TO ACTIVATE, TO FREE OTHERS: a calling.

Still spinning from this past Monday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) when I was given the Legacy of A Dream Award at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. — It was surreal to say the least. I gotta thank all of my family, friends, colleagues, mentors, and teachers who came out. You made the evening so special.

A line from my acceptance remarks, “Let us wake from our deep deep sleep so we no longer have to dream and can experience in our waking state the beloved community...”

Thank you Georgetown University and President John J. DeGioia for selecting me for this honor. Summarized from their website, “Each year, the "John Thompson Jr. Legacy of a Dream Award" is given to an inspirational emerging leader... since 2003, the award has been given to civil rights icons, children’s rights advocates and other #humanitarians."

In one of the photos you'll see me with Dikembe Mutombo who reminded me that I have a lot of growing to do!

And all the remarkable beings who I get to work with at One Common Unity — There is so much important work to do... feeling grateful and inspired. - Hawah Kasat (Jan. 26, 2019) 

Hawah Kasat honored (r.) receiving the Legacy of A Dream Award at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. January 20, 2019. 

"The journey we are on is long and sometimes it can feel overwhelming. The question today is what will we choose to invest our time, energy and resources in?

Life is both short and long. It is long because during our time we can make a huge impact on future generations… if we spend our time wisely and are other-centered instead of self-centered, then we have the opportunity to correct the injustices in the world.

It is short because that time, which we have, moves by really fast and if we aren’t paying attention it will be over before we know it.

I encourage all of us, to never forget that it’s never too late for us to begin dedicating our life work to something beyond selfish interests.

The solution to the violence and division in this world may begin with being caring, kind, generous, and other-centered BUT our work cannot end there. The institutional violence which inherently breeds inequity must be addressed. Both of these paths require more than just good intentions, they require us to fundamentally change the ways we live and with unrelenting focus transform the very systems that perpetuate violence." -Hawah Kasat (Jan, 20, 2019)  

EIGHTEEN 

"One has to live this life within their vision to speak this truth. From legacy to knowledge of how things work is how intelligently vision is carried by people, who hold the vision given them into their individual futures. In our mother's carrier (her womb) we lay in the waters knowing. Remembering is how we learn who we are, and how we manifest that dream becomes legacy. It is a cycle of unlearning visionaries move within..." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories [Jan. 30, 2019]  

One Common Unity

Hawah Kasat honored receiving the Legacy of A Dream Award at 

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. with his family. 

(2019)

MURDER, as business.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, the Duchess of Strathearn in Scotland, departs after officially opening V&A Dundee, Scotland's first design museum on January 29, 2019 in Dundee, Scotland. Photo by Max Mumby. 

"Behind, and beneath the hoopla around the royal house of Britain is the menace of their dark history. It is a foul, bloody history stepped over each time acclaim is raised over the romances of British royalty, but not forgotten by non-whites, who need more than validation. Many recoil in disgust over the way these people's dark history is not addressed, as we are made to feel we should get over it. But, how is that possible when it is still profitable for them their ways of subjugation?" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2/7/19

From the Dream, this Concept.

Elegance within Black American women is a refinement of elements men have no control over, but contribute to appreciating the complex value of the stories that made her defiant, a mysterious substance from within the creation story that defined ancient ways of living alive! There is more, but you have to live to see that deep trail. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 12/1/18 

Old married couple's elegance and strength.

Elegant lady, Danielle Brooks. photo by Matt Sayles.

exceptional beauty of an African woman.

early morning on the beach in solitude. the quiet is its own prayer.

Crime Investigator.

Red 

Yolanda McClary, crime investigator and star of the show Cold Justice. (2018) 

I'll be honest. I was stunned by Yolanda McClary's beauty, and the depth in her eyes. When she spoke her keen intelligence, and the straightforwardness of her character got to me. Then I paid attention to the details...- Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 2/3/19 

Yolanda McClary, crime investigator investigating a crime scene on an episode of Cold Justice in August 2015.

Understanding of a Man, an Artist.

Herb Ritts is one of the photographers I've admired and studied with my intellect trying to unravel a mystery in each frame. His themes vary, but the conceptual feel is consistent. It is a backrest for me, to conceptualize various ideas of an esoteric nature, you might say, and for the poetry of stillness in motion, his mastery of stillness in motion is a work from internal solitude; it is a quest. I am drawn to these elements; always have been.

It is a stupefying quest to unravel the mysterious elements because they are all in relationship with the individual and the collective, and they are guides in the tradition of Sankofa. In photographic compositions his stories have textures to feel by nuance, and suggestions from the learning processes. In esoteric language these are discoveries where belief is of no importance because this is essentially outside of ego, and intellectual pretense. It is the stuff we come from, we understood before, during and after birth.

It was during childhood understanding this language dissipated, or was encouraged to stay in one's daily vernacular. It depended upon the language the parents kept within them, or didn't  that determined the direction these esoteric musings took within the child.

Somehow, it seems the esoteric starts with the feminine. Creation does. Why shouldn't this be a consistency in spiritual growth, and study? Birth is discovery, and discoveries birth one from each stage to the nest, where one matures.

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories
2/02/19

Cindy Crawford by Herb Ritts. Versace 3, el mirage.

Linda Fiorentino. Photography by Herb Ritts For Vogue Magazine US April 1995 

 

EYE on the Dark Hue.

Roland Dawson took this picture of Ilahaya Brianna Archangel 

in the spirit of the "Queen of the Damned" movie. Body paint by Black Night Nero. (2018).

Jonica Steward by Roland Dawson. The theme is #denimanddiamonds. (2018).

Model, Nadia by Roland Dawson 

taken at Thomas Imagery studio in August 2018.

Unbelief in the strength of women is founded on a concept of an overextended version of male superiority that suffers under the glare of our women, who know better. In the context of Black American history the strength of concepts from matrilineal societies hold Black families intact. Today, all the factors that debilitated the new Africans in the Americas were challenged by the old, strong traditions from the Land of the Blacks!...

I make this point because the power of this image brings this to the forefront. The strength Black American women have needs to be respected, understood, deciphered and held against the wisdom depths of our Ancestors, who understood in depths we, as a People, have long forgotten! This photograph, Roland, has those powers. So much of your work toys with the loins, but on a deeper level the high intelligence of your work is invigorating because it has a basis in a connection with who you are, and where you come from in the Ancestral Realms. I know this is a lot to discern and discuss about photography, but Black Americans cannot help but evoke thoughts and reactions this profound. It is part of the genius we come from, and revisit!... - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 8/28/18 

Gorgeously Nelly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania taken 

by Roland Dawson. [Feb. 2018]

Roland Dawson, you have done quite the impressive introspective photo sessions centered around, and about Gorgeously Nelly. Quite the thoughtful and fun approaches you use.

Again, I love what you do and enjoy the stimulation of thoughts, and emotions in your views...

It is intriguing the trend, this century, of women hiding their eyes with color. Perhaps, it is a reaction to predatory ways of young cats not listening, but acting as if they listen. Eyes do not need to hide, if prospective boyfriends, or husbands know how to read and see. That is quite the combination: thinking and observation. The better part of fatherhood teaches what is understood as responsibility. "It is all in the eyes." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10/03/18

American ME.

Photographer Vern Jensen captured Aliya Mathiesen 

at Pasadena City Hall, March 2016, rejoicing!

"… White American youth are enjoying their illusion of freedom, and their vindication from past misdeeds done by their people. As recently as the other month, when a young Black man was found hung in a trailer park in Virginia, yesterday became today. The lynchings have not stopped, and the cultural vibe of white people's right to take life to get other people's stuff is as vibrant and enforced as ever before. Their defensive structures are stronger under Trump's administration, and whether liberal, or conservative, the benefits extend to both kind of white people. 

It is an old story. It is the fabric of American life. What Black folks can do is the same, and slightly different from what the Red Nations need to do to do more than survive. The other ethnic groups know how to protect their individuality, their culture's dignity, and we all have access to how we gave up so much to recover from the ravages of white conquest, and not lose more in modern times. 

What did our ancestors have that we need today? 

That is all." 

Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

Feb. 01, 2019

Aunt Betty. She was the slave of Mr. Walker, at Faunsdale, and was the cook for Rev. Mr. Harrison, Rector of St. Michael’s. The picture, taken in Aunt Betty’s home, shows a typical cabin... - Joan Johnson