Adventurous is its own Beauty



Elder listening to a young woman

Amiri Baraka’s Influence; the following was written in the living room of his home in Newark. 

~ R.I.P.  

Negrosity

I had the pleasure one day,
a blessing I’d say,
of conversing with Amiri Baraka.
He explained to me,
in words I could see,
some truths that would plainly shock ya.

This one thing he said,
stands out in my head,
that especially peaked my curiosity.
He used a term,
that made me squirm,
I refer here to “Negrosity.”

He said, “Most of our folk,
are fastened with a yoke,
tethered by restraints not seen.
There are shackles on our brains,
our mentality’s in chains,
hooked on social amphetamines.

We are perpetual consumers,
food for parasitic tumors,
that devour and thrive off our labor.
Negrosity is the condition,
that hinders our fruition,
we must quit this foolish behavior.”

“So, what good sir,
would you prefer,
we do to correct this hideosity?
What steps may be taken,
now that we’ve awakened,
from this sleep called Negrosity?”

“A good question son,
is always one,
where the answer lies deep inside,
if you take inventory,
on yours and his-story,
the solution is spiritual race pride.”

“Whoa now, the mere mention of race,
brings a frown to one’s face,
and most times elicits animosity,
and how can spirit solve,
what the race has evolved,
and what’s pride got to do with Negrosity?”

“Taking pride in your race,
will incite you to trace,
your ancestor’s magnificent luminosity,
then you’ll find categorically,
no question historically,
we’re victims of semiotic atrocities.

There are no Negroes you see,
and Negrosity,
is not even really a word,
And the fact that we answer,
to this semantic cancer,
makes it all the more absurd.

Being proud of who you are,
will diminish the scar,
left by generations of deception.
Spiritual pride in oneself,
will restore your health,
to this rule, there can be no exception.

So its time to pay yourself,
And enjoy the world’s wealth,
God knows you’ve been full of generosity.
And remove the stigma,
that caused this enigma.
Take off the shackle of Negrosity!”

June 1999, Ty Gray-El
Result of a conversation with Amiri Baraka




Ice Cube statement

WATER CARRIES PAIN

Ty Gray-El, you wrote a poem. The words said, "Hurricanes seldom if ever come off the Pacific Ocean. They do not come off the Indian nor do they travel the Arctic Oceans. They come across the Atlantic Ocean. They all get started as Tropical Depressions around the western shores of Africa, they take virtually the same root as the Middle-Passage-Slave-Trade and slam primarily into the southern states of America. And so, for all these reasons I submit Hurricanes are the Breath of My Ancestors.."

Ty, that poem; those words, the essence of it stays with me and whirls into play every time I am in and watching the wind whip rain high into the air. The first time I heard you do that poem at Bowie State University there was an immediate divide. I had two guests from my Rotary Club there. The husband understood and felt the sentiment. The emotion you delivered with was overwhelming. But Yul could not get the slave connection out of the reasonable part of his head down into his heart. We talked at length the following Monday at our weekly meeting with everyone else in the club. It was a long discussion; a fruitful one.

Not every white person feels the African angst the way we do, we decided that day, even though it logically makes sense that such an energy would create quite a stir in the ocean it is hard for many minds to accept your assertion.. The thought, the notion of the motion in the ocean carrying the angst and grief in the Atlantic is conceivable, but not possible was thought by some. But I see that Water carries Life, the Womb carries Water, and water, the carrier, holds and echoes voices. I hear African cries every time I stand on the coast of the Atlantic. No matter what side it is the cries are appeased by an offering of prayer and tobacco. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
August 2012

Naturally Curly Girlz

the profundity of Black women

 

Ty Gray-El, do women understand how much depth is required of a man to listen to your poem, “A Black Woman’s Smile”?  For a man to embrace the depth of these words do Black women need to care about the difficulty we have facing this poem of yours?  Black women respond to this poem out of relief. As a release being validated by a man, and other reasons not obvious at first glance this poem has medicinal value.  Women embrace this poem outside of the realm of what men fully grasp.  Men, black men and white men, hear things in this narration they cannot process within themselves or share between the various aspects of themselves, or with other men with true clarity.  That being said sharing beyond applause and cheering with women on the raised subjects within BLACK WOMAN’S SMILE, is out of the question.  Ain’t gonna happen for too many black men, and precious few white men.  It is too much.

I’ve seen some of the comments from white men, and they tend towards fear.  But Black men are from another mother.  Black American manhood, like our white male cousins, shrouds itself in secrets, and regrets, and we, Black men, tend to wear them as a rough exterior, or a show of force, strength, and a manly presence.  In retrospect, I notice how few men respond to this subject, and the subjects raised by your poem, Ty, with the sensibility that resonates with Black Women’s sensibilities, and their sense of Womanhood.  Because your words conjure up our culpability, and our guilt we flinch behind cheers, and praise of the poem. Stirring painful reflections without a sacred process will not change men into the men their families need, and their women need. Most men can only cheer, and applaud to cover, by sound, the truths stirred, the memories evoked of actions and beliefs seen in new light sparked by your poem. 

There are spiritual responsibilities not being met, and from this poem it is clear that introspection is required to be a tool, a guide towards the actions strong and wise enough to led us towards the Spiritual Responsibilities we have as men, and as men for our women.  We cannot listen to this poem without thinking of our hands blooded by a belief-system we hold against the very nature of the womb we come from and the wombs we seek as men.  The poem you have been given is the old conjurer-woman in the tradition of conjuring up the powers of being, the powers of Ancestors, and movement of Spirits that agitate for the strength to see ourselves, and what we truly believe. 

This poem is about what we have done to our women, what we have believed and felt.  This is Truth telling! In the deepest sense this is the spiritual work required of us as a people.  That white man has no hand in this work until we mature enough to bring him in to add his piece, his medicine.  - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper ofStories {Sept. 14, 2011}

12 SEPTEMBRE 2012

Ty Gray-El, you said, "... 'self-inflicted' wound of 9/11."  Well, physics, and the science of explosives, and building structures was explained in relation to the Trade Center within two years after the attack, but most Americans I know, or read about weren't interested in evaluating the day. It was physically dangerous to voice introspection into conversations in the mid-West and on the East coast the first 3 years after the attack. In the first week I took my life into my hands sharing what I knew to frightened white college students about the relationships between Saudi Arabia, the bin Laden family and the United States. A retired, and re-hired Vietnam soldier came after me when I did not share or express surprise at the attacks. When I answered him, and said, "You wouldn't be if you understood American foreign policy!" He came at me. He tried to fight me on my job with his two new knees.

I took that shit serious. I had something for him under my desk.

I mention that in part because Forrest A. Wright's trip to Ground Zero, even today, took courage because Forrest has an obligation to teach his son the truth, and the truth is not always a valued commodity, and sharing the truth is a teachable skill best taught to a boy by his father! - Gregory E. Woods, Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories

AMERICAN STORY: supremacy

Bethenny Frankel's profile

True African history depicted by the artist, not the imperialist dictators. What amazes me about this piece is how astounded and overwhelmingly shocked the British were to find that we had been creating art like this when they were still living in caves. I guess that would be shocking, to say the least, to find out that the very folk you've been labeling savage were actually civilized long before you ever thought about it. We have to dispel the myths of white supremacy, as that is all that it is; a myth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBxlnh4XWyU&NR=1
--
Ty Gray-EL, CSMT
Chairman & CSO
Breath of My Ancestors, A Non-Profit
A Cultural Enrichment Ministry
http://www.tygray-el.com/

Joyful Drake, actress Let's Stay Together

actress Constance Marie on red carpet at Genesis awards

POST RACIAL AMERICA ???

Frederick Douglas, freedom fighter, author, lecture

Post-Racial America ???

On Monday January 17, 2011 in the city of Spokane, in the state of Washington, in ‘post-racial’ America, during a parade rally celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, someone left a highly sophisticated bomb with a remote control strategically located on the parade route exactly where it would do the most damage and kill the most people.

Washington State has long been a stronghold of support for right-winged militants and a haven for white supremacist organizations. But it comes as a real shock that such an attempt would be made with a black president in the White House in this ‘post-racial’ America. After all racism no longer exist since the election of a black man to that office, and all the hatred for blacks by white supremacist disappeared or evaporated with President Obama’s inauguration. At least that’s what the propaganda machines keep feeding us.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation the bomb was meticulously manufactured, extremely lethal and placed in a position on the route where it would have killed several by remote detonation. The FBI must be mistaken though because I distinctly recall hearing Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and others say that we are now living in a ‘post-racial’ society where racism and white supremacy no longer exist.

What is interesting is that 43 years after Dr. King’s death the same hatred that murdered him and bombed a church in Alabama killing 4 little girls is the same hatred that almost reeked havoc on the streets of Spokane in 2011. If not for the astute observations of some alert citizens we would have the trauma of Birmingham all over again. On December 10, 1964 during his acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize Dr. King made mention that on the day before (Dec. 9, 1964) there were no less than 40 churches bombed in the state of Mississippi due to racism and the notion of white supremacy.

Interestingly, on December 3, 2010 twenty-six year old Frederick Jermaine Carter was found hanging by his neck from a twelve-foot limb of a forty-foot oak tree in Greenwood Mississippi. What is more interesting is that the tree he was found hanging from is less than 10 miles from where Emit Till was brutally maimed and murdered for being a black boy attempting to speak to a white girl. The Sheriff’s office of Greenwood say that, the shorter than 6ft tall Frederick, committed suicide by stringing himself up over a twelve-foot limb of a forty-foot tree. While this is going on the governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour continues to lambast and condemn President Obama just for being black and proclaims that he and Frederick Jermaine Carter, are and were tumors on the State of America. Mr. Carter’s family however, says that the 26-year-old was not suicidal at all and, on the contrary, was quite happy with his gainfully-employed life.

The purpose of this blog is to question how all these issues are able to exist in a “post racial” society. America claims that it has risen above its Jim Crow issues and it’s predisposition with WHITE SUPREMACY. America claims that it does not suffer from Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome as a nation. The United States of America vehemently refuses to admit or apologize for its cruel injustices to its fellow human beings during the time of slavery up to the present.

And so this blog is to question when. When will these United States of America take ownership of the crimes it committed and is still committing against its fellow human beings? When will its officials, including our current President, address the issues that have plagued the African in America since the 1600’s? When will we address the issue of white supremacy and racism in these United States? When will we face our greatest demon; a demon that says I, THE WHITE MAN, AM BETTER THAN YOU, THE BLACK MAN?

Until we have courage enough for this question; until we muster the strength to deal with this issue, we will all suffer. Because whether we choose to face it or not, the only reason that bomb didn’t go off in Spokane is because the hate-mongers and orchestrators who planned the bombing of the MLK parade in Spokane Washington were not as efficient and organized as that lynch-mob in Greenwood Mississippi.

Given my last statement; I have two questions. 1) are we really living in a “Post-Racial Society”? And 2) when will we learn to love instead of hate? by Ty Gray-El, author, poet, father

TY GRAY-EL'S new year theme:

My new year's mantra/creed this year is

"Health flows like a river
and wealth as a mighty stream
when you are grateful to the Giver
and faithful to your dreams"

-Ty Gray-El, poet

A BLACK WOMAN'S SMILE BY TY GRAY EL: SPOKEN WORD

Abena Disroe PERFORMING some Jazz Poetry at Westminister Church

adinkinra symbol of Sankofa

African lovers - Apparition Photography

Healing

"Health flows like a river and wealth like a mighty stream,
when you are grateful to the Giver
and faithful to your dreams"

from the book of Ty

ELDER WISDOM

ebony beauty in pink 2

"Health flows like a river and wealth like a mighty stream, when you are grateful to the Giver and faithful to your dreams" ...from the book of Ty

AFRICA

Africa My Africa…


Drum beats herald civilization’s dawning…
Cradle land of the initiate…
Mother of infinite wisdom…
Conquering hordes have trampled on your bosom
unappreciative of your ancient splendor…
Immeasurable treasures buried in your bowels…
Mined by foreign invaders with careless laxatives…
Warm and fertile womb of creation…
You gave birth to immortal souls…
Distorted by pagan influences…
Africa, sweet Africa…
Raped and pillaged, plundered and plowed
by infidels with no respect…
You cry and oil tears drip down
your blood stained mountains…
You perspire and diamonds rise from your pores…
Africa, my Africa…
You bleed the blood of the blessed chosen…
Your veins spew crimson rain down
on the heads of the unjust…
And unlike Pontius Pilot, they cannot
wash their hands…
Africa, my dear sweet Africa…
You shall be vindicated…
Black pearls will one day emerge
from the shells of capitalistic indifference…
And you shall, Phoenix-like, soar
above the forest of all…
Mother of us all…
You gave birth to the King and Queen of civilization…
And you shall have your due…
My Africa, sweet Africa…

Ty Gray-El, poet, conduit
2000

Mithia