This year I was invited by my friend, Paul Herring, to host the first night of Kwanzaa in my home town of Flint, Mi., which is a huge honor for me because Flint has been hosting Kwanzaa celebrations for over 20 years. For those who don't know about Kwanzaa, in a nut shell it is a week long celebration of African Heritage combining the history, culture, language, and principles of the African nations most affected by the trans-contential slave trade. Kwanzaa is very near and dear to me because I first learned about, and became involved with the cultural celebration through my cousin Vanessa when I was about 13 years old...Vanessa, who was like a sister to me, passed away when I was 16 and Kwanzaa is one of the many things that I do in her memory.
The first day of Kwanzaa is Umoja, which means Unity. Since I had about an hour of performance time I invited several fellow poets of different faiths and cultural background to come and share some work and personify the unity of our community. Then the Ice Storm of 2013 hit...lol...many of those who I invited were with out power for 4-5 days and had been displaced to hotels or the homes of family and friends so I didn't think anyone would show up. On top of the frigid weather conditions I felt like crap and didn't want to trek out in the cold, wet, icy tundra myself...but the show must go on...right? I figured there would be one person in the audience and we could make it a 5 minute private performance, but to my surprise and delight there was a wonderful, energetic crowd waiting to celebrate, and I was the entertainment!!!
The good Lord must have knew I needed help because he sent a full pot of coffee at the venue, and two beautiful sister/poet/warrior/queens to help push me through the night with their loving presence and beautiful energy. That pot of coffee, Phire and Hiba Dlewati helped fuel and focus me and in no time it was SHOWTIME!!!
While introducing my first poem I made the statement that basically as African-Americans (myself included) we want to view our history in a certain light that doesn't always tell the whole story. Yes we do come from Kings and Queens...but we also come from merchants, sheep herders, farmers, healers, architects, whores, alcoholics, thieves and killers as well, and that we should embrace the story of all of those ancestors. Which is the truth, every slave was not a royal or of royal blood, some of them were actually victims of those Kings and Queens we revere so heavily, and that is how they ended up in slavery in the first place (but that is a whole other blog!!!) Well in saying what I said, I unintentionally pissed of one of my elders. She wanted to debate and by some miracle change my mind about what I had said (obviously she had never talked to me or she would have known that she was wasting breath). I was not in the mood, but alas performance poetry is about interacting and connecting with your audience AND I was always taught to respect my elders. So I let her make her point, but reiterated that we must be real with ourselves and accept "us" for who we are. Our history doesn't have to be all Hollywood to be epic, because the fact that REGULAR people withstood the trials and tribulations of the middle passage and slavery IS EPIC! Our legacy doesn't stop at Cleopatra and Mansa Musa...our legacy is in our ability, as regular everyday people to persevere and turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
We went on to have a wonderful performance and beautiful fellowship with the crowd. Phire rocked it as she always does. She uses such beautiful i
magery in her writing, even when talking about the ugliest things!!! Hiba shared her story of being detained in Syria (twice), and of revolution and integrity. She has such a subtle, prowess about her that is amazing and humbling. It was such an honor to share the stage with such talented, powerful women...and it was an honor to be heckled by one as well. I hope that the elder sister, who didn't let up off of me for the rest of the night by the way, realizes that it was all love. Just because I didn't conform to her view of our history doesn't mean that we aren't on the same team...I believe that we fight the same fight, which is to be who we are, with pride and respect for whom we came from!!!
(and those 8 cups of coffee had me up all dang night)
