Tag: Love

My Februllage 2026 Collage for Day 11: Plant

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PLANT is the prompt for #Februllage Day 11. My collage is entitled “Two Generations Planting Seeds of Black Girl Joy.” It explores two things that brought joy to my mother Theresa and I during our girlhoods: playing with our dolls and dogs. I included photos of us with our favorite dolls and dogs in the collage.

My mom grew up with a dog named Elmer in Indianapolis, Indiana. She loved him so much and made sure my brothers and I experienced the same love and joy.

I grew up with a dog named Clarence in Landover, Maryland. Due to my mom’s love, he became the fifth Leeke child. We all loved him too. He was one of my best friends. I spent lots of time playing with and talking to him. I still remember his smile and remember him on his birthday each year. I even keep a photograph of us on my refrigerator.

The collage includes graphics of a potted plant and woman gardening and photos of my mom and I when we were toddlers. The seeds in the potted plant represent our joy. Our toddler photos represent our pure joy as children. The woman gardening illustrates our adult responsibility to tend to our own garden of joy.

Several Ghanaian Adinkra Gye W’Ani symbols are featured. They represent joy and living fully with joy.

YOUR INVITATION


Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter as you reflect on the questions below.

1) What brought you joy as a child?

2) What brings you joy as an adult?

3) What are one to three steps you can take to experience more joy in your daily life (they don’t have to take a lot of time or cost you money; consider incorporating simple things you can do in your daily life)?

My Februllage 2026 Collage for Day 10: Oblivious

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Yesterday, I discovered that making digital collages dedicated to my loving + wise + well ancestors is a powerful way to care for myself when I experience grief that is born out of the loss of a loved one.

Making ancestral collages is a form of ancestral medicine because it helps you remember your ancestors and express love and gratitude for them.

I had a lot of fun thinking about OBLIVIOUS, today’s #Februllage prompt.

My creative process started with a visit to the internet’s dictionary universe.

After reading several definitions, I made a mental note of the synonyms that resonated. Two words claimed space in my mind: unaware and clueless.

I wondered about the times in my life when I have been unaware or clueless.

I also started looking at family photos and found one of my mom Theresa and three brothers, Mike, Mark, and Matt. It was taken by my father John in 1969.

As I looked at the photo, I realized my little girl self called Puf (“Puf the Magic Dragon” like the song by Peter, Paul & Mary) was experiencing joy sitting with her mom and brothers. She was also OBLIVIOUS to how spiritually and emotionally wealthy she was as a daughter who had an overflowing amount of love, guidance, protection, and provision from her mother and loving + wise + well ancestors.

I ended up using the photo as the base of today’s collage that is entitled “A Little Girl Is Oblivious.”

I added a photo of my current self. That photo represents me as a woman whonnow recognizes and claims her spiritual and emotional weath.

Several Bese Saka symbols were included in the collage. Bese Saka is a beautiful Adinkra symbol that represents abundance and wealth. They are placed in the right-hand corner of the collage.

One last thing! I wrote a statement in the upper left-hand side that expresses how I was OBLIVIOUS as a little girl about the spiritual and emotional weath I had as a result of my mom’s love, presence, wisdom, guidance, protection, creativity, joy, and adventure.

YOUR INVITATION


Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter as you reflect on the questions below.

1) Think back to your childhood and the connections you shared with loved ones like your parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Can you recall something you didn’t know about them and later learned when you were an adult?

2) Did the new information you learned about them impact you in any way?

My Februllage 2026 Collage for Day 9: Bottle

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Bottle is the prompt for #Februllage Day 9. My collage is entitled Mother + Daughter + Granddaughter Memory from 1986.

I thought about memories I wish I could have bottled. I decided to create a collage about my memory of standing next to my mother Theresa and grandmother Dorothy (known as Nanan) in a family photo that was taken during my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary celebration in 1986.

I remember my mom being so happy to renew her vows with my dad in the presence of her children, family, and friends. I was very happy to serve as her maid of honor and celebrate my parents. I think Nanan was happy to see her daughter so happy.

This photo is one of the only photos I have with all of us together. It’s hard to believe that it was taken 40 years ago. When I look at it now, I can truly appreciate the layers of mother-daughter love that existed between us as imperfect human beings.

I started the collage with a photo that my niece Jordan took of me during our 2021 visit to the KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden that featured the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. She encouraged me to pose by the floral exhibit.

Side Note: We both love flowers.

I was so happy that day because I got to spend it with my niece who is the daughter I never had and one of my favorite people in the world.

I remember telling my mom how happy I was that Jordan and I got to share the joy of seeing one of our favorite artists together. I also texted this photo to my mom. She loved art and flowers just like Jordan and me.

Both photos are filled with moments I wish I could have bottled so I could open them on days when I need a quick reminder of how I blessed I am to be Theresa’s daughter, Dorothy’s granddaughter, and Jordan’s aunt.

YOUR INVITATION

Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter as you reflect on the question below.

If you could bottle moments spent with your loving + wise + well ancestors, what would they be?

Reflections on My Father

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In honor of Father’s Day (which is every day), I am sharing an excerpt from American Change Agent, the book my dad, Dr. John F. Leeke, wrote about his life and work in diversity, equality, and inclusion. This excerpt is from Chapter 21: Our Father’s Journey: How My Children See Me (pages 428-429).

Copyright 2025 by John F. Leeke and Madelyn C. Leeke


Before former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant coined the phrase “girl dad” and it went viral as a hashtag on social media after ESPN anchor Elle Duncan shared a memory of her conversation with him during a tribute to his life in 2020, my father lived and breathed it. For those who don’t know, a girl dad is a father who wants his daughter to be treated equally. That means he wants her to have the same rights, opportunities, and privileges as any boy. For as long as I can remember, my father has shown me a fierce love wrapped in an endless bow of support and freedom of expression. His personal investment in my well-being as a child, teenager, young adult, and now as of this writing a 59-year-old woman is beyond words. He and my mother taught me I could be and do anything in the world because it was mine.

There are moments I can remember when he showed up in my defense as only as a girl dad could. Like the time, he met with the two nuns at my all-girls Catholic high school and told them in his loud Black man voice that they were racist due to their mistreatment of me and the other members of the Awareness Black Culture Club. He has believed in me when I couldn’t, especially during the eight times I took and failed the bar exam and each time I have written and published a book. He has even helped me write parts of my books over the telephone when I was running out of creative energy and patience. He has listened to me in my craziest moments and advised me before and after I have taken several risks in my career.

Ours is a rich, layered, and intense relationship that has allowed me to explore and express myself; experiment with my life, career, and creativity; and passionately pursue my healing and wholeness with confidence, freedom, and a safety net that he will always be in my corner no matter what. Being Dr. John F. Leeke’s daughter has given me the honor of sitting in the front row of his life as a digital senior citizen activist, blogger, podcaster, storyteller, and author. As time moves us forward, our relationship is blessing me and my brothers with perhaps the greatest honor: supporting my father as he walks the path of a wise person in his aging process. What a gift to behold!

WATCH ASK DR. JOHN, A FATHER-DAUGHTER CONVERSATION VIDEO SERIES

The video features a discussion my dad and I had about fatherhood.


ABOUT BOOK

American Change Agent: A Life & Legacy of Seeking Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion is a memoir written by Dr. John F. Leeke with his daughter Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke. It tells the rich, inspiring journey of Dr. Leeke, a descendant of the Akan people of Ghana, the Yoruba people of Nigeria, Indigenous Turtle Island nations, European settlers, and freedom seekers who escaped slavery in Hagerstown, Maryland. This collection of stories spans 85 years of his life, showcasing his family, career, and dedication to diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Explore Dr. Leeke’s early years in Indianapolis and Terre Haute, Indiana, his Catholic education in Washington, DC, and his academic pursuits at Indiana State Teachers College. Follow his career as a teacher and guidance counselor in Flint, Michigan, his graduate studies at the University of Michigan, and his impactful work in community organizing and organizational development.

Learn how Dr. Leeke’s leaps of faith in various roles, including his tenure at the National Education Association and his entrepreneurial ventures, solidified his commitment to diversity, equality, and inclusion. His reflections on six decades of diversity, equality, and inclusion work reveal the institutional changes he championed and his ongoing influence in retirement through church involvement, civic engagement, and online activism.

Dr. Leeke’s stories are an invitation to reflect on your own journey, embrace humanity’s diversity, and become a change agent in your community.

Buy Book & Get Copies for Family, Friends, Neighbors & Colleagues

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#BlackHistoryMonth Treat: How Playwright Lorraine Hansberry Inspired My Novel, Love’s Troubadours

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LT-ALandLorraineHansberry

My debut novel, Love’s Troubadours was inspired by a speech given by activist and playwright Lorraine Hansberry in February 1964. She spoke to a Harlem-based group of aspiring young, gifted, and African American writers about the power to love in America. In her remarks, Hansberry stated,

“O, the things that we have learned in this unkind house that we have to tell the world about! Despair? Did someone say despair was a question in the world? Well then, listen to the sons of those who have known little else. If you wish to know the resiliency of this thing you would so quickly resign to mythhood, this thing called the human spirit … Life? Ask those who have tasted of it in pieces rationed out by enemies. Love? Ah, ask the troubadours who have come from those who have loved when all reason pointed to the uselessness and foolhardiness of love. Perhaps we shall be the teachers when it is done. Out of the depths of pain we have thought to be our sole heritage in this world-O, we know about love!”

She referred to African Americans as troubadours, the descendents of people who used the power of love to live through and overcome despair and insurmountable odds. She went on to urge the audience to seek wisdom from African Americans because of their capacity to love.

I first read about Hansberry’s speech in Salvation by bell hooks in 2001. Salvation discusses how African Americans have used the power of love to transform their lives and communities. hooks’ writings caused me to question how I could use my gifts as an artist and writer to promote love as a healing tool in the lives of individuals and communities in America. I answered that question by writing Love’s Troubadours, a novel that tells the story of Karma Francois, a 30-something museum curator and yoga teacher who loses her job, discovers family secrets after a loved one dies, and begins a healing journey as she relocates from New York City to Washington, DC. Learn more about her in the video below.

Karma learns many life lessons as she comes face-to-face with the choices she has made in her life and relationships. Watch the video below and learn about some of them.

Throughout her journey, she uses journaling, meditation, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, therapy, and yoga to heal and love herself. Hansberry’s wisdom on mindful living inspired the way I wrote about Karma’s healing journey:

 “I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful, and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and–I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations and generations.”

Watch the video below and learn how Karma’s healing journey transformed her idea of love in her life.

After reading Hansberry’s book, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, I made a conscious decision to use my novel’s characters to celebrate the beauty and diversity of people of African descent. Watch the video below and learn about the diverse characters.

 

Listen to a chapter excerpt from Love’s Troubadours that illustrates the diversity of African Americans when Karma walks into Mocha Hut, a coffee and tea café in her U Street neighborhood, and eavesdrops on a conversation.

 

Web Site Relaunch of My Novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One

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Love's Troubadours - Karma: Book One
Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One

Happy Monday,

Five years ago I launched my web site for my debut novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One (2007). Last year, I realized the site needed a makeover. Click here to check out the new look (very simple compared to the old site). Let me know what you think. And be sure to read the book summary below.

Book Summary:

Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One tells the story of Karma Francois, a thirtysomething Oakland-born BoHo B.A.P. (Bohemian Black American Princess) with Louisiana roots and urban debutante flair. The novel begins with Karma’s life in an uproar. Her relationships and the museum curator career that she struggled to form in New York City have crumbled, leaving no viable options to rebuild. Relocating to Washington, DC, Karma  struggles with denial, depression, and debt. A lack of full-time employment opportunities forces her to craft a gypsy existence as a Jill of Many Trades:
yoga teacher, art consultant, and freelance curator at Howard University Gallery
of Art. Unable and unwilling to appreciate these jobs as gifts, she wallows in a
pool of lost identity-and doesn’t see a way to keep from drowning. When she looks in the mirror, Karma  sees a woman whose choices have dishonored her true character. Now, for the first time in her life, Karma must learn to see herself for who she really
is. To purchase a copy on Amazon.com, click here.

Enjoy!

Ananda

PS: Watch the short videos from my 2007 book party.

Day 5 of 30 Days of Poetry, Jazz & Earth Day Awareness: Celebrating Dr. King and his teachings on love

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Happy Monday!

This morning I went walking … speed walking.  During my walk, I thought about the sacrifices Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made for so many of us.  When I returned from my walk, I read Nikki Giovanni’s poem “The Funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.”   Giovanni wrote the poem on April 9, 1968. Click on the Cinchcast audio blog to hear me read the poem.  I also read my poem “The Word” from my new book That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery.

What is your favorite word?

Here are six of my favorite words:  Poetry. Jazz. Earth. Soul stories unfold.

Enjoy your day and week!

Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Gratitude for Dr. King and his teachings on love,

Ananda

Open your heart by watching Ananda’s 2/12 online yoga class for computer users

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Hi All,

Give yourself the gift of love by taking 15 minutes to watch my yoga class video that explores the power of opening your heart.  It includes kind and gentle yoga poses that you can do while sitting in a chair or in your bed.  Click here to watch the video: http://stickam.com/anandaleeke.

FYI – My yoga class honors women’s heart health month (celebrated in February) and the people of Haiti.  If you learned something from the class, please consider making a donation to Doctors Without Borders to support their work in Haiti: www.doctorswithoutborders.org.

I am teaching two more online yoga classes on February 19 and 26 at 7:00 a.m. EST: http://stickam.com/anandaleeke. I hope you can join me for the classes.

Enjoy your day and weekend!

Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Love OMs,

Ananda

Ananda Celebrates Love Day w/ a poem & video from her new book That Which Awakens Me

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Happy Friday! Happy Early Valentine’s Day!  Happy Love Day Every Day!

I thought you might like to read a poem about love from my new book That Which Awakens Me: A Creative Woman’s Poetic Memoir of Self-Discovery (available on Amazon.com –  http://tiny.cc/7uFsg).  See below.  I have also included a video of me reading the poem. Let me know what you think of the poem.

What does love mean to you?

Enjoy your day and weekend!

Peace, Creativity, Compassion, and Gratitude for love in all of its beauty,

Ananda

Excerpt from That Which Awakens Me

Copyright 2009 by Madelyn C. Leeke.

The Word

In the beginning was the word.
And the word was a seed called a thought rooted in Spirit.

In the beginning was the word.
And the word that we were given from Spirit was choice.

In the beginning was the word.
And the words that we choose each moment create energy,
meaning, and power in how we experience ourselves, each
other, and the world around us.

As we think and speak, we become a vessel of spiritual,
emotional, physical, silent, verbal, and written expression.

Our thoughts and words have lives of their own.

They tell our life stories out loud.

They stamp the universe with our vibratory signature.

Our vibration finds its way into the universe and dances to the
beat of beautiful music or noisy disturbance.

If we are mindful and aware, we can choose to allow our
vibration to create love, peace, light, beauty, joy, healing,
happiness, laughter, and abundance.

If we are unconscious or ego-tripping, we run the risk of
making a choice that will add more emotional, spiritual, and
physical violence in the universe.

The question we must ask is: what do we want the beginning
of each moment to look and feel like?

My answer is L-O-V-E.