Blue skies topple As clouds shift into shadow hunters, Robing the sun’s reflection of the blood moon. Winds breath a stale stench of Deferred Dreams. As fog lingers in the arms of natures weave, Senescence slowly envelope youth as a snail dries out. Fleeting sanity into nothingness up empty pages. Wandering. Purposely seeking freedom in […]
Ever since the tragic death of Tragic death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, with every birthday that passes I take the time to reflect on the grieving families of those whose lost loved ones to the violent actions of state forces. On Martin’s birthday, just a day before mine, he would have been turning the […]
Representation is an important aspect of the society that one is apart of. If a person within a society feels misrepresented, it’s their duty to offer an alternative form of representation for themselves and others like them. Prior to the 17th century there were no Black news outlets in the United States. Meaning that although […]
Yesterday the Apple Promenade building was torn down, when I initially saw the video clip on Shelf Life’s Instagram page @shelf_life_stories, my heart dropped. Although I knew that the day was coming and that this was the day that the project had been preparing for initially inspiring activists to collect stories. Even then I couldn’t […]
This year’s national theme for Black History Month is “African Americans in Times of War”. The nation is called to reflect on Blacks contribution to American war on this year’s 100th anniversary of World War 1 (WW1). WW1 was fought in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The […]
FebruaryBlack History Month Series Why Do this This is my second year of Sawari’s Black History Month series. The series includes daily articles, poetry and other forms of writing recognizing important figures and themes surrounding Black history. I like to take advantage of these few weeks of the year as a time for education and […]
Imagine being wrongly convicted Accused of a crime you didn’t commit, blamed for a wrong you couldn’t even begin to reconcile. Now imagine being sentenced to death. Now ask yourself what’s the biggest mistake you can make in that position? In a country bent towards prosecuting you, simply because you’re worth more incarcerated than free, […]
I’ll never forget the name because I’ve been mistakenly called Imani more times than I can count. In Swahili Imani means faith while my name, Amani means Peace, both traits of which are compliments whose practice build our character. On this last day of Kwanzaa thinking about the principal of faith is the perfect way […]
Kuumba means Creativity Creativity is in our blood, we create as naturally as we breath. From music to clothing, businesses, inventions, hair styles, instruments and more; creativity is a part of our culture. During this sixth day of Kwanzaa I challenge each of us to tap into our creative spaces. Practicing our creativity clears the […]
Nia means Purpose On the fifth day we think about the principal of purpose which is popularly defined as, “To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.”Our traditional greatness is dependent on each of our individual greatness. In order to unlock each […]