar message of doing well and believing in the future of this post-millenial generation with all of the students in attendance. I looked in their faces as President Obama spoke and they were hanging onto his every word.
As Mr. Ramsey’s article points out, there have been instances in which critics like the Reverend Jesse Jackson and others have felt that President Obama was “talking down to Black people.” For example, Mr. Ramsey highlights President Obama’s commencement message to the Morehouse College Class of 2013–he even suggests that the President compromised the graduates’ joy and happiness on that day in his message of accountability and ridding themselves of excuses.
“We’ve got no time for excuses — not because the bitter legacies of slavery and segregation have vanished entirely; they haven’t. Not because racism and discrimination no longer exist; that’s still out there. It’s just that in today’s hyper-connected, hyper-competitive world, with a billion young people from China and India and Brazil entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything you haven’t earned,” he said.
I think most of us would simply be happy to know that President Obama was “in the building” at our graduation, let alone being able to say he offered our commencement address. But, not to make light of Mr. Ramsey’s claims, President Obama did not tell this class that he believed in them. And, no–he did not offer these students a partner in America. But, he did something far greater–he showed up and mentored each of these students individually by providing them with a blueprint as to how he became the Commander-In-Chief. Of course that message would depend on the way in which the graduate was willing to receive the message.
And, President Obama’s messages and actions become even rosier for me.
I am not a fan of casting aspersions on the work that President Obama has done and is doing–I don’t suggest that Mr. Ramsey is, either. But, I am wholeheartedly in favor of speaking my truth about what I glean from how I witness, hear, and understand these works. Again, President Obama is doing what he has been fated to do–to reconnect the African Diaspora as only it can be done through America, and more specifically, through the efforts of its Black American president.
While chattel slavery affected all of the African Diaspora in severe ways, I will be brash and controversial enough to admit that Black Americans are a pretty special group to have “made it” to America even during the arduous slave trade. We are even more significant because we have survived the legacy of the other elements that have been diffused in America as a result of its involvement in chattel slavery–the peculiar institution. By virtue having “made it” to America and also by being citizens, Black Americans have also gained access, albeit limited, to the all of the resources of this country. These resources have continually been sought out by the Caribbean Black and the African. Through accessing Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) like Kwame Nkrumah, or by aligning with the daily struggles of being Black in America through the creation of the Black Power movement by Stokely Carmichael, or by helping to shape the voice of the Harlem Renaissance like Claude McKay, America has always provided great ideas of possibility to Blacks outside of America.
President Obama is doing his job by keeping the doors open to Caribbean and African Blacks to continue this work. On the Continent of Africa, there is what is known as the “Door of No Return” but the very name of that infamous door, while it will never be obsolete, is now taking on a different meaning through what President Obama is doing and how he is encouraging Young African Leaders and also Africa’s Black American kin.
President Obama makes me proud every day because he took the chance to run for America’s presidency, and by successfully becoming America’s president, he has changed the way the world will forever view Black people and our access to the world–whether we are American or Disaporan Black.
From my vantage point, I don’t stand in competition with Blacks from around the world, but in solidarity. President Obama’s message to them is already a message I have heard and internalized long before this recent U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit–so, it is indeed a message to me, also.
Happy Father’s Day!
“Well you can tell everybody…I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man.” Aloe Blacc
Happy Father’s Day from The PolidayReport!
Father’s Day has been met with considerable controversy almost since its inception. According to History.com, Father’s Day underwent major challenges with naysayers feeling that fathers did not have “the same sentimental appeal” as mothers. Case and point, Father’s Day became a national holiday 58 whopping years after Mother’s Day at the hand of President Richard Nixon in 1972!
Fathers, today we salute you. Our culture often pokes fun at wanting “half” from a man’s means, but the truth of the matter is that every person on this Earth has half–half of a father’s genes that created us into the people we are today.
Father’s Day is about the celebration of the chromosomes fathers have contributed to walking, talking beings that matter–it is about the love they have shown, the care they have provided, the lessons they have taught, the sayings they have rendered, the strength they have shown, the embraces they have given, the masculinity they’ve presented, the security they have ushered, and the examples of manhood that they are.
Father’s Day is as much about a dad’s smell as it is about the fleeting memory of what it used to be. It’s as much about his having an education as much as it is about his lack of one. It’s about fathers’ game-time rituals and living room chairs and barbecuing skills and obnoxious laughs. It’s about those barely talkative dads that always share a lot, but in a few powerful, potent words…or gestures. Father’s Day is about those dads that work day in and day out to support their families and the ones that are only home on weekends so they become virtual strangers to the households they build.
Father’s Day is about men.
Father’s Day is about men some of us never got the chance to know, but think about the possibilities of the encounters especially on Father’s Day. It is about that unfamiliar face morphed into the reflections that stare back at us when we look in the mirror. It is about anomalous personalities we inherited from Fathers, gone too soon, that other family members don’t quite understand.
Father’s Day is as much about the jail house visit as much as it is about sitting on the church pew holding dad’s hand or sitting on the floor of the musalla next to dad before salat or prayer begins.
Father’s Day is about love!
Father’s Day is not about single mothers taking care of children for whom they are obligated.
It is not about finding every discrepancy and fault in fathers who have yet to embrace fatherhood.
It is about finding forgiveness.
Happy Father’s Day!
The Brothers of Masjid William Salaam–Norfolk, VA, The Brothers I’ve looked up to in the W.D. Muhammad / Nation of Islam ummah (community/ nation), Brother Karim–stepped up/ stood in, Kasib Azeez–The Provider, Chad Mensah–brother-friend, LaMonte Bullock–everything, Eddie James–Brother-in-Law. My male teachers: Mr. Bonds–elementary school principal, Mr. Cook-middle school science teacher, Mr. Foley-middle school math teacher, Mr. Riddell–middle school band teacher, Mr. Elston Fitzgerald–high school band teacher, Mr. Roosevelt Moseley–high school history teacher, Mr. Bob Davenport–high school world history teacher, Coach Conley–high school gym teacher / track coach, Mr. John Edwards–high school assistant principal / saw my oratory potential, Professor Gary Baker–VSU Political Science Professor /friend, Dr. Wallace McMichael–VSU Political Science Professor / friend, Dr. Murel Jones–VSU Political Science Professor, Dr. Raymond Griffin–Graduate School Professor, Dr. Clarence Penn–Graduate School Professor, Superintendent Ruffa–Graduate School Professor, The men of Virginia State University, Mr. Tavis Smiley, Mr. Alphonso Tyre–colleague / friend, President Obama, all of the heroic, historical, honorable old and young men I love-past, present, and future…
May today, June 15th, 2014 be the start of an extra-special Father’s Day for each and every father. Today we celebrate you!
President Obama Makes History All the Time!
Tuesday night, June 10th, 2014 I hopped into a cab. As part of my cab riding ritual, I always make it a point to find out the country from which my driver comes. On this particular ride, my driver was Sindhi and when I asked him where he was from, he responded, “Sindh.” I was confused.
Initially, I believed he was from Pakistan so I asked him if he spoke Urdu. He replied, “No. I speak Sindhi.”
He proceeded to explain the Sindhi’s journey to sovereignty to me and even handed me his iPhone 5 to show me a picture of his daughter wearing a traditional Sindhi cape. My driver informed me that he was an anesthesiologist in his country, but what gave him a huge inflection in his voice was when he reflected that one day his country would be a sovereign nation again with its own leader.
“If America can elect Obama as its President, there is hope for Sindhi people, too.” NYC Sindhi cab driver
Beyond the fact that our 44th President, Barack Obama, will forever go down in history as America’s first African American president, he is still inspiring others with hope and making more history.
This Friday, June 13th, 2014, President Obama became only the fourth sitting American President to visit a Native American Reservation–The Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Former Presidents Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929, 30th
Official White House photo by Pete Souza
President), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932-1945, 32nd President), and William “Bill” Jefferson Clinton (1992-2000, 42nd President) all made visits to Pine Ridge or the Cherokee Nation.
America’s relationship with Native Americans has been very little of beautiful and a whole lot of ugly: through the displacements and massacres and simply not acknowledging the existence of Native Americans through unequal treaties and the American Constitution, it is great that President Obama’s visit can represent a sign of the times to come.
There is so much prophecy in the fact that President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are visiting this reservation as the leaders of our nation considering Black America’s sordid past of being enslaved by Native Americans in the United States of America.
In these changing times it is great to see President Obama serve as a bridge linking our past, present and future. President Obama’s presence is the beginning of a long overdue conversation, a much-needed intervention of two marginalized groups that need a whole lot of healing, and a nation in need of reckoning.
It is always great to see good history being made–the kind that has the potential to heal old wounds. Way to go President Obama!
Check out the MSNBC article below written by Trymaine Lee as he further explains President Obama’s Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation trip.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/obama-makes-historic-trip-indian-country
Rise On, Ms. Maya Angelou!
”I want to write so well that a person is 30 or 40 pages in a book of mine before she realizes she’s reading.” Dr. Maya Angelou
Today, Wednesday, May, 28th 2014, many people awoke to the news of the passing of the incomparable and impassioned author, poet, and educator, Dr. Maya Angelou at the age of 86.
Her family’s statement read:
“Dr. Maya Angelou passed quietly in her home before 8:00 a.m. EST. Her family is extremely grateful that her ascension was not belabored by a loss of acuity or comprehension. She lived a life as a teacher, activist, artist and human being. She was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace. The family is extremely appreciative of the time we had with her and we know that she is looking down upon us with love.”
While most of us woke up glad that we had made it to “hump day” and some of us even wondered if we could make it through “hump day”, Dr. Angelou made it through more than hump days over the course of her life–she traversed mountainous obstacles while ascending to the apex of life, triumphantly.
From the ugliness of rape at 7 years old, to the peculiarity of being mute for 6 long years, and the social degradation of being a teen mother and madame in a brothel in later, barely adult years, Dr. Angelou managed to use words to evoke actions and ideas and feelings and places of beauty and strength and hope and courage and love.
I don’t find that I will have words as carefully crafted to describe this colossal wordsmith, but I would like to honor her life and the body of work she cultivated out of her sheer love of humanity.
Born on April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou walked among other giants in the human experience and the attainment of human rights: El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X), Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mrs. Rosa Parks, Mr. Harry Belafonte, and the recently departed, Madiba, Mr. Nelson Mandela.
When President Obama was elected, Dr. Angelou predicted that 30 or 40 years down the road, his presidency would not be so significant because other marginalized groups would hold the post, stating that Americans were “about to grow up in this country.” Furthermore, President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton acknowledged her contributions to our world by awarding her the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2011), the Presidential Medal of Art (2000), and having her recite her poem, “On the Pulse of Morning” at the presidential inauguration in 1995, respectively.
Media mogul, Ms. Oprah Winfrey has referred to Dr. Angelou as her mentor, and from what the world witnesses from Ms. Winfrey, she has clearly been steered to greatness in her service to others due to Dr. Angleou’s grooming of her “heart full of grace’ and “a soul generated by love.”
Today the world mourns the loss of such a towering, powerful, and compassionate woman. And, we offer hearty laughs and big smiles as we rejoice at a life well lived.
Rise on, Dr. Angelou!
Still I Rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like tear drops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Community Rock Star: Thysha M. Shabazz
“I had to make my own living and my own opportunity…. Don’t sit down and wait for opportunities to come; you have to get up and make them.” –Madame C. J. Walker
That quote pretty much sums up our next Community Rock Star, Ms. Thysha M. Shabazz!
Thysha Shabazz is the Founder and President of the award-winning, full-service communications publicity, and events company, Shabazz Communications. She is a native of Norfolk / Chesapeake Virginia and a very proud graduate of Virginia State University.
Thysha has been a journalist and media specialist since she was an adolescent in high school; and she has proudly worked with local Virginia television veterans like the acclaimed Ms. Barbara Ciara. In addition to having an outright passion for media, communications and public relations, Thysha learned early that in order to perfect a craft, you must practice it continually. Having freelanced for other larger public relations firms like Noelle-Elaine Media, Incorporated, Thysha has been able to work for major corporate clients like L’Oreal.
As a small business owner, Thysha has equipped Shabazz Communications with all of the expertise she has garnered over the years from various sources and added her own special creative spin to it. To date, Thysha has represented over 250 clients in the fields of arts, culture, music, entertainment, literature, business and more!
Thysha’s latest, uber creative venture is The Creative Collective, a social think-tank of fun, creative and culturally inspired people working together to elevate consciousness in our communities. It is an optimal opportunity for artists and other creative people to convene, collaborate and make change.
As a Harlem resident, it is important to Thysha that art and artistry are not merely collected and enjoyable commodities, but that they are also used to effect positive changes in our communities socially, politically, and for reasons similar to the ways in which the Harlem Renaissance shaped, changed, and gave a voice to serious ills plaguing our world.
Creativity speaks volumes and it solves problems so I say, let’s get creative world!
Congratulations Thysha on being a true R.B.G.–Real Blessed Girl–and especially a Community Rock Star!
To learn more about Shabazz Communications and to utilize its services for your next creative venture, send all inquires / requests to info@shabazzcommunications.com
If you know a Community Rock Star and would like him or her to be featured here, recommend them by tweeting and following us at https://twitter.com/PoliDayReport and you can like our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/thepolidayreport
Student Activism? CONGRATULATIONS Dream Defenders!
Exactly one week and a day ago, I asked the question, Why have our students become so silent?
I attributed some of our students’ silence to the fear of being wrongfully targeted and killed, but I also suggested that our students are silent because they also fear success.
Two students specifically referenced, however, that are certainly not afraid of activism are UCLA Bruin Sy Stokes and Brooke Kimbrough, a young activist rejected from the University of Michigan (See my post: Life and Death: The National Guard and Student Activism here: http://wp.me/p1uzq3-qs).
I was reminded by my good friend Elizabeth Bishop (@BishopDigital) that student activism is still very much alive and well as I ran the post on my twitter (@polidayreport / @DoItGurl) accounts.
During commencement season, some campuses’ students have used their voices to protest their school’s selection of commencement speakers: Rutgers students denied former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice the honor because of her position on the War in Iraq while serving under 43rd president, George W. Bush. Students at Smith College recently protested International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde as its speaker leading to her cancellation, and Somali-born women’s rights activist and author of Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, was disinvited as a result of student protests at Brandeis University. See Students Protest Commencement Speakers! for more information.
And then there are The Dream Defenders, a young group of activists and students in the state of Florida. They have risen to prominence under the leadership of the very young and astute Executive Director Phillip Agnew in protest of Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law and the killing of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin at the hands of the self-appointed Neighborhood Watch captain, George Zimmerman in 2012. The Dream Defenders have altered what student activism looks like, but they have remained true to the guiding principles of non-violence demonstrated by students of the 1960’s such as The Greensboro Four of North Carolina A & T University. They have attracted a new wave of listeners and activists through the calculated use of technology and social media–we like them!
While covering the The National Action Network’s August 2013 March on Washington in Washington, DC, I had the distinct pleasure of engaging in a very meaningful conversation with Mr. Phillip Agnew (phillip@dreamdefenders.org) and the Dream Defender’s Co-Director of Communications Steven Pargett (pargett@dreamdefenders.org). And of course, I snapped a pic.
The Dream Defenders
Today I am very proud to announce their victory as they have shared it with the thousands of us that subscribe to and support their efforts.
Check out their victory below!
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