Elder Atum Azzahir Speaks on Uplifting & Memorializing our Culture before and after the Murder of George Floyd

In consideration of the powerful shadows hanging over the “Squared” intersection of Chicago Ave. and 38th Street in Minneapolis.   It is always a rich rewarding experience to offer a view from the aging organizers’ corner of the room. Culture, Spirituality, Life and Breath are unseen resources begging to become visible in the actions of the keepers of this now world renowned “George Floyd Square”.

The question is, how do the forces of Health & Healing, the memories of people who watched the filming of Derek Chavin carrying out his people’s incomprehensible hate for humankind, function side by side, without destroying all harmonic potentiality.  Many hundreds of thousands of people across the world watched this man’s actions in horror and disbelief, while millions of us who have seen this act repeated in public as an entertaining ritual for all our natural lives watched this time not the act but, this act being watched.

From watching the watchers explode from a point of open disgust, we exploded with determination and dedicated will power to take the lead in singing the songs and dancing the dance of “We Are the World”. As choreographers of the dance between Rage and Resiliency, we saw movements of physical bodies across the world that were specifically informed, intolerant, and courageous. We saw dancers of a coherent Jam of cultural futures in “Justice Squared”  

Culture “is something that is transmitted from the past, passed on from generation to generation, and has established itself as ‘tradition’. Tradition is the process through which culture maintains its continuity.” 

 Ahmad A. Azzahir from Time Dimensions and Community Development, Cultural Wellness Center’s Organizers Manual