Producer’s Statement:

       Thunder  comes resounding out of the earth.                                          The image of ENTHUSIASM.
                                         Thus the ancient Kings made music. 
                                         In order to honor merit,                                          And offered it with splendor                                          To the Supreme Deity,                                           Inviting the ancestors to be present.                                

                                                                 I CHING  16. Yü / ENTHUSIASM

If history is the genealogy of humanity, these poems will take us through our lost history, our forgotten history or our never been aware of history. By way-of- a poetic ritual,  Redemption Ritual is designed to wake-up our minds, help us to confront our painful past, help us to face each other and heal our spirits as we overcome the detrimental efforts of slavery.

 On behalf of Jah Kente International, Inc. and our theatrical presentation “Redemption Ritual: Inviting The Ancestors To Be Present”, I wish to thank all who have had a hand in making this production a reality. To Jackie Carter, our theatrical director and marketing manager, may the Goddesses, Gods and Muses always find favor in you. .

Today, we give honor to the spirit of our ancestors and call upon them all to come among us as we follow their stories (our collective geneology) through the poetry of Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Robert Hayden, Margaret Walker, Richard Wright, Sterling Allen Brown and Rosamond Johnson and brother, James Weldon Johnson. I thank, especially my Brother and mentor, Douglas MacArthur Johnson (known to friends and audiences as Sincere Thunder Namefree) for bringing to us this classic collection of African American poems.  Though these extraordinary poems, from the Harlem Renaissance (1920’s – 1930’s) were conceived as literature to entertain the Euro centric collective, Sincere used them Afro centrically to heal and awaken us as a People.  His search for  rituals  that would calm his soul and redeem the collective conscouseness of Africans in the United States lead him to assemble this powerful body of eleven poems by seven poets.  The spirit of this work invokes the Sankofa* bird with head  turned backwards, meaning “it is no taboo to return to the past and fetch it when you forget. You can always return and undo your mistakes.”

To our Ancestors whose strength and backs we now walk on, we are determine not to forget that you wore the mask that Paul Lawrence Dunbar spoke of in his poem “WE Wear The Mask.  The Mask of grimes and lies, the mask that conceals torn and bleeding hearts, the mask of shame that prevents us from looking, talking, telling  each other the true. The truth of how Black People really love Black People. . We are determined to remove that mask that has kept us away from one another for too long.  From this day on, we invite you, our ancestors to be present and teach our young to celebrate us as a people, a movement and as a culture.  HOTEP

*Sankofa-Old Adinkra symbol from Ghana, West Africa

Director’s Pray

I want to tell you so much.  Where do I begin?  “Redemption Ritual” offers us an opportunity to apologize to one another for slavery.  It is our chance to stand toe to toe, and eye to eye and say to our brothers, our sisters, our sons, our daughters, our mothers, and our fathers, I am sorry for what happened to you, AND I PROMISE, IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN! 

HOTEP!