tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71785155207105466802024-02-18T21:27:28.163-08:00Maafa San Francisco Bay AreaThis site is for people of African descent (black people) to share concerns, success, and resources for other African people to develop personally and as a community. We are especially interested in programs targeting black youth, sustainable community models, black mental health, especially those using traditional African praxis to augment or replace western curative models. We feel arts and culture are key instruments in articulating the repair of our black nation--domestically and globally.Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-72414807841846612852024-01-11T22:05:00.000-08:002024-01-11T22:05:57.136-08:00Monumental Reckoning Closes January 12, 2024, 12:00 PM PT<p> <a href="https://sf.funcheap.com/" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Home</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;">»</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;"> </span><a href="https://sf.funcheap.com/city-guide/" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">City Guide</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;">»</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;"> </span><a href="https://sf.funcheap.com/type/artsy-fartsy/" rel="tag" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Artsy Fartsy</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;">,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;"> </span><a href="https://sf.funcheap.com/type/goodbye/" rel="tag" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Goodbye</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;">,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 11px;"> </span><a href="https://sf.funcheap.com/type/san-francisco/" rel="tag" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">San Francisco</a></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"></span><h1 class="title" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #505050; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; letter-spacing: -0.08em; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">GG Park’s Powerful Art Exhibit w/ 350 Statues Says Goodbye</h1><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="clearfloat" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.3em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">SF’s “Monumental Reckoning” ends its two-year exhibition with a closing ceremony on January 12, 2024</span></div><div class="clearfloat" id="stats" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #505050; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 8px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="left" style="border: 0px; float: left; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By <a href="https://sf.funcheap.com/author/becca-bandit/" rel="author" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Posts by Becca Bandit">Becca Bandit</a> <span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">- posted 1/10/2024</span></span><span class="right" style="border: 0px; float: right; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://sf.funcheap.com/city-guide/gg-parks-powerful-art-exhibit-350-statues-goodbye/#respond" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No Comment</a></span></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div class="entry clearfloat" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #505050; font-family: Arial, Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="fb-like fb_iframe_widget" data-href="https://sf.funcheap.com/city-guide/gg-parks-powerful-art-exhibit-350-statues-goodbye/" data-send="false" data-show-faces="false" data-size="large" data-width="550" fb-iframe-plugin-query="app_id=&container_width=570&href=https%3A%2F%2Fsf.funcheap.com%2Fcity-guide%2Fgg-parks-powerful-art-exhibit-350-statues-goodbye%2F&locale=en_US&sdk=joey&send=false&show_faces=false&size=large&width=550" fb-xfbml-state="rendered" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: justify; vertical-align: bottom; width: 550px;"><iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="" data-testid="fb:like Facebook Social Plugin" frameborder="0" height="1000px" name="f15dad7fda692fc" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/v3.0/plugins/like.php?app_id=&channel=https%3A%2F%2Fstaticxx.facebook.com%2Fx%2Fconnect%2Fxd_arbiter%2F%3Fversion%3D46%23cb%3Df3e7b02e7b6304c%26domain%3Dsf.funcheap.com%26is_canvas%3Dfalse%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fsf.funcheap.com%252Ff53784a56e2b8%26relation%3Dparent.parent&container_width=570&href=https%3A%2F%2Fsf.funcheap.com%2Fcity-guide%2Fgg-parks-powerful-art-exhibit-350-statues-goodbye%2F&locale=en_US&sdk=joey&send=false&show_faces=false&size=large&width=550" style="border-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 28px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible; width: 550px;" title="fb:like Facebook Social Plugin" width="550px"></iframe></span></div><div class="media-credit-container alignnone fc-img-auto-add" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="alignnone fc-img-auto-add size-medium wp-image-1489346 wp-post-image" data-spai-upd="558" data-spai="1" decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" height="349" sizes="" src="https://cdn.shortpixel.ai/spai/w_836+q_lossy+ret_img+to_webp/sf.funcheap.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-asset-e1704932535668.jpeg" srcset="" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; margin: 5px -3px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1; outline: 0px; padding: 2px; transition: opacity 0.5s linear 0.2s; vertical-align: baseline; width: 563px;" width="563" /><span class="media-credit" style="border: 0px; color: #909090; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 3px 5px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://danakingart.com/monumental-reckoning-2021" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dana King</a></span></div><div class="at-above-post addthis_tool" data-url="https://sf.funcheap.com/city-guide/gg-parks-powerful-art-exhibit-350-statues-goodbye/" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.monumentalreckoning.org/&source=gmail&ust=1705009593194000&usg=AOvVaw1A3EdwQEk5scrK6mEjstNW" href="https://www.monumentalreckoning.org/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Monumental Reckoning</strong>,</a> a poignant and radically inclusive art exhibit to honor Black lives and the history of African descendants, will enjoy a closing ceremony at noon on January 12, to mark the end of its <strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">two-year exhibition in Golden Gate Park</strong>.</p><blockquote style="background: rgb(236, 236, 236); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 10px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 10px 0px; quotes: "" ""; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Monumental Reckoning surrounds the vacant plinth in the Music Concourse where a statue of Francis Scott Key was toppled by protestors following the murder of George Floyd on June 19, 2020. It includes <strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">350 four-foot high sculptures</strong> crafted in black steel with vinyl tubing, <strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">representing the number of Africans initially forced onto the “San Juan Bautista” to become America’s first enslaved people</strong>.</p></blockquote><p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Monumental Reckoning was an extraordinary exhibit that created space for people to reflect on the legacy of slavery, the incredible contributions of Black Americans, and the power of art in our public spaces. Though the installation is leaving, its impact on countless park visitors will remain,” said San Francisco Recreation and Park Department General Manager Phil Ginsburg.</p><section style="border-bottom-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; margin: -6px 0px 5px; padding: 4px 0px;"></section><blockquote style="background: rgb(236, 236, 236); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 10px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 10px 0px; quotes: "" ""; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://illuminate.org&source=gmail&ust=1705009593194000&usg=AOvVaw2n7f7N3HN0ElMCY5zC00a2" href="http://illuminate.org/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Illuminate,</a> the San Francisco-based art non profit, worked closely with artist Dana King whose work focuses on Black History, and San Francisco city officials to get “Monumental Reckoning” installed at the park in time for Juneteenth 2021. The newly recognized federal holiday commemorates the day in 1865 when news of the end of slavery reached African Americans in Texas. Hundreds of people were in attendance as artist Dana King unveiled her work.</p></blockquote><p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Monumental Reckoning <strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">helped educate and enlighten hundreds of thousands of visitors</strong> over its two-year run. We were honored to present this exhibit in Golden Gate Park and it is fitting that Dana King will lead the Closing Ceremony.” said Ben Davis, Founder of Illuminate.</p><blockquote style="background: rgb(236, 236, 236); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 10px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 10px 0px; quotes: "" ""; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mayor London Breed was present for the exhibit opening. “The art and monuments that we choose to display in our city and the civic art that fills our public spaces must reflect the diversity of our community, and honor our history,” said Mayor Breed. “This powerful public art installation in Golden Gate Park will help us not only commemorate Juneteenth, but also serve as an example of how we can honor our past, no matter how painful, and reflect on the challenges that are still with us today.”</p></blockquote><p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The public is invited to attend the<strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="https://illuminate.org/2024/01/05/monumental-reckoning-farewell-ceremony/" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">farewell ceremony at the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park</a> on Friday, January 12, 2024,</strong> from 12:00-12:30pm.</p><p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">_______________________</p><blockquote style="background: rgb(236, 236, 236); border-bottom-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-top-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 1em; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 10px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 10px 0px; quotes: "" ""; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Monumental Reckoning PUBLIC PROGRAM on January 12 from noon to 12:30pm</strong></p><ul style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Welcome: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-davis-sf/&source=gmail&ust=1705009593194000&usg=AOvVaw1ez69U6U1k29fShTo8CRvL" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-davis-sf/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Ben Davis</a>, Illuminate Founder</li><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Artist Remarks: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://danakingart.com/about&source=gmail&ust=1705009593194000&usg=AOvVaw1_A4CTXXtPHwaJ5JAQ9Qzf" href="https://danakingart.com/about" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Dana King</a>, Artist</li><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Why is Monumental Reckoning so “monumental”? <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://africana.sfsu.edu/people/faculty/mark-allan-davis&source=gmail&ust=1705009593194000&usg=AOvVaw2zJCpn48VeH_DNx4bG4CYl" href="https://africana.sfsu.edu/people/faculty/mark-allan-davis" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Mark Allan Davis</a></li><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rec & Park Remarks: Staci White (on behalf of <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-ginsburg-76738510/&source=gmail&ust=1705009593194000&usg=AOvVaw0chA2aKMmGkBplRD8YVU82" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-ginsburg-76738510/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Phil Ginsburg</a>)</li><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Commissioner Remarks: SF Rec & Park Commission President <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://sfrecpark.org/1743/Meet-the-Commissioners&source=gmail&ust=1705009593194000&usg=AOvVaw0I85zIZnebn7Fuzq21GJWi" href="https://sfrecpark.org/1743/Meet-the-Commissioners" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Kat Anderson</a></li><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Invocation: Rev <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.linkedin.com/in/soniarussell/&source=gmail&ust=1705009593194000&usg=AOvVaw04x5tZ3MJMguz_key8okvQ" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/soniarussell/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sonia Russell</a> co-founder and CEO of Blackfullness</li><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Performance: Singer <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr-8uMx5Zdf43y-wmVjBS8g&source=gmail&ust=1705009593194000&usg=AOvVaw2muT0hVCHReeEvweJIxg-H" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr-8uMx5Zdf43y-wmVjBS8g" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; color: #336699; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Najé’ Nova</a> will sing Lift Ev’ry Voice acapella</li><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Closing: Ben Davis</li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Closing Ceremony is a homegoing for the 350 ancestors:</p><ul style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A homegoing is a funeral tradition in the U.S. Black community that celebrates a loved one’s release from this life and a reunion with God.</li><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Funeral rituals are among the oldest traditions in African American culture since enslaved people were typically able to mourn as they chose, unlike most other areas of their life.</li><li dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Another key element of homegoings is the emphasis on community, with distant relatives and acquaintances traveling for the event in order to help the bereaved family heal.</li></ul></blockquote></div>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-80141898676978796392023-10-06T23:46:00.005-07:002023-10-09T17:16:52.846-07:00Maafa 2023 Program<p><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11.75pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOfh2JL3AEUa7LIUyZAjBg6LbfwEofuNE-xer4KSBPtaow63DMEZgl9YBLPn7915EXTnxLPYUtRPvmmJ98xr3cGMDX6afUVGWbfnkKnAy8naKG5gOyut6E2ezR-VpHlcbsJoJnTxNZ8moByFOKDLgu9jPFoYrUkj4ZoN3zo68z-EizajSYg1tDVqLroGE/s1384/maafa%20logo%20black%20and%20white.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: times;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1120" data-original-width="1384" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOfh2JL3AEUa7LIUyZAjBg6LbfwEofuNE-xer4KSBPtaow63DMEZgl9YBLPn7915EXTnxLPYUtRPvmmJ98xr3cGMDX6afUVGWbfnkKnAy8naKG5gOyut6E2ezR-VpHlcbsJoJnTxNZ8moByFOKDLgu9jPFoYrUkj4ZoN3zo68z-EizajSYg1tDVqLroGE/s320/maafa%20logo%20black%20and%20white.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
</span><b><span style="color: #222222;">MAAFA Commemoration 2023</span></b><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
<i>As we wait for our sisters and brothers to make it to the other side, the
shores where we were taken, <b>we dance </b>the
dundunba dance—the Warrior Dance, from West Africa. We will drop our shackles,
call on the ancestors in this mighty dance and be free. . . .<br />
<br />
</i><b>Welcome: Sister Wanda Sabir/Brother Desmond Iman</b><br />
<br />
As we process through the philosophical “Doors of No Return” give thanks for
what we remember . . . trauma induces amnesia, yet the body remembers what the
mind forgets. Intuition is another name for Divine Spirit. The bones which lie
between Alkebulan and the West, link black people genetically through this
liquid experience: sweat, blood, feces, urine, milk, afterbirth, death. The
transcontinental passages, our ancestors packaged as if they were inanimate
cargo, connect our souls and scarred bodies to this day. The Maafa
Commemoration acknowledges this. The yokes and chains and shackles many of us
still bear speak to this, as does freedom.<br />
<br />
</span><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Song, “Many Thousands Gone” – </span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Darinxoso
Oyamasela</span>—<b><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><b><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;">Desmond introduces program components:<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><span style="color: #222222;">Maafa Theme Song</span></b><span style="color: #222222;"> (Call & Response): Brotha Clint, composer/Dedication: for the
Millions<br />
Lead singer: Yeye Ebun Akanke<br />
<br /><b>
MAAFA we remember you. <br />The Middle Passage/ <br />And All that we’ve been through/
<br />We’re still here/ <br />Lest we forget/ <br />Our heads to the sky/ <br />We cry . . . why? </b>– <br />(©
Clint Sockwell II, Dana Sockwell & Roberta Robinson)<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><span style="color: #222222;">Libations & Prayers</span></b><span style="color: #222222;">: Ministers Alisha Teasley and Imhotep Alkebulan<br />
<br />
<b>Zimbabwean Prayer</b> -- Sister Carol Afua <br />
<br />
<b><i>A Liberating Black People’s Prayer, for</i></b><i> <b>Justice and Peace</b>) </i>By:
Francis Cress Welsing, M.D., © 1996. <i>To say and envision when in prayer<br />
<br />
<b>Call and Response—Youth volunteer</b><br />
<br />
</i><b>Thou who art Blacker than a trillion midnights,<br />
Whose eyes shine brighter than a billion suns<br />
Thou whose hair doth coil tighter than a Million springs, radiating all energy
throughout the universe,<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>We beseech THEE, ONE and ONLY ONE,<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>To give to us total strength, to carry out THY will for the
universe!<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: black; line-height: 107%;"><b>To establish JUSTICE on planet EARTH and live in PEACE.</b></span><span style="color: #500050; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #500050;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />
<b>Sayings from Iya Audre Lorde </b>(Feb. 18, 1934-Nov. 17, 1992); (Thank you Sister
Ava Square) Youth Volunteer(s) share; alternating voices. <br />
<br /><b>
“What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include each other
and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of our individual
identities. And in order for us to do this, we must allow each other our
differences at the same time as we recognize our sameness.” </b>—Audre Lorde</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #500050;"> <b>“Survival is the greatest gift of love.”</b> </span><b><span style="color: black;">(Repeat)</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #500050;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>“We are powerful because we have survived, and that is what
it is all about—survival and growth.” </b>—Audre Lorde <b>(Repeat)<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />
<b>Song</b>: “Inner Beauty” by Regina Wells aka Rashida Oji<br />
<b>Special Message</b> --Yeye Ebun Akanke <br />
<br />
<b>Community Share</b> (Host Brother Iman)<br />
<i>Other prayers and offerings. 1-2 minute limit per person up to 10-12 people
(10-20 minutes). Prayers requested from those assembled in traditional African
and African Diaspora (which includes English languages)</i> –<br />
<br />
<b>Shake it off</b>—Nervous System regulation—Sister Wanda with Drummers (3
mins)<br />
<br />
<b>Song:</b> “Calling All Angels” – Lady Sunrise<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span><b><span style="color: #222222;">Ritual of Forgiveness Call and Response</span></b><span style="color: #222222;"> (Red Roses passed out while Lady Sunrise sings) –
</span></span><span style="color: #222222;">© Sister Sheba Makeda Haven (</span><a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/sistersheba">https://www.etsy.com/shop/sistersheba</a><span style="color: #222222;">)</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><span style="color: #222222;">Song:</span></b><span style="color: #222222;"> <b>“Oh Happy Day”—</b>Baba
</span><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Darinxoso Oyamasela</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><span style="color: #222222;">*Chants/Songs/Prayer</span></b><span style="color: #222222;"> – Dr. Uzo leads in Igbo, her native language (reference Maafa 2019)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: times;"><i><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Dr. Uzo writes: “This is a traditional
Igbo war song. Enyinmba means elephant. An elephant has the power to stomp but
never alone. They often move in packs. We must move in packs together.</span></i><i><span style="color: #222222;"> <span style="background: white;">The affirmation Enyinmba is
a term used to affirm people who are strong and powerful.</span><br />
</span></i><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
<i><span style="background: white;">“I changed some of the "call"
lyrics to relate to this event.” </span></i></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;">Igbo chant-Eyinmba<br /></span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #222222;"><b>Announcements:</b> <br /><br />
<b><i>dana king’s</i></b> “<b>350 Ancestors</b>” (outside) and exhibit Kehinde
Wiley’s <a href="https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/kehinde-wiley-an-archaeology-of-silence"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Archaeology of Silence</span></a> & <a href="https://www.famsf.org/exhibitions/lhola-amira"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Lhola
Amira: Facing the Future</span></a> (inside) —both at Golden Gate Park,
deYoung Museum, Special offering to ancestors Sister Wanda and Community<br />
<br />
<b>Participate, Share, Like, Follow</b>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span><span style="color: #26282a;"><a href="https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">MAAFA SF Bay Area Virtual Altar</span></a>. Please take a
moment and share a photo and memory of an honored ancestor. You add by pressing
the <b><span style="background: yellow;">"+" </span></b>on
the right bottom corner of page. <b><i> <span style="background: yellow;">Follow</span></i></b> the site and <b>share</b>.
Thanks! </span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #26282a;"><a href="https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks" target="_blank"><span style="background: yellow; color: #1155cc;">https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<b>Follow</b>, <b>Like, Share</b>: <a href="http://facebook.com/maafabayarea" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Facebook.com/maafabayarea</span></a> and <a href="http://maafasfbayarea.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">maafasfbayarea.com</span></a><br />
<br />
<b>Follow, Like, Share: Maafa 25<sup>th</sup> Annual</b> <a href="https://www.artsteps.com/embed/5f7811bc267a720cbe7628fc/560/315"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Virtual Exhibit</span></a>. Please visit and share and
like and comment. The history of the Bay Area Ceremony is posted
here. </span><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
<br />
<b>Song:</b> Baba </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Darinxoso Oyamasela</span><span style="color: #222222;">—"<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46549/lift-every-voice-and-sing">Lift
Every Voice</a>” (James Weldon Johnson)<br />
<b>Meditation:</b> (Sister Helena Vonk)<br />
<br />
<b>Drumming Call</b>: Sister Charlene Gums<br />
Drummers can lead everyone to the water to make libations to ancestors<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;">Quiet meditation and prayer at the water’s edge—toss
flowers on the waves for the ancestors<br /><br /><b>Program ends.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Greetings and Conversation</b><br />
Stay for Black people gathering afterward. Music, dance, and playfulness
encouraged. Please share a reflection with one of our <i>Roving Scribes</i>.
<br />
<br />
If we miss you, email a recorded message (video is great) to us for the
website <a href="mailto:maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com"><span style="color: #0563c1;">maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com</span></a> You can also
record or videotape a message here: 510-397-9705.<br />
<br />
<b>Sign-in Sheet, Questionnaire</b> – <a href="https://maafasanfranciscobayarea.blogspot.com/2023/10/survey-questions-for-maafa-sf-bay-area.html">https://maafasanfranciscobayarea.blogspot.com/2023/10/survey-questions-for-maafa-sf-bay-area.html</a><br />
<br />
Please take a moment to respond to a few questions about yourself and your
experience today, also how you might want to participate in 2024. Copies of the
questionnaire and a photo release form are on the food table on a clipboard. Please sign the photo release form. The Questionnaire is also online. <br />
<br />
The 2024 Ritual is Sunday, October 13, 2024 and at our 30<sup>th</sup>
Anniversary Ritual is Sunday, October 12, 2025. <br /><br />The State of CA declared the
month of October Maafa Commemoration Month over 15 years ago. Let’s claim it!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><span style="color: #222222;">Clean-up</span></b><span style="color: #222222;">—it’s a team effort.<br />
<b>Donations:</b> There is a donation jar on the food table. </span><a href="http://paypal.me/wandaspicks" target="_blank"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">paypal.me/wandaspicks</span></a><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #222222;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"> or </span><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
Cash is fine too. Checks can be mailed to Ms. Wanda Sabir, P.O. Box 30756,
Oakland, CA 94604.<br />
<br /><br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu55yzTII32FFgwetouTiMG8BE7tKUh02_i-qU5CTLHAqXJQo13smVeOKhTEB9CxnEWocyI43kdRUOxwOf4nzL70eKUVVpXrfIaMTKGg1ud03iqXPexSgzJRc67TCKmUDlOOD8pFX9-PhjO4TpZF1dxsaRUi7-0OWAaDIjfNK65C7pdOC7w13ZKs-OLdU/s1392/Zelle__QR_Code_596182840788719003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1069" data-original-width="1392" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu55yzTII32FFgwetouTiMG8BE7tKUh02_i-qU5CTLHAqXJQo13smVeOKhTEB9CxnEWocyI43kdRUOxwOf4nzL70eKUVVpXrfIaMTKGg1ud03iqXPexSgzJRc67TCKmUDlOOD8pFX9-PhjO4TpZF1dxsaRUi7-0OWAaDIjfNK65C7pdOC7w13ZKs-OLdU/s320/Zelle__QR_Code_596182840788719003.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
</span><b><span style="color: #222222;">Thanks!<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
We want to thank the usual suspects (smile), our Commemoration Team: Baba </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Darinxoso
Oyamasela</span><span style="color: #222222;"> (ritual program, songs),
Min. Alicia Teasley (ritual program, libations); The Teasley family youth
(ritual program volunteers; official photographer); Min. Imhotep (ritual
program, libations), Sister Carol Afua (ritual program, prayers, refreshments);
Brother Marcus “Zahir” Blevins (donation, transportation, video, refreshments);
Dr. Uzo Nwankpa (ritual program, chant and movement); Yeye Ebun Akanke Adéṣokan
(ritual); Brother Desmond Iman (sound, ritual program host); Brother Michael “Khubaka”
Harris (publicity); Sister Charlene Gums (lead drummer); Baba Tye (donation);
Sister Ava Square (chorography, ritual program); Sister Regina Wells aka
Rashida Oji (ritual program, song); Lady Sunrise (ritual program, song); Sister
Helena Vonk(ritual program: altar, meditation); Brother Che (lead contact for
Community Ready Corps—security); Brotha Clint (team member emeritus; composer, “Maafa
SF Bay Area” Theme song); co-founder, Rev. Donald Paul Miller; co-founder &
CEO, Sister Wanda Sabir; Ancestors: Sister Makinya, Sister Hadiah, Brother
Tahuti.<br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-line-height-alt: 11.75pt;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></o:p></span></p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-59139613765536838902023-10-06T16:46:00.008-07:002023-10-09T17:17:54.384-07:00 Survey Questions for MAAFA SF Bay Area<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nDx2nZ_LmreOWmCmVvU61M66C64KZoZuwAnTVH2CuLupJrqJYHGxHMl7mc_bSY35uKjvTR9MOPFHerrJqVl9T-e2B5hyMW71GmbcLaZqLXLSaXr3WVQ-DN7U-eNtmuiYIxcRkSeGVcs92R9dYnIMno9xvmpomnr6TF-kpfukfFwGDxlSnLwODpr6U4E/s1384/maafa%20logo%20black%20and%20white.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1120" data-original-width="1384" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2nDx2nZ_LmreOWmCmVvU61M66C64KZoZuwAnTVH2CuLupJrqJYHGxHMl7mc_bSY35uKjvTR9MOPFHerrJqVl9T-e2B5hyMW71GmbcLaZqLXLSaXr3WVQ-DN7U-eNtmuiYIxcRkSeGVcs92R9dYnIMno9xvmpomnr6TF-kpfukfFwGDxlSnLwODpr6U4E/s320/maafa%20logo%20black%20and%20white.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br /><br /></b><p></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Name _____________________________________<br /><br />Email _____________________________________ <br /><br />Address________________________________________<br /><br /></b><br /></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Phone number________________________________<br /><br />Website_____________________________________<br /><br />Mailing Address ______________________________</b></p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><b><i>MAAFA SF Bay Area needs a person with fundraising skills, technical support-- web design, outreach; a liaison, assistant to the CEO, audience development, researcher, publisher, a vehicle--car, van, camper, property-- live work, commercial, a gallery</i>. <br /></b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ligatures: none;"><b><i>You can also record a
message here: 510-397-9705</i></b></span><br /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">1) How many Maafa Commemoration Rituals and other programs have you attended?<br /></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">2) Why did you come?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">3) List 3-4 elements which were most meaningful to you and why</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">4) Will you return and bring others next year?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br />5) How would you like to be involved in Maafa related activities during Maafa Awareness Month (October) and throughout the year? What expertise or skills would you like to share?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><br />6) Profession/Skills</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br />7) Anything else?</span></span></span><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><b><br />Return Questionnaire to:</b> <a href="mailto:maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com">maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com</a><br /><br /><b>Donations:</b> </span></span><a href="http://paypal.me/wandaspicks" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #1155cc;">paypal.me/wandaspicks</span></a></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: medium;"><br />Money orders and cashiers checks can be mailed: Ms. Wanda Sabir. P.O. Box 30756, Oakland, CA 94604, 510-397-9705</span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDJsgHrQVjfpsyRo25hRFa9V-ld1wXuDpZ0r3shRd4nDVExdl8MrAeTNxBSE6bySoXQUXLbML9pMnqCytdWFmAe0oAKv4kcbpwEUSDJzg4cCKuvGMyO9Zl7kovd0bRP1zUT_TbxI9YG9V-m6tbk1A6qBxOR_hgbIGP-TC7nOs0aWijitSjg5qdNx5Ph0/s1392/Zelle__QR_Code_596182840788719003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1069" data-original-width="1392" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDJsgHrQVjfpsyRo25hRFa9V-ld1wXuDpZ0r3shRd4nDVExdl8MrAeTNxBSE6bySoXQUXLbML9pMnqCytdWFmAe0oAKv4kcbpwEUSDJzg4cCKuvGMyO9Zl7kovd0bRP1zUT_TbxI9YG9V-m6tbk1A6qBxOR_hgbIGP-TC7nOs0aWijitSjg5qdNx5Ph0/s320/Zelle__QR_Code_596182840788719003.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-47488529962550814712023-09-23T17:49:00.005-07:002023-09-23T17:55:33.829-07:0028th Annual MAAFA Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigUmC5tusXF52nEwK597NhnjXaBN-1nH65cV4uHx_EWjIDpgGOTF5Hj3MycVz9Auk4OAp82alenat-ZSTzbT0S5kep0gnW3cyW7b8raCmskkr1epUyrBeShRjn0bsVwWALg7j_3XWmSaInnAgQU-JGp-Ly7n0GfHf_ZMg0-I3zvKZIcV4qvDPWR8P_QyI/s3600/Maafa%20Flyer23.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3600" data-original-width="2400" height="589" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigUmC5tusXF52nEwK597NhnjXaBN-1nH65cV4uHx_EWjIDpgGOTF5Hj3MycVz9Auk4OAp82alenat-ZSTzbT0S5kep0gnW3cyW7b8raCmskkr1epUyrBeShRjn0bsVwWALg7j_3XWmSaInnAgQU-JGp-Ly7n0GfHf_ZMg0-I3zvKZIcV4qvDPWR8P_QyI/w392-h589/Maafa%20Flyer23.jpg" width="392" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14pt;">Livestreaming from </span></b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/maafabayarea" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration-line: none;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14pt;">FB.com/maafabayarea</span></b></a></b><div style="font-weight: bold;"><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">(Masking and Distancing protocols in place. If you are sick, stay home.)</span></b></div><div><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div><b><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14pt;">This ritual is for Black people, people of African descent who live this reality daily.</span></b></b><p></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 16.6pt;"></p><div><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14pt;">Wear white, bring instruments to play, flowers and food for the ancestors, candles for the altar, prayers, poetry, a song to share.</span></b></div><div><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></div><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Visit “<a href="https://www.monumentalreckoning.org/" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration-line: none;">Monumental Reckoning</a>” – the 350 Ancestors sculpture at Golden Gate Park (near deYoung Museum). </span><p></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 16.6pt;"><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">The term “<span class="il">Maafa</span>” is Kiswahili for “terrible occurrence” or “reoccurring disaster” and has been used to describe the European slave trade or the Middle Passage. The term “<span class="il">Maafa</span>” also references the Black Holocaust historically and presently. In the San Francisco Bay Area, October is <span class="il">Maafa</span> Awareness Month–it is a time to reflect on the legacy of slavery: victims and beneficiaries in the short and long term and look at ways to mend, repair and heal the damage to Pan African descendants of the enslaved and their New Afrikan societies. The toll has been tremendous: psychological, economic, social, physical, emotional and spiritual.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div><span style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 14pt;">The </span><span class="il" style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 14pt;">Maafa</span><span style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 14pt;"> ritual is an honoring of our past and a prayer for our future. All black people are invited to come and share in this time of remembrance. </span><b style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 14pt;">We ask for this one event, those who support the well-being of black people respect our desires about the commemoration ceremony and mourning ritual.</b></div><div><span style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /><b>Donations are welcome: Please send to info@wandaspicks.com to PayPal.com</b></span></div><b><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14pt;">For information visit:</span></b><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b><a href="http://maafasfbayarea.com/" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "Kigelia Light", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">maafasfbayarea.com</span></a><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Kigelia Light", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> & </span><a href="http://wandaspicks.com/" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "Kigelia Light", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">wandaspicks.com</span></a></b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div><span style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></div><b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14pt;">Add your African Descendent ancestor(s) to the MAAFA Virtual Altar: </span></b></b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div><a href="https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "Kigelia Light", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks</span></a></div><div><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></div><b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14pt;">Visit the 25th Anniversary Art</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14pt;"> <b>Exhibit:</b> </span></b><p></p><p></p><div><a href="https://www.artsteps.com/embed/5f7811bc267a720cbe7628fc/560/315" style="color: #5588aa; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "Kigelia Light", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">https://www.artsteps.com/embed/5f7811bc267a720cbe7628fc/560/315</span></a></div><span style="line-height: 13.91px;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></span><b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">Watch Artist Talk:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.6933px;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/page/131523084166083/search/?q=art%20exhibit" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: "Kigelia Light", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 19.9733px;">https://www.facebook.com/page/131523084166083/search/?q=art%20exhibit</span></a></span></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px;" /></div></div><br /><p></p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-18701655901724533302022-10-09T04:13:00.001-07:002022-10-09T04:13:36.342-07:0027th Annual MAAFA Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area<p> </p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Maafa Commemoration
Sunday, October 9, 2022</span></b><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Program</span></span></b><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
posted on </span><a href="http://maafasanfranciscobayarea.blogspot.com/"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Maafa blog</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">
and </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/WSabir/Dropbox/My%20PC%20(LAPTOP-U52GOG3G)/Desktop/Desktop%202021%20to%202022/MAAFA%202022/FB.com/maafabayarea"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Facebook.com/maafabayarea</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Theme:</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <b>We are all
connected, so we must treat each other right</b> (</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW73nKKSuLM"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Richard Howell song</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Drumming</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Play singing bowl (Sister Wanda)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">6:05-6:10 am gather at Altar and start<b> </b>—Baba
Dar will call us to gather with the song: “</span></span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfbpsmbxE2c"><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">No More Auction Block</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">”
(traditional)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<br />
<b><span style="background: white;">Maafa song</span></b><span style="background: white;"> (Brother Clint/Yeye Ebun Akanke)</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="background: white;">Welcome to 27th Annual Maafa Commemoration</span></b><span style="background: white;">. (Within the welcome, define the term Maafa and
Black African Holocaust (Desmond/Sister Wanda) (1-2 mins)</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="background: white;">Read program out loud</span></b><span style="background: white;"> (Desmond/Sister Wanda) (30 sec.-1 min.)</span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="background: white;">After this we just flow from one activity to
another.</span></b></span><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<b>1. Libations and prayers</b> (Mins. Alicia and Imhotep)<br />
<br />
Including Dr. Frances Cress Welsing's -- call and response<br />
<br />
<b>2. Yeye Ebun Akanke</b>: Song<br />
<br />
<b>3. “The message”</b> – Min. Alicia (5-7 mins) <br />
<br />
<b>4. Maafa song</b> – Brother Clint<br />
<br />
<b>5. Community Share</b> (10-12 mins) Desmond will facilitate and wipe mic
between shares. People can line-up distanced at the standing mic. We can
announce when this time comes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<b>6. “Going up Yonder”</b> song (Baba Dar)<br />
<br />
<b>7. “Shake it off”</b> (Shake your body. Shake off whatever you have been
carrying that no longer serves our personal or collective higher good (Sister
Wanda) 1-3 minutes (Timer needed)<br />
<br />
<b>8. Peace and Compassion Meditation</b> (5 mins) </span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://plumvillage.app/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Plum Village app</span></a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (free) (Sister Wanda)<br />
<br />
<b>9. Announcements</b>: (Sister Wanda and community (2 mins)<br />
<br />
<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>٭</span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span lang="AR-SA"><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span> </span>350 African
Ancestors at Golden Gate Park Monumental Reckoning created by Dana King to
honor the Ancestors who were brought to Virginia in 1619 and to reflect
slavery's legacy and imprint on the Black Woman, the Black Man, the Black
African Family in America 400+ years later.<br />
<br />
<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>٭</span>Faith Ringgold exhibit at de Young<br />
<br />
<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>٭</span>Egyptian exhibit at the deYoung<br />
<br />
<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>٭</span>MoAD<br />
<br />
<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>٭</span>BAMPFA<br />
<br />
</span><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Check </span></b><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="http://wandaspicks.com/" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">wandaspicks.com</span></b></a></span><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> throughout the month<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>٭</span>It's Mental Health Awareness Month
(There is a free virtual conference Wednesday-Friday, this week. Visit
wandaspicks.com for link)<br />
<br />
<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>٭</span>Oakland is Black Panther History
Month. There is an event at Merritt College. Visit wandaspicks.com for the
details. It is in person and streamed. <br />
<br />
<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>٭</span>OM is going to host an exhibit on
Angela Davis -- look for it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<b>10. </b></span><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thanks!</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Sister Wanda: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
are all connected, so we must treat each other right. Be safe, a mask is a
small sacrifice for wellness. It is a gesture of compassion; people are still
getting sick. Let's treat ourselves better. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thanks to all organizers especially our new volunteers who built
the altar and to Neter Aa Meri who mentored them.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">11. </span></b><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://genius.com/James-weldon-johnson-lift-every-voice-and-sing-annotated"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lift Every Voice</span></b></a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> (Baba Dar and
community)<br />
<br />
<b>12. Quiet meditation with ancestors at the water</b>. Take a flower from the
altar. Go talk to your people (ancestors) then listen for their answers (Sister
Wanda says this)<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thanks!</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
MAAFA Planning Committee and Presenters 2022: Min. Alicia Teasley, Yeye Ebun Akanke,
Brother Desmond Iman, Sister Neset Teasley; Brother Marcus “Zahir” Blevins, Min.
Imhotep Alkebulan, Brother Clint Sockwell, Brother Neter Aa Meri, Wo’se Church
(Oakland, Sacramento); Brother Che; Baba Darinxoso Oyamasela, <br />
Sister Wanda Sabir, Maafa San Francisco Bay Area, co-founder, CEO; <br />
Ancestors: Sister Makinya, Brother Tahuti, Sister Hadiah. <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(FB live ends)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-46291864242660201052022-10-05T13:53:00.000-07:002022-10-05T13:53:58.847-07:0027th Annual MAAFA Commemoration Ritual<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibPfUjlcdvgEZ-Uc8a9Yk2dXiXPzrDo9_B39InwyOE6pWTFLAG9b43N8gIpjaSUNjI3e_dj-KNht3-VOTGRoayPgGEcg7E4nikySceRchZi9VJC9JYQO9RdcUxOlzLARcChpEmCg2EDNDSf-3gHSJYrvXcTHSZ4WXKoXl2MepYFkyChWeBlwoll6gf/s1352/MAAFA%20Logo%20color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1204" data-original-width="1352" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibPfUjlcdvgEZ-Uc8a9Yk2dXiXPzrDo9_B39InwyOE6pWTFLAG9b43N8gIpjaSUNjI3e_dj-KNht3-VOTGRoayPgGEcg7E4nikySceRchZi9VJC9JYQO9RdcUxOlzLARcChpEmCg2EDNDSf-3gHSJYrvXcTHSZ4WXKoXl2MepYFkyChWeBlwoll6gf/s320/MAAFA%20Logo%20color.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><h1 style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 16.6pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">27<sup>th</sup>
Annual MAAFA Commemoration 2022 </span></b></h1><p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 16.6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sunday, October 9, 6 AM-7:15 AM @Ocean Beach; Fulton
at the Great Highway</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Calibri Light", sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calibri Light"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">Livestreaming from </span></b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/maafabayarea"><b><span style="font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calibri Light"; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin;">FB.com/maafabayarea</span></b></a></div></b><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(Masking and Distancing protocols in place. If you are sick,
stay home.)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div>
<b><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This
ritual is for Black people, people of African descent who live this reality
daily.</span></b></div></b><p></p><p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 16.6pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Wear
white, bring instruments to play, flowers and food for the ancestors, candles
for the altar, prayers, poetry, a song to share.</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Visit “</span><a href="https://www.monumentalreckoning.org/"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Monumental
Reckoning</span></a><span style="font-size: 14pt;">” – the 350 Ancestors sculpture at Golden Gate Park
(near deYoung Museum) before you leave San Francisco.</span></div></span><p></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 16.6pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The term “<span class="il">Maafa</span>” is Kiswahili
for “terrible occurrence” or “reoccurring disaster” and has been used to
describe the European slave trade or the Middle Passage. The term “<span class="il">Maafa</span>” also references the Black Holocaust historically and
presently. In the San Francisco Bay Area, October is <span class="il">Maafa</span> Awareness
Month–it is a time to reflect on the legacy of slavery: victims and
beneficiaries in the short and long term and look at ways to mend, repair and
heal the damage to Pan African descendants of the enslaved and their New
Afrikan societies. The toll has been tremendous: psychological, economic,
social, physical, emotional and spiritual.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 14pt;">The </span><span class="il" style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 14pt;">Maafa</span><span style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 14pt;"> ritual
is an honoring of our past and a prayer for our future. All black people are
invited to come and share in this time of remembrance. </span><b style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 14pt;">We ask for this one
event, those who support the well-being of black people respect our desires
about the commemoration ceremony and mourning ritual.</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></div>
<b><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For
information visit:</span></b><b><span style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b><a href="http://maafasfbayarea.com/"><span style="font-family: "Kigelia Light",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">maafasfbayarea.com</span></a><span style="color: #4d5968; font-family: "Kigelia Light", sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> &
</span><a href="http://wandaspicks.com/"><span style="font-family: "Kigelia Light",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">wandaspicks.com</span></a></div></b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #4d5968; font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></div><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Add your African Descendent ancestor(s)
to the MAAFA Virtual Altar: </span></b></div></b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks"><span style="font-family: "Kigelia Light",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks</span></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 18.6667px;"><br /></span></div>
<b><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Visit the 25th Anniversary Art</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14pt;"> <b>Exhibit:</b> </span></div></b><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.artsteps.com/embed/5f7811bc267a720cbe7628fc/560/315" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "Kigelia Light",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.artsteps.com/embed/5f7811bc267a720cbe7628fc/560/315</span></a></div>
<span style="line-height: 107%;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18.6667px; font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div>
</span><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Bradley Hand ITC"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Watch Artist Talk:</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/page/131523084166083/search/?q=art%20exhibit"><span style="font-family: "Kigelia Light",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.facebook.com/page/131523084166083/search/?q=art%20exhibit</span></a></span></div></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><p></p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-59621220055406886862021-11-26T00:15:00.006-08:002021-11-26T00:15:54.038-08:00Virtual Ancestor Altar<p> Please add your African Ancestor to the Maafa San Francisco Bay Area Virtual Altar: <a href="https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks">https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks</a></p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-74255015039259057052021-11-25T21:37:00.007-08:002021-11-25T21:38:47.693-08:005th Annual TWEET for African Ancestors of the Middle Passage<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3dJWFMf2ZUA5sEBUHSOHtOPorOsVaFUCzt_XlohnFW2hw-65nFtOdKweWXhLelhPXpGoP7at7LMo6WRdKGggxBchExSRC2UlhdiGk7PC_prXNs2nor0R_EF3x6_iNXa16UugcZABQsVM/s2048/5th+Annual+Tweet+for+African+Ancestors+2021.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1583" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3dJWFMf2ZUA5sEBUHSOHtOPorOsVaFUCzt_XlohnFW2hw-65nFtOdKweWXhLelhPXpGoP7at7LMo6WRdKGggxBchExSRC2UlhdiGk7PC_prXNs2nor0R_EF3x6_iNXa16UugcZABQsVM/w308-h398/5th+Annual+Tweet+for+African+Ancestors+2021.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>1. Beginning Wed.-Thurs., Nov. 24-25, we will begin sending tweets, texts and emails. This is a run-up to the big TWEET on Black Friday, Nov. 26. If you have international contacts, this text is a global effort. Year 1, Tweets were made across the world. In Oakland, CA, we built an altar at Lake Merritt, the site of the June Libations for African Ancestors. The public were invited to write down the names of their ancestors on the sidewalk– the result was a living altar. Visit FaceBook.com/maafabayarea</div><div><br /></div><div>Add to our virtual altar: <a href="https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks">https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks</a></div><div><br /></div><div>People are encouraged to TWEET:#REMEMBER the Ancestors; #LIBATIONS 4 African Ancestors; #COMMEMORATE African Ancestors; #OUR ANCESTORS LIVE THROUGH US.</div><div><br /></div><div>The image on FACEBOOK and TWITTER and TEXT and EMAIL is our Adinkra logo: Nyame Dua (which is the altar for ritual). </div><div><br /></div><div>On Black Friday the message changes: we will Tweet, post on Facebook: BLACKPower2AfricanAncestors. . . .</div><div><br /></div><div>Make sure the TWEETS all include the word: Ancestor(s) and Black. </div><div><br /></div><div>We are reclaiming the economics of blackness. We are no longer parcels to be spent at another’s will.</div><div><br /></div><div>On Friday, the Andinkra changes to “FAWOHODIE”, the symbol for independence”, “freedom,” “emancipation.” </div><div><br /></div><div>We want to have at least 10-12.5 million tweets for the numbers of our ancestors who made the journey (12.5 million) and those who survived (10 million).</div><div><br /></div><div>Wherever you are remember them and they will remember us. If possible wear white or African attire. Send images or texts to: 510-255-5579 or <a href="mailto:mail@maafasfbayarea.com">mail@maafasfbayarea.com</a></div>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-49782804915950751172021-06-23T17:24:00.007-07:002023-05-11T23:09:58.212-07:00Monumental (W)reckoning, A Reflection<p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd9vq7uqZ3dCRGorGWM0GAJcvX9c44oUBu2OSPLhZPv7KSWbQkasJTFM9ypo8QtxYwGlvJZFicUPNSC4b8LZwsGKe5zNb7VInw5WeTGCwjemLZ8_56Gt47cZ4A-Pn6pepozY9sklViqmE/s4592/DSC00122+%25282%2529.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3606" data-original-width="4592" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd9vq7uqZ3dCRGorGWM0GAJcvX9c44oUBu2OSPLhZPv7KSWbQkasJTFM9ypo8QtxYwGlvJZFicUPNSC4b8LZwsGKe5zNb7VInw5WeTGCwjemLZ8_56Gt47cZ4A-Pn6pepozY9sklViqmE/s320/DSC00122+%25282%2529.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">People are rising up to remove and destroy these symbols of racism and white supremacy which guide the thinking and economic and political policies making in this country. </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">On the first Juneteenth National Observance San Francisco installed 350 African Ancestors. </span><p></p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Dana King, artist, Black Bodies in Bronze, created 350 sculpted pieces to honor the original 350 Angolan captives taken from home in 1619. The Ancestors, depicted as female, surround the plinth where just one year ago, the Francis Scott Key, slave owner and supporter of African disenfranchisement and subjugation, statue came <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG-LZaV07dAYA0kwmBvyIeCklu652TXMGGzyhyphenhyphenZXXNiuZBSeSD6TkF_vVkHUL0PQKDZTP1T4nqmPkOrygFOCtU4bhxU3Wzi4Vo0Jtu1AcjCVJL2aSvOqdBBDO9WMHeqdhiPUS6dbq8Jc0/s2647/DSC00070+%25282%2529.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2647" data-original-width="2433" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG-LZaV07dAYA0kwmBvyIeCklu652TXMGGzyhyphenhyphenZXXNiuZBSeSD6TkF_vVkHUL0PQKDZTP1T4nqmPkOrygFOCtU4bhxU3Wzi4Vo0Jtu1AcjCVJL2aSvOqdBBDO9WMHeqdhiPUS6dbq8Jc0/s320/DSC00070+%25282%2529.JPG" /></a></div><br />down. <br /><br />The empty plinth is one of many toxic spaces throughout America where the Ancestors are needed in a tangible way to counter the dominant racist narrative. It is not enough to decommission these historic landmarks. Municipalities need to surround these places with a counternarrative calling for a "reckoning" or" accountability" to the people harmed-- Black people. In San Francisco this public accounting has been given two years. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Resistance is what it will take to change a landscape the powerful do not want disturbed. </span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Wrecking or toppling thoughts and ideas and policies and laws that do not serve all equally, especially African Descendents of these 350 Ancestors and the other 10 million over 250-300 years is what this public document is about. <br /></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Dana King is a alchemist. The ancestors speak through her hands. She channels their power and humbly allows it to flow through her fingers into bronze, steel, wire tubing. The Ancestors' faces are tipped slightly up so they see the sky. Moonlight caresses their thoughts. Freedom is on their minds as Lift Ev'ry Voice refrains echo silently from the Spreckles Temple of Music . . . as the procession walked from one side of the Concourse to the other as the audience stood in respect, Friday, June 18. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">This grand procession is led by women drummers who conjured and embodied with the other women and men singing Lift Ev'ry Voice, the Black National Anthem, a spirit of Sankofa: Remembrance and Resistance. <br /></span><br />These diminuative ancestors, like their creator, don't play. <br /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Memory lives in the blood.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Our ancestors live in us.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">It is up to those of us who are "<i>asendents"</i> of these 350+ survivors 402+ years later to "march on till victory is won" (and after that too).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">We must, as a nation, never forget the debt owed its African descendents of enslaved Africans. More importantly, this nation must never forget the foundation or legacy its heritage arises. This nation is nothing without us. <br /><br />We must never forget how great we are. Great people behave like great people. We do not let others take us out of our form-- no excuses. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The 350 Ancestors are lovingly holding everyone accountable. Ase. <br /><br />Visit <a href="https://www.monumentalreckoning.org/" target="_blank">Monumental Reckoning</a>, Dana is there every Thursday. Here is a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQSLpw8FiOC/?igshid=ZGY5ODdmOGM%3D">link</a> to opening ceremonies.<br /><br />Pictured: Dana King with singing bowl and an ariel view of the plinth with the 350 Ancestors<br />Photocredit: Wanda Sabir</span>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-13498010722982042202021-06-22T14:27:00.013-07:002023-05-11T23:13:11.384-07:00Monumental Reckoning June 18, 2021 @ Golden Gate Park<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><i>This
is the libation Wanda Sabir shared at the <span style="color: blue;">Monumental Reckoning</span> opening ceremonies,
June 18, 2021. Watch the libation at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQSLpw8FiOC/?igshid=ZGY5ODdmOGM%3D">deYoung Museum@Instagram </a> (All photos James Watkins, SF REC and Parks.)<br /></i><br /><br /><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ZdgwG7usdmdPnpAw1V1Vfl6C7XpFN2Xsyj5VZEcV8E18vY85TwkTZFHH8w33-hhtieRJqPfx46AA3uI3PXS6sjmNRxNgk36F2PdERavm7YcT7kIiE8WvmHIimITOzPjCc6YjJ2FlijU/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_17.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ZdgwG7usdmdPnpAw1V1Vfl6C7XpFN2Xsyj5VZEcV8E18vY85TwkTZFHH8w33-hhtieRJqPfx46AA3uI3PXS6sjmNRxNgk36F2PdERavm7YcT7kIiE8WvmHIimITOzPjCc6YjJ2FlijU/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_17.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWhNP_JgKPGagx1Je-SUjxovXR5LEgbLlo_Xeg0dXUVUl2qTYTyT9xjpQFhf6talrj_v3l6mTTjLJD5wSptyDrqOwPI0rRegPwAEJorsl6XA4iNDjAROStW9_TQbFdCjZzXYd56jC6a4/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_18.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBWhNP_JgKPGagx1Je-SUjxovXR5LEgbLlo_Xeg0dXUVUl2qTYTyT9xjpQFhf6talrj_v3l6mTTjLJD5wSptyDrqOwPI0rRegPwAEJorsl6XA4iNDjAROStW9_TQbFdCjZzXYd56jC6a4/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_18.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Dana King, artist, created 350 African Ancestors, to surround
the plinth in the Concourse at Golden Gate Park. It is opposite the
Spreckels Temple of Music where Ben Davis, Illuminate, hopes to get permission
from the SF Historic Sites Commission (7/21) to add the words: Lift Ev'ry Voice
to its stage. <br />
<br />
Monumental Reckoning considers the recent removal of public art depicting
historic villains like Francis Scott Keys (Juneteenth 2020) who by its very
presence condone the continuation of policies and practices that deny Black
people access to true democracy and with it, freedom. <br />
<br />On Friday, June 18, 5 p.m., the program opened with a wonderful musical tribute by Warmth of Other Suns led
by Martin Luther McCoy. Queen Rhodessa Jones, Co-Artistic Director, Cultural
Odyssey, was emcee. Tongo Eisen Martin, SF Poet Laureate shared a poem; Mayor
London Breed gave a few remarks which included stories of her strong grandmother who
was a sharecropper in Texas, decided (like many other African Americans) to
leave that life for a better life in the north. She settled in San Francisco. <br /><br />Mayor Breed gave the City of SF
employees the day off to acknowledge and honor Freedom Day, the newest federal
commemoration and now a City of San Francisco holiday. <br />
<br />
Mayor Willie Brown arrived too late to speak, but he was front and center at
the libation ceremony which followed the procession. <br /><br />Dana King, sculptor,
acknowledged the elders and gave the history of Monumental Reckoning. She told
the story of her research and desire to bring these 350 Ancestors to hold
space for freedom and liberty where injustice was elevated for too many
years. <br />
<br />I call her the Ancestor Lady. For those who know her work -- King is an alchemist who breathes life into bronze or any medium she choses to shine or allow light to pass. <i style="background-color: white; font-size: 18.6667px;">Aṣe</i>.<br /><br />
The 350 Ancestors represent, King said, the Angolan ancestors taken from home August 1619 on a
Spanish ship, then twice stolen by English pirates in the Gulf of Mexico where
10-20 ended up in the English colony where they were traded for provisions at
Old Ft. Comfort, which is now known as Ft. Monroe National Monument in Hampton,
VA.<br />
<br />
King hits the singing bowl 4 times for the 400 years of African history and then began to sing, the Hon. James Weldon Johnson's hymn Lift Ev'ry Voice. The lyric was pick up by all present who began to line up behind the drummers. Heart and Soul Center of Light and Glide Church choirs participated. <br /><br />Led by Mar Stevens, all the drummers wore ancestor pigment on their faces as they marched. The women looked both regal and fierce as we all sang ourselves closer and closer to the plinth where the ancestors awaited us. <br /><br />Dressed in white, the "official processioners" invited other African descendants along this Sankofa journey in Golden Gate Park to join us while others in the audience stood in respect for the solemn funeral march. <br /><br />It is one thing to think 10 million, it is another to see 350 ancestors and imagine that number multipled. It is a lot of people, a lot of Black people. <br />
<br />
An altar with tulips, candles, water and food was in place. It was in front of the altar that
Rev. Andriette Earl, King's pastor, Heart and Soul Center of Light, led us in
prayer. It was a beautiful invocation and opening of the way. <br /><br />I wrote two libations and then combined them-- long story. I tried to highlight the lives of Native San Franciscans, knowing that the
communities in San Francisco and the East Bay were tighter knit then than now
and knew each other well, so I also mentioned prominent citizens on both sides
of the bay, especially those born in the early 20th century whose grandparents
were enslaved. <o:p></o:p></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLtzeqXKpUKli5z1j6xdlK_TUsfKFRzeW7pKks8GcvMJtk3Zn-XnNY6oLLSXGm-6srZABaGzDNHou1s0QZGfHKsnhZ3PbJ2XaK4w11I5qCr5yDIM-hyAp8z5l4KVhNPmq1o73A31SVeQ0/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_36.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1638" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLtzeqXKpUKli5z1j6xdlK_TUsfKFRzeW7pKks8GcvMJtk3Zn-XnNY6oLLSXGm-6srZABaGzDNHou1s0QZGfHKsnhZ3PbJ2XaK4w11I5qCr5yDIM-hyAp8z5l4KVhNPmq1o73A31SVeQ0/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_36.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFdAKC4Dvf-9jUwZ3r_B9IOP9wg-g4y04DsA5adhULXw1mCC-LCnQChl3kfBDel36GnjvDTV-GmCB5lGJpW__7u8Ubwyp3eojuwQLYPMERizpaeiTBPo4LjFLy5SoH4hLiz8Wcd19EZuM/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_35.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFdAKC4Dvf-9jUwZ3r_B9IOP9wg-g4y04DsA5adhULXw1mCC-LCnQChl3kfBDel36GnjvDTV-GmCB5lGJpW__7u8Ubwyp3eojuwQLYPMERizpaeiTBPo4LjFLy5SoH4hLiz8Wcd19EZuM/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_35.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9AGwjqdiF6Za9yqwqAlCZ9OMp4hfUs93XiCkd9av7eu9DPjmZXXGmSBXOPyWju0pdPU1v59TRVcx8f2ti2yXCNXuHUHNvGsTg9kVK0CqtuDjf71LFWlW1s2Y867pinMDUSk3u3nmTDA/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_34.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1638" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9AGwjqdiF6Za9yqwqAlCZ9OMp4hfUs93XiCkd9av7eu9DPjmZXXGmSBXOPyWju0pdPU1v59TRVcx8f2ti2yXCNXuHUHNvGsTg9kVK0CqtuDjf71LFWlW1s2Y867pinMDUSk3u3nmTDA/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_34.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFiU0GT8vPFcp1qc74hBWWcPNUT0laNJ_uVyb5S7n2rlHlsThBPcHuSOZOhSF03kbUHRnV_YRaIo4Pwd0Xfmzsz_WAucHrhVw-MNKvU1sv5jXIqLsdI2YTN_lbtpIW1SIEVMjYJL1D35k/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_33.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFiU0GT8vPFcp1qc74hBWWcPNUT0laNJ_uVyb5S7n2rlHlsThBPcHuSOZOhSF03kbUHRnV_YRaIo4Pwd0Xfmzsz_WAucHrhVw-MNKvU1sv5jXIqLsdI2YTN_lbtpIW1SIEVMjYJL1D35k/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_33.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbWgp1OYRhIZLwrQW3p3W50HHpsKZBxEd5KsWLwdwCZiE3OKL9Q35ZPViC-fU8CsajkgfpFVjYaGbf5Ifm5IWltZm1gddUbzFWT_643piU6ph29ZKUsbuIAuLRNXJdIiU_OFa0UP9vLWc/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_32.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbWgp1OYRhIZLwrQW3p3W50HHpsKZBxEd5KsWLwdwCZiE3OKL9Q35ZPViC-fU8CsajkgfpFVjYaGbf5Ifm5IWltZm1gddUbzFWT_643piU6ph29ZKUsbuIAuLRNXJdIiU_OFa0UP9vLWc/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_32.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR2hTTQjapeDM3LaQ0qm8xXyVhuiMa1NTohNqFcSk5fmMORkcRR5V1S2l_ovAtDmltYZBsmYQ1kLSImcyHaXGVUJVdMsgUQzo7GKP6qJ4fPrGxZmaECVMXrCmfBR4zEcUianXDvLQtt6k/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_31.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR2hTTQjapeDM3LaQ0qm8xXyVhuiMa1NTohNqFcSk5fmMORkcRR5V1S2l_ovAtDmltYZBsmYQ1kLSImcyHaXGVUJVdMsgUQzo7GKP6qJ4fPrGxZmaECVMXrCmfBR4zEcUianXDvLQtt6k/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_31.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMi9DNpG4GUukQxp97-4lhtcDq-4bW9WI1SVapdWzjZiinOk88C6zylMKbClr9k0tKVO9hJYo1hSDXxmjYnuOFjRd1CMPsWEVjaamfHoQZSxZ20qgwtK04RqeAzND23vu1tIfu5509cDI/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_30.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMi9DNpG4GUukQxp97-4lhtcDq-4bW9WI1SVapdWzjZiinOk88C6zylMKbClr9k0tKVO9hJYo1hSDXxmjYnuOFjRd1CMPsWEVjaamfHoQZSxZ20qgwtK04RqeAzND23vu1tIfu5509cDI/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_30.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXu63cuSDMl6OBVA5u9mPjuAi9QvxBZ9FhRwKOX49iTW4dNXsaJaUKvOMaZNIANIa1MT701RbxfnlUaBaLkSq-ju424nPZ4aiDs6NVwmVWHoKjgarXG4ghb1pktzDmVmoqsvAc4DWGco/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_29.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1366" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXu63cuSDMl6OBVA5u9mPjuAi9QvxBZ9FhRwKOX49iTW4dNXsaJaUKvOMaZNIANIa1MT701RbxfnlUaBaLkSq-ju424nPZ4aiDs6NVwmVWHoKjgarXG4ghb1pktzDmVmoqsvAc4DWGco/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_29.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxZm-IWyRQVY5DIUVExlIbltppiAWUXxZRXNjZJgFyT5rBFHgS0d6tSm2WP55l0uPFErVBtqlha7JuTBweRKqNODO34ocEy8WFbPPgKMfijuGbSIZ3yFhHLZQhD09VtbuO1DTJgZuo58/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_28.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMxZm-IWyRQVY5DIUVExlIbltppiAWUXxZRXNjZJgFyT5rBFHgS0d6tSm2WP55l0uPFErVBtqlha7JuTBweRKqNODO34ocEy8WFbPPgKMfijuGbSIZ3yFhHLZQhD09VtbuO1DTJgZuo58/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_28.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxPSNFdbVek82c36SWgTYc0j2B0lp31MeYGC0T-F5Rf2kISe4sX1QA-ePHj7BNKU_i22miOcxj_beH2dY3zN4lCV2S_Oeqn4MIuFeW0HOwXYTq-zPm_Hzx9eidsgqjUE_0jyuCeHc90Ok/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_27.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxPSNFdbVek82c36SWgTYc0j2B0lp31MeYGC0T-F5Rf2kISe4sX1QA-ePHj7BNKU_i22miOcxj_beH2dY3zN4lCV2S_Oeqn4MIuFeW0HOwXYTq-zPm_Hzx9eidsgqjUE_0jyuCeHc90Ok/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_27.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeHfk0qLhEAK3wptl0SsKQgNFAABbCmBl28Rd2GiOfenCXCKwC_swXEL4E_09lIdlkKcT6nJUIhCZr3hA1Az8K0_O3uI-X5f1ZxQL_TMzPHfyXO6eDyXZuqp_3yQu0FGnBtDl9gc215n0/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_26.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeHfk0qLhEAK3wptl0SsKQgNFAABbCmBl28Rd2GiOfenCXCKwC_swXEL4E_09lIdlkKcT6nJUIhCZr3hA1Az8K0_O3uI-X5f1ZxQL_TMzPHfyXO6eDyXZuqp_3yQu0FGnBtDl9gc215n0/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_26.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1kQsbjZLYfDNIxRXtTpCtJd6cE_ztQWva4zVcvCH0kNul62bCqMuaVETLWiy9InI_ca4fk3duDI_6xXEl5VWZ3SdUTnHR1A1cAeBrTbHHViQMgOouLM5qX1kb3Mh21h6zIeqoDwZFnV8/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_25.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1kQsbjZLYfDNIxRXtTpCtJd6cE_ztQWva4zVcvCH0kNul62bCqMuaVETLWiy9InI_ca4fk3duDI_6xXEl5VWZ3SdUTnHR1A1cAeBrTbHHViQMgOouLM5qX1kb3Mh21h6zIeqoDwZFnV8/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_25.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1AN6SC1hXF54tfU0Nl02sj59Q8X6xbLKkolPz4c_0Ld3veRsCaL2ClpXh_78Lu8DGiujKmeHu49JbtnQ27PXBzc2TMgQAmL2INrOhF-c7hy6Krn8b6VTqkD0CRwrNGuMT6vNTRLQa10/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_24.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1AN6SC1hXF54tfU0Nl02sj59Q8X6xbLKkolPz4c_0Ld3veRsCaL2ClpXh_78Lu8DGiujKmeHu49JbtnQ27PXBzc2TMgQAmL2INrOhF-c7hy6Krn8b6VTqkD0CRwrNGuMT6vNTRLQa10/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_24.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjq4Hnz43M3Dtw5gFjsX297K0DC-IlCONhHkJ6m_oj-ScN-CrIxNdYOTJ9NAqj4z-bVOKI9uCneKSnlka2oQzsneWcwJONjuAeO1pIl4NrSACZphCHZmkZJBP72lxgrOcNSNejrC11-c/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_23.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjq4Hnz43M3Dtw5gFjsX297K0DC-IlCONhHkJ6m_oj-ScN-CrIxNdYOTJ9NAqj4z-bVOKI9uCneKSnlka2oQzsneWcwJONjuAeO1pIl4NrSACZphCHZmkZJBP72lxgrOcNSNejrC11-c/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_23.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88g5roTmWsPcHlOU-1IiZQkejMfWHPmrsY5aNM5a0s6akfjMg7FpNEexA5D8Ao64QiLVWLuHr8AgqCCTKWTVVYN1eW42q6zsEpds5_s6AM0GYsO74FxoYYYGBTSOjKTP-ROfGFR9dlq8/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_22.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88g5roTmWsPcHlOU-1IiZQkejMfWHPmrsY5aNM5a0s6akfjMg7FpNEexA5D8Ao64QiLVWLuHr8AgqCCTKWTVVYN1eW42q6zsEpds5_s6AM0GYsO74FxoYYYGBTSOjKTP-ROfGFR9dlq8/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_22.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTsS3zX6LLPg2fgNn_3TOZG3W4Y6uKmBrr4JcV0-baEqMQ6JAvGOF7_STHVMNK7j0nQCt_Gvt5tBJuI8PMteZBHfiMLSXFiT2nFqN2JPKVN6D_QB4nQua5ftdIlLODPF2ZX0oJwO88RLc/s2048/Monumental+Reckoning_21.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1638" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTsS3zX6LLPg2fgNn_3TOZG3W4Y6uKmBrr4JcV0-baEqMQ6JAvGOF7_STHVMNK7j0nQCt_Gvt5tBJuI8PMteZBHfiMLSXFiT2nFqN2JPKVN6D_QB4nQua5ftdIlLODPF2ZX0oJwO88RLc/s320/Monumental+Reckoning_21.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; margin: 6pt 0in;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /><b>The Libation: <br /></b><br /><i>We remember</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Memory is important</i><br />
<br /><i>
We remember because greatness is in our genes Black people.</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
We remember because if we forget who we come from no one will remind us</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
These 350 ancestors connect us to our people from across the lands--
across the waters . . . 350 spilled into 10 million ancestors. Even if it is 3
million, that’s still a lot of African people! Who does this to another human
being for profit?</i><br />
<br /><i>
In the California Constitution, </i><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: blue;">Article 1, Sec</span></a><i>.6 Slavery is still legal. Support
the bill to remove “slavery” from our constitution Nov. 2022. </i><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: blue;">SF Board of Supervisors voted in Feb. this year to support this
Assembly Constitution Amendment</span></a><i>-3.</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
We are American</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
We are also African</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Claim the whole continent</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
You belong here too</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
We are the people</i><br />
<br /><i>
Claim the preamble</i><br />
<br /><i>
Demand our human rights</i><br />
<br /><i>
All of them</i><br />
<br /><i>
I see you</i><br />
<br /><i>
I see all of you</i><br />
<br /><i>
I value what I see</i><br />
<br /><i>
I value what I don't see</i><br />
<br /><i>
See me</i><br />
<br /><i>
Touch yourselves</i><br />
<br /><i>
Say</i><br />
<br /><i>
I am</i><br />
<br /><i>
Here</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Claim it</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
You belong.</i><br />
<br /><i>
Stamp your feet</i><br />
<br /><i>
Occupy this body</i><br />
<br /><i>
Claim this space</i><br />
<br /><i>
Open your heart</i><br />
<br /><i>
Be bigger</i><br />
<br /><i>
Be more awesome</i><br />
<br /><i>
Be expansive</i><br />
<br /><i>
Claim your legacy</i><br />
<br /><i>
Our ancestors earned it</i><br />
<br /><i>
The inheritance is ours</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
"Just do it" is not a slogan</i><br />
<br /><i>
This is your country.</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Called us a mighty people</i><br />
<br /><i>
You can accomplish what you will he said</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
We are people of the sun</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
We walk with light</i><br />
<br /><i>
The wick is our hearts</i><br />
<br /><i>
Lit with love</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Hug yourselves</i><br />
<br /><i>
Say</i><br />
<br /><i>
I love you to yourselves</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
We are our ancestors dreams realized</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Black people need a pep talk</i><br />
<br /><i>
Water clears our thinking</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
We drink water</i><br />
<br /><i>
We are water</i><br />
<br /><i>
Liquid people</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
This prayer</i><br />
<br /><i>
This libation is for you</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Call your people to come stand with you now</i><br />
<br /><i>
We need our ancestors to stand with us.</i><br />
<br /><i>
Call them</i><br />
<br /><i>
I call the warriors to join us</i><br />
<br /><i>
Be fearless</i><br />
<br /><i>
Mother Father God's got you</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Your higher power</i><br />
<br /><i>
The energy that cannot be destroyed</i><br />
<br /><i>
Has us all</i><br />
<br /><i>
This is an ancient story</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
We remember greatness</i><br />
<br /><i>
As we recall the great loss or Maafa</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
There is so much. . .</i><br />
<br /><i>
Words are inadequate</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Be still mind</i><br />
<br /><i>
Remember</i><br />
<br /><i>
Memory lives in the blood</i><br />
<br /><i>
Sojourner Truth asked Ain’t Black Women, Wom(b)(en) too</i><br />
<br /><i>
Aṣe</i><br />
<br /><i>
Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, "Isis Papers: Keys to the Colors";<br /></i>
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br /><i>
We call Freedom fighter<br />
<br />
Mary Ellen Pleasant (Aug.
19, 1817-Jan. 4, 1904), abolitionist, freedom fighter, businesswoman,
entrepreneur, millionaire. (San Francisco civic leader and entrepreneur, is
known as the Mother of
California’s early Civil Rights Movement. She was a conductor of the Underground Railroad and she financially
supported John Brown, 1857-59 (http://mepleasant.com/story.html).<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
Delilah Beasley, newspaper
woman, published a paper Jan 1 1919 called Slavery in CA<br />
<br />
We pour libations for the 350 Buffalo
soldiers buried at the Presidio who fought for this nation and
established the National Park Services<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
James Weldon Johnson, Esq., who would have been 150 June 17, reminds us to Lift
our voices. . . to speak up and speak out-- Black people, to not silence
ourselves or be silenced<br />
<br />
Lift Ev’ry Voice and sing until earth and heaven ring with the sounds of chains
breaking, ceilings cracking and freedom rolling down Mt. Tamalpais and
Mt. San Bruno <br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
A libation is a prayer<br />
<br />
Libations acknowledge the energy that cannot be destroyed<br />
<br />
Libations are the filaments that tie (link) our lives to the great love that
holds all we see and all we can no longer see<br />
<br />
We are because they were<br />
<br />
They live in us<br />
<br />
We call honored ancestors names<br />
<br />
We call their position if we do not know their names: elder sister, great aunt.
. .<br />
<br />
The womb that held the womb<br />
<br />
The hand that held great grandfather's hand<br />
<br />
The shoulders standing next to the shoulders that surround us now<br />
<br />
The "I am" that resonates in our throats with each lifted voice<br />
<br />
I am because you were – Ancestors.<br />
<br />
Ancestors live in us<br />
<br />
Say it: “they live in us”<br />
<br />
Those 350 ancestors live in us collectively<br />
<br />
Our ancestors live in us specifically<br />
<br />
We honor them <br />
<br />
We respect them<br />
<br />
We acknowledge their courage and we are encouraged<br />
<br />
They live in us<br />
<br />
We say Aṣe<br />
<br />
We say amen<br />
<br />
We say hallelujah<br />
<br />
We pour with gratitude<br />
<br />
We will start with the names of public servants<br />
<br />
Then affinity ancestors<br />
<br />
And end with personal ancestors<br />
<br />
This is a monumental reckoning -- the list is long. . . longer than tonight can
hold. . . this weekend or the two years these ancestors will mark in San
Francisco with their presence, but it is a start and for this beginning, this
public acknowledgement of the political, economic and moral sins of California
legislators and white citizens on its African residents -- we say Aṣe.<br />
<br />
It is okay to feel sorrow<br />
<br />
This is not a celebration it is a commemoration.<br />
<br />
Black people die and not only are there no grave markers, not only are there no
ceremonies-- we are disappeared as if we never existed.<br />
<br />
This libation is the long awaited acknowledgement that we were and we still are
here:<br />
<br />
Aṣe!<br />
<br />
Our ancestors live in us<br />
<br />
Their presence encourages us, it strengthens us<br />
<br />
Our ancestors live because they loved and continue love us.<br />
<br />
Love never dies. We pour libations with water. Water has no enemies.<br />
<br />
We pour libations for the 350 ancestors who were taken by the Spanish slave
ship San Juan Bautista which was captured by English pirate ships <a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="color: blue;">the White Lion and the Treasurer</span></a> in August
1619 along the coast of Veracruz, Mexico. The 20-30 Angola captives were then
brought to King James Colony in Virginia @ Point Comfort (now Ft. Monroe
National Monument) and traded for provisions thus starting the English trade in
human flesh.<br />
<br />
However, earlier in 1535, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés used 300 enslaved
Pan Africans to colonize Baja, California. The west coast is pivotal
in the story of captured and enslaved African bodies.<br />
<br />
We pour libations for these African lives represented by the Ancestors
surrounding the plinth in front of us<br />
<br />
Say Aṣe<br />
<br />
Say: they live in us<br />
<br />
Say: Aṣe<br />
<br />
Say: they live in us<br />
<br />
Say: Aṣe<br />
<br />
Say: they live in us<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
She lives in us<br />
<br />
[Bridget “Biddy” Mason (Aug.
15, 1818-Jan. 15, 1891) walked with a caravan from Mississippi to Utah to
Southern California. The
African-American nurse and a Californian real estate entrepreneur and
philanthropist founded of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los
Angeles, California
(https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mason-bridget-biddy-1818-1891/).]<br />
<br />
Colonel Allen Allensworth, April
7, 1842, Louisville, KY- September 14, 1914, Monrovia, CA, who with educator William
Payne, former miner, John W. Palmer, minister William H. Peck, and Harry A. Mitchell, a real estate agent, founded the first and only independent
township in California governed in 1908 by formerly enslaved African Americans.<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="background: rgb(204, 204, 204); color: blue;">William Alexander Leidesdorff</span></a></i></span><i><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #003366; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> 1810-1848)</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> “<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">was a
social, economic and political force in pre-gold rush San Francisco</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">, </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="California"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">California</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> with a number of “firsts” credited to his name. When he was </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="named"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">named</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> the U.S. Vice Consul to </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="Mexico"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Mexico</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> in 1845, he became the
nation’s first African American </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="diplomat"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">diplomat</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">. He was elected to San
Francisco’s first city council and its first school board in 1847. He
built the first hotel, the first shipping warehouse, he operated the first
steamboat on San Francisco Bay, and he laid out the first horse race track in
California.”</span><br />
<br />
We pour libations for the ancestors who moved west from the south in what is
called the Great Migration, ancestors who built prosperous, thriving
communities<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
Dr. Carlton Goodlett, founder and publisher, The Sun Reporter<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
[Dr. David Blackwell, 1<sup>st</sup> African American appointed full
professor at UCB (1954)]<br />
<br />
Aṣe</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 6.0pt; margin: 6pt 0in;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
CL Dellums, VP Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters<br />
Ron Dellums, Congressman, Oakland Mayor<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: blue;">Enola D. Maxwell</span></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"> (1919-2003)
Executive Director of the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House (PHNH). In 1971, she
not only became the first black director, but also the first African American
to be appointed to any position in the PHNH. <br />
<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 13.2pt;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Aṣe<br />
</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
Barbara Christian, 1<sup>st</sup> AA woman tenured at UCB (1978)<br />
<br />
</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Aṣe<br />
</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: blue;">Doris Ward</span></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"> (1932-2018)
trustee for the San Francisco Community College District. Ward also took on
several more positions including County
Supervisor in 1979, President
of the Board of Supervisors in 1990, and served as the San Francisco County Assessor-Recorder in
1996. While on the Board of
Supervisors she wrote rent control legislation, worked for better oversight for
police and pushed for more affordable housing. In 2000, she also
became a delegate for the Democratic National Convention as a representative
for California before she retired in 2006.<br />
<br />
</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Aṣe<br />
</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"><br />
</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: blue;">Vernon Alley</span></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">, musician, who served on the SF Human Rights
Commission and later the SF Arts Commission. In 1993, Vernon Alley
was voted into the San Francisco Prep Hall of Fame. In 2002, he received the presidential medal
from San Francisco State University, where he graduated in 1940 and
continued to perform at alumni events. Vernon continued to be a devout public
servant, joining the San Francisco Arts Commission. The city of San Francisco commemorated his
influence by naming an alley between two buildings on Brannan Street “Vernon
Alley.” Alley’s musical prowess was acknowledged by the Human
Rights Commission, who recruited him not only to be a member, but to also serve
as Musical Director for “Evolution of Blues.” As a member of the Human Rights
Commission, Alley passionately fought for civil liberties and advocated against
police discrimination.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
His brother, </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">Edward Henry Alley, Jr., (1910-2005) known as </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="color: blue;">Eddie Alley</span></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">, was one of the Fillmore’s leading big band
drummers for decades. Alongside his brother, Vernon Alley, who was an
equally celebrated bassist, Eddie Alley’s musical prowess helped break barriers
between white and black audiences. Alley is one of the many change makers
on the walls of the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center because of his great
impact on the Fillmore community in San Francisco.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
Dr. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="color: blue;">William Byron Rumford</span></a> wrote <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">The </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="California"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">California</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> Fair Housing Act of 1963,
better known as the </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="Rumford Act"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">Rumford Act</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> (AB
1240), while a CA Assemblyman. It was one of the most significant and sweeping
laws protecting the rights of blacks and other people of color to purchase
housing without being subjected to discrimination during the post-</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="World War II"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">World War II</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> period.
It was enacted in in response to weaknesses in earlier fair housing legislation
in California and evolved from a larger </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="civil rights"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">civil rights</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> struggle
that emerged over the movement to create a permanent Fair Employment Practices
Commission (FEPC) at the state level between 1946 and </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="1959"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">1959</span></a><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">.<br />
</span><br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="color: blue;">Frances Albrier</span></a>, President, National Council of
Negro Women, SF Chapter which organized Black voters (1956-57). There is a
Community Center in South Berkeley named after her. Her daughter Anita Black, a
retired nurse, is 98 years old now. Ms. Albrier was the granddaughter of
formerly enslaved people and moved to Berkeley, California, from Alabama in
1920, beginning nearly six decades of community activism while working as a
nurse, maid and union organizer.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21pt;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">As
early as 1939, Albrier campaigned as the first African American candidate for
Berkeley’s City Council. By 1940, she had formed the Citizens Employment
Council to fight for jobs and fair employment practices for the city’s black
community. After being denied work at the Kaiser Shipyards during World War II,
Albrier fought for and won a job as the first black woman welder in the
company’s Richmond shipyards. Her victory paved the way for thousands of
African American and women workers to secure better-paying jobs in the Bay
Area’s booming shipyard industry.<br />
<br />
Albrier would go on to integrate Berkeley’s League of Women Voters and the Red
Cross, teaching first aid classes to local youth for many years. During the
1950s, she created the first Negro History Week displays to be shown in an
Oakland department store window. A champion of voter rights, Albrier was a
prominent member of the National Council of Negro Women and the Citizenship
Education Project. In her later life, Albrier became a peace and disarmament
activist and a pioneer in fighting for the rights of senior citizens and people
with disabilities.<br />
<br />
</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #202122; font-size: 14pt;">Maudelle Shirek</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #202122; font-size: 14pt;"> (June
18, 1911 – April 11, 2013)</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><sup><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad;">[1]</span></sup></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #202122; font-size: 14pt;"> was an activist, former </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="Vice Mayor"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad;">Vice Mayor</span></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #202122; font-size: 14pt;"> and eight-term
City Council member in </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="Berkeley, California"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0645ad;">Berkeley, California</span></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #202122; font-size: 14pt;">. </span><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="color: #202122; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Shirek was born in </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="Jefferson, Jefferson County, Arkansas"><span style="color: #0645ad;">Jefferson,
Arkansas</span></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><sup><span style="color: #0645ad;">[2]</span></sup></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="color: #202122; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> and grew up on a farm, the
granddaughter of slaves. Today is
her 100<sup>th</sup> birthday. She moved to Berkeley in the 1940s
and immediately gained a reputation for her dedication to civil rights issues.
She married Brownlee Shirek and worked as office manager for the Co-op Credit
Union.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><sup><span style="color: #0645ad;">[3]</span></sup></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="color: #202122; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">She was active in the </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="color: #0645ad; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">anti-war movement</span></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="color: #202122; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">, was a staunch </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="Trade union"><span style="color: #0645ad; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">union</span></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="color: #202122; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> supporter, founded two Berkeley senior centers, championed </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="HIV/AIDS"><span style="color: #0645ad; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">HIV/AIDS</span></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="color: #202122; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> awareness, and helped organize the Free Mandela movement. She was
one of the first elected officials in the United States to advocate for a </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220" title="Needle-exchange programme"><span style="color: #0645ad; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">needle exchange program</span></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="color: #202122; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><sup><span style="color: #0645ad;">[4]</span></sup></a></span><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
Thomas Berkeley, Oakland Post<br />
<br />
Jerri Lange, maverick newswoman<br />
<br />
[Carlotta Campbell, journalist, college professor]<br />
<br />
Brother Cleophas Williams (June 12,
1923-June 24, 2016), first Black President of the International Longshoremen
and Workers Union, Local 10, SF. He served 4 terms. <br />
<br />
Dr. Diane C. Howell, Black Business woman and educator; Black Expo founder<br />
<br />
Habeebah Rahman, teacher, Sis. Clara Mohammed School<br />
<br />
Elretha and Elmer Rashid, founding
members Temple then Mosque 26 in SF<br />
<br />
Dhameerah Ahmad, Black Panther Party
Member, educator, revolutionary; Brother Mark Simon, Aṣe, Lateefah Simon’s
father (and aunt)<br />
<br />
Hon. Richard Brown, Black Panther,
Jurist<br />
<br />
Kiilu Nyasha, revolutionary journalist
@Freedom is a Constant Struggle<br />
<br />
Reginald Major, writer, activist. “The
Panther is a Black Cat” (devorah major’s father)<br />
<br />
Dr. Intisar Sharif, champion for early
childhood education<br />
<br />
Dr. Julia Hare, pioneering Black
Psychologist<br />
<br />
Ave Marie Montague, founder, SF
Black Film Festival, publicist<br />
Kali O’Rey, SF Black Film
Festival director, graphic designer and artist (Juneteenth Film Festival. Since
he died unexpectedly in August 2020, his children, Cree, 30, and Kali Jr., 26,
have succeeded him and are presenting SFBFF this weekend.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
Dr. Ruth Waddy, Pioneering Black
Artist. . . CA Arts Commissioner. She is the mother of Sister Maryom Ana
Al Wadi, <span style="background: white;">San Francisco State University
(SFSU) pioneer in the establishment of the College of Ethnic Studies
(1966-1968) </span><br />
<br />
Ray Taliaferro, maverick
journalist (KGO); civil rights activist, co-founder of the National Black
Journalism Association; President, SF NAACP; member, SF Art Commission;
musician<br />
<br />
We call the names of the yet to be born.<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
We call the names of those who left here too soon. Their crime Black skin<br />
<br />
My nephews: Carlton Lee Gatlain, killed at 17, in SF, no suspects<br />
<br />
Obatiye Edwards, killed at 17, Oakland Policeman<br />
<br />
Matthew "Peanut" Johnson was
the 16-year-old whose murder by SFPD set off the 1966 Hunters Point Uprising.<br />
<br />
James Baldwin, author of “The
Fire Next Time,” came to Hunter’s Point to talk to the youth and community
leaders in 1966.<br />
<br />
Mario Woods, 26, was in a mental
crisis holding a small knife when SFPD officers surrounded him and murdered him
firing squad-style in 2015 on Third Street.<br />
<br />
Dr. Martin Luther King who marched for civil rights in San Francisco<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
El Hajj Malik El Shabazz or Malcolm X. Sister Betty Shabazz.<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
Kwame Ture or Stokely Carmichael<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
Dr. Huey P. Newton<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
Afeni Shakur<br />
Tupac Amaru Shakur (6/16/1971—he would have been 50)<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="color: blue;">Nia Wilson</span></a> (</span><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">November 12,
1999</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> -
July 22, 2018)<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="color: blue;">Bonnie Pointer</span></a> (June 9, 2020)<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ruth Williams</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">, the mother of seven sons, taught
drama for many years at the Bayview Opera House to the children of Bayview
Hunters Point, including Danny Glover. The Opera House was at one point renamed
for her but later the honor was diminished so that now, only the theater inside
the opera house bears her name.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Paul Mooney</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">, Black Panther of comedy, grew up in the East Bay and would bring
some of his best work home every year to the Black Rep in Berkeley and
Geoffrey's in Oakland and other Black-owned venues.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Yolanda Jones</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> who headed the one
Black-owned construction company that has survived the lockout of Blacks from
construction during the last two decades, and her company continues to hire
workers from the neighborhood.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Earl Sanders</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">, first Black SFPD chief, abhorred
the vulnerability of Black men to police racism and tried to change the culture
inside SFPD.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Rochelle Metcalf</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">, a "woman about town"
whose newspaper columns covered the Black community, wrote a column for decades
in the Sun Reporter called I Heard That and later moved to the Bay View, where
her column was called Third Street Stroll.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Kenneth Harding</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">, a 19-year-old who ran from
police when they demanded proof he'd paid his $2 Muni fare, was murdered, shot
in the back of his head, as he ran through Mendell Plaza at the main Bayview
Hunters Point intersection of Third and Palou and died in a pool of his own
blood with police guns pointed at both him and the crowd that begged to comfort
him.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Dr. Caesar Churchwell</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">, a popular dentist, served as vice chair of the San Francisco African
American Chamber of Commerce and the driving force behind a travel boycott
called by the Chamber. African American business and civic
organization leaders around the country pledged not to hold their conventions
or other events in San Francisco until the City addressed the economic
exclusion of Black San Franciscans.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Ronnie Goodman</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> was an artist who spent many years in prison and many more living on the
streets of San Francisco. In the early '90s, he drew a comic strip called J-Cat
and Bootzilla that he would mail twice a month from San Quentin to the SF Bay
View for inclusion in every paper, His art, when not about prison,
mostly focused on the hard lives of unhoused people. He also painted huge
outdoor murals that inspire the city.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">Marie Harrison</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">, mother, grandmother, writer and organizer, who would sit up all night with her grandson
as his nose bled and bled, figured the smoke pouring out of the largest and
oldest PG&E plant at the foot of the Hunters Point Hill was the
cause. She spent the rest of her life
organizing the community to shut it down and, once that was accomplished, fight against all
the environmental racism that plagues the community. She died of a breathing
problem caused by the pollution.<br />
<br />
Aṣe to Marie Harrison.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7178515520710546680/1349801072298204220"><span style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Eugene E. White's</span></a> love
of painting began in his childhood in Ozan, Arkansas, and scenes of everyday
life in the rural South were some of his lifelong favorite themes. Coming
to San Francisco in 1958, he opened the City's first Black-owned art gallery in
1962. He painted for the people, mainly in public spaces -- his "Juneteenth" mural at Ella
Hill Hutch Community Center is particularly beloved. A bench in Buchanan Mall Park dedicated to
him is a favorite place for his widow, Lynnette White, to give history lessons
to local young people. July 11, is Eugene E. White Day in the City of SF.</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;">We
pour libations for the many people dying daily on the streets of this great
city and this great nation-- Aṣe. They live in us<br />
<br />
Sister Beatrice X, Love Not Blood will
call names of other Black people who were killed by police<br />
<br />
We say Aṣe<br />
<br />
They live in us<br />
<br />
Now is your time to call your names of your honored ancestors. Please call your
names—of your honored ancestors<br />
<br />
Aṣe<br />
<br />
They live in us<br />
<br />
We pour libations for the yet to be born as we acknowledge the realms above (Aṣe)<br />
<br />
Below (Aṣe)<br />
<br />
Within (Aṣe)<br />
<br />
Juneteenth is freedom day<br />
<br />
We pour libations for James Weldon Johnson, whose birthday was yesterday, 6/17.
He would have been 150 years.<br />
<br />
“Lift Ev'ry Voice” reminds us: the dead are not dead. Aṣe. Our honored
ancestors live in us. Aṣe. As long as we call their names, as long as we
continue the work of African liberation, as long as we lift their voices they
live.<br />
<br />
Aṣe Aṣe. Aṣe. Aṣe-o</span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Calibri Light",sans-serif" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i> </i></span></p><p></p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-72646817772399654522021-01-02T10:46:00.003-08:002021-01-05T12:38:24.547-08:00MAAFA Reader Project Narrative Sample 2010-2020<p>The story of African people and how they arrived in America is an opera, tragic in its simplicity, a true story which remains unexamined, its descendents trapped in memories too horrific to speak, yet speak we must. The Maafa Reader Project is interested in these stories.</p><p>The Maafa or "the calamity" in the Kiswahili language, is a part of a larger vision, one where Sankofa - Africans "going back to fetch it," fetching resources and guidance from the ancestors celebrated in the Maafa ritual," and Ayaresa - "health and well-being," also have equal value. If a people do not remember and celebrate their past-- Sankofa, they really have no sense of who they are and cannot effectively move forward with Ayaresa.<br /><br />Is closure a possiblity? Why? Why not?</p><p>The book project is a means to establish a dialogue, a conversation between descendents of enslaved Africans who had to create a new life when everything familiar was taken away.</p><p>The book will be divided into sections: At Home, Taken, In Transit, Disconnected, Lost, Found. Each section will begin with a preface, written by the editor, which sets the tone for the selections to come - from the artists and scholars whose work was accepted.</p><p>This book will also discuss this need for acknowledgement. How else can one explain the simultaneous creation of Maafa rituals throughout America in Oakland, Southern CA, New York, Galveston, Chicago, Seattle, Detroit, Montgomery, and New Orleans. Something is definitely in the air. The Reader will explore these phenomena.<br /></p><p>Akintiunde Kofi Camara, creator of Eintou, a unique African merican poetic form and African American historico-cultural philosophy with the musical strategies of the blues and jazz, writes in a submission to the Maafa Reader Project:</p><p>Were I a reader of African humanity,</p><p>upon whose pages</p><p>was inscribed the wisdoms of the ages,</p><p>then the Maafa would be a 350 paged chapter</p><p>of diatribes on my lowest, darkest hour,</p><p>during which white power soured the sweet taste of liberty,</p><p>and his greed lead blindly to chains, whips</p><p>and sordid quips about colored skin..</p><p><br /><b>Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz writes in "Hush Child Hush," another submission to the Maafa Reader Project:</b></p><p>In May 1991, the United States General Services Administration began preliminary work for a federal office tower at Broadway and Duane Streets and the former gravesite, stretching five acres, was unearthed. The land had been allocated to the city's black population, some free, most enslaved, in the late 1600's when even cemeteries were segregated. With the passage of time, the original intent of the land became memory until the excavation more than a decade ago. I knew we wouldn't always be forgotten.<br /><br /></p><p><b>Kenneth McManus writes in his submission to the Maafa Reader Project:</b></p><p>Memory is key</p><p>In the recounting of past woe</p><p>And no mark</p><p>Serves as a better guide</p><p>Than the road map of keloid</p><p>Tissue</p><p>On my great-great grandmother's</p><p>Or great-great grandfather's</p><p>Back</p><p>Nothing raises up</p><p>Those memories</p><p>Like that</p><p>terrible</p><p>scar tissue</p><p>Linking one beating</p><p>To the next . . . </p><p>Those keloids</p><p><br /></p><p>Tell a keen story</p><p>And make my tender back</p><p>Concave</p><p>To avoid</p><p>The next anguished slap</p><p>Of leather . . .<br /> </p><p><b>Mwatabu S. Okantah writes in his submission: "Pilgrimage: Home to Africa,"</b></p><p>. . . I come home to Africa to reclaim our untold story and to sink my spiritual roots into native soil. I come to Africa to journey into our collective black Self. I was in Senegal because the winding river or my poetry had emptied into Afreekan ocean, where along the battered coastline of our endurance stood Cheikh Anta Diop, a towering lighthouse, guiding the wandering and the lost into safe shores. He provided us with the means to restore the historical continuity, and dignity, in our lives. Late in the winter of 1988, I had been commissioned to write an epic poem in his honor.</p><p><br />The European Slave Trade begun by the Portuguese in the 1490s, then extended into a North American market by the Spaniards in November, 1526, followed by the English in August, 1916, not only disrupted the lives of African people, it shook the world at its foundation, a slippery and unstable precipice all nations, especially those initial western nations still retain at its foundation.</p><p>The Maafa, a tragedy and catastrophe of enormous consequences affects all of us in ways imaginable and unimagined. The Editor(s) hope the Maafa Reader Project will bring those hidden variables to the forefront: the humanity issues, the social justice issues, the mental and physical health issues, the historic issues, and the reciprocity issues.</p><p>The ordeal legally ended on January 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, did not address the bigotry and hatred that would fuel a race and class war that continues into the twenty-first century, a war that denies African American citizens their human rights, as spelled out in the United Nations Charter, not to mention equal rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.</p><p>The Civil Rights Act of 1965 and subsequent laws, while addressing some of the legal inequities that directly impact African Americans, have not touched the psychological and economic aftermath of this great calamity or Maafa on the African American citizens here in this United States, not to mention Africa and the rest of the African Diaspora.</p><p>The Maafa Reader Project will look at the broad spectrum of this history-African history which is American history through, as previously mentioned: poetry, prose, scholarly research, photography and other creative genres.</p><p>The goal is a greater understanding of this period in world history and its impact on society in cities like Oakland, California and parallel developments elsewhere like Johannesburg, South Africa.</p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-54371175709290897642021-01-02T10:13:00.002-08:002021-01-02T10:13:48.268-08:002021 MAAFA Reader Project Call for Submissions<p>Deadline: June 30, 2021*</p><p>To celebrate the 25th anniversary (2020) of the San Francisco Bay Area's MAAFA Commemoration or "Black Holocaust Ritual," scholars, poets, writers and artists are invited to submit work for inclusion in the "Maafa Reader." The goal is to have a reflective record of the various ways African people in the Diaspora recall the Middle Passage, honor the ancestors and offer creative interventions in the cyclic persistent trauma descendents of enslaved African people experience in the west 155 years after the end of the Civil War for those in the USA.</p><p>We hope the reach is national and international, drawing on traumatic stories or residual memories and the consequences of having been forcefully removed from our homeland five centuries ago.</p><p>The call is also for those left in Alkebulan (ancient name for Africa) to reflect on the devastation this loss wrought on the families and communities left behind. What was the cultural drain to the collective consciousness? What should or how does the New Afrikan feel about the Motherland, a place where most of us have never lived? Who's responsible for our enslavement? Can we forgive those who sold us, those who bought us?</p><p>What is the link between colonialism and enslavement? Are the consequences of the two similar? What role did religion play in the colonizing of Africa? Why are so many Africans in the Diaspora Christian or Muslim, is this in itself a contradiction and or a barrier to true mental and spiritual liberation? Can holding onto any tools: language, religion, history, or systems of government lead to anything positive, if while under colonial rule or enslavement, the only beneficiary was the white power structure?</p><p>We are especially interested in the stories of incarcerated African men, women and children and children in group homes and foster care. This in itself is its own special type of Maafa.<br /><br />As we move into a second year of the politics of Covid-19 and its impact on national communities free and incarcerated how has your community been impacted? How have you managed the loss? How have your mourning rituals shifted or changed? <br /></p><p>Stories of those impacted by natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina (15 years ago) and recent government neglect and weak response to the predominately African American affected populations are also desired. Connections between this Maafa and that experienced by ancestors of those Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi (now Texas) natives are evident. Oral histories, along with photographs of key moments in our diasporic history, are encouraged.</p><p>Reflect on the whole notion of freedom. What does it mean to be free? And while you're at it, what about what's due to those who labored for centuries without pay? Are reparations in order?</p><p>Choose your topic. There is no length requirement; just be clear, succinct and edited. Submissions may be made by email in Microsoft Word or text file to mail@maafasfbayarea.com or by mail to Anthology Editor, P.O. Box 30756, Oakland, CA 94604.</p><p>Please include a short bio - no more than 50 words - with your work. You will be notified as to whether or not your submission was accepted. <br /><br />*This call is being reissued because the response was insufficient. If you have already submitted work in the past, please resend it. The service we employed deleted all the work. Our apologies for the inconvenience. </p><p><br /></p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-59644942680347851182020-10-13T16:26:00.002-07:002020-10-13T16:33:16.205-07:0025th Annual MAAFA Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area Reflection, October 11, 2020<p> Thanks to everyone who was able to attend the 25th Annual Maafa Commemoration San Francisco Bay Area in Zoom. The beach ceremony was by invitation. Here is a link to both events and a commentary on the first: Beautiful day!</p><br />Wanda Sabir Sunday, Oct. 11, 2020, African Ancestor Ritual was really wonderful. We gathered early morning distanced so that we could keep each other safe. The beauty of the gathering evident in the patience and comradery, love and compassion. Youth helped with the altar this year, young women named for goddesses, MAAT and KALI and a young man accepted Brother Neter Aa Meri's call for assistance. We saw them take the food to the ocean, distribute flowers to those assembled along with candles and other items. As they ate the potatoes, rice and other items, I recalled years past when I'd arrive at 4 AM as Neter Aa Meri was building the altar and explained the various items on the table as I tried to name all the images in the backdrop poster.<br /><br /> King Theo led a wonder Holistic African Movement, preceded by Brother Dar's lovely rendition of Negro Spirituals such as Many Thousands Gone and Old Freedom. Uncle Bobby and Sister Beatrice joined Sister Wanda Sabir in recalling the largest Slave Revolt in US History in January 1811 in Louisiana, just east of New Orleans. Last year, in November, hundreds of us gathered to reenact the March to New Orleans for Freedom. The morning wasn't as cold as the previous year. Anchoring the morning rituals were the spiritual crew from Wo'se Sacramento, with Ministers Alicia Teasley and Imhotep Alkebu-lan. They were a great team. One could feel the earth cracking open as Minister Imhotep walked the circle with the Unity cup inviting everyone to dip his or her hand into the liquid. I had on gloves and thought about viral transmission briefly as I complied.<br /><br /> Lessons for future gatherings would include hand sanitizer for everyone and a hand washing station. We were distanced and Brother Che, lead officer in the Community Ready Corps and when available, founder, Turha Ak, have been volunteering security for MAAFA SF Bay for a number of year stressed the importance of wear masks and covering one's mouth and nose and distancing. Sunday there were four men securing the space for us. Brother Dar opened the Ritual with select Negro Spirituals, Many Thousands Gone with Oh Freedom. We liked it so much, we had him sing it again before the morning Ritual closed.<br /><br />King Theo shared an African Holistic Movement that like every activity that morning, spoke to the themes: unity, sacred spirit, Sankofa and Ancestral wisdom. From the songs Minister Alkebulan had us singing to Min. Alicia's invocation to the creator, we were reminded that we are the medicine. The healing lies in each of us and in the collective application of the medicine. Wellness is communal.<br /><br /><br />The drummers were outstanding! The balance of the energies evident in the interplay. Ayikwei H T Scott's set up was unique. He had an array of percussion instrument enhanced electronically-- enabling his orchestral presence. Ava Square-Levias led us in movement which helped up located once again within our person our strength. She is one of my favorite choreographers, because she consistently lives the movement, that is, Black or African Liberation Movement as an embodiment.<br /><br /> Oscar Grant's Uncle Bobby or Cephus X Johnson and Sister Beatrice joined me in remembering the Slave Rebellion Reenactment last year in November. It was Dread Scott's brainchild, to have a body of Africans dressed in period costumes March to Lew Orleans along the same path these Africans in January 1811 marched. Hundreds of us traveled from throughout the country to New Orleans where we met East along the River where the sugar plantations were located. Each morning over several days we met to pick up machetes, muskets or cane knives, eat breakfast and the board buses to take us to the site. We walked on levees along a road, the same trail of tears our ancestors whose names we called, marched for freedom-- our rallying cry, just as theirs, "Victory of Death." "On to New Orleans." "We're Going to End Slavery." NOLA was the political seat at that time, so the Africans were headed there to discuss their demands.<br /><br /> Sister Beatrice said that even though this was a reenactment, most of us were not acting. It took several conversations for the white crew who didn't comprehend what African Americans present were reliving and the emotional toll this March to NOLA was creating. The two then began to call the names of people killed by police. Desmond Iman invited those present to release pent up emotions attached to anger and grief so that we could free ourselves. As he shared a personal story of loss he has carried since age 11 when his 11 year of cousin who lived in the south was a victim of racial terror.<br /><br /><br /><div>We closed with a ringing of bells for the 400+1 years of African American history 1619-2020. The beach was empty almost to the end. We started a bit after 6 AM and ended at about 8. We went a bit over. The plan was to end at 7:15, sunrise.<br /><br /><br />The Ritual at the beach was by invitation to keep people safe. A few people showed up whom we did not know, but they were few. The commemoration was virtual this year.<br />Here is a link to both: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/131523084166083/videos/460092188282153/?__so__=channel_tab&__rv__=all_videos_card " target="_blank">Virtual 25th Annual MAAFA Commemoration Part II <br /></a><br /><br />and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/131523084166083/videos/254479615988372/?__so__=channel_tab&__rv__=all_videos_card " target="_blank">Virtual 25th Annual MAAFA Commemoration Part I</a><br /><br />Thanks to Brother Kwalin Kimathi who hosted the first program (as well as gave tech support as did Sister Koren Clark) and to Brotha Clint and Sister Afua who joined him in Zoom to talk about the MAAFA Tradition in the SF Bay. We also want to thank Melvin Phillips who videotaped for the livestream broadcast and thanks to Brother Che and the other men from Community Ready Corps for onsite security. <br /><br /><br />Special thanks to King Theo Aytchan Williams, Iya Ava Square, Iya La Tanya Carmical, Ayikwe Scott, Baba Darinxoso Oyamasela, Mins. Alicia Teasley and Imhotep Alkebulan, Desmond Iman, Brother Neter Aa Meri and his assistants; Sistar Gwendolyn “Sunrise” Traylor; Brother Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson, Sister Beatrice X Johnson. For the second part of the 25th Anniversary of MAAFA SF Bay Area, we want to thank Sister Karla Brundage for her tech support, Sister Koren Clark for tech support, Sister TaSin Sabir for her website and media development; Brother Mike Jackson, Montgomery MAAFA and ICCAAMP for his media support; and of course all the contributors to the <b>Virtual 25th Annual MAAFA Commemoration</b> in order of appearance: <br /><br />Sister Wanda Sabir, host; Sister Opal Palmer-Adisa, Ph.D.; Brotha Clint; Baba Kola Thomas; Seestah IMAKHÜS Njinga Okofu Ababio, Brother Alonzo “Zochi” Young, (Ethiopia); Iya Mahealani Uchiyama; Aishah Bashir and her mom: revered ancestor, Iya Jaquelyn Hadiah McLeod; Joan Tarika Lewis on her cousin, revered ancestor, Sister Makinya Kouyate; Baba Ustadi Kadiri & Sister Bisola Marignay on revered ancestor, Brother Tahuti; Ms. Nia McAllister; Sister Bisola Marignay, Ph.D.; Iya Queen Hollins, Earthlodge; Iya Osotunde aka Mama C (Tanzania); Kumasi-- Black Liberation Pledge; Dr. Francis Cress Welsing, MD., revered ancestor, “A Liberating Black People’s Prayer for Peace” (©1996); Ms. Koren Clark on her father, honored ancestor: Dr. Syed Malik al Khatib (1940-2014); Min. Alan Laird, M.Div; Baba Eddie Abrams -- Umoja House; Karla Brundage -- The Black Arts Movement; Min. Mxolisi, M.Div., Wo’se co-founder; Sister Piwai (Zimbabwe); Sister Omitola Akinwunmi (Uganda)—she will lead the Virtual Maafa Townhall Workshop 11/22, 2-4 in Zoom; Sistar Gwendolyn “SunRise” Traylor; Brother Mehib Holmes, Atlanta, GA; Sister Kharyshi Wiginton, “MeToo,” Texas; Brother Bryant Bolling and Sistar Zakiyyah Capehart-Bolling; Honored ancestor, John Coltrane for his “Love Supreme” -- and to all those who are a part of the MAAFA Commemoration SF Bay Area Global family. <br /><b><br /><br />Don’t forget to visit the <a href="http://www.maafasfbayarea.com" target="_blank">MAAFA SF Bay Area Boutique</a> for gifts.</b></div>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-87937231589862948372020-10-06T08:06:00.003-07:002020-10-06T08:06:26.904-07:004th Sunday September Virtual MAAFA Townhall<p> <span style="color: #222222;">We are really excited to have Ms. Alita Henderson joining us to talk about her project: Say I Love You to Yourself. Ms. Henderson writes: "Taking the time to pause and reflect on your personal needs…your self-care needs is the reason I promote “Say I Love You To Yourself”. I facilitate a safe space to engage in this work and help you get reacquainted with what nurtures and nourishes you. This formula will be different for each of us. </span></p><p><span style="color: #222222;">"The external forces of our society (institutional racism, the minor aggressions) that we normalize or internalize, negatively impact our whole person (mind, body & spirit). We must change this paradigm. We must become the balm to our wounded souls. We must learn to speak healing over ourselves and to one another. Learning to appreciate ourselves is the start of this healing path." </span></p><p><span style="color: #222222;">Bring your pounding sticks. Ava will lead us in a song. </span></p><p><span style="color: #222222;">Upcoming: October 25, 2-4 p.m., Iya Arisika Razak will host an ancestor meditation workshop. </span></p><p><span style="color: #222222;">You can bring a person of African Ancestry to the meeting with you. Let me know the person's name and email address in advance. These events are free, but we ask for a donation for the facilitators. The 25th Annual MAAFA Commemoration is next month too. Sunday, Oct. 11, 11-1:30 PM PT we will have a Virtual MAAFA Commemoration Ritual broadcast via Zoom and maybe YouTube. I have attached a flier. The beach ceremony is by invitation only. You can watch this (6 AM PT- 7:15 AM PT) as well via <a href="http://Facebook.com/maafabayarea">Facebook.com/maafabayarea</a></span></p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-74128869458607017812020-09-25T15:49:00.018-07:002020-09-25T15:56:40.718-07:00Virtual Altar<p>Please add to the <b><i><a href="https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks">Virtual Altar</a></i></b>. <br /><br /> </p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-6985841626071359452020-09-09T21:38:00.002-07:002020-09-09T21:38:14.232-07:00MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area Townhall July 26, 2020<p> Topic: MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area Townhall</p><p>Start Time : Jul 26, 2020 01:33 PM</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Meeting Recording:</b></p><p><a href="https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/QSbGNZQG5OMQoo9aTPp1wx8es3dwEmNM52kj-vPqwgR0yMYpR6ZsJTKf9LH2kt54.yc1XF-53oiZzaxtJ">https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/QSbGNZQG5OMQoo9aTPp1wx8es3dwEmNM52kj-vPqwgR0yMYpR6ZsJTKf9LH2kt54.yc1XF-53oiZzaxtJ</a></p><div><br /></div>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-67959352292908072832020-09-09T21:25:00.001-07:002020-09-09T21:25:15.072-07:00MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area Townhall, Sunday, August 23, 2020<p><b>Topic: MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area Townhall</b></p><p><b>Date: Aug 23, 2020 04:24 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)</b></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Meeting Recording:</b></p><p><a href="https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/nn2CIK6x4F2opsAv8lGLpZ3FHCAmfqNsu64v1Bm26w3nVYZIuFfr0ptIuQSDpDrZ.wmP0rXJGOvSKSQu0">https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/nn2CIK6x4F2opsAv8lGLpZ3FHCAmfqNsu64v1Bm26w3nVYZIuFfr0ptIuQSDpDrZ.wmP0rXJGOvSKSQu0</a></p>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-66990529297771906402020-06-30T07:47:00.002-07:002020-09-09T22:01:12.515-07:00MAAFA Virtual Townhall June 28, 2020<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_b8V0NHG32PYySH9cXUQKsoXI7g0_5e5_xxadyYOqmtOfisqvL6flvVf-jDc2FJeAOSvWOwNNx5wBzt45tKUvzBMfB_jmKuZByWeBAsnat40ph6kWn5GUW5FvNlhI1HvAtr8Cly7iHHs/s1600/220px-Beah_Richards_Bill_Cosby_Show_1970_%2528cropped%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_b8V0NHG32PYySH9cXUQKsoXI7g0_5e5_xxadyYOqmtOfisqvL6flvVf-jDc2FJeAOSvWOwNNx5wBzt45tKUvzBMfB_jmKuZByWeBAsnat40ph6kWn5GUW5FvNlhI1HvAtr8Cly7iHHs/s320/220px-Beah_Richards_Bill_Cosby_Show_1970_%2528cropped%2529.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ9rS3zC8y-zezgSAQQaF1DgBltt0tTDPDLk6A19mSDN8egBXAwkS4wG50FEzRecJk5qiloO1J7_ps1SiBLeZ_EIJ-DAEMFVtKc2Sty4YEafK4yAjv7j1yTCMqF5Kf9617S8a6QAlG_EA/s1600/Zoom+June+28%252C+2020+per+Tomye.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="1280" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ9rS3zC8y-zezgSAQQaF1DgBltt0tTDPDLk6A19mSDN8egBXAwkS4wG50FEzRecJk5qiloO1J7_ps1SiBLeZ_EIJ-DAEMFVtKc2Sty4YEafK4yAjv7j1yTCMqF5Kf9617S8a6QAlG_EA/s320/Zoom+June+28%252C+2020+per+Tomye.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
This month, the Virtual MAAFA Townhall featured, the film "Beah: A Black Woman Speaks," directed by LisaGay Hamilton (2003). We followed the screening with a conversation with the director. One of the tasks we took on was to start a campaign to get HBO to re-release the film for<br />
Beah Richards Centennial, Sunday, July 12, 2020. More will follow regarding this drive and how you can help. In the meantime, enjoy the conversation.<br />
<br /><b>
Audio transcript</b>: <br /><a href="https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/play/7pB-ce_5qzM3SdPGtASDVqR9W47uKf2shHQX-acFmkjnUnRQNFbyYLpAMbeCPWJRiW94oZyqMUUhPBhc">https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/play/7pB-ce_5qzM3SdPGtASDVqR9W47uKf2shHQX-acFmkjnUnRQNFbyYLpAMbeCPWJRiW94oZyqMUUhPBhc</a><br />
<br /><b>Video Recording</b>:<br /><a href="https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/BQ2XpAGsWK00wEaUh5QKQeH7VBtdjIhE_oPzYChBlkk2OYho-kSfp6n-oWbt3EiT.XcsAkq1--2TQSfC5?startTime=1593387248000">https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/BQ2XpAGsWK00wEaUh5QKQeH7VBtdjIhE_oPzYChBlkk2OYho-kSfp6n-oWbt3EiT.XcsAkq1--2TQSfC5?startTime=1593387248000</a><br />
<br />Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-79097231359148234662020-06-29T23:41:00.001-07:002020-06-29T23:41:16.515-07:00Celebrating Beah Richards<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2DnhAEgGxjo/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2DnhAEgGxjo?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
https://youtu.be/2DnhAEgGxjoMaafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-75150279857883914502020-05-23T13:44:00.005-07:002020-09-09T22:22:44.263-07:00MAAFA SF Bay Virtual Townhall May 24, 2020 <br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Greetings Everyone:<br />
<br /><a href=" https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/ZbywBedn8yDnRVIusF2P50m74PrGyNSQGgV_Vd483PIlPU_w8DPJIIeThD_Cy5cM.2Bs92TkRO9H1q6Wb?startTime=1590364381000">Virtual Village: MAAFA Townhall Sunday, May 24, 2020</a> 5-7:15 p.m</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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).<br />
<br />
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. <br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Peace and Blessings,<br />
<br />
Wanda Sabir</i><br />
Visit <a href="http://www.wandaspicks.com/" target="_blank">www.wandaspicks.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 106%;">Virtual Village: MAAFA Townhall Sunday, May 24, 2020 5-7:15
p.m</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 106%;">. <br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
Please send me other values important to you. I will add them to the
list. <br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Program</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Theme: Keep Walkin ’</b><br />
<br />
1. MAAFA 2019 Slide show introduction as we assemble (Brother </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 106%;">Anyika Nkululeko</span>, <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 106%;">7 mins)<br />
<br />
2. Libation (2-3) Min. Alicia Teasley, Wo’se Sacramento<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 106%;">3. Prayer (2-3) Min. Alicia Teasley, Wo’se Sacramento<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">4. MAAFA song </span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">(1-2) – Brotha Clint<b><br />
<br />
5. First Break Out – What song makes you smile and why? Hum a few bars or sing
a few lines (7-10 minutes)<br />
<br />
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. <a href="https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2816321049"><span color="windowtext" style="font-weight: normal;">https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2816321049</span></a><br />
<br />
</b>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). <br />
<b><br />
7. Breakout – How do you commit to your body and stay present? Share a
grounding practice (7-10 minutes). </b><br />
<br />
<b><i>Resources:</i></b> <br />
<b>Grounding Stones</b>: <a href="https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/grounding-stones.html">https://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/grounding-stones.html</a><br />
<b><br />
Meditation: </b><a href="https://earthingcanada.ca/grounding-meditation-techniques/">https://earthingcanada.ca/grounding-meditation-techniques/</a><b><br />
<br />
Root Chakra (trust, belonging) – </b><a href="https://holistickenko.com/7-chakras-and-body-health/">https://holistickenko.com/7-chakras-and-body-health/</a><b><br />
<br />
Grounding techniques: </b><a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/grounding-techniques">https://www.healthline.com/health/grounding-techniques</a><br />
<b><br />
<br />
8. Habari Gani: What’s the word in the community (15 mins)<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Mental Health<br />
Health<br />
Economics – work<br />
Family<br />
Education<br />
Recreation<br />
<br />
<b>9. Meditation through Song (7 mins)</b><br />
</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">McCoy Tyner’s<i> </i>“Contemplation</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">”</span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (1967 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Real McCoy</i>).</span><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">
Bisola Marignay</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> sings <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Jean and Doug Carn</b> recorded version
(1973 LP <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Revelation</i> on the BlackJazz
label)</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Soul in a restful
place, peace when the day is ending.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">I sit and I
contemplate, and search my life from its very beginning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Oh, oho,o,o oh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Come on in and get in
line. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Acknowledge the One
that's most Subline!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">You must find a way to
get back home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sit down and work it
out. See what it's all about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Search til you
find true peace of mind.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">You better strive on
or you'll die hard,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">and no one will shed a
tear for a child of the Creator,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">whose blinded by her
own fear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">You are free from the
day you're born. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">So, find a place of
your own,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">A place where you can
survive,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">A place to be alive!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Life is what you make
it! it's up to you how you want to take it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">True knowledge is
free. Open your eyes and see.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Have faith in
yourself. Be what you want to be, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Contemplation!
Sweet meditation!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Some of you are
disconsolate, Travel for you to relocate, leaving the other behind<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">What you do, what you
see, and what you know, is all that you can use. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Look at your mind and
watch grow for a million years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Well that is real to
me. Your life is not short it's eternal you see. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">So, contemplate and
find the key!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Please let my mind be
free that my spirit alive might see, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">And go home in another
place there to exist in the mist of God's Grace.</span><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b>8. Closing Workshop: Ancestor Dance</b> –<span style="color: #202020;">Māhealani
Uchiyama</span>, dancer, musician, author and teacher (20-25 mins). Visit: </span><a href="https://www.mahea.com/">https://www.mahea.com/</a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
Ann Marie Davis, “Ourselves Walking” + “We Are the Universe” excerpt poem (5
min). Visit: </span><a href="https://annmariedavis.com/">https://annmariedavis.com/</a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Processional:<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> Ajuana Black “Walkin’” (4:04 mins) Link: </span></b><a href="https://www.reverbnation.com/ajuanablack/songs">https://www.reverbnation.com/ajuanablack/songs</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Announcements:<br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Global African Liberation Day is
Monday, May 25, 2020, 8:30 AM PT on Facebook<br />
<a href="https://africanliberationday.net/">https://africanliberationday.net/</a><br />
<br />
Africa Day Concert, May 25, 9 AM ET (?) <br />
</span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyP_ZBjeSy4&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyP_ZBjeSy4&feature=youtu.be&app=desktop</a><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /><b><br />NPR Links to Live Virtual Concerts:</b><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/17/816504058/a-list-of-live-virtual-concerts-to-watch-during-the-coronavirus-shutdown">https://www.npr.org/2020/03/17/816504058/a-list-of-live-virtual-concerts-to-watch-during-the-coronavirus-shutdown</a><br /><br />
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: </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://wandaspicks.com/category/web-exclusives/">http://wandaspicks.com/category/web-exclusives/</a><br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">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 <i><a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095808252">Many
Thousands Gone: An American Fable</a></i> (1965) by <a href="https://biography.jrank.org/pages/2345/Fair-Ronald-L.html">Ronald L. Fair</a>.
He is the author of the book, Hog Butcher (1966) that became the genesis for a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb-SBGpuoZc">film</a>—the book reissued by
the same title: </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Cornbread, Earl, and Me (1975).</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <br />
</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072822/fullcredits">https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072822/fullcredits</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
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. <br />
The<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The 4<sup>th</sup> Sunday is June 28, 5-6 p.m</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">. 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. <br /><br />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 </span><a href="https://www.communityhealingnet.org/emotional-emancipation-circle/">https://www.communityhealingnet.org/emotional-emancipation-circle/</a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />
<br /><b style="font-size: 12pt;">
4</b><sup style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: bold;">th</sup><b style="font-size: 12pt;"> Sunday in July is July 26, 5-7 p.m. </b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br /><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/ZbywBedn8yDnRVIusF2P50m74PrGyNSQGgV_Vd483PIlPU_w8DPJIIeThD_Cy5cM.2Bs92TkRO9H1q6Wb?startTime=1590364381000">Zoom Video Link</a> for May Virtual Townhall: </b><a href="https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/ZbywBedn8yDnRVIusF2P50m74PrGyNSQGgV_Vd483PIlPU_w8DPJIIeThD_Cy5cM.2Bs92TkRO9H1q6Wb?startTime=1590364381000" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><br />https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/ZbywBedn8yDnRVIusF2P50m74PrGyNSQGgV_Vd483PIlPU_w8DPJIIeThD_Cy5cM.2Bs92TkRO9H1q6Wb?startTime=1590364381000</a>Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-44176473568291790502020-04-28T00:41:00.001-07:002020-04-28T00:41:43.119-07:00Oliver Mtukudzi - Todii<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bUegP24Z_gQ" width="480"></iframe><br /><br /><br />This song speaks to partners who infect their partners with disease (HIV or AIDS). He asks, "What can we do?"<br /><br />Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-32497405948694850892020-04-27T05:36:00.004-07:002020-09-09T22:37:10.512-07:00First MAAFA SF Bay Area Virtual Townhall, Sunday, April 26, 2020<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;">Sunday, April 26, Maafa San Francisco Bay Area hosted its first, but not last <a href="https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/xWrV6Kx0v4WCPtnPzoT1tCevgpCVK_6iQTRLjnfz5eZWbzYz04lfMQ6LxnQxqWtR.EBy478NxgrNmB3ba?startTime=1587933351000"><b>virtual townhall</b>.</a> This meeting was to check-in with African Diaspora people who revere African Ancestors of the Middle Passage, and were interested in joining in conversation with others who feel the same.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "crimson text", serif;">
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Covid-19 has impacted all of us in a multitude of ways and Ms. Wanda Sabir, CEO, of Maafa SF Bay Area convened the gathering today to rally and recall our strengths and offer practical tools to everyone as a means to sustain and buffer us where we feel most vulnerable.<br />
<br />
Guests at the meeting shared stories of resilience and remembrance, attended an altar or shrine assembly demonstration and lecture. Brother Neter Aa Meri has been building altars for the Annual Maafa Ritual and for other occasions when asked, for minimally 20 years. He shared his practice with us and gave those present the thinking behind the altars they bow and kneel to each October.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
With Brother Anyika Nkululeko’s photo essay in slide form fresh in our minds, where we saw images of many present that frigidly cold Sunday in October last year, we listened to Brother Neter Aa Meri followed by large and smaller group conversations. What went on in those break-out sessions, stayed there, but snippets were shared out later. Guests were given an assignment in advance, to bring to the gathering an object they valued and would perhaps put on an ancestor altar. Another assignment, the first breakout, was to think about what makes them so strong. The musical prompt was Nigerian-British composer and singer Labi Siffre’s <a href="https://youtu.be/otuwNwsqHmQ" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">“Something Inside So Strong.”</a></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghaYxHbHw2u9fi5AR0RQyok4mAs3bPlsBWhSsgT0tQ2owEPibVLiY7pGp-gvy36zw-zfK_k4NTKqa4BVX7560TxrT1z1LJkFwawytq8K6HKsdTC4HbhAvvY0ISPNBOUviLrAtrSdzS2Ns/s1600/Widya+Batin+honored+January+2020.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="1050" height="331" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghaYxHbHw2u9fi5AR0RQyok4mAs3bPlsBWhSsgT0tQ2owEPibVLiY7pGp-gvy36zw-zfK_k4NTKqa4BVX7560TxrT1z1LJkFwawytq8K6HKsdTC4HbhAvvY0ISPNBOUviLrAtrSdzS2Ns/s640/Widya+Batin+honored+January+2020.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Widya Batin, 20, was co-host. A San Francisco native, she is well-known for her work on the <a href="http://www.buchananstories.org/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Buchanan Mall</a> in the Fillmore. She also received the 12th Annual NEN Award for Best Community Challenge Grant Project presented by Mayor London Breed. Watch the short film: <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://citizenfilm.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D749f049a4d5ae17272e01028a%26id%3Dbb1bd91c67%26e%3D6aef66f3b7&source=gmail&ust=1588054691755000&usg=AFQjCNHkwfDrE0JIMc4lMnAEwqsIEUw6RQ" href="https://citizenfilm.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=749f049a4d5ae17272e01028a&id=bb1bd91c67&e=6aef66f3b7" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="background-position: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;" target="_blank"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Spirit of Fillmore</em></a> which shows the community engagement and design process for the mural. (Widya is far left front in jacket and black pants.)</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Next Village Talk: May 24, 5-7 PM.</span> Save the date: International Libations for African Ancestors, Sat., June 13, 2020 8-11 AM PT</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
If you are interested in getting on the mailing list for the MAAFA Virtual Village Talks, fill out a questionnaire at <a href="http://maafasfbayarea.com/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">maafasfbayarea.com</a> The sign-up is also in the calendar. </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
We continued after Neter Aa Meri's wonderful presentation with another small group breakout session and then had a larger discussion called Habari Gani? What’s the News? where Brother Anyika voiced concern over African American youth who do not wear masks while out or physically distance themselves from each other. Adeshima and Cardum shared that they are starting a venture with an entrepreneur in Ghana who makes lovely face masks, yet since the mandatory Sheltering-in-Place has not been able to sell. Widya was interested in getting stylist masks wholesale and organizing her partners in the 'Mo to get young Black folk to "mask up."<br />
<br />
Seated at home in front of a Sankofa Bird Batik, Ade shared poetry of travel cross oceans genetically and the wonderment of return as Cardum told at story of a tiger whose fierce cunning and ferocity evaded captivity.<br />
<br />
Brother Haneef pulled out his tenor saxophone and I thought, wow, we're going to have music. He played "Now" by Kenny Garrett, on soprano saxophone. A perfect song for the conclusion of a wonderful time together. <br />
<br />
Damu Sudi Alii, who was to give our Elder Talk, shared "Song for Somayah," a poem about a warrior friend of his. Renee Moore or "Peaches" is the woman who surrendered after the LA police shootout at Panther Headquarters in 1969 to save the lives of the other Black Panthers members inside. Bobby Hutton had surrendered in Oakland, and the police shot him in cold blood. With bullets flying, Peaches told Damu that they hadn't returned fire, they just wanted to get out alive. I don't know if she was the only woman, but she volunteered. The thinking was perhaps LAPD wouldn't shoot a Black woman as quickly as they would a Black man. They got lucky.<br />
<br />
I prepared the following talk; however, I didn’t have time to share with the assembly. After the talk, I was going to share this really nice video wishing the fasters Ramadan Mubarak: </div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4dqd227pwPg/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4dqd227pwPg?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;">Ramadan Mubarak</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
This is the Blessed Month of Ramadan for the submitters, Muslims, people who believe in the oneness of creation. During this time of sheltering-in-place, we fast – abstaining from food, drink, sex, and acts and thoughts which are contrary to the benefit of all life.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
We read 1/30th of the Qur’an which was revealed this month—the first five verses in Sura Al Alaq or the Clot, “Read, in the name of your lord who created; Created [people] from a clot of congealed blood (zygote); 3. Read! For your Lord is most generous.<a href="http://wandaspicks.com/first-maafa-sf-bay-area-virtual-townhall-sunday-april-26-2020/#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">[1]</a> 4.Who taught by the pen. 5.Taught [people] what [they] knew not. <a href="http://wandaspicks.com/first-maafa-sf-bay-area-virtual-townhall-sunday-april-26-2020/#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">[2]</a></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
One of the main takeaways from what became Sura or Chapter 96, is that knowledge is power and that answers can be found in texts and also in each other. Our ancestors are texts. They are embodied libraries, which is why when one starts the process of creating an ancestor altar the first step is talking to your elders who hold the stories of our people. Ancestors are Timbuktu libraries held in safe keeping from marauders who would burn down our intellectual and spiritual edifices if given a chance. The ancestor altar and/or shrine is preservation of the African species. Calling the names of one’s ancestors keeps their work from being erased.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Ramadan is a fast which begins and ends with the sighting of the new moon (28-30 days). Ramadan is a time of internal excavation; we turn our gaze inward as we think about our own hearts and souls and how we can get closer to oneness with the all – the source of everything. Of course, people, human beings have a responsibility to take care of the planet and those who live here with us. Although the human species is more viral than the worse contagion, the optimum relationship with other species is one of cooperation, compassion, and humility.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Yeye Luisah Teish says in “Shift Catalyst: Eartha’s Children,” a story she shared last week on a <a href="http://tobtr.com/s/11714336" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">Wanda’s Picks Radio Show Special</a> (4/19), Mother Earth, sent us to our rooms. <br />
<br />
Sheltering-in-Place can be a blessing. We have had to slow down and get closer to those aspects of ourselves we have been avoiding. We have had to contemplate those deep questions, such as life and death and how we plan to live the time we have left. We have also, some of us, had to face loss, lots of loss – missing those hugs goodbye and not even being able to have a closing ritual with loved ones.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Ceremony – these practices, are grounded in beliefs that support the oneness of an evolutionary life cycle that rotates in a way that nothing is ever lost of value and the old is the womb of what is new. This is what ancestors tell us. They live in the earth, at least that’s where we put them, whether that is ashes or flesh—then the worms have a feast and the elements over time transform what was lifeless back into life as our ancestors become clouds and the breeze on our cheeks and the water so precious, and the fire that burns away darkness each morning.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Ramadan Mubarak. Ramadan Karim is the response. Blessed Ramadan. Glorious Ramadan is the response. What can you give up this month— we are a species that consumes more than it needs for survival.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Hunger or the desire for food causes us to empathize with many who are always hungry. The breath of the person fasting is sweet to the nostrils of creator and creation. Ramadan – intentional abstinence is something we all participate in today. There is so much beyond our control. We think we are in control, but are we?</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
We think we are the most intelligent species because of our ability to have choice, but are these really choices or just responses to stimuli in a maze we did not know we were trapped in? Who or what holds the strings to our lives?</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Our African ancestors are people who lived before us, some we were able to meet before they moved onto another realm, which is accessible. These ancestors, like the architects of landscapes from death: City of Bones, are examples of creativity and tenacity of spirit. Black Betty speaks of ancestral songs – “mouths burning with song.”</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
We know the Nommo is an Africentric term that identifies the power of words to speak life into being. Dr. Molefi Asante “characterizes nommo as the process undertaken in community to foster transformation in that community by naming the current reality and re-imagining a future. Nommo are the ancestral spirits of the Dogon (Mali) and are derived from a Dogon word meaning “to make one drink”. Nommo implies the power of words to create harmony and balance in the face of disharmony”.<a href="http://wandaspicks.com/first-maafa-sf-bay-area-virtual-townhall-sunday-april-26-2020/#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">[3]</a></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
When I think about the City of Bones in August Wilson's "Gem of the Ocean," I see spirit beings that occupy the space between then and now, now. What Black Betty describes to Citizen is ancestral terrain. This landscape is filled with beauty and wonder. The ancestors are on our side.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Energy cannot be destroyed. It only shifts or shows up in a new form. We are the dirt beneath our feet, the water falling from the clouds, the sand from the ocean, the breeze on our cheeks, the butterfly just out of reach.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Think about our friends and loved ones who are locked in cages who have been sheltering in place for days, months, years, some in county facilities held because they missed an appointment with probation, or couldn’t pay a fine – who now wait scared that someone from outside will bring the virus inside. I am writing 14 women in two state prisons: Central CA Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Women’s Facility in Corona. The women tell me about infected staff who are walked off the site and prisoners who came in contact with staff, sent into quarantine or solitary confinement.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
One woman has stage 4 cancer, another has heart problems and anxiety. Liz tells me how she is so thankful the nurses come to work to take care of her, because they could take sick leave and leave her and others locked up without medicine and support.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Another woman whose three daughters have had to grow up without their mom shares how two weeks ago today, the women in cells had sandwiches for dinner because the shift who prepared meals had a sick guard(s) and the institution had to quarantine that housing unit. Many of the women think what if the Correctional Officers or COs just stop showing up and they are locked in these cells and left to die?</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
I assure them that there are those of us outside who will not allow the state or federal or county government to forget them, but I am not there. I am sheltering in place in a two-bedroom apartment walking distance from a beach. I am privileged and I thank the creator for my blessings. I can drive to my daughter’s house and look at my grandchildren from behind the window. I can see my youngest grandchild crawling and pulling up in WhatsApp video calls and texts. It is not the same, but it could be a lot worse.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
We hold on to the rope that the creator has extended to us, the same rope our ancestors held, the same rope that we grab as we exit the "Doors of No Return" at the Maafa Ritual each year in October, symbolic of the connection that never breaks between us and those who have shape-shifted whom we know still exist. We are never alone because all that ever was resides with each of us, a little piece of a vast and conjoined universe.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
I want to close with another Sura or chapter which Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) found comforting, and I love as well. I recited it when I was in labor with my first daughter, Bilaliyah.<br />
<br />
Inshirah, or the Expansion (Sura 94)</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Bismillah Ar Rahim, Ar Rahim</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Have we not expanded your chest<br />
And removed from you your burden<br />
Which weighed down your back<br />
And raised the esteem in which you are held?<br />
Surely, with every difficulty there is relief<br />
With difficulty there is relief<br />
So when you are free from immediate (anxiety or harm), work hard<br />
And to your lord give all your attention</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
Ashay, ashay, ashayo.</div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://wandaspicks.com/first-maafa-sf-bay-area-virtual-townhall-sunday-april-26-2020/#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="background-position: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; font-size: 18px; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">[1]</a><span style="font-size: 18px;"> </span>“He has blessed humans with the capacity to learn and teach" (Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, translator, "<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Qur'an as It Explains Itself," 6th Edition, July 2016, Florida</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">). </span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 18px; margin-bottom: 28px; padding: 0px;">
<a href="http://wandaspicks.com/first-maafa-sf-bay-area-virtual-townhall-sunday-april-26-2020/#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">[2]</a> “The Pen symbolizes the transmission and exchange of knowledge through written records, unique to man. Since this is a Divine gift to mankind” <span style="font-size: small;">(Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, translator</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: small;">). </span></div>
</div>
<a href="http://wandaspicks.com/first-maafa-sf-bay-area-virtual-townhall-sunday-april-26-2020/#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="background-position: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #a0ac48; font-family: "crimson text", serif; font-size: 18px; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out 0s;">[3]</a> The Power of NOMMO<a href="http://iel.org/sites/default/files/iel-lt2-power-of-nommo.pdf">http://iel.org/sites/default/files/iel-lt2-power-of-nommo.pdf</a><br />
<br />
<br /><div dir="ltr" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: times, times new roman, serif;"><b style="font-size: 18px;">Video Link for <a href="https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/xWrV6Kx0v4WCPtnPzoT1tCevgpCVK_6iQTRLjnfz5eZWbzYz04lfMQ6LxnQxqWtR.EBy478NxgrNmB3ba?startTime=1587933351000">April MAAFA Virtual Townhall</a> Meeting: </b><br /><span style="font-size: 18px;">https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/xWrV6Kx0v4WCPtnPzoT1tCevgpCVK_6iQTRLjnfz5eZWbzYz04lfMQ6LxnQxqWtR.EBy478NxgrNmB3ba?startTime=1587933351000</span></span></div><div><br /></div></div>
Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-32796355392127698822020-04-27T05:26:00.002-07:002020-05-19T23:27:44.744-07:00MAAFA 2019 Commemoration Slide Show<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /><iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/i6s7HUF9OkI/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i6s7HUF9OkI?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
<b>MAAFA 2019</b><br />
Credits Anyika Nkululeko<br />
<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" class="cf gJ" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; display: block; font-family: Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.2px; margin-top: 0px; width: auto;"><tbody style="display: block;">
<tr class="acZ" style="display: flex; height: auto;"><td class="gF gK" style="display: block; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; max-height: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap; width: 690.891px;"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-11401241538420383232020-04-27T05:19:00.005-07:002020-04-28T00:01:22.862-07:00MAAFA Commemoration 2019 Reflection<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>MAAFA 2019</b> was a
beautiful, if chilly, 24th Annual Commemoration Ritual, Sunday, October
13. The majority of those present seemed to appreciate the
opportunity to honor and remember African Ancestors of the Middle Passage and
beyond. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I loved Uzo’s choreography—it
embraced all the elements of the MAAFA Song Cycle from Opening the Way,
Healing, A Love Supreme, Freedom to Giving Thanks. It was so lovely and it
warmed us up inside and in our spirits. <br />
<br />
Uzo sang with Akanke in "Bring It Up" another high moment in the ceremony. People
loved the song and its accompanying gestures. I liked how Ebun Akanke told
everyone these words and movements could be a meditation elsewhere when our
spirits needed lifting. <br />
<br /><i>
The Black Pledge</i> read in Kiswahili by Baba Bamidele Agbasegbe Demerson, Chief Curator & Director of the African American
Museum and Library, was an awesome bonus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> In 2018,</span> we didn’t have anyone present who could read the language and
could not share it. <br />
<br />
It is really powerful and others in the audience knew many of the words like
Uhuru—Freedom! and Umoja.—Unity!<br />
<br />
The smaller circle concept continues to resonate with me—I just love being in
the circle with the babies. I remember last year a few really little ones sat
in the sand and played. I remember a few times when the mics didn’t work we
circled up to hear better. I thought about starting in the smaller circle
sooner, but the Ritual of Forgiveness needed more physical space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brother Sidney and the Wo’se drummers
provided a sweet soundtrack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was good
to see them back. It was like old times.<br />
<br />
We didn’t have anyone under five in the center, but two brave teens joined us and
then younger children with their siblings and parents also joined us. Then the
circle grew as the other men and women literally had our backs. I was happy to
see Dr. Nunley present; her father is really ill. I was glad we were able to
give her love and support. <br />
<br />
It was the beginning of MAAT, so Neter Aameri came early and set up the altar
and then left it with his friend to take apart once the ceremony was
complete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last year, the tent that
covers the altar blew off. He got a new one for this year. <br />
<br />
From Kym's reflection on MAAFA to Karla's meditation to Bisola's
"Hallelujah- Heavy Heavy-- Ship a Sailin'" to Melanie Demore's
beautiful song-- "Mother Africa -- My Children Are Beautiful, Black
Ebony Brown--They Are My Crown," felt good. We were close, we
were warm. Ringing the bells for the ancestors was also really fun. 1 minute is
a long time. Imagine that 1 minute times 100 years of 1 minutes times 4 for 400
years (1619-2019). <br />
<br />
When I applied for the First Amendment Permit, the administrator told me that
she didn’t know if Golden Gate Recreational Area participated in the National Day of
Healing August 25, at 3 p.m. ET, so we would do it for this region on Sunday,
Oct. 13.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I thought was amazing was
the synchronicity given the date of the California Constitutional Convention in
Monterey 170 years ago that day. <br />
<br />
I went to the Buffalo Soldier galleries at Fort Point after the Ritual. There
is also a lighthouse there. It is one of the first lighthouses in the state.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
Ebun Akanke and I drove to the Presidio and I took a free shuttle to Fort
Point. It didn't get any warmer. I learned more about the National Cemetery and
who's buried there at the Fort when I spoke to the NPS Ranger. I also saw
the cemetery on my way to the Fort, which is not walking distance, but the cemetery
is. <br />
<br />
Fort Point looks like the slave dungeons in El Mina and the <span style="color: #545454;">Citadelle Henri Christophe</span> near Cap Haitian
built to fight the French. I guess a fort is a fort is a fort. On the roof
we were almost directly under the Golden Gate Bridge and the view of the
beaches and San Francisco and the East Bay and Marin country was amazing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So were the Blue Angels aircraft in their
acrobatic chorography. I had never watched the performances before and what I
liked was the colored smokes ending each flight—red white and blue. My friend
said the money spent on such displays could house a lot of under and unhoused
people on San Francisco streets. <br />
<br />
For this Veteran's Day, given the 400 Years of African American History Act,
I'd like to develop 4-5 teams of people who can place flowers on these men’s
graves and join us to ring bells for the 400+ years of African history at the
National Museum that day. We can divide the 450 into groups of 75 and cover the
entire property. Let me know if you are interested in developing a team for the
Veteran’s Day Libation for Buffalo Soldiers. I have 1 person on my team so far
(smile). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
Slavery ended officially in CA in 1872 (7 years after the end of the Civil
War).<br />
<br />
I am also planning to participate in the Slave Rebellion in New Orleans, Nov. 8-9. I
need someone here to be co-lead on this since I will be out of town and
unavailable the weekend before. I have been trying to connect with
folks who are pushing for a Buffalo Soldier Museum in San Francisco and a
statue of Col. Charles Young, first African American Superintendent, but I
haven't had much luck. Everyone is too busy.<br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="background: #FFFFCC;">
Maafa</span> Commemoration Ritual<br />
Sunday, October 13, 2019<br /></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Continue the Wolosodon / Djondon* rhythm/dance as people go
through the dungeon past the imagined Doors of No Return…voices whisper:
“Remember”<br />
<b><br />
Call their names . . .</b><br />
</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">We remember the recent transition of
<b><i>Queen Diahann</i> <i>Carroll</i> </b>(July 17, 1935 – October
4, 2019) American actress, singer, model and activist. We remember
her as the first Black woman with a primetime show, <i>Julia</i>. Husband
killed in Vietnam, she was a registered nurse, taking care of a male
child—witty and wise, I remember running home from school to watch the
show. Ms. Carroll received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination
for the film Claudine (1974).<i> </i>She was a founding member of the Celebrity
Action Council, a volunteer group of celebrity women who served the women's
outreach of the Los Angeles Mission, working with women in rehabilitation from
problems with alcohol, drugs, or prostitution. She helped to form the group
along with other female television personalities including </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Frann" target="_blank" title="Mary Frann"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Mary
Frann</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Gray" target="_blank" title="Linda Gray"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Linda
Gray</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Mills" target="_blank" title="Donna Mills"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Donna
Mills</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">, and </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Van_Ark" target="_blank" title="Joan Van Ark"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Joan
Van Ark</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">We remember
Toni Morrison</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">
(February 18, 1931 - August 5, 2019) — who wrote in her Pulitzer Prize winning
novel, <i>Beloved </i>(1987), “Those white things hab taken all I had or
dreamed,” Baby Suggs said to Sethe, her daughter in law, “and broke my
heartstings too. There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks” (89). <br />
<br />
Morrison, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first black
woman of any nationality to do so. In 2012, President Barack Obama </span><a href="https://www.princeton.edu/news/2012/04/27/toni-morrison-receives-presidential-medal-freedom" target="_blank"><span style="color: #595959; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">awarded
Morrison the Presidential Medal of Freedom</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">.<b> </b><i> <br />
<br />
– Call your names . . . Ashay. <br />
<br />
We also hold close the memory of others who worked locally for the liberation
of our people and those who were victims of recent natural disasters --<br />
<br />
We also remember recent victims of the bloody Maafa on US soil. Say their
names and they live on. Ashay.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b><i>Stolen Lives Project and the October 22</i></b> (Oct. 22, we honor
those killed by police.)<br />
</span><a href="http://stolenlives.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://stolenlives.org/</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> and </span><a href="http://october22.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://october22.org/</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <br />
<br />
1664 Police Killings in 2018 </span><a href="https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />
<i style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
. . . May their souls rest in peace. Ashay, Ashay, Ashay-o. Blessings to
the rebels such as Nat Turner, an enlightened, fearless warrior for the
Creator(s)’ Justice.<br />
<br />
Do not forget the past. Also remember our kinfolk in Ayiti (Haiti) and the
Southern states recovering from hurricanes and other storms and kinfolk in the
Diaspora in Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Mozambique and here in the San Francisco Bay
Area who are unhoused and under housed and in San Francisco subject to
municipal conservatorship. </i><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
While we</i> <i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">wait for our sisters and brothers to make it to the other side,
the shores where we were taken, dance dundunba—the Warrior Dance or create your
own. We will not let these shackles break our spirit. Call on the ancestors in
this mighty dance and be free. . . .</span><br />
<br />
<b style="font-size: 12pt;">An </b><b>Ancestor</b><b style="font-size: 12pt;"> note:</b> <br />
</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><b style="font-size: 12pt;">Toni
Morrison writes in <i>Beloved</i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">: </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
“Baby Shugs
is speaking to the community who has gathered un the woods for a service she
officiates. “[Baby Suggs] does not tell them to clean up their lives or
to go and sin no more. She did not tell them they were the blessed of the
earth, its inheriting meek or its glorybound pure. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
“She told them
that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. That if
they could not see it, they would not have it. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
“Here,” she said, “in
this place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet
in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They
despise it. They don’t love your eyes; they’d just as soon pick them out. No
more do they love the skin on your back. Yonder they flay it. And O my people
they do not love your hands. Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off an leave
empty. Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others
with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face ‘cause they don’t love
that either. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">You</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> got to love it, you! And no, they ain’t in love with
your mouth. Yonder, out there, they will see it broken and break it agin. What
you say out of it they will not heed. What you scream from it they do not hear.
What you put in it to nourish your body they will snatch away and give you
leavins instead. No they do not love your mouth. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">You</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> got to love it.
This is flesh I’m talking about here. Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that
need to dance; backs that need support; shoulders tht need arms, strong arms
I’m telling you. And O my people, out yonder, hear me, they do not love your
neck unnoosed and straight. So love your neck; put a hand on it, grace it,
stroke it and hold it up. And all your inside parts that they’d just as soon
slop for hogs, you got to love them. The dark, dark liver—love it, love it, and
the beat and beating heart, love that too. More than eyes or feet. More
than lungs that have yet to draw free air. More than your lifeholding womb and
your life-giving private parts, hear me now love your heart. For this is your
prize. Saying no more, she stood up then and danced with her twisted hip the
rest of what her heart had to say while others opened their mouths and gave her
the music. . . ” (88-89). </span><br />
<i style="font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
– Call your names . . . Ashay. <br />
<br />
We also hold close the memory of others who worked locally for the liberation
of our people and those who were victims of recent natural disasters --<br />
<br />
We also remember recent victims of the bloody Maafa on US soil. Say their
names and they live on. Ashay.</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b><i>Stolen Lives Project & the October 22</i></b> (Oct. 22, we honor
those killed by police.)<br />
</span><a href="http://stolenlives.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://stolenlives.org/</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> and </span><a href="http://october22.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://october22.org/</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <br />
<br />
1664 Police Killings in 2018 </span><a href="https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/police-shootings-2019/</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<i><br />
<br />
</i></span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">. . . May their souls
rest in peace. Ashay, Ashay, Ashay-o.</span></i><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Blessings to the rebels such as Nat Turner, an enlightened,
fearless warrior for the Creator(s)’ Justice.<br />
<br />
Do not forget the past. Also remember our kinfolk in Ayiti (Haiti) and the
Southern states recovering from hurricanes and other storms and kinfolk in the
Diaspora in Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Mozambique and here in the San Francisco Bay
Area who are unhoused and under housed and in San Francisco subject to
municipal conservertaship. <br />
</span></i><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
Welcome</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">: Iya Wanda Sabir</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
As we process through the Doors of No Return give thanks for what we remember .
. . trauma induces amnesia, yet the body remembers what the mind forgets.
Intuition is another name for Divine Spirit. The bones which lie between
Alkebulan and the West, link black people genetically through this liquid
experience: sweat, blood, feces, urine, milk, afterbirth, death. <br />
<br />
The transcontinental passages, our ancestors packaged as if they were inanimate
cargo, connects our souls and scarred bodies to this day. The Maafa
Commemoration acknowledges this. The yokes and chains and shackles many of us
still bear speak to this, as does freedom. </span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: #FFFFCC;">Maafa</span> Theme Song (Call &Response)</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">: Brotha Clint,
composer/singer <br />
<br />
Dedication: <i>for the Millions</i><br />
<br />
<i><span style="background: #FFFFCC;">MAAFA</span> we remember you. The Middle
Passage/ And All that we’ve been through/ We’re still here/ Lest we forget/ Our
heads to the sky/ We cry . . . why? – </i>(© Clint Sockwell II, Dana Sockwell and Roberta Robinson)<br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Libations and Prayers: </span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Min. Imhotep Alkebulan; Min. Alicia
Teasley; Mama Ayanna Mashama<br />
<br />
<b>A Liberating Black People’s Prayer</b> <b>(Call and Response--</b>youth
volunteer) <br />
(for Justice and Peace)<i> </i>By: Frances Cress Welsing, M.D., © 1996<i><br />
</i><br />
<i>To say and envision when in prayer</i><br />
<br />
Thou who art Blacker than a trillion midnights,<br />
Whose eyes shine brighter than a billion suns<br />
<br />
Thou whose hair doth coil tighter than a <br />
Million springs, radiating all energy throughout the universe,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
beseech THEE, ONE and ONLY ONE,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
give to us total strength, to carry out <br />
THY will for the universe!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 106%;">To establish JUSTICE on planet EARTH and live in PEACE.<br /><br />
<b><br />
Yoruba Prayer -- Val Serrant<br />
Oṣunfemi Wanbi Njeri – Song for the Ancestors; Call for Osun <br />
<br />
Ebun Akanke Adeṣoka –Bring It Up <br />
Bryant “Mr. B” Bolling and Zakiyyah Capehart Bolling and The Prophet
Samuel</b> (guitar), will present a call and response rendition of
"Redemption Song" and "We Must Remember, Lest We Forget”
(poem). <br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
Drumming:</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Led by consensus<br />
<br />
</span><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Black Pledge: From
Brother Kumasi, Prison Movement Historian<br />
Recited by Mama C – <i>Call and Response</i> <br />
<br />
</span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nina mweusi</span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> ( I am Black)/ <b>nina mtu mweusi</b>
( I am a Black person)/ <b>wa akina weusi</b> (of Black blood)/ <b>na
amini weusini</b> (and I believe in <i>Blackness</i>)/ <b>najua ueusi ni uzuri</b>/
(and I know that Black is Beautiful)/ <b>na ninatakabari sana wa ueusi wangu</b>
(and I am very proud of our/my Blackness)/ <b>na urithi mwafrika wangu</b> (and
our/my Afrikan Heritage)/ <b>kwa haikosi</b> (for surely)/ <b>tuna watu waroho</b>
(we are soul people)/ <b>na sasa</b> (and now)/ <b>na fanya</b> ( I make)/ <b>rehani
hii</b> (this pledge)/ <b>nitakumbuka daima huu</b> ( I will always
remember that)/ <b>uzuri wa umoja ni nguvu</b> (the Beauty of Unity is
Strength)/ <b>na pamojana umoja maambo yote</b>, <b>yana weze kana</b> (and
with Unity, all things are possible)/ <b>ushinde!</b>....(Victory!)/ <b>uhuru!</b>
(Freedom!)/ <b>na amani daima!</b> (and Everlasting Peace!)/ <b>taifa eusi
sifa!</b> (Praise the Black Nation!)/ <b>lazima tushinde mbilashaka!</b> (We
shall Conquer without a Doubt!)/ <b>kwa nguvu za weusi,</b> (for Black Power,)/
<b>ni rehani wetu weusi</b> (is our black pledge)/<b>na zingo!</b> (and
Revolution!)/ <b>na zingo!</b> (and Revolution!)/ <b>na zingo!</b> (and
Revolution!)<br />
</span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></i><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
Talk Back:</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Other prayers
and offerings. 1-2 minute limit per person up to 10-12 people (10-20 minutes).
Prayers requested from those assembled in traditional African and African
Diaspora (which includes English languages) –<br />
<br />
<b>Poetry:</b> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <b><br />
Mama C from Tanzania – THOSE LEFT BEHIND<br />
<br />
Tongo Eisen Martin—Blood in My Eye<br />
<br />
Primal Release </b><i>– Facilitators</i>: Sister Lola and Brother Clint: Take a
deep breath from your abdomen or stomach. Reaching deeply into your soul, let
those things which do not belong to you – go. Let it fly from your mouth.
Release the anger, the pain, the resentment.</span><b><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
Ritual of Forgiveness </span></i></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Call and Response (<b><i>Red Roses</i></b> passed out) – Iya
Wanda Sabir<br />
<br />
<i>Some confuse forgiveness with amnesia and reluctantly remain bound to a
millstone and drown in a sea of regret. Children of the fishermen know the sea
to be primarily a place of nourishment, renewal and fond farewells.</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
We will always cherish the memory of those who go before us</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
Our ancestors walk through the corridors of our minds setting sign posts to
guide us into our rightful legacy, and so/ We will always cherish those torn
from us in the middle passage by corporate greed, / Those torn from us by Jim
Crow violence still speak to us as we weave our own destinies,</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
The bitter taste of unripe fruit felled by drive-by shootings still linger in
the recesses of our souls, and we can hear the cries of youth stolen by
neglect, pestilence and starvation, / Yet, we must go forward if we are to
honor their memories,/ We must cast away all impediments to progress if we are
to honor lives lost to greed and fear<br />
<br />
And so today we choose . . .</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
We choose compassion of our own free will and we consciously reject the lure of
revenge.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today
we choose understanding over blame,</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<i><br />
And like our South African cousins we choose truth and reconciliation over
ignorance and bigotry</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
choose to be confident and to have confidence in each other, for we are not
victims, but warriors.</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
choose to acknowledge our choices, as we acknowledge that our determination to
do so is the foundation of our freedom.</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
you recite and agree with the words above invest the red flower with any
negative energy you choose to cast off, removing petals as you do so. Let
the petals fall to the ground, and bury them in the sand along with the remains
of the flower— © Sister Sheba Makeda Haven<br />
</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <br />
<br />
<b>Community: <span style="background: #FFFFCC;">Maafa</span> Song
Cycle with Interpretive Movement</b>: <b>Sister Kharyshi Wiginton, MAAFA 2019
choreographer<br />
<br />
Chorus leader</b>: Min. Mxiolisi (Recorded) <br />
<b><br />
<span style="background: #FFFFCC;">Maafa</span> Chants/Songs/Prayer (these
are not literal translations from the Yoruba)</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">1)
Olulana o,
Olulana
(Opening the Way)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– wa lana-fun-mi o<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– oti lana-fun-mi o<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
2) Iwosan re o, iwosan
(Healing)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– emi ti gba’ wosan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– iwo ti gba’ wosan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– awa ti gba’ wosan<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">3)
Ife-loju o,
Ife-loju
(Love supreme)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– ore mi ife-loju<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– ara mi ife-loju<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">4)
A ti
d’on-nira
(Freedom)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– ominira di t’awa<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– awa ti d’on-nira<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">5)
Ope l’awa
nda
(Giving thanks)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– ope mi lo repete<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
– ope lo ye mi-mo dupe<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Chant/Song—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">© 2004 Lyrics by Wanda Sabir & Candido Obajimi,
Arrangement revised Yoruba translation and additional lyrics by Kola
Adesokan. All Rights Reserved<br />
<br />
<b>Embracing our Youth</b> (16-24) and anyone currently in need of support
(spiritual, psycho-social-emotional) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Inner Circle</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kym Upton – MAAFA<br />
Karla Brundage—Conquered<br />
Mama C—Ancestors<br />
Alice Walker <br />
<br />
<b>Sister Bisola Marignay</b>, Ph.D.: Circle of Life Ritual that centers on the
Pan-African belief of the circle of life consisting of the living, the
departed, and the unborn would be the one to do. It would consist of the
following:<br />
<br />
1. A call consisting of song & sounds to the ancestors with responses from
everyone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">2. Individuals are asked to envision the content of their
overcoming and how it reflects the strength and intelligence we have inherited
from our
ancestors; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">3. How have we expressed love for
kin? Individuals are asked to place a hand on our kins’ shoulders on both sides
of us.<br />
<br />
4. Gratitude humming will start. The humming is a mediation for our inherient
riches ending in silent appreciation.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Reflections – Iya Wanda Sabir & Brother Michael Khubaka Harris – 400
Years of African American History – CA</b> <br />
<br />
<b><i>CA African Ancestors Remembered – Say their names<br />
</i></b><br />
<b>Announcements I<br />
<br />
11 AM:</b> <b>National Cemetery Visit after the Ritual</b><br />
<br />
Visit to the </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers-in-the-national-cemetery.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">National Cemetery</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> to honor the 450 Buffalo Soldiers buried there. We
will drive over to the </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/the-visitor-center.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Visitor Center</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> to get directions to visit the National Cemetery and other
landmarks—</span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/the-barracks.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Barracks</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/east-cantonment.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">East Cantonment</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> and </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/the-stables.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Stables</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">, tracing the legacy of African American soldiers in the
segregated Union Army. These men were the early stewarts of the what became the
National Park Services, Dept. of the Interior. Col. Charles Young was the first
African American Superintendent. He wrote the manual.<b> <br />
</b></span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/the-visitor-center.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/the-visitor-center.htm</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="color: #555555;"><br />
</span></span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers.htm</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers-in-the-national-cemetery.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers-in-the-national-cemetery.htm</span></a><b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
Healing</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <b>Bells<br />
400 Years of African American History Act– 4 minutes total; 1 ring for each 1
hundred years<br />
</b></span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1892/africanamericanhistorycommission.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1892/africanamericanhistorycommission.htm</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b><br />
Conclusion<br />
Walk to the water now and spend time with your ancestors in <i>Quiet Meditation
and Prayer</i> at the water’s edge—toss flowers on the waves – </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ashay, Ashay, Ashayo</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">.<br />
<br />
On the Beach Today<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
Feel free to drum, fellowship, sing and dance afterwards. Enjoy the
food people have brought to share<b> <br />
<br />
Donations:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">There are costs incurred hosting this community event.
Right now the folks you see in the program are coming out of pocket each year.
This year costs were for materials for the altar, the port-a-potty, bus
charters, food, flowers, candles, gas, photocopying, generator, security
honorarium, postcard printing and design, website design (in the past venue
rental costs, postage, video camera and tapes, advertising). For some of us,
this has been a 24 consecutive year libation. Please send donations to: <span style="background: #FFFFCC;">Maafa</span> San Francisco Bay Area, P.O. Box
30756, Oakland, CA 94604. Make checks out to Wanda Sabir.<br />
<b><br />
Announcements II</b><br />
<br />
Register to VOTE online or have a ballot sent to you: </span><a href="https://registertovote.ca.gov/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://registertovote.ca.gov/</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Ancestor Chat & Chew Thurs., Oct. 24, 6-8 PM<br />
</b><br />
<b>1</b>. The MAAFA Commemoration Dinner and Conversation is at the Health and
Human Resources Education Center (HHREC), 1905 San Pablo Avenue, Oakland,
Thursday, Nov. 1, 6-8 PM. It is a potluck this year, so bring substantive
entrees and we can provide beverages and plates, cups and cutlery. Come out
and reflect and share your experience with others. For more information and to
RSVP call 510-499-9349.<br />
<br />
<b>FILM</b><br />
2. Check in for date for the November screening: Maafa Commemoration Film and
Discussion of <i>True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, </i>directed
by Peter Kunhardt, George Kunhardt and Teddy Kunhardt </span><a href="https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/true-justice-bryan-stevensons-fight-for-equality/about" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/true-justice-bryan-stevensons-fight-for-equality/about</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
2. <i>Claudine</i> Screening and Sister-Social in honor of Queen Diahann
Carroll later this month. Check </span><a href="http://maafasfbayarea.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">maafasfbayarea.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> or follow </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/maafabayarea/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.facebook.com/maafabayarea/</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
3. <b><span style="color: black;">ODC Theater presents Àse Dance Theatre
Collective in the West Coast premiere of Have K(NO!)w Fear: A Bluessical with
Adia Tamar Whitaker: Artistic Direction, Choreography. . .</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">October 17 – 19, 2019, Thursday – Saturday at 8
p.m. at ODC Theater, 3153 17th Street, San Francisco. Tickets are: $15 –
$30. To purchase tickets, call 415-863-9834. Or online visit
odc.dance/Bluessical. To listen to an interview with Whitaker visit Wanda’s
Picks Radio Show, Wed., Oct. 9, 2019 (</span><a href="http://tobtr.com/s/11530597" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://tobtr.com/s/11530597</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">).</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">4. Film </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b>“Always in Season” (89 min.), Oct. 23, 7 p.m., Big Roxie with director,
Jacqueline Olive and editor Don Bernier in person for Q and A at special
advanced screening on October 23 and opening night, November
1.<br />
</b></span><a href="https://www.roxie.com/ai1ec_event/always-in-season/?instance_id=37189" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #a0ac48; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.roxie.com/ai1ec_event/always-in-season/?instance_id=37189</span></b></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Synopsis for <i>Always in Season</i>:
Claudia Lacy wants answers. When her 17-year-old son, Lennon, was found hanging
from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina, the authorities quickly ruled
his death a suicide. In light of suspicious details surrounding his death, and
certain that her son would not take his own life, Claudia is convinced Lennon
was lynched.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt;">
<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">5. </span></b><a href="https://400years.berkeley.edu/about" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">400 Years of Resistance to Slavery and Injustice
Series</span></b></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
As a part of its 400 Years of Resistance to Slavery and Injustice Series </span><a href="https://400years.berkeley.edu/home" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://400years.berkeley.edu/home</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">, a coordinated response to the creation of a
federal commission to study the impact of Black lives on the making of America
and the impact this system had and has had on African people then and now.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">UC Berkeley adopted an initiative to look at
scholarship that engages community in critical discussion around this “taboo”
topic. The series began in August and continue through Spring 2020.
Events include film and author events, poetry readings and lots of
conversations which invite a collective interrogation of the 21<sup>st</sup> century
freedom dance African people continue to perform despite all the legislation
that says slavery is past. The events are all free. <br />
<br />
<b>TODAY</b><br />
<b>Tongo Eisen-Martin, </b></span><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">award-winning
poet, movement worker, and educator Tongo Eisen-Martin, </span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">has an event this afternoon, </span></b><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019, 1:30 PM</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> at the Berrkeley Art Museum Pacific
Film Archive. Other poets are: Bay Area Poetry Marathon curator Eric
Dolan, Salvadoran-American rapper/actor Fego Navarro, </span><a href="https://400years.berkeley.edu/events/oct-13-reading-eric-dolan-fego-navarro-tongo-eisen-martin" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://400years.berkeley.edu/events/oct-13-reading-eric-dolan-fego-navarro-tongo-eisen-martin</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 13.5pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">6. Pan African Global Trade and Investment Conference in
Sacramento 2019 Oct. 15-17<br />
</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
The 9th Annual Pan African Global Trade and Investment Conference will focus on
expanding the State of California’s multilateral trade, commerce and cultural
exchange programs with Africa and the Caribbean through a modification and
expansion of the current programs of the Governor’s Office of Business and
Economic Development (GO-BIZ). Oct. 16-17 will be at Sacramento State
University. Visit </span><a href="https://www.panafricanglobaltradeconference.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.panafricanglobaltradeconference.com/</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="display: none; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Top of Form</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
For other events visit:<br />
</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Visit </span></i><a href="http://wandaspicks.com/" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">wandaspicks.com</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
and listen to </span></i><a href="http://blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> with cultural events related to African </span>Diaspora<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> people</span><br />
<br />
</span></i><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Clean up</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">: We always want to leave the beach more pristine than when
we arrived. There is no designated clean-up crew. You are it (smile). Take
trash or other debris with you when you depart.<br />
<br />
<b>Questionnaire on website: </b></span><a href="http://maafasfbayarea.com/" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">maafasfbayarea.com</span></b></a><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<br />
<br />
</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sign-in sheet (pass clipboard during
the larger circle) so we can know who was here. Please include your contact
information and email address. We need help during the year leading up to the <i>Ritual</i>
Commemoration. For information or to get in contact with us: </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> or call Iya Wanda Sabir at 510-255-5579 and leave a
message. <br />
<br />
<b>Affiliate Organization: </b>International Coalition for the Commemoration of
African Ancestors of the Middle Passage (ICCAAMP),
<a href="http://remembertheancestors.com/">RemembertheAncestors.com</a> <br />
<br />
<b><span style="background: yellow;">Thanks</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The MAAFA Planning Council: Brother Kwalin Kimaathi, Sister
Kym Upton; Michael Khubak Harris; Sister Karla Brundage, Sister Carol Afua
Yates, Sister Colette Winlock, Sister Lola Hanif, Brother Sidney and the Wo’se
drummers, Sister Ebun Akanke Adeṣokan, Brotha Clint Sockwell, Brother
Neter Aa Meri, Brother Anyika Nkulukelo (official photographer), Shaheer Y.
Givens, Mighty Four Films/Video (415.305.5149); HHREC and Downtown TAY,
organizers of the “Get on the Bus” chartered transportation from Oakland;
Community Ready Corps for Self Determination (security) </span><a href="http://www.crc4sd.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.crc4sd.org/</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">;
Sister Wanda Sabir (</span><a href="http://wandaspicks.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">wandaspicks.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">),
Tongo Eisen-Martin, Mama <span style="color: #6a6a6a;">Charlotte</span><span style="color: #545454;"> Hill O'Neal</span><span style="color: #222222;">,
Minister Imhotep Alkebulan, Min, Alicia Teasley, Brother Val Serrant, Oṣunfemi
Wanbi Njeri, Joan Mama Ayana Mashama, Sister Bisola Marignay, Bryant Bolling,
Zakiyyah Capehart Bolling, The Prophet Samuel, Ms. Alice Walker, Joan Miura and
Dr. Gail P. Myers (welcome back). <br />
<br />
Donors: Brother Kwalin Kimaathi and Dr. Delene Richburg, Sister Wanda Sabir,
Sister Karla Brundage. Blessings and thanks, of course to the Egungun
–Ancestors (or angels) and to all who are present.<br />
<b><br />
Please share any personal footage taken with us: </b></span></span><a href="mailto:mail@maafasfbayarea.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">mail@maafasfbayarea.com</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/maafabayarea" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook.com/maafabayarea</span></a><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Include a description and your name.</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> We are always interested in stories and
reflections to post on the website. Please send those as well to </span><a href="mailto:mail@maafasfbayarea.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">mail@maafasfbayarea.com</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <br />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Announcements III</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Check the website:
<a href="http://maafasfbayarea.com/">MAAFASFBayArea.com</a> for upcoming gatherings such as <b>Maafa Commemoration Film
and Discussion</b> next month and the <b>Ancestor Chat and Chew </b>at HHREC.
We would also like to get together quarterly to have Diaspora Talks and MAAFA
Issues Forums – Strategy Salons are another plan and a Book Discussion Group. <br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Here are titles we’re thinking
about: <i>Beloved</i> by Toni Morrison; <i>Barracoon: The Story of the Last
Black Cargo</i> by Zora Neale Hurston; <i>If Beale Street Could Talk</i> by
James Baldwin. <i>We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For</i> by Alice Walker. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />What
would you suggest? <br />
<br />
What films are you watching that you’d recommend? Museums, galleries, music,
plays . . . Art is how we remember who we are despite the distances that
separate us from kin, homeland—it is the rememory that sits in place waiting
for us to return. It is the language we speak without translation. We are
whole despite temporary fragmentation. Nothing goes away or disappears. <br />
<br />
Send your titles and descriptions to </span><a href="mailto:maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">maafasfbayarea.com@gmail.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b><br />
Sound Track Mix – Brother Kwalin and Brotha Clint:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />Wolosodon
/ Djondon</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />Wolosodon
(Wolosedon, Wolosodan, Djondon, Jondon, Djonfoli) comes from the Kayes region
(Stephan Rigert) or from the South - East part of Mali, near the border with
Burkina Faso (R.Clark). It means "Dance of the Woloso", dance of the
slaves. It concerns the slaves who used to serve at the royal courts of the
Mandinka Kings and their families. The dance shows the family honor and family
solidarity.</span><a href="http://www.realafrica.net/cdata/2324/docs/549889_1.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://www.realafrica.net/cdata/2324/docs/549889_1.pdf</span></a><u><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
</span></u><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Photography and Taping (NO)</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />Improvisational at its core like African people historically
–This <span style="background: #FFFFCC;">program</span> is subject to
change, so stay loose. <b>This is holy space, so</b> <b>no
photography during ritual unless previous arranged. No permission is
granted on the beach. NO EXCEPTIONS. </b><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="m_-2890594454808636230_m_-39605708667404"></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#14901e7f6750bf4c__ftnref1" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">[1]</span></a> <i>Gye Nyame" (jeh
N-yah-mee) </i>is the name of the camouflaged adinkra symbol. Its native
African translation means: <i>No one lives who saw its beginning and no one
will live to see its end, except God</i>. Gye Nyame (except god) is revered as
one of highest Akan adinkra or spiritual symbols (</span><a href="http://originalscientist.blogspot.com/2010/08/is-african-symbol-gye-nyame-spiral.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">http://originalscientist.blogspot.com/2010/08/is-african-symbol-gye-nyame-spiral.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 106%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7178515520710546680.post-19523665919299846612019-09-29T18:24:00.001-07:002019-09-29T18:24:18.390-07:002019 MAAFA Proclamation ~ Recovering our California Pan African Heritage<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2019 MAAFA Proclamation ~ Recovering our
California Pan African Heritage</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Whereas,
from the Awash River Basin of Ancient Kush Civilization, the oldest documented
human beings with the brain case of modern women and man walked the
earth. From throughout the entire global Pan African Diaspora we
continue to discover amazing ancient “hidden figures” who have advanced
civilization, contributing to the forward flow of humanity, and whereas</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
remember the Arabic Sea and Indian Ocean Slave Trade of human cargo that began
in the 9<sup>th</sup> century with military conquest leading to the buying
and selling of men, women and children to serve as chattel enslaved
humans. In the 15<sup>th</sup> century Spanish and Portuguese
military exploration expanded slavery along the entire West African coastline
exporting human cargo to the Caribbean Basin and South America. In
August 1619, two small pirate ships hijacked on open sea and enslaved Africans
off a larger ship along the coast near Veracruz, Mexico. These
enslaved human beings were sold along the King James Colony of Virginia
beginning the British entrance into one of the most horrific events in world
history, that cost Africa 75 -100 million lives, many enduring ungodly inhuman
conditions, and whereas<br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
<span style="color: black;">Earlier in 1535, Spanish conquistador </span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hernán Cortés</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">
first colonized Baja, California, utilizing 300 enslaved Pan Africans and later
in 1770, Monterey, California was made Spanish Capitol of Alta California with
the establishment of the Presidio at Monterey and Mission in
Carmel. In 1776, Yerba Buena, today’s San Francisco followed suit
with the Presidio at San Francisco and Mission
Delores. African-Latinos migrated by force and free into Alta
California and by 1790 made up nearly 20 percent of the population, or one in
five residents, according to the 1790 Spanish Census, and whereas<br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the disputed free state, California the “institution of slavery
[would not] come to an end until 1872, [7 years after the end of the Civil
War].” </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Delilah Leontium Beasley (Sept. 9, 1867 to Aug.
18, 1934), American historian and human rights activist, states in her essay
published in January 1919, “Slavery in California.” <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">We revisit this document on its centennial and the </span></span><a href="https://asalh.org/400-years-of-african-american-history-commission-act/"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">400 Years of African American History Commission
Act</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">, federal
legislation which acknowledges the institution of slavery’s beginnings in the
British colony at Old Point Comfort, now Fort Monroe National Monument,
Hampton, VA, even though Spain’s entrance into the slave trade on the west
coast predates this by 82 years, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">and whereas</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
1810, Miguel Hidalgo led the Mexican War of Independence with Spain and on
September 27, 1821, the “Cry of Delores” ended Spanish rule and called for
redistribution of the land and racial equality. Revolutionary
Mexican General and later 2<sup>nd</sup> President of Mexico, Vicente
Guerrero ended slavery in Mexico in 1829, and was executed in February 14, 1831,
and whereas</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pan
Africans from throughout the Diaspora settled in Alta California, Mexico
yearning for a greater measure of freedom and many becoming very wealthy, and
serving in all aspects of the Mexican society. In 1846, the
California Bear Flag Revolt included at least 7 men of African ancestry who
reported to the US Vice Consul in Mexico at the Port of San Francisco, William
Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr., “the African Founding Father of
California.” The Pan African Mexican Governor of California Pio Pico
and many other African-Latinos lost all legal redress after the Mexican
American War, the California Constitutional Convention in October 1849 and
California Statehood in 1850, and whereas</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">On January 1, 1863, President
Abraham Lincoln during the US Civil War’s Executive Order known as the
Emancipation Proclamation became law, authorizing the arming of US Colored
Troops, women and men, to save the Union and earn freedom on the way to the end
of the US Civil War. In 1866, US Colored Troops (9<sup>th</sup> and
10<sup>th</sup> and the 24<sup>th</sup> and 25<sup>th</sup> Infantries) became
members of the Regular US Army</span><span style="background: white; color: #555555;"> </span><span style="color: black;">and became known as Buffalo
Soldiers. Over </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers-buried-at-san-francisco-national-cemetery.htm">400
Buffalo Soldiers</a><span style="color: black;"> are buried at the SF Presidio
and reflect an unbroken continuity of </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers.htm">distinguished
service</a><span style="color: black;"> worthy of acknowledgement and greater recognition.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, in 1903, Captain Charles Young
(1864-1922), “served as 9<sup>th</sup> Cavalry Company commander at the
Presidio of San Francisco. His duties that year included leading an escort of
troops for President </span><span style="background: white;">Theodore Roosevelt
and six days later serving as the Acting Superintendent of </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/historyculture/patrolling-sequoia-national-park.htm"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; letter-spacing: -.2pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Sequoia National Park</span></a>
and “the smaller adjacent General Grant National Park (later renamed Kings
Canyon).”<br />
<span style="color: #555555;"><br />
</span>“Though <span style="background: white;">the U.S. Cavalry had provided
troops to manage and protect California's national parks each summer since 1891,
with the prior movement of Troops K and L to Yosemite National Park, and now
the movement of Troops I and M to Sequoia National Park, 1903 was the first
time African American soldiers were given the responsibility of park patrol for
an entire summer season. Previously in 1899, the </span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers-infantry-buried-at-the-presidio-national-cemetery.htm"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; letter-spacing: -.2pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">24th Infantry</span></a><span style="background: white;"> patrolled Yosemite.”</span><span style="color: #555555;"> <br />
<br />
</span>“The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers-buried-at-san-francisco-national-cemetery.htm"><span style="color: windowtext; letter-spacing: -.2pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">9th
Cavalry</span></a> also constructed, repaired, and improved the parks'
roads and trails. Beginning in June, the first African American Superintendent
Young put his men hard to work. Progress was rapid despite the rough and rocky
terrain. In a job that required both skill and hard labor, forty to fifty men
and up to twelve horses labored through the season to construct more miles of
road than in the past three seasons combined <span style="color: #555555;">(</span><a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/%20patrolling-sequoia-national-park.htm">https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/
patrolling-sequoia-national-park.htm</a>). <span style="background: white; color: #555555;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #555555;"><br />
</span>Over one hundred years later the road that Col. Young's men helped build
is still used as a Sequoia National Park hiking trail. The son of formerly
enslaved Africans <span style="background: white;">Gabriel <span style="color: #222222;">Young and Arminta Bruen of </span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mays_Lick,_Kentucky" title="Mays Lick, Kentucky"><span style="background: white; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Mays Lick</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky" title="Kentucky"><span style="background: white; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Kentucky</span></a>,
Col. Young’s life, work and sacrifice for this nation is testament to the great
faith and fortitude that guides African American people despite the horrors
experienced post-slavery in the various institutions that held and continue to
hold segregationist values. <br />
<br />
When WWI erupted Young, the highest ranking African American in the US Army was
found unsuitable for service by military doctors after a southern born soldier
complained that he could not take orders from an African American
commander.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Young returned to Wilberforce
University to teach and then after the semester ended rode from Xenia to Washington,
D.C. – over 500 miles to show he was in good shape. He was promoted to full
colonel Nov. 6, 1918 and called to active duty; however, the Armistice was
signed 5 days later. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/charles-young-on-foreign-shores.htm">https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/charles-young-on-foreign-shores.htm</a><br />
<br />
Col. Young, found solace in his home at Wilberforce, Ohio, with his wife <span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Ada Mills, whom he married February 18,
1904 in </span><span style="background: white;">Oakland, California,</span> and
lifelong friends, Paul Lawrence Dunbar and W.E.B Dubois. A mentor to <span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Brigadier General</span> Benjamin
O. Davis and to other African American soldiers as commander and teacher, the
MIT graduate’s life demonstrates how difficult it was to serve a nation founded
on racial difference, and whereas<br />
<br />
The same Delilah L. Beasley, long time Oakland resident’s seminal work <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">Negro
Trail-Blazers</span></i><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"> (1919),
is in its centennial year and serves as consultant for most of the content of
this document, is also the first African-American woman to be published
regularly in a major metropolitan newspaper, the Oakland Tribune (1925–1934),</span><span style="color: black;"> and whereas </span><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />
We pause to note the names of other prominent African freedom loving citizens
of this great state such as:</b> <br />
<br />
</span><a href="http://www.beckwourth.org/Biography/everglades.html"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">James “Jim” Pierson Beckwourth</span></a><span style="color: #222222;"> (April 26, 1798 or 1800 – October 29, 1866 or 1867)
“was an American mountain man, fur trader, and explorer. He was mixed-race and
born into slavery in Virginia. He was freed by his white father (and master),
and apprenticed to a blacksmith so that he could learn a trade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a young man, Beckwourth moved to the
American West, first making connections with fur traders in St. Louis,
Missouri. As a fur trapper, he lived with the Crow Nation for years. He is
credited with the discovery of Beckwourth Pass (a California historic
landmark), through the Sierra Nevada (U.S.) Mountains, between present-day
Reno, Nevada, and Portola, California, during the California Gold Rush years.
He improved the Beckwourth Trail, which thousands of settlers followed to
central California” (</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Beckwourth#Legacy_and_honors">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Beckwourth#Legacy_and_honors</a>)<span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Mary Ellen
Pleasant<span style="color: #222222;"> (</span>Aug. 19, 181<span style="color: #222222;">7-Jan. 4, 1904), San Francisco civic leader and
entrepreneur, is known as the Mother of California’s early Civil Rights
Movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was a conductor of the
Underground Railroad and she financially supported John Brown, 1857-59 (</span></span><a href="http://mepleasant.com/story.html">http://mepleasant.com/story.html</a>)<span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
</span><a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mason-bridget-biddy-1818-1891/"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Bridget “Biddy” Mason</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> (Aug. 15,
1818-Jan. 15, 1891) walked with a caravan from Mississippi to Utah to Southern
California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When her owner wanted to
move his “property” to Texas, a slaveholding state, the mother of three girls
petitioned the California court for her freedom after being illegally held in bondage
for five (5) years. Her petition for her own freedom and that of others in her
group was granted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The </span><span style="color: #222222;">African-American nurse and a Californian real estate
entrepreneur and philanthropist founded of the First African Methodist
Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, California (</span><a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mason-bridget-biddy-1818-1891/">https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/mason-bridget-biddy-1818-1891/</a>)<span style="color: #222222;">.<br />
<br />
</span><a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/history-allensworth-california-1908/"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Colonel Allen Allensworth</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">, April 7,
1842, Louisville, KY- September 14, 1914, Monrovia, CA, who founded with </span><span style="background: white; color: black;">educator William Payne, former miner John
W. Palmer, minister William H. Peck, and Harry A. Mitchell, a real estate
agent, </span>the first and only independent township in California governed in
1908 by formerly enslaved African Americans. “<span style="background: white; color: #222222; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Complete with its own school, a
church, and a bank, the town of Allensworth offered a safe haven for over 300
families of free blacks that had continued to be oppressed and controlled under
a Southern sharecropping system that was designed to keep blacks on the same
plantations that they were working before the war.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Col. Allensworth was killed in a traffic
accident in 1914, a culmination of events: the Pacific Farming Company’s, the
land development firm that handled the original purchase, refusal to supply
adequate irrigation water, and the Sante Fe train stop circumvented, meant
residents could no longer support themselves after 1925 – the town’s peak to
1960 when “the town existed, but did not thrive.” <br />
<br />
By the time the judicial system ruled in the town’s favor re: water, the town
was already dead. However, Allensworth’s legacy lives on thanks to the vision
of </span><a href="https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8f76j9w/"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Cornelius “</span><span style="background: white;">Ed” Pope</span></a><span style="background: white; color: black;">, landscape architect for California State Parks and former
Allensworth resident, and Eugene and Ruth Lasartemay, founders of the East Bay
Negro Historical Society, who realized in 1969 that if they didn’t take action
all reminders of Allensworth would be lost. They started campaigning for
preservation of the town to honor those who had founded it, a town that set an example
that African-Americans could make their own way. In 1973 the state acquired the
property and the California Department of Parks and Recreation approved plans
to develop it. </span><a href="http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=583"><span style="background: white;">The Allen Allensworth State Historic Park</span></a><span style="background: white; color: black;"> was dedicated on Oct 6, 1976, and
whereas<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black;">What has become known as the Black Holocaust or
Maafa, a Kiswahili term that means “great calamity or terrible occurrence,”
remains a blight on this nation that has yet to be removed, a blight that
continues to affect both the psyche and emotional well-being of descendants of
the formally enslaved African men, women and children as well as every American
citizen to this date, and whereas</span><span style="color: #555555;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Civil Rights Act of 1965 and subsequent laws, while addressing some of the
legal inequities that directly impact African Americans, has not touched
the psychological and legal inequities of this great calamity or Maafa on the
Pan Africans whose ancestors paid the price in blood for us to become American
citizens here in the United States of America, and whereas</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This
24<sup>th</sup> year, our Maafa Commemoration Committee, San Francisco Bay
Area, has hosted a healing ritual at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, to address
the post-traumatic slave syndrome linked to the horrific events of enslavement
and ongoing affliction caused by the lingering aspects of systemic institutional
racism on society today, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 21.0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Be
it resolved that Sunday, October 13, 2019, the 170<sup>th</sup> Anniversary
of the signing of the California State Constitution, we reflect upon our 24<sup>th</sup> Commemoration
of the MAAFA as a time when civic and educational institutions are encouraged
to look more carefully into one of the more shameful times in American history
and ask California residents to lead the way toward healing the hurt of Pan
African in America who still suffer based solely on race, class, and gender.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br /></div>
Maafa San Francisco Bay Areahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03700063786027213340noreply@blogger.com0