What are you reading in April?

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.

This weekend, I started working on my 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. A description of each symbol is included on graphics attached to this post.

COLLAGE TITLES WITH BRIEF DESCRIPTION

1) Aunt Paul and Her Bestie Cleo (two women seated)

I placed a photo of Aunt Paul and her bestie Cleo that was taken in 1918 or 1919 on top of the fabric photo. I removed the photo’s original background on Canva. I added brown Ese Ne Tekrema symbols to the fabric. Ese Ne Tekrema is a Ghanaian Adinkra symbol that represents friendship and cooperation.

2) Freddie’s Gal Pals (group of women standing and kneeling)

The collage celebrates the relationships Grandmommy had with her girlfriends. I used Canva’s background remover tool to recreate the image of the 1933 photo of my grandmother and her girlfriends. I imagine they were posing for a photo at one of their AQ Club meetings, teas, or events. My grandmother is the young woman kneeling in a dark colored dress. She was 18 when the photo was taken and a freshman in college. Brown Nnamfo Pa Baanu Ghanaian Adinkra symbols were added to the collage because they symbolize friendship and fellowship, two key ingredients in my grandmother’s life.

3) Freddie & Her BFF Creating Black Women Joy (two women standing)

The collage reminds me joy is one of my birthrights. It includes a 1937 photo of Grandmommy and her sistafriends Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri. They were visiting Aunt Paul who was lworking as a nurse at Homer G. Phillips Hospital, the only hospital for African Americans in St. Louis from 1939 to 1955. I added brown Ghanaian Adinkra symbols called Duafe and Nea Ope Se Obedi Hene to the fabric to celebrate beauty, femininity, sisterhood, and joy.

4) Aunt Mabel’s Community of Sisterhood

This digital collage celebrates Ant Mabel and the sisterhood she shared with her friends in her career, church, sorority, and community. She was a FABULOUS, FIERCE, FLYY, and FASHIONABLE woman who made sure she was properly groomed and “dressed to the nines” at all times. She loved the finer things in life.

Aunt Mabel studied education and graduated from Indiana State Normal College (before it became Indiana State Teachers College and Indiana State University) in Terre Haute, Indiana. She became the first African American teacher in Elkhart, Indiana and joined Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.

I used two 1940s photos of Aunt Mabel. One photo is from her career as a teacher in Elkhart, Indiana. They second photo features Aunt Mabel and a group of women that she is connected to. I imagine that the women are probably her Zeta Phi Beta Sorority sisters. I added brown Ghanaian Adinkra symbols called Duafe and Nea Ope Se Obedi Hene to the fabric to celebrate the beauty, femininity, sisterhood, and commitment to service.

My dad, Dr. John F. Leeke and I are heading to Hagerstown, Maryland, the place where our ancestors escaped slavery from, on Saturday, May 2nd for a discussion about our book, American Change Agent: A Life & Legacy of Seeking Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Next Chapter Bookshop & Cafe, 141 West Washington Street. The League of Women Voters of Washington County is sponsoring the event.

Click the buttons below to RSVP and get more information about our book.

RSVP ($5 requested donation): https://www.lwvwashco.org/book_talk_conversation

My dad, Dr. John F. Leeke and I will discuss our book, American Change Agent: A Life & Legacy of Seeking Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion on Sunday, April 19th from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. during the Author Next Door series at Busboys and Poets (Takoma Park location). Copies of our book will be available for sale.

We hope you will join us and invite your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues to attend.

CLICK BUTTONS BELOW TO RSVP AND GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR BOOK.

My creativity is my birthright and blessing. When I embrace, embody, express, and enjoy it, my entire being is Thriving Mindfully!!!!

Photo: Aham Prema (“I am love” in Sanskrit): (acrylic and gouache painting’ 2007) by Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke

Note: The painting appears on the cover of my self-love and yoga-inspired novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One (2007).

Today’s digital collage is another powerful and unexpected creation. It is entitled “Shango’s Daughters: My Madelyn – CEO Woman Archetype and Sapphire – Warrior Woman Archetype.”

I am still marinating on the meaning of this collage. I will share its full meaning in the coming weeks.

For now, here’s what I know. I used Canva’s AI background generator to create a dramatic red and black background for the collage. I also included 2008 photos of my Madelyn – CEO Woman and Sapphire – Warrior Woman archetypes that were taken by photographer Leigh Mosely for my mindful creativity memoir, That Which Awakens Me.

My relationship with the Yoruba Orisha Shango really comes alive when my Madelyn – CEO Woman and Sapphire – Warrior Woman archetypes show up in my life.

Shango is the Yoruba Orisha of thunder, lightning, fire, justice, law, and order. He is a warrior associated with the double-headed battle-ax (called oshe), strength, leadership, protection, dancing, singing, bata drumming, number six, and the colors red and white.

Shango’s color red is prominent and double-headed ax are featured in the collage. Look for six red axes in the collage. They are located in the corners of the collage and on my skin as tattoos.

My Madelyn – CEO Woman archetype is dressed in a red power suit and Mardi Gras mask. Madelyn wears a mask to protect her peace. She manages the details of my daily life, finances, and all matters that require organization and coordination. She is a fierce LEADER who does what needs to be done to live a good life. She is dressed in a red power suit in the photo. She relies on my Sapphire – Warrior Woman archetype for protection.

My Sapphire – Warrior Woman archetype offers protection and will enforce and fight on behalf of my Madelyn – CEO Woman. They work together. Sapphire is a stylish, sensual, and sexy warrior dressed in a black strapless jumpsuit and red and yellow silk wrap with dragons. The dragons on the silk wrap that I purchased while I was visiting Beijing, China in 1995 pay tribute to my birth year of the fire dragon (1964). Sapphire is also wearing a black Mardi Gras mask to protect her identity from folks who may come against her.

In 2007 and 2008, I started working with Ken Yamaguchi-Clark, a dynamic, gifted, soulful, and intuitive healer and bodyworker (known as “Dharma Farma”). Ken’s bodywork helped me identify and connect with my eight archetypes. Our work also helped me cultivate a deep relationship with each archetype, including my Warrior Woman archetype who is named Sapphire.

In 2008, my photographer Leigh Mosley and I worked together on a photoshoot of my archetypes for my mindful creative memoir, That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetical Memoir of Self-Discovery.

Today, my Warrior Woman Sapphire called on me to create two digital collages to honor her presence and power in my life. I used my painting entitled “One Drop of Black Blood #2” as the background for both collages. I added two copies of photos of my Warrior Woman Sapphire on each collage.

“Warrior Woman #1” and “Warrior Woman #2” are the titles of the collages.

The red and black colors in the collage represent my root chakra energy that focuses on security, protection, and grounding. The orange color represents my sacral chakra energy that focuses on healing, joy, sensuality, and creativity. The yellow color represents my solar plexus energy that focuses on inner power, self-determination, and persistence.

Warrior Woman #1

Warrior Woman #2

I believe each one of us is born CREATIVE. That means we each have a garden filled with seeds of #creativity that lives inside of us.

My garden of creative seeds has always lived in my spirit, heart, mind, and body.

My #curiosity lives in my eyes. They love to observe intensely. Check out my eyes in my childhood photos featured in the collage.

As a child, my mother Theresa watered and nurtured my creative seeds when she taught my three brothers and I about the power of our imagination, curiosity, and voice. Mommy constantly encouraged and reminded us to use our #imagination and be curious. Both my parents made sure we had time and access to resources and experiences that helped us express ourselves throughout our childhood. They and our grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends cheered us on.

Those early experiences laid the foundation for my adult life as a curious creative which began during my first Saturn Return (astrology lovers know what this means) at 27 in 1992.

Today’s digital collage honors the beginning of my life as a #curious #creative. It is entitled “A Curious Creative Is Born: Her First Four Years.”

The collage’s background is taken from one of my 2007 paintings I made to illustrate my love for the ocean and summer weekends spent at my parents’ beach house in Oyster Harbor, a small beach community that was incorporated by a majority of African American homeowners in Annapolis, Maryland during the 1950s.

I added photos of my first four years on the planet and several copies of my finger painting that I made when I was three years old.