AYA Educational Institute

For Ujima, I offer you John Coltrane’s Equinox . This original rendition with over 7 million views/listens on YouTube alone may help us move the principle Ujima  which calls for collective work and responsibility into action. The strong percussive piano of McCoy Tyner, the drums of Elvin Jones and the vibrations of Ron Carter’s bass reminds me of how we used rhythm to stimulate Ujima. In Equinox, I hear “Berta, Berta” - the work song: “Be my woman, and I’ll be your man…” Hear it? Elvin Jones - the drummer - is playing “ Let Your Hammer Ring .” Don’t get it twisted, we didn’t just use work songs to help us get through imposed work, we created and used them to help us complete work of our own choosing. It was healing, bonding, spiritual. There was a caller, but no star. We all responded. The call and response process bound us together while taking us higher in a way that affirmed each other’s worth . This higher, mutually affirming place is the birthplace of trust - the co...

In the spirit of kujichagulia (self-determination), I offer you Gil Scott Heron's remake of the Marvin Gaye classic- Inner City Blues. Makes you wanna "holla" and throw up both of your hands. See, most don't understand the role of the blues to take us through despair. Gil helps the uninitiated, guiding us like the blues so that we throw up both our hands - not in despair, in Black liberation and Afrikan sovereignty. Listen to the end. He'll take you back to the block and bac k to New Orleans, back the future! Kujichagulia is not something that will be given by those who profit financially and psychically from your misery. Self-determination is not something that you beg for. It's not a concept as much as it is a verb - both an action and a state of being!If you're going to determine the education of your children, you don't beg others for permission to shape their course or method of study. You do it. Of course, there is a price t...

Don't you get it? It's comedy to them - tragic comedy. So are we. It can't be a horror film, they hypnotize us to believe ourselves powerless to serve our own interest and only to serve them daily. What's horrible about that? One got away, this time. So what? Full article . From their perspective, the doctor's Frankenstein-like efforts are laughable when the vehicle of story and the very viewing medium (movies, media, etc.) generate far less resistance and often garner voluntary life-long  commitments to servitude from Black bodies and Black brains. For survival and physical prowess, dipping into the more African gene pool is a far more elegant solution than messy neurological transplants. See the classic movie "Rabbit-Proof Fence" or view Serena's wedding! Black, loud, race-conscious, father Richard is gone. See image in comments. Resistance is gone. Retreat has devolved into surrender. The brains and the brawn of the next generation w...

Thanks-no-Thanks reflection from 2011 that may be relevant to you and your family today. Wow, how time flies. November 24, 2011 (with some dialogue added at the bottom) Thanksgiving? This is always such a push-and-pull day. I relish any opportunity to pause, feel, and express my gratitude to the Creator, my ancestors, my family, friends, and the thousands of people who have touched me over the years. At the same time, I loathe celebrating the near extinction of a people by white supremacy- domination, and the reminder that we and Africa are on a similar trajectory The sweet potato pie, the hugs from Aunt Annie Mae, and the love rituals of this day are grounding, they pull us together. At the same time, they usually separate us from the reality (then and now) of the active oppression of native peoples and our OWN people. In too many instances, what becomes sacred is our praising God and celebrating family IN ISOLATION of challenging the evils of those who dominate us and other ...

https://bglh-marketplace.com/pics-this-stunning-photo-series-was-inspired-by-black-girls-natural-hair-and-the-baroque-era/

Samantha Melamed and the Philidelphia Inquirer,  Why tell the story from the abuser's point of view? Note: "Gerald Dugan tried to remain calm as the elevator doors opened and the man at the center of a case that’s haunted him for 40 years stepped into his 14th-floor law office." This is racism on top of racism. Compare what has "haunted" the prosecutor - Dugan - with what the brother - Kevin Brinkly - endured. The article was written to evoke sympathy for Dugan while Brinkly remains almost as anonymous in the article as he was in a prison cell for 40 years. The writer could have asked: "What haunted Brinkly in prison? What realizations did Brinkly come to?" Instead of allowing the abuser - Dugan - to speak for Brinkly saying, “You never saw a sunrise..., saw a sunset..., drove a car..., fell in love ..."; the writer, Melamed, could have allowed the brother to tell his own story in the same number of lines. No! racism (unconscio...

A friend on Social Media posted this question to Black people: Here are my thoughts to his query: First, we have to grow in ourselves a mindset for war, winning, healing, building and expanding our territory whether others like it (or us) or not! Most don't even know that we are at war, and another huge percentage think that it's ONLY about the dollar.  Our dollars will serve our mission of self-determination - which includes removing people from power over us, building for and healing our own - only if that's our mission. If our dollars are not doing that, it means that's not our prevailing mission. Our dollars will have no more sense than we have. They will go where our deepest desires go. If that's to get in where we fit in, to ape oppressor values, earn oppressor approval, oppressor acceptance, etc., then our dollars will go there and become weapons against anyone who tries to stop us from achieving that mission.  In truth, our dollars are already we...