The Literate Epoch

“Government is the science of making the most essential thing your priority.” – Rev. James L. Bevels

This will be my 3rd 4th attempt at starting this blog and writing the whole way through.  I’m such the perfectionist that when I pause in any particular effort, it is tougher than ever to regain the momentum to continue.  Such is Faith.  The will to press forward towards the completion of the task when one is not sure of what strength they possess to find the finish line.  Sincerity.  Such a proper word to be associated with Faith.  It is entirely possible for one to be as sincere in their ignorance and as they are in their intelligence.  I am quite certain that we can all attest to having been at one time fascinated by our own limited insight and given to zealotry, but in our quest for sincerity, we are overtaken with the need to stop trying to prove ourselves to any external entity for our lives are the only testament that will stand.  The number of debates that we win, intellectual or philosophical in nature, will never be as important as the lives that our touched, enhanced, and improved by our presence.

2010 has fallen upon me like a ton of bricks.  I was certain that it was just around the corner, but I don’t think i anticipated it would arrive with such a profuse manner of work still remaining to be done or continued.  Thus you find me blogging about Imani 7 days after the fact, but let this lend credence to the long beleaguered point of practicing Kwanzaa throughout the whole of your year.  Imani has marked my entrance into this new year and decade.  I spent the close of 2009 editing 3 books of poetry for a friend in New York who was going to publish in a matter of months.  Shabazz was back in operation January 4th and that means that it was back to the homework grind for Jah’kaya and I.  The Food Hub was set for January 9th.  Mama Sharon needed the final receipt tally for our deposit of the Ujaama Family Night proceeds to the business office.  Parent Council is in session with Mama Elaine today.  How do we go forward?  What drives us to continue in pursuit of the final goal?  Vision.  What is your driving vision that directs your course of action?  Place your sincere conviction and loyalty in that thing and stand your ground when the convergence of priorities and responsibilities would make you quiver and fall by the wayside.  Pick your feet up and continue walking forward.  This day, I call upon every fiber of my being to be devoted to the doing.

FAITH (IMANI) – Knowledge: Sincerity of intentions marked by a firm belief, conviction, loyalty, and trust in something for which there is no absolute proof. Wisdom: To believe with all our heart and soul in our parents, teachers, leaders, people, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. Understanding: Without Faith, the mind is limited to what can be experienced of the senses. Intelligence is limited to what one has taken in throughout their lifetime. Imagination is only limited to what can be conceived of the mind. Imagination is the mother of vision. Lack of Faith in the vision produces unsurety in victory of the vision. Our progress in the struggle is directly proportional to our Faith in the righteousness and victory of that struggle. Faith is the foundation of Self Determination because no one has to coerce you to do for Self if you have Faith in your own importance.

written by The AOMuse

I love language.  I love the way syllables and sounds interact and collide with one another.  The manner in which words are sent as an audible conveyance of information and emotion that are received by the listener.  I love to see the reactions that certain words and sounds illicit from the listener as they process the new information that is being issue in their direction.  Whether academic, professional, or creative in nature, words matter to me.  Kuumba.  Whatsoever it is that you choose to do in your Life, imprint upon it the stamp of your own unique and magnificent manifestation.  Creativity.  You are in a Genesis at this very moment.  As another period of time is ending, the next stage of your existence is beginning.  How will this new Earth look?  What will the air smell and taste like?  Does the sky have to be blue?  The old wisdom goes that if everyone is thinking the same thing, someone is not thinking at all.

The principle of Kuumba admonishes us to always bring our own perspective to the task of rebuilding the nation, community, and world because systems of change come from the active participation of all parties in the outlining of the solution.  You are more likely to be focused on building and fortifying a structure in which you have truly invested some amount of emotional and mental capital.  Revolution is not a spectator’s sport.  There is a distinct difference between the satisfaction of one’s ego in midst of fruitless arguments and true debate.  Debate of the highest form comes from a desire to see a satisfactory outcome for all parties involved.  Debate creates time tested and thoroughly vetted solutions that will withstand the external forces that are sure to come when the idea that has been implemented begins to seize upon its success.  Only in Kuumba can we understand each other as unique and different genetic imprints within the fabric of the community.  None of us will be able to move forward without first harvesting the information contained within the myriad expressions spread throughout the entire community.  In other words, we need each other. – tekhen djehuti

CREATIVITY (KUUMBA) – Knowledge: The quality of being marked by the ability or power to make, produce, or bring into existence a new course of action through imaginative skill. Wisdom: To always do as much as we can, in any way that we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it. Understanding: Whether you see us as Direct Reflections, Sons, or Successors of the Creator, we are endowed by the Supreme Intelligence with the distinct ability to create and express creativity. It is the nature of all things in Life to be creative. Evolution is the creative expression of nature. So must we also evolve with our ever changing times. Our Ancient and Modern forefathers and foremothers bestowed upon us a legacy of greatness and it is our duty to maintain that legacy in a creative manner unique to our generation.

written by The AOMuse

This principle is informed in the first by the dialogue that occurred between myself and Sis. Shanika regarding how we act on the principle of Unity in the course of performing our duty to the individual communities in which we operate.  It is informed in the second by my dialogue with Bro. Jitu on the development of the charter school movement and the devaluation of the Local School Council as a power base from which the community can inform the direction of the school.  If we observe the principles as series of stages that interact with one another and operate towards the ultimate objective of creating a cohesive and forward looking community, we would see in this observation that Nia is the stage in which we envision what future direction our community will take.  We have unified.  We have determined as a unit what we should do.  We have set the stage for the the collectively working amongst ourselves.  We have examined our resources and committed a portion of them to be returned to this community that it may grow and be sustained.

Nia is the place where we part ways if but briefly because we should recognize that we cannot always operate within a vacuum unless we are choosing that we should always remain a fringe community.  Nia calls us to be larger and more expansive.  I envision that what is happening at Shabazz, Freedom Academy, the Harlem Children’s Zone, and elsewhere should inform the future of the education of Black children everywhere.  It is one thing for us to get this right inside of a single institution, but can we franchise it?  Can we create communities such as this one nationally and internationally while keeping the fiber and fabric of those institution singular in thought, heart, and action?  This is the difference between making a change today that resonates to the following day or establishing a legacy of change the reverberates across 7 generations as the indigenous members of the Americas have stated.  Nia creates a continuum for us to declare that what we do shall last. – tekhen djehuti

PURPOSE (NIA) – Knowledge: A collective design set up as an end, intent, or objective to be attained. Wisdom: To make our collective duty and vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. Understanding: For lack of a vision, the people perish. Where there is no vision, there can be no purpose because the people can’t see where they desire to go. Where there is no purpose, the people lack direction. This results in a people who are lost and without the basic, elementary values that fuel the creation of a community. Our purpose directs how each of us functions in our everyday lives because when we truly understand our common destiny, we will do what is beneficial to mold that destiny into the fulfillment of our legacy of greatness.

written by The AOMuse

In a conversation I held amongst a group of co-workers at one time, I made the statement that essentially there was a cap to my actual need for an increase in salary and that I would care to make this amount and not any more.  This statement may have been a bit wrongheaded in the context that I now speak since the conversation stands as to how much wealth is actually held by our community and if we are not individually generating our own forms of economic currency in the community, how else would we be able to get economic value in without pulling it from without?  I still stand in a sense by the intent of my original statement.  What is the source of the so-called economic crisis?  How is it that monetary value can be said by economists to have “evaporated” into thin air?  When a single party begins to hold a disproportionate amount of wealth whether gained by good means or ill gotten, it creates a liability to entire economy of a community since at any time that individual could destroy the currency which holds the economic value and through scarcity make everything in the community more expensive.  Ujamaa states that whatsoever action I perform in my personal economy should in some way stand to be of benefit to the greater community.  Cooperative Economics should not stop at the simple “buy black” rhetoric.  This is an oversimplification of the principle.  What are our vendors selling to us and how does it add to the economic, moral, or cultural value of our community?  In this way, we take a holistic view of the economy of the community.  If unhealthy products are sold to us and destroy our physical value, that is not Ujamaa and we should not cooperate or corroborate our own destruction simply because the person taking the bills has a face like ours. – tekhen djehuti

COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS (UJAMAA) – Knowledge: The willingness and ability to work with others in order to produce, distribute, and consume our own goods and services for the mutual benefit and progress of the collective. Wisdom: To build and maintain our own shops, stores, and businesses in order to profit from them together. Understanding: In the teachings of Ptahhotep, it is said "Be generous as long as you live. What leaves the storehouse does not return. It is the food in the storehouse that one must share that is coveted. One whose belly is empty becomes an accuser. One who is deprived becomes an opponent. Therefore, do not have an accuser or an opponent as a neighbor. Your kindness to your neighbors will be a memorial to you for years, after you satisfy your needs." The collective has a responsibility to support those establishments, which benefit the whole and counteract those which do not. By the same token, businesses have an obligation to the communities they serve because it is their support, which continues to keep the businesses thriving. Wealth ceases to be beneficial the moment it ceases to serve the people and begins to be served by the people.

written by The AOMuse

I learned my facilitator’s rules of the road on location at the Temple.  Lessons that I carry with me to this day and implement in every thing I do.  My position as the Minister of Information taught me how to organize data and express a single, more powerful cohesive thought.  I came to understand the role that each block plays in the setting the foundation of the building.  During Kwanzaa 2002, I was appointed to organize speakers and facilitate the flow of the event.  Though small in scope, this event gave me great insight into how best to instill the spirit of cooperative work in the members who are setting the stage for the event.  My time in Temple for the period of 3 years showed me that if any single individual holds an inequitable sway over the navigation of any idea, it is doomed to collapse like any corporate entity without a succession plan in place.  Ujima should find us always involving every necessary and able hand in the process of building our community.  It is not sufficient in the Commons that we should allow individuals to survive in the Commons on the work of the other members of the body.  Let every shoulder that ain’t broke put its weight upon the plow! – tekhen djehuti

COLLECTIVE WORK AND RESPONSIBILITY (UJIMA) – Knowledge: Labor, tasks, duties, functions, and mental accountability as stages in the completion of a greater mission which is dispensed amongst all individuals in a group. Wisdom: To build and maintain our community together while making our Brother’s and Sister’s problems our own in order that we might solve them together. Understanding: No man is an island unto himself. The Universal Law of Karma is eternal and infinite. It states that, "So long as you take care of your Family in their time of need, so shall the collective take up your plight in your time of need." Those issues that currently affect your Brothers and Sisters today will with all surety affect you tomorrow. Therefore, it must be understood that we all have a responsibility to each other and a definite part to play in the struggle to reclaim the glory of our People.

written by The AOMuse

The unpacking of the archives continues on this 2nd day of Kwanzaa at a much later hour.  Kujichagalia means self determination.  With each new principle I recite, I can hear in the distance the voices of the children of Betty Shabazz International Charter School performing one of their rituals.  Every aspect of these rituals is a chisel that chips away at those things in this present world which shape their minds in ways we do not desire.  I am reminded Dr. Jifunza explaining to young Akin the inner workings of the semi-monthly Market Day.  I can hear the admonishment that I have received before regarding Jah’kaya.  “She’s just a child.”  What sort of world will arise from the hands of our children if all we ever teach them is the art of being children eternally?  No.  We are forming from our hands the world we wish to appear in our future.  Our children should be no less aware that every moment they allow to escape is another missed opportunity for creation whether they understand it from a literal or symbolic perspective. – tekhen djehuti

SELF-DETERMINATION (KUJICHAGULIA) – Knowledge: Firm and definite choice of one’s own acts, character, and state of being beyond external compulsion, influence, and obstruction. Wisdom: To define, name, create, and speak for and of ourselves instead of being defined, named, created, and spoken for and of by others. Understanding: Freedom is not given. Liberation is not a gratuity bestowed upon you by external forces. Nothing in Life worth achieving is delivered unto one’s doorstep. Bequeathed unto each and every Being at the point of Creation is the inherent ability to do for Self and experience one’s own personal Genesis. You can shape your Life and your World in any image you choose, so long as you possess the Self Determination to not be shaped by those things that surround you.

written by The AOMuse

In honor of the opening of this final Kwanzaa celebration of this decade, I dig into the archives of the study guide designed for the Temple of Applied Theosophy and search out this selection on the opening principle of this festival of first fruits.  I rededicate and redouble my efforts to be in tune with the work and the workers that shall form the new world and the new way for our people this day. – tekhen djehuti

UNITY (UMOJA) – Knowledge: A quality, state, or condition of harmony amongst a group of individuals who persevere toward a particular action or purpose in constant accord without change or deviation. Wisdom: To strive for and maintain unity within self, family, neighborhood, community, people, nation, and world. Understanding: If we understand the supreme reality to be one entity with multiple expressions of Itself, then so should we, individually and collectively, strive to move in complete and total Unity and manifest the creative efficiency of one aim and one action in all areas of life to which we are connected.

written by The AOMuse

i got to wondering about playlists.  almost everyone has a deep connection to certain music.  i came up with this just kinda messing around with my playlist. – bhang

tag: poeticize your playlist

instructions:
1. put your music player on shuffle.
2. press forward for each of 25 songs
3. use each song title in consecutive order as one line of the poem.
4. press forward one last time and use song #26 as your title.
5. write foreign language titles in the original along with the english translation on the same line.

Rimshot
Win The G
Too Much
Let It All Go
Lie To Me
The Shining
Lik A Shot
The Finish Line
8 Steps To Perfection
Bottle Of Jesus
Soul On Ice
Simple Words
Message Of Love
Dirty Love
Go Ill
Rimshot
Watch Their Eggs
Dirty South
L.O.V.E.
ATLiens
Lazy Bones
You’re A We
Let Me Do My Thing
Valentine’s Day
Murderous

JustLikeMusic!

The AOContiguousMovement

written by The AOMuse

once
i loved
a woman
with
ink felt
fingertips
who clawed them
across
walls
and windows
in abstract
patterns
an erratic
reaction
to any
shade of
passerby
fading into
or out of
her life

and i ever
awestruck
stuck face
against
clear plate
glass
in utter
fascination
following
the imprint
of each
epidermal
ridge
with which
she sensed
vibration
blowing
butterfly
kisses
from
beneath
the bowels
of my lungs
with a
feather soft
futility
that found
her person
unimpressed
with first
impressions

laydownmylifeforyourpen!

the aoidolater

written by The AOMuse

i’ve got a steak
in this relationship
a well done fleshy muscle
that connects me
to the antiquated archetype
of my manhood
drive your stake
through my heart
kill me slowly
in a mess of ashes
i should want to die
because i am a fossil
formed in a time
when fear unfounded
gripped the land
but i don’t have any stake
in that impression
anymore.

i want a steak
in this relationship
tenderize and season
sides of beef
broil to a temperature
to elicit juices
react to spread
of heat within
no pinkish remains
to remind of blood
when guests arrive
to dine
tell them
"we don’t eat meat here
anymore."
now that we both
have a stake
in this relationship.

nolongergorgingonflesh!

the aowasonceavampire

written by The AOMuse