The Last Bath| The Slave River | Unearthing the Ancestral Sacred Wisdom....

Entering 2026, the year of 1 with a renewed commitment to my commitment.

I AM A COMMITMENT TO RADICAL SELF ACCEPTANCE, CREATIVE AUTHENTIC EXPRESSION, CLEAR AND GROUNDED DECISION MAKING AND UNEARTHING THE SACRED ANCESTRAL WISDOM THAT IS LODGED IN MY KNOWING ... IN SERVICE TO MYSELF SO THAT I CAN FULLY BE IN SERVICE TO THE COLLECTIVE.......

On the last day of Kwanzaa and the first day of the year, I must say that I have been embodying IMANI ( FAITH) : To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle with every subatomic particle in my body for the last 8 years however what happened in Ghana in September 2025 has hollowed me out and made room for a deeper commitment, a belief that has maturated into a soul based knowing, and and an assignment that I know was given to me centuries ago. IT ALL HAPPENED AT THE RIVER>>>

I was invited by the Mass Liberation Network to join 43 formerly incarcerated and directly impacted organizers on a spiritual quest to return & reclaim what was stolen but not lost. We spent weeks in a retrieval process. This was a cultural scavenger hunt to find the pieces of ourselves that had been scattered across the land, hidden in the villages, and buried in the native tongues of our relatives.

AT THE RIVER ( <<<<watch a clip here)

The Assin Manso Slave River Site served as the place where enslaved Africans had their last bath on African soil before being marched barefoot, chained together, 30 miles to the slave castles of Elmina and Cape Coast. How could I be there, smell the air, touch the soil, be cleansed by the murky waters of the river and not embody IMANI ? What happened to me there was not just a spiritual awakening. A portal was opened and I was snatched to an unfamiliar place that felt like the home my DNA has been longing for. We are more than our oppression or the products of our oppressors. We come from a bloodline so rich that the worlds most precious and valuable natural resources decided to form underneath our feet and allow us to be nurtured and nourished by its plenty. We walked bare foot so we were one with the land. You must know that the mineral resources, the ichor that travels through our veins, the diamonds that sparkle in our eyes, and the cocoa that is mixed with our Melanin is a gift to us from the land of which we come from.

IMANI ( FAITH) : To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

To believe in our the righteousness and victory of our struggles is to believe in our magic, our divinity, our holiness, our sacredness, our creativity.

REAL TIME REFLECTION

I felt chills run up the left side of my body as I crossed over the threshold. The African sun never let me forget its power. My throat instantly closed as my pores opened wider. The chills felt like gusts of wind, but the air was stagnant and thick. My curiosity danced through my mind in phases—curiosity, fear, then safety. Knowing that my entrance was also my ancestors’ last exit burned inside of me.

I stood there barefoot and bare soul. I closed my eyes so I could listen. The orator shared stories with me about me that I’d never heard before. His words felt like acupuncture needles strategically placed in areas of my body I didn’t know needed healing. The river we were about to enter began to flow through me at full speed.

I couldn’t stop the tears, and I didn’t want to. I know they weren’t mine alone. This was decades of weeping. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t find my breath. I couldn’t find myself. Who am I? Who is this? What is happening? Am I drowning? I can’t swim. My ancestors couldn’t either, but they still leaped. My knees buckle. Oh—I have legs. I want to fall, but who will catch me? And do I really want to be caught?

I look to my left, and there is Alex. My eyes ask the question my lips can’t. I collapsed in her arms and she let me. The loudest whisper I’ve ever heard says, “Build it, and they will come.”Build what? I hear myself say.

I HEARD

Build the container where art, spirituality, advocacy, and embodied organizing will ignite transformation. Build the space where cultural organizers, practitioners, artistic historians, artisans, storytellers, babies, and elders can heal, hear, and hurt. Where organizers can rest and revolt. Where ceremony and spaces to enrich the soul are the political apparatuses. Where folks can become undone and put back together. Where grief and anger exit the body cathartically through sound, somatics, rhythm, and tone. And all of this is not just tied to strategy. It is the strategy.

The combination of soil, ancestral presence, history, political education, and the transmission of oral traditions unlocked and dislodged something in me that was necessary for this next phase of my life and my work. I questioned if this was the right time to launch a project, and I heard loud and clear: YES MY ANCESTORS DID IT WITH LESS...

THIS IS IMANI IN ACTION...... what are you doing with your beliefs ?

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Since hearing those instructions 

• We have an official fiscal sponsorship agreement with Mama Scraps.

• We've Hosted Three listening sessions for cultural organizers : one virtual and two in person

• We've garnered interest from140 people and engaged with 100.

• We’ve been denied two grants, given a $500 donation, and had food and an event space sponsored by Too Much Sauce STL… 

LET ME END WITH A FEW WORDS YOU SOMETHING.......

If you want to know the end, look at the beginning ~ African Proverb

Your peace is a powerful part of your progress. The answers you seek are already within. Stillness is where your clarity speaks loudest. ~ African Proverb

Believed that a made-up mind diminishes fear and knowing what to do eliminates it. ~ Rosa Parks

But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. ~ Matthew 6:33

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. ~ Maya Angelou

I'm unlocked.. so if you see me and you feel the intense God adjacent energy emanating from my being than just know...... THAT I"VE BEEN UNEARTHING THE SACRED ANCESTRAL WISDOM THAT IS LODGED IN MY KNOWING ... IN SERVICE TO MYSELF SO THAT I CAN FULLY BE IN SERVICE TO THE COLLECTIVE.......