Kickin It in O.N.C.: On the Yard at Howard

By Dawud Nnambi

This second book of “The Children of Bradford” series follows the tale of young love, a continuation of the story of Kadeem Betancourt and Chenelle Henderson, a pair of High School sweethearts who have decided to attend Howard University, one of the most prestigious Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in the world. The age-old warning children give their parents, teachers and friends; “wait ‘til I grow up and get away from here….” is always met with; “What You Gonna Do When You Get There?” Well, now that they are here in O.N.C, Our Nation’s Capital, they will have ample time to experience the evolution of ‘being grown-up’, to understand that it is much harder to deliver on the adolescent threat of ‘wait ‘til I …!” No longer shielded by the direct safety net of home in small-town USA, they must adapt to the fickle world of college life, develop new friendships that somewhat replace the small circle of friends they grew up with and deal with the joy and pain of the thing we call love on an even grander scale. As with any other sequel, if you haven’t read the first or previous book, you have done yourself a slight disservice so there are many hints for you to do so. However, if you don’t wish to read the first book , you will find yourself engrossed in curiosity, yearning to find out what comes next and projecting you own thoughts and feelings into the pages, leaving them dog-eared until you get back to it. It is my hope that you enjoy sharing my imagination, reminiscing about your days in college or anticipating the angst you or your child will experience on the Yard, wherever that may be. I had the privilege to be a ‘House Man’ go Maroon Tigers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781728350271

Dawud Nnambi

After tasting the success of being a novice writer, I am embarking upon the path reknown - establishing a readership whetted with curiosity.  I began life in Harlem, New York, the second child, but first son of Rosemarie (Jones) and James J. (David Goodrich) Vencil.  My father was overseas  (Navy)  when I was born in David Sydenham Memorial Hospital (October 1956) during the first "Subway Series"  - a Yankees fan.  Pops returned home and moved us to California until he was sent to Vietnam in 1964. Now, at eight years old, I returned to New York, with my mother, grandmother, uncle and four siblings to live in a brownstone in Bed-Sty Brooklyn - 585A Lafayette Ave.  With my fathers subsequent transfers, my family, now seven children strong, eventually moved to Key West, Florida. I graduated in 1974 and  joined the Navy to become a Hospital Corpsman.  In 1979, I received orders to  Bethesda Naval Hospital to attend Advanced Laboratory School. Over the year, I explored the many sights of Washington, DC, one being Howard University.  My housemate, an A Phi Q from Tuskegee, introduced me to a Step Show at Howard, many frat parties and homecomings between Washington, DC and Pennsylvania, thusly I became enamored with Historically Black Colleges & Universities - Howard, the first campus I witnessed the Greeks and the pageantry of black college life.  After retiring from the Navy and being accepted to "The House (Morehouse)," being on the yard in the AUC, I knew that I must one day pay homage.  I hope my "art" may indeed "imitate life" and help us, new jack and old school, appreciate past, present and embrace the future with the purest emotion this story may evoke. 'Ase

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KICKIN IT IN O.N.C.

ON THE YARD AT HOWARD

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DAWUD NNAMDI

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AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2021 Dawud Nnamdi. All rights reserved.

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  11/03/2021

ISBN: 978-1-4389-2524-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-5027-1 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

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

Acknowledgement

Dedication

Howard 101

Diaspora

Greeks-Panhellenic-The Divine Nine

Remember The Eunuch?

Bet You Didn’t Know

The Scarab And The Ankh

Beloved

Monday Mischief/Four Days ‘Til Friday

Family Ties

Positive Vibrations: The Spirit Awakens

Bourgeois?

Anecdote

The Imp Of Fickle

Inibla

En Jetta

There Is No Place Like Home

Happy Kwanzaa

Happy New Year…

Psychology

Kismet Or Providence

It’s Time

Panda Fever

Afterglow

Woman To Woman

I Ain’t Mad At You, But…"

Spectre Of Damon

Luck Of The Irish

Thoughts Of A Father

We Were Young Once...

Ripple Effect

Man To Man-Child

…Been There Done That…

April Fools

Impasse Providence

With the exception of the world figures and historical events during the years mentioned in this story, all characters are fictitious. Although the name C. A. Miller is the same as my sister, Constance who did indeed teach at the College of Nursing, any resemblance to anyone is purely coincidental and unintended. This is a continuation of the chronicle of the lives of Kadeem Betancourt and Chenelle Henderson as they begin their freshman year of college at Howard University - a continuation of:

What You Gonna Do When You Get There?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Many of the definitions used in this fictitious tale of college life are used consistent with those in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company as provided to dictionary.com while just as many definitions, as described in this story are used as defined in the various Merriam-Webster dictionaries.

Special thanks to Marvin Feggins of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center for his diligence in providing some of the facts that lend credence to fiction. Additionally, many of the campus landmarks are mentioned from my personal memories of visiting the campus, my wife Dorothea being a member of the choir in 1986, attending graduation ceremonies of the Medical Assisting Students I taught while I was an Allied Health Instructor at Everest College, Arlington Campus during the years 2007 - 2010; and the Howard University Catalog.

DEDICATION

College - a hodge podge of fraternities, sororities, independents, athletes and in general, people matriculating toward degrees that will shape their futures. Although I was accepted to University of Michigan and University of Florida, I didn’t begin college in the traditional way by entering immediately after high school, but waited until I retired from the Navy in 1994 and being accepted to Morehouse (The House) in Atlanta, the college of Martin Luther King. Although the Navy is not college, it is an institution of ‘higher learning’ which affords you the opportunity to gain college credit for your experience as well as be a part of a fraternity of sorts. In this light, I am grateful for the opportunity to have ‘kicked it’ with brothers and sisters from places as quaint as Lake, Mississippi to those as raucous as the Big Easy and NYC. During my first enlistment, between the years 1974 and 1979 ages 18-23, I bonded with these people, my intramural football team, Midnight Express and later in 1980; formed my ‘round table of Forever Partners (4EP’s) while listening to War and Lee Oskar, Earth Wind & Fire, O’Jays, Ronnie Laws, Ramsey Lewis, Brenda Russell, Bobbi Humphrey and the likes. I dedicate this book about the process of navigating life and negotiating love, far away from home and family to them: Heartstring - Earl Klugh

Unequivocally, my Ace Boon Coon, Brian E. Devezin, thanks for saving me from the Cold Duck in Sasebo, Japan and standing beside me at the Altar - Rest in Heaven, I miss you, my right hand man Dexter L. Brown, ‘Brother-Brother’, who shared with me the point his father taught him back in the late 60’s early 70’s Mississippi; that a man knows that ‘money talks and B.S. walks but a ‘boy’ thinks that same B.S. is a principle to stand on -stand on your convictions but pick your battles wisely

Jerry L. Larkin, may God continue to bless you...

Lawrence Guy Miller, Choate, Amherst; there is always a rhyme for the reason rational people do seemingly irrational things.

Eugene Dondi Barkley, Tuskegee (A Phi Q), it is the gift of gab but we cried the day Minnie Ripperton died. Where is the next frat party?

Gerald Scottie McNeil, what makes one more distinguished than a pipe stuffed with Captain Black, a glass of wine, a smoking coat, Ahmad Jamal on the turntable, and conversing with an intelligent sista, listening to Rappers Delight at a house party and playing backgammon - acey duecy; maturing to a man of faith devoted to his wife and family. Keep rising to the top my brother.

How do you define platonic? I would say the relationships that exist between men and women which are as intimate as one between a brother and sister - one that if it were any closer it would seem perverse or, for lack of a better word, incestuous. In this regard I would like to thank:

Carmella Hutson - Jersey girl, "Can you dig Tom Brown...?

Kathleen Frank - Delta Sigma Theta (Southern) - Frankie Beverly and Maze - Southern Girls...

Janice Martha Washington - all the tea in Japan...

Carol McClinton - thanks for making my Pops visit in September 1979 a weekend to remember, you put your foot in it. Where did you say you learned how to cook; Magnolia, Are-Kansas? (Arkansas)

Terryl (Feaster) Obasanya - thank you for the honor of being your first date - Sweet 16 and last but not least;

Vanessa Michelle (Hawk) Kohn - how many pair of dancing shoes did I help you pick out? Thank you for talking me into coming back to church in the 10th grade. We’re friends for life

To you sisters, know that you are the women who helped me to understand that men and women can truly be friends.

In the words of Smokey Robinson - Sweet Harmony... stay in perfect tune with your unfamiliar song, make the world aware you’re still going strong...spread your joy around the world...

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HOWARD 101

OR-I-EN-TA-TION

Nothing awakens the mind like the introduction to new surroundings - a place that one has never been but intends to stay there by choice or compulsion. Washington, D.C. is definitely far from Bradford, geographically as well as the complexity and societal attitude. Howard; that is Chocolate City, makes you forget about the New Jack Swing, this is the home of the EU Freeze and the disco sound that no one can put down like Chuck Brown. Bradford has a bus line but here in Our Nations Capital (O.N.C.) you have the METRO bus and train to help you navigate streets and avenues that defy the conventional North, East, West and South directional flows. So many intersections serving as the center of numerous endless spider webs and the name changes from one block to another, mind boggling. Wards and precincts, an even more daunting concept; what ever happened to subdivisions and neighborhoods...? Truly, if you don’t need to leave the yard..., you have everything you need right here on campus.

Who was Benjamin Banneker and what does he have to do with this confusion? If you went to P.S. 256 in Brooklyn, you can’t answer this - BECAUSE YOU SHOULD KNOW! If you don’t, get on the net, go to the library and find out. If you live here in D.C., you better know also.

Now, let’s talk about the math placement test - it has become obvious why you should have paid more attention in Mrs. Webster’s class - parabola and f(x). Can you discuss the absolute value of...

A dangling participle? What is meant by double entendre’?

How about those two years of French and how it did not help you communicate with that sister or brother from Haiti - off to the Academic Advisor you go to get your curriculum before you get your syllabus and realize ‘this ain’t what you want’ - is that a colloquialism or ebonics? Bet you feel as dumb as a box of rocks...hyperbole and what?

Finally, off to the bookstore to purchase your books and memorabilia - gotta get one or two over-sized T-shirts and hoodies. Welcome to the yard...

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DIASPORA

A dispersion of a people from their original homeland, a dispersion of an originally homogeneous entity, such as a language or culture; the community formed by such a people.

Such is the make up of a Historically Black College or University. It is a homecoming of sorts; a reunion of many people stolen away or betrayed by tribal hierarchy with those who have immigrated from the cradle of humanity to become part of the melting pot. Ancestral whispers awaken the curiosity of racial memory, polished by the accounts of ‘cousins’ from around the world. Africa, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Cuba, Germany, Puerto Rico, all over the United States and then; Bradford...wow! Talk about culture shock, it is not enough to adjust to knuckleheads from ‘Up top,’ the Windy City, Cleveland, B’ham, ad infinitum but, now one has to respect and appreciate those who speak so many different dialects of just as many different languages while at a glance, for the most part, look just like you. College - the United Nations in microcosm. You need to learn Portuguese with the quicks Young...Spanish and French are not the only foreign languages spoken on the yard.

Here is the silver lining if you choose to believe it; at least you don’t have to go to class five days a week. Hold on Shawty, that may be true but English is in one building, Sciences in another, Math in yet another and; did I mention Sociology, Political Science, Philosophy, et. al, the campus is a city in and of itself. So, while matriculating is not the same as attending five to seven mundane classes Monday through Friday, if you are taking a full semester load, you better be prepared to run a marathon every week. What you rocking...Kani, Coogi, Pelle, Cross Colors, Phat Farm, FUBU, Tim’s, Pumas, Adidas, K-Swiss or Nike? Is that your roommate wearing a Dashiki? I thought that went out with the 70’s? Pay attention cousin, weren’t we just talking about the diaspora? While you trippin’, I’m rocking my IZOD, Khakis and a pair of Stan Smiths.…

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GREEKS-PANHELLENIC-THE

DIVINE NINE

(SORORITES AND FRATERNITIES)

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Fraternities and Sororities; though some may consider them elitist, exclusionary, and sididy, the essence of most Frats and Sorors at a Historically Black College/University (HBCU) is the fostering of social consciousness, community service and the uplifting of your sisters and brothers. They exist to forge networks that reach across the world of business, law, medicine, whatever endeavor; reaching back to bring another in to let that brother or sister know We got you.

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REMEMBER THE EUNUCH?

It doesn’t matter what your major is, everyone has core classes that are required. Math is a requirement for nursing majors as well as pre-law, pre-med, business, whatever; you have to take the weed out classes.

Chenelle awoke Tuesday morning thankful for the ‘extra’ day to get prepared for the hysteria that comes with the first semester of college. Living in Meridian Hill a co-ed dorm on 16th and Euclid, she was even happier that she didn’t have to be on the yard until 10:00. After getting her shower, she put on a pair of Snoopy & Woodstock panties, the matching Woodstock footies, light yellow baby doll t-shirt and yellow bib overalls. Accessories, well, since getting her nose pierced last year during track season, she’d bought or was given a variety of jewelry to keep the hole open. No, she doesn’t have a Snoopy or Woodstock post; that would be ‘Bama - it’s Topaz. In her ears she placed Nefertiti earrings and donned a scarf to hide that kitchen and; outie to Euclid to catch the shuttle for the nine block ride east, 7th Street, to the Howard Campus.

Kadeem lived in Charles R. Drew Hall, Freshman male dorm on Gresham Place, across the street from the North end of the campus. He had English at 10:00 so he’d agreed to meet at Blackburn for a quick bite before class. Do you have anymore classes today Chenelle?, Kadeem asked, I was thinking about going to the Smithsonian Museum of African History this afternoon once I see what’s on the syllabus for Art. Yeah, I have English after you, then nothing else until Thursday. Let me see what’s up in math and we’ll talk at lunch, ‘kay? Bet, Kadeem said and kissed Chenelle on the cheek. Peace.

Chenelle observed a couple conversing as she entered the room indicated on her schedule and was immediately reminded of why she disliked waiting for the instructor to enter into the class. What’s up girl, my name is David Benjamin. You know you got that Iman thing working for real. The young lady cast David a quick dismissive glance. My bad..., David continued, ...a brother was just giving a sister a compliment. No disrespect intended. "Apology accepted brother; you look nice would have worked just as well. My name is Tigist Selaisse. Iman is from Somalia while I am from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which is one of Somalia’s border countries. Don’t feel bad though, most people get