Category: Uncategorized

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I Am Not A DEI Consultant: So what in the world is the Florence Aliese Advancement Network?

ADOrduna

During this time of reset as each of us continues to adjust to the evolving way of life in co-existence with the novel Coronavirus, my Iya Fayomi Osundoyin Egbeyemi (my godmother in the Ifa tradition), wrote a poetic message on the need to surrender to Spirit. Surrender to Spirit. . . This was a similar message to one I received growing up in a circle of Aunties, wise women who collectively poured into me advice passed on from our lineage. When facing decision-making moments, they would often advise – “ask God and turn your plate over.” In other words, surrender to Spirit.

Although deeply spiritual, the concept of letting go and “leaving room for God” is one that I struggle with. It contradicts the messaging from the internal critic that often complains that I am not working hard enough. So after a COVID related layoff in May, testing positive for COVID in July, and submitting a completed dissertation manuscript in September of the Phenomenon of Black People Experiencing Homelessness in Los Angeles (nearing the culmination of an eight-year journey), I found myself in a space of stillness.  What would I do next?

Collectively, the public lynching of George Floyd awakened a latent racial consciousness, igniting a wildfire across the “culturalscape” (as Iya Tirra Omilade often describes[1]) made visible in the performance of street demonstrations in urban downtown financial districts to suburban streetscapes and around rural civic squares – advancing a cacophony of chants calling for the end of police brutality, racism, and affirmation of Black Lives. Immediately, nonprofit organizations and corporations began plastering “Black Lives Matter Statements” on their webpages, reminiscent of Black owned business owners spray painted their buildings during the 1965 Watts Uprising.

It was a moment of incredible hope- and yet fear of the instability. The sudden worship or the eroticism of our pain – amplified through video replays of our deaths and paneled voices of our failed outcomes became deafening. Familiar white spaces felt unsafe. I questioned the sincerity of the sudden presence of “allies.” Where were they in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 (before the election)? Why now? Are they equipped to listen? Are they able to stand back and let those historically excluded from deciding their fate, lead? Dr. Mary Watkins, a community psychologist, observed, those “who think of themselves as ‘allies’ may maintain positive images of themselves as helpers to those less powerful, while failing to interrogate and redress their own excessive privilege”[2]

Soon friends and former colleagues reached out wondering if I was interested in getting involved in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) consulting work or Equity positions. I was curious, what did DEI mean to the organizations that sought out this work? In response I heard a consistent theme spoken through various words about a resounding need to remake white spaces challenged by contestation, safe again-  for white people. I heard a lot of shame conjuring and “cancel culture,” yet I heard little to nothing about commitments to Black liberation.

In the DEI conversations, I also did not hear any strategies to change the American social and economic hierarchy that construct the conditions making a disproportionate number of Black people so dependent on the very organizations seeking reform. I felt an immediate pointing of a collective finger to the image of the 2020 version of an overt racist – law enforcement – and not us, the marionettist pulling their budgets and performance management goals to sustain the privilege of middle class life and that kept White communities segregated. Nor was there a true willingness or recognition of need to look in the mirror to understand how nonprofits and local governments stand as border agents who guard the boundaries of our social hierarchy. Instead it felt as if people were seeking validation for being a “good person” – a privileged position over the groups of people whose lives have been violently impacted by racism in all forms across generations. Rev. Jesse Jackson and a flood of images of 1990 “Diversity” training books came to mind. Before I could assign language to my abjection to these requests, my soul gently whispered – “no.”  

In tune with my understanding of the World’s Soul, I knew that the “known” was not unraveling to develop new ways to conform to the status quo. That it would be going against Divine guidance to seek solutions that made Black people comfortable in systems that actively worked to sustain entrenched marginalization with a few more luxuries. This was not a time to wait. It was/is a time to not remain silent on a fundamental belief in scarcity where progress was only measured in ‘winners and losers’ verse a belief that the world has provided ‘enough’ for all of her children. We just needed to develop right-size solutions to help everyone meet their basic needs and joys.

It was and continues instead to be a time of re-imagination. This has to be a time of healing, reconciliation, permission, and deep listening until we begin to understand other languages long suppressed by colonial machines.

It is a time to center the protection and wellbeing of Native American and Black people at the center of extracting racism from our culture. This requires a positionality of humility to understand that the way in which we know and engage with the world in public and mainstream spaces, is based on a construction of knowledge and knowing that is centered on the privilege of whiteness. We must reckon with public policies, academia curriculums, laws, Supreme Court Decisions that assign meaning to these constructs that dehumanize Blacks and Native Americans in the general imagination of the American people regardless of racial identity. This means that as we learn, seek to undo, and redesign, that we must be open to the abandonment of institutions birthed to operationalize these beliefs of Black inferiority and Native American erasure from our predominant memory. Even if these are the very institutions, programs, and policies that we have helped built, have dedicated our careers to, and have created as the “known road”[3].

I soon knew that I could not meet the challenge(s) of the moment under the confines of any one position, organization or government entity. So it is with perspective and understanding that I gave birth to Florence Aliese Advancement Network (FAAN). It is a community advisement firm named after my maternal and paternal grandmothers to call on the protection, strength, and wisdom of the feminine from my lineage. Florence Aliese is a platform that I have surfaced from time to time, but in this moment I am prioritizing the support of its birth and development by placing my own fears of economic survival aside to let Spirit lead.

FAAN is dedicated to creating beloved communities through participatory research and evaluation, strengthening of social capital and networking, and policy development. FAAN introduces Indigenous knowledge and practices from the Afro-Feminine perspective into our work. These approaches and philosophies capture ways of knowing passed down through the Grandmothers from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade until now. Dr. Nuria Ciofalo describes Indigenous Psychologies as a means to “question the universality of existing Western scientific paradigms and incorporate context, meanings, values, beliefs, and locality into research designs and knowledge generation[4].” Through our services, we therefore;

  • Recognize that there are unheard, embodied stories waiting for someone to ask for them to be shared as insight into today’s concerns;
  • Recognize that time is circular, not linear, and thus the pathway forward cannot occur without reconciling injuries made in place in the past, even if no one currently present was there;
  • Recognize the credibility of life experience and life stories as critical inputs for data collection – allowing voice to stand alone without need to justify by written words published by White men or academia;
  • Recognize the empowerment of Black Literary Arts and Indigenous methodologies (i.e. listening to Elders, poetry, Walk-Abouts, spoken word, dance, song, gardening, quilting) in surfacing identities and needs of the human spirit without the projected biases of binary White/Black constructs; and we
  • Recognize that the liberation of Black and Indigenous people from the prejudice of American culture will elevate the national consciousness, and influence the freedom of others including women, LGBQT, and people of diverse ethnic backgrounds while creating global anti-oppressive strategies to liberate colonized people and the world – including the liberation of Mother Earth herself.

Florence Aliese Advancement Network’s accepts that our recognition of the African American and Native American Souls is itself a form of resistance to American culture, and therefore our work is performed outside of the boundaries of “respectability politics.” We lead with heart.

We accept the potential consequence that because of our beliefs and approach, we may be denied consideration, opportunities, and invitation. However, we stand on our history of success in many communities across the country. We stand in the faith of the destiny chosen when coming from Heaven to Earth. We stand in our power in knowing our role is not to sustain comfort, but create compassionate discomfort to lead forth sustainable and healthy cultural change.  

We are an intentionally eclectic firm standing on the shoulders of our Ancestors and their rainbow warriorness. We are what is needed to bring order to chaos, healing to deep pain, and joy in discomfort.

In writing this piece, I see a humorist irony as I have been experiencing an increasingly excruciating toothache. I have long neglected proper dental care due to shame, previous bad experiences with dentist, cost, and plain fear. However, I now accept that the remedy will be some form of extraction from the root – a root canal or tooth removal. I think many people approach or avoid confronting anti-Black and Indigenous racism like they do a toothache. We are satisfied if we can dull the pain, but it will only grow worse without radical attention. Florence Aliese is here to help organizations and entities ready to go deep and activate cultural change; that have the grit to move through this next labor pain in creating equitable and just societies. With you, we are committed to removing barriers so that Beloved Communities may bloom.  

P.S. If you still in need of a DEI Consultant, we are happy to refer you to a few in our network 🙂

[1] Tirra Omilade, Goddess Guru https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9n3fq8dvnE

[2] Watkins, Mary. Mutual Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT,2019

[3] Jung, C.G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections. Vintage Books, New York 1963

[4] Ciofalo, Nuria, Editor. Indigenous Psychologies in an Era of Decolonization. Springer, 2019

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Healing through Corona: Finding life in the break of a pandemic

ADOrduna

On July 8th, I received an early morning call from the doctor informing me that my test results were positive for Coronavirus. I tested because I had mild symptoms that I thought were seasonal allergies and my dad wanted me to be “safe than sorry.” Asymptomatic with allergies or COVID showed up in my bodies masked as allergies. Bottom line, I was infected with COVID-19. Thank goodness my gut told me to stay home on the 4th or I could have endangered my family. Contradictory feelings of fear and relief fell over me as I hung up the phone. Thankfully I am still doing well and just about on the other side. Sharing these words of reflection to process and offer HOPE.  

After three and a half months of following all of the rules of staying at home and socially distancing, I needed a break. I needed a chance to be with me without the constant intrusion of others’ emotions reacting to this epic moment.    

Not only are we in a global health pandemic, but a social pandemic – one of reckoning morality for systemic crimes against humanity, crimes against Black people, crimes rooted in a system of colonization that has been illusionary from the start. An authentic nation of freedom and equality “for all” cannot be created through the stealing of land, human trafficking, mass murder, and violent oppression of others. Yet reconciliation is a bitch.

Before the tragic murder of George Floyd, Coronavirus was unearthing the effects of systemic racism as Black bodies began unveiling proof of its collective impact in hospital ICU’s, under ventilators, and in pop-up morgues. Like inoperable bullets lodged in the bodies, underlying health conditions such as asthma, hypertension, diabetes, sickle cell, and obesity began truth-telling stories of:

  • Chronic stress from daily micro-aggressions at work, in public, through frequent or anticipated police interactions;
  • Respiratory diseases from living in poor air-quality communities due to historic patterns of environmental injustice such as oil drilling, cell phone towers, auto repair shops, chemical dry cleaners, and meat processing plants, etc.;
  • Hypertension and Diabetes from limited fresh food choices in addition to chronic stress. Why is establishing community gardens so controversial in low-income communities?;
  • Lack of affordable housing leading to overcrowded conditions, especially when everyone is home;
  • Greenspace and recreational inequities that hamper access to daily exercise and respite in nature like found in other communities; and
  • Workplace discrimination that creates apartheid conditions for people of color.

The visible death of George Floyd, with millions at home to watch – unknowingly witnessing the particularities of a Jim Crow public lynching ceremony, was the match that lit the tinderbox in the streets, starting a take-down movement of markers of historical injustice, bringing to the forefront a roaring fire that has been raging in the womb of the nation since at least 1492.

Telling of so many truths of the Black experience buried in the soul to survive began all emerging at once. Righteous anger in the streets. More than 100,000 people dead in 90 days from one cause. Hate intensifying. Growing number of people unhoused on the streets. Black women dying in the “safety” of their homes. Youth committing suicide. Stuck at home feeling helpless against the magnitude. It became too much. I needed to drive. I needed to be in the desert – a hostile landscape that always tests my humanity and will.    

 

A “walk-about” in the desert is an annual ritual. Normally I go in August, one of the hottest months when I know the heat is unforgiving yet purifying. But I couldn’t wait. Plus the forecast was for triple digits – perfect. I needed the wisdom of its majestic mountain ranges that have seen the toiling of civilizations, the knowledge of the sage and other greenery that find ways to survive through the dry cracks of the earth – regenerating each year. I needed to sit with an Elder who has experienced life and has lived long enough to find humor to see the long-term- game beyond short-term reactions. I also needed to connect to a water source. To me, water in the desert offers a well-spring of hope. So I broke free from quarantine for a personal retreat. On the way back stopped at the Colorado, the source of L.A.’s water, and paid respect and to ask for coolness to moisturize the dry-heated energy that was spreading so much anger and division within families, communities, and the nation.

For my mental wellness, it was worth it. Yet in taking all precautions, somewhere in the journey Lady Corona and I crossed paths. Our fate was inevitable. In fact, predictable given I went to the desert to break free of fears attaching to me in these times.

Still in quarantine, I am doing well. Blessed. Recovery has been a collective effort of family, close friends, and faith. I even saw my Grandma in heaven pray for me.  And I honor (difficult at times) the voice of the Guardian Angel who watches over me: Breathe… Sit still. . . Surrender . . .            

But THIS Moment isn’t about any one person. We ARE in this together. Here are a few self-reflections that I hope may help you navigate through these times.  Writing them helped remind me of what I can control and what I need to continue to release. I pray no one gets infected. I pray we all meet up in person this time next year when we can give thanks for life, grieve all losses, and celebrate small wins as we continue to strive making systemic change that this period’ s sacrifice is calling for.

Mental Preparation

Reduce the hate. Limit exposure to the news and social media. By now you have your opinion on this Administration and its communication strategy to create division. Don’t help them spread further mental fecal matter. Bully’s and psychopaths feed off of attention.

Find your cause. There are a lot of needs in the world right now. Find one cause and go deep- not wide trying to do too many things where you get overwhelmed and paralyzed. For example, distribute food to seniors or people with limited ability, collect and distribute art-projects for people experiencing homelessness isolating in Project RoomKey or even those permanently housed in PSH, become a pen-pal for people in prison, increase technology access to low-income households to help survive social isolation . . . Lot’s to do, but pick one. Forgive yourself for not keeping up with it all – conserve your energy and work on YOUR cause.

Find your joy. Spend at least a half hour on your joy and don’t let anyone judge your choice. If you want to make sourdough bread or walk on the beach at sunset (wear a mask) – do it. My joy is taking care of my plants – houseplants and vegetables; learning pest management & staying vigilant for hornworms on my tomatoes.

Decide to stay. Every day brings news of a newly departed soul. The bottled up grief may sound like a call to depart the planet now, BUT I ask you to resist. Fight to stay. Let the universe and everyone in it know your intention to stay on this planet through this pandemic and beyond. If you find any resistance in saying this take note and reach out to a mental health specialist or trusted support circle.  We need your talents and strengths to rebuild humanity.

Spiritual Preparation

Not a curse. I don’t accept that this virus is a curse but it is a wake-up call. I respect it like I do a rattlesnake. To me, the virus is an energy awakening our deadend soul to the destruction of our collective behavior. In its destruction, it has created a reset, a pause, a release, and re-imagination. Watch judgement.  

Lean into faith. My Ifa practice, spiritual family, and biological family have been by rock through this. Lean into your faith. How is your faith guiding you? What is it asking of you? Have you done it? Do you pray/mediate/connect to your inner power each day? Do you talk with your ancestors? Do you have a prayer circle? Build your support system now. None of us will get through any of this alone. We need community. Build your “spiritual immune system.”  

Talk with Elders. Talk with elder family or community members about their life experience through trying times. It helps to hear stories of victory in the midst of war. If no one to talk too, turn off the computer and read a good biography or autobiography as most people have had to overcome hardships. I am reading “Working the Roots: Over 400 years of traditional African-American Healing”by Michele E. Lee, learning many stories from elders who worked the land for medicine.   

Make your house a home. With the intrusion of Zoom, we must resist “professionalizing” our homes. Now more than ever your home needs to be a sanctuary. Clear out clutter and other aspects that may cause stress. And don’t over clean with harsh chemicals. Open windows and doors every day to allow air to flow through and take out any stifling energy. Burn sage or Palo Santo or other purifying herbs or incense to clear out negativity. Recharge your crystals under the proper moon cycle (not my area of expertise but works). Grow plants, play music, make art for the walls.  If you live with roommates, focus on your immediate living space, while maybe making suggestions through a “family” meeting.

Love yourself up. Our bodies have absorbed so much just since March, compounded on whatever was going on in our lives before then and since then. Rest, eat breakfast in bed, take a fun bath with favorite essential oils and petals and honey and whatever else. If you don’t have a tub, get a large plastic basin and fill it up. After you shower, use a smaller bowl or calabash to dip into the basis and pour on your “magic” over yourself then pat dry, but let the essence that you created linger. Yes you may have rose petals and other things in interesting places but who cares. ***Note self-love is different than over-indulgence. Monitor excessive use of alcohol, sex, drugs, food, gambling, sweets, etc. These may be self-anesthesia- not love. Don’t numb out. Find healthy ways to cope.

Awaken you. Start doing or at least identifying the real things you want to do. Be honest and shake up ideas of what is “enough” or expected. I mean we are in the midst of a global shut-down, toppling of long-standing confederate statutes and burning, demands to defund the police or at least re-image are being discussed, and North Carolina just offered an apology and plan for reparations. When would there be a better time to awaken the YOU desiring to be born?

Physical Preparation

Maximize Protection. Wear a mask. A clean one every day over your nose. Socially distant. Wash your hands – 20 secs in between your fingers and your wrists. Self-quarantine with any symptoms (dehydration, sore throat, sudden tiredness, difficulty in breathing, cough, etc.). Get tested.

Have a plan. Just as you prepare for a natural disaster, prepare for self-quarantine/isolation. If you live with others, what is the designated quarantine room? Do you have access to your own bathroom? Create a “go bag” with a 14 to 21 day supply of personal hygiene, Tylenol, disinfectants, cell phone charger, etc. Is there someone who can pick up your mail and take-out your garbage? Are you signed up for Instacart or can someone buy groceries for you? Make a plan. P.S.: If self isolating at home is not possible or unsafe – know at least L.A. County has resources.

Move. Exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. Keep your lungs active. Breathing meditations are great. So is walking, dancing, yoga, biking, swimming, cleaning house, drumming, anything to move and work your lungs.

Eat Healthy. Check with your grandma (or a nutritionist) about old-school healthy food choices to build your immune system. Choices like honey tea (T/U Damian – my brother), homemade chicken soup, greens (really good reason to start a garden) and fresh fruits, nuts, etc. Also stay hydrated with water, herbal teas, melons, . . .  Reduce foods that cause mucus build-up like dairy products. Black Women For Wellness has great resources (https://www.bwwla.org/v2019/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Herbalism-2_compressed.pdf) and there are many IG gurus who can offer suggestions- but I would start with Grandma.

Rest. Make sure you are getting enough restful sleep. Also if you are tired during the day, figure out a way to pause and rejuvenate. Naps may not be practical – although if working from home a 20 min. snooze may help- so look into meditations, walks outside, coloring, calls with a good friend, anything to turn off the mind. You want your body in the best fighting position for you.

Don’t push through. This was a hard one for me. Even before I was trying to let go but would become critical of myself for not doing enough and would start packing my schedule with calls and Zoom events. Now, I have no choice. I have to conserve energy so before each task, I ask – will this bring me joy? If not, for now I ignore, send a little email back declining, or setting up follow through for a future date. Now is not the time for 60 hour work weeks, 10 back-to-back Zoom meetings, and other “activity” of distraction to present being busy or significant in this time. Our performance culture has to end- it is stopping us from the rest and deep work we need to be doing. Find ways to resist and set boundaries. Honor your spirit and your body. They will be you BEST defense to push back against this virus.

This virus impacts everyone differently. It shows up and then shapeshifts. Even when you “get it” you are not immune to a re-infection. It has invaded all aspects of our life. Yet we have power over it, especially when we address it collectively, all doing our part.

                               Stay well. Keep your joy. Act with purpose. Lead with love.                

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The Mothers: The lining of the World’s Womb; the caretakers of the World’s Soul

ADOrduna

Such as nature loves to hide, I imagine the Yoruba (Nigeria, West Africa) goddess Oshún hiding in a palm grove with her back to the sea as the newly birthed American Navy enters the waters of Cuba for the first time during the 19th Century. Inspired by the Monroe Doctrine to take what is seen, I can hear Oshún laugh looking in her golden mirror as she watches the sailors fight the currents to come ashore with determination in their eyes. Oh, who is this now, she must think after being subjected to the barbaric grasp of the Spanish for over 300 hundred years and several flirtatious attempts for her attention by the British. For fun she spins around and approaches them singing her own praise songs as she bewitches them with the shaking of her sultry hips to the intoxicating rhythm of the batá drum, and the sneak peeks of her firm breasts that poke through the layers of gold and brass necklaces that adorn her neck and arms. Spellbound they fall into the honey grasp of her hands, temporarily forgetting their mission to cultivate the wildness of nature. Oshún laughs pleased that she has shown the animation of this place that they thought was full of dead matter. (Class paper – Yeye Oshún: African archetypes in discovering the anima of the new world’s soul, April 26, 2013)

People laugh – or are offended – at me when I say Coronavirus is the spiritual agent of a Black Mother scorned, like flying beetles rising out of the bow of the earth to seek revenge on human culture that has treated her and the totality of her beings as dead matter without soul. Throughout history she has sent warnings to the current civilization of when humans were out of alignment and too indulging beyond the borders of their plentiful harvests – floods, earthquakes, fires, tsunamis, deadly viruses, sexual disease, child mortality, etc. – and in many situations humans adjusted. But now we have a feral human species that arrogantly believes through technology we are smarter than nature; than God, and the feminine energy that rules the earth domain. And now we are experiencing an explosion of human consciousness uprising.

Right before quarantine – the social conversation centered on war of words, will and action regarding the inclusion of people experiencing homelessness into “our neighborhoods.” Even with the outbreak of Coronavirus – people were risking catching the disease by coming out of their homes- unmasked – truthful in how they felt and whom they were – to protest hotels that wanted to participate in Project RoomKey. Even to this day, people experiencing homelessness –especially unsheltered, have a lower infection rate due to their segregation from society. People experiencing homelessness –like Black Americans in our collective imagination – have been the projected scapegoat of inter-generational wounds metastasizing in the American psyche. They were/are so hated and feared because as long as we could encased them as a banished people- the other – we feel of meaning, of success defined by American masculine capitalists’ norms.

How enslavement spread through racism

The irony is that this need of acceptance and holding onto status on the chain of American hierarchy is our collective slave chain. It is the hook that shackles our pursuit of mental liberation to manifest our spiritual destinies and fulfill our hearts desire by doing what brings us pleasure. We so want to please the invisible gatekeeper whom we empower to deal the hands of fate verse our own fierce, smart, powerful personal heads- Oris, higher consciousness.  We believe that as long as we hold certain position, title, class membership, zip code, education pedigree, hairstyle, body-weight, speaking tones – the Joker will allow us to be. This is American Capitalism’s greatest illusion.

This time of anarchy – of uprising – of discomfort is shattering the glass that upholds the United States House of Cards and reflects the artificial social construct where skin color and places of natural origin – not class even if you are white and born into poverty – that has scaled up White privilege on the necks of everyone else. These roots run deep. They are entrenched into the American soil over a layering of five hundred years.

Like a five year old who dreams of being a super hero, the wounded European entered this land seeking revenge and power to overcome the shame of his Dark Ages, the bastardization of his culture through the spreading of the Caucasoid slave trade and African invasions, the permanent class structure that supported monarchies on the beaten backs of even the most intelligent and ambitious persons, and the limitations on innovating new religious thoughts. Dressed in a man’s body, this five year old traveled the seas to prove his greatness to all who doubted him, reifying his insecurities and projecting them onto the people of a land new to him and where he arrogantly slaughtered and enslaved so he could not be king. When that no longer filled his hording desires, he then raped the West Coast of African and stole communities to sell into the borders of his fantasized New World. And when those subjected to his cruelty “screamed” – as did the burning body hoisted into a tree in a communal sacrificial lynching ceremony  in James Baldwin’s Go Tell it To the Man– our male-boy laughs and sadistically smiles as human torture has become his reflection of power.

This inner fragmentation of the early White settlers/conquerors/looters/thugs – has now crystalized into bacterial form or a gene mutation that poisons the minds of the collective. It is the brain disease that kills the feminine found inside healthy men and women alike – similarly to how crack cocaine and methamphetamine kills brain cells and certain functions of the human mind. It is a disease that splinters the human family and justifies the dehumanization and segregation of those of us who do not fit the imagio in the psyche of an engendered archetype of a festering, walking oozing wound of toxic masculinity finding hosts in wounded and insecure souls – many of whom, but not all – are men attached to whiteness found in wolf packs for power and whom use weapons to sexually perform, to ejaculate.

She who screams and calls for change

As a real maternal energy of the earth – not the Marion images of patriarchal religions- but the creating mother who holds life and death in her hands– another of her special children were sacrificed to demonstrate her displeasement with what we call “normal”. As a captive audience she hosted the perfect performance for us to see, to feel, to experience the slow dying that is happening each and every 8 mins and 46 seconds across this country and this world.  Mother has had enough and now must be appeased.

So out of the mouth of babes, comes truth to power. Out of the bodies of youth – comes a willingness to sacrifice their health (in the spread of COVID) if not their lives, to fight for a future that allows them to exist without the constraints of imprisoning structures or oppression based on skin color instead of the content of our character. The universal police are checking the man-created police force whose job is to maintain the current social structure. And children are tugging on their Mothers’ bosoms asking why do they support such structures. And I am sure male-childs attached to whiteness are like deer in headlights, confused as they were already stunned by the rising “(eco)(woman)feminism and Me too conversation.” Now their power of race is questioned.

Where do we go from here?

All created in a mother’s womb, all living in the womb of the earth- we all have a responsibility to be caretakers of the World’s Soul and she is deeply wounded.

We all have a role and must continue to call for the dismantlement of structures and institutions constructed as gatekeepers of systemic racism. The roulette machines that privilege the 1% while keeping the 99% striving to achieve – staying one notch above the one below and using skin color as a justifying factor. This includes transformative change to our dependence and current structuring in our expectations around policing, housing, education, physical healthcare, behavioral health, gender, nation-state, familial and other institutional agents of the disease of racism. Start in your own workplace understanding complicity in your situation. Look at your leadership, your customers, your suppliers and consultants, look at your founder, the neighborhood you are located in to help identify and begin brave conversations of change.

We must re-engage the ancestors of our past. For white readers – it is not okay to use an excuse that your family history is too painful to study – trust me we know – our family history is made up of that pain and we look back anyway to heal. Instead we all must accept responsibility that few of us have actually studied our own family lineages. We may decorate the front door for Dia de Los Muertos or we may recite stories sold in a history book to project our pain or reason our circumstances, but few and far between know the names going back seven generations. This is our responsibility to appease the Mothers and begin healing the broken bones of humanity. Trace your privilege. If you are living in the United States, in California, in Los Angeles right now – you are more privileged than you know- be honest and trace how that happened. Start sketching a family tree of names and events.

Finally, we must bring in joy to tolerate working through the pain. Dialogues, writing, poetry, visual arts, yoga, dance, music, Blues singing – bring in the joy to WORK THROUGH the pain. We- collectively- are not immune from doing “Our Work” (personal communication with Iya Sobande Greer) Osun/Oshun is the deity of joy- she brings this manifestation through abundance and wealth as medicine to create self-love and functioning structure of humanity. She is the one over the Mothers and she is handing us a mirror to see who we are.

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White Out ‘A reflective prompt to check Whiteness in the shadow of Black rage’

ADOrduna

I am just curious from my friends who identify as white – where is all of this sitting within you? What is it about this moment that is activating you when there was so much silence in 2014-2016? If you voted from Trump or marched against him, are you participating in the manifestations happening today?

March for Justice for Ezell Ford, Los Angeles, CA 2014

Is your grief over George Floyd or the loss of your property? Have you been honest and thanked God for the privileges that you have had to date at the hourly sacrifice in the loss of Black lives?

Not in my back yard now . . .
Not in my back yard then.

While I appreciate former president George Bush’s words of “listening” to African Americans in this moment – I disagree in the sense that racism has ALWAYS been a conversation between white men with material and lethal effects on everyone else. So instead of listening to Black folks- are you using this time to turn inwards to your own communities? Are you hosting conversations with each other about how this form of hatred has been able to fester in your hearts across generations and projected on the world for nearly 500 years? Even as this hate originated through your own hurts and wounds by the brutality of warring factions in Europe. It is one thing to be socially cool and post some statement of Black lives mattering on SM and your website – but are you having the tough conversations with your parents, faith communities, children, neighbors? Have you asked a fellow white person – how are you feeling? How is this impacting you (not only your Black friends and staff)?

I appreciate you standing up. But if you are still standing from a place of Saviorship and not your own personal power of healing and redemption; standing from a place of hiding in the crowd but not want to socially be seen; from a place where you and your ego are still in the center and unable to rise up out of your own comfort to stand in a place of discomfort, unknowing, and dis-ease – I ask that you please don’t stand.

I am in my own minority with my community on this one – but I DO NOT want you to read Malcolm and Martin and Angela and bell and other hero/warriors that have helped me stand tall each day even when the fly swatter of white supremacy tries to swing me down in the most minute micro-aggressive action or overt expression of hate.

Instead – I request that you have a “White Out” and read White Fragility, White Rage, The Invisible Empire, Noted on the State of Virginia, The Strange Career of Jim Crow, Expansion and American Indian Policy, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, The Half Has Never Been Told, Slavery By Another Name, Troubling the Waters, and Without Sanctuary. Re-watch Birth of A Nation, Happy Days, Father Knows Best and John Wayne Cowboy films with critical eyes created by what you have witnessed and experience today.

Episode of Happy Days

I want to trust you but history –events that happened up to an hour ago – is making that hard. Too often your response to our pain and outrage is simply a soundbite, blood on your door to be passed by, an H.R. check box, an IG screenshot, or misplaced guilt.

I need you to get educated, to see for the first time how deep white supremacy is embedded in the culture that we live and breathe everyday so that when we talk about dismantling systems, you understand what we mean and that we are not going away on June 9th with the burial of our beloved George Floyd.

California Highway Patrol Office Daniel Andrew punching Marlene Pinnock, a woman living with mental illness and who was experiencing homelessness, Los Angeles, CA July 1, 2014

I arrogantly want assurance that just as you have placed your privilege on the concrete this week through massive demonstrations – you place your true being into position to feel a response when you read the text of intentional policy formations that are creating the fatal outcomes of today. Racism is not biological. It is constructed into the minds of men as a form of social control and justification to horde global resources.

I need for you to start speaking to how these policies have impacted you and what measurements from a place of whiteness will be changed in the transition to a more equitable world so that we minimize loses and maximize gain.

I need you to start co-creating new language that does not define people in approximation to you, but based on our common humanity and sharing of this one planet (for now).

I need, I need, I need to know what is your commitment to the co-creation of a new world order that is fair and just for all – even when we “return” to work post-COVID.

I love but am tired of being emotionally rape under the banner of solidarity. I am grateful to be alive, but have too many scars and angst from white fragility responses when you are silent in everyday settings. In speaking up, you may lost friends, but we lost lives.

I am truly praying that we are all rising up to meet this moment through unearthing the limiting beliefs that have stunted the growth of our nation and breathing out the readiness of a new field of consciousness for planting heirloom seeds so future generations can “be” and not simply tolerated.

To me this is the real work. Are you with me?

In love, light, freedom, and liberation.

Uncategorized

An Open Letter to U.S. Mayors

ADOrduna

Dear  Mayors:

Communities in pain do not need a police state composed of National Guard and multi-jurisdictions of law enforcement to facilitate the grief process after witnessing a public execution in the middle of the town square.

Black people are in pain nationally/internationally. Our spirituality connects us so that when one of us is harmed, we literally feel the pain in our chests, our breasts, our heads, our hearts.

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We are in pain not just because of George Floyd, but still in the rawness of grief over the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbrey, Atatiana Jefferson. Heck I am still grieving the loss of Nipsey. Some are still grieving Kobe. Two public figures who gave our community hope. We are hurting. And yes, contrary to popular belief, we feel pain.

We are at the same time grieving the tragic loss of so many African Americans due to COVID-19. We are grieving the deaths of friends who we just saw smiling as Mardi Gras, nieces and nephews who worked at the grocery store, the pregnant mom who was a nurse, the neighborhood bus driver who safely took us to work each day, or a family friend who worked at meat packing plant. We grieve a parent who lived at a nursing home or the first responder uncle who lacked PPE aiding others.

Instead of reallocating resources to safeguard the health and welfare as numbers of the great racial disparity come out, we are being told to go back to work in unsanitary and unsafe conditions to have stakes to grill this summer, address the health of those who choose not to wear a mask, and replace unemployment with minimum wage jobs.

Coronavirus is a Trojan horse that grasped our attention. Entering into “stage 2 and 3 of re-opening”, we are given an opportunity to face historic inequities and make them right. All of these deaths are at the hands of racism – a state sanctioned strategy weaponized to control placement of the Black body as bio-fuel for the national economy and white privilege.

#BlackLivesMatter posted on SM walls by allies cannot describe this pain. #HealYourHate and #StopKilling may be a little closer.

Right now, our communities need support to heal. We don’t need criticism. We need reallocation of new funding designated for law enforcement and the National Guard to be redistributed to communities for local based solutions that provide living wage jobs, adequate healthcare, land for community gardens and changes in zoning law to allow live animals for affordable access to food.

We need medical reimbursement for art spaces and community centers to incorporate mental wellness and building positive self-esteem. We need to subsidize social enterprises that provide jobs, skill training, and community benefits. We need equitable funding for Black-led organizations and increased funding for community interventionist programs to name a few.

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We need adequate infrastructure investment to upgrade wi-fi networks, increase electrical loads, take the lead out of water lines, unplug sewer lines, mitigate air pollution, and expand greenspace for socialization and respite.

We need flexibility in developing an education curriculum that validates life and offers a comprehensive view of history beyond being taught that we were slaves as if this is all that we can rise to.

We need housing and land ownership to experience a sense of permanency and stake to build community.

We need space and time for our elders, community healers, spiritual leaders, activists, business owners, and other indigenous crisis response network members to gather us and let us grieve safely.

And in this process of healing, we need humility to reach out to our Native American and Mexican American (remember Texas to California was Mexico until around the 1850’s) Brothers and Sisters and sit in a Council of Elders to acknowledge their ownership of this land and ask permission to leverage time, blood, and sweat invested to-date to co-exist here into the future.

Meanwhile – you all can focus on gathering your staff, departments, and non-Black communities in dialogue, anti-Black bias training, and others means to heal anti-black sentiment that leads to acts of hate and decisions that kill black bodies.

Resmaa Menakem stated: “White fragility is a lie, a dodge, a myth, and a form of denial. White Americans can create culture that confronts and dismantles white body supremacy. Any suggestion that they are unable to rise to this challenge is a lie. White Americans are anything but helpless or fragile. They are (of course) precisely as capable as other human beings. But the need to refuse to doge the responsibility of confronting white body supremacy- or the responsibility of growing up.” (My Grandmother’s Hands)

Similar to Minneapolis, Los Angeles is home to a rainbow of races, ethnicities, and identities, however anti-Blackness condoned by a majority white culture has permeated the psyche of all. We need the Latinx, LGBQTI, Middle Eastern, Persian, Asian American, Jewish Americans, Korean American, Feminist, Indian, African, Caribbean, Cuban Lucumi, Mexican, Central American, + communities to address anti-Blackness biases within. The People of Color banner is not protecting us.

We stand in solidarity, but it is important to awaken (you can’t be woke until you have awakened) and heal the embodied anti-Blackness conditioned through American culture that creates behaviors and decision-making that kills us and creates mistrust and tensions between our communities. There are many good organizations who can help you lead this anti-racist work- engage them.

As Mayors your role must change from safeguarding the interests of elite empowered by their monetary wealth and be more collaborative with community calling for Council of Elders to build environments that allow all to rise  and harness the collective power of community regardless of race, income, identity. This is the only sustainable way to reshape America in a post-COVID reality. Healed and Awakened, we can then truly walk in unity, and together birth the nation where we all can “Be” safely in our divine space on Mother Earth.

Thank you Mayors for your attention!

Sincerely,

The seed my great grandparents planted.

32128_1295531995237_2171182_n#OneLove #OnePlanet #HealHate #StopKillingUs

Cultural Citizenship, Uncategorized

Online Communities: Lovemaking of Ogun & Oṣun under the covers of Quarantine

ADOrduna

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[Writer’s drawing – 2014]

Now that I have your attention:

I know I am so, so late to the online game, but one blessing of quarantine for which I am grateful has been the creativity blossoming around the use of technology for social connection, network and community building, knowledge sharing, and building of an alternative economic system.

In my world of the imaginary we are in a time when Ogun (the energy of metal, technology, implementation of creations through a clear path) is collaborating harmoniously with Oṣun (the energy of creation, fertility, humanity)  to open new pathways for the upliftment of humanity and bring us into a new state of being of planetary citizenship. A time where it is possible to align the energies of the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine to usher in a time of peace and end (at least temporarily) the war between men and women.

Platforms like Zoom, Blue Jeans, MicroSoft Teams, Google Classrooms, Slack – existed pre-CoVID as well as SM such as FB, IG,- maybe not Tik Toc – but these apps were associated with class, access, and for the most part applied as transactionary tools to support corporate and individual agenda building. A masculine approach of business that placed profit over people, soul, and community.

Now these platforms are being transformed into builders of mutual aid networks, dialogical spaces to raise the vibration above current news talk, learning and exchanging ideas, creating respite spaces for healing and mental wellness, and generating income.

They are creating a counter-economy where indigenous knowledge (that created outside of formal institutions through storytelling and sharing among family or one’s personal lived experience and research) is honored, respected, and paid for.

While we still have to go through the intermediary of a Comcast, Spectrum Verizon, etc. – we can tap into the wisdom of the giver of knowledge directly, and compensate them for their sharing – creating a new flow of wealth based on the value of reciprocity and mutual aid verse exploitation and greed. Also valuing sustainability through creating virtual networks that exchange and recycle material goods locally instead of buying from around the world. In essence conjuring the vibration and formation of Beloved Communities.

Not all content producers are a part of this emerging movement, yet with intention and discernment, one can find one’s own tribe or community or movement, to flow into for support in the birthing of one’s own ideas and manifestations.

I am amazed that in the past week alone, where for example, I participated in the following events:

  • Presented remarks on the Divine Feminine Church of Ocean Park, a non-denominational church community, in collaboration for the first time with friend/mentor Queen Leia Lewis (Iya Oriade) creator and founder of Beautiful and Sacred Things (beautifulandsacredthings.com). She lives in Shreveport, Louisiana and I and the church are in the Los Angeles area ;
  • Witnessed my Pacifica Graduate Institute classmate Themis Dela Pena Wing present her oral defense and receive conferment of her doctorate, joined by friends and family from Brasil, Spain, Mexico, and the United States;
  • Participated in a global call with 1 Million women with over 600 participants from around the world championing climate change and the need to direct over $2 trillion in economic recovery funds to be distributed by nations to a sustainable agenda;
  • Tuned into New Moon messaging from a spiritual mentor and astrologist Iya Tirra Omilade of Goddess Body Mind Spirit (goddessbodymindspirit.com);
  • Attended a virtual Urban Voices Project Board Meeting to discuss how to enrich our community sings and other music wellness programs to better reach persons in permanent supportive housing and other independent housing settings through technology as a supportive tool for housing retention, socialization, and mental wellness. (https://urbanvoicesproject.org/);
  • With a few tech difficulties, saw my nearly 80 year old father light up as my siblings and I connected over Zoom (although not sure about doing this EVERY week 🙂 );
  • Had my first class with Yeye Luisah Teish on the Orisa Aje to learn how to cultivate a divine relationship with money and redefine the meaning of abundance. Participants were from across the country and Canada;
  • Watched the replay of Dr. Funlayo’s ADRSA 2020: Wind & Fire Conference on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-1pnjpvWA) and was so blessed by the stories of the Ifa and Orisa tradition as it has evolved across the Diaspora, loved being able to stop and replay deep drops of knowledge, and still felt the ase through the screen when words touched soul. So excited to reciprocate this receiving of knowledge by supporting the vendors she highlighted and by taking upcoming classes in her online series through Ase Ire Communiversity (https://aseire.com/) ;
  • Logged into Kimberly Miguel Mullen’s Virtual Dance Studio that offers stretch and Orisa dance movement classes on-demand which best fits with my writing and research schedule. However there are many online dance and movement classes including Extra Ancestral, Dancing Diaspora, and with the amazing and kind Kati Hernandez – all are on IG;
  • Connected with an author Lilth Dorsey whose new  book “Orishas, Goddesses, and Voodoo Queens- The Divine Feminine in the African Religious Traditions” I just read and enjoyed;
  • Learned of a local maker of Afro-Centric headwraps and masks from my friend Rufiena Jones’ “impromptu” photo shoot on IG and able to order online – supporting a small business in my own zip code and one who is providing academic scholarships to neighborhood children; and
  • Now listening to an Africadelic’s musical highlights with plans to watch the replay of my Ibeji’s Iya Dr. Monica Coleman’s Octavia Butler series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyLsqaFjl44) during an afternoon break.

 

Instead of being drained or distracted, or even feeling like a “Zommbie” – I am feeling determined, fierce, focused, and energized. I have felt empowered to say no or decline invites that give me angst. It is not that these are bad, they may not be for me “right now” or may be at a vibrational level of attachment to a model that I intentionally chose to release to stop weighing me down. Still working on the feelings of guilt, part of the growth process. And values clarification keeps ringing as a common theme of this time, so take a moment and have an honest conversation about what are your values. Don’t judge, just tune in.

Attending the conversations that bring joy, I am just so in awe of the teachers emerging during this time from my 5 year old nephew who is teaching me the importance of marriage to my 10 year old nephew  teaching me about Tik Toc and how he sees his world, to experiencing the gifts and talents of friends who are teaching their joys from gardening to cooking to yoga; to having access to community Elders without intermediaries or interpretations of their work, and being able to compensate and acknowledge their wisdom in the moment.

I guess you could say there has been a democratization of knowledge sharing and a knitting or linkages of sharing that deepen connection. Anyone can post a DIY You Tube video, or entertainment video, but at least what I am tapping into is witnessing collaboration and new institution/ movement building that is shifting mindset.

It reminds me of the practice of African Tradition Religions. While there is structural hierarchy, it is circular where no one person can practice alone or the tradition will die. The traditions live through the community coming together to transform ordinary places into sacred spaces where everyone can bring their gift to make ritual happen. You need people to set up the tools, share the lecture, sing, dance, drum, welcome people, cook the food, feed the orisa, clean up and dispose of the instruments used properly, do the ebo, etc. I am seeing this same practice of generosity, reciprocity, and humility online and it is so empowering.

A few weeks ago my Iyanifa Fayomi Osundoyin Egbeyemi reminded, okay no told me, to go back and review the commitment I made when I initiated into the mysteries of Osun/Obatala. What was the promise I made? What was the promise I made in heaven on coming to this earth? Reclaim it and use this time to realign as the best guide in navigating through this opening of a transforming world.

Quarantine overall has been a deep time for this level of personal reflection to assess where do I want to be in six months, nine months, 18 months; and calling forth from the universe the road(s) that supports the necessary action steps to get there.

We were in an unsustainable time when our behaviors threatened the livelihood of human existence on the planet. We have be given a time of reset, a pregnant pause to sit still and re-imagine what wasn’t working with the individual and collective power of conscious choice to go back or use this time to innovate new ideas to make humanity functional once again.

The title of this work is a play off of a story told in different versions throughout the Diaspora between the qualities of Yoruba deities Osun and Ogun coming together. Summarizing, in a state of drunkenness Ogun killed many towns people. Out of shame, he retreated to his home in the woods and withdrew his power, hoarding his tools from the town he almost destroyed. The townspeople recognized that despite his transgression, he was a member of the community and his skills and tools and energy were needed to sustain and grow. How could one farm without a hoe, how could one walk their path without Ogun to clear away their enemies?

They needed Ogun, but in a functional form that respected his own talents and gifts and would be committed to sharing in reciprocity with the community and earth. After attempts to coax him out of his home failed, Osun agreed to give it a try. She adorned her body in honey and with her brass bracelets and sweet melodic voice, called his attention, enticing him out of his home. On the road near the river banks, they made love, bringing sweetness to his roughness, bringing him back into community, and honoring the good things his presence brought to clear pathways for the creation of wholeness. In essence, bring back balance.

Let simple minds return to “normal” of rugged individualism that does not mind killing and stepping over others as part of the process of material accumulation. Yet let creative, innovative, brilliant minds ask themselves, “why you are on this planet in this moment of time?” What idea have you been holding back on out of fear, scarcity, lack? If you were told the Universe/God is giving you permission to be reborn in the image of your ideal self, what would you do differently? What are you waiting for? and make a commitment to do your work to help us all create a new way of being.

Now is the time to find your community, claim your sense of belonging, put your idea and thoughts out into the world (while you literally have the whole world’s undivided attention), and trust your internal wisdom. You don’t do this alone, but with the support of trusted elders and embracement of the community of family, friends, and strangers that have been searching for you. The real you. The authentic you. As more than one Iya has recently stated – TRUST!

In the meantime, let’s advocate to incorporate free wi-fi (guess cable no longer exist) as a basic and essential utility in all housing units, give free lap tops or tablets to school children like the distribution of books, and SMART phones with quality data packages as a social benefit distributed by either government or philanthropy to seniors, people experiencing homelessness, and other economically marginalized groups. Let’s also uplift small businesses and ensure they have the technology needed for e-commerce, distribution and delivery, and e-marketing.

Thank you for reading. Gotta go and DO MY WORK!!!! Blessings!

Race, Uncategorized

Measuring the impact of whiteness on the spread of COVID-19

ADOrduna

On a Zoom call hosted by a mainstream national organization about COVID and a racial analysis on the impact of Black people experiencing homelessness. I can’t. I have to be honest, when Black people are contracting this disease as essential workers in the “reopening of America” and disproportionately dying from underlying health conditions brought on by unequal access to healthcare, this is not the time to intellectualize racism.

It is simple. Racism sucks. it kills. It is destructive. It is anti-feminine and woman. It is anti-LGBQI. It is anti-Trans. It is anti-Black. While it oppresses other groups, it creates a hierarchy of difference with Blacks and Native Americans interchanging on the bottom of a social pyramid and creates disproportionate impacts of annihilation across outcome measures. It goes against nature. It is the greatest threat to humanity and the planet.

I know this and I live this and I am not tired. I am pissed off. I am angry. I am collecting names. I am ready to fight but proceeding cautiously as this is the vibration this negative energy is conjuring and therefore I RESIST. Yet, I am also fervently praying for a spiritual response with self-protection and guidance so I don’t go too deep in creating a debt I won’t be able to deliver as the ceremony the night before the Haitian Liberation is deep in my mind and on my tongue. I am fire. I am calling on all the words of my spiritual teachers and spirit guides to transmute this ever-present yet rising rage into creativity so I use my gifts to design the fair and just world I seek. No matter how provoked, I will not destroy Earth or humanity to aid in the goal of my enemies. I honor this struggle the universe has placed me in.

So today, I don’t want to hear any more data on Black people and the rate of death caused by White patriarchal supremacy. The only data I want to hear are metrics on the impact of Whiteness and the contribution to an unstable, ill, collective consciousness currently being fueled even greater as people are at home “socializing” on the internet.

I need metrics that redefine the social determinates of health – not based on variance from an ideal society centered on whiteness, but add meaning to the psychic pain level if the illusionary mirror of white privilege were cracked; to know how much space and time you will need at that true moment of eruption when the Mothers upholding this planet have truly had enough and the false mirrors are broken.

I need metrics that measure the pain of disconnection from soul because you have been conditioned to believe that spirit and soul are feminine compared to the masculinity of reason; to understand how you value love and your own sense of belonging.

I need metrics that measure the degree of hatred toward your mother because she was born in the image of sin, and the variance of her being from God and the amount of value of the women in your life, including how you value your own divine feminine if you are a white woman; to understand how you value the principle of creation and your motives to continually attack the womb.

I need metrics of your anxiety and fear of erasure to understand how much my presence consumes your thoughts and influences your compulsive actions like killing while jogging Black; to understand the length of this quarantine from the untreated disease you shed that kills me.

I need a measure of your intelligence as you think that the symbolic “re-opening of America” (as if it ever really closed) is going to increase the wealth of you and your household; to understand the level of your comfort in being an economic slave.

I need a metric that rates your investment in your whiteness- the value of your membership in a socially constructed identity- over your freedom as a human being; to understand your value in your relationship with God (If God made you great, what do you then fear and why do you have to work so hard?)

I need metrics on the destruction of whiteness to calculate how much longer we all have here on Mother Earth; to understand the time I have to create a vaccine against Whiteness to breathe. To breathe. To breathe.

To be clear, these metrics are not just for white people, but for anyone and everyone who is conditioned in whiteness. As Queen Leia said – how do we use this quarantine to understand all of what we have been exposed to that does not serve our well-being.

Therefore:

I don’t dwell alone – I live in community.

I don’t dwell in fear – I live in hope.

I don’t dwell in debt – I live in promise

I don’t dwell in the “OR” – I live in the wholeness

I don’t dwell in hate – I live in love.

I don’t dwell in race – I live in the gradual improvement of my character.

I’m working on the anger – to live in coolness

Breathe, breathe, breathe

May the Mothers of the Earth protect and guide us. Bring us together in ease. Heal. Renegotiate. Cultivate harmony to end the war of men and women.

earth on fire

Essay, Uncategorized

If Home isn’t safe, here are resources to help during Safer-At-Home mandates

ADOrduna

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Women and family advocates around the world are raising the alarm over the ever present threat of an increase in gender-based violence as people are asked to stay home to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19.

In the fight against the spread of Coronavirus, data shows promising results that social distancing may be flattening the curve and reducing the pace of new cases. This is good news and we must all continue to do our part in practicing social distancing and staying safer-at-home.

However, Safer-At-Home orders may unintentionally increase risk factors that prime household environments for violence and abuse. Forms of violence may include physical, sexual, stalking, psychological, emotional, coercion, and financial. Children, the elderly, pregnant women, and women living with mental or physical disabilities are at particular risk.

Why is there greater concern under COVID-19 Safer-at-Home Orders? Public health responses to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 has created a multiplier effect of known intimate partner risk factors  identified by the Center for Disease Control. These include job loss, overcrowded housing, food scarcity, increased alcohol consumption, and isolation from friends and other social supports.

The increased numbers of people in the households due to employees working remotely, massive job lay-offs, and closures of public facilities such as schools, libraries, and some parks have limited social movement and places outside of the home where individual household members can catch a break, gather their thoughts, socialize with non-household members.

The anxiety of an uncertain future has also permeated our collective consciousness so that many people are finding a hard time “turning off’ the news, social media, and other outlets – impacting their ability to breathe deeply, sleep, and find joy in the moment.  All of these conditions create a tinderbox inside of the home for acts of violence to increase.

There is hope.

Karen Earl, CEO of Jenesse Center, a domestic violence and human trafficking program serving the South Los Angeles community, confirmed that while providers have transitioned many services online, they are still open and ready to serve. Local philanthropist such as singer Rihanna, have also stepped up to donate to local COVID relief efforts to ensure those fleeing domestic violence have a safe place to go during this crisis.

If you or someone that you know may be in an unsafe home environment, here are some resources for help:

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799 SAFE

Los Angeles County: 1-800-978-3600

Teen Dating Hotline: 1-866-331-9474 or text “lovies”-22522

Los Angeles Rape and Battery Hotline:

213-626-3393 (Central Los Angeles)

310-392-8381 (South Los Angeles)

626-793-3385 (West San Gabriel)

Los Angeles Area Alcohol Anonymous Online Meetings

National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255

Self-care in isolation through the words through the survivor of household abuse: http://inthesetimes.com/article/22450/isolation-can-be-difficult-for-survivors-of-trauma-domestic-abuse

Wellbeing in isolation tips

thJOPHUUYN

*Adopted from a blog written for UN Women-USA, LA

Spirit of Place, Uncategorized

Sunday Praise Song to Olokun; Goddess of the Ocean

ADOrduna

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Olokun your beauty sits before me illuminating the reflection of the sun; rays penetrating your surface to nourish all of your treasures and encouraging them to grow.

Olokun your mirroring of the blue sky is so healing, your liquid skin from this vantage point so smooth.

Olokun you call my soul. I feel it stirring in my sacral womb and spiraling up and out my heart.

Olokun you are quiet, save the roar of your breath blowing on the shore as waves, yet the heartbeat of your belly, the heartbeat of the ancestors’ bones resting on your floor- vibrate in a rhythmic beat that I can hear and beacons me.

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Olokun, I wish I could remember how to fly. If I could fly, I would soar over the valley and come to you, ready to dance on your glistening surface. Dance in sync with your heartbeat; the heartbeat of humanity; the dance of the rainbow warrior goddess.

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Cultural Citizenship, Homelessness, Spirit of Place, Uncategorized

Bloom where you are planted

ADOrduna

A missing component of the homelessness services delivery system is the integration of anti-racist healing interventions for survivors of trauma inflicted by inter-generational racism. In particularly systemic racism experienced by Black people experiencing homelessness that impacts recovery and establishment of a sense of belonging in newly housed spaces. Racial trauma often presents as mental illness in Black people, and perhaps it is if we consider racism a mental disease. hooks concept of a homeplace provides a framework of community based solutions that have existed in one form of another in thriving Black communities before the disruption created by the invasion of “luxury apartments” and gentrification.

Hooks described a homeplace as “the construction of a safe place where black people could affirm one another and by doing so heal many of the wounds inflicted by racist domination” (p. 42 – Yearning; race, gender and culture politics – 1990).

In 2014 inspired by hooks’ concept of homeplace and childhood memories of safe spaces I withdrew my nonprofit retirement savings and pre-paid a year’s lease for a storefront in downtown Inglewood. Like a magic seed, the storefront transformed into a literary arts cafe called Callie Rose Literary Arts or Callie Rose LA.

Theo's reading

Callie Rose is a nod to my great grandmother Callie whose husband worked at EE Hughes – Memphis Florist Company where he often brought home open roses at the end of the day. Great grandma Callie was the first generation to be born free from the institution of slavery. She would represent the transition of life as a citizen of this country and the mother who then birthed a line of advocates who would fight throughout their life to secure those citizenship rights from the right to vote, to creating a business, school integration, fair housing, etc.

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Through invoking my own family history, I wanted to lead by example in calling forth the memories of our grandparents and other honorable ancestors in a time when so many people are being uprooted and displaced through an invisible movement of containment and internment. So many people no longer know their grandparents, let alone great grandparents and thus believe they are whoever they come across tells them – verse knowing self from within. I believe this is an effect of systemic racism that devalues non-White culture and a symptom of this disease that can be eradicated with intention and safe spaces where such stories could be shared.

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A community building practitioner I wanted to create a homeplace, a safe community based space where people did not enter with deficiency labels such as mentally ill, homeless, re-entry, and other diagnosis. Ms. Jewel’s home, my former caretaker, became my inspiration.

Ms. Jewel was from Louisiana. Her white wooden home with a winding southern porch was on 39th Place off of Normandy. Inside the home one always heard a background soundtrack of soap operas like General Hospital and As the World Turns. And you always smelled food – mainly burning grease preparing bacon for a white-bread bacon sandwich or fried chicken dinner. Inside were many adults called Kin. You never knew how everyone knew each other, but to us children they were just “uncle” or “auntie” and anyone of them could spank you if you got sassy.

Outside on Ms. Jewel’s block you could see the Coliseum at one end. Across the street was a modern apartment building that stuck out on the block, but where two sisters lived who became my friends. Somehow back then, it was safe to play on the streets and neighbors did not have fences so we could run for days across many lawns with no chastisement. It was about time to go back inside when the produce and fish man came down the block announcing the specials of the day “ come get your waterrrrrrr-melon, peaches, collard greens” and the moms and grandmas came out with their carts to do their daily shopping. We would then have to go inside as dinner was prepared and the street would start to repopulate with folks coming home from work. The best memory was the candy house two doors down. When “Tee” the oldest grandson came home, he would take our rascal bunch over with our saved pennies to purchase tart apple styxs, lemon heads, candied mango with chili, and maybe a sour pickle.

In essence, Ms. Jewel’s home represented love, a sense of belonging, validation, safety, food, and hospitality. These were values that may family shared and values instilled within me that I bring to my work today as a community development practitioner with a special focus on addressing systemic causes of homelessness – including racialized land-use policies and attitudes.

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Callie Rose Literacy Arts became the manifestation of this value system. For a year, with the embracement of community members we hosted many dialogues and artistic forms to help people tap into their most authentic self through the literary arts. We hosted spoken word, book readings, films, yoga, drum circles, dinner conversations, writing classes, even genealogy. The cornerstone activity was a small stage that new guests had to stand on to introduce themselves. For many, it was the first time being seen. All of these elements achieved the goal of creating a space where people felt safe, welcomed, and that they could “be”.

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Youth from Inglewood High taught other youth chess. Parents dropped off their children for help with writing – leading to one 7 year old writing her first book on her family trip to Yosemite. We had people experiencing homelessness tutoring children after-school. I had parents with young adults living with severe mental illness leave their information in case their children came through our doors and in one case, the mom anonymously paid a stipend so her daughter could volunteer as it gave her peace of mind that her daughter had a safe place to go that she liked and was understood. Another mom of a severely medically fragile five year old often came in to allow him to play in the children’s corner where a volunteer worked with him so she could have a little break to read a book or take a nap. Callie Rose magically bloomed community where it was planted.

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Sadly I had to close Callie Rose in February 2015. I had run out of money and listened to the bad advice. I operated on a donation basis to sustain the value system that everyone was welcomed. Her presence was so great, I know I will reopen her again in the very near future with greater understanding of how to generate income and sponsorship. The experience taught me first-hand how cultural centers operated by cultural workers are a missing piece of our mental health and homelessness systems – particularly as a cultural informed means to have a greater impact on Black people. In cultural practices performed by Black people are not about “showing off” but about “showing in” – a total recall or mirror of one’s authentic self often made invisible or outright denied in greater society. In cultural spaces with Black expressive arts genres, Black being is not a projection to create whiteness – but an expression of a liberated form of the divine right to be.

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For these reasons to this day I strongly support indigenous Black cultural informed arts practices such as Urban Voices, Urban Possibility Storytelling, Skid Row Walk the Talk Parade, 3 on 3 Basketball at Gladys Park, Africa in the Americas Annual production, Vivir Brasil, FlowSkool, and so many unknown programs that are doing the work on food stamps, donations, and other sacrifices. Too many Black people are dying at the hands and consequences of the disease of racism and its spread through violence. These programs make a difference in the lives of Black people and non-Black people engaged and the greater community. My dream would be to allow these programs to be funded through mainstream services as part of all recovery programs – recovery with mental illness, substance use, and homelessness in particular. I will continue to advocate to make this change.

Today, I am heading out to Trieste, Italy with a large delegation in Los Angeles for a World Health Organization convening sponsored by the Forum Salute Mentale called ‘Good Practice Services: Promoting Human Rights & Recovery in Mental Health’. I am hoping to meet fellow advocates, consumers, and practitioners from around the world on their experience in implementing community based mental health services that support the integration of people with mental diseases and trauma verse criminalizing and isolating like we do in the States. The trip feels a little overwhelming, and yet at the same time I will be bringing a few Callie Rose seeds to plant into the conversation. I can’t wait to see what blooms.Logo2