While writing American Change Agent: A Life & Legacy of Seeking Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (2025), we gathered our family’s history from conversations with family members, oral history stories passed down from previous generations, newspapers, obituaries, calendars, event tickets and program booklets, local/state/national history, books, websites, documents and photos kept by family members, American and Canadian censuses, AfricanAncestry.com, and Ancestry.com. Each piece of our family history reminded us to honor and celebrate the presence, lives, and contributions of our ancestors as American history.
As the United States prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of its founding, we want to take a moment and encourage you and your family and friends to honor and celebrate your family history as American history.
We also invite you to join us for a book and group discussion about the importance of celebrating family history as American history on Saturday, June 27th from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET via Zoom. During the free event, we will talk briefly about key moments in our family history that we honor and lead a group discussion about the importance of you celebrating your family history.
Today is a very special day in my dad, Dr. John F. Leeke’s life. It’s his 87th birthday and the first year publication anniversary of his memoir, American Change Agent: A Life & Legacy of Seeking Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion. In honor of both milestones, we decided to share one of the most powerful moments we experienced during our journey as co-authors. It happened a few weeks ago when we visited Hagerstown, the city our 16 Leak/Leek ancestors were enslaved in.
In the early 1840s, my great-great-great-grandparents, Peter and Catherine along with their 14 children, including my great-great-grandfather Leonard, escaped slavery by traveling over 400 miles on the Underground Railroad to freedom in Amherstburg, Canada. While writing American Change Agent, I used my great-great grandfather Leonard’s obituary (see below) that was published in the Lansing State Journal, our cousin Ellen Cook’s research included in our family tree on Ancestry.com, the U.S. and Canadian Censuses, and information from the Doleman Black Heritage Museum, Amherstburg Freedom Museum, and VisitHagerstown.com to estimate how and when our brave and determined ancestors reached freedom.
This information helped us make some reasonable assumptions about our ancestors’ initial escape from slavery in Hagerstown with the support of the Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church founded by Rev. Thomas Henry in the 1830s. Rev. Henry and Ebenezer AME Church were very active in the abolitionist movement and helped African Americans plan and execute their escapes in Maryland.
Leonard Leak/Leek’s Obituary
We visited Ebenezer AME Church located on 26 W. Bethel Street while we were headed to our book reading at Next Chapter Books & Shop in Hagerstown. During our visit, my brother Matt took photos and recorded videos of us discussing the importance of knowing who you are and where your people (family) come from. We also met one of the neighbors who told us her house was originally a sanctuary for hiding African Americans who were seeking freedom.
Being able to stand on the same ground that our Leak/Leek ancestors possibly stood on was humbling, powerful, and affirming. Check out the photos below.
We love participating in book readings and discussions (in-person and virtual). These events are always special because they give us an opportunity to interact with our readers and hear their point of view and stories.
We want to thank everyone who has supported us during the past year. We could not do it without you!!!
Check out photos of some of the people we met during our recent book talk at Next Chapter Cafe’ & Book Shop in Hagerstown, Maryland.
If you or your business, church, community, or organization are interested in hosting us for an in-person or virtual book talk event, please contact ananda@anandaleeke.com.
Did you know Older Americans Month is celebrated in May?
HISTORY
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy and members of the National Council of Senior Citizens met and decided to designate May as Senior Citizens Month to to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of past and current older persons.
When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Older Americans Act in 1965, the Senior Citizens Month became known as Older Americans Month. Its purpose shifted to highlighting the need for services and community support for older Americans. The Administration for Community Living promotes the annual observance.
HOW I AM CELEBRATING OLDER AMERICANS MONTH
This year, my dad, Dr. John F. Leeke and I are celebrating Older Americans Month by encouraging folks who are over 60 to share and document their life stories and lessons learned with their family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, community, fellow club/church/group/service organization members, and/or online network in small, medium, and big ways.
During the discussion, we shared why Hagerstown is important to our Leak/Leek family history in America. In the early 1840s, Peter and Catherine Leak/Leek and their 14 children escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad and traveled approximately 410 miles to freedom in Amherstburg, Canada. Leonard Leak/Leek, my father’s great-grandfather was one of Peter and Catherine’s sons. Read his obituary below.
My dad also shared life stories that highlighted the importance of his lesson #2: Relationships are essential to your development and the impact you make on the world. His sharing sparked a discussion lively discussion among audience members.
FYI Chapter 22 in American Change Agent is entitled “A Legacy Gift for You: Lessons Learned.” It contains his top 10 lessons.
Many thanks to Dr. Genie Massey and the Maryland League of Women Voters for organizing the event.
Special thanks to Melissa and Bryan Noel, owners of Next Chapter Cafe’ & Book Shop, and their amazing team for hosting the event.
A deep bow of gratitude to my brother Matt for taking photos and recording videos during the book discussion.
MY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO SHARE & DOCUMENT YOUR LIFE STORIES & LESSONS LEARNED
1) Reflect and journal about the top one to three lessons you learned during your teen years, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s in your personal life, relationships, career, health, or finances. Look for any themes of resilience, intentional living, practicing gratitude, setting boundaries, asking for help, overcoming doubt and fear, or embracing change and joy.
2) Share what you have written with your chosen network of folks who would benefit from your lessons learned in a conversation, letter, email, blog, social media post, artwork, video, audio recording. and in-person or online gathering.
3) Consider turning your life stories and lessons learned into a Word or pdf document and/or an e-book with photos.
I invite you to request your public local libraries add our book to their collection. Check with your library to see if my book is in its collection. You can ask in person or search the library’s online catalog. Most libraries have a form on their website for requesting books and require a valid library card for requests.
I am working on a submission that honors my Leeke and Roberts Family legacy in DC. I decided to use Canva to create digital collages that include my interpretation of the DC flag and several photos of great grandparents, grandparents, aunt, parents, brothers, and myself that were taken in DC during the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or early 2000s.
Take a look at my “Chocolate City” DC flag and the current DC flag. My “Chocolate City” DC flag uses two shades of brown to honor the occupied land of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank (also known as Anacostan or Anacostine) people and their contributions to the land. The brown colors also honor the people of African descent and their contributions to the land.
I replaced the three stars with Nsoromma Ghanaian Adinkra symbols because I wanted the flag to reflect the deep spiritual belief, connection, and faith of the Piscataway, Nacotchtank, and African people who laid the foundation and made significant contributions to DC. Nsoromma means “children of the heavens” and “star.” It represents Creator watching over all of humanity.
The photo I used for the base of my collage features my Aunt Paulyne Roberts who worked as a public health nurse at Freedman’s Hospital in the 1940s in DC. She is standing on a street in DC. I added my Chocolate City flag as a border on the right side of the photo and placed Nsoromma symbols on windows and the sidewalk.
We are all aging, but when do we begin to recognize, discuss, choose, and define how we age?
I am currently writing a section of my memoir that discusses how I started recognizing, choosing, and defining how I wanted to age in small, medium, and big ways when I turned 27 in 1991.
Now that I am 61, I am able to look back and see that I had a VISION of Thriving Mindfully for who I wanted to be in my latest 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. It included using world spiritual practices, personal development resources and support from coaches and therapists, vegan/vegetarian/pescatarian lifestyle, yoga, meditation, journaling, reiki, physical fitness, creative expression, peaceful and fulfilling career and entrepreneurial opportunities, loving and supportive relationships and communities, local and world travel adventures, lifelong learning, participation in lots of local activities, and volunteer service opportunities.
Do you have a VISION for how you want to age in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s?
We shared the stage with Shilpi Malinowski, author of Shaw, LeDroit Park, and Bloomingdale in Washington, DC: An Oral History; Carlin D. Nelson, author of Under the Skin, Above the Pavement: Urban Ecology, Embodied Masculinity, and the Science of Risk; and Jeanne Estelle Saddler, author of The Great Triumph: A Memoir of Courage & Devotion.
Check out the photos and video below. When you watch the video start at the 1.18 minute mark.
How are you taking care of yourself this Spring season?
This Spring season has given me several opportunities to find refuge in my creativity and the creativity of others. These opportunities have served as a lifeline that leads me to peace, comfort, and joy, especially when I feel anxious about what’s happening in the United States and the world.
What are you finding refuge in?
FINDING REFUGE IN MY CREATIVITY
I started working on a new digital collage series entitled “Celebrating Black Joy in My Ancestral Womanline’s Friendships.” I created four collages featuring my grandaunt Paulyne Roberts (“Aunt Paul”) and her best friend Cleo, grandmother Frederica Stanley Roberts Leeke (“Freddie” and “Grandmommy”) and her girlfriends, and grandaunt Mabel Roberts (“Aunt Mabel”) and her sorority sisters.
The background for each collage comes from a photo I took of fabric from a dress I bought at Katuka, my favorite Afro-Brazilian boutique in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil in 2023. I used Canva to create small strips of the fabric and placed them in different directions in the main photo. The strips created a different fabric design. I included photos of the original fabric, dress, and Katuka boutique. I added Ghanaian Adinkra symbols to each collage.
Click the button to read my blog about these collages (additional photos of collages are included).
Special thanks to my Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Sorors for featuring my debut spoken word album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter (released on November 20, 2025) in the Spring 2026 issue of The Aurora Magazine. It is an honor and blessing to have my creative work dedicated to my mother, ancestor, and Soror Theresa B. Gartin Leeke featured in our international publication during the month she joined our sorority in 1959 (April 26th).
I am reading journalist and musician Lee Hawkins’ new book, I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free.
On April 1st, I attended Lee’s book talk with my dad John and cousin Melodye at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in Washington, D.C.
I am so glad we were able to attend the event and listen to Lee’s conversation with Tracie Potts, Executive Director of the Eisenhower Institute. The bonus of the evening was chatting with Lee as he signed our books.
I started reading his book the evening I purchased it and continued reading it the next morning. I am looking forward to reading more of it this month.
Ananda Leeke 