1958-2018, A Reflection
June 20 |
People talk about 40 as if such age is an elixir from heaven anointing subjects as they move between 39 and 40. All of a sudden, nothing is what it seemed. The dolls are shelved and the oxford shoes are traded for pumps. Will the heels stay on when I run, girl-women ask themselves at 40. Not elders, but grown women now, the next twenty years kind of take on a rhythm in keeping with the stride one has learned to walk at 40.
And then 55 rolls around, 59, then 60. Hum. AARP has sent you a guest membership and the gray hair has old men standing when you board BART. I milk it and get discounts at theatres and Goodwill, Ross and anywhere else the gray-hair discount counts, like senior and student rush at theatres.
Ratna Ling June 2018 |
I do not have as much patience as I once had for grown people who choose to remain childlike.
Adults do not make pleasant children.
My Auntie Henrietta and Bill Jones (who died this July). We are at NASA in Mississippi a few years ago. |
Ratna Ling |
Sometimes we have to squeeze through some tight spaces. . . |
. . . we manage to get through it nonetheless. |
Something is stirring. |
KLM ranks a close second; staff were rude and bigoted. Once I got to Amsterdam, the trouble began. Well, really once Africans at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos State ceased to be in charge, and the white folks took over, that's where the trouble began. Colonialism at its worse. I wonder why African nations have to put up with economic paternalism. No Africans worked for KLM. I saw not one African in Amsterdam when I arrived, not one African was on board in any capacity.
Bagdary is the place where Chief Williams Abass Seriki returned home from being captured. |
Oṣun Osogbo Sacred Grove, Oṣun State, Nigeria |
Oṣun Osogbo Sacred Grove, Oṣun State, Nigeria |
Oṣun Priestess explains the sculpted wall |
Oṣun Osogbo Sacred Grove, Oṣun State, Nigeria |
Oṣun Osogbo Sacred Grove, Oṣun State, Nigeria |
Oṣun Priestess |
Oṣun River in Osogbo, Oṣun State, Nigeria |
Entrance to Oṣun River in Osogbo, Nigeria |
Priestess reads kola nuts at Oṣun River |
Oṣun River in Osogbo, Oṣun State, Nigeria |
Priestess at Oṣun River in Osogbo, Oṣun State, Nigeria |
Oṣun Osogbo Sacred Grove, Oṣun State, Nigeria |
Ife |
Oṣun Osogbo Sacred Grove |
Africans are much more civilized and respectful of elders. A movie star in Ghana helped me with my luggage. She was really lovely.
The year started off in America. I remember the Auset Movement starting off on Martin King's birthday serving a meal on Wood Street. This year was calm. No fights, no deaths, no serious injuries. While Wo'se was supplying toiletry bags and clothes we had extra to share with our unsheltered communities.
Oṣun River in Osogbo, Oṣun State, Nigeria |
I would have liked to attend the College of Alameda graduation, but I missed it. When one travels with a group, she is not in control of her movement. The West African to West Oakland poetry exchange was a great experience. I enjoyed writing poetry with my West African poet pen pals. However, I was not in control of my movement, which meant I did not get to return to those places and those people whom I met in 2016.
Lodging in Ghana was great and so were the trips we made. I'd wanted to visit the Stilt Village and Assin Manso last time and the car I hired said the Assin Manso no longer existed. This was a European tour company with an African driver. It was nice having a bus this time. In a lot of ways, being on a tour is less expensive than traveling alone. Karla is super organized too, and she calculated everything well . . . we even got money back.
Abeokuta, writer, Amos Tutuola's village on a rock |
When I got back from Nigeria, I had a graduation to attend -- my older daughter, Bilaliyah got her Masters in Education. I also celebrated my birthday and my Auntie Henrietta's in Slidell. TaSin took me to a Tibetan Buddhist Retreat Center, Ratna Ling near Guernville, Bodaga Bay, Sonoma Coast State Park. We saw Elephant Seal pups on the drive back.
The cabin was lovely. It was quiet and peaceful, a great start to a new phase in my life. I asked friends who were 60+ to tell me a story about the
journey. I got three stories-- 60
divided by 3 is 20. I was born on the 20th so it works out mathematically.
Iya Tomye, Halifu and Judy
60 is about making plans and being practical. 60 is the time to think about happiness and doing what makes me happy. 60 is the age where one starts thinking about life after a 9-5, especially if the 9-5 was not the first choice in one's career. 60 is a time to be practical yet daring. Do something different if what you're doing now is not working.
Teaching was perhaps my fourth or fifth choice. I wanted to be a sign painter, an architect, a medical illustrator. I think I fell into teaching, because I like to share knowledge and I am good at it; I would have liked to write for a living. Creative writing. I never thought about journalism as a career. I liked to write stories and poetry and plays when I was a kid, then later in junior high and high school I thought about being a mathematician, because I was good at formulas and equations.
Abeokuta |
The One Life Institute Program, Take the Arrow out of the Heart with Desert Rose was so wonderful. I didn't get to a lot of events this year, but Alice Walker and Desert Rose was one I did not miss, nor did I miss the 50th Anniversary of ABPsi which was also lovely. I was a part of the opening ceremony-- Both were really cool centering programs and events. ABPsi was a lot of running back and forth. I was too tired Sat-Sun to attend and missed the sunrise ceremony. I am looking forward to seeing the video footage.
As an adult I thought about botany. I like plants. I considered being a park ranger and leading nature tours. I also thought about having a museum and a book store, a theatre and a performance space.
When I ran the Basic Skills Lab at College of Alameda (a position I was hired), I really enjoyed integrating the pedagogy for non-native speakers with that of native speakers. Today, I hardly teach this level composition or reading. Perhaps this is one of the key reasons why I do not enjoy teaching anymore. My classification changed in practice, but not on paper.
So as we move towards May 2018, I am teaching an English 1A and then an accelerated English 5 and English 1A and another English 5. I had some pretty awesome students this Spring, really awesome. One young man from Afghanistan shared how he worked with US commanders as a translator and how dangerous the missions he survived.
I saw some pretty awesome plays and films this year. I missed quite a few too. I have learned to not push myself to do too much. I am not interested in seeing everything and doing everything. I still do not have enough hours in a day to visit all the people I would like to visit. I have not returned to my writing discipline, but writing this has reminded me how important it is to keep at it.
In March I completed my year for Daddy with a performance piece: "Choreographing Diaspora: Daddy's Girl"-- Now I want to get the trilogy published. Tomye illustrated the poems and Lionel Tanner accompanied me on bass.
The Poetry Celebration in February was also great. The theme was "Aya or Resiliency" and Chelle Jacques and I did a riff on a popular tune. Oya joined us. It was so cool. Iya Osumare started chanting and dancing. It was awesome.
The MAAFA Commemoration was lovely, what was lovely were the two priestesses. We'd never had a reading at the beach before-- The elder Iya threw kola nuts. It was so lovely and then Victoria's choeropoem and call for healing our girls, protecting our girls . . .
In July I went to Louisiana for the MAAFA Commemoration and for my auntie's 80th birthday. It was really lovely-- she was so surprised when she got the birthday party she wanted. She had a party at the senior center. She had a dinner party at a Casino in Bay St. Louis, and then when she thought it was all over, there was a surprise party that weekend at her house.
It was really nice. Two elder cousins also celebrated their birthdays that month. Too bad they didn't all celebrate together.
JANUARY 2018 (59 . . . 60)
FEBRUARY
Featured at Alameda Island Poets for Black History Month (newspaper article)
28th Annual Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry
MARCH
Staff Development—AVP
Daddy’s Girl performance at Joyce Gordon Gallery
FEBRUARY
Featured at Alameda Island Poets for Black History Month (newspaper article)
28th Annual Celebration of African American Poets and Their Poetry
MARCH
Staff Development—AVP
Daddy’s Girl performance at Joyce Gordon Gallery
APRIL
Visited Montgomery, AL – Ground Zero for the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum, From Slavery to Mass Incarceration
Selma – Edmund Pettis Bridge
Africatown
Tuskegee
Visited Montgomery, AL – Ground Zero for the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum, From Slavery to Mass Incarceration
Selma – Edmund Pettis Bridge
Africatown
Tuskegee
Utilizing Poetics to Transverse TransAtlantic
Cultural Barriers with Karla Brundage, Tyrice Deane and
Wanda Sabir
In this session, be ready to take
poetry out of the classroom and out of the country to build solidarity. In a
unique epistolary exchange, West Oakland to West Africa participants share how
they made authentic connections through poetry
In light of
the current political climate in which impacts the international perception of
the US, this project seeks to create transatlantic solidarity with West African
countries of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. In exchanging Renshi (linked)
poetry between poets who live in Oakland (West Coast) and poets in Ghana and
Cote d'Ivoire, (West Africa), participants develop a sense of cultural humility
and literacy which aids in cultural understanding. I designed the curriculum in
collaboration with Yibor Quaye Kojo a West African Slam poet and founder of
Ehalakasa. After living in West Africa, and observing the griot tradition for 3
years as a teacher and practicing poet, our goal is to create a conversation
that authentically links the communities in which we live. This project deepens
understanding across continents, giving voice to those who may not be able to
make the journey.
1) Karla Introduces purpose (10 minutes)
1) Karla Introduces purpose (10 minutes)
2) Tyrice and Jewell- (5 minutes)
3) Marcus and Akombo (5 minutes)
4) Wanda on Poet Traumatic Slave
Syndrome and MAAFA (5 minutes)
5) Writing Exercise (15
minutes)
6) Sharing and questions (10
minutes)
MAY
Sacramento State Conference
Ghana – WO2WA
Nigeria
JUNE
Nigeria
Libations for the Ancestors
Ratna Ling—Hummingbird Stories in the Redwood Forest
JULY
NOLA—Auntie Henrietta is 80
AUGUST
10th Anniversary Wanda’s Picks Radio Show (August 8, 2008-August 8, 2018)
On Sabbatical at COA August-December 2018
Project: Develop capacity for transfer level college courses for women at a local jail or prison. I looked at the Federal Institute for Women in Dublin and the longer term women who have graduated from college at Santa Rita Jail. 14 women responded affirmatively. I am waiting for copies of the questionnaires.
I am on my way to a training at Claremont College in So Cal early January. The Inside Out Prison Exchange Program is out of Temple University in Philly and does not have an iteration in Northern CA.
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
MAAFA Commemoration
Higher Education in Prison Conference in Indianapolis
NOVEMBER
Told I cannot teach at Santa Rita
DECEMBER
Solstice Celebration
60 ½+1
Caribbean All-Stars
Zulu Spear
Preparing for Spring Semester and returning to work
Ratna Ling—Hummingbird Stories in the Redwood Forest
JULY
NOLA—Auntie Henrietta is 80
AUGUST
10th Anniversary Wanda’s Picks Radio Show (August 8, 2008-August 8, 2018)
On Sabbatical at COA August-December 2018
Project: Develop capacity for transfer level college courses for women at a local jail or prison. I looked at the Federal Institute for Women in Dublin and the longer term women who have graduated from college at Santa Rita Jail. 14 women responded affirmatively. I am waiting for copies of the questionnaires.
I am on my way to a training at Claremont College in So Cal early January. The Inside Out Prison Exchange Program is out of Temple University in Philly and does not have an iteration in Northern CA.
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
MAAFA Commemoration
Higher Education in Prison Conference in Indianapolis
NOVEMBER
Told I cannot teach at Santa Rita
DECEMBER
Solstice Celebration
60 ½+1
Caribbean All-Stars
Zulu Spear
Preparing for Spring Semester and returning to work
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