Kwanzaa

In the midst of chaos there was a moment of beauty. Kwanzaa at Amherst College was a moment for me with so much beauty and so many motivational messages. One high light was they guys drumming for the event. Khalila couldn't resist being with her brothers so she took a seat next to Z and started shaking her stick, on cue. Thank you to the community at Amherst College and especially Dean Moss for putting together such an amazing Kwanzaa. I laughed, I cried, I got outraged, I got inspired, I got connected. Lift every voice and sing...





Here is another shot of the guys drumming for Ms. Marilyn and extraordinary dancer.

Here are the seven principles of Kwanzaa


NGUZO SABA(The Seven Principles)

Umoja (Unity)To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.

Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Nia (Purpose)To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Kuumba (Creativity)To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Imani (Faith)To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

­ Maulana Karenga



Khalila came through a challenging birth, in some ways, and although we were close to a c-section she was determined to be birthed through the canal. We were thinking about making her middle name Kuji for her self-determination but there is already one Kuji in Amherst so we went for Imani, faith. Also giving her the middle initial i creates khalila and her name is a combination of my initials hal, and her initials kila.

So very punished as it has been ages since my last post.
My fifteen hour days leave me depleted or energy and creativity.
I will reclaim that and give more room for my voice.


A couple of recaps for the past month.


We are still in our new house, the lead is almost abated at the other place.

Here is a picture taken from the house that is being worked on.



Project 2050 performed in NYC for Universes 10th anniversary
Here are my girls, Nene, Amira, and Miss Liz getting ready for our show. I love these girls so much, they are my long lost little sisters and I can't even imagine the past year with out them.

We celebrated our Thankful day on Friday, as is our usual custom. This year we did not go to the day of mourning in Plymouth, but instead went to the annual "Battle of the Bridge" a football game between Amherst and Northampton. On of our guys was playing, and it was the coldest, rainiest day I have ever spent at a football game. I enjoyed hanging out with his mother and sister during the game. As the two little ones played in the car. Although we lost, Mr. T. got the MVP for the game.