Niyonu, Wake Up!

A YEAR-END UPDATE ON MY LIFE'S WORK

2011-12-29T15:56:00.000-08:00

What a year this has been! ~ a personal update

Some of you know, in quite intimate ways, just how I set out to respond to the calls from our brothers and sisters ~ to respond to The Call ~ that voice that guides from within. I've had my heart broken wide open by the living conditions of many in two cities this year ~ Chester, Pa and New Haven, CT. At the same time, these communities have brought me abundant joy. The ride has been tremendous as I dwell in the living waters of possibility and responsibility.

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011

* With partner, Chester Eastside Ministries (CEM), I ran a Life Skills, Mentoring and Arts Program for youth of the Chester Upland School District

* We co-sponsored and coordinated a Spring event called, Making a Difference which featured speaker, Euware Osayande (osayande.org)

* In April, I traveled with CEM Pastor/Director Rev. Bernice Warren - a fact finding trip to the Bokamoso community in Winterveld, South Africa (www.bokamosoyouth.org ). We hoped to learn from them, bringing the lessons back to benefit Chester youth.

* We ran another successful Peace, Leadership and the Arts Summer Camp increasing the length by one week.

* The 2011 summer camp confirmed for me the need to further promote inner peace and self-care. This awareness seeded the emerging vision for a year-round space in Chester that would promote radical peace and empowerment. Just as I began to see the vision for this space, my eyes landed on the book, Super Rich by Russell Simmons. Simmons' guidance accompanied me as I began to take steps toward manifesting this vision.

As we move into 2012, the 4 Circles Beyond work in Chester expands. We are now creating the House for Peace and Empowerment. This house - the very one that had been my home for the past 5 years - has a new Caregiver - a dedicated Chester activist. We hope to sponsor activities in this space that will be healing and transformative in Chester.

Many people worry that I feel pulled in too many directions these days. Quite to the contrary. The peace~work in Chester, the community-building work in New Haven, facilitating Beyond Diversity 101 and continuing to produce transformative music with Tribe 1 - it all feels to me like one stream ~ one purpose. My job each day is to extend the willingness to be an instrument for peace, try to release my fear and controlling attachments and seek to answer the call for a transforming re-alignment that returns us ALL to wholeness!

Co-creation

2011-06-20T18:11:00.001-07:00

A truly co-creative process assumes that as reality unfolds, each person plays a part and each part is significant. Its about use of POWER

Listen | StoryCorps

2011-05-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll. I know. This twice a year bloggin's got to go. But, as the tears of joy and hope streamed down my face while I listened to these fellow travelers, I had to tweet, fb, email and yes blog it out. Peace to you all ~ Ni

Listen | StoryCorps

2009-10-08T07:55:00.000-07:00

What can I say? http://99problems.org/2009/09/a-message-from-van-jones/

Turning my back on Gaza

2009-01-05T07:35:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the excuses that I hear going 'round and 'round in my head for not responding to the siege in Gaza:
1. I don't understand the history
2. People have a right to defend themselves
3. I should read a book first about the history before I open my mouth
4. Well, people are dying right here in Chester, PA
5. Maybe they are only exaggerating the number of civilians being killed
6. Well, if Hamas would just stop their violence then the Israelis could be peaceful
7. If I speak out about the injustice that I see there, someone will call me out as a fraud, not really knowing what I'm talking about
8. Other black folk will be looking at me saying, "how do you have time to focus on those people, when our people are so oppressed?"
9. I'll be dismissed so, why bother?
10. It's all too big - too complex - been going on for so long that nobody can speak about it with any clarity -
11. I’m not living in the fear that the Jewish people endure, or the daily suffering of these Arab people, so I should shut-up and stay out of it
12. It's just too horrible to look at right now...rather focus on the Inauguration
13. Anyway, I’ve got tons of stuff to do.

And, so it goes on, filling my head so as to block out my senses. The senses that alert me that there is no justification, that the excuses are bullshit and that its time to speak out. THIS IS WRONG PERIOD. Just like bombing the people - babies, daddies, teenagers.... in Iraq was and IS WRONG PERIOD. IT NEEDS TO STOP!
Turning off my senses now means I can stay comfortable NOW and have amazing hindsight later. When will we be sick and tired of hindsight...It is totally inexcusable to allow hindsight to be an option when we have been shown the signs clearly - over and over again. How many lives, How many times?

My list of reasons serves to assure my place as signatory to the cover up contract, - covering the the seemingly unfaceable truths - the family that I deny, the work that I resist engaging in, the words that would have to flow strongly and powerfully from my lips and the actions that I would passionately undertake as soon as I really opened my eyes, my heart, my mouth, my mind and all of my senses - as soon as I opened my world and exercise my God-given RESPONSIBILITY.
http://www.gazasiege.org/

A blessed time indeed and much work to do

2009-01-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

Greetings, here is a regular occurrence of injustice worth being reminded of ~ http://vcnv.org/criminal-on-wheels

My letter to Obama ~ Repeated here by popular demand

2008-12-03T11:39:00.000-08:00

Thank you for coming to Chester Barack Obama ~ Niyonu D. Spann (October 27, 2008)

Thank you for coming to Chester Barack Obama. In all the rain and wind – with no fancy introduction by the Governor or Mayor or anybody actually. I saw you with the rain rushing across your lips – that people watching on TV could not see. I wanted some sort of shelter for you but then; I saw the rightness of it all. Standing in man-made shelter has never been your calling.
Thank you for standing in Chester with the same plantedness as you have and will on the White House floors that so many of our ancestors offered a spotless appearance. We may not be the poorest city that you visited or the blackest city or the one with the least shelter or acknowledgement but surely Chester is one of the most. But you knew that and you showed.
As we stood on the mud-filled lawn after traveling round and round corners with a faith that we would get a glimpse of ourselves. (And I chuckled as the women behind said, “I hope that we are going to be indoors.” Where in Chester did she think all these folks would fit? And, I knew then just how destined we all were to just come.) We were coming to get a glimpse of ourselves as we have yet only dreamed.
And as we muddled forward, the pitch raised with folks selling Obama hats and Obama pins, Obama umbrellas and Obama neckties. Yeah, I would take a souvenir but in truth, we were coming to see the proverbial finger pointing. We would have liked to have stayed in the trance believing that you, the finger, are our salvation. But you kept your focus not on the finger but to where the finger is pointing. And we too had to turn within.
This time I was close enough to further test your vibration and my ability to discern its frequency. In truth, it holds a space for each to step up. For each to bring their piece to the fulfillment of that for which we yearn. You point to me. You point to we. You reminded Chester and all it represents that it has a sacred part to play that is essential to the healing of us all.

Thank you for coming to Chester Barack Obama.

Giving thanks and keepin' my eyes open

2008-11-28T09:39:00.000-08:00

In the midst of a 4-day birthday & Thanksgiving retreat by the beach. I always seem to have a deep yearning at this time of the year to go solo - to listen deeply within and write and look back and notice significances that I've missed. And there are always a bunch of them.

Tears flow as I watch my people in Mumbai. I read the phrase today, "Expanding circles of Light" - it hit my heart somehow. I usually have a visceral resistance to the notion of rejecting, destroying, extinguish DARKNESS. It is partly from being a black woman of my age. But also, I know that horrific acts -too many to recall - have been committed in the name of destroying the dark. Yet, the truth of what is frequently meant is a truth that I can see and fully relate to. 'Cause I do want to increase the Light. I want to shed light on what IS. I want to wake up and see. The seeing that I want is about re-cognizing, re-membering. I don't want to ignore any acts of injustice or acts that bring beloved community into being.

HERE IS ANOTHER WAKE UP CALL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/toby-barlow/how-those-indians-doing-a_b_146647.html

And its even more challenging to keep my awareness engaged - to stay alert ~ during this time of the illusion of the Information Age - you know, like before we didn't have the information to act and now we have too much information to act. The Light would show us that we have always had access to the information, to the knowing.

On this Thanksgiving, I offer thanks for every single wake-up call and acknowledge every single convenience that we indulge in to not know. I give thanks for the Light and its ever present availability and I pray for the strength to live awake. ~ Ni

Are you there for something real?

2008-11-18T12:14:00.000-08:00

First day of blogging - just because I can and have the time to set it up. Created the Tribe 1 Myspace and my Facebook and now this. Octavia comes to mind. Who is close to me in the "Pattern?" We will see.

And isn't this the time for that with all the rumblings that surround us still from as the deep yearnings for something real were knit together so masterfully as to step over a Clinton - you know what they say happens when White women cry - and then stepped through this country's epitome of fear, that evoked by a Black man speaking loudly in a dashiki, and speaking truth no less, using the proper king's tongue - and....the pretty one, and....the humble war hero with a temper and..... The yearning was stronger than all that. So, just how much do we want something real? Just how ready are we to receive it? Who are the 'pattern masters?' ~ Ni [We miss you Octavia.]