BSEI PROMOTIONAL VIDEO

Samori Speaks at the University of Texas

Proud Mama Moment!!!

Here's the story. Our children have been involved in this wonderful 10 week program and between the 2 of them they have been taking 3 classes. One of the classes was an acting class. My son LOVES to be seen, thrives off of attention, and has no concept of what it means to be embarrassed. My daughter likes to be seen on her own terms, likes getting attention in familiar settings, and is easily embarrassed. Somehow in this play my son ends up with a non-speaking part and my daughter with a speaking role. He was a munchkin from Munchkin Land and she played the OZ!!! What is the world?! When I found out I went with it. They've seen The Wiz, but never the Wizard of Oz, but they are similar enough that my daughter knew that she had a pretty major role. Last night as we sat in the pews and watched the displays from the other classes my heart began to ache for my daughter. I watched my dichotomous children as one smiled endlessly while the other fought back tears. I wanted to save her. I wanted to sit on the front row and rock her, but I knew that my hug would release a river of tears. Tonight would have to be the night that she learned what kind of women she is birthed from. I, for once, wouldn't be her savior. Well the first time she had to go on stage was for her photography class. To my surprise they had to stand up and read from a card about the various type of photography they'd learned about. Her voice and articulation were AMAZING!!! As of late we have had to ask her to stop mumbling so I was in a state of pure bliss. Not to mention, this child is gorgeous. Beauty AND brains? Um...yea...that's how we grow 'em in our family. Thank ya kindly. Anyway, when she sat down she went back into panic mode and I went back into savior mode. We both fought our respective battles in silence. The play began and when her part came I kept sending her "you-can-do-this-because-you-come-from-strong-women-and-3-of-us-are-here-to-support-you" vibes. Her part began behind a curtain because as you recall The Oz is hidden at first. When her voice boomed through the sanctuary I started to tear up and swell with pride. HONEY!!! That's MY BABY!!! Then in the play when they discovered that The Oz was just a person, I braced myself because now she was in front of the audience. HONEY? She played that part like only a sista could. I thought I was watching The Wiz with a strong female leading role!!! Tears flowing, I look at my husband who is fighting tears too. Y'all don't understand. This child didn't break out of her shell. She melted that that bad boy and was bathed in feminine flyness when she emerged. I was just so amazed my her.

Troy Davis = Naomi Winfrey

Solove Concord,NC police brutality

Malcolm X day speech -Samori Speaks

Wow, I didn't realize that it was this bad...

Okay, so I've been helping my niece who is the Site Coordinator/Head Teacher for a summer camp. When I say help I mean that I come once a week and do a science class and hang around long enough to help her with whatever else she needs.

I wasn't scheduled to come until tomorrow, but I found out that she was there alone and decided to go help out. I found out first hand what the teachers in the school system are dealing with. The causes of it are a tangled web of issues, but I'll only focus on 3. The issues are a lack of critical thinking/curiosity, poor diet, and a lack of discipline.

I walked in to see a frazzled teacher and wild rambunctious boys. Now understand that my niece is good at what she does, but there is something to be said of being a mother and being older...I'm both. I walked in and got everybody settled. I figured out who hit who, set some new ground rules, divided the room up by age, and began playing games. My group of 3 boys played "Guess Who". I explained the game and got them set up to play. When it was time to ask the questions, all of the children seemed to be at a loss. They couldn't figure out the most basic questions to ask. I was prepared for this, because PS kind of "beats" questioning out of children. When my children first came home they couldn't ask a decent question either. Once we started with "Is you person a man or a woman? Does you person have on a hat?" etc. I stopped feeding them the question and encouraged them to formulate their own questions. I got chirping crickets. They kept repeating the questions that I'd fed them. I asked them to tell me the differences between the people, but they couldn't. Rather than getting discouraged, I realized that we just have more work to do.

A part of the program is that they serve lunch to any child that comes in for free. They don't have to be a part of the summer camp to eat the breakfast and lunch. The food that I've seen is pretty well balanced and healthy. I could tell, however, that these children are being feed on a diet of processed foods, sugars, and a lack of water. I saw silver fillings in their mouths, ashy skin, and discolored eyes. Another sign is that they couldn't focus for more than a few minutes at a time. During the reading time I simply stopped more often during the book time to ask questions to keep them focus. During lunch time, however, they were unable to follow the most simplistic directions given by my niece. Every noise would cause them to be distracted. I had to take one baby's face and hold it until he could focus eye to eye with me so I could give him his next instruction.

Children crave discipline. They need it. It doesn't mean that you scream and yell at them. That is not discipline. It means that you help them to organize their thoughts and actions so that they can sort through them and make good decisions. Unfortunately, this requires time spent with our children and many parents don't have a lot of time. That means that we have to put in some time with children that we didn't birth. It takes a village to raise a child. Well the village is all messed up, so rather than complain, let's heal the village. The children need us. The teachers need our support.

Don't complain about the children that you don't take time with. Don't talk about "other people's kids" because traditionally the children belonged to everyone. They NEED us.

Samori Speaks on Afri-cans not Afri-can'ts

My jewelry

I wanted to share a slide show of my jewelry. The majority of what I create is one of a kind and intended to be as unique as you are. If you like what you see and would like to purchase some piece visit me at http://www.etsy.com/shop/abenaevolving?ref=si_shop

Pics!

Art by Sunshine!!! I think this is so beautiful AND I love the contrast colors that she chose as the background (her wall and comforter. ;)



Spike swinging his freshly tightened locks.



I hate when he smiles like this, but he seems to think it's hilarious. lol

Be careful. Those eyes will get you.

My husband the jungle gym. lol



The fun continues!!! Btw, oko mi was sweating by the end of it all. lol



Wearing his Baba's clothes...idk. lol

Back shot

The help. I hired them for the day. They work for food.

Taking a break already?

Okay homeschoolers, WHAT IS THIS? It looks like a fly-bee hybrid to me...

Samori Camara-Mentacide vs Independent Education

Updates

What have we been doing? Living. I feel as though I have finally found a balance. That doesn't mean that I am locked into a particular way of doing things. What it means is that I have found something that works well for all of us in this moment in time.

This spring and summer I plan on enrolling Sunshine and Spike in some of the programs that are offered at our local recreation center. Sunshine has joined a book club geared toward African American girls. She loves it and I love that she loves it!

That's really about all for right now.

Sunshine



Spike's teeth finally grew back



Why we should homeschool and intergration was NOT good for us...