AYA Educational Institute

This post is inspired by a post by my brother - Eric Caver.  He said: "I think that think the things we have lost the most through [captivity] and Jim Crow and in life, have been our self worth. . Self love. . Self esteem..  He asked for responses .. Sister Brunson responded: "I know part of the problem but I don't know the solution. We have gone through an identity crisis. We have lost our culture.... WE ARE GREAT AND CAPABLE OF GREAT THINGS!" I agree with both of them. Sister Brunson and Eric, AYA has been working on a healing solution, and have some great tools to help us recover and live out the greatness that you so accurately and eloquently claim.  We actually, haven't lost all of our culture - not by a long shot. Severely damaged, yes. On life support, yes. As Stevie Wonder says: "love is in need of love today."   We need to reclaim the remnants that we have - dusting them off, treasuring them, placing them on the mantel pieces

AYA Parents, Family and Friends, I've been wanting to get this to you all day. We're celebrating MLK's Bday. Although our school will be closed, we hope that for you it's not a day off, but a day on! Not a day for shopping, unless you're shopping at a Black business - like he asked us to do. Please do something uplifting with and for our people. Choose Warriors-Healer-Builder, or maybe do some of all three. Brother Sundiata Aya called me this afternoon with a request about some Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes and speeches. As I talked to him, I realized that I needed to make available my favorite MLK words. I've just finished, and the video is ready. I wanted to be short. We'll just over 30 minutes is the best that I could do:  This is a King that others won't likely show. Hopefully, they'll stimulate discussion for you, your children, maybe your peers even. Here are 20 short topics, questions a

I love AYA. Malcolm X said:  “Of all our  studies ,  history  is best qualified to reward our research."  Arturo Schomburg told Baba John Henrik Clarke to "study the [oppressor's] history..."  Today, WEB Dubois helped AYA students of the Following Araminta class do both. Just as Araminta ( Harriet Tubman ) is entering the war between the states (Civil War) that she helped to ferment, we took a break to go beyond the  moral analysis, to understand some of the economic and social forces at play before, during and after this "Civil War."  From his Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 the students read as DuBois cast the Civil War as the greatest labor revolution in history, but they were most riveted by his class analysis of the 7% elite vs. the white laborer North and South:   "While revolt against the domination of the (Southern) planters over the poor whites was voiced by men like Helper, who called for a class struggle to destroy