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.