Travel Journal #2

Travel journal #2, March 17, 2019
Impromptu trips are often the best.  This weekend I had opportunity to fly up to Seattle to take my granddaughter on her first trip to the aquarium. I will unpack the question of socioeconomic status and privilege in later entries, these concepts are not the focus of today.

In 1963, 6 years before my birth,  Albert A. Goodson wrote, “We've come this far by faith,  leaning on the Lord...” As I fly home from Seattle these words reverberate in my soul. #MyBlackStory starts with faith.  One can take any point in my life's timeline and see examples of faith. I choose, as a reference point, November 18, 2016. When I look at her, I see the power of faith.  From a feisty 1 pounder born 3 months early to a 2-year-old 25 pounder who, although I didn't think it was possible, is even more feisty and opinionated.

How does she, the embodiment of my heart,  fit into the narrative of blackness? She is the amalgamation of the constructs of blackness and whiteness - an interesting shade of beige.  With birth rates for those identified as black and white declining, the probability exists that Nyah’s, Black story will be written in hues yet to be discovered.

But,  I digress,  I was speaking of faith.  In her inauguration poem Maya Angelou wrote,  “...Sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare - Praying for a dream...” as a description of the story of the ancestors.  In order to endure the brutal, inhuman, inhumane institution of enslavement, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights era, the ancestors,  my grandparents, my mom, my dad, aunties and uncles survived, and in many cases thrived, on the solid rock of faith.

As I search for answers there are only more questions.Can the story of blackness be told without also telling the story of faith?  In our current generations, how does faith play out? Have we, the collective identified as Black in the United States, abandoned our “North Star” of faith?

Then, I look at her, “...Trusting in his holy word. He never failed me yet. Woah, Woah, Woah, Can't turn around…” Faith was, and continues to be, the foundation of #MyBlackStory.

The 400 year anniversary, of the landing of the first captives on the Atlantic shore of the United States, quest continues.  The original two questions remain,What are the lived experiences within the many expressions of blackness? To what extent do I “fit” into the global African quilt?

#MyBlackStory #Unleashed

Travel Journal Excerpt #1

You get very different versions of history depending upon where you start.  For instance if you start my history with the death of my father, a pivotal point in my life,  you have the story of a fatherless girl. If you start with the birth of my son,  you have a different story. If you fast forward and start with today, February 28, 2019,  you have a completely different story - the story of an almost 50 year old woman who is the embodiment of all of the various moments in my life while representing none.

This year, 2019,  represents the 400 year anniversary of the 20 Angolan captives who arrived in Virginia aboard the “White Lion” ship. I often wonder if any of them, both the captives and the captors, knew that 400 years later we would still be grappling with the vestiges of slavery.

This year, in acknowledgment of those who survived the brutal institution of slavery so that I may celebrate 50 years, I am going on a journey.  Five countries representing the African continent and diaspora to explore the experience of living in this, our shared black skin. The questions:  What are lived experiences within the many expressions of blackness? To what extent do I “fit” into the global African quilt?

First stop, Trinidad, Carnival, pure unadulterated, pleasure.  Observations from this trip:

- Tens of thousands of Black people from around the globe can gather without violence

- Law enforcement can be present without being oppressive

- No one NO ONE can party like people with shared African ancestry

- I am not an introvert (this concept will be unpacked later)

- There is a common, unspoken language encoded in blackness

Next stop on the journey Barbados. #MyBlackStory #UNLEASHED