By Gloria Dulan-Wilson Hello All: One should never allow the busy-ness of life keep you from being in touch with those you care about the most. It can and does often happen though, and then the essentials catch up with you. Such is the case in finding out on FACEBOOK, that my dear friend for life, and essentially a Brother of my Soul, Ja A. Jahannes, whom I have had the pleasure of knowing since my freshman year at Hampton Institute, had passed on.
Ja A. Jahannes now a member of the Ancestor/Angels - We love you and we will miss you! Thank you for all you've done and been! GDW
And it couldn't have been more devastating than if you had hit me with a Mac truck. Apparently, in my efforts to cover other bases, I had neglected to read the Alumni Page on Facebook, where the announcement was posted on July 6th. On the late show, I just found out today that he had made his transition to that of Ancestor/Angel. There is so much pain, both from having lost such a dear friend, and for not having known or been aware of his absence. You see, I was still email Ja my Blog as recently as yesterday. Ja Jahannes, who was originally known as Jay Johnson, has been a powerful, positive part of my life for many years. Had it not been for him, I would not have had the opportunity to attend Lincoln University, after having been kicked out of Hampton for being too militant in 1965. We were to celebrate the 50th anniversary of my being one of the first 16 co-eds at Lincoln this fall, and had discussed some collaborative options as to how to make it happen. Ja was always a man of boundless energy, creativity, ideas. He was audacious - or as we say in the Black realm - bodacious - in his moves. He let nothing stop him for executing a concept. That was how I knew him to be always. I met him through a classmate of mine at Hampton, who was my "Big Sister", Pat Taylor - who later became his first wife. I was the maid of honor at their wedding in Hampton. We were a trio of cut ups even before they were married. Ja was in the US Air National Guard, and would come down to Langley Air Force Base in his Gold Mustang Convertible. Always smiling, joking, popping off German accents. Life was always an adventure with him. Hampton Institute's president at the time, Jerome "Brud" Holland, under the dictatorship of Margaret Meade, chair of our Board of Trustees, threatened to expel any Hampton student who participated in the March on Selma, Alabama in 1965. I, along with 20 other students, locked him in the Administration building on campus, until he accepted our demands that Black students had the right to stand for themselves and their people. We even got the curfews changed, and opened the waterfront to students (something that had been forbidden at Hampton, even though it was a peninsula).
After the fracas was over, and we were granted amnesty, and allowed to go back to the business of being students, Holland blindsided us by expelling us the day of commencement - something he had been putting together even during the time that he had signed the agreement - talk about a back stabber! When I was sitting in Oklahoma City, trying to figure out how to deal with this mess, it was Ja who recommended me to Dr. Paul Keuhner, the registrar at the time at Lincoln, for admission as one of the first co-eds. Because of Ja, I got a full ride, with a combination of financial aid, work study and scholarship funds.
When I arrived to Lincoln in 1965, Ja and Keuhner ha already alerted the guys - Joe Reed, Bill Wallace, and the rest of the Rabble, that I was coming and that I was from Oklahoma City. Because of him, the first thing they asked me was "where are your cowboy boots?!" Ja used to brag on Doc Keuhner, who was a German immigrant, and about how the instructors also served as mentors. He attested to the fact that the strong support he received from his professors was part and parcel of the confidence he exuded. I remember him telling me one day, "I am truly wonderful!" speaking of himself. I thought it a rather arrogant statement, and asked him how he had the audacity to say so, to which he responded, because Dr. Keuhner said that if you wake up in the morning, look in the morning, and say "Jay Johnson is truly wonderful!" and smile at yourself as you say it, you'll begin to become what you say you are. And apparently it worked, because Ja Jahannes always was, is will be just that, "Truly wonderful." He got so tickled when I reminded him of that little statement, and the fact that I remembered it after all these years. And it was Ja's mom, Frances, in Baltimore, MD, who, when my daughter was born, provided baby sitting services while I completed my classes at Lincoln U. His son Tkeban Khosa and my daughter Kira were "crib buddies" in Baltimore - with his mom being the honorary grandmother.
We lost contact with each other for until the 90's - that does sound a little like ancient history, doesn't it - when I met his son Tkeban Khosa, now a young man, who looked like his dad's twin. Though our communication was by phone, not in person, it was still a reunion of sorts.
We finally caught up with each other in 2012, at the 45th anniversary of my graduation from LU. He hadn't changed all that much. Still energetic, still following his inner creativity and imagination. He had been around the world, traveled to Africa, written several books, been part of the faculty at Savannah State U in Georgia, was a speaker, minister, artist, had newly married, and all too many wonderful things to recount here. No doubt, just recounting his accomplishments is a book in and of itself.
I was so happy to see him, but wondered whether or not he remembered me. But we actually picked up our conversation as though it had only been yesterday since the last time we saw each other.
I am so sad to know that this Brother of my Soul will no longer be active on this plane of action. I am so happy that I had a chance to really reacquaint myself with him, and meet his lovely wife.
The last time we saw each other was at the Barnes during Black History Month, when he appeared with Sonia Sanchez. What a great event that was! I treasured that event and the fact that he was getting the recognition he so deserved for his great work. I did an article on the event, in my Blog - www.gloriadulanwilson.blogspot.com/ECLECTICALLY BLACK NEWS/ "Ja A Jahannes, Evie Shockley, Sonia Sanchez featured in Top of the Mountain at The Barnes Foundation"
The Last Time I saw Ja Jahannes was at the Barnes Collection. L-R: Oliver "B'More" Franklin, Ja A Jahammes, Sonia Sanchez, Gloria Dulan-Wilson (Me), Kenny Poole, Evie Shockley (March 2015)
My condolences to his family, to Lincoln U which he loved so deeply, and to myself. I would say "rest in peace" to Ja, but I know that is not going to be the case - with all the energy he has, he's probably already stirring things up, up there. And you just know he went up, not down - because Ja wouldn't have it any other way. And Ja was one brother who pretty much got what he wanted. I am going to miss that brother! Stay Blessed & ECLECTICALLY BLACK Gloria
God
and Mother Nature were definitely smiling down on Philadelphia in
Sunday, February 22, 2015. It was the date the Barnes Collection had
set to host TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN, an homage to contemporary and
revolutionary Black writers and poets – just a scant 24 hours
previously, on Saturday the 21st, Philadelphia and the
entire eastern seaboard was under a blizzard that threatened to blank
the entire area – in fact, it started at 12:00 noon and by 8:00PM
had reached nearly ten inches in New York and New Jersey with
Philadelphia at eight inches.However,
by 2:00 the following Sunday afternoon, the sun had melted 80% of the
snow, it was a beautiful clear day, and the audience came out in full
force.
ON TOP OF MOUNTAIN LOGO
BLAKE
BRADFORD , who served as host for the afternoon's events gave a brief
historical perspective of Albert C. Barnes, founder of the Barnes
Foundation: “Barnes had been criticized for being part of the
nouveau riche – and for squandering his money on African American
artwork, which apparently his peers saw little value in. That is, of
course until it was found that it was worth billions of dollars.
Barnes was a supporter of African American culture from the inception
of his foundation, which was established in 1922 and opened in 1925.
He was 50 years old at the time. Support for African American
culture was central to the activities of the foundation from the very
beginning, long before the physical form of the foundation opened in
1925. Support for African American culture was deeply embedded in
the foundation. Apparently Dr. Albert Barnes was regarded as an
eccentric – {which is what they call crazy rich people} – and was
reputed to have had a terrible temper. He actively fought to support
the culture of African Americans – there was a lot of behind the
scenes fighting with his contemporaries who did not value the artwork
the way he did.
BLAKE BRADFORD
Barnes,
being his own person, had specific requests for how his collection
was to be handled and through a friendship with then Lincoln
University President, Horace Mann Bond, whom he had met a the funeral
of a mutual friend, decided to bequeath the considerable collection
to Lincoln University. The collection is now housed in a facility
dedicated to his collection in Philadelphia, PA. Back in 1923 Dr.
Barnes said “When the foundation opens Negro art will have been one
of the great art manifestations of all times. He viewed the study of
African Art as an important form of creative cultural expression –
insured a way of racial advancement and equality. That gets to the
centrality of the Black collection as centric to the Barnes
Foundation.
Evie
Shockley, who served as moderator is an Associate professor of
English at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. The author of
The New Black - esthetic in African American Poetry.
She has two books of poetry: the new black winner of
the 2012 Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for Poetry; and half red
sea, published by Carolina Wren Press in 2006.
EVIE SHOCKLEY
Tall,
slender and quiet spoken, she served as a perfect foil for the two
author/activists: “Why have a poetry reading in an Art Museum?
These two creative practices have long standing connections – and
are sometimes deemed sister arts. Sometimes despite of, or because
of, their focus they are deemed rivals – with the ability of visual
arts to paint pictures, figures and scenes, pitted against the
ability of poetic or spoken art to make the representation in speech
– poets have been able to bring visual arts to life by giving them
voice. Or meditating on the context or story behind the scenes.
Barnes
did an essay on “Negro” Art and America,” {which was edited by
Alain Locke} – on a page largely devoted to those images, under the
heading of “The Art of the Ancestors,” noticed value of artistic
art and versatility in African culture from the consideration that
ancient classic art.”
Shockley
made visual comparisons with African art that Barnes had collected
with artists with whom she was already familiar – Matisse, Picasso,
Cezanne, etc. The African Artwork that appeared in Countee Cullen's
poem courtesy the Barnes Foundation – *Heritage (poem)
he compared it to his African roots:
*“What
is Africa to me?
A
copper sun; a starlit sea? …”
He
romanticizes his African ancestry while simultaneously distancing
himself from it. The Black Arts Movement which
coincided with the Black Power and Civil Rights Movement was a break
from traditional Black poetic idioms, and embraced their African
cultural heritage in a way that was never done before. The turn to
Africa went far beyond the cultural grounds and also took political
inspiration from various successful African independence movements in
Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. The images were considered problematic and
ultra avant guarde – but succeeded in shifting the focus.”
"Two
poets who began writing during the Black Arts Movement – one who
felt the impact from far away while teaching in the military overseas
– the other was an artist and activist at the forefront of the
movement here at home. You will hear in the work they're going to
share with you impress from the Black Arts movement – and
combinations from the literary traditions from which they emerged
-also the visual art and musical tradition which inspired them:
{PLEASE NOTE: I will only be paraphrasing the poems by these great writers - not presenting them in their entirety - I leave to you the pleasure of obtaining them, reading them and enjoying them for your self - }
Ja
Jahannes is a novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, librettist,
composer, spoken word artist, music producer, social critic,
psychologist, and educator. He received a B. A. degree with honors
from Lincoln University (PA), two Master's degrees from Hampton
University, postgraduate studies at The College of William And Mary,
and received a Ph.D. from the University of Delaware. He is a
frequent writer, columnist, and contributing editor for numerous
national and international publications. Jahannes has received many
awards. He has written and produced twelve plays and published four
books, a collection of essays, over two hundred articles, reviews,
and poems, two oratorios, two symphony librettos, two opera
librettos, a song cycle, and editor of Black Gold, Anthology of Black
Poetry, and the novel, Big Man. NOTE: Black
Gold an anthology of 109 Black poets most of whom are poet laureates
of their city or state in the US or Africa.
JA A. JAHANNES
Ja
Jahannes ever animated, assured the audience: “Jesus preached the
sermon on the mount in 13 minutes – I never try to exceed the
master - I hope that I'll be able to be brief and also to the
point.” Of course, that didn't happen. He's too information rich
to contain that wealth of creativity in that small span of time –
and actually, no one wanted him to. He shared some of his poetry and
writing as well as poems he specifically composed for the Barnes
Collection. “I hope to give you new words to capture that are
outside your vocabulary and give you visions and images that you have
never seen before. And almost scientifically to explore new ways of
seeing the world.” He began with his classic poem
“Neckbones,
Pigtails and Chicken Feet:”
We
got the food that I just couldn't eat.
WE
had the love in beans and rice,
made
them delicacies, made them nice;
now
thrown out the door with what was once something less, not more;
we
added love and beans and rice; made them delicacies, made them nice;
they
steal our muscles for their cultural olympics;
recognizing
our genius was something and they forget the strength from Black
blues;
the
prisons are filled with my people...”
Jahannes
continued: “In October 24, 1946, it was the funeral of Lincoln
University Alumnus Dr. Nathan Mosel, Horace Mann Bond met with Albert
Barnes – the two men formed a very close friendship. And a lot of
what is here today is because of that particular relationship. Three
months later Albert Barnes came to visit Lincoln University, he saw
what he liked and he made a major contribution to Lincoln University.
From that point on the two men were very good friends. A lot of
people were jealous of that relationship – especially the people
who were the “monied people in Philadelphia, because they thought
Barnes was kind of out of it. He was noble and nouveaux riche and
he was buying this art that no one had ever seen or had any
appreciation for; and they just thought that he should not be in the
Art community – his background was not in that monied Philadelphia.
He was just new money. But it didn't bother him; he continued to
collect art and bring that art together at a place called Merion,
PA.”
Jahannes
related how he became an expert in art appreciation via classes he
took at Lincoln University under an adjunct professor, Tom Coble, who
“taught one course a week, one night a week. The way Coble taught his class was very interesting. And I
picked up from it – I spent 40 years in academia, and I try to pick
some of the things from the best people I had. Coble not only gave
you the history of the art form, but he always gave you the salacious
and almost semi-pornographic aspects of the artists' life. So when
it came time for them to test you, you would say “yeah that's that
fool that slept with that woman and ended up painting her in the
nude. It was a good cuing mechanism. So whenever somebody mentions
a name, I say “Oh yeah, he's the one who cut off his fool ear!”
(Vincent Van Gogh). It gave you a lot to think about. All art has
voice; art should speak to you. It shouldn't be just on your wall
for decorative purposes. There is decorative art – if you just
want a little splash of green here, pink there, black there –
there's nothing wrong with that – and a little purple and a little
gold (referring to the colors of Omega Psi Phi fraternity) – or
Crimson and crème ( Kappa Alpha Psi colors) – or whatever colors
you choose. That's still decoration, and not art. I always advise
my students early in life find the other people from your community –
especially the young, your contemporaries, who are artists; buy their
work then; prize their work; and value it over the years – but buy
it only from people that you like, because there's nothing worse than
having a piece of art on your wall and find out later you don't like
the person, and you paid for it.”
A Lincoln University Alumnus for the class of 1965, he relates how he was the
designated driver one evening for Langston Hughes (who was Lincoln
man) and Earl Winderman, who was the vice president and associate for
development at Lincoln at that time – while they hung out and did
some serious reveling at a little club down on Rte 1. Though he
didn't partake, he ended up promising to pick up six boxes of books
Hughes was donatint to Lincoln University, which entailed his driving
to his brownstone in Harlem on W. 127th Street. A five
story walk up with no elevator, and no one to help him! “Nobody
told me that his apartment in that brownstone had no elevator, and he
lived on the fifth floor. And when I got up there with six big boxes
of books, Langston wasn't even there. So I had to lug those books
back down to the campus. That year the Hughes award went to Lincoln
University poet Everett Hoagland.
Later
when I was on the faculty at Hampton University, I was given a grant
to write a play on Langston Hughes. I spent a lot of time studying
Hughes – but I could never get the play done. So one night I wrote
a poem that was one of the first published poems I had in the
national magazine; and I gave the University their money back. The
poem is dedicated to Langston, and is called
“Most
Of My Life.”
Most
of my life has been spent moving from Bakersfield to Baltimore,
though Harlem is my home.
Most
of my life has been spent traveling – sometimes weary and sometimes
– from Moscow to Asterbad ….
And
now all of my life has been threatened. Yet America, Harlem still is
my home. “
Langston
Hughes was perhaps one of the greatest alumni of Lincoln University.
But we have so many extraordinary people from Lincoln University.
Thurgood Marshall, Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamde Azikewe – head of the TV
Station for soap operas Duma Ndlovu (South Africa), Kaeropetse
Willie Kgositsile – it goes on and on and on. But those guys were
also friends of mine and they helped inspire my literary tradition.
Jahannes
wrote a poem in response to Langston Hughes poem“BLUES”
“Hey
Mr. Blues player; play me a love song and
make
it heard deep down in the deserted streets where Blues comes to play;
Hey
Mr. Blues player play me a mood song that moans and –
up
on abandonded bridges.....
Play
me a love song and make it hurt real, real, real sweet”
Sunday
in Savannah by Ja A. Jahannes includes fifty photographs on churches –
just to capture the peculiarities of Black churches -not only
practices, but the architecture, and history.
“Now you know that Black folks can really dress for church.
So this one is called
“GLAD
LADIES”
“Lord
these Glad Ladies look mighty pretty
in
full color
in
full spirit
in
the second pew pouring forth Jesus' …...”
Per Jahannes, "One
of the poems that I am most proud of is:"
IF
WE FORGET
If
we forget, who will keep the dream; who will celebrate ancient poetry
reaching forward, reaching back from Zimbabwe to Timbuktu
If
we forget, who will keep the dream if people celebrate if we forget
who will care, who will share our pyramids, store our paths, …...if
we forget, who will remember us?”
If
there is any doubt about the depth of African centered poetry and its
direct connect between us in the diaspora and our motherland, one
need only check out “Dinquinesh” which tries to
connect the Africanity of all us on the planet. Dinquinesh – the
name that the Ethiopians gave for the oldest fossil remains of a
humanoid on the planet in Hadar. All people have been linked to that
particular fossil. We call her Eve – Dinquinesh means the wonder –
and I wrote this poem to connect us and our hair. “Touch your
hair. Touch your hair ...Listen, this is about the hair.”
I
am Dinkrinesh mother source –
my
course, dark, strong crown
covers
my head like twisted dreds of creation.
Boldly
I went up the Nile turning black dark red...
By the way, Jahannes'
anecdotes are as spellbinding as his poetry – he regaled the
audience with “...how I met sister Sonia. And I always call her
Sistuh Sonia. She has a great presence “s-u-s-t-u-h” - a
sistuh! I am a psychologist and a behavioral neuroscientist. And I
was at a conference in New York. And I had specifically gone to hear
Dr. Ruth – another extraordinary woman in psychology. And as I
looked at the program the program for that conference was which thick
as a telephone book, I looked through and next to those
distinguished psychologists was Sonia Sanchez. I said, 'now what is
Sonia doing here at a conference on psychology?' So I went to Sonia
and she held forth – the topic was something on Bigger (Thomas) –
the emergence of the female Bigger Thomas. And she was absolutely
spellbinding. After that he went and had coffee and wrote the rest
of the conference off.
Which
is a perfect segue` to poet activist, Sonia Sanchez:
Sonia
Sanchez was selected by Mayor Michael Nutter as Philadelphia's first
Poet Laureate. She's a poet, mother, professor; national and
international lecturer on Black culture, literature; women's
liberation – peace and racial justice. Former Weil Cornell Chair
of English and Woman's Studies at Temple. Author of over 20 books
including “We A Bad People;” “ Home Girls and Hand Grenades;”
“ Does Your House Have Lions?” “ Morning Haiku.” Recipient
of the Langston Hughes Award for Poetry in 1999; Alabama
Distinguished Writer in 2004; National Visionary Leadership Award in
2006; and currently one of 20 African American Women featured in
Freedom Sisters – an interactive exhibition at the Smithsonian
Institution and traveling throughout the US.
Sonia
Sanchez who's just about 4'10 stepped up to the podium, which, it
turns out was taller than she was. She definitely would have
benefited from a step stool or a milk crate or something to stand on
– you could hear her but not see her behind the podium. Undaunted,
she knows how to make her presence known and felt.
Sonia
Sanchez: “One of the things that I was asked, at some point, had I
been in any way interconnected with art as writers, and I said, most
certainly. Many of us who moved in the 1960s that one of the things
that we did in a very real sense is that we sought out of the
artists. A brother by the name of Ademola (Olugbefola) – my first
book was called HOMECOMING. And brother Henry, who was
a member of the Black Panther Party did a picture of this little
girl with a spear in her hand, and it was called HOMECOMING.
But because of some problems with the Black Panther Party and many
of those writers and the people who considered “cultural
nationalists” - whatever – he was not allowed to do my second
book. And so I came home to a place called New York City, and I went
to this gallery where brother Ademola was, and one of the first books
that we have in the Black Arts Movement will be on the using of the
African influence in art. And this is called WE A BAdddDDD PEOPLE.
Can you see that? (holds up book over podium) Well people don't know that unless you study it;
and most of the time you don't study it because the power people
consider that they are superior."
Cover of We A BadddDDD People
They
sent me the pictures I had up on my walls at home. But here you can
see the African influence.
The
second book I did for Dudley Randall was IT'S A NEW DAY.
And that's a child in it. Look at the modernistic kind of art that
is happening here. The third book I did A BLUES BOOK FOR BLUE
BLACK MAGICAL WOMEN – So all of the African art that I was
looking at and the Black arts that I was looking at – as we talk
about the arts, we always talk about the connection of the arts and
the artists; always the art and the word.
Cover of Blues Book for Blue Black Magical Women
SANCHEZ HELD UP THE BOOK COVERS SO THE
AUDIENCE CAN SEE THE AFROCENTRIC ARTWORK THAT ORIGINALLY GRACED THE OUTSIDE
COVERINGS.
Cover of It's a New Day
Someone
said to me “well did you ever go to museums and see art?” I said
I saw my grandmother in a place called Alabama, in her white, in a
church called AME Zion Church. I saw all those brown women in those
white dresses – you know what I mean? Those gowns and I also saw
the preacher when he started to get down and talk about Eve and how
bad she was; and how she misled Adam. All of those Black women went
to the back of the room and crossed their arms – they became big
white birds, you know, looking at that preacher talking against them.
So I've seen Black art.”
And
that is that kind of realty that we must truly understand at some
point that what we have done and what we do at some particular point.
I had some shades I will be reading; and I think I have my book with
me -
One
of the poems from A BLUES BOOK FOR BLUE BLACK MAGICAL WOMEN –
"It took me three years to do that book – and that book
began because I began to have, and I started to study African art –
I began to have the same dream every night. And the same dream of
this woman in Blue – that's why when the artist sent me the cover,
I said no, it has to be blue – of this woman in a tomb. And she
was blue with white in the center of her forehead. And every night,
I actually accelerated my self so that it seemed that I could
actually go and see this woman who began to talk to me about her
herstory. And at some point I figured out it was my mother talking
to me. You every now and then “duh!” You know every night I
would listen to her and she would warn me and tell me about things.
And she told me how she was also buried alive – and so that's why
that cover got to be that cover. And that's why when I began to
write that book I talked about something called tasks. EARTH
MOTHER POEM.
Understand
that when I began to write about Africa, I had to learn some of the
language – and so the book you know that that book also will begin
to – I called all my friends – who were African who spoke the
languages, and they said, “Sonia what are you up to?” And I said
I am writing and I need for you to tell me that I think that where I
come from it was lost- and I need for you to help me a great deal –
so the book. She recited a piece for Black history –
“Wangichi
you hear me don't you?“
During the question and answer period, In
response to a query from the audience about the possibility of
contemporary Black poets and artists expatriating to France to follow
their creative muse, Sonia stated: “There's a straight line
from the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Arts Movement to what is
happening to young people today – you can call it HipHop, you can
call it what you want to – but I tend to call it poetry. It is
that long line, it is a continuation – and that's important –
very much so. There are some differences, of course, as you noted at
some particular point. DuBois would talk about a double
consciousness, would he not? I call him the greatest scholar of the
20th century – you should read him. He was brought to a
place called Philadelphia They would not allow him to teach at U Penn
but gave him money to go out into the neighborhoods and prove that
the reason there was so much crime was because it came out of the
Black neighborhoods – and of course he disproved that. I
say every year to every mayor (of Philadelphia) that is that the one
book you should read is THE
PHILADELPHIA NEGRO by W.E.B. DuBois, so it can
truly put to rest crap amongst us as a people. And maybe you ought
to write the next mayor and the one who is in here now – I have
said it in front of him – you need to read the
Philadelphia Negro – and he should read it and
understand how DuBois disproved it also too, and how you go on and
find out what it means to be found to be really human. Philadelphia
misses every time. You know we could be a great city – and it's
like we're fearful of becoming great, you know?”
One
of the organically integral secrets of Sonia's work is her ability to get inside
the message or messenger and let the message or messenger likewise
get inside of her spirit. It's nothing short of magical!
Acknowledging the spirits when they speak to her
“You
always have to acknowledge that there are people around you to
protect you.” She mentioned that in reference to a piece that
she was working on that while she was writing she could hear in her
subconscious mind the sounds of gunshots and screams for help. So
when she asked what had happened on the site, she was informed that
there had been a massacre long ago. “As you travel throughout this
country – America – there are so many places where there have
been massacres; and if you are a sensitive, you can certainly tune
into it. At other periods in my life I realized that there were
things that had save my life.
That there points and periods that
someone (spirit or person) pulled me back from someplace, and I
finally had to acknowledge that “Thank You so very much!” – but
certainly, in writing that book, at some point – you open up at
some point and – and you say okay, people will think I'm cookoo,
you know, or some people will say “ooogagooogaooogabooogah!!” But
a very well known writer says what we always have to do is
acknowledge that there are always people around you to protect you!
And you just have to open your eyes, open your heart, open your
soul." The audience totally enjoyed the fact that Sanchez could accept the skepticism of those who were less well versed in understanding spiritual impulses and laughed with her as she made light of their reactions.
L-R: Ja A. Jahannes, Sonia Sanchez & Evie Shockley
Other
members of the audience were former Deputy Mayor Oliver Franklin,
Poet Joyce Joyce in the audience, Kenny Poole Vice President Lincoln
University National Alumni Association.
l-r Oliver Franklin, Ja A Jahannes, Sonia Sanchez, Gloria Dulan-Wilson, Kenneth Poole, Evie Shockley
This was so well done, enjoyable and information rich, it is hoped that the Barnes Foundation will present this again in the near future.
