Rite Of Mind

Conversation with a Native Son: Maya Angelou and James Baldwin

Dre’s Favorite Verses: J. Cole - LA Leakers Freestyle #108

Akira Yonekawa

A collection of similar passions, a proverbial melting pot of different ways of expressing the same idea. Whether its  shown through colors and paint or proverbs and prose. Its the way you engage in your fellow man, the way you and your family( whoever you consider family) can sit in a room and share five days worth of stories and STILL not be through. Culture… I believe it to be a intertwining feeling of love and admiration for one another – and using that love and admiration to start something great.

The growth of the mind is only but a ride, a journey of sentience, and vigor. Life is the sum of the distinguishing phenomena of organisms, distinguishing growth, reproduction, and adaptation. we can not distinguish these phenomenons if we are not aware of the passing moments, the jolting seconds that show realization. growth is like the Ascension to the blue sky taking with you only what you are born with, the knowledge of these phenomenons. these collected experiences whether they are bad or good act as an odyssey, a journey. – how will you choose to look at life? where will you sit during this beautiful ride? when we take journeys, depending on where we sit our perception of the outside is affected, if you sit in the middle you have no view of the things passing you, the trees, the landmarks, the bridges, the canyons, the beauty of the journey, yet if you choose the window seat you can see everything around you, you can feel everything inside you. knowledge is like the window seat during the ride of your life, roll the window down and take it all in – let the sun’s warmth brighten your smile, let the winds breeze fill you and excite you. Your ride is no where near over, the longer you ride the more you see – let your awareness act as a reminder to keep your eyes open, to keep smiling and watching. Understand that this ride should not be taken for granted.Hold fast to the window seat.   

There is a place in almost every life, where we find our selves in this white room, we feel great weight in everything we do, everything we believe – to a point where we just stop. we stop living, we stop breathing, the faint calls of our names become mute. This place, this white room is a chasm, a Sunken ship that drowns our motivation, it drowns our friends and love ones and completely obliterates their existence. Depression is the aphotic area lower than the surrounding surface, lower than the beauty and winsomeness of this life, of this ride. when we are this low, we only look horizontally for ease, for answers, for that push of inspiration that makes the current feeling all but a dream, the sad fact is that we will never find it like this. We sink to depths of our lives so that we can take the time out to look up. These white walls blinds us from any possible escapes. fact is, there are no escapes, there are no exits, there are only progressions. progress from this dismal white room, progress form this sunken ship, progress from depression and climb back up to your beautiful life. need not you forget this white room because it will only bring you back down there. The second you look up, is that serene second to realization…   

~ James Baldwin

Images of The Black Panther Party, 1968 and 1969.

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