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COMING HOME (10.28.04)

 

A few days ago I was walking through my old stomping grounds on the campus of Clark Atlanta University. I swear, every corner I turned onto, I remembered a plethora of things that happened during my time in the Atlanta University Center. A few things have changed whereas this gigantic parking deck has been erected where once there was just a plain parking lot, between Morehouse and Spelman's campus. Then there's the new Carl & Mary Ware Academic Center where there was once just a few trailers, which I think were for the scholarship offices. Of course, they would build a Publix, a Blockbuster, and whatever else off of MLK Dr. after I leave when most of us had to trek to the old Cub Foods that was at the West End Mall/Hall, and then later having to make the journey to Kroger's on Cascade. Stegall's, that day, seemed to be out of food (or out of pigeons to make those "chicken wings" they served), but it was good to see Pop's still alive and kickin' and chillin' in his favorite chair watching the students go by on their way to and from class or from Woodruff Library (infamously dubbed "Club Woody"...although I got some good sleep there). The relevancy of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities has never changed or deteriorated.  

The power and history behind some of the greatest people of color to walk the face of the earth in modern and post-modern times is held within that space of land called the AUC. While an undergrad, I took it upon myself to explore the layout and become familiar not only with my campus, but to get acquainted with Morris Brown's, and Spelman's, and More house's, and ITC's so that I could get a feel for my academic neighbors and maybe make a new friend here or there. I went up to the Archives & Special Collections department, 3rd floor, in Woodruff (the "vacuum room" to me since no one went there and it was spookily quiet). Before they began controlling the amount of direct access one could have with the material in there, I was actually able to hold in my bare hands, the original works and documents of some of the most renowned African-American personages of generations before ours...even before my grandfather. From the Countee Cullen collection, I held an original Langston Hughes poem in my hand entitled, "A Dream Variation"...I mean, handwritten in pencil, by the author himself, dated in April of 1926--I was almost scared that I'd breathe on it wrong or accidentally do something to it but it was powerful to read something I had only seen in a textbook and know that this was the actual source. Or when I held in my hand the actual typewritten letter that Alex Haley wrote to his publisher at Reader's Digest to request the permission to do an autobiography on a prominent Black leader during that time named Malcolm X.

I read the first draft of a 20+ page, typed document by W.E.B. DuBois that would go to the United Nations to make a human rights case concerning the crimes against and many lynchings of sharecroppers and other African-Americans suffering under the injustices of racial oppression. I even read a newspaper, as best I could without damaging its already decaying state, from the late 1800s called "The Negro Sentinel", that ran a story about Booker T. Washington's court case concerning a white man who accused him of being a "peeping tom", spying on he and his wife, but it ended up that Booker won the case, not just on his notoriety, but also because it wasn't even the man's wife but his mistress, so the case was thrown out because of his adultery--oh, and Booker was actually looking for an associate but opened the wrong door--go fig. What was the sad but very explosive point towards one of the strongest cases towards the significance of HBCUs was when I left there, feeling enlightened and empowered, time-traveling to the past amongst the ancestors...and then I walk outside onto campus, back to the future and get inundated with blaring rap with cacophonic lines of "n*ggas, b*tches, etc., or seeing the young sistas wearing next to nothing, as is common during the first warm week of the Spring semester, and I felt very detached and sad all at once. 

"Homecoming" means something different to me, because for many, they never made it home yet. Many come to Homecoming because they are there to celebrate and rekindle their party years and meet up with some of the friends/associates they made along the way. Homecoming to me means revisiting the place where you came from. That probably wasn't deep to you so let me delineate further...I have yet to step on African soil, but the knowledge and history bestowed upon me while at CAU from those who took it upon themselves to deprogram me from the drastically altered Western academic perspective that I had been taught prior to attending an HBCU, brought me back home, mentally. I was given a mental bridge to my ancestral home via the knowledge that was esoteric to me for years in this Western world. Many will "come home" to their respective school; some to even flaunt how they've "arrived". How beautiful would it be that the majority would come home...the place where they first understood where their true home was and why it is still home...and to finally have arrived, in the light of self-knowledge. For those who return home, continuing in the light of truth, welcome back. 

HOMECOMING EVENTS:

 There are so many throughout the city that I couldn't even begin to list them all, so here are some of the main ones you'll need to check out for, at least, most of the official ones... 

http://www.cau.edu/homecoming2004/events.pdf

 http://www.morehouse.edu/Homecoming/2004.html

 http://www.spelmanhomecoming.com/

 http://www.vipuniversal.com/ebroadcasts/exclusives/prophecy_10282004.htm

http://www.caureunion.com/party.html (had to plug CAU more than once, ya mean?)

http://www.parrrtay.com/ (if just for the video, check this one out...RM Lathan is a fool )

http://teamfcc.com/schooldaze/roys-04-wm-dsl.html (I suppose not to be outdone, here's another with video accompanying the e-flyer from a few cats I went to school with).

Speaking of school fam, I'd be remiss if I didn't send some love out to Ytasha Womack (CAU fam), the producer and writer of her independent film "Love Shorts Vol. I" that made its Atlanta debut at this past Urban Film Review at the Woodruff Library (10.25.04). That was one of the best indie films I have seen in a long time and a fairly balanced view of the trials, tribulation, and hilarious aspects of love relationships between African-American men and women from a female point of view, though not narrated as such. This work was filmed on location in Chicago. If you want to know if this film will be screening in your city, e-mail Art Ink Entertainment at: flylife@sbcglobal.net. I give it !  

I also have to say that Fertile Ground's concert at the Afrikan Djeli Cultural Center, last Friday, was the best concert I have attended in quite some time! It was beautiful to see all of my nartural folks (with a number of perms as well--LOL), in a multicultural array of the African Diaspora. It was also a pleasure to hit the dance floor to some hype music that didn't contain any profanity, and where even children could be and a few were there--me and this one brother were dancing to the music with this young boy, probably 2 or 3, dancing within a sort of circle we made for him...felt like a rights of passage kind of thing, but it was beautiful. The only female I danced with that night was a beautiful, bright-eyed 5 year-old with cute braids--felt like a proud father dancing with his daughter. The majority of the crowd was adult age, but the overall atmosphere was a family environment and it was one of the most positive experiences that I've felt in a long time at an event! If you know about Giwayen Mata, then you know how they got down! It is almost too beautiful to aptly describe the whole vibe but it was strange but wonderful to leave an event at 2 o'clock in the morning and not smell like smoke or see anyone leaving inebriated.

Keep http://www.djeliculturalarts.com/ in your favorites if you want experience quality cultural events and attend nutrition, dance, martial arts, and spiritual classes.  

For additional, non-Homecoming related events, please link to: www.atlantahapps.com/upcoming_events.htm

In closing...

I gotta give props to the Boston Red Sox...absolutely amazing, if I do say so myself and I'm a NY Yankees fan, naturally, but I got a thing for the underdogs and NY, unfortunately, blew their chance--thus they didn't deserve it this year (but there's always next year). I wonder, though...just as some have stereotypically re-named the NBA as the Negro Basketball Association, I wonder if they'll do the same to baseball's MLB as Majority Latino Baseball? Hey, you know someone's gonna say it at some point if they haven't already. 

Anyway, I don't celebrate Halloween, and those of you who profess to be Christians and/or religious peeps of some particular faith (aside from the Church of Satan, who'd be probably be exempt) who parade your children around from door-to-door in costumes (I don't even care if they're portraying Bible characters or historical figures), let's be real...whatchu thinkin...who you foolin'?!

If ya need a history lesson, go here: http://www.rumela.com/events/events_october_halloween.htm

 Oh, and for the young lady in New Jersey who looked me up...you are too much! Thanks for the photo.