Saturday, May 23, 2020

MAAFA SF Bay Virtual Townhall May 24, 2020


Greetings Everyone:

Virtual Village: MAAFA Townhall Sunday, May 24, 2020 5-7:15 p.m

This is an invitation to our 4th Sunday MAAFA Virtual Townhall. It started last month and is an opportunity for those of us who honor African Ancestors and realize the untapped power that lies within reach to meet like-minded Black people. Black people who are positive, creative and determined and above all have faith in our victory.

There are presentations and breakout rooms for getting to know the people in the room. There are tasks or homework assigned in advance. This month we'll be starting to make a staff for our altars and talking more about altars.  There is a film and discussion. We will also have poetry and a dance demonstration and a song. I hope you can make it. Please dress comfortably so you can move if you want to participate. You can invite a friend, as long as the person is Black and/or indigenous African identified.

This space is for us exclusively.  If there are questions or you do not receive the password and event code, let me know. Register now, so that everything is worked out before Sunday. You know me, I will be crazy moments before and might miss your SOS (smile).

For some of you, I might have sent this to your Facebook account or emailed this information to you. This email is more detailed. I will follow up once your register with the final agenda. 
Peace and Blessings,

Wanda Sabir

Visit www.wandaspicks.com

Virtual Village: MAAFA Townhall Sunday, May 24, 2020 5-7:15 p.m.

Ground rules: Use your camera. We want to see you. This is a safe space for Black people. Black people are welcome. This is a space where love is a tangible expression. We call on our ancestors who love us, for strength, guidance, help, protection and safety. Collectively we honor those African men and women and children whose tenacity laid a foundation still holding us afloat now.

Please send me other values important to you.  I will add them to the list.

Program
Theme: Keep Walkin ’

1. MAAFA 2019 Slide show introduction as we assemble (Brother
Anyika Nkululeko, 7 mins)

2. Libation (2-3) Min. Alicia Teasley, Wo’se Sacramento
3. Prayer (2-3) Min. Alicia Teasley, Wo’se Sacramento
4. MAAFA song (1-2) – Brotha Clint

5. First Break Out – What song makes you smile and why? Hum a few bars or sing a few lines (7-10 minutes)

6. “Sacred Space”(18:49 min) – film by Ava Square-LeVias about Queen Ifasade Hollins, founder Earthlodge Center for Transformation (20 + discussion) – 35-45 mins. minutes.  https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2816321049

Ava will continue and talk about her altar making process and staff. If you brought your materials, you can start making your staff as you listen. We hope to talk more about staffs and pounding sticks and stories in July with Melanie DeMore. (Still working out the details).

7. Breakout – How do you commit to your body and stay present? Share a grounding practice (7-10 minutes). 


Resources:
Grounding Stones: https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/grounding-stones.html

Meditation:
https://earthingcanada.ca/grounding-meditation-techniques/

Root Chakra (trust, belonging) –
https://holistickenko.com/7-chakras-and-body-health/

Grounding techniques:
https://www.healthline.com/health/grounding-techniques


8. Habari Gani: What’s the word in the community (15 mins)
Mental Health
Health
Economics – work
Family
Education
Recreation

9. Meditation through Song (7 mins)
McCoy Tyner’s “Contemplation (1967 The Real McCoy). Bisola Marignay sings Jean and Doug Carn recorded version (1973 LP Revelation on the BlackJazz label)
Soul in a restful place, peace when the day is ending.
I sit and I contemplate, and search my life from its very beginning.
Oh, oho,o,o oh. 

Come on in and get in line. 
Acknowledge the One that's most Subline!
You must find a way to get back home.
Sit down and work it out. See what it's all about.   
Search til you find true peace of mind.

You better strive on or you'll die hard,
and no one will shed a tear for a child of the Creator,
whose blinded by her own fear.
You are free from the day you're born. 
So, find a place of your own,
A place where you can survive,
A place to be alive!

Life is what you make it!  it's up to you how you want to take it!
True knowledge is free. Open your eyes and see.
Have faith in yourself. Be what you want to be,  
Contemplation!  Sweet meditation!

Some of you are disconsolate, Travel for you to relocate, leaving the other behind
What you do, what you see, and what you know, is all that you can use. 
Look at your mind and watch grow for a million years.
Well that is real to me. Your life is not short it's eternal you see. 
So, contemplate and find the key!

Please let my mind be free that my spirit alive might see, 
And go home in another place there to exist in the mist of God's Grace.

8. Closing Workshop: Ancestor DanceMāhealani Uchiyama, dancer, musician, author and teacher (20-25 mins). Visit:
https://www.mahea.com/

Ann Marie Davis, “Ourselves Walking” + “We Are the Universe” excerpt poem (5 min). Visit:
https://annmariedavis.com/

Processional: Ajuana Black “Walkin’” (4:04 mins) Link: https://www.reverbnation.com/ajuanablack/songs

Announcements:

Global African Liberation Day is Monday, May 25, 2020, 8:30 AM PT on Facebook
https://africanliberationday.net/

Africa Day Concert, May 25, 9 AM ET (?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyP_ZBjeSy4&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop


NPR Links to Live Virtual Concerts:

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/17/816504058/a-list-of-live-virtual-concerts-to-watch-during-the-coronavirus-shutdown

Please bring resources to share with everyone. Post the information in the chat and I will send the chat to everyone after the meeting. I wasn’t able to share the program for April. It needs editing and I have not figured this out yet. However, the hope is, for May. I can post it in the maafasfbayarea.com Blog. I did write about it there and in wandaspicks.com Web Exclusives:
http://wandaspicks.com/category/web-exclusives/

I will have a short survey for everyone after the meeting. Please fill it out and send it in, so we can develop meetings with topics you might be interested in exploring. The centerpiece for all our gatherings is African Ancestors of the Middle Passage—we are because they did not give up. I just completed a really wonderful story called Many Thousands Gone: An American Fable (1965) by Ronald L. Fair. He is the author of the book, Hog Butcher (1966) that became the genesis for a film—the book reissued by the same title: “Cornbread, Earl, and Me (1975).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072822/fullcredits


The next gathering is June 13, 8:30-11:30 AM program (live), 12 noon to 8:30 AM June 14 (prerecorded) programming. It will be hosted by the International Coalition for the Commemoration of African Ancestors of the Middle Passage. If anyone would like to coordinate a live libation at Lake Merritt for the MAAFA SF Bay Area International Program, let me know.
The

The 4th Sunday is June 28, 5-6 p.m. I will hold the space.  It has been hard to get attendees to register early. If someone could help with promotion, I could use the help.

We are committed to this monthly meeting schedule through October, MAAFA Commemoration Month in CA; however, I scheduled through Dec. 2020. We can continue into the 2121, if there is interest.  The May-October dates are in collaboration with
https://www.communityhealingnet.org/emotional-emancipation-circle/

4th Sunday in July is July 26, 5-7 p.m.  


Zoom Video Link for May Virtual Townhall: 
https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/ZbywBedn8yDnRVIusF2P50m74PrGyNSQGgV_Vd483PIlPU_w8DPJIIeThD_Cy5cM.2Bs92TkRO9H1q6Wb?startTime=1590364381000