Saturday, August 15, 2015

AFRICAN TALES: the price paid

tattooed babe in a chair was all he saw and the only words out her mouth devalued what could have been the gold of her soul. Without the tutelage of soul and spirit a boy would never see the woman if he was taught about sex through the practice of gang rape. It is a troubling kind of mentality that reeks within the bodies of many young Black and Hispanic men across the United States. It is an ingrained process in many neighborhoods. It isn't mentioned in polite and wealthy circles, or the upper, or middle class neighborhoods. It should because many of the better educated families are losing the mentality of their sons to this notion of women as objects; as pussy for the taking.

Oblivious to the touch of opulence, and arrogance is the history of a people who have struggled to reshape family as an African people. But the centuries have not been kind, or favorable, or had merciful understanding of what was created within the souls of Black People fighting for survival and dignity. For complex reasons the 21st century is playing out a frightening story in African-American communities and Native American and Hispanic communities across the country. At the core of the dramas acting out in homes and on streets and in prisons the loss of the ability to ground one's self into the spiritual tradition of their ancestors through acts of terror fled the consciousness of the generation.

There are profound ways to shift consciousness, but there are employed actors in the game of terror that have effectively shut down the creative and magical process in children that makes adult mentorship programs too hard to assimilate into the culture of pain, and denial, and fear, and loss. There are words, powerful words that can shift direction and awaken the creative abilities to undo, to unlearn the craftsmanship of dying, and Death, but after thirty some years of attack upon the minds of colored peoples the words of say an Albert Einstein (1879-1955) are too abstract for a common mind to grasp.

Einstein said, "Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live."

There is a lot in there. There is a path to freedom in those words, but people holding on to their tragedies can't hear the deeper teachings that lead out and away from the crudeness. It is hard, and I understand. I also understand that should a Messiah come he would be automatically minimized by the nature of belief that dominates and oppresses the minds of the oppressed.

These are my words. I am Gregory E. Woods a Keeper of Stories.
8.30.13

Dreadlocked beauty of a Fierce woman is a reminder of the heritage, the strong lineage of holy people, mothers, warriors, inventors, strategists, fighters, fathers, philosophers, our ancestral knowledge, the artistic traditions of the soul of the various tribes we came from, and the genius of the spirit of who  we are and who we were as a People. Who we will become is the product of our thoughts, the depth and meaning of our intent, the breath of our ancestors, and our definitions of power, where we stand, and how we envision the futures. It is through our loins in the solitude of turmoil and the relieve of quieter times we can speak to our grandchildren's children.

This has always been our way of surviving, and living in the depth of the moments we have.

 - Alowan Chanteh Inyan Wichasha
8.3.13



tattooed bodies of 2 Black women with big assess was all he talked about. Graham never spoke of them by their names. "They was his bitches!" he claimed.

Little Mike was 12. Only twelve and he looked up to Graham without balanced questions. That was the shame of it and that was the end of it for Don. Don was a quiet man who lived by himself near where all the action took place in this part of South Chicago. He worked as a plummer on the Saturdays his dad needed help, but most of his money was made working for the city government, and his side jobs as a photographer. It was the photography gig that got him involved with Mark and Mike.

Don had taken some pictures of a fight near Mr. Lee's restaurant that sold handsomely to a couple of publications. But, during the development process of his film he noticed the two boys and the delight in their eyes watching Graham brutally beat a woman in front of her children. That stirred Don into rage and later action. He took time to find out about the two boys. Got to know some of their family members, and tried to build a friendship with the boys. It was too hard. Little Mike loved the street life, and was suspicious of Don's intention. He was afraid of him. Thought he was a fag of some sort. It was this perception of Mike's that got Don on Graham's target list. He didn't like what fags had done in his family.

That was two years before Mike shot Don in the head and was initiated into the gang that later turned him out when he tried to defend the life of a woman who used to baby sit him. The gang thought he was soft, and didn't, as they repeatedly said, "Didn't give a fuck!" about the woman. To them she had pussy to be taken, and everyone knew she had no Old Man, and no gang claimed her. She was a working stiff trying to make a living and get out duh 'hood. That's what Rodriquez said after his turn in her.

That was the comment that released Little Mike's rage, and got him shot in the head by his boys. That was the shot that rang out with the truth the neighborhood taught him to scorn and ignore. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8.30.13






"We should all start to live before we get too old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets." 
- Marilyn Monroe


Adriana Lima, international model


Cameron 5 



"There is always hope of redemption!! With breath there is Life. Within Life there is hope to remember and reclaim!" - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of the Drum

Teresa Ware Moody & her husband in church!!!!


Taraji P. Henson in a sequined pink & leopard Basler gown with plunging neckline is amongst the best of our best. Our best is not good enough until our best is not the exception. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 


No comments:

Post a Comment