I believe that sharing creative visions that enhance the social, spiritual, and political qualities of life is a major part of the “Dream” that Martin Luther King, Jr., shared with the world. It is in that spirit that I present FAMILY REUNION: REMEMBERING THE ANCESTORS. It is also in that spirit that I invite readers to join “the romantic poet of the Internet” William F. DeVault, my hero genius of a producer Mark Rockeymoore, and myself in our podcast tribute to MLK at: http://www.cityoflegends.com/radio.html . The program is listed as:  “2006 01 14: Urban spoken word icon Aberjhani visits in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend(15:38).”

Honestly, I had no idea I was a “spoken word icon” until William said so. Wasn’t that kind of himJ? Joyful love, freedom, and prosperity to one and all. 

FAMILY REUNION: REMEMBERING THE ANCESTORS

In addition to my blackness I am

allow me to say, a maker of eons,

goldsmith of kingdoms worn like diamonds

upon the flashing fingers of eternity.

Allow me please to confess that upon my

midnight-colored ways have sat the robes

of nobility, sublime and just and sacred;

the crown of genius has molded my brow

and the throne of destiny cradled my days

for unto my soul all things have spoken

and to my song all souls have danced.

Kings and thieves, poets and whores––

these and more from my garden have sprung,

for mine is an orchard, wherein each moment,

possibility creates anew, beauty and shame like––

a totality equal and divine before the law of itself.

In addition to my blackness I walk sometimes

where God weaves existence into creation,

where reality and I speak each other

into the pages of a truth unbound by this world.

Aberjhani

(from I Made My Boy Out of Poetry)