AYA Educational Institute

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...