Cornbread, Fish and Collard Greens:: Prayers, Poems & Affirmations for People Living with Hiv/Aids

By Khafre Kujichagulia Abif

Khafre K. Abif has been thriving with HIV for 24 years, and is a father of two college aged young men. He holds a masters degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Africana Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. Abif is the Founder/Executive Director of Cycle for Freedom, a national mobilizing campaign founded in 2010, to reduce the spread of HIV among African Americans and Latinos. During the 75-day campaign, Cycle for Freedom will engage fourteen (14) African American and Latino communities along the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route by developing strategies designed to increase HIV testing, and confront HIV-related stigma, homophobia, and lack or mis-education. www.cycleforfreedom.org
Abif is one of five men in the inaugural class of The HEALTH (Health Executive Approaches to Leadership and Training in HIV) Seminar Program, a year long program designed to enhance knowledge, skills, and abilities for assuming leadership/management positions in the field of health with a particular focus on HIV for the next generation of African American MSM leaders and community based organizational practices.
Abif also serves as Community Educator/Test Counselor for ONE Life of Pittsburgh, PA, as well as the Georgia HIV Prevention Community Planning Group. He formerly served on the Pennsylvania HIV Prevention Community Planning Group and was the Community Co-Chair for the New Jersey HIV Prevention Community Planning Group where he ensured PIR for the group.
As a librarian, Abif managed Childrens Services for Brooklyn Public Library and was the first recipient of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) Dr. John C. Tyson Emerging Leader Award. As former Director of the Langston Hughes Library for the Childrens Defense Fund (CDF) at the former Alex Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee, Abif was responsible for meeting the librarys mission to serve as the intellectual commons of the movement to Leave No Child Behind.
Publications include co-editing with Teresa Y. Neely, In Our Own Voices: The Changing Face of Librarianship, and is contributing author in the anthologies Poor People and Library Services, and Handbook of Black Librarianship. Forthcoming work includes Raising Kazembe, and Fall to Grace. Visit Abif at TheBody.com http://www.thebody.com/content/art60852.html

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491803233

Khafre Kujichagulia Abif

Khafre Kujichagulia Abif, MLS is an Atlanta-based AIDS & Bisexual activist, writer, editor, blogger and artist who has been thriving with HIV for 28 years. Khafre now serves as a Community Organizer with the Southern AIDS Coalition, a Birmingham, Alabama based resource and advocacy organization. Khafre has been honored as HIV Plus magazine one of 75 Most Amazing People Living with HIV in 2016 and by POZ magazine as one of The 2015 POZ 100: Celebrating Long-Term Survivors. Khafre was among the Bisexuals at The White House in October 2015 and 2016. Khafre is the editor of the anthology, Cornbread, Fish and Collard Greens: Prayers, Poems & Affirmations for People Living with HIV/AIDS, a 2013 publication from AuthorHouse. Khafre forth-coming works include, Raising Kazembe: A Memoir is an epistolary collection of Khafre’s journey as an HIV positive father to his son.

Book preview

© 2013 by Khafre Kujichagulia Abif. All rights reserved.

© 2013 Cover image by Javaka Steptoe http://www.javaka.com/

Copy Edited by Catherine Zickgraf

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/26/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-0321-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-0322-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-0323-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013914058

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

The Denver Principles

Acknowledgments

Introduction and Personal Journey

A Prayer

Wholeness

Simple Pleasures

Psalm 8

New Day

In Relationship (Bill T. Jones)

Mupata wesarudzo (Shona)

There Is a Balm in Gilead

Jesus Wept

I Wanna Feel Free To Love

Lifeguard

Wavering Faith

Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior

I Am the One Who Keeps the Fire Burning

Dear HIV

Dear HIV/AIDS Survivor,

Dandelions

Strange Gift

I Got Shoes (Heav’n, Heav’n)

Today

Psalm 23

When I Stand among Activists

Rocking Chair

Get Up

Mama, I Got It!

Yesterday’s Anger

How Do You Show Up?

Awakening

Dear Vee’s HIV,

Who Am I?

Destined or Willed

Yoruba Wisdom Poem

Umbrellas

Don’t

Grave

A Beautiful Good Morning

Dear HIV

The Fight

Emotions High as Tears Dry

The Bone-Dry Men

Picking a Bone with Mr. Freedom

Our Lost Loves

When The Moon is Full and You Remember

I, Too, Know What I Am Not

Francine Francis (age 13) Red Hook Housing Projects, Brooklyn, NY

Hey VIH,

A Prayer for Support

Seasons Change

I Wonder

Anagnorisis

AIDS Is A Trick

My ‘Package’

Love Me

I Look into Your Eyes

Becoming Great

Psalm 139

Immaculate

Deliverance Deserved

A Diagnosis

Psalm 30

Poetic Moment: RUSH

Coat of Light

The Chosen Ones

51-53 Christopher Street

Death Is for the Dead

HIV/AIDS Is Just A Disease

Series of Joshua, Part 1

Dear HIV

We, the Mouths of This Generation

HIV Reflection

Angels

I Sing

Traditional Jewish Prayer

Anonymous

Blue

Band of Characters

Circles

Testimony

Yoruba Wisdom Poem

Zama on Mama

Psalm 40

You Are The Brave

Psalm 116

Dear HIV

Lord

The Master

Follow Your Bliss

Still Grieving

Mercy, Mercy, Me

Now—To See A Heart

I Want to Cry

Gospel

Dear HIV

Have the Courage To Overcome

Comfort of GOD

How Many Other Existences Are Out There?

Survivors Guilt

Uncumo

Grace

While He Is Knitting You Together

Be Safe Not Sorry

So Many Things I Dreamt To Be

Medicine

Everyone Is In A Struggle

Human Body Emission

Bloodsong

A.I.D.S.

Dear HIV,

Who Can I Tell?

Healing

I Won! I Won!

I am what I am by the Grace of God

[I Corinthians 15:10]

How Great I Am!

I Am

Yoruba Wisdom Poem

Mental Incarceration

Umthandazo ka-Lisa

Dear HIV

If I’m Alone

Psalm 91

Almighty,

Peace

My Love Letter to You Jesus

Black, Same-Gender-Loving [gay], HIV and the Real Deal

Tragedy

Embrace Your Afflictions

Up From The Grave Clothes

Help Me

Can You Make A Difference?

O [Triune] God

Do You Know Who?

Insomnia

I Shared She No Longer Touched Me

AIDS Was Always Just A Word

Soul’s Serenade

Dear HIV

Baba

His Grace

Cherry, Cherry, Cherry

As We Wake Up

Learn To Love Yourself

Riddle

Diagnosis

Conversation

You Just Never Know

I Don’t Think You Miss Me

Am I HIV?

Irosun Owori

Dear HIV

Enclosed by Disclosure

I’m Drowning

Joshua Rosario’s Reality

My Prayer Was…

Forgive Self

I Am Loved

Instructions on Being Five Years Old (Again)

Yoruba Wisdom Poem

Psalm 138

HIV Is Temporary!

Yiba uwena

Living As A Black Male

Dear HIV

Promises of GOD to His People

We Wear the Mask

Black Mother

The Lord’s Prayer

I’ll Take You Through

Depressing at Times

Dear HIV

Where Do I Fit In?

Little Prayers As I See You

Tezi’s Fear

That Day

In Our Darkest Hour

Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round

A New Culture

Eviction Notice

In Progress

Ironically ‘Positive’

Up From Here

My God

Never Alone

Dear HIV

Once

Yoruba Wisdom Poem

Parthenogenesis

memories 248-250 starrin big mama

Llegó la Hora de la Verdad

Psalm 126

Shadow Cast Kite Twister

Fly Eaglet, Fly

The Battle of the Heart and the Mind

Lines To My Father

State of Mind

Dear HIV

Status

Untitled (for the community)

HIV: 30 Days At A Pill—Liberated

I Lay My Head Down

Sometimes Life

Thandi’s Song

My Sister, My Sister

Dear Friend

Sewing Clothes

HELL Is Waiting

Count Your Blessings

When I Die

Home

Poison Faggotry Fire

Pinching Myself

Psalm 139

We Belong to Each Other A Meditation of Faith, Health and AIDS

Eviction

My Guiding Light

Our Eyes Met on Christopher Street

Arrested Voice

Poem from Egun

We Shall Not Be Moved

Who’s Listening

The Three P’s

I’m Alive

Yoruba Wisdom Poem

Oracle Grove

I Know My Soul

The Faithfulness of God

Testimony

The Royal I

In Lower Case Letters

More Than a Statistic

When Our BaBa Was Alive

Dear HIV

Rise Up Against All Odds

I Forgive Myself

One Sermon

Purpose

Resource

Regaining Momentum

Awesome Power to Experience

She Sits

Scarred

Psalm 121

Dear HIV

Rise Up Against All Odds

Arise and Live Again

Selfish

In Our Own Little Way

Eye To Eye With My Soul

Balloons

Surrender to Me

The Revolution Will Not Be Penetrated

I Still Feel Their Pain

Dear HIV

Chucha’s Last Christmas

Journey

The Story of Peter Paul

Uncertain

Our Prayer List

Yoruba Wisdom Poem

I Looked and Saw History Caught

Good morning, HIV

Through the Glade

The Eyes Of My Regret

Does HIV Look Like Me?

The End

Women of Job

L’INCONTRO

Still Standing

Was Infected?

Beauty

Rejection & Acceptance:

A Love Story

Thandi Remembers Some Things

Dear HIV

The Components of Dust

Prayer

I Live

Psalm 125

Who Am I Speaking to Today?

The Light

As We Walk Upon the Earth

Psalm 102

Cuando tocas mi lengua

Little By Little

Psalm 124

Heavy In My Thoughts

When Will the Sun Bring Back the Day?

The Griot

Yoruba Wisdom Poem

If We Must Die

The Prayer of Protection

About The Editor

About The Contributors

Dedication

Richard Anderson

January 11, 1960-February 5, 2009

Joseph F. Beam

December 30, 1954-December 27, 1988

Essex C. Hemphill

April 16, 1957-November 4, 1995

Floyd Patterson

February 22, 1957-July 2, 2009

The Denver Principles

We condemn attempts to label us as ‘victims,’ a term which implies defeat, and we are only occasionally ‘patients,’ a term which implies passivity, helplessness, and dependence upon the care of others. We are ‘People With AIDS.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS

1. Come out, especially to their patients who have AIDS.

2. Always clearly identify and discuss the theory they favor as to the cause of AIDS, since this bias affects the treatments and advice they give.

3. Get in touch with their feelings (e.g., fears, anxieties, hopes, etc.) About AIDS and not simply deal with AIDS intellectually.

4. Take a thorough personal inventory and identify and examine their own agendas around AIDS.

5. Treat people with AIDS as a whole people, and address psychological issues as well as biophysical ones.

6. Address the question of sexuality in people with AIDS specifically, sensitively and with information about gay male sexuality in general, and the sexuality of people with AIDS in particular.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ALL PEOPLE

1. Support and membership in our struggle against those who would fire us from our jobs, evict us from our homes, refuse to touch us or separate us from our loved ones, our community or our peers, since available evidence does not support the view that AIDS can be spread by casual, social contact.

2. Not scapegoat people with AIDS, blame us for the epidemic or generalize about our lifestyles.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH AIDS

1. Form caucuses to choose their own representatives, to deal with the media, to choose their own agenda and to plan their own strategies.

2. Be involved at every level of decision-making and specifically serve on the board of directors of provider organizations.

3. Be included in all AIDS forums with equal credibility as other participants, to share their own experiences and knowledge.

4. Substitute low-risk sexual behaviors for those which could endanger themselves or their partners; we feel that people with AIDS have an ethical responsibility to inform their potential partners of their health status.

RIGHTS OF PEOPLE WITH AIDS

1. To live as full and satisfying sexual and emotional lives as anyone else.

2. To receive quality medical treatment and quality social service provision without discrimination of any form, including sexual orientation, gender, diagnosis, economic status or race.

3. To obtain full explanations of all medical procedures and risks, to choose or refuse their treatment modalities, to refuse to participate in research without jeopardizing their treatment and to make informed decisions about their lives.

4. To ensure privacy and confidentiality of medical records, to receive human respect and the right to choose who their significant others are.

5. To die—and to LIVE—in dignity.

Statement from the Advisory Committee of People with AIDS (1983)

In 1983, an AIDS diagnosis was a death sentence. The delegates to the 1983 Second National AIDS Forum in Denver who wrote the Denver Principles had all had their diagnoses, and they wrote from the point of view of men and women determined to die well and until then to do everything they could to bring change.

Today, HIV/AIDS is a manageable chronic disease—for most, not all. We get to focus more on the living well. We are no longer (most of us) People with AIDS, we are People with HIV.

But the main points of the Denver Principles are still valid. We will not be labeled as victims; we are capable, self-empowered people living with a virus. We demand a place at the table when HIV issues are being discussed. Care providers should treat us—and all their clients—as people with medical issues, not as passive objects of care. Stigma, legal discrimination, poverty, and unequal access to health care are not just health issues, they are social justice issues. We have the same right to fulfilling lives as everyone else.

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I give thanks to the most High God for the opportunity to do many things I never thought possible. This anthology represents another one of those God moments in my life.

I wish to thank several people: Asante sana, thank you very much to my ancestors, to my praying mother, Barbara J. Page, to my steadfast father, Jackie A. Page, to my teachers and mentors for their wisdom, to the activists, advocates, allies, protesters, organizers and care-givers on the battlefield for pushing back against the shame, stigma, discrimination and pain often associated with those living with HIV/AIDS.

I thank Seidel for her love, support and patience during the past two years it has taken me to complete this project. Thank you to my sons, Kazembe and Sekou for your unending love and support. I must thank my sister, Raquel Page-Hempfield, for never ever giving up on me.

Publishing this anthology would not have been possible without the generosity of the sponsors of my Indiegogo.com campaigns, especially Lawrence L. Denson, Ph.D., Sharon Grant, Stuart G. Herman, Chad Kenney and Karen McCord, Ph.D.

I am extremely grateful to each contributor whose written words have sewn a quilt to cover the hearts and souls of our readers while lifting the spirits of people living with HIV/AIDS and those who care for us. Asante sana, thank you very much to Babalosa Obalorun Temujin Ekunfeo for his instruction and teaching along the way.

I must say thank you, to my friend and award-winning visual artist, Javaka Steptoe, for creating the cover art proclaiming what words cannot. Special thanks to Duane Cramer, international creative artist and photographer, for capturing me in the head shot on the back cover. Thank you, Catherine Zickgraf for all of your work as copy editor for this anthology.

I also acknowledge James Baldwin, Melvin Dixon, Craig Harris, Joseph Beam, Essex Hemphill, Assoto Saint, David Frechette, Bobby Smith, Donald Woods, Marlon Riggs, Colin Robinson, Richard Bruce Nugent for his ground breaking prose, Smoke, Lillies and Jade and so many others for the space their resolve created to speak boldly, and share our stories with the power of our collective kujichagulia self-determination. Because of your courage, I have the courage to press forward and to bring a project like this to the life.

Yours in the struggle,

—Khafre Kujichagulia Abif

Introduction and Personal Journey

In 1991, I wanted to ask the woman I loved to marry me. I also knew that my past behavior had put me at risk for contracting HIV. One of the ways HIV can be transmitted is through unprotected sex and as a bisexual, and now responsible, man, I made an appointment with the Allegheny County Health Department. Two weeks later, I returned to receive the results. I left the office numb; the feeling was like an out-of-body experience. My fiancé and I were married in August 1992 and our son Amenhotep Kazembe Ture was born healthy on November 18, 1992. But for more than four years, I did not share my status with anyone.

In September 1995, I accepted the position of Youth Services Librarian for Montclair Public Library in Montclair, New Jersey. My mother, Barbra Jean Page (June 19, 1943-July 14, 2006) fondly known as MaDear, came to visit us. During that time she asked if she might speak to me privately. She wanted to know why I had pulled away from her, and why our long-standing Sunday afternoon telephone calls had been curtailed.

My father Jackie Alfonso Page (November 30, 1940-April 13, 1986) had recently passed both suddenly and violently. The entire family had been left with gapping holes in our hearts. I wanted to protect MaDear, not burden her with more. But MaDear said, How can I pray for you if I don’t know what’s wrong?

I took a deep breath. I am HIV positive and have been for at least the past six years.

It has been said that nothing is more powerful than a praying woman. MaDear, my personal prayer warrior, held my hands as we prayed. She reminded me about her unconditional love and honored the man I had become.

HIV/AIDS and Literature

In the early 1980’s, society began its search for answers and understanding about HIV/AIDs, or continued in its condemnation. One such accusation linked HIV/AIDs to an entire community by labeling the virus GRIDS (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome). In an effort to counteract these allegations, writers began documenting with love and compassion, the experiences of family members, friends and loved ones.

Early nonfiction and creative prose included Dorothy Bryant’s A Day in San Francisco (1983) which chronicled her gay son’s passing due to HIV-related illnesses. Toby Johnson’s novel Plague (1987) addressed prejudices against gay People with AIDS (PWAs). Jed Bryan’s Cry in the Desert (1987) highlighted ignorance that often led to preconceived thoughts and feeling about HIV/AIDs and homosexuality. Larry Kramer’s essay 1,112 and Counting (New York Native 1983) was reprinted all over the world as Kramer’s prophetic voice urged, act immediately or face our approaching doom.

Theater pieces, anthologies, poetry and memoir included William M. Hoffmann’s As Is (1985), Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart (1985 that addressed governmental inactivity and the importance of self-help groups), Joseph Beam’s In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology (1988) and Paul Monette’s Love Alone: Eighteen Elegies for Rog (1988) and Borrowed Time (1988), inspired by Monette’s partner, Roger Horwitz, who lost his battle with AIDS in 1986.

HIV/AIDs is more than thirty years old. There have been many victories. However, UNAIDS reports sobering facts, among them that 34.2 million people live with HIV/AIDs. Of that number, 330,000 are children. Parents die of HIV/AIDs and those deaths have created 18 million orphaned children.

Cornbread, Fish and Collard Greens: Prayers, Poems & Affirmations for People Living with HIV/AIDS was created because God whispered to my soul. Like MaDear, I believe in the power of prayer and positive words. Cornbread, Fish and Collard Greens: Prayers, Poems & Affirmations for People Living with HIV/AIDS gives voice to the voiceless, oppressed and marginalized. The contents convey hope and push for a global, revolutionary mode of thinking and acting. HIV is pandemic, so should the concept of HIV/AIDs literature.

The anthology includes work from my sons’ Sekou and Ture, established and emerging authors Alfreda Lanoix, Serena T. Willis, Samiya Bashir, Nikki Grimes, and Reginald T. Jackson, Poets River Huston, Tony Medina, and Mose Xavier Hardin, Jr., Catherine Zickgraf, and Cathleen Bailey, spoken word artists and performers Cliff C. Boyd, Mary Bowman, Lady Vee DaPoet, Storme Webber, Tim’m T. West, Sleepy Eyez Carter, Carl Hancock Rux and Red Summer.

I’ve also included high school and college classmates GeAnita E. Smith, Sherry Lowery-Vaughn, lauren ryder williams and Nazim B. Fakir. Fellow bloggers and contributors from TheBody.com Tree Alexander, Maria Mejia, Justin B. Terry-Smith; librarian Rollard Barksdale, Alton B. Pollard, III, Dean and Professor of Religion and Culture at Howard University School of Divinity. International contributors from Ghana, Italy, Ireland, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe with some indigenous languages and English translations.

There was a time when the work of Essex Hemphill and Joseph Beam inspired unheralded writers to fill their notebooks with HIV/AIDs related creative expressions. Through this anthology, I hope to honor the Hemphill/Beam/unheralded writers’ legacy. In their memory and because of their bravery Cornbread, Fish and Collard Greens: Prayers, Poems & Affirmations for People Living with HIV/AIDS joins a necessary and continuing conversation.

Yours in the struggle,

Khafre Kujichagulia Abif, 2013

A Prayer

‘Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;

I stumble as I fare along Earth’s way; keep me from falling.

Mine eyes are open but they cannot see for gloom of night:

I can no more than lift my heart to thee for inward light.

The wild and fiery passion of my youth consumes my soul;

In agony I turn to thee for truth and self-control.

For Passion and all the pleasures it can give will die the death;

But this of me eternally must live, thy borrowed breath.

‘Mid the discordant noises of the day I hear thee calling;

I stumble as I fare along Earth’s way; keep me from falling.

Claude McKay

Wholeness

God, I used to think to be whole I had to be what others wanted me to be; that I had to wear my hair in ways others liked, that I had to dress in a style that others found attractive and appealing, and that I had to speak and act in ways that others found acceptable. In other words, my feeling of wholeness was tied to how others viewed and felt about me.

I have since come to learn that wholeness comes from You and only You, and wholeness can only be felt and enjoyed from the inside out; not the other way around.

I pray for Your children to experience wholeness, I pray that all my friends and family will someday know what it means and feels like to be whole. I especially pray that those who are not whole would cease their desire to make others feel anything less than whole—and loved.

I pray we become more like You!

This is my prayer.

In the name of Jesus,

Amen!

Rev. Nazim B Fakir

Simple Pleasures

I hope today you have a little drama,

hope some lover or friend or combination of both

gets on your nerves and you have to read that ass

to the brink of extinction.

I hope today that you cheat on your diet

and have a sticky-sweet desert

that rolls your eyes back

and makes you moan.

I hope today you get to watch

some stupid reality TV show

and know all the characters by name

and all the details of their TV lives by heart.

I hope today you hear a song on an oldies station

that takes you back to a time in your childhood

before your blood betrayed you—

I hope you do the dance you used to.

I hope today your account balance, credit scores, and T cells

are all high enough

for you to go shopping

and get what you always wanted.

I hope today, passes

and you do everything you have to do

to make sure that you

are here to do it all again tomorrow.

Red Summer

Psalm 8

¹ LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory

in the heavens.

² Through the praise of children and infants

you have established a stronghold against your enemies,

to silence the foe and the avenger.

³ When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?

⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honor.

⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:

⁷ all flocks and herds,

and the animals of the wild,

⁸ the birds in the sky,

and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Holy Bible, New International Version, 2011

New Day

New day

New year

New way of life

New spirit

New gray hair

New appearance

New age

New stars and musicians

New songs and beats

New voice

New software and satellites

New technology and candle light dinners

New ways to recycle

New nature

New trees and leaves

New flowers and grass

New Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall

New insects

New dogs

New mammals

New hogs

New pets

New diseases

New cures

New doctors and lawyers

New prescriptions that keep us sick

New laws to hinder you from moving forward

New felons who are falsely accused

New lottery winners

Fewer homeless shelters

New movies and reality shows

New co-hosts

New coupons in the Sunday paper

New hairstyles

New clothes

New shoes

New swag

New religion

New churches

New ministers ordained

New printed Bible called King James

New careers

New discoveries

New words

New money

New job openings but not enough jobs

New disasters

New trials

New regrets

New goals

New love

New break-ups

New feelings

New desire

New poem

New Moon

New Sun

New Temperature

New Horoscope

New Earth

New life

New birth

New fight

New day I’m surviving to survive

overcoming to overcome what tries to tear me down

Life.

Tasha (Lady Dred) Dancy

In Relationship (Bill T. Jones)

Grown in a low-laying area in Africa

Grown to enormous size

Read the carbon dating

3,000 years indicates they can live

Baobabs, a deciduous tree

Umbrella thorn

Grey to black in color, rough bark

straight thorns with small, hooked thorn

Alongside, thorns are thin and grow in pairs

The flowers are creamy,

white balls, pods are a distinctive pale,

gold-brown color, curled and twisted

Brown-sugar brown

Peacock

Gazelle graceful

Lovely as a lover’s dream

He dances

His body, a live chord

Jazz and Swing—

Black Power

Blind Date

As I Was Saying

Still/Here

The Breathing Show

Phase 2

Face stage left

weight equal on both feet

drop the shoulders down

relax and breathe down

Inhale

Place the left hand over the sternum

Take a deep breath in

Relax

The right hand with the pointer finger comes to the lips

Focus

Right hand and foot move stage right

Draw left leg in to hook behind

The right finger drops the wrist, elbow, shoulder

And everything is moving

back to upstage left

as one shifts one’s hip onto the left leg

The left arm breaks over the head

The right leg comes in and proceeds up to a posse’ parallel position

Drop the right, left wrist down

place the right wrist over the left

Turn out right leg

Right knee hits wrist

arms fly apart

Shift the weight to the right leg and lift the leg, knee and foot and head

to the ceiling

step through right hand reaches down stage right

right leg reaches across

Look away from hands as one comes back to the hand

the left hand touches and hits the right hand

the leg swings around

stumble step left

then right

then left

right yourself all weight on the right leg

bend your arm in a serpentine shape

hand relaxed

release the wrist, and a wave moves through the wrist,

the elbow, the shoulder fins a strange side attitude

side position

drop the leg down and parallel position

ron de jong etudes back unto the knee

both hands on the right knee

look to the front

look to the side

hands open apart like a clock

close back with the head

push down on the knees

straight up in parallel position

and fall onto the left leg

etudes left leg

right leg, flexed foot

Human spirit

I Bow Down

Pushing boundaries

Collaboration

Sweeping through time and space

Bondless

Contrast

Spoken word

Affirmation

Muscular

Journey towards understanding

Landscapes

Dualities between any two people

struggle to co-habitat

to live together against all odds

Duets

Solo

Power

Praise

Peace

Simple

Complex

Ancestral memory

Sankofa

Movement

Incarnation

Classic

Modern

God is still in the healing business

Abstract

Avant-garde

Touched my soul

Push, Reach, Stand

Unexplored parts of myself

Dance in the air

Portrait in a movement

In Relationship with Human Kind

Khafre Kujichagulia Abif

Mupata wesarudzo (Shona)

Vanamukoma nana sisi vangu

Nguva yasvika

zuva resarudzo yenyu

Ruzivo ruri nane pane upfumi

Utano upfumi

Muri mumupata wesarudzo

Unouya panguva yevanhu vaYesu

Kusarudza upenyu kana kufa

Ikodzero yako kusarudza

Pakati pedandemutande reshamwari dzepabonde

Nekuvimbika kune umwe