The Journey Foreseen...

How's this for a send off?!  

After a 3 week run of intense activity of moving out of my apartment (what a job THAT was!), AND prepping for shows, I've had to switch gears immediately into prepping for travel.  I was running around today doing last bits before heading to the airport, which included of course a completion of a creative jaunt... I had to document images of a wheat paste session I did on a side street with my buds last night.

I still had to turn in my cable box and close out my account. Yup...just a couple hours before leaving the country.  I was online at Time Warner on 96th + Broadway with a ticket number that was sure to take at least 30 minutes to come up on the screen.  I took a chance by jumping on a bus heading over to the East side - the opposite side of town - to the little side street where we pasted up our prints.  

While rushing to archive our handy wheatpasting work,  I thought, "maybe I should catch a cab back across  on the main avenue to save on time or I may not make it...".  Within moments of this boggle, this man walks by...looking at me casually yet quite intently.  

As he passed in front of my camera he asked,  "Do you need a cab?" and gestures towards his yellow. I immediately said yes and acknowledged internally the fortuitous timing and his seeming ability to read my mind!   

Now understand people - this NEVER happens in New York city. Not with yellow cabs at least.  Maybe Livery cabs (the black town cars that recently turned that god aweful lime green) once in a while, but not yellows.

Anyway, he was double parked so we had to jet. 

It was a completely silent and peaceful ride to the other side of town. 

As I was getting out he calmly turned to the back and a pro po of nothing he said, 
"You are being watched closely right now....by your grandmother... Yes," he paused to confirm, "... not by your uncles or your cousin who are helping you, but by your grandmother.  You are on the right path. It's not going to be easy, but it will be good.  Very good work. You will be fine, and you will do just fine."

Needless to say I sat there shocked, my jaw dropped...just staring at him...blinking blankly. He was looking at me calmly chewing at his toothpick with a knowing smile only detectable in his eyes.  I began to say "If you knew the momen...", and he cut me off saying, "I know the moment. It is a very good and meaningful moment. You will be fine African daughter."

I balked again but quickly composed myself to ask his name.  "Malik from Mali" he said. "Berette from Sierra Leone" I said, "and thank you Malik for that." We took each other's hand, we smiled, locked one more momentary gaze and then off I went. 

I ran across the street into the Time Warner praying I didn't just screw myself with the timing.  The counter was at #233 and my number was #234.

I went up to the counter ready to pay my final bill, and was told, "You never cashed in on our promotion before canceling your account, so we owe you money.  The credit will be sent in the mail."

What?!! lol

And...when I got to the airport just now, the seeming major issue I had with Air Berlin and their baggage handling fee that I'd griped about just days before on was all cleared up without a hitch.  And I found a new hippie friend from behind the counter to boot!

Wow. That's what you call Bon Voyage Bless Ups - wouldn't you say?!

Floored.  Grateful.  Smiling. Ready.

...on the Cusp of Growing Up in America

The difficulty for me each year is to figure out the answer this internal question:  How do I celebrate or participate in Black History Month? 

Those who have been in intimate company with me know the intricacies of my conclusion that the US is a nutty place to live.   It is ceaselessly astonishing to me that this daring land of the We the..free, should still be today -despite a litany of admirable efforts and results consistent with 'the dream'- so obstinately shackled in old societal clashes of race, gender, and gun violence at the near 50% dividing line in the population!  And - that the sluggish transcendence of these issues seem to go unnoticed as harbingers to our pervading inequalities in health and education, that would nurture a more autonomously creative society truly free to pursue that so-called right to happiness without these  mind-reducing and soul-crushing tensions. 

But -  to the matter of this persisting social construct of 'race' in this our 'Black History Month' - it is a rather inadequate recognition and inspires far less reverence in me than say a Date of Remembrance or any single historical event. I therefore rarely arrive at an answer that satisfies, because it is to me - the absence of this specially named  month that might remove the stigma of "Black" as something that is the victimized  "Other" and still in need of special recognition.

Some words by James Baldwin (guest of honor at the National Press Club [CSPAN 1986]) serve for me as the best summary of the urgency of this absurdity.  Drag the player to listen [from 38.16 - 40:50] where he answers questions on race relations in America today... "A modest proposal: How about White History Week?!"

view on Netflix

What would be far more useful in empowering and transcending this distinction I believe would be to return to the base, to the beginning both in the telling of all history and where it is taught.   Lost Kingdoms of Africa for instance, is not to be reserved for private video rentals or  hosted exhibitions and talks in a special month reserved for such dissemination.  It would be better to further press our institutions to assure this as mandated eduction for ALL children;  as we, and as they are now taught of the Greeks and Romans and other old Empires.  It should all be a matter of course, but we still live in a time where such knowledge is threatening for unfortunate, unfair, and frankly expired reasons and thus still face opposition in appeals for wide cultural dissemination.  This unspoken social reparation of a notable month, fought for and understandably believed to be our entitlement, is but a false right that reinforces our separation through touted celebrations of abbreviated triumphs of our 'overcoming'  in the last 50 -100 years as a people, and serves only and still to do just that …to separate and to annihalite a much longer story fitted for attention in one month out of the year(?)!!  The entitlement of this 'special interest' is an insufficient delusion that serves none of the so-called races, in any culture, least of all blacks who are  now 'integrated members' of society. To these points, I highly recommend listening to Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie who spoke so eloquently in a TED talk on "the danger of the single story" and its effect on cultural histories and contemporary  relationships.  

Wikipedia Image

Indeed there are many equalizing effects that the presence of Barack Obama and his family have had on the image of people of colour in the US and the world view to be certain, along with countless other figures; we can see it all over the media. But still and yet, here we are and more than ever divided almost violently by race.  All you have to do is turn on the local evening news in this country. Or, read a few YouTube comment threads - it's amazing how fast a reasonable discussion will descend into senseless vitriol.  2013 people!!! And this while the world considers a first black Pope - and an African to boot - to rescue the declining influence of the Catholic church - which I venture to guess would also be fun for pictures but would change little in their institutional doctrine. 

Yes.  Change,...in modern history, is certainly here, but so hypocritically welcomed that it appears as a hallucination of ironies at best. Note that in researching for this post, I found a bare few reports from any of the world news orgs on the Black Pope headliner...but much more on the international political vying over which country the next Pope will come from. Yeah - so much for separation of Church and State...  This paired with premature news fodder on who will be the 1st Woman President of the United States. Could it be Michelle Obama who is both black AND a woman?!  And on that matter - as we head towards the next Women's History Month - dare we dream that:

1) the leading religions - the heirachal power structures between Man and God that have rewritten a lot of history (ironically)in the name or preservation of God's kingdom - may consider allowing Women to participate, and lead...too?
2) the two most powerful imperial entities -America and the Vatican- will disabuse their delusional right of power over the natural, social, and spiritual worlds and allow equality and validity of all existence?  

THIS could eradicate the need for a month of head patting!


I indeed understand how the necessity these special History Months came about, I just wish we no longer had need for them.  The growing up simply isn't happening fast enough for me I guess...
Suffice it to say - this month I celebrated nothing. But I did find James Baldwin. 


Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
~ James A. Baldwin





 
PAST RELATED POSTS:
A Response to Dispatches from (A)MENDED America (December 2008)

What it means to PRIORITIZE!!! (March 2009)

"Why Do You Talk So White?!!" - (Uh oh - it's a race rant...) (March 2012)

My Lifetime Crush on a Quirky Scientist

My astonishment cannot wane when I think of this person;  resident in one being was such a gifted scientific mind,  further and exponentially expanded by the limitless reach of his heart and love for humanity: Albert Einstein was, is, and will always be the one famous being with whom I wish I could wine, dine, and chat til the wee hours.

I have recently gone back to his writings - eating through one of my favourite books on my shelf, Essays in Humanism  [Philosophical Library, New York, 1950], a compilation of a few essays and letters Einstein wrote between 1933 and 1949.  Not a single word written there is without profound wisdom and beauty, without pure and innocent hope, without earnest urgent concern for the state of  international relations; and so, not a single sentiment therein has lost its relevance in such relations today.  

It is truly awe-inspiring, and both intellectually and spiritually provocative to read his excited addresses to the United Nations, fellow thinkers and scientists, or to the citizens of the world on matters of technological and scientific progress and developments, and his concerned appeals on the unfortunate misuse of these advancements for the leveraging of power at the expense of us all.  His appeals on how power is divided, how money is spent in politics, how the world is partitioned and guarded more by a system of fear, war, and a race for destructive armaments  - rather, than as a common goal of inspiring, educating, and erecting systems for a paradigm of peace. Insisting on the latter's necessity for a truly secure future as the only way to save us all.  His words on class warfare, discrimination, and prejudice; his unabashedly humble praise of any one who has lived their lives in service of such noble goals of peace, advocacy, inclusion, and equality; this all from the man who helped us understand the Universe by devising the Theory of Relativity! Most operative on all accounts.

A cheesy high school girl though I may seem in saying this - I just love him! 

Foto: Low Density LifeStyle Blog: The Masters of Enlightenment: Albert Einstein

I worked for a short time administratively at the International Rescue Committee - an exposure that connected better my philosophical beliefs to what I have yet to do actively with them.  The IRC was founded at the request of Albert Einstein in 1933 as an American chapter to his already established European based Emergency Relief Association, focused singularly on the rescue and resettlement of displaced Jews.  This was of course a historical fact not missed by me, and fed my determination to be associated with the IRC in any way.  Today the IRC is a non-governmental volunteer organisation singularly focused on work with displaced victims of war, famine, or natural disaster; and providing resettlement assistance to refugees, while offering education in life sustaining practices suitable for their environments - from farming, building, crafting, and cooking methods, to reading, writing, language lessons,and healthy reproductive practices. Their workers are located worldwide in the hottest locations of difficulties, working with large populations of displaced peoples - and they are often on the site of new emergencies before the UN or similarly focused agencies as they have no governmental/political affiliations. 


Now isn't this such a wonderful idea - and one that I think all governments should aim to adopt as quintessential to foreign relations?  Why do I ask this? Because the IRC is a privately funded organization.  No, I'm not going to ask you to donate - I'm #justsayin - it's a wonder that our leaders don't put this same kind of effort into caring for their human family as they do in arming up to kill whole sections of it - as is the central incredulous rhetoric in many of Einstein's essays, speeches, and jottings.    

“What is the situation? The development of technology and of the implements of war has brought about something akin to a shrinking of our planet. Economic interlinking has made the destinies of nations interdependent to a degree far greater than in previous years.” —Albert Einstein, Essays in Humanism, "Towards A World Government"

It seems to me we have lucked out in that we now have a world leader who demonstrates such breadth of intellect and heart.  I have to say the recent State of the Union Address (#SOTO) inspired in me many of the same feelings that Mr. E=mc2 does in his passages.

“If we want to resist the powers which threaten to suppress intellectual and individual freedom we must keep clearly before us what is at stake, and what we owe to that freedom which our ancestors have won for us after hard struggles.” 

—Albert Einstein, Essays in Humanism, “Science and Civilization”

To hear the sound of fair reason, and to witness its fearless and heartfelt demand for it, is something that inspires and governs both my spiritual and social aspirations of how to live a connected, compassionate, and gracious life. Depending on how things go in the next year, or few,  maybe Obama may come close to sharing space on my list of folks I wish I could meet.  He's being watched.  So for now,  Einstein is the only one.  :)

RELATED JOURNEY POST:

Einstein Stuff (Oct 2007)

  

URGENT REPORT ON DARFUR: You too, from where you sit, can act like a humanitarian! (March 2009)

BIG PICTURE Fun on the Rock

So I just made my photographic debut in Denver this last Friday with the opening of the BIG PICTURE show in celebration of the Month of Photography. It's a cool idea really - where photography meets street art on a global scale, with a clever use of geotagging so all can attend - all conceptualized by the directors of ILLITERATE Media Gallery. 

Though I'm clearly not in Denver to see my work up (I do have spies on the look out tho - heehee) - I was excited to get Jamaica on the BIG PICTURE google map by posting work by Colorado artist Brenda Biondo - sent on from the gallery. 

It was also a great opportunity to get Studio 174 involved! It's a great community art space located @ 174 Harbour Street in downtown Kingston, and founded by Rozi Chung, where the creative potential of inner-city kids is unearthed, nurtured, and fully expressed in Saturday morning art workshops.



Rozi and I have been in conversation about creating outdoor projects specifically aligned with global outreach programs for kids, most specifically with CITYarts in New York (more on that in another post). Anyway this came along and Rozi was the best person to run to! Luckily volunteer clinical psychologist, Dr. Tammy Haynes was on site as well; both women were so excited and  accommodating in letting me treck my zerox prints and yucky wheat paste down there for the kids to put up our work outside on the studio walls.

 

 

  

 

 

Rozi Chung - founder of Studio 174

 

Rozi and Jason, also a one of the DIGICEL Mural Artists (see YardEdge)

Crude as the finish appears, I think it's cool, and it was a really a fun and fulfilling Saturday morning with those kids.  With just two moderately sized 16x20 prints and everyone getting their hands in on fitting the pieces and sticking - a smooth finish was not the point - at least not in the end - ha!  Participating in the exchange and showing the work was, and ohhhh yes, I'll have more please! Can't wait to see it up on the map. Stay tuned!

 

*Workshop fotos by Me and Dr. Tammy Haynes

**Studio 174's Rozi Chung, Dr. Tammy Haynes, and photographer Max Earle have cofounded INSCAPE. It is a non-profit organisation which evolved from an earlier collaborative endeavor known as the Tivoli Resolution Project), which helped traumatized young victims of the Tivoli incident last May (2010), through visual and performing art therapies. The mission of INSCAPE is to provide the space and resources to continue such work in the inner-city communities in Jamaica - free of charge to those in need. Please follow the links to learn more about them and how you can help.



Big Picture Works on Live View in Kingston on Harbour Street:

Plant With Roots © Brenda Biondo

Behind The Hidden Gate © SeBiArt

Big Picture Works on Live View in Denver:

CrowDeD - Maki © SeBiArt

Dragon's Lair © SeBiArt




View the BIG PICTURE Worldwide MAP

Power to the People

Mass, en masse, united in purpose and a clear non-violent vision for change, and we mean change - 5000 years of one way, ...to a new way.  That's DEEP!  

These people have proved a most important philosophy to a world that often seems exhausted by or allergic to true activism.   Inspired by Tunisia's revolution, they now inspire the world with their demand for free expression.  

Photo Source: Travel Guide

Photo Source: Flickr

Congratulations to Egypt - Land of the Ancient Kingdoms, Land of the Pyramids, may you continue to beguile, seduce, and expand our minds with your mysterious history, and the enthusiastic valor with which you tread the path of your future. 

Photo Source: Travel Pod

NB.  I've posted this before, but Ben Okri's Lines in Potensis is I think a perfect toast to this historical moment.  (Thanks Sean for sharing this - it's never lost its potency for here it is again.)

Ku-ing the States of Fear

 "I had a fool's confidence..." that a life conducted openly, honestly, and earnestly would keep the fear at bay.  

In yesterday's BUSH society, the main accomplishment was the creation of a new world energy now governed by fear and mistrust; our basic sense of community now demoralized by it; so much so that seeming good intentions and kindness are not expected and therefore not trusted.  In fact when it is offered, suspicion, or counter offers in the form of passive aggression seem to be standard responses.  

On this playing field, there's no teamwork.  We pull away from each other, pull into ourselves, into our shells where we think its safe.  But there's the rub.  Inside the shell we starve ourselves of touch, kind sounds, support, affection, and thus good fortune that can only come from supportive communities.  As fearful beings we only support our egotistical inner demons who see others as enemies of our progress. 

But there are no enemies; only friends who live in fear as we do.  Ironic that in fear we strive to be alone, rather than to reach out to protect and hold each other up.  This really pisses me off, but most of the time it just disappoints and saddens me.  However, all of the time I want to be, so I rebel by trying to be, a confident fool who just wants to be playing with YOU in the rain...fearlessly.

"Somehow Crazy"
Sun sets on our love
So intense and then nothing
Funny how it dies.

"venge-full"
Takes two to refill
(One to distract, two to kill)
The space left by one

~ Mystic Urchin~

"Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level."

Some people can't imagine being loved
So they don't want love
and refuse it when gently offered to them

What do we do with people like this? Grant their wish to be left alone by turning our backs, ignoring them, maybe even treating them with a little of the same miserable cruelty that they offer in abundance? Understandable if you say 'yes' here.

But I say no actually. And to be clear, it is not because of God or some other mystical reason; and certainly not in following some societal rule of deportment; far simpler.

It is perhaps unbelievable, and certainly naive, and always a bit painful, but I simply never feel better brandishing the same bitterness and hostility shown by others. It makes me feel worse. I prefer to keep giving love...if even at a distance.

It's easier to look at such misery for what it is: fearful loneliness and an incapability to ask for a way out of that darkness. I just can't be so merciless to turn my back on such vulnerability when I can see right through it - even if I'm looking through a wall of fire.

"Abatement in the hostility of one's enemies must never be thought to signify they have been won over. It only means that one has ceased to constitute a threat."

That said - I do find bitter humor thoroughly enjoyable:

"Health consists of having the same diseases as one's neighbors."

Foto ©SeBiArt
"Living en famille provides the strongest motives for rudeness combined with the maximum opportunity for displaying it."

"There is no need to do any housework at all. After the first four years the dirt doesn't get any worse. "

All quotes by ~Quinten Crisp~ Click for more Crisp-isms.

URGENT REPORT ON DARFUR: You too, from where you sit, can act like a humanitarian!

Okay folks - so this isn't another subversive entry about "what life means". It's an appeal - to anyone who's looking, even if it's just one. Below is a copy of an email I just sent out - read it, follow the links, pass on the info, do something - ANYthing! This issue is actually under the radar in western media and I hardly understand why that is. SPEAK UP PLEASE!!

Dear friends and family,

I had to reach out and discuss something that is of great concern to me. I'm not sure if many of you know about this or not - as there has barely been any press coverage, but I'm sure everyone knows of the urgent circumstances that have existed for the past few years in Darfur, Sudan. Since 2005, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, president of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been investigating all claims of crimes against humanity there, and since, issued a warrant of arrest for the alleged militia/Janjaweed leader "Ali Kushayb". Well, last week, the ICC also issued warrant for the arrest of Omar Al-Bashir - President of Sudan (see ICC Press release here.)

To the great shock of all humanitarian agencies (most of which are only concerned with humanitarian non-politically affiliated aid), the immediate, insensitive, and quizzical Sudanese governmental response to the ICC issued indictment, was to order all 12 known agencies to immediately shut down all operations and to leave the country. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) , Doctors Without Borders (DWB), and Refugees International were the organizations with the largest numbers of workers and aid officers on the ground - some 7000+ people who have been working in camps in Darfur for years, responsible for (as I understand) 60% of refugees and closely guarded villagers and nomadic groups - some 1.7 million people. They have been primarily providing shelter, fuel/firewood, access to clean water, food, and medical care for people who have no other access to these essential life giving services and resources.


The urgent concerns are:

1) The only action that can be taken by the Darfurians right now is to take to foot. The risk is they will try to migrate into Chad, Central African Republic, Uganda, or Kenya - all places that ABSOLUTELY cannot accommodate more refugees as they are already maximized in this regard, with just as few resources as these nations are already suffering their own strains.

2) Fresh water is running out. The IRC was able to set aside supplies in some camps for up to two weeks of water, but not all were so lucky. Smaller agencies with aiding Darfurians in smaller camps, with less funding simply didn't have the resources to prepare quite so well. This particular issue will soon (in a matter of days) lead to near immediate spread of disease - which furthermore cannot be addressed all all medical care providers from DWB have been removed from the country.

3) Perhaps the most obvious concern is safety. Without any presence of the international community - the people of Sudan are now in complete danger of serious harm that may be visited on then by militia/Janjaweed forces. Women and children who have suffered the greatest and most unspeakable crimes are now in even ever greater danger.

What can we do? Please make your voices heard! You may not realize or believe this - but it makes a huge difference. It's important to know that the confusing and appalling circumstance here is that the IRC, DWB, and other smaller orgs are strictly concerned with humanitarian aid. They ARE NOT in any way affiliated with lobbyists, governmental agencies, or the ICC - their interest is not at all political, it is strictly for the welfare of millions of people who NEED and are dependent on their help!

I just sat in on a truly informative phone conference conducted by IRC development officers in the field issuing reports from their current posts in neighboring Kenya, and answering our questions as best they could. I've taken the time to write this to you guys in my own words, and not to simply send you a forward.

lease, take the time to inform yourselves at the links above, and to support these organizations.

Pass on the word to your friends and family.

Go to this link and sign the appeal to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to "Keep Humanitarian Aid in Sudan" - as the government is under no threat to host them or the other humanitarian agencies!

Write to the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, or any of your local printed or electronic media source and demand that they cover this very urgent story.

Place a link to the any info or the petition on your online community accounts, your website, or your blogs.

Look up the IRC on Facebook and Twitter.

(Just a little plug for my # 1 hero of human rights advocacy, Albert Einstein...the IRC American chapter was founded by his suggestion in 1933, as a branch his International Relief Association that assisted victims of Hiltler.  It's also his birthday in a couple days...March 14th. Happy Birthday Einstein!) 

Remember Rwanda? The world abandoned those poor people, let's participate and not abandon Darfur. YOUR VOICE COUNTS!

Love, Peace, and Hope,

Berette


FOR A LIST of Humanitarian Agencies Working in or recently ousted from Darfur -

GO HERE