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

Brothers and Sisters,

Nia is dear to my heart because it is the last three letters of my name. Life is hard. I often want to give up. Then I think about my purpose. I believe that God/Universe assigns us to a task and grants us the means to complete the task. I know I am meant to impact the world of foster care, inspire students, and help students to get to college, stay in college, and graduate from college. I know I am meant to be a leader by example. There are so many people, without hope, without faith in themselves. I ask you a question, what are you to do about it? I know my goal, my purpose. Do you know yours? We are a great people. We have a strong history and if you look from the timeline when we left the continent of Africa, we have not given up. We have adapted and survived, and I know that there was a slave three generations ago, praying for me, to make something out of my life, and to not take their strive, hard work, and diligence for granted. We have a long way to go. It won’t end with me and or my generation but with our children’s children. We are called to be leaders, leading with greatness. We are called to be warriors. We are called to be children of the highest God. A God who represents love, justice, integrity, willingness, hope, and peace. We are to be world changers and history makers. Our black men are called to sit at the head of the table. Our women are called to be a force of strength, and source of power. We condemn the beatings, whooping’s and lynching, of our ancestors and out of it, make a world that is collective, and creative, honest, and pure to change and add to society. We must know our purpose is to continue to fight and not let our voice be stolen. We are more than conquers. “We are phenomenal and phenomenally made”, as Maya says and to answer Langston’s question, a dream deferred is like a seed fallen on dry land, and it does wither in the sun. We are dreamers and creators. We have a purpose as a race and as a people. We can make it. We will make it. Together with everyone. This fight is not just a black fight, it’s a human fight. We are just the first target. Let’s take our world back, gain a voice, and make a historical imprint on this earth as Malcolm and King did. It’s not over until it’s over!

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

Brothers and Sisters,

We were given this land to take care of it, help heal it when sick, enjoy its riches and glories. Live in the colors of nature. Eat when need to be fed of what is provided by the earth. Never taking to much! Always we are to replenish. We have destroyed this land and become consumed with materialism. We take and take. No one is listening to the cries of mother earth. We are killing ourselves, and not giving our children a future. I want to grow old. I want my great-grandchildren to have a future. We profit from local businesses, shop at local farms and support and replenish the trees, grow forests, walk the dirt roads and when we start thinking about what we cannot carry when die. We need to value and asses truth and how will we respond to our creator. We need to think about our creator, whoever you believe in, and think about the responsibility we were given and how much we are giving back. When being asked how have we taken care of the earth? How did we enjoy our journey? I fear what our answers will be. Taking care of nature is not our only concern, but how we have taken care of one another. How we respond to the natural crisis, are we feeding the poor? Why are children dying? Why do we murder one another? Why are pairs of sneakers more important than the home we live in? Why have we glorified one race and condemned another? You are my brother. You are my sister. Judgment must go. Hatred needs to cease. We need true love, authentic love; AGAPE love. We need to profit from one another. We need to support our dreams and goals. Education should be free! I could go on for days, but I’ll stop here. Ujamaa demands that we become our own entrepreneurs, spread money in the community and not for corporate businesses. We profit locally includes farming being organic. Never taking to much that we cannot give back. We have one earth and we are one race.

2019 let’s do better!

Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and to solve them together.

United we stand

Divided we fall

Our historical and ancestral African community

Cried together

Ate together

Worshipped together

Laughed together

Watched children for one another

Not one was a stranger, and everyone is family

No matter the texture of your hair

No matter how light or dark your skin

No matter level of intelligence

We stood and we stand together

Our Black lives mattered before it became a statement

We were proud of our roots

The curve of our hips

The broadness of our back

Together we were

Together we are

When one succeeds, we all succeed!

No one is greater than another

We aim to become a being of wisdom

The next one to tell the littles our history

How we fought the good fight

How we persevered and sacrificed

I am proud of being Black.

I am proud of my curly afro

Proud of my locs

Thick thighs

Multi complexion

Proud of those who went before me

I am the answered prayer of a slave

I am FREEDOM

I am INTEGRITY

I am GRACE

I am who I say I am

I am BLACK

I am TRANS

I am GAY

I am SMART

I am a fighter

Our dreams will be conquered

We History’s maker

And, World Changers!

Until I return to dust

I rise!

We Rise

I am not one without the other

United We Stand

Divided We Fall