Category: stories
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Keep this freedom gathering ‘
Memories of our gathering resurface every 2 years, around the 4th of July. You dressed in red, blue, white. We draped in orange wrappers and dark green blouses the color of evergreen leaves. Plus it’s as if we are both celebrating our independence, our freedom, only difference is that we free and you are not…
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Keep those who see the light and stars within!
Where do you begin a poem about women in light. At the same time how do you begin with those unafraid of the wind. Those that understand the essence of rain. Some women will make you grieve, others will help you release, yet some will remind you of how to reach the happiness within. Some…
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Keep the grace of scarves!
There is a picture of my grandmother that I return to often. It’s a black and white picture with a white scarf resting half way through her head. The colors of the scarves are locked in time for me, except that they seem white next to a head full of black hair. I return often…
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Keep these thoughts on writing.
Underneath skin, we pull each other in, and reveal things within. We explore edges, those without limits, those that discern boundaries within. Yet the boundaries, and the limits, the edges underneath skin, unfold moments where words are like the layers of cells beneath. The word was writing. The goal was to write about how I…
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Keep the joy of eating jollof rice together!
My jollof rice is joyful, so it’s heavenly taste with my people. Every Sunday afternoon is joyful. So the smiles of my people. Joyful also are our gathering. Joyful also are these memories with my people. I have been reading Braiding Sweetgrass and the idea of the holder and the braider reminded me of what…
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Keep all that makes you create!
I have been in class the past 4 weeks. It ended today hence my absence here. Ben Okri once shared that the most authentic thing about being human, is our ability to create. We can create, overcome what we create, endure as we create, transform what we create, love all we create, and still be…
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Keep the memories of LIGHT Year 3 and Rest in Peace, Dr. Ivis M. Richardson!
Our LIGHT festival just ended. I was supposed to close and inform people about the plans for next year. I didn’t. I couldn’t. Our last speaker, Christell Roach lost her grandmother, Dr Ivis M. Richardson yesterday. She could have cancelled, she could have called and told us about her death. We would have understood. My…
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Keep the 3rd annual LIGHT festival for the public by the public with public health!
When we started this three years ago, we imagined we would do as Audre Lorde’s once noted and bring a burst of light to public health. The world was in a pandemic, health was in a disarray, everything with the public was complex and messy and at that moment we knew that light was needed.…
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Keep Dr. H. Phillip Venable Memorial Park!
In a town called Creve Coeur lies a park that should have housed a home, that should have been full of black people jocking and jiving, singing or playing trumpets on Sunday afternoons long after a sermon at church. Dr. H. Phillip Venable, would have been sitting outside of his front porch, catching the breeze,…
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Keep things delicate!
The word was delicate. In a class assignment tonight (yes I am taking classes hence my absence here), I joined late but just in time to begin writing the first thoughts that came to mind with the word delicate. The assignment without using the word, tell a story, write a poem, do or say anything…
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Keep knowing that being fearless still with your funds are enough!
I am learning these days, that everything beautiful about the world we live in is enough. That’s what Toni Morrison would want us to remember. With the craziness of a day, even the crazy things we experience is enough. Like our fearless funds. Sometimes words too are not needed. No need to speak or share…
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Writing with Juliet Iwelunmor 