Souljourning for Truth Project 2022

 

In 2021 "Wombfulness Gatherings" was born. We discussed the power of the Black womb: her resistance and resilience, sanctity and sacredness, her stories, her recovery: womb as safety. Sojourner Truth's story resonated with me. She took her freedom. Walked away from the plantation. She is a mother who left. Black women often stay when it's time to leave. Truth packed her bag and walked away. Heart breaking, she walked away from bondage carrying one child, leaving the rest.

Souljourning for Truth Project 2022 honors Black wom(b)an agency. I too, choose to walk. Take time for me to reflect on another path, another way-- freedom over bondage. With courage, she (eye) walk good, she (eye) heal grief, she (eye) claim economic justice. She died poor, yet she worked for her people. Her daughters died poor too. We need to change this.

I am traveling from Alameda County, California, to Ulster County, New York. Truth wanted freed Africans given land in California, the West, but those who could have facilitated reparations did not. "Give them land in the west." She said.

This trek from Calif. to N.Y. to Mass. to Mich. is for her and me. 2,928 miles to N.Y. where she was born and enslaved is 7 days by car. I will be on the road for almost two months being wombful.

We honor her on June 1, 2022, her chosen birthday. Libations, prayers and celebration Iya Truth! All praises due Saint Sojourner Truth! You are an excellent example of wombful integrity, faith, intelligence, wit and humor, forgiveness, and patience. I want to feel your energy. Touch the ground where you walked. Watch your sunrise and moonset and count your siblings in God's sky at night like you and Mau-mau Bett did.

Sometimes, we need to touch somebody. I need to touch Truth. She is an ancestor, so I can touch people from the dirt that grew her work, witness the monuments that celebrate her life, and find comfort and strength in such places we intersect and overlap.“Split, we do not think broken—we do not think. We holy. Forced isolation. With separation comes clarity. She world within world.” – from “She Is,” by Wanda Sabir

There will be a short film documenting the journey. All donors will be acknowledged and invited to the virtual screening.

Visit Wombfulness Gatherings blog for more information.
FB.com/wombfulnest
Instagram.com/wandaspicks
Contact: souljourning4truth@gmail.com

1 Year Anniversary of Wombfulness Gatherings

Week of Wombfulness https://linktr.ee/WandasPicks

Wombfulness Gatherings One Year Anniversary, Sat., March 19, 2022

 

One year anniversay of Wombfulness Gatherings this weekend, Sat., March 19, 2022, 10-12 noon PT at the SF Main Library, African American Center. It's virtual. Register in advance. See you there.

https://sfpl.org/.../03/19/dialogue-wombfulness-gathering

Wombfulness Gathering No. 6

This will be our last intimate gathering, the final gathering Sat., March 19, 10-12 noon PT, will be in collaboration with SF Library, African American Center. It will be a conversation with Iya Arisika Razak, Opal Palmer Adisa, Marje and Maïs Lingani.

This month, Sat., Jan. 29, 10-12 noon PT,  we are having presenters: Kelli Dillon, Back to Basics; CA Reparations Bill for incarcerated survivors of forced sterilizations; "Belly of the Beast," film.

Vynetta A. Morrow, Visionary Strategist, Educator & Curriculum Designer & Poet. 

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvcOuorD4vG93axcURrIO1j5KnZADv3Xe1

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

Wanda Sabir, facilitator, is a journalist (Wanda's Picks), college professor, visual artist, Depth Psychologist, and poet who believes in the power of art to change and shape social movements as well as assist in trauma healing and memory reclamation work. Co-founder of Maafa San Francisco Bay Area, she launched in March 2021 “Wombfulness Gatherings.”   













To do:

Please add to our virtual altar before our meeting, if possible. Hit the + (plus) sign for a new pad to add photos, audio or video of yourm ancestor:  
https://padlet.com/maafasfbayarea/Bookmarks


To prepare:

Bring a small object for the altar, a lit candle (it can be lithium), a plant or some earth, water and/or a warm drink, something that makes a sound like a bell, shaker. Dress to move. Bring a chair, paper and pen.

Wombfulness Gathering #5 Program

IMAHKÜS Njinga Okofu Ababio

nialla rose

        Wanda Sabir

Here is the program for Wombfulness Gathering #5. It was a wonderful conclusion to our first year. We look forward to continuing January and March 2022 this first year cycle. 

Introductions --

Wanda Sabir, host, and presenters: nialla rose & IMAHKÜS Njinga Okofu Ababio 

Libation-- IMAHKÜS Njinga Okofu Ababio 

Theme this final Gathering for 2021 -- Being Free

Soundtrack:

"I'm Coming Out" - Diana Ross (Ase)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbYcte4ZEgQ&t=1s

Lizzo's "Good As Hell"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmbmeOgWsqE&t=6s

"No Scrubs" -- TLC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrLequ6dUdM&t=14s

"Brown Skin Girl"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXrhqhW2kiU

"Blk Girl Soldier" - Jamila Woods

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asVhafDASjo&t=3s

"Just Fine" -- Mary J. Blidge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ZjBPXSmnE

Resources:

the first free women: poems of the early Buddhist Nuns, trans., Matty Weigast. The idea was to choose a poem and respond in writing or a drawing or even a movement. 

Poems:
Another Uttama (39)

Uttama -- Great Woman (37-38)

Jenta-- Conqueror (24-25)

Dhira--Self-Reliant (9)

Vira-- Hero (10)

Other translations of the Therigatha, the earliest known collection of women's religious poetry, by Charles Hallisey (2015)

Susan Murcott (1991): The First Buddhist Women

Other work:

Life, I Swear: Intimate Stories from Black Women on Identity, Healing and Self-Trust (2021) by Chloe Dulce Louvouwzo. There are great essays and writing prompts in the collection -- 25 Black women. 

Wanda's Picks Radio Interview with Chloe Dulce Louvouwzo on Wed., Nov. 17, 2021

Lastly, we were going to use this poem by Derek Walcott, "Love after Love," as a prompt; however, we ran out of time: https://allpoetry.com/love-after-love

Love after Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Wombfulness Gathering #5 Sat., Nov. 20, 2021

This months presenters are:

IMAHKÜS Njinga Okofu Ababio 

IMAHKÜS Njinga Okofu Ababio is the CEO and owner of the beautiful Health Resort, Restaurant and Wellness Centre, which also operates a Tour Service, located in the Central Region of Ghana in the historic village of Iture, in Elmina. She has been in Ghana for 30 years after having repatriated with her husband, Nana Okofo, a retired New York City Firefighter from New York City.  Unfortunately, he was killed by a hit and run driver in July 2007.  One Africa has been recognized by the Ghana Tourist Board as one of Ghana’s leading Guest Houses and Tour services.

One Africa Health Resort and Restaurant is a unique and historically charming bed and breakfast (B & B), built as simple, traditional African Chalets, beautifully and colorfully decorated, overlooking the Gulf of Guinea, and situated between two major edifices, the Cape Coast and Elmina Castle Dungeons. There are twelve guest rooms to choose from, named in honor of famous Africans, i.e., Dr. John Henrik Clarke, the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Queen Mother Moore, Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) and others.  Reasonable rates include Complimentary Breakfast and Taxes.

  Tai Chi Embodying the Heart Qualities with nialla rose

 nialla rose has been formally studying Tai     Chi for 3 years. She has been collaborating with her Tai Chi Chih teacher and other   movement partners to make this form of Qi Gong accessible  and available to everyone.   You don’t need shoes or special clothing,   simply an open mind. Movements can be practiced standing or seated, the qi, or life energy, in us all effortlessly flows.

Listen to nialla speak about her practice on Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Nov. 17, 2021. 

Facilitator: Sister Wanda Sabir, MAAFA SF Bay Area

Wanda Sabir is a journalist and poet moonlighting as a college professor in Alameda (wandaspicks.com). Her interests and expertise are historic & persistent trauma and trauma healing—the Maafa, specifically ancestral memories, dream tending and the use of Art & Appreciative Inquiry to stimulate those forgotten conversations, especially among Diaspora descendants free and legally enslaved. She is co-founder & CEO of MAAFA San Francisco Bay Area and recent recipient of the Distinguished 400 Award, 400 Years of African American History Commission (2019). She is a Transformative Justice (TJ) or Community Accountability facilitator who believes the true revolution starts at home.


Register in Advance:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvcOuorD4vG93axcURrIO1j5KnZADv3Xe1

“Wombfulness Gatherings’” bimonthly goal is create safety so wombs can finally speak. We are looking to invite wom(b)en whose wombs were surgically removed without permission as happened to women incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla, CA and CA Institute for Women in Corona, CA. Bring wombs violated and oppressed; wombs invaded, wombs wandering and directionless—healthy wombs are of course welcome.  Black wom(b)an are invited. Register in advance. Please have a working camera on your device. Let us know in advance if this is a problem.  

 

Wombfulness Gathering #3

Our third Wombfulness Gathering is tomorrow, Sat., July 21, 10-12 noon. 

Presenters this Gathering are: Makeda Sandra Hooper Mayfield, writer, healer, and Lorraine Bonner, artist, writer, physician. Iya Makeda will be sharing poetry and stories, and talk about a 12 step program she facilitates with African Diaspora women. Dr. Bonner will share poetry and ceramic sculpture. She has work on fibroids. Her art is always personal and moving.