We stayed with a marvelous older sister, E. Dali.  Her home is called NIRVANA.  And rightfully so.  It’s one of those homes where your senses are immediately in a state of bliss.  It smells divine.  The temperature is perfect.  The colors make you feel like you just ate the best meal of your life.  You want to snuggle.  You want to have dreams there.  Yes, it WAS truly that deep. Lol

First there were 5, then there were 7!  We had Summerlynn and now Layla Love – Alixa and Naima’s dope photographer friend – all chillin’ in NIRVANA.

Luckily, we got to see Trouble the Water and to meet Tia and Carl (producers and directors).  They looked as exhausted on their tour with the film as we surely looked.  Mama Lou and Huey had fallen asleep as some point during the film.  And though I didn’t want them to miss one part, I knew how tired there were.  So I let it be.  And Tia gave us the trailer for Trouble the Water so we can show it in the next cities we visit where the film is showing nearby.  It is no coincidence that they are on tour to promote their film and we are on tour to promote… well, the transformation of humanity. J

Before leaving NIRVANA – of course it can’t be all glitz and glamour – a toilet seat cover was broken, a treasured item in the home went missing, and we watched on CNN as the financial crisis went from $86 million to $700 billion.  The crew was convinced that the rack in the back with cubes of vegetable oil was partly responsible for the sway (along with our bus contents being too heavy for its frame), so Pippi was determined to get the second “dirty” tank attached so we can quickly create a filtration system that enables us to put unfiltered grease straight into the car and we can stop lugging grease along.  She, Mama Lou, Tetris, and Huey were under that bus for hours detaching and breaking down our rack, and attaching our second tank.

So before leaving Chicago, we got a new door blocker – the broken down rack – and a spiritual cleansing by E. Dali.  It was complete with sweet smelling incense, a drum, and a neighbor-waking “Ashe!!!!!!”  And off to the University of Illinois – Urbana, still swerving, grrrrrr-ing, and shaking!

*Slight sidenote: [For those who are unfamiliar with STITCHED, it is a project Naima and Alixa started in the wake of Hurricane Katrina where participants in their shows and workshops receive a small square of fabric and Sharpies to write their Stories, Testimonies, Intentions, Truths, Confessions, Healing, Expression, and/or Dreams.  In each city of HURRICANE SEASON we invite audience members to write about unnatural disasters they have experienced or been witness to, personal or societal, or to share a solution to the unnatural disasters that plague humanity.]

Squares done during intermission of HURRICANE SEASON in Cincinnati:
“Pain is fear leaving your body.  Or so I have been told.”  (Blue with white polka dots and purple sharpie)
“I feel inspired to stand with courage, to fight for calm and peace after personal storms, as well as the pain shared with those who’ve experienced them outwardly.  Powerful performance.  Very real and heartfelt.” (Lime green square)
“The smallest footprints going the right direction make a huge impact.”  (Blue square with white polka dots and a Sharpie drawing with a sneaker lifting off of a puddle of water)
“The water that lives in me has boiled for so long / tonight I feel connected and less alone” (Blue with white polka dots and red sharpie)

We pick up Summerlynn at the Detroit airport.  We arrive three hours after her flight.  She has been a national booking coordinator for HURRICANE SEASON and will be traveling with the crew from Detroit through Chicago.  She is the youngest crew, extremely resourceful, and fun to have to have around.  Since we have not yet gotten seatbelts for Sugarcube, and it’s brightly painted with a swerve that appears a drunk driver was piloting it, we barely stop while coming around the airport arrivals section, yelling, “Run and hop in Summerlynn!  We’re not stopping!”

We ride around the general area of our three day home, lost around Martin Luther King Blvd.  Why is it that the MLK Blvds of the nation all seem to have stories of victory on one side of the coin and utter despair on the other?…  Eventually we find our way and clankity-clank-clank our way to the front door.  It is here we meet the homies from the Allied Media Project and Detroit Summer – allies who are building gardens in abandoned lots, pulling together national conferences on media for activism, and addressing the issue of building true leadership amongst the youth.

Summerlynn (as yet to be nicknamed), Huey and I head off to find snacks.  We are in what is know in Detroit as Cass Corridor.  Blocks away from Wayne State, this area was devastated by the riots of 1967 (started when an after-hours spot called The Blind Pig was raided), then crack cocaine, then displacement due to the destruction of public housing.  It is evident as we take a short walk to Marcus Market.  The few people who are out after dark seem to be walking in a fog, a heartbreaking, drug and alcohol-induced stupor.  I feel my body stiffen and I am suffering something awful.  That familiar feeling when you see your people in pain and you are not, and feel helpless to alleviate theirs.  That pain.  I don’t know if it is fear leaving my body.  More like and aching.

We enter the market and grab every sweet, unhealthy, bubbly drink we can put our hands on.  Nearly twenty dollars in liquids.  And Huey puts us on… to Baileys and Rice Dream Chocolate Milk.  That night, with our chocolaty drinks up to toast I imagine that the anticipation of feeling the wet, yet warm brownness going down may be more similar to that of the folks scattered nearby waiting for their next fix.  And I am humbled.

It rains something awful as we unpack the set at the Furniture Factory.  The clankity-clank-clank is embarrassing and unbearable.  The spot is beautiful, converted from an antique furniture shop, it is now a theatre with lots of open space and kitchen area perfect for entertaining.  Huey has the job of putting on music while we set up and breakdown the set, and I tell her, “Please don’t play Fela!  You usually play it when we are breaking down the set and it makes me feel like I am on a chain gang or something now when I hear it!”  We all laugh.  If she plays “Water No Get Enemy” it’s like saying, “Get to work!” on the HURRICANE SEASON tour!

It is at this show with Centro Obrero, Black Star Community Book Store, and Detroit Summers Live Arts Media Project (LAMP) that we put the Solution-Cipher in the middle of the show.  It is one of the most moving.  Here, the community expressed the importance of eating vegetation from community gardens to bring down the carbon emission (aka your carbon footprint) because it’s no longer coming from 2,000 miles away, burning countless tons of fossil fuels to get to you, and often community gardens are organic.

People who live near the Furniture Factory, who came to the show, had never known the beauty that hid within that ‘ole antique shop’s walls.  Akbar, the owner, was excited about the possibility of having the community’s most artistic and trustworthy people seeing the space.  Huey’s father was in attendance; he has lived in Detroit for many years.  Many activists and artists had come from far and wide (inc. Canada).  And Malik, owner of Black Star Community Book Store, a veteran activist and seasoned participant in the movement, says to Naima and Alixa, “I have never experienced something so profound…”

My sentiments exactly.

We wake up the next day to break down.  On comes Fela… “Water!!! No get enemy!”

I shower and get ready to see my friends from high school: Amirah, JaTorya, and Shalaun!  I haven’t seen them in over 7 years and it’s the first time I am seeing JaTorya’s small son.  Her daughter – a younger version of her.  I have a moment… my girls are mothers and wives!!!  Goodness we are grown.  We go out for ladies night – dinner and a movie, Red Lobster’s All-you-can-eat-shrimp night and A Family That Preys Together.

The following morning, Huey and Summerlynn went off to a church to interview people who work and frequent a breakfast program for the documentary.  Jenny (our hostess), myself, Naima, Alixa, and Ra (student at the University of Michigan, from Johannesburg, South Africa who is an artist-in-residence that creates zines around hip hop, art, and social justice…whew!  Yes, that’s Ra!) go to meet with 90+ year-old Grace Lee Boggs.  Outside of my grandfather and a lady from back home – Ms. Blackney – I don’t personally know any older activists/community organizers who have given their lives to the movement, offered every last breath to the education of the youth.  Until Mrs. Lee Boggs.

She had an intention that we – HURRICANE SEASON crew – talk with her about how to make this tour something that will take each community to the next level.  She believes that Climbing PoeTree’s methods are the answer.  We have been waiting for.  And like Mrs. Jahanbegloo, Mrs. Lee Boggs believes we need to be very intentional regarding this presidential election.  It was truly inspiring to hear her express her admiration for what we are up to and put it perspective for us.  This is a Freedom Ride.