Category Archives: Black Lives Matter

Smudgetalk: A Visual Poem for Mama

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“my mother was my first country. the first place i ever lived.” ⁣⁣
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—lands 📝 Nayyirah Waheed ⁣⁣
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And today marks 13 years since we found you. The day that grueling 2 years you were missing came to a devastating end, yet we found peace anyway.

My face is a reflection of yours. This visual poem is to remember that. I never want to forget that.

Rest my ❤️⁣😘

—Your kid, TheeAmazingGrace (I remember our last conversation and you told me that I was destined for greatness  and that you named me Grace, but not just any Grace, Thee Amazing Grace. Thank you for believing in me mommy!)
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#afrikanface #ancestorsspeak #centeringmyblackness #dearmama #girlrillavintage #intuitivebeing #mamasgirl #mendesfamily #mymamasanancestor #nappynotes #ripmama #roothealers #shadowkeepers ⁣#smudetalk #theeamazinggrace #unconditionallove #westphilly #westafrican #westafrikan

Afrikan Ancestry DNA Reveal 2018

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Drum roll please…..To all my blood relatives on my mothers side! It is with great pleasure that I share with you our @africanancestry DNA results. We share a bloodline lineage (in real life) with the Mende People in modern day Sierra Leone West Afrika. We Mende y’all!!! Passed down from Great Grandma Frida May, her mother and so on! ⁣
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The Mende people actually migrated from South Afrika to West Afrika, before the horror that was the mid Atlantic slave trade, more than 2000 years ago. I went to YouTube and listen to Mende Woman speak and just cried my eyes out because I knew that our family had lineage in Afrika. That’s our language y’all! Blood tithes never die. I keep trying to tell y’all, we come from someplace! ⁣
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Cause once you just Afrikan ain’t no question. ***Check out extended reaction (Link In BIO). I trust that this gives you half the resolve I have and more! Love y’all! 📸 @cynmoni ⁣Drum roll please…..To all my blood relatives on my mothers side! It is with great pleasure that I share with you our @africanancestry DNA results. We share a bloodline lineage (in real life) with the Mende People in modern day Sierra Leone West Afrika. We Mende y’all!!! Passed down from Great Grandma Frida May, her mother and so on! ⁣
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The Mende people actually migrated from South Afrika to West Afrika, before the horror that was the mid Atlantic slave trade, more than 2000 years ago. I went to YouTube and listen to Mende Woman speak and just cried my eyes out because I knew that our family had lineage in Afrika. That’s our language y’all! Blood tithes never die. I keep trying to tell y’all, we come from someplace! ⁣Like Kwame Ture said, “Once you just Afrikan ain’t no question”. I trust that this gives you half the resolve I have and more!

Love y’all!

—TheeAmazingGrace

🎥 @cynmoni ⁣

Reaction video below.

https://vimeo.com/279372674
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#afrikanface #ancestry #africanancestry #africanborninamerica #blackfamily #blacklove #culture #dna #girlrillavintage #girlrillalove #healing #healblack #lifebeforetheboat #lineage #mende #mendepeople #sierraleone #westafrica #westafrika #yoruba

 

Sun salutations for my mama

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She’s been around heavy these days. I swear it’s only a thin veil that separates this world and the next, we just have to trust that and stay in contact. ⁣
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Haven’t spoken poems off the top of my head and heart in a long time. Thoughts of my mama will make me do that though lol! Thank you for being kind and being here mama. I love beyond.

Vimeo links below.
Enjoy! ⁣☀️

—TheeAmazingGrace
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https://vimeo.com/383097284

https://vimeo.com/383097625

https://vimeo.com/383097719

#afrikanface #ancestorsspeak #ancestortones #blackisbeautiful #girlrillavintage #keepingitgreen #mamaknows #mymamasanancestor #poemsformama #reflections #smudgetalk #sunsalutations #vimeo

Smudge Talk: Prosperous days ahead

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Smudge talk. Ready to wash my face and sink into bed. I mean cause when you know, you know.  Ancestors. Always find away. They relieve as much as they can. Heavy burdens don’t last and we don’t have to carry them always, either. Experience more, feel more, then let go of the heaviness. Live in the lite. Prosperous days ahead. 💖

—TheeAmazingGrace ⁣

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#afrikan #afrikanface #ancestorsspeak #blackwomenbelike #bassandtreble #cunninglinguists #gotgele #girlrillavintage #imeverythingatonce #isaidthat #mendewoman #nofilter #ritualistic #sage #smudging #smudgetalk #theeamazinggrace #sierraleone #wearybones #westafrican

My Mamas An Ancestor

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Always been super intuitive, but my intuition could’ve never prepared me for losing my mother. She was the first human being to ever break my entire soul and heal it at the same time. ⁣
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Next month marks 12 years since she’s been my ancestor. Found out from city hall that I will be installing my art exhibit at Amtrak on the very day the medical examiner called to tell me they found her. I was all shaken up about it, at first, yet realized the inherent blessing it is. How she likely helped to orchestrate the decision lol! ⁣
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I will honor her legacy that day as I do everyday by continuing to build mine, instead of grieving her death. We always had a deeply spiritual bond even through the abuse and turmoil and nothing has ever been able to stop that. As we reach toward each other always. Thank you mommy! ⁣2nd 📷 Circa 1997
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#afrikanface #ancestorsspeak #centeringmyblackness #dearmama #girlrillavintage #intuition #mamasgirl #mendesfamily #mymamasanancestor #ripmama #roothealers #shadowkeeperexhibit  ⁣#theeamazinggrace #unconditionallove #westphilly #westafrican

On Harriet

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27170270-C65B-482F-9D95-C12BDA09205DObservation on Harriet: After seeing @harrietfilm tonight I liked how @kasi_lemmons attempted to portray mama Harriets acalades toward her revolutionary fight to freedom-something I’m most proud. I cried with joy and pride seeing her in action and imagining my ancestors in the same fight. Also, I was pleased with @cynthiaerivo performance being Nigerian west Afrikan born in England. Also, how I kept seeing @the.sleepngiant face in her face—Y’all likely kinfolk sis lol! Cause after all we all Afrikans scattered all over this place. ⁣
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Aside, I do wonder how much of the movie was fact and fiction. And despite how good the freedom fight felt I left troubled. Witnessing the brutal killings of two black folks on screen while racist whites were unscathed, spared, and even comforted by the enslaved Afrikans was unsettling to me.⁣
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I wish Kasi had gone deeper or made more of a statement that wasn’t necessarily a “safe one” to appease white audiences, but one that warranted vigilante justice in retaliation for such unimaginable horror that the slave owner put her and her family through. It would’ve been REVOLUTIONARY AS PHUCK, for mama Harriet to blow his racist ass away on screen when she had the chance. To me it would’ve showed the duality of her undying love for God along with her undying desire to free our people by any means. Especially since history tells us how she wouldn’t think twice about turning her gun on our own people that got in her way, so killing a racist should’ve required no thought.

—TheeAmazingGrace
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#afrikanface #aramentaross #harriet #harriettubman #harriettubmanmovie #freedomfighter #girlrillavintage #givemwlibertyorgivemedeath #kasilemmons #mytwocents #revolutionaryaction

 

Araminta Ross

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Ancestor tones. Anticipating what truth the movie will bring. Rest on mama Harriet! She reminds us, “I grew up like a neglected weed – ignorant of liberty, having no experience of it.” ⁣
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And we don’t have to stay disadvantaged. We grew up. 🖤⁣
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#afrikanface #ancestors #aramintaross #blackhistoryisworldhistory #blacklivesmatter #blackwomenbelike #freedomfighter #girlrillavintage #givemelibertyorgivemedeath #groundbreaking #harriettubman #iconic #revolutionary #wiseowl #respectyourelders #theeamazinggrace #tubman

Power Moves

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Thinking of freedom. Knowing that it’s mine. It’s me. It’s part of my power. No matter how it shows up. To be free is a gift. Internal wisdom. Children of Obatala. Coded language inside our DNA. It’s our souls song. ⁣
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We have to teach ourselves to remember, divination, even when it feels dead. Our power is really only laying dormant. We all lose sight of our power sometimes. This is me returning to mine. Shout out to @tinyandbrave for sharing a dance with me to this dope ass song, Azucar by Los Hecheros, so strong last night! ❤️⁣
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#afrikanface #azucar #dancetokeepfromcrying #eternalflame #freedomfighter #girlrillavintage #gift #grooving #internalprocess #locs #loshecheros #mende #merengue #mondaymood #obatala #orishas #powermoves #sierraleone #theeamazinggrace #westafrican

Incantation

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The incantation is upon you.⁣

—Love⁣

—TheeAmazingGrace

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#african #afrikanface #afrofuture #ancestors #blacklove #calmcenter #dance #girlrillavintage  #iameverythingatonce #incantation #iwanttoplay #manifestation #mendewoman #movementmedicine #nofilter #roothealer #sierraleone #softer #theeamazinggrace #westafrican #wiser