Ratoon: A Multi-Media Performance

RATOON A Multi-Media Performance ra.toon /r ’toon/ e

a new shoot or sprout springing from the base of a crop plant, especially sugar cane, after cropping

SUMI TONOOKA YOLANDA WISHER SASHA PHYARS-BURGESS

featuring the Lincoln University Concert Choir UNDER THE DIRECTION OF DR. VICTORIA PITRE

brazil portugal cabo verde england louisiana trinidad florida senegal france dominican republic

brazil portugal cabo verde england louisiana trinidad florida senegal france dominican republic

Wednesday, February 21, 2024 at 7PM ware auditorium, lincoln university (PA) free and open to the public

This project was made possible through support by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Cover Images: African Busts in Jardim Botanico, Libon, Portugal (images 1 and 3) and Mema, Villa Mella, Santo Domingo, DR, 2022 (image 2).

Lincoln University

President Brenda A. Allen submitted a successful proposal to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which resulted in a $600,000 grant to invest in Lincoln University’s Pan-Africana/Black Studies curriculum, faculty, and programming.

Dr. Allen reflects on the significance of this generous gift: “Lincoln University is proud to be the recipient of this grant geared towards further revitalizing Black Studies. This grant, which supports our Scholars/Artists in Residence program, allows us to showcase Black Studies as a dynamic, inter-disciplinary field, said Allen. She continued, “We are excited to debut this multi-disciplinary performance, Ratoon. Ratoon is emblematic of the work produced by this series, which brings innovative Black thinkers and creators to campus to work closely with students and faculty in interactive and meaningful ways.”

Wild Sugarcane, Madeiras, Portugal Image courtesy of Sasha Phyars-Burgess.

Oracular Redolent of fermenting syrup, Purple of the dusk, Deep-Rooted cane.

—Jean Toomer, Cane

It was the introduction of sugar in the New World that changed everything. “The true Age of Sugar had begun—and it was doing more to reshape the world than any ruler, empire or ward had ever done,” Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos write in their 2010 book, Sugar Changed the World. Over the four centuries that followed Columbus’ arrival, on the mainlands of Central and South American in Mexico, Guyana and Brazil as well as the sugar islands of the West Indies—Cuba, Barbados and Jamaica, among others—countless indigenous lives were destroyed and nearly 11 million Africans were enslaved, just counting those who survived the Middle Passage. “White gold” drove trade in goods and people, fueled the wealth of European nations, and for the British in particular, shored up the financing of their North American colonies.

—Khalil Gibran Muhammad

“The Barbaric History of Sugar in America,”New York Times, August 14, 2019

RATOON

The Program

Welcome……..………………………………………………………………………….Dr. Pia Deas Professor of English PI of Andrew W. Mellon Black Studies Revitalization Grant Curator fotr Ratoon Learn Liberate and Lead: Lincoln University’s Educational Legacy...................Short film “Introduction to Ratoon”.................................................Maxwell Gedzah...Sophomore, Political Science Invocation…..….....…………….………………...….........Ashley Gillard Senior, Pan-Africana Studies “Ratoon Defined”.................................................................................Mr. Geoffrey Burgess, Elder Voice Ms. Morgan Noelle Manley, Age 10, 4th Grade, Young Voice “Mingus Mood”................................................................................................................Sumi Tonooka Lincoln University Concert Choir under the Direction of Dr. Victoria Pitre, Visiting Assistant Professor Ratoon I: “Oracular”...............................................Voice 1. Jeninya Holley, Junior, Pan-Africana Studies Voice 2. Maxwell Gedzah, Sophomore, Political Science Voice 3. Ashley Gillard. Senior, Pan-Africana Studies “Sweetness Where Love Lies”........................................................................................Sumi Tonooka Lincoln University Concert Choir under the Direction of Dr. Victoria Pitre Ratoon II: “Purple of the Dusk”.........................Voice 1. Jeninya Holley, Junior, Pan-Africana Studies Voice 2. Maxwell Gedzah, Sophomore, Political Science.

“One Alive and Free”........................................................................................................Sumi Tonooka Lincoln University Concert Choir under the Direction of Dr. Victoria Pitre Ratoon III: “Deep Rooted Cane”..........................Voice 3. Ashley Gillard, Senior, Pan-Africana Studies “A Piece of Light”..............................................................................................................Sumi Tonooka

Introduction of the Artists..................................................Jeninya Holley, Junior, Pan-Africana Studies Talk-Back and Q&A with the Artists.........................Documentary Photographer Sasha Phyars-Burgess, Poet Yolanda Wisher, Composer Sumi Tonooka.

Moderated by Dr. Pia Deas

Ratoon An Overview

Lincoln University presents this year’s dynamic cocurricular programming to revitalize Black Studies on campus. Through our Scholars/Artists in Residence Series, three artists—documentary photographer Sasha Phyars-Burgess, poet Yolanda Wisher, and musician and composer Sumi Tonooka—were invited to campus to engage several hundred students through class visits, workshops, talks, and mas-ter-classes in Fall 2023.

Together with the students, the artists and faculty, the artists created an innovative, multi-media performance, Ratoon, to probe the long-lasting impact of the global sugar industry on Black people.

The performance, Ratoon, takes its name from a sugar-cane harvesting process that allows new shoots to grow. Since a ratoon is a new leaf that grows from a sugar plant, it therefore metaphorically represents a new generation of Black thinkers and creators.

Therefore, the students’ writing and vocal performance forms the center of this powerful original piece that illuminates how, even within oppressive circumstances, creativity is a vital form of resistance, regeneration, and growth. The year-long project is curated by Dr. Pia Deas, Professor of English and Director of the Honors program.

Creating Ratoon

A Collaborative Process

This year-long project invited Sasha Phyars-Burgess to exhibit Everything Nice in the Langston Hughes Memorial Library at Lincoln University. Poet Yolanda Wisher and jazz pianist and composer Sumi Tonooka were asked to work closely with students to develop a performance that centered responses to the photos. In order to accomplish this, the Artists-in-Residence presented workshops and masterclasses within their disciplinary expertise to a broad crosssection of Lincoln University. Then, each artist was tasked with working together to create the multimedia performance piece, Ratoon, to showcase their work with the students. Since this performance thoughtfully dovetails process and performance, this section details essential components of the artistic process.

Phyars-Burgess’ Artistic Practice

Sasha Phyars-Burgess is a highly regarded documentary photographer recognized for her compelling portraits and landscape photography that illuminates social-politicalcultural issues in the Black Diaspora. Phyars-Burgess’ practice is situated in documenting, observing, and creating with and within the African diaspora. In her exhibit Everything Nice, she weaves a common thread through the African diaspora to visualize the vastness of the geo-socio-political undertaking of the transatlantic slave trade’s cultivation, harvesting, production, and distribution of sugar. She uses photography to follow ancestral leads, tie up loose ends, and confront the dead ends of history by making photographs that insist on our existence.

Yolanda Wisher

is a gifted poet and experienced educator and organizer with extensive experience nurturing authentic voices and co-creating large-scale artistic productions. During her residency, Wisher offered students a series of writing workshops. In each writing workshop, students received four writing prompts that allowed the students to both directly engage the documentary photographs in the “Everything Nice” exhibit and to also connect to their own lives.

During the class, students, who come to Lincoln University from Africa and the African Diaspora, reflected on their relationship to sugar cane and sugar as well as responded, wrote, shared, and discussed the photos. These writings were then collected and archived. Ultimately, Wisher created the text for the poem, Ratoon, that forms the basis of the multi-media performance, by drawing exclusively on the student writing. In this way, Ratoon, melds the individual student voices into a collective, vibrant community-created poem.

Writing Prompts

Write a wish in the voice of a person in the photo by Sasha Phyars-Burgess I wish for…

Describe a photo of someone dear to you In the photo…

Where do you find sweetness in your life?

There’s sweetness in…

Write about your relationship to sugar.

Where I’m from, sugar is…

Sumi Tonooka

is a ‘tour de force’ and a critically acclaimed

jazz pianist and composer who masterfully fuses improvisation and composition. In her music masterclasses with the Lincoln University Concert Choir, Tonooka introduced students to one of the most enduring musical forms in the Black tradition, the blues, through her original blues composition, “Mingus Mood.” As a genre, the blues, couples love, sorrow, and humor, and offers rich possibilities for central concepts to the Black musical tradition including experimentation with rhythm, rhyme, and improvisation. Through a series of concentric exercises, Tonooka worked with the choir-as a-whole and smaller vocal groups. First, she taught the entire choir the melody. Then, she invited volun-teers to improvise the initial melody and she completed the masterclass by selecting 6-8 students who were given an unrestricted opportunity to improvise upon the blues form by trying out different melodies and rhythms. Finally, Tonooka composed the music for “Ratoon,” and worked closely with Dr. Pitre, the Choir Director, to showcase the Lincoln University Choir.

African Busts (figures are of members the ethnic group Felupe, Bijagós archipelago, Guinea-Bissau) in the Jardim Botanico, Lisbon, Portugal Image courtesy of Sasha Phyars-Burgess.

“Foremothers and Daughters” ZORA NEALE HURSTON

The Legacy and Impact of Zora Neale Hurston on Black Studies

Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

Foremothers and Daughters is a year-long series that traces Zora Neale Hurston’s lasting influence on the field of Black Studies. As an anthropologist, folklorist, ethnographer, writer, and filmmaker, Hurston traveled extensively throughout the American South and the Caribbean to document and thereby preserve Black cultural traditions. Her work serves as an exemplary model of research, scholarship, and artistry. In order to honor her legacy, this year-long project celebrates Hurston. In the fall of 2023, this project brings Sasha PhyarsBurgess to campus and situates her, due to her travel and documentation of the African Diaspora, as a ‘daughter’ to Hurston.

Image courtesy of Library of Congress.

Madeira, Portugal Image courtesy of Sasha Phyars-Burgess.

Lincoln University pays tribute to Zora Neale Hurston by premiering Sasha Phyars-Burgess’ exhibit:

Everything Nice

A photography exhibit documenting the global impact of the sugar cane industry on the black diaspora.

Langston Hughes Memorial Library, Floors 1-4, Sept. 25, 2023-April 30, 2024.

Peas in a Community Garden in Harlem, Clewistown, a town in the Lake Okeechobee region of Florida, 2022. The Lake Okeechobee region is the largest sugar producer in the United States.

In order to pay tribute to Zora Neale Hurston, in the fall 2023 semester, Lincoln University will premier documentary photographer Sasha Phyars-Burgess’ exhibit Everything Nice in the Langston Hughes Memorial Library at Lincoln University. In terms of artistic tradition, Phyars-Burgess’ project exemplifies Hurston’s legacy. Like Hurston, Phyars-Burgess documents the Black tradition by traveling to communities throughout the American South and the Caribbean. Both artists reveal the mobility and agency possible to Black people through artistic practices.

Images courtesy of Sasha Phyars-Burgess.

Harlem resident gets food outside of Harlem Academy, Harlem, Clewiston, FL, 2022

THE MEANING OF THE TITLE

Everything Nice The title of the exhibit offers a dual allusion. First, the title alludes to the refrain of the poplar nineteenth century children’s nursery rhyme (What are little girls made of/Sugar and spice and everything nice”). In contrast to the innocence captured by the nursery rhyme, this exhibit emphasizes the violence inherent in the far-reaching sugar cane industry. In order to meet the commercial demand for sugar, the industry enslaved Africans to work the fields and sugar factory production in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Florida, and Louisiana. Second, the title alludes to the song by the same title popularized by Jamaican Dance Hall artist Popcaan that emphasizes the need, even in within traumatic circumstances, to reclaim autonomy in the present moment.

Image source: web.horacemann.org

Sugarcane as a Global Crop

Sugar Cane Field, St. Martinsville, Louisiana Image courtesy of Sasha Phyars-Burgess.

Everything Nice interrogates and documents the legacies of sugar, commonly referred to as ‘White Gold’. Historically, sugarcane agriculture on plantations was a brutal and laborious process that required 24-hour work during harvest season. Cane was to be cut, sent to the mill, and processed immediately, requiring slave gangs of various ages and skill levels to work vigilantly in a highly dangerous environment. While many of these practices have changed over time, today the production of sugar retains echoes and hauntings of this legacy. Phyars-Burgess photographs contemporary communities that sprang from the sugar trade and also those who live and work around sugarcane fields in the present. In this on-going project, Phyars-Burgess has visited sites in sugar-industry related communities in Portugal, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Louisiana, and Florida so far.

This exhibition showcases 22 large-scale and 10 smaller-scale images from the larger project.

Mimi in New Orleans City Park, 2022.

Image courtesy of Sasha Phyars-Burgess.

SASHA PHYARS-BURGESS

Sasha Phyars-Burgess

Photo by Nick Blaney

Sasha Phyars-Burgess. b. 1988.

Scorpio.

Black.

Alive.

Sasha Phyars-Burgess was born to Trinidadian parents in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She received a BA in photography from Bard College and an MFA from Cornell University.

Her photographs employ a documentary approach to the domestic, the unsupervised, and the ordinary in an effort to explore the varied social, economic, and political realities of the African diaspora. She is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship Awardee.

yolanda wisher

Yolanda Wisher

Photo by Ryan Collerd

Poet, singer, educator, and curator, Yolanda Wisher, is author of Monk Eats an Afro and co-editor of the anthology Peace is a Haiku Song. Wisher earned an M.A. in English/Poetry from Temple University and B.A. in English/ Black Studies from Lafayette College, where she received an honorary doctorate in 2021. Wisher was named inaugural Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in 1999 and third Poet Laureate of Philadelphia in 2016. Her poetry has been featured in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series. A Pew and Cave Canem Fellow, Wisher received the Leeway Foundation and Trans-formation Award in 2019 for her commitment to art for social change. In 2022, she was named a Philadelphia Cultural Treasures Artist Fellow. Wisher performs a blend of poetry and song with her band Yolanda Wisher and The Afroeaters. Their debut album Doublehanded Suite was released in 2022.

SUMI TONOOKA

SumiTonooka

Photo by Karen Sterling

Sumi Tonooka has been called a “fierce, fascinating composer pianist” (Jazz Times), “provocative and compelling” (New York Times), and “continually inventive, original, surprising, a total delight,” (Cuadranos de Jazz, Madrid). With fifteen recordings to her name and a vast catalogue of compositions and award-winning works in genres symphonic, chamber, dance, and film, Tonooka continues to be a creative force.

Most recently, Tonooka was awarded a PEW fellowship grant for distinguished artists in September 2023. Tonooka was also a finalist in the 2021 Emerging Black Composers Project to compose her fourth symphonic work for the San Fransciso Conservatory of Music in December 2022. She is also a 2021 recipient of the Doris Duke, Creative Inflections Grant as a co-creator with vocalist/composer Jen Shyu for inThe Green Room, a multi-disciplinary music production inspired by the stories of women in Jazz. Other recent awards include, Chamber Music America's New Jazz Works grant (2019) and composer in residence with the South Dakota Sympohny through the New Music Alive Residency, New Music USA.

VICTORIA PITRE

Victoria Pitre

Photo by Haley Ellen Day

Victoria Pitre currently serves as the Director of Choral Activities, Director of Opera Workshop, and Assistant Professor of Music at Lincoln University.

Along with directing the choir and opera ensembles, she also teaches lyric diction, vocal pedagogy, and other music courses for the department. Dr. Pitre taught previously at Texas Tech University, directing mixed, treble, and tenor/bass choirs as well as teaching vocal pedagogy. Prior to her doctoral work, Dr. Pitre taught choir and private voice at Houghton University in Western New York. An avid performer, Dr. Pitre has also been seen on the opera stage in roles such as "Susanna" in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, "Adina" in Donizzetti's L'elisir d'amore, and Casilda in GIlbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting from Texas Tech University, as well as a dual concentration Master’s degree in Vocal Performance and Choral Conducting from Houghton University. Dr. Pitre’s primary interests include championing the work of contemporary composers and educating young singers in stylistic fluency to promote representation of diverse composers and musical styles in both solo and choral performance.

Discussion Questions Reflection

1. Who in your family inspires you the most, what qualities do they

hold and what ‘famous’ family lore exemplifies their legacy?

2. Forced migration through enslavement or voluntary migration in

search of new opportunities, are often an important part of Black family’s stories. What do you know about your family’s movements?

What motivated them to stay or relocate?

3. How might you connect your family’s story to the larger stories of

the Black diaspora? What themes emerge in your story that are clues to a larg-er communal Black story?

4. What role does sugar play in your family and current

community?

Research/Create 1. How does Zora Neale Hurston draw on folk tradition in her short

sto-ries? Why is this important?

2. Within the context of exploitation and oppression as experienced

by Black people, there is often a counter-story—clues of spirited resistance and steely determination. Who, historically or in the present, serves as a model to you for these values?

3. How has the sugar industry impacted the lived Black experience?

Name two ways.

Action 1. How might you find out more about your family and your roots?

2. What is a research question that has emerged for you after

viewing this exhibit that you could further investigate?

LEARN MORE LEARN MORE LEARN MORE LEARN MORE

Learn More To more fully understand the significance of the sugar cane industry’s impact on the African diaspora, Zora Neale Hurston, or the role of Black documentary photography, please explore the resources below.

Additionally, if you are a faculty member, please encourage your students to participate in this year-long programming. Faculty might assign one of the provided articles, utilize the provided discussion questions, encourage stu-dents to visit the library exhibit (floors 1-4), attend a class with the Artists/Scholars-inResidence, or attend the multi-media performance. We encourage all faculty to offer assignments for credit and opportunities for in-class engagement and discussion.

To read more about the significance of Zora Neale Hurston’s life and work, please read “What Zora Went Looking For.”

For additional educational resources related to this exhibit, please visit the Library Guide.

To learn more about the importance of photography to document the Black experience, please watch Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emer-gence of a People.

To understand the lasting impact of the sugar industry on the African Diaspora, read “The Sugar that Saturates the American diet has a Barbaric History as the ‘White Gold’ that Fueled Slavery” from the 1619 project.

NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES

Notes

Ocean from Portugal.

Image courtesy of Sasha Phyars-Burgess.

Image Key Sasha Phyars-Burgess’

project is a multi-year, global iniative that captures the legacy of the Sugar Cane plantations and industry across multiple locations on four continents. So far she has amassed thousands of photographs that comprise this collection from her visits to communities in Louisiana, Florida, Portugal, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic. She has planned additional location visits including, but not limited to, Cabo Verde and Senegal. The following image key outlines the photos included in either the Langston Hughes Memorial Library Exhibit Everything Nice and the performance Ratoon. The image key is included here, so that audience members can more fully appreciate the breadth and depth of this large-scale, long-term project. In addition to traveling world-wide to visit locations, meet communities, and research and take these photographs, Sasha Phyars-Burgess has launched a tour to colleges and universities to exhibit and present her work to students, faculty, and staff.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

06(1)- Teenage in the neighborhood at the Corner Store, Santo Domingo 04(1)- Friend on the beach at night, Santo Domingo 09(1)- Colonial Ruins in the city center of Santo Domingo, Former loading area of the shipyards, where Enslaved Africans often entered for the first time onto the Island.

10(1)- Looking out onto the sea from Santo Domingo 11(1)- Friend on the beach 12(1)- 17(1)- Villa Mella- a neighborhood on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, formed by Maroons and Free Haitians. The Women pictures is Mema, a resident of the neighborhood whose ancestry date back to its founding 18(1)-20(1)- Outside in the neighborhood, Santo Domingo 21(1)- Friends on the beach, Santo Domingo 22(1)- Colonial Ruins in the city center of Santo Domingo, Former loading area of the shipyards, where Enslaved Africans often entered for the first time onto the Island.

PORTUGAL 36- Statue of christ at The Museum of the city of Sugar in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal.

37- statue of padre António Viera 17th century Portuguese priest and missionary Lisbon Portugal 38 - Bundle of cut sugarcane inside of sugarcane museum, Madeira, Portugal 39- Storefront sign in Lisbon, Portugal 40- Writing on the walls of the old city limits of Lagos, Portugal. Lagos is the site of one of the first arrivals of Africans destined for enslavement. Right outside of the old city limits of Lagos there is a reported unmarked African burial site. Bones in this side had been excavated during the construction of a parking garage.

41- 43- depictions and artifacts of shackles in the Museum, Mercado de Escravos (The slave Market) Lagos, Portugal 45,46- Inside of the Convent of the Capuchos, Sintra, Portugal 47- My mother on the balcony in Portimão, Portugal 49- 54 African Busts in the Jardim Botanico, Lisbon Portugals. Figures are from the ethnic group Felupe, Bijagós archipelago, Guinea-Bissau 55- Looking at paper with cellphone light, Santo Domingo, DR 56- Beach in Sintra, Portugal 57- Looking out into the ocean from Madeira Island, Portugal, Madeira Island served as a laboratory for sugarcane planting in the late15th century early 16th century.

60,61- house and grounds of one of the first sugarcane planters in Madeira Joäo Esmeraldo, 66- Back of Statue of Infante Dom Henrique (Henry the Navigator), Funchal, Madeira 71,72- Levada do Novo and Levada do Moinho, Madeira. Levadas are man made channels created to carry water for irrigation of agricultural land. The first Levadas on the island were built by enslaved africans and indigenous people of the Canary islands.

75- Rua das Pretas, Black Women street, Funchal, Madeira 76,77- Inside of Funchal Cathedral, Funchal Madeira 80-82- Wild sugarcane growing near Levadas, Madeira, 83,84- Levado do Rei, Madeira 85-86, Offering and Nativity scene inside Funchal Cathedral, Funchal, Medira 89- Photograph of Poncha a typical Madeiran alcoholic drink made with Agua Ardente and processed sugar from the island, Funchal Madeira 90- Scientific name of Sugarcane, Madeira 93- uncovered Mural behind the Funchal Cathedral, Funchal Madeira 94- Nativity scene inside of Agua Ardente facility in Madeira, 95- Jehovah’s witness in Funchal, Madeira 96- Traditional Trinidadian breakfast of Buljol, made in Lisbon, Portugal 97- Statue inside of Cafe do Preto (Cafe of black men) in Sintra, Portugal 99- 02(1)- Looking out onto the Ocean from Madeira 03(1), 05(1), 07(1) 08(1)- Levada Walks in Madeira

LOUISIANA 17-32 Images taken on sugarcane farms belonging to Levert St. John Inc in St.Martinsville Louisiana.

19- “Peanut” foreman at Levert St. John Inc farm. He and his family have worked on the Levert St. John Inc farm for generations.

32- Current worker cuts cane by hand before it is harvested by machine 21, 33-35- Images taken on Laura Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana. Laura Plantation is a Creole Heritage site in Louisiana. The former plantation of a French family named Duparc.

48 - Mimi, at City Park, New Orleans, LA

EVERGLADES/ LAKE OKEECHOBEE, FLORIDA 01-16 01, 02, 04, 05, 06 - Agricultural land in the cities of Pahokee, Belle Glade, and Clewiston. These areas are often planted with sugarcane, citrus, and vegetables. The majority of Sugarcane grown in America is grown in the Lake Okeechobee Area. Residents of this area 03, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 15 - Photographs in Harlem a historically black neighborhood in Clewiston. Clewiston, or American’s sweetest town is home to some of Americas biggest sugar corporations such as US Sugar and Domino Foods (Florida Crystals) This neighborhood was settled by black migrant workers from the American south and Caribbean in the late 19th and early 20th century. This neighborhood and area impacted by lack of upward economic advancement and food insecurity.

A few residents of this area and the greater Belle Glade area were part of the class action lawsuit against American Sugar conglomerates for the negativerrt environmental impact of sugarcane burnings on the lungs of residents 13, 14, 16 - Portraits of people from the Harlem, Clewiston community at Harlem Academy, a former school now library and community service center

Acknowledgements Primary Investigator

president brenda a. allen

Primary Investigator

dr. mahpiua deas, professor of english, department of languages & literature

Special Thanks To: -Ms. Tiffany Davis, Interim Director, Langston Hughes Memorial Library -Ms. Karen Vaught, Senior Administrative Assistant, Langston Hughes Memorial Library -Ms. Reachell Chambers, Library Services Specialist/Office Assistant, Langston Hughes Memorial Library -Ms. Marion Bernard-Amos, Director/Assistant Provost, Office of Faculty Affairs -Ms. Marsha Spencer, Title III Project Specialist -Ms. Yoli Echevarria, Program Coordinator and Executive Assistant, Academic Affairs -Ms. Diana Akumu, Senior Administrative Assistant, Academic Affairs -Mr. Enrique Ayala, Assistant Maintenance Manager, Physical Plant -Emilio Torres and Donald Tillie, Physical Plant -Ms. Poe, Instructor, Department of History, Pan-Africana Studies, Philosophy, and Religion -Dr. Micheal Lynch, Director of Undergraduate Research, Consultant for Projections -Mr. Geoffrey Burgess, Elder Voice -Ms. Morgan Noelle Manley, Age 10, 4th Grade, Young Voice -The students who attended the writing workshops and responded to the writing prompts that became the text of the poem -Ms. Diane Niekam, Administrative Assistant, Department of Music

Designed by Jakiyah “Khy” Anderson B.S. in Visual Arts, Lincoln University, 2017