Black Love Day, February 13th, was founded by Ayo Handy Kendi in 1993. Ayo Handy Kendy is founder and director of the African American Holiday Association (AAHA).
Black Love Day is an African centered alternative to the commercial Valentine's Day with the spriritual goals of encouraging:
1. Black self love instead of self hatred.
2. Increased peace to stop the violence.
3. Racial healing to stop White supremacy and racism.
To increase peace, work to eliminate our self hatred, violence and our work to end racism, Black Love Day first encourages us to return to love to heal all of our relationships.
Nya Akoma
A Greeting for Black Love Day, Meaning "Take Heart, Be Patient"
The African Adinkra symbol, the "Nya Akoma" later termed "valentine" or "heart" is the symbol of "patience, goodwill, faithfulness, endurance and tolerance." The symbol was taken, repackaged and distributed in a Eurocentric model.
16th Annual Black Love Day
Tenets and Actions of Black Love Day
* We display the "Akoma" an Adinkra symbol of love, patience, goodwill, faithfulness & endurance
* We give the greeting, "Nya Akoma" (N-yah Ah-Coma) which means "get a heart, be patient!"
* We celebrate with personal love rituals, couple love-ins or community Black Love Relationship Ceremonies
* We buy conscious love gifts from Black merchants to recycle Black dollars to love our communities
* We read the "Black Love Book," watch the new DVD, and sign the Black Love Day pledge to inspire us toward love's healing power
* Beyond Feb. 13, we practice the principles of Black Love, returning to love everyday to heal ALL our relationships and better the planet ,
"From labour pains to burials, teenagers to octogenarians, and not to mention race-fraught and same-sex relationships, the human heart is all out there: beleaguered and bleeding, or bold, and occasionally triumphant."
"I once wrote, "Beyond mere color, being Black is first and foremost a conscious political, social, and economic commitment to the struggle for the collective betterment of the descendants of the Black slavery holocaust in what has now become the United States of America, in conjunction with other people of color and humanity as a whole."
It is now the 2008, and more than ever before this is applicable."
"A special love abounds in the black community. The words contained within this Little Book provide proof of a loving tradition that has always offered comfort and inspiration." [From google books]
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change . . . the courage the things that I can . . . the wisdom to know the different . . . and God give me the courage to love with an open heart . . . "
"Maafa Awareness Month is a time to look at how Africans or Black people, in particular, can heal from the trauma."
India Arie
Inja
(Puppy Love)
"Using a young Xhosa boy as a pawn, a farmer teaches his puppy to be white man's best friend."
"He remembers the crack of her heels on concrete as she approached; the angle of her hip as she stood there, the melon sun behind her, the garage light in her face."
Malcolm X 2008 Annual Pilgrimage to Burial Site Part 2
Stevie Wonder's Key of Life
"You see, one too many self-described Black pop artists in the 1970s put on African costumes and inconvenient disco boots - but few barely could see the nature of African consciousness.
The poetic irony is that a blind man in America could catch a glimpse of the ancient African Old Kingdom."
"While the emotions are described with a delicate touch, the tale is given ballast through its rich portrayal of the protagonists' community, the Nakawa Housing Estates - a crowded acre of "planned slums, with people with broken dreams and unplanned families for neighbours"
"It has always puzzled me that women and men who spend a lifetime working to resist and oppose one form of domination can be systematically supporting another.
I have been puzzled by powerful visionary black male leaders who can speak and act passionately in resistance to racial domination and accept and embrace sexist domination of women, by feminist white women who work daily to eradicate sexism but who have major blind spots when it comes to acknowledging and resisting racism and white supremacist domination of the planet.
Critically examining these blind spots, I conclude that many of us are motivated to move against domination solely when we feel our self-interest directly threatened."
A Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) summary of a report that looks at the suppression of women's political voices
"She went on to point out that the Zimbabwean government officials who give order to beat or detain the human rights defenders render Zimbabwe in violation of its own constitution and in breach of obligations under international law."
[Who transformed Bacharach's good songs into amazing ones]
Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets
(When he asks Ms. Warwick "how you like it so far," he was being facetious because in the first few notes, he hadn't hit the part with the upper octave which is more challenging.)
'Loneliness remembers, what happiness forgets, I had to lose you to recall that life's not really all sunshine and laughter. Loneliness remembers, what happiness forgets and when you fall in love too fast, the sunshine doesn't last forever . . . "
Dear God, I Hate You.
Love, RJW
Psalm 151 by Mae Jackson
(Bittersweet higher power love).
"Who's gonna call God to the floor
check his agenda for disaster
censor his freedom of speech . . .
take away his position the way they did Amiri Baraka
when
he
wondered
out loud
"who blew up america . . . "
I could take the Harlem night
and wrap around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue buses,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.
Take Harlem's heartbeat,
Make a drumbeat,
Put it on a record, let it whirl,
And while we listen to it play,
Dance with you till day--
Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.
Comment on your experience at this website or at this gallery panel at 'Open Air Comment Page'
(Mention which panel, and your comment will hyperlink people back here.)
Terryhowcott.com
has made every effort to ascertain the origin of all photos, and is eager
to cite all work.
Please contact info@terryhowcott.com to
discuss citing or to propose photos for exhibition by sending them with photographer/artist's
name, image title, and/or web address.
