Dr. James W. Washington Jr & Mrs. Janie Rogella Washington - April 2021 National Poetry Month

DR. JAMES W. WASHINGTON JR & MRS. JANIE ROGELLA WASHINGTON

FOUNDATION

2021 NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

April 2021

THE FOUNTAIN OF TRIUMPH THE CYCLE OF LIFE

Life is the truest cycle that ever will be.

A symbol of this is the salmon’s return from the sea.

As the salmon starts back on its physical trend to complete the cycle where life began.

So it is with black of the racial trend on the American scene who has struggled like the salmon to reach his or her pinnacle of life and the free spirit again.

This is the goal of the African-American women and men: to pass onto their offspring the energy in their body and recycle their physical remains in Mother Earth to be used again.

About the Cover - The cycle of Life above was written by James W. Washington Jr to explain the Fountain of Triumph shown on this cover. The stone fountain was originally located on 23rd Avenue near union Street, Seattle. The photo by Josef Scaylea.

It was recently restored by Sabah Al-Dharer. Mr. Al-Dharer currently teaches stone carving at the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. He paints and sculpts. In his paintings he uses a lot of mediums such as oil, watercolor, acrylic, and ink. He is most famous for using coffee as a medium in his paintings.

The Fountain of Triumph will be moved to 24th & Union, Midtown Development, Seattle, Fall/Winter 2021.

1962 - Torso with Bird University of Oregon, Eugene Oregon

In recognition of National Poetry Month, it is only fitting that we and express our thanks and recognize James and Janie Washington. During their working years, they gave thought and pen to the future of creativity and their wishes to continue their encouragement long after their waking and working days. They both died in 2000.

This month, the Dr. James W. Washington Jr and Mrs. Janie Rogella Washington Foundation (The Washington Foundation) gives special thanks to James and Janie as we recognize the AfricanAmerican Writers’ Association and selected poets.

The Washington Foundation recognizes and expressly thanks James and Janie Washington for their hindsight, insight, and foresight in establishing in 1997, the Dr. James W. Washington Jr & Mrs. Janie Rogella Washington Foundation. The express purpose of their creativity and thoughtfulness is extracted in part from their Last Will and Testament and delineated here: The mandated purpose is To preserve the art, writing, and lifetime works of Dr. James W. Washington Jr. and share their vision through the preservation, interpretation and showing of his works and studio, and the family’s gardens and home. Also, to encourage others by providing a setting where they can grow beyond the book, spiritually and artistically and to share their talents with a larger audience. It is to be a site where community and creativity come together and support each other.

The Board is charged in part, with the responsibility of being ever mindful of and inclusive of these (their) Imperatives in what was entrusted to them by James and Janie; the caring for of their life and legacy.

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We leave you a thirst for education and scholarship We leave you a mandate to encourage others to explore their creativity.

We leave you an obligation to engage young people in activities that will inspire and influence them to use their creativity in positive and productive ways.

We leave you a commitment for documentation, critical analysis, and preservation.

We leave you a responsibility to collaborate with other community and church organizations.

We leave you a respect for cultural and ethnic diversity, especially for outreach and inclusion.

We leave you a faith in church and family.

We leave you confidence in leadership and concern for the business of this Foundation.

We leave you the authority to maintain the Dr. James W. Washington, Jr. and Janie Rogella Washington Foundation and the African American Museum & Cultural Center.

Contents James Washington Salute to Wife Page 1

Janie Rogella Washington Page 2

African-American Writers’ Alliance Page 3 Minnie Collins Page 4

Georgia S. McDade Pages 5 & 6

Kilam Page 7

James Washington enjoyed a deep and abiding love for his wife Janie. Here is his prose and poetry dedicated to his loving wife. The photo is dated February 29,1944, USO Camera Club.

“God has blessed me with various talents. Among them, painting, sculpturing and poetry. Then he united me with my wife, Janie Rogella Washington, who in turn created a congenial environment in which I could animate my creations. Without which I wouldn’t have had any success.

Thank you Rogella, I love you.”

Finding Yourself Finding yourself in this life is your greatest task to perform, until you begin to start the search, you are left alone.

When you decide to start, be it now or then, close your eyes to the outside world and begin your search within.

Some folks search for themselves among their relatives and friends, but each time they miss themselves and have to start all over again.

Try reflecting on this, again, again and again; you will never know yourself until you search within!

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JANIE ROGELLA WASHINGTON Janie Rogella Washington was a writer as well. These words have no title and no date, only her name as the writer.

No road of life runs smooth and straight.

There are many little lanes that mark a change decreed by fate for losses or for gains.

No road of life runs to the end without a hill or two; But I won’t mind the hills, my friends If I may climb with you.

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Established 1991 Seattle Washington

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The African-American Writers' Alliance is a diverse and dynamic collective of Seattle-area writers of African descent.

They provide an informal and supportive forum for new and published writers.

They help each other polish their skills, provide peer review, and create opportunities for public readings and other media venues.

They encourage members to publish individually and collectively.

Their stories - triumphs, tragedies, and whatever is within and between the two - represents the history of African Americans.

The African-American Writers’ Alliance tells their stories in their words and encourages others to do the same.

Membership & FAQ www.aawa-seattle.org

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MINNIE COLLINS When Stones Talk Holding stones in your hands, caress them, inhale the earth; Think of fire, water, air, vapor, chisel Grinding, scraping, stripping, diffusing, extracting, freeing Then… “Ahhhh….”

Master sculptor, James Washington. Jr. romanced his stones into Sensual titillating rhythms of Salvation and restful meditation; Filling voids A diamond he is with pneumatic hammers, flints, mallets, burnishing, buffing, refining A messenger he is of Yoruba Ashé - the power to make changes.

A griot he is for “Young Queen of Ethiopia,” “A Wounded Eagle,” “Frederick Douglass,” “Martin Luther King, Jr.” “The Kingdom of God Within,” and “His Oracle of Truth” All Spirits in his embedded yet freed stones To know James Washington, Jr. is to listen to these stones Stones don’t lie Stones, never ending travelers, record Our ways of thinking, believing, acting When Stones talk We hear and support Black owned and operated businesses Community activists and educators When Stones talk, we rebuild our community, We petition Land Use Review Committees, City Council Members Rewrite, Amend Policies, When Stones talk We aerate our minds To act, not react; vote, not complain To advocate, agitate if necessary; not procrastinate To educate, graduate, not gyrate To perpetuate our visions; to create new legacies Mr. James W. Washington, Jr. believes, “The Spirit of God dwells in us and if we possess it, we can inject that spirit into subject matter, other spirits, and stones to make them live.”

Ashé Ashé 2021 Minnie A. Collins, award-winning English professor, is the author of The Purple Wash (Classic Day 2012), Palm Power: Hearts in Harmony (Vert Volta Design 2018), Seattle’s Historical Liberty Bank Building Apartments’ Commemoration Plaques (2019) and screenplay Troubled Waters for The Mahogany Project and We Out Here 2020. She is published also in Raven Chronicles, Emerald Reflections, Fly to the Assemblies! Seattle and the Rise of the Resistance, Voices That Matter, Threads, (WASCC Humanities Association’s Crosscurrents, Blackpast.org. Avocet, a Journal of Nature and Southeast Emerald on-line.

She is a member of the African American Writers’ Alliance and is listed on Seattle’s 4Culture’s Touring Arts Roster (TAR). Compassion for nature and equity are her passions.

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Dr. Georgia McDade All Elements of Nature A flower A tree A bird A salmon All full of life Many persons never recognized nor revered any All plants and animals doomed to die James Washington saw the same flower, tree, bird, and salmon.

But he saw farther, deeper, wider than the great many of us.

He took a stone and captured the flower, tree, bird and salmon.

Long after they are gone, we see his work.

Long after he is gone, we see his work.

We are grateful, very grateful to the crown of creation.

11/9/19 Oracle Oracle: a person, a place, a prophecy From the beginning, humans have sought answers gotten what they considered answers And so often these same humans have misread, misinterpreted, lied.

A smaller group have indeed communed with the oracle.

James Washington was such a one.

Poverty and terrorism Absent formal education But he had the love and encouragement of a devoted mother No paintings or sculptures before becoming an adult The Spirit was in the Imagination and self-teaching.

That ever-present spirit led him from Mississippi to Arkansas to Puget Sound.

Always with the cross, the compass, the eye.

For some, we can never know how many, he, indeed, is the oracle 11/9/91 Dr. McDade, originally from Louisiana, has been living and writing in Seattle for over three decades. As a youngster she wrote and produced plays for her siblings, neighbors and church youth. A charter member of the African-American Writers' Alliance, McDade began bringing her original stories to an appreciative public in 1991.

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Homage to Dr. James W. Washington The Hats of Dr. Washington Son Brother Friend Student artist Shoemaker Husband Poet Writer Lecturer Banana Messenger Collagist Folk Artist Painter Sculptor Historian Spokesman Civil Servant Art Instructor Art Exhibitor Sailor Ecologist Environmentalist Freedom Fighter for Civil Rights Curator Arts Commissioner Sunday School Teacher Sunday School Superintendent Seer Traveler Printmaker Electrician Always with spirit Always in the Spirit A man of God Despite the many obstacles throughout his life, James W. Washington wore many hats, wore them well.

And always, always, in every hat was he a servant of God. 11/9/19

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The Great Divide Kilam We are never united or reach solidarity unless there’s an enemy to our economy There’s no patience for debate, so we scream on screens asking for peace by violent means When that hatred turns inward, we fight with our words, then fight with bullets until hell has emerged When the fires have stopped we build great walls burn bridges, and build prisons that divide US all.

- Kilam T. A.

Member of the AAWA (African American Writer’s Alliance AAWA) While many poems come off like a lecture, or someone airing out their grievances, Kilam’s poetry is a relationship. His work grapples the harsh realities of the world with caution, ferocity and honesty. You can find more of Kilam's work on Instagram for weekly poems @kilamtelaviv and speakerthoughts.com

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DR. JAMES W. WASHINGTON JR & MRS. JANIE ROGELLA WASHINGTON

FOUNDATION

CAVEAT All poetry in this publication, including those of poets, Georgia S. McDade, Minnie Collins, and Kilam are copryright and cannot be recopied, printed in other publications, posted on Facebook and social media without the express written permission of the poets. Each of the poets can be contacted on the noted AAWA web site.

Information on Poems of Life by James W. Washington Jr. Can be obtained from The Washington Foundation, a 501(3)c Organization, The Washington Foundation.

The Washington Foundation # PO Box 22952 # Seattle WA 98122 # (206) 709-4241 # jjw181626@aol.com

1986 Young Queen of Ethiopia - Italian Lime Stone Owner - Smithsonian, Washington DC

1951 Painting - Mexico City Market