Produced by Gabriel Tolliver

Herbal traditions have historically been a part of African tradition. MONDO BLACK traveled to visit practitioner and educator Ekere Tallie in Queens to discover the roots of herbal healing in the ‘hood.

Often the phrase “working roots” has conjured up (no pun intended) images of hoodoo witch doctors or voodoo priestesses, using spells, hexes, charms, and the like. But at MONDO BLACK, we were excited to sit down with a real-life urban healer, herbalist, nature activist and root-worker – who also happens to be a writer, educator, wife and mother Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie.

In her blog, The Sage Honey Ekere waxes poetic on the healing powers of everything from honey to dandelions, shares recipes for making delicious curative concoctions such as sorrel and brandy and fruit elixirs — and pens haiku odes to roses, along with directions for making powerful infusions and medicines from the flower of ‘love and romance.’

For us, it was a magical afternoon with a real-life earth worker and wood nymph – a soothing, soulful trip made even more delightful and inspiring thanks to her helper, her amazingly adorable daughter Joy-Shanti — who is clearly already a root-worker in training.

Besides sharing her knowledge of herbs, roots, and natural medicine on-line, Ekere is also an accomplished poet and author, recently delving into the realm of video to share her poetry (we use a segment of her video, “Roots” and you can watch more of her videos on her “Sage Honey” Youtube channel here.

Her poetry and fiction have been published in journals including Bomb, Paris/Atlantic, and Drumvoices Revue, and anthologies including Listen Up! (One World/Ballantine), Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Random House), Role Call (Third World Press) and The Body Eclectic (Henry Holt). Ekere has been a Staff Writer for African Voices literary magazine since 1995; she has performed and read at venues the Poetry Café (London), Palabras (Holland), The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Brooklyn Moon Cafe, Rutgers University, Hunter College, Bryant Park, and the Brooklyn Public library. As well as conducting her Osain’s Children Herbal Workshops at the Afrikan Poetry Theatre in Queens, New York, she has taught English and conducted creative writing workshops in London, Amsterdam, New York, Chicago, and Rundu (Namibia).

Tune in and discover the power of roots, herbs and natural medicine with Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie on MONDO BLACK: BLACK ROOTS.

In this episode of the exploratory series, Mondo Black brings viewers on to the soil of a remarkable farm that provides better food, education while rebuilding the environment and the quality of life in the often overlooked East New York section of Brooklyn.

Produced by Gabriel Tolliver

MONDO BLACK gets up close and personal with Jomama Jones, “more diva starlet than drag queen”– and visits with award-winning poet, writer, performer and actress Pamela Sneed to discuss international activism, gender identification, and the written and spoken word.

Produced by Gabriel Tolliver

MONDO BLACK went on the road to visit with some of today’s vibrant artistsmixing movement, music and media – and re-inventing “black art identity” alongthe way. We call this episode MONDO BLACK: “We Like The Way We Move.”First MONDO BLACK hooked up with composer/choreographer Grisha Coleman — Assistant Professor of Movement at Arizona State University – at work on her dance/media/sound/environmental 5-piece series, echo::system

“Besides black art, there is only automation and mechanization.” — Federico Garcia Lorca, 1936.

Spain’s great poet and dramatist Lorca observed the creative soul and dynamic spirit expressed by African Americans in the harsh and hollow industrialized “new world” he encountered, upon arriving in New York in the 1930s to attend Columbian University in Harlem.

But long before Lorca’s commentary, movement, dance, and the music that accompanies it have played vital roles in the articulation of Black Being – and today, continue to offer up the beat of a cosmic drum…tuned to empower the Black Body.

MONDO BLACK went on the road to visit with some of today’s vibrant artists
mixing movement, music and media – and re-inventing “black art identity” along
the way. We call this episode MONDO BLACK: “We Like The Way We Move.”

First MONDO BLACK hooked up with composer/choreographer Grisha Coleman — Assistant Professor of Movement at Arizona State University – at work on her dance/media/sound/environmental 5-piece series, echo::system, (see www.echo-system.org). Coleman’s career includes performing as a member of acclaimed dance company Urban Bush Women for four years; following this, she created the music performance group “HOTMOUTH” which toured extensively nationally and internationally and was nominated for a 1998 Drama Desk Award for “Most Unique Theatrical Experience.”

Next we caught up with poet, performer, composer and filmmaker mTkalla Keaton. Born and bred in Brookyn, mTkalla acknowledges that it was a trip to Soweto in ‘92 — where he witnessed “how words, song and vision became a bridge to freedom” — that catapulted him into his artistry. Since then he has co-produced two albums (“The Mango Room,” and “Peace of Mind” by Julie Dexter), an independent feature film (“Red Bone Guerillas”) and two pieces of poetic musical theater (“Raising Sugarcane, an Angel’s Exile into Flesh” at NYC’s PS 122, and “The Mango Lick” at The Queen Elizabeth Hall). Currently he’s completing his sound-cinema triptych “The Garden of Eve” — three short videos featuring his original “soul-electronica” compositions — and preparing to begin principal photography on his first feature, “Love Is a Spaceship.” (Check out mTkalla’s soul-electronic short, “Nightbreaker” here

We hope you “like the way we move” – as much as we do!

Produced by Gabriel Tolliver

MB gets a chance to grill Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer at the Franklin Institute Science Museum and 2011 NASA Solar System Ambassador on the final frontier, the future of African Americans in science research, and of course, UFOs.

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ASTRONOMER DERRICK PITTS : STARMAN

After 30 years and 135 missions to the stars, July 21, 2011 marked the last mission of the NASA Space Shuttle Program — bringing to close a seminal step in modern man’s real-live quest to journey into the cosmos.

In the dark matter realm of black culture, we have many of our own cosmic heroes, real and imagined: The Dogon, The Egyptians, Sun Ra, George Clinton & P-Funk, Lt. Uhura, Lando Calrissian, Commander Sisko, Bootsy, Jimi, Outkast’s ATLiens, Neil deGrasse Tyson — these are just a few notable star folk of our special Galaxy.

MONDO BLACK took a trip to Philly to see another notable star-man; Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer and Planetarium Programs Director of the Franklin Institute Science Museum. Derrick – also a 2011 NASA Solar System Ambassador, and keeper of the Tuskegee Airmen legacy, as President of their Greater Philadelphia Chapter — shared his love of science and astronomy and described his efforts on bringing these sciences to the community — along with insightful musings on black holes/UFOs and the future of space exploration.

About his own inspirations and what led him to pursue astronomy, Pitts has had this to say: “As a kid, I didn’t know any scientists. Oh sure, I’d read about all kinds of scientists, so while it didn’t immediately come to mind as a typical career choice for a young black kid in an inner-city neighborhood, I also knew it wasn’t completely ridiculous either. There was just no guidance for a kid with such aspirations…but astronomy intrigued me. It was exotic, complicated and multi-faceted. It was also very exciting because for the first 17 years of my life, the greatest scientific endeavor ever, putting people on the Moon, hit a new milestone every year. The work of astronomers, who sought to understand the nature of the expansion of the universe… was inspirational.”

With his own mission statement – “Eat. Breathe. Do Science. Sleep later!” – Derrick’s passion is to remind us that space is no stranger to us. If our collective ancestors built the Pyramids, charted the heavens without contemporary tools, and stocked the library at Alexandria with knowledge of the world, then space is certainly within our grasp…because, as we’re told in the ancient teachings of Hermeticism: “as above, so below…” and within the capabilities of our own minds, infinite possibilities exist…

Sadly, while it may see that the value of the science(s) are somewhat lost on our communities, the work and research of Derrick Pitts – including his “guerilla astronomy” project, setting up telescopes on the streets of urban Philadelphia and showing inner-city residents what can be seen in their own night skies — serves as a reminder that we are capable of doing and achieving all things. As someone once said; “What you believe, you can achieve…” because our minds are vast, limitless and full of possibilities — just like space. So we invite you to take a trip with MONDO BLACK into our very own special cosmic investigation: Black Holes: Astronomer Derrick Pitts: Starman.

Produced by Gabriel Tolliver

MB visits with two thought-provoking artists – visual artist Kimberly Becoat, and writer/filmmaker Darius James – exploring a diverse landscape of cultural paradigms in art, and film.

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BLACK ART PART 1: OUR EYES ON US

“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.” W.E.B. Du Bois

Creative representation of African American life and The Black Body has come a long way since W.E.B. Dubois’ seminal commentary, “The Souls of Black Folk.” Our varied and multidimensional modes of ‘art-thought’ continue to evolve and thrive — thanks to the determined efforts of talented and thought-provoking artists of color.

However, MONDO BLACK was all about looking beyond the ‘traditional’ representations of blackness created by mainstream African Diaspora cultural producers…but rather, chose to examine artists who work on the margins — independent ‘arts-activists’ who continue to reshape and redefine how we see ourselves, often without financial support or public accolades.

Perhaps because of the freedom that comes with this kind of ‘out the box’ creativity, we chose to spotlight a maverick brand of soul-keepers and dream-weavers… working stubbornly to help us keep “our eyes on us” – rather than remaining hostage to the woeful condition bemoaned by Du Bois in 1903.

MONDO BLACK visited with several such decidedly individualistic and creatively dazzling talents in this 1 of  2 part episode: Visual artist Kimberly Becoat and legendary writer/filmmaker Darius James.

Kimberly Becoat’s work layers drawings and painting with found/recycled objects and elements of graffiti, as well as incorporating the influence of commercial driven advertising styles; her work has been shown at The Skylight Gallery, The Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Arts (MoCADA), and Danny Simmons Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn, NYC, and Deutsche Bank. For more info on, click here click here

Writer, poet, and filmmaker Darius James – a.k.a. Dr. Snakeskin – is the author of avante-afro-classics “That’s Blaxploitation!: Roots of the Baadasssss ‘Tude (Rated X by an All-Whyte Jury)” and “Negrophobia.”  He is currently at work on a documentary film (“The United States of Hoodoo”) with German filmmaker Oliver Hardt, exploring the varied cultural and spiritual traditions throughout America that fall under the heading of “hoodoo.” For more about Darius, check out this interesting 2010 interview with Wax Poetics.