AYA Educational Institute

Well worth watching.

Important! What kind of mask are you wearing? "If work requires you to wear a mask, OSHA requires that your employer verifies you are receiving a minimum of 19.5% oxygen level by law!" Here’s more mask info from a poster “Jim” in response to an article re: face masks: “ I don’t really know WHY OSHA hasn’t come forward and stopped the nonsense BUT wanna cover kinds of masks: • N95 masks and masks with exhale ports • Surgical masks • Filter or cloth masks Okay so upon further inspection OSHA says some masks are okay and not okay in certain situations. If you’re working with fumes and aerosol chemicals and you give your employees the wrong masks and they get sick you can be sued. • N95 masks: are designed for CONTAMINATED environments. That means when you exhale through N95 the design is that you are exhaling into contamination. The exhale from N95 masks are vented to breathe straight out without filtration. They don’t filter the air on the way out. They don’t need to. Conc...

I Love AYA. Parents, teachers, students here's another FREE AYA Educational Institute installment for your BHM curriculum stash. Often overlooked as part of Black history and BHM education are our people's organizations and movements. Too often this month is filled with instruction about “The first Black to do this, and the first one to do that." In addition to being too "prove-it-to-white-people focused, it is also too focused on individuals. Today we take a different path. Using our call and response tradition, we focus on the impact of our people's movements had on music, and in turn the effect of our music to invigorate the Black Power movements in its various forms. We're a Winner: O ur lesson started with "We're a Winner" by Curtis Mayfield. Me: Not only does Curtis Mayfield encourage and affirm Black people he also exhorts the required level of commitment needed to win. Assignment: "Listen ...

We are proud to announce the 2020 Black Love Day Community Warrior-Healer-Builder Love Honorees. In this oppressive environment to fight, heal, and build are revolutionary acts. One of the three Community Warrior-Healer-Builder Love honorees is Mama Nobantu Ankoanda Before you can say “lets,” Mama Nobantu is in the van saying, “C’mon, let’s go.” Before you can say, “I need…” Nobantu has opened her house, extended her hand and her heart. She’s a Warrior-Healer-Building Mama! Her children grew up knowing that their mother belonged to our community. Mama Nobantu Ankoanda is an educator, teacher, former principal and founder of Afrikan centered community-based institutions in Palo Alto, California and in the Atlanta, GA Metro area. Mama Ankoanda is also Dr. Mama Nobantu. She holds a doctoral degree in Education, a Master of Arts degrees in Elementary Education and a BA in Social work. She’s earned this Black Community Warrior-Healer-Builder award because she’s been spreading love ...

AYA Educational Institute is proud to announce the 2020 Black Love Day Community Warrior-Healer-Builder Honoree, Baba/ Brother K. Rashid Nuri – a food revolutionary. Rashid, in his new book G rowing Out Loud , asks a powerful question: “What is more revolutionary than a seed? Once planted, the seed bursts through clay, sand, rock, concrete – whatever to fulfill the purpose imprinted in its DNA.” Rashid doesn’t just plant seeds; he is a seed - breaking through. This see has been nurtured by the Jamaican Maroons flowing through is veins, by the African, Asian, and Latin American liberation movements of the 60s, and more. We can eat better because of him. Attend this Black Love celebration. Feb. 13th 7pm. ------- Higher and Higher... ------- The beginning of a Huffington Post article on Baba Rashid begins “The older man steps out of a gray Chrysler Grand Voyager. He wears a tan fisherman’s cap and a brown tee topped with a plaid work shirt. People chat as they fill baskets ...

Our third Black Community Warrior-Healer-Builder honoree is my friend and brother - Derrick “Too Much Truth” Boazman. Personally, I don’t know of a man that loves the Black community more than Brother Derrick Boazman. His love is strong; it’s wide; it’s deep. It’s deeper than his years – flowing to him from his mother and father and from those in our struggle who came before. He’s a native Atlantan born and reared on Atlanta’s Southside – where he still resides. I start his warrior-tribute by talking about his love because it is his love for us that fuels his fight for us – especially for “the least of these.” His love for us as an extension of the love family and community showered upon him is exactly what makes him the consummate warrior-healer-builder? Join us to Simba Simbi: Hold up those who hold us up! Thursday, Feb. 13th 7pm for our 8th annual Black Love Day Dinner Celebration. As swift as is his sword at our enemy’s throats is his compassion and giving to those...

Thanks to sister  Debra Watkins  and Baba Leonard Dunstan, AYA Educational Institute was in the house @ the Powerful Black Family Summit Retreat this weekend in Baltimore.  https://ibw21.org/ It was Blacktastic. I love being with folks who be getting things done!

AYA's Harriet Tubman journey continues with another specialty class: The Tubman Story and Black Mental Health.  Wekesa Madzimoyo teaches parents, social workers, mental health professionals, and others interested in our mental health how to use story and particularly the Harriet Tubman Warrior-Healer-Builder Story to facilitate our mental healing in this online class. When: Saturday, Dec. 14th 11:30am-1:30pm Eastern Register Now! The Araminta WHB Harriet Tubman Story for Healers and Helpers: Controlling The Narrative; Controlling Our Future She led us out of physical bondage (slavery); maybe her true story can lead us out of psycho-social bondage as well. Features: *Discovering Araminta Harriet Tubman - the storyteller *Countering Injected Racials Scripts which warp her story and our stories *Shaping the intersection of our people's narratives and our personal stories for our success  This two-hour training session will use Tubman's story to...

CNN Reports:  West Point is about to graduate its largest class of black women Should we celebrate or cry, or do both? To handle any obstacle course is an achievement, make no mistake. I love and celebrate powerful sisters. And West Point is not just an obstacle course, it's a military education and indoctrination institution. Are we to assume that they've been imbued with the proclivity and skill to defend our community or attack our enemies? Are we to ignore the initiatory nature that instills identification with and allegiance to those who oppress us? I asked this in a post on Memorial Day when my family was celebration soldiers and former soldiers in my family - thanking them for their service in the military without an expectation of any service to defend and or lead our family or community against attacks on our community. It's difficult to raise because we applaud their courage, tenacity, intelligence, perseverance and more. Our celebration forces us - li...

This past weekend, I celebrated 100 years (1919 to 2019) of living as an African in America. Enjoy this and look for more stories that have been spawned by this visit.

  Crisis: Black Teen Suicide! Question: Are their deaths reflecting our lives and our leadership? In response to the Congressional Black Caucus recognizing the crisis of Black youth suicide, my friend Monica Utsey (Sankofa Home School Collective in DC) called for us to get involved! ( Black Cacus ) Here's my response: Monica, keep tellin' us. Keep reminding us that we are the answer, that meaningfulness comes from our relationships to each other - real relationships. Dr. Amos N. Wilson reminds us that life is most meaningful and powerful when we have stories that create an expanded past and an expanded and meaningful future. He also said that the alienation that leads to such suicide isn't an accident. Two Wilson quotes: "We are alienated so serve aliens," and alienation is the handmaiden of oppression." Our children are reflecting our alienation and our broken stories. Far too many of us show them the empty and meaningless pursuit...