Our blog tracks Jose Arguelles' Dreamspell Calendar. "As chaos and confusion rise, galactic consciousness based on the Law of Time serves as planetary medicine, lifting us into the awareness that we exist within a higher, more expanded realm of existence than the world of third-dimensional form and appearance. Daily practice will elevate consciousness and increase experiences of synchronicity." (Arguelles)
Janus Adams (born January 11, 1947) is a journalist, author/historian, talk show host, publisher/producer, and creator of BackPax children’s media.
Education and Career
As a journalist, Adams' radio and TV talk shows aired for ten years, and her syndicated column ran for sixteen years. Her Master's degree from Mills College in Pan-African Culture was the nation's first graduate degree in Black Studies. She was NPR's first National Arts Correspondent, and currently hosts The Janus Adams Show on WJFF-FM. She is a frequent television commentator and public speaker.
List of Books
A Mystical Journey Into Cajun Country (BackPax, 1986)
Journey to the Moon -- and Beyond (BackPax, 1988)
Traveling Mark Twain's America (BackPax, 1988)
Escape to Freedom: Underground Railroad (BackPax, 1988)
Routes 'n Roots: An Explorer's Guide to America (BackPax, 1988)
Glory Days (Harper Perennial, 1996)
Freedom Days: 365 inspired moments in civil rights history (Wiley, 1998)
Way to Go! The BackPax Parents' Guide to Empowering Adventurous Young Minds (BackPax, 2014)
Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur is an author and activist (faith-based initiatives and gender equality in Islam). She works with Malaria No More, a leading non-profit formed to advance the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by ending malaria-related deaths. She also consults on a variety of interfaith projects and volunteerism efforts.
Career
In April 2008, the US State Department hosted Abdul-Ghafur on an eight-city speaking tour of the United Kingdom to cultivate a conversation about Muslims in the West. On this tour, Abdul-Ghafur spoke at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom and Oxford University. She has accepted invitations to speak at a host of educational institutions including Harvard University, Emory University, and Yale University. She has been a guest on CNN and National Public Radio. Her work has been featured in The Boston Globe, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and The New York Times.
In addition to work on behalf of women, Abdul-Ghafur's was the Associate Director of Corporate Volunteerism at Hands On Atlanta, a multimillion-dollar non-profit service provider in the southeast. She has been responsible for sourcing nation's largest service day, Hands On Atlanta Day, which hosted 17,000 volunteers in 250 unique service projects.
Abdul-Ghafur came to Atlanta in 2003 to join the team that produced Azizah magazine, the first and only magazine for American Muslim women. Prior to Abdul-Ghafur's work with Azizah, she was a program officer for Victoria Foundation. Victoria Foundation is among the oldest and largest private foundations and Abdul-Ghafur oversaw $12 million in grants to non-profits.
Activism
Abdul-Ghafur was selected to participate in the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow retreat hosted by the World Economic Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2006. The Forum convened thirty Muslims leaders from the United States along with their counterparts in Western Europe to strategize about the future of Islam and Muslims in the West. Out of this retreat came a commitment to address gender issues within Muslim communities in the West.
Abdul-Ghafur participated in the seminal events challenging the role of Muslim women in contemporary society. In 2005, she took on establishing women as prayer leaders, a concept that is unprecedented in the American Muslim community and co-organized the historic woman-led prayer in New York City. In 2004, she participated in a civil action in Morgantown, West Virginia to give women space and voice in American mosques where they have traditionally been banned. To varying degrees, subsequent to these actions Muslim communities throughout the United States and the West have reexamined the ways Muslim women participate in community life. Mosques in San Francisco, New York City and Chicago are among those that actively develop programming for women, have taken down barriers between women and men and allow women to sit on mosque boards.
Works
Abdul-Ghafur is the editor for Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak (Beacon Press), the first anthology collecting the voices of American Muslim women. The book presents American Muslim women dealing with the complexity of forging their own identities while contributing powerfully to public life. Contributors include poet and author Suheir Hammad, and journalist Asra Nomani. Living Islam Out Loud has received attention from both the mainstream and Muslim press. She has attracted controversy for publicizing in The New York Times her marriage to the man she later accused of being abusive in her book.
Abdul-Ghafur presents frequently at workshops, seminars, and conferences about popular culture, Islam and women. She contributed to the coming of age anthology, What Your Mama Never Told You: True Stories about Sex and Love (Graphia 2007). Abdul-Ghafur also contributes to online ezines and blogs. A recent piece, "A Hajj for the Children of Mali", described a historic delegation's pilgrimage to Mali to save the lives of African children and appeared on Beacon Press' blog, Beacon Broadside. Other online pieces include "Holla if you Hear Me", (Naseeb.com) a look at ethnic divisions in the American Muslim community and "Preach from the Ashes," (pmuna.org) her personal account of the historic woman-led prayer.
Affiliations
Abdul-Ghafur was a board member of the Progressive Muslim Union of North America. She is a member of Atlanta Habitat for Humanity's advisory board and the WOMENBUILD steering committee. Abdul-Ghafur serves on the Atlanta Women's Foundation's Faith, Feminism and Philanthropy steering committee. This committee is the Atlanta-based representation of the national conversation to bridge the divide between faithful and secular feminists around a common agenda of women's empowerment. Saleemah has been a guest on CNN and NPR and her work has been featured in The Boston Globe, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York Times. In May 2007 Abdul-Ghafur received the Kent Place School alumna achievement award. Abdul-Ghafur is a graduate of Columbia University.*
Dinah Abrahamson (1954 – December 17, 2013) was an American author and politician. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Abrahamson was a member of the Nebraska State Central Committee as well as an active member of the Republican Party. She was also known for her appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Network special on the lives of Hasidim Jews. Abrahamson and her family were most memorable for being one of few African American families associated with the Chabad Lubavitch movement.
Early life
Abrahamson was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1954, the daughter of immigrants. Her father was of Afro-Panamanian descent and her mother was Caucasian of Ashkenazi Jewish descent from Germany. Raised by her mother and maternal grandparents, Abrahamson grew up in a secular Jewish household.
Religious views
In 1993, Abrahamson and her two children joined the Hasidim Jewish dynasty, Chabad Lubavitch. After being raised in a secular household, Abrahamson became religious as she grew older. The Abrahamson's were one of few black Hasidim families
in the Omaha area.
Her daughter Sarah eventually moved to Brooklyn, New York to work at a Hasidic Jewish day school. Shortly afterward, Abrahamson and her son Yosef joined Sarah in New York City in order to be closer to a larger Jewish community. The family ultimately settled in Crown Heights, a neighborhood known for both its large African-American and Hasidim Jewish communities who live side by side in the area.
Politics
Abrahamson was an active member of the Republican Party. She was a member of the Nebraska State Central Committee, as well as a supporter of Nebraska politician Lee Terry who was a family friend of Abrahamson's.
Writing
At the time of her death, Abrahamson had self-published a book on race relations in America.
Death
Abrahamson died on December 17, 2013. She is survived by her children, her sister, and a granddaughter.*
In order to establish memory as continuing consciousness, we must cultivate meditative awareness and the natural mind of innocence - the root of enlightened being.*
*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2018-2019.
Donzaleigh Abernathy is an American actress, author, and civil rights, activist.
Early life
Abernathy was born in Montgomery, Alabama and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia during the Civil Rights Movement. The Abernathy children, along with the King children, integrated Spring Street Elementary School and began mass integration in the South. Abernathy briefly attended the Northside High School for the Performing Arts, before attended and graduated from George School, a Quaker Prep School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Her father was Rev. Ralph Abernathy, an influential leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She was able to join her father, her mother Juanita Jones Abernathy and witness first-hand many significant events of the Civil Rights Movement. Her family was very close to that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., another prominent figure of the Civil Rights Movement. The Abernathy and King children went to school together, performed extracurricular activities together, spent Sunday Dinners together, vacations and various holidays together. According to Abernathy herself, children from both families would hold performances for their parents on these occasions with Yolanda King, one of King's daughters, acting as the director and Dr. King filming the performances. Abernathy acknowledges that "that's really when [she] started acting." She is married to actor/producer Dar Dixon Bijarchi.
Work
After graduating from Emerson College in Boston, Abernathy moved to New York. She landed her first job after auditioning for a role with an Off-Off-Broadway production. Since then, Abernathy has played roles in many different movies and television series. In the historical drama Gods and Generals, she portrays a slave named Martha. Although the film itself was not critically well-received, Abernathy was praised for her part. One reviewer states that "Abernathy's image of Martha combines strength with glamour." She starred for four years as a series regular on Lifetime's Any Day Now. As a child of the South, Abernathy was heavily influenced by the civil rights movement. As a result, she was able to connect with the role on a personal level. Donzaleigh Abernathy claims she was filming a scene with Omar Epps in May 2016 for the USA show "Shooter" where his character was supposed to murder her character, when he "completely deviated from the script" and "threw his left forearm with full force at her right arm," and broke it. Abernathy sued Epps, along with Paramount Pictures, for negligence and assault and battery. She's asking for damages for her pain and suffering and wants her medical costs -- present and future -- covered.
Filmography
Murder in Mississippi (TV) (1990) – Sue Brown
Ghost Dad (1990) – E.R. Nurse
Grass Roots (TV) (1992) – Cora Mae Turner
Ned Blessing: The True Story of My Life (TV) (1993) – Effie Pettit
Night of the Running Man (1994) – Francine, The Hacker
Out of Darkness (TV) (1994) – MHA
NYPD Blue (TV) (1994) – Mrs. Danton
Camp Nowhere (1994) – Dorothy Welton
Family Album (TV) (1994) – Lorrie
Dangerous Minds (TV) (1996) – Irene Timmons
Miss Evers' Boys (TV) (1997) – Nurse Betty
EZ Streets (TV) (1997) – City Council Person Wyler
The Burning Zone (TV) (1997) – Nora Dawson
Don King: Only in America (TV) (1997) – Henrietta King
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (TV) (2008) – Carolina Bell
Lincoln Heights (TV) (2008–2009) – Hazel Glass
The Walking Dead (TV) (2012) – Dr. Stevens – 3 episodes
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (TV) (2015) - Trip's Mom in "Aftershocks"
Books
The 2001 Smithsonian Institute’s book of essays, “In the spirit of Martin: the living legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." Donzaleigh Abernathy was one of the contributing authors. In 2003, she authored the book "Partners to history: Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and the civil rights movement" in honor of her parents.
Bibliography
Partners to History: Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and the Civil Rights Movement (Crown, 2003) ISBN 978-0-609-60914-9
In the spirit of Martin: the living legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Tinwood Books, 2002) ISBN 978-0965376655*
Elise Johnson McDougald (October 13, 1885 – June 10, 1971), aka Gertrude Elise McDougald Ayer, was an American educator, writer, activist and first African-American woman principal in New York City public schools. McDougald's essay "The Double Task: The Struggle for Negro Women for Sex and Race Emancipation" was published in the March 1925 issue of Survey Graphic magazine, Harlem: The Mecca of the New Negro. This particular issue, edited by Alain Locke, helped usher in and define what is now known as the Harlem Renaissance. McDougald's contribution to this magazine, which Locke adapted for inclusion as "The Task of Negro Womanhood" in his 1925 anthology The New Negro: An Interpretation, is an early example of African-American feminist writing.
Biography
Early life
Gertrude Elise Johnson was born in New York City, where her father, Dr. Peter Augustus Johnson, was one of the first African-American doctors and a founder of the National Urban League. Her mother was Mary Elizabeth Whitted, an English woman from the Isle of Wight, and her older brother, Travis James Johnson, was the first African-American graduate of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1908. He was born in Chichester, England, in 1883, and the family moved to New York in 1884. Elise spent her early days growing up in Manhattan, but also spent summers in New Jersey, as her father's family owned a truck farm there. She would later inherit and manage the farm.
Education
Elise became the first African-American graduate of the Girls' Technical School in 1903 and was elected president of her senior class. After graduating from high school, Elise earned a teaching certificate from the New York Training School for Teachers. She never received her bachelor's degree, although she completed coursework at Hunter College, Columbia University and New York City College.
Career
Her teaching career began in 1905 at P.S. 11 in lower Manhattan. She resigned from P.S. 11 in 1911 to focus on her family. In 1916 she went back to work as a vocational counselor at the Manhattan Trade School. She then worked as an industrial secretary at the local branch of the National Urban League, where she started a survey documenting the working conditions of New York City's African-American women. The survey was sponsored not only by the Urban League, but also the Women's Trade Union League and the YWCA. Her New Day for the Colored Woman in Industry in NY City, co-authored with Jessie Clark, was published in 1919. Her work as Executive Secretary for the Trade Union Committee for Organizing Negro Workers brought her into contact with other political organizers such as W.E.B. Du Bois.
In 1935 she was temporarily appointed principal of P.S. 24 during the Depression; over 60% of families and neighborhoods were unemployed. Elise was a part of a community forum of interracial prominent New Yorkers who evaluated the conditions of its city and changes that needed to be made. Elise testified in the hearings and discussed how she wanted to work to gain the trust of parents, enforce a more relaxed atmosphere, and help provide relief for families struggling. This activism helped Elise become one of the first pioneers to originate the Activity Program, which placed a large emphasis on intercultural curriculum. This program implemented child-centered progressive education in New York City's public elementary schools. The overall idea for this program was to shift the emphasis on the subject matter to the children instead. Some changes to the schools included experiential learning, self-directed projects, interdisciplinary curriculum, and turn classroom experiments into "democratic living." She later transferred after ten years to P.S. 119. After her retirement in 1954, she remained active, writing a column in the Amsterdam News on Harlem schools, among other things.
Personal life
Elise Johnson married twice. Her first husband was attorney Cornelius W. McDougald; they divorced. She married her second husband, doctor Vernon A. Ayer, in 1928.
She died at her home on June 10, 1971, at the age of 86. She was survived by her second husband and by two children of her first marriage, Dr. Elizabeth McDougald and attorney Cornelius McDougald Jr.*
CIB
Kin 28: Yellow Spectral Warrior
I dissolve in order to question
Releasing fearlessness
I seal the output of intelligence
With the spectral tone of liberation
I am guided by my own power doubled.
Infinity is the mind of God or the instantaneous, all-encompassing, inter-dimensional space loaded with the telepathically structured programs of existence.*
*Star Traveler's 13 Moon Almanac of Synchronicity, Galactic Research Institute, Law of Time Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2018-2019.
