Catching Up - in one (long) breath

(Disclaimer: This blog entry is longer than normal because we covered over a year’s worth of activities. We promise the next one will be much shorter. J&J)
We hope this little newsletter finds you and yours all doing well and blessed. After a long break, we are “blogging” again. In fact, the last entry we made was in October 2009 (two years??); so at the suggestion of some dear friends, we decided that it was about time to do it again. We are going to report on what we’ve been doing starting with the Spring of 2010. We both came down with a case of CRS, but we’ll try to play catch-up. Thank heavens for the pictures with dates in our computer’s picture gallery.

The spring of 2010 was very memorable. Starting off in January, we were overjoyed at Heshima and Yun-Chi's

wedding celebration. Yun-Chi’s parents from Taiwan as well as friends and family from near and far attended their reception. This is a couple that truly supports each other and we wish them all the happiness in the world. Afterwards, Barry and Judy came down to Savannah with us to take in some beach weather. The joy they brought with them was an important part of our ability to continue to keep smiling. Of course, there was the Savannah Black Heritage Festival and the Music Festival, where we volunteer, but at this juncture, they are just part of the cultural landscape.

In May we had a truly memorable experience. On the weekend of May 1st we made a whirlwind “Civil Rights Pilgrimage” with our long-time friends Sherry and Chester Robinson from Ohio. We met up in Atlanta, and drove about 2 hours to Tuskegee, Alabama where we met up with Sherry’s cousin

Alva “Sunshine” (originally from Macon), who gave us a tour of the beautiful Tuskeegee University campus, the George Washington Carver Museum (highly recommended!), and Moton Field where the Tuskeegee Airmen (and women) were trained in the 1940s. We spent the night at the Kellogg Center, Tuskegee University’s campus hotel, which has beautiful well-appointed accommodations, excellent food, and even a jazz combo playing in the lounge on weekends. [A comprehensive guide to the University is available online. On their Home Page, click “Tours”, then pull up the 32-page PDF “Self Guided Tour.”] The following day we went to Montgomery to visit Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, the Rosa Parks Library and Museum and the Civil Rights Memorial next to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Then it was on to Selma where we crossed the infamous Edmund Pettis Bridge, the scene of tremendous police brutality in the 1960s. Our last stop was Birmingham. On Sunday, we attended service at the 16th Street Baptist Church that was bombed in 1963 taking the lives of four little girls and across the street to Kelly Ingram Park where dogs were set on children.

We also visited the Civil Rights museum which featured a replica of the bus made famous by Rosa Parks’ sit-down action, among other exhibits. It is absolutely amazing the level of courage that the people had to endure all that in order to get a little dignity. It’s sad how many of the younger generation take those sacrifices of others for granted. That was our major travel event last spring, and it was quite memorable and moving.

And finally, in May Jesse put on his thespian hat again when he played the character "Doker" in the local community theater’s rendition of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. He enjoyed meeting and working with some very talented young people from the area.

In the summer of 2010 we came north to Amherst to renew our ties to our extended family as well as to the folks in the neighborhood. You know that is always a good thing.

The rest of 2010 was wonderful and blessed and we were up to our usual activities. Jo took a crafts class at Armstrong Atlantic State University and taught a kids' sewing class right down the

road at the Crusader Community Center. For Thanksgiving, our children came to Savannah which was a joyous time for all. We had usually been going to Poughkeepsie to have Thanksgiving with Ma James, but knew we would be going up for her birthday in March. Christmas was quiet and we participated in Kwanzaa ceremonies with the community.

2011 has also been a good year. Thus far we’ve had visits from several friends and family: Barry and Judy, Frances Washington Person and her husband Bill, Adrianne Andrews, Yvonne and Doug, Chris Ford, and Ayo and Kofi. With Barry and Judy we went to Midway (GA) to the historic Dorchester Academy, formerly a private Black school and “safe place” where Martin Luther King and other leaders got away to strategize, plan and train civil rights activists. We took Ayo and Kofi down to the Geechee Kunda Homecoming and to Tybee for kite flying. We also went dolphin watching on Hilton Head which was cool.

In March we traveled up to Poughkeepsie to celebrate Ma James' 100th birthday. What a celebration that was! And to top it off, the following Saturday we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of Marisha Joyner, Jesse’s God-daughter, and Kenneth Tolson. We saw folks there that we had not seen for a long, long time. The Brooks’ family gave us a place to stay while we were in town for which we are truly grateful. When we returned to Savannah, it was Savannah Music Festival time. We ushered about 10 events in 2 weeks. Whew! The highlight was the back-to-back Maceo Parker “Funky Dance Party.” Two shows. What fun!

During April, Faith Ringgold came down and had an exhibit of her Tar Beach drawings, story quilts and her dolls at the SCAD Museum. Jo took some of the children and adults from the local Crusader Center to the show. This was their first field trip in a long time and one which they enjoyed very much.
For our anniversary in May, we took a day trip to Augusta, GA. We visited James Brown Plaza and the Lucy Laney Museum.

We were familiar with her name – a dorm at Lincoln U. was named in her honor – but we didn’t know what an amazing woman she was. She was a protege of Mary McLeod Bethune, another powerhouse of a woman. On the way back from Augusta, we passed through and had dinner in Waynesboro GA which, we later found out, is the hometown of Dorothy and Bob Green. Small world!

In June, we visited Macon, GA for the dedication of a city park to the parents of Jacquelyn Smith Crooks. While there, we reconnected with our good sister and Jacquelyn’s bosom buddy, Peliwe Lolwana from South Africa who was in the country at the time. We had stayed with Peliwe when we were in South Africa in 2005. The day we were there just happened to be the last weekend before the Georgia Music Hall of Fame was to close its doors, so we checked it out along with the Tubman African American Museum.

In early July, we made our trek up to Amherst, by way of Maryland, to get our batteries charged again. It always does our hearts good to see family and friends and we thank you all for your friendship and love. The Omega Psi Phi Centennial Conclave was in DC the end of July. You know, Jess couldn’t miss that gathering of brothers. Washington was a sea of purple and the whole week went on without incident. We went back to Amherst to finish up another beautiful (and cool) summer vacation. We are blessed.
We promise to continue writing our “next chapter” real soon.
JoAnn and Jesse

Family Time and Other September Happenings

(It's butterfly migration time)

Hello out there! We hope that peace and happiness prevails with you all. Everything is fine with us here in Savannah, and we’re back with an update.

Actually, not a whole lot has been happening with us since we last wrote. On Sunday the 13th, we decided to start off the week by going to church, so we went to St. James A.M.E. Church in Savannah. The service was very similar to most of the others we attended; however, there was one funny thing. Jesse noticed that there was a pair of dice on the cushion of the bench where we were sitting. He pointed it out to JoAnn who whispered that maybe the dice had been sanctified. Jesse decided to leave them there. (P.S. Two weeks later, we went back to the church, same pew, to see if the dice were still there. They were. – That’s one way to get us to come back.)


On Friday Jesse took a 12:30 am train up to D.C. to pick up his car that he had left with Ayo, and to help her pick out one for herself. It was a great trip. Jesse got to hang out with his kids and thoroughly enjoyed that quality time with them. Ayo got an 87 Camry to get her through the school year. Friday evening, Jesse took Kofi to Aikido practice where Kofi was given the challenge of instructing a younger child. On Saturday they went to Kofi’s African drumming class. Jesse was one proud grand dad. That afternoon Ayo and Jesse went to a street festival on “V” Street NW, which wasn’t all that impressive, but they had fun hanging together. Then, that night Heshima treated Jesse to a “father and son” steak dinner which was very enjoyable, after which they went to the Bohemian Cavern for a jazz set. The whole evening made Jesse very happy. One thing that stood out during this visit was the drastic change in the character and demography along “U” street that has taken place over the years. Folks who are familiar with the area (or 125th Street in Harlem for that matter) will know what that means; what they call “gentrification.” Sunday afternoon, Jesse, Ayo, and Heshima took Kofi to the go-kart race track and everybody took a few turns around the track. Needless to say, Kofi loved it. And he’s a very good driver.

While Jess was gone, Jo found ways to fill her time. On Saturday, she and Sara spent an afternoon at Tybee beach; a beautiful day for a beach wedding and wind surfing.

(Can you find the wind surfer?)

That evening, she went “solo” to an evening of jazz standards sung by Claire Frazier in the garden of the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum. In true “Slo-vannah” fashion, Jo thought she would be getting there in time for the 2nd set (the starting time was 7pm) only to find out when she arrived at 7:45 that the very first song was just ending. So she got to see the whole program sitting next to a young (30-something) sister who is a newcomer to Savannah. Around noon on Monday, Jo had a very interesting picnic lunch in Forsyth Park with Sara. Jo was sitting on the park bench when Sara pointed out this little black animal scampering very quickly towards us. When Jo turned around, all of a sudden they heard snorting. Well, it was a pot-belly pig which had gotten loose and had about 4 college students running around the park trying to catch it. First they tried luring it into a dog carrier which some other people had brought their 9 dalmation puppies to the park in. When the pig would not go anywhere near the carrier, they tried to get the pig to go inside a fenced in tennis court. That attempt also failed. After about 30 minutes, the college students just left, but along came a police officer who was not having any better luck. When we left the park (after about an hour), the officer was on his cell phone calling for back up. As we were walking back to the car, we passed some brothers who had been hanging out on one of the benches. They told us that they had been watching this fiasco since 8am. We thought this would be a great story for a slow news day, but it didn’t make it. Jo wonders if they ever caught the pig. Too bad she didn’t have a video camera. After the lunch, they took in a stained glass art show by Erica Rollings at the city’s art gallery, S.P.A.C.E. It was fabulous. Two major subjects were anatomy parts and game boards. The photos on her web site really don’t show how vibrant the glass is, but they are the next best thing to being there. Here are Jo’s pictures.

Jesse returned to Savannah on Tuesday and we were glad to see each other. This was the longest amount of time we have been apart in ages. Thursday evening, we went to the Savannah Jazz Festival “blues night” at Forsyth Park and found it to be a pretty nice gathering of mainly caucasian people and a line-up of regional groups with Mose Alison headlining the evening. We heard Tybee Beach calling us on Friday, so we answered the call and went along with sandwiches and beer. The weather was perfect-not too hot, and not too cool.

Moon River

Saturday morning, Jesse went fishing on the Moon River (while Jo read and tried taking pictures of the butterflies that are migrating south). Jesse caught one decent size croaker, big enough for lunch; all the others were way too small so Jesse threw them back. We both had fun.

Well that’s it for now. We’ll check in with you all later. Stay well.

JoAnn and Jesse

Lands End Festival-September 2009

Well, folks… we made it back to Savannah after spending a very enjoyable but way too short six weeks in Amherst. It was really good to experience the friendship and love from folks that we have known for so long, and we thank them for their kindnesses and extend that love back to them. We’re looking forward to seeing the folks who promised to visit.

(Hadley, MA)

Since we had a lot more stuff for our return trip to Savannah, we rented a truck (from Budget), and we loaded it up with a lot of good help from Christopher Brooks (now that’s a good young man). Our plan was to leave Amherst on Saturday the 29^th at 7am; so we left promptly at 2:15pm for an overnight stop at Ayo’s in Maryland. JoAnn led the way in the car. After a stop near Fayetteville, for the night on Sunday, we got to Savannah Monday afternoon and with help from our neighbor, Joe Bennett, we had the truck unloaded by 6:30. Then all we had to do was to unpack the boxes and sort stuff out; we’re still doing that but we only have a little bit to go.

(Kofi and his friend Nicholas in their hide-out)

As we begin Volume 2 of our blog, we have decided to highlight one event or observation each week. This week, we highlight the Land’s End Woodland River Festival.

On Saturday, September 5^th, we drove up to the annual Lands End Woodland River Festival on St. Helena’s Island, SC, about an hour and a quarter from Savannah. Dessie Baker (you may remember her from Onawumi’s birthday celebrations) was our “guide.” The festival site is on the Woodland River, just a few miles away from the Penn Center. The parcel of land is owned by the Land’s End Woodland Organization, formed by 47 Gullah families in 1921. It’s mission remains the same as when it was formed: to protect, preserve, and keep ownership of the property, and they’ve done a good job of it. Preservation of the land is so important because there are always many developers who want to take over the land on the island, which would change the whole character of St. Helena’s. Click here for information about the festival. For more information about the organization, go to their Home page.

(Lands End beachfront)

There were a number of entertainers throughout the day: a cappella singing; praise dancing by some young people; ring shouts; story telling; a demonstration of net-making by Mr. Joseph Legree, an 85-year-old elder of the community; and of course, craft and, food vendors selling all manner of soul food. And of course, Ms. Anita Prather as “Aunt Pearlie Sue” and Queen Quet, the Queen Mother of the Gullah Nation, were there to put the festival into the proper context of passing on the culture. Everybody seemed to have great time. Couldn’t help themselves

(Mr. Joseph Legree)

On our way back from St Helena’s Island, we stopped in Beaufort, SC for a short while. Dessie showed us around area which was the home of Robert Smalls, a U.S. (Gullah) congressman and Civil War hero. Our stop was much too brief and we vowed to return for a full day in the future.

So that’s the way it is. We’re grateful that we got back in safely, and things are looking good. We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, stay well and enjoy life.

Peace and blessings,
JoAnn and Jesse