The month is nearly over, but as Juneteenth approaches there is even more liberation work to come. The arts are the vehicle for freedom. Our ancestors present in every song, gesture, word, stroke, frame. If we listen, what is forgottereturns, not to haunt, rather to enlighten and inspire. Ramadan, the month of fasting for Allah has passed and with its rehearsal an opportunity for those who observed practice in compassion—our abstinence an opportunity to feel the hunger pains whether the hunger is for food or kindness, acknowledgment or support.
The moon is in Gemini. The phase between spring and summer, the solstice, a time to be in the moment, the now and forever: Mercury, Venus and Mars present at sunset. It is a time, I read, to discard and be intentional in what and who we surround ourselves, especially what we allow to hang on or hang around. Baggage is heavy. New moons are an opportunity to clean house. The celestial orchestra (universal clock) sets the tone for our metabolic rhythms—when we are in tune.
Imagine men walking in space—we are unlimited potential energy. Gravity does not define us. Imagine a black woman, London Breed, mayor-elect of one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, San Francisco. Breed is our ancestor’s wish personified. Perhaps she will continue what President Obama was unable to accomplish for this nation, for a city-state?
I have discarded a lot of weight over the past nine months and walk lighter physically, breathe more easily (when I remember to stop the habit of holding my breath). Rationing breath, as if the air supply is limited. Do we come into the world with tanks already filled?
Gemini shifts into the next house, Cancer as the calendar moves forward. I ease into another cycle as the 50s recede and I end my year of dedication to my father, Fred Bilal Al Islam Batin’s memory and life. I was told he is pleased with my sacrifice. I honor him in this new phase of my work on the planet. I also honor my grandmothers, Rosetta and Josephine who are responsible for my mother and father’s lives once they arrived, and even before that when black women’s wombs were their shelter. Ashay and thanks for the care—flesh of my flesh, my grandmothers did their best given the tools and weapons handy, given the handicaps, acknowledged and perhaps not like Jim Crow and other southern biases in the guises of gender and race, age and economic discrimination. I am here because Grandmother Rosetta and her cousin Grandmother Josephine chose to carry these two people: Mama and Daddy to fruition.
Though the birthing was perhaps easy, the rearing was difficult and my parents suffered as children, they too preserved and so I am here and so is my brother and we are, hopefully, a little less fractured psychically than our descendants and our children less scarred than all of us.
Wellness is an ongoing process. It is an ongoing conscious process. Unlike drinking water and slumber, we have to remember to take care of our souls. Soul work is not always a priority just as mental health isn’t a part of the narrative of longevity. We do not all do daily spiritual and psychic warm-ups – called prayer or meditation by some. It is necessary to heal what is broken inside those of us who are descendants of the triangular trade, the not so hidden passage that haunts our collective and individual gene pools.
A DNA result is not necessarily all that it will take to address the vacant spaces within African Diaspora psyche; however, for some it is helpful. The DNA research is classist and limited. Not everyone has a spare $300 or even $100 for the test. After the result, then what? How do you get home—to a country in Africa?
When I started traveling to Africa, I was told to leave my expectations behind, so I did not have any expectations. I just wanted to see what the hype was all about. Granted, I hoped I would feel something, but except for the ceremonies I participated in and the stays with families early on, I just felt discomfort and was happy I could return home at the end of the sojourn. When in East Africa, I was not invited to any cultural programs I had to arrange my own tours. My knowledge of Africa is as a tourist not as an insider even though I did get to meet healers—it was just a part of the ancestors being in charge.
I decided to change my emphasis when I no longer knew people personally where I was traveling. I decided when I finally went to Ghana I wanted to trace the trade route. I enjoyed visiting those places where our ancestors once tread and pouring libations—touching the tree, sitting on the rock, getting eaten by flies and mosquitoes, stepping into the water, feeling the sharp stones on the soles of feet connected by hundreds of years of cells—an unbroken tapestry that is Transatlantic narrative history still choked and suppressed, gagged and hung, denied and ignored.
I met many good people who are doing great work, work I wanted to support, which I have and continue to do.
When we in the Diaspora are told to get over the Trade, to get over the pain, that acknowledgement stifles forward movement, I am always pained by the dismissal. As I approach Elmina slave dungeon men badger me to purchase their goods; they tell me don’t be so sad, they give me shells with their contact information engraved as gifts—the shell a microcosm of the trade in reverse—Africans willingly selling themselves. They don’t know what it means to be enslaved—granted colonialism was terrible; however, Africans never lost their languages, land or knowledge of self. For those that did, it was a choice and this knowledge has not completely disappeared or been erased.
For those of us in the Diaspora, it is a memory assessable in our waking dreams. It shows up in the art we create. The freedom is a spiritual journey we are constantly having to reassess and defend.
Sankofa means to never forget, to forget is to miss the lesson. Our collective survival as a people outside home, cut off from homeland, is evidence of Sankofa. Our ancestors are the bird who looks back in wonder. The egg is us—pure genius, pure potential.
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To lose so much, yet still remain the envy of all others, even those who remain at home—is the gift (egg). Our ancestors birthed the egg—and did not drop it, despite the lashes and the setbacks, the pain and persecution which continues today.
Right now the San Francisco Black Film Festival in its 20th year continues at a variety of locations, as does the 42nd edition of Frameline SF. Frameline which began Thursday, June 13 continues through June 24.
Stern Groves Big Picnic kicks off the summer festival of music Sunday, June 17. This is also the anniversary of Berkeley Juneteenth. Today Juneteenth celebrations are in Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco, perhaps even elsewhere.
Next Saturday, June 23 is the quarterly Be Still Retreat in Oakland. June 27-July 1 is the 50th Anniversary of the ABPsi Conference in Oakland.
Faye and the Fellas
The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol…Dynamic Duo! Themed Sunday Afternoon Residency at The Back Room with Special Guests Alvon Johnson, Nicolas Bearde, Charles McNeal, & Freddie Hughes
Sundays in June 2018, 5pm at The Back Room 1984 Bonita Ave Berkeley, CA 94709
510-654-3808. All Ages – ADA accessible. Tickets $25, online or cash only at the door
Visit Ms. Faye Carol at www.fayecarol.com
The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol and her Dynamic Duo! announces their return to The Back Room with “Faye and the Fellas,” a one-month-only every-Sunday residency in June 2018 featuring special guests Alvon Johnson, Nicolas Bearde, Charles McNeal, & Freddie Hughes. The Bay Area legend of jazz, blues & cabaret and her dynamite young pianist Joe Warner promise to thrill and delight audiences with swinging sounds, funky grooves, luscious ballads, and down home blues and will host four of the Bay Area’s best and most prominent male vocalists and instrumentalists in a series of themed afternoons. This unique collaborative residency will showcase the best the Bay Area has to offer in jazz, blues, R&B, and world class entertainment.
June 3: “Blues in the Afternoon” feat. Alvon Johnson www.alvonjohnson.com
June 10: “Crooners Corner” feat. Nicolas Bearde www.nicolasbearde.com
June 17: “Soulful Sax Sounds” feat. Charles McNeal www.charlesmcneal.com
June 24: “The Heart of Soul” feat. Freddie Hughes