Solar Eclipse throws Shade on ‘MERIKA

Hope your solar eclipse experience isn’t overshadowed by the latest display and media coverage of, mental illness (take your pick and add on: centuries & generational hate, white supremacy, nuclear trigger-happy heads of state, domestic and international terrorism, genocide, domestic and international oppression, and the #WTF cast in our nation’s capital).

Hope you entertain the idea that the eclipse’s cosmic energy may very well support humanity’s continued transition toward a higher consciousness of what it means to be connected; and that no one is free unless we’re all free.

The collective pushback against what went down in Charlottesville, VA gives me hope as do organizations, groups, and individuals who understand that BLM’s clarion call

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March 25 is Intl Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery & Transatlantic Slave Trade (16th – 19th Centuries)

http://www.un.org/en/events/slaveryremembranceday/2017/events.shtml

“Ancestors, on this day, and every day, I am grateful for your survival. May each of your spirits, and the spirits of those whose bones lay in murky depths of the Atlantic, rise up, rise up, rise up to meet and guide us, your descendants in the here and now moment. We love you. You are not forgotten.”

#RememberMiddlePassageAncestorsEnslaved

#RememberVictimsSlavery&TransatlanticSlaveTrade

#RememberYourMiddlePassageAncestors

“On my pilgrimage to posthumously welcome America’s first Africans, I’ve had “nigger” yelled my way, danced with a Yoruba priestess, and built an imaginary wall to distance an imbecile’s spewing of ‘alternative facts’.  Incredibly, I’ve been gifted insights, most of which are still manifesting. But this much is clear: Ancestors of the Middle Passage and their enslaved descendants want to be acknowledged, especially by their 21rst century descendants. They don’t care that their names have been eradicated from records. They don’t care that their sweat, blood, and tears have dripped into the earth.  They care about

Black American History 2017: The Root of Oppression is Loss of Memory, Our Remembrance Renaissance

Standing in truth’s place
At the interface of land and water
Untold stories rattle spirits
Remembrance revives souls
A foot poised above ancestral footsteps
Makes present moment awareness
surreal and transcendent
– Truth’s Place: A Pilgrimage to Historic U.S. Transatlantic Slave Trade Ports, Part I,
Kim-Marie Walker Copyright© 2016   (In-progress nonfiction work as of January 2017)

So much is going on, these days, as we enter Black American History Month, February 2017. Americans awake and activate to a new reality. Our many disenfranchised and powerful voices, heavy with potential to unite, are also, as Jean Shinoda Bolen eloquently states, “…on the leading edge of transformational change anticipated by ancient, indigenous and astrological calendars. […helping to] bring what mothers universally want their children to everyone: a peaceful world, good food, air, and water, universal education, medical care, the chance to develop and grow physically, intellectually, and spiritually.”

Yes, we’re doing that work while individually, manifesting change through varied passionate and dynamic pursuits. (BTW… ‘we’ is anybody who is for inner and global peace [of mind] and justice whilst activated in the present moment for the highest good of all.)

With so many righteous voices and the ‘browning’ of America, Black Americans remain vigilant in remembering our history. What I’ve found to be true is that, since the latter part of the 20th century, more Black Americans are redefining/rewriting/expanding Black American history with greater clarity and truth, dispelling centuries of lies/half-truths and stingy acknowledgement of our incredibly layered past. Did you know:

History cannot exist without Remembrance

About today’s post

Discover some gems unearthed during research. Read a journal excerpt about my June 2016 pilgrimage to historic transatlantic slave trade ports.

June 2016 Pilgrimage

Welcome to Kim-Marie’s pilgrimage blog. Thank you for your time and interest.

I’ll post monthly blogs as I write a travel memoir, titled: Ancestral Footsteps: Honoring Africans of the Middle Passage,  A Pilgrimage to U.S. Historic Transatlantic Slave Trade Ports circa 1601 – 1860s. The companion website is : http://www.pilgrimage2USslaveports.com.

About today’s post

Read about research sources, the pilgrimage purpose, and meet some of the people I met on the June 2016 sojourn through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, the first of three separate trips I’ll make this year.

Accounts of what transpired at the thirteen historic slave trade port sites during June are a work-in-progress for the travel memoir and will be posted later.

There are at least fourteen more states and twenty more ports to honor on this one-woman sojourn. In autumn 2016 I’ll traverse ports from Maine to Maryland. Before Midwest snow flurries are forecast I’ll resume the pilgrimage toward Florida and Gulf States.

Adventures start with a vision & a step

This blog site is a companion to the website: pilgrimage2USslaveports.com.

As of May 2016, this blog and the website are works-in-progress. Thank you for your patience.