As you may know, I am serving as the 2026 U Street Neighborhood Association Artist-in-Residence and leading the Thriving Mindfully on U Street, a multi-generational mindful creativity project that aims to help U Street residents and others take better care of themselves as they navigate the changes happening in their lives and the city, nurture connections with fellow U Street community members, express and document their love and gratitude for the U Street community and explore their vision of the U Street community in the future, and identify and share their favorite U Street memories, history makers and moments, movements, organizations, businesses, buildings, and places.
In July, I led the first workshop entitled “Thriving Mindfully: A Love Letter to U Street” at the historic True Reformer Building on U Street. It started with a mindful moment that included breathing and yoga exercises to relax the shoulders.
I used my spoken word song, “Flow & Glow” to introduce participants to Thriving Mindfully, my heart-centered approach for being present, well, and the REAL YOU. In addition, I shared an excerpt from my poem, “Home” to help them reflect on their love for U Street (poem featured in my mindful creativity memoir, That Which Awakens Me). Participants also experienced a mindfulness of the body meditation and used two journaling exercises to discuss their love for U Street.
SPECIAL THANKS to everyone who attended the workshop.
MANY THANKS to the U Street Neighborhood Association and True Reformer Building for hosting the event.
Join me for the Thriving Mindfully on U Street series in August, September, and October. Click on the links below for more information.
AUGUST WORKSHOP: The second event in this series, “Honoring U Street as American History,” will take place on August 26th from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Hamiltonian Artists, located at 1353 U Street, NW, in DC. Come share your love for U Street and contribute to a community art project (to be displayed during the final workshop). CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
SEPTEMBER WORKSHOP: The third event in this series, “The Future of the U Street Community,” will take place on September 16th from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the True Reformer Building, located at 1200 U Street, NW, in DC. Come share your love for U Street and contribute to a community art project (to be displayed during the final workshop). CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
OCTOBER WORKSHOP: The fourth, and final event in this series, “The U in U Street Community,” will take place on October 7th from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at True Reformer Building, located at1200 U Street, NW, in DC. Come share your love for U Street and have a final chance to contribute to a community art project (to be displayed during the event). CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
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.
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).
What communities welcome you and/or feed your soul?
Four years ago, I was seeking out local intergenerational creative communities and discovered Creative Mornings DC. After the first gathering, I knew I had found a welcoming tribe of like-minded folks and a source of inspiration. After attending a few gatherings, I felt the call to serve as a volunteer. Fast forward to now, I am still growing and cultivating my connections with folks organically by attending gatherings, volunteering, and meeting up one-on-one and in small group settings. Visit https://creativemornings.com/cities/DC to learn more.
Last year, I set an intention to spend more time in Baltimore getting to know the creative communities. Why you might ask? Because I’ve spent the past six years (since the global pandemic) visiting friends who live in the city and exploring various art, culture, and history venues. Baltimore has also become my second home again. The first time was way back in the 1980s when I attended Morgan State University (Class of 1986).
This year I decided to spend time with the Creative Mornings Baltimore community. Last Friday, I attended my first gathering at the Maryland Center for History and Culture with my soul sistalove Ayesha. As soon as we walked in and talked to the volunteers, I could feel the groovy vibes. The conversations I had with the diverse folks made me feel at home. The golden nuggets I received from the four speakers who shared their thoughts about the meaning of local were just the medicine I needed. All of it fed my soul in a deep and meaningful way. I’ll definitely be back next month! Visit https://creativemornings.com/cities/bal to learn more about the community.
FYI Creative Mornings is a global community that is free to join. It has chapters that meet in-person all over the world. It also offers online workshops and resources for creatives. Visit https://creativemornings.com for more information.
In addition to creating my Ancestral Medicine digital collage collection, I am reflecting on and creating digital collages about the person I have been and currently am.
Yesterday, I found my high school senior class photo and thought about who I was at 17 years old.
I looked into my 17-year-old eyes and saw Madelyn Cheryl Leeke (my legal name; known as “Puf” to family and friends), an independent, talkative, focused high achiever, leader, and student at Elizabeth Seton High School (all-girls Catholic school), poet, future lawyer, public speaker, and a fun-loving, social, party and flirty girl who loves lipstick, Prince, dancing, shopping, dressing in vintage clothing mixed with jeans, going to basketball games, dating, speaking Spanish and French, traveling, dreaming of living well on 16th Street in DC, nature, basketball, catching the Metro, art, music, beaches, and all things cultural.
I see a sensitive, creative, and smart girl who put a lot of pressure on herself to succeed.
I see an intense, self-determined, and brave girl who had high expectations for herself and believed she had to achieve academic, career, and material success in order to survive and THRIVE.
What a young woman!
Over the years, I have had to forgive myself for some of the beliefs I had and choices I made that created unhealthy mindsets, behavior, and experiences.
I know my 17-year-old self did the best she could with what she had.
Let me also say, I am still in the process of forgiving and healing the person I was during each decade of my life. That work is ONGOING.
With that said, I can honestly say at 61 that I would not change a thing about my 17-year-old self because she got me to the place I am today. All of her beliefs and choices, the good and not so good, led me to experiences, people, lessons, wisdom, grace, forgiveness, patience, dreams, joy, pain, loss, healing, growth, and blessings that make me who I am today. And that person is a Woman Intentionally and Patiently Progressing (W.I.P.P.).
The title of this collage is “17.” I started it with a painting I made in 2006 or 2007 as the background. I loved the red and yellow colors because they remind me of my high school colors.
The color red also represents my root chakra energy and how focused I was on establishing career and financial security.
The yellow represents my solar plexus chakra energy and my intense focus on personal power, persistence, and self-determination.
Three Ghanaian Adinkra symbols were added to the collage.
Epa is the name of the Adinkra symbol that is repeated on my graduation gown. It symbolizes law and justice and illustrates my dream and career goal of becoming a lawyer who helps people and makes good money to afford my lifestyle and home on 16th Street in DC.
The Duafe (the comb) Adinkra symbol represents femininity and beauty and illustrates my desire to be, feel, and look feminine, stylish, and beautiful.
The Bese Asaka Adinkra symbol represent abundance and wealth and illustrates my goal to live well.
Tennis has always been a sport I wanted to learn as an adult. It runs in my family too. Check out the photo of my grandmother Frederica Stanley Roberts Leeke holding her tennis racket during the 1930s
During the global pandemic, I decided to take lessons and become a beginner player. My soul sistalove Tonya (see in the third photo above) encouraged me. Tonya is an intermediate player and “tennis momma” with many years of experience due to her son’s tennis playing years.
Tennis has always been a sport I wanted to learn as an adult. During the global pandemic, I decided to take lessons and become a beginner player. My soul sistalove Tonya (see in the third photo above) encouraged me. Tonya is an intermediate player and “tennis momma” with many years of experience due to her son’s tennis playing years.
In October 2021, my tennis journey began at the grand age of 56 with the support of my coach Kendall, a Howard University senior and member of the tennis team, on the Banneker courts in Washington, D.C. Kendall coached me for several weeks before the weather got too cold and resumed teaching me during the spring and early summer in 2022 (see two photos of above).
After she moved, she referred me to Jadenn, a coach and junior at Hampton University who was a member of the tennis team. Jaden worked with me on the basics and encouraged me to sign up for the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation’s (DPR) fall tennis classes in August 2022.
During my DPR journey, I learned so much from a great group of coaches including Rich, Richard, Dave, and Kevin, and volunteers Gail and Dan. I also learned a lot from my classmates. When I graduated to intermediate tennis classes in the summer of 2024, I started working with Coach Marian Lang (see photos above). Coach Marian really helped me with dive deeper into tennis and build my confidence as a player. I worked with her until the end of 2025 and plan to continue working with her this year.
In October 2025, I realized I learn better when I am in a small group. So I stopped taking classes with DPR. My friend Tonya encouraged me to experiment with indoor lessons at Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) and Rock Creek Tennis Center and. So I signed up for JTCC’s Learn Tennis Now programs in November 2025. I also gave myself a birthday gift of intermediate lessons with Coach Bianca Eqalite at Rock Creek Tennis Center in December 2025.
Before 2025 ended, I decided to take intermediate winter classes at JTCC and Rock Creek Tennis Center. Unfortunately, I only attended one class at Rock Creek Tennis Center due to the winter snow and my schedule. I may go back in the spring or summer because I really enjoyed Coach Bianca.
My winter intermediate classes at JTCC have been pretty intense which is a good thing for me. I have enjoyed learning from Coaches Ross, Tayla, Eva, and Ale, and practicing with and playing my classmates.
Last weekend, I spent Saturday evening celebrating International Women’s Day and the great tennis legacy of women players like Althea Gibson, Serena and Venus Williams, Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Taylor Townsend at JTCC. I had a great time participating in tennis exercises, games, and matches. It was an intense workout that was much needed.
Getting a peach Fila tennis skirt made the event even sweeter!
Special thanks to Marta and the JTCC women coaches for hosting the event.
This week has been a slow one for me. My body has summoned me to rest and sleep deeply. Translation: No digital devices in my bedroom and earlier bedtimes than usual. It’s been dreamy, definitely needed, and delicious to experience!
DEE-LISH-SHUSSSSSSSSSSSS. Yes, I had to spell out the word in all caps and the way I say the word.
And HELL YEAH, it’s EXTRA just like the name of one of my favorite my lip glosses by The Lip Bar. For inquiring minds who might want to know, I am not an influencer for this brand. I just love wearing it cuz’ it is a lovely vegan brand created by an African American woman who was born in my home state of Michigan.
Okay, all that sleep and rest coupled with the Lunar New Year and New Moon Solar Eclipse in Aquarius on Monday created space for me to flow in and out of my ancestral dreams. I don’t remember what the dreams were about. I just have this inner knowing that my loving + wise + well ancestors are reminding me of the power and choice I have to dream, be, live, love, and create freely. They keep telling me they are working on my behalf so that I can relax into a more Jupiter expansive being-ness that opens a portal into my inner truth, beauty, joy, magic, play, and fun adventures.
The Februllage collages I have created for Day 16 (PROMPT – Toilet Paper), Day 17 (PROMPT – Mathematics), and Day 18 (PROMPT – Costume) were born from my journey into this new portal of expansiveness. Check them out below.
FEBRULLAGE DAY 16 (PROMPT – Toilet Paper)
“Pandemic Memories” is the title of my Februllage Day16 digital collage. This collage gave me a chance to make playful art from the rolls of toilet paper and masks many of us kept stocked in our homes.
I started the collage with a photo of a bathroom in the Hackney apartment I stayed in during my visit to London in 2023. I added a photo of myself wearing a mask from 2021 in the mirror. Graphic images of masks and rolls of toilet paper were also included.
FEBRULLAGE DAY 17 (PROMPT – Mathematics)
“Black Mermaid Mathematics” is the title of my Februllage Day 17 digital collage. This collage celebrates the soul sistalove bond I share with my cousin Gail and my childhood and adult passion for numerology and mermaids of African descent. I started the collage with an AI-generated background of numbers and added one of my favorite photos of my cousin Gail and I when we were young girls. I added different mermaids of African descent. The mermaids also represent my connection to Oxum/Oshun and Iemanja/Yemanya, two Afro Brazilian/Yoruba Oxisas/Orishas.
FEBRULLAGE DAY 18 (PROMPT – Costume)
The Costume prompt made me think of Mardi Gras which was celebrated on February 17th this year. I love Mardi Gras and New Orleans art, culture, history, and spirituality. My love affair with New Orleans and Louisiana shows up in my debut novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One.
“Great-Great-Grandmother Ida Mae at the Mardi Gras Ball” is the title of my Februllage Day 18 digital collage. My imagination took over this collage and explored what my great-great-grandmother Ida Mae Goins Bolden would have looked like if she attended a Mardi Gras ball.
Great-Great Grandmother Ida Mae was born on December 10, 1866, in Michigan. Her birthday is eight days before my December 18th birthday. We were both born in Michigan. She was a daughter of Franklin Goins and Polly Mary Rickman Goins, sister to three sisters and two brothers, wife, mother, aunt, and grandmother.
She married my great-great grandfather William Henry Bolden on December 29, 1887, in Decatur, Indiana. Together, they raised five children, Ada May Bolden McWilliams (1889-1947), Arthur William Bolden (1890-1943), Clyde E. Bolden (1891-1916), Iona Hazel Bolden Johnson King (my great grandmother), and an unnamed child who died early (1899).
While reading her death certificate, I learned she died of cancer of the uterus, rectum, and bladder on March 16, 1917, in North Vernon, Indiana (Jennings County). The cause of her death is something I will explore in another collage series.
I used Canva to create AI-generated ballroom background. Mardi Gras confetti graphic images and a sign decorate the entire collage. I added a woman of African descent dressed in a Mardi Gras mask and costume. I included a black and white photo of Great-Great Grandmother Ida Mae as a young woman in her early 20s. I think the photo was taken before she got married in 1887.
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. Also, reflect on the question.
What personality traits or experiences you share with your loving + wise + well ancestors
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)?
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?
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?
Ananda Leeke 