Monday Movement - Chicago Love Edition

Virtue of the Week:

Trustworthiness - Trustworthiness is being worthy of trust. People can count on you to do your best, to keep your word and to follow through on your commitments. You do what you say you will do. Trustworthiness is a key to success in anything you do.

Read more at: www.virtuesproject.com

Video of the Week:

In honor of my recent travel to the city of Chicago, learn a little something about one of the greats in Black politics.

History Video of the Week:

A Message Before You Go:

The city of Chicago has a lot of stories to tell. It should not be overlooked or undervalued in your study fo the Black story of this country. I have had to fortune to connect with the city in the last two years and I look forward to spending more time there in the future. This weekend I spent time connecting with my brother’s over few days. The maintenance of your relationships is highly important. We can take for granted that the ones we love, including our friends, are static objects. Locked in at that time we met and remaining how we remember them forever. The truth is that the world and everything in it is moving, growing, and changing. We have to be intentional and present in our relationships. Nothing matters more. As a man you do not exist on an island formed of just your personal identity. We are a piece of the whole. Be great, be righteous, and be with your brothers.

Monday Movement - Back To The Land Edition

Virtue of the Week:

Determination - You focus your energy and efforts on a task an stick with it until it is finished. Determination is using your will power to do something when it isn't easy. You are determined to meet your goals even when it is hard or you being tested. With determination we make our dreams come true.

Read more at: www.virtuesproject.com

Videos of the Week:

Farming is a viable business venture for those with a plan and vision to market. Black people have been intentionally pushed out of farming to benefit white people. We cannot build a viable foundation without access and control of food. Please view and share your thoughts.

Financial Tip and Book of the Week:

Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

By Leah Penniman

Buy on Amazon

Bonus Farming Education:

https://www.mudbonegrown.com/home

Monday Movement

Movement Monday is a new weekly word to motivate us all to make progress towards our goals and aspirations. Take the best part for yourself. Peace

Virtue of the Week:

Self-Discipline - Self-discipline means self control. It is doing what you really want to do, rather than being tossed around by your feelings like a leaf in the wind. You act instead of react. You get things done in an orderly and efficient way. With self-discipline, you take charge of yourself.

Read more at: www.virtuesproject.com

In the News:

Cyntoia Brown was granted clemency today by the governor of Tennessee.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gov-bill-haslam-commutes-cyntoia-browns-life-sentence-for-murder_us_5c3387f2e4b09b02cb329a27

Video of the Week:

Check out this interview of Curtis “Wall Street” Carroll with Sway Calloway

Job Opportunity:

Imperfect Produce Pack Warehouse Associate - https://jobs.lever.co/imperfectproduce/29a145b9-94aa-4033-bc33-2671b98ffd07

Financial Intelligence:

Asset - An asset is something that makes money for you.

For a deeper dive check out this link: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/realasset.asp

Portland's African American Boys - Resources

Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts with me during our class. I hope that you gained something of value that will help you in your works. As promised I have collated some resources to further your study and expand your understanding. As I took some time to reflect on our experience I struggled with deciding the best resources to point you towards to expand your understanding. This struggle was compounded by events that have transpired since our time together that I felt compelled to incorporate in this document. In reality I could not deliver on that intention here, but I hope I have given you some threads to follow that will lead to some discovery.  Please take this as a source of study and reflection. Take the best part from that which you engage and resist the urge to make everything make sense to you at the time you engage with it. I have included all the items I shared between classes. I apologize for the long delay. Significant life changes have dominated my time since our time together. I will be adding things to this page as they come to me. Thank you again. Peace.

3 Focus Issues In Portland:

Disproportionate Policing

Disparate education outcomes

Serial displacement

Movies

The 13th - Directed by Ava DuVernay (Netflix)

Get Out - Directed by Jordan Peele

Do The Right Thing - Directed by Spike Lee

I Am Not Your Negro - Directed by Raoul Peck

Bastards of the Party - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cjYQHQLcUM

OJ And The Making of America - Ezra Edelman (Hulu)

Priced Out - https://www.pricedoutmovie.com

Art and Artist

Damali Ayo - I can Fix Racism - https://vimeo.com/22860782

http://damaliayo.com/pdfs/I%20CAN%20FIX%20IT_racism.pdf

Knowledge Bennett

http://knowledgebennett.com

Kehinde Wiley - http://kehindewiley.com

Kerry Marshall - https://www.artsy.net/artist/kerry-james-marshall

Khalik Allah - http://khalikallah.tumblr.com

Carrie Mae Weems - http://carriemaeweems.net

Kara Walker - http://www.karawalkerstudio.com

Intisar Abioto - http://theblackportlanders.com

greenHAUS Gallery - http://www.greenhausgallery.com

Books

The Residue Years - Mitchell S. Jackson

The Half Has Never Been Told - Edward E. Baptist

Slavery By Another Name - Douglas A. Blackmon

The Color of Law: The Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America - Richard Rothstein

Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788-1940 - Elizabeth McLagan

The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome - Dr. Joy DeGruy

Articles

Black Male Economic Outcomes (Just published on the Upshot)

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/19/upshot/race-class-white-and-black-men.html

Portland Gang List Data - https://projects.oregonlive.com/police/gang-list/

Research and Reports

State of Black Oregon - https://ulpdx.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/State-Of-Black-Oregon-2015.pdf

Bleeding Albina -http://kingneighborhood.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/BLEEDING-ALBINA_-A-HISTORY-OF-COMMUNITY-DISINVESTMENT-1940–2000.pdf

Coalition of Communities of Color Report - http://allhandsraised.org/content/uploads/2012/10/AN20UNSETTLING20PROFILE.pdf

Media Impact On the Lives of Black Men - http://racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/Media-Impact-onLives-of-Black-Men-and-Boys-OppAgenda.pdf

Criminalizing Normal Adolescent Behavior https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1067/8f5d951d14403337e7e17c27890ae08649d4.pdf

Dr. Carl Bell’s Seven Field Principles - http://whgbetc.com/carl-bell-youth-violence.pdf

CDC Fathers - https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr071.pdf

Harvard Implicit Bias Test - https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

Black Lives Matter Fall Syllabus 2016 - http://www.blacklivesmattersyllabus.com/fall2016/

Podcasts

My podcast and blog. The permanent home of this document.

www.askyouroldhead.libsyn.com

www.askyouroldhead.libsyn.com/rss

www.askyouroldhead.com

The Combat Jack Show -The longtime host Reggie Osse passed away in January. His show captured a great deal of Hip Hop history and culture. He was a influential in the business prior to revolutionizing podcasting.

http://podbay.fm/show/412308823

Denzel Washington Is the Greatest Actor of All Time Period - W. Kamua Bell and Kevin Avery

http://www.earwolf.com/show/denzel-washington/

Programs & Sites

http://www.healingbrothers.com

Portland Underground Graduate School
 

Not Alone In The Woods

Find a better stick. The strength based response to finding the appropriate materials to solve the task in front of you. I learned this phrase well working with Sarah, Jamey, and Scott for the last nine months in the Trackers PDX Wilderness Survival Immersion. The program is a year long wilderness skills training experience at Camp Trackers in Sandy, OR. Each month we spent a weekend learning skills like shelter building, starting fires, preserving food, tool making, foraging, plant identification, knife making, hiking, tracking, wildlife identification, hide preparation, and more. We camped each weekend and worked on a new skill in preparation for an end of the year five day camp using the skills we learned over the course of the year. I took some time to let the experience wash over me and now I am ready to share some of my thoughts on my experience. The following paragraphs and images will tell the story.

Folks from my community experience many barriers to engaging with our open spaces. I like the outdoors. You can look here and here and here for information on the structural challenges. It does not take much to find it, now that folks are really writing about it. I did some scouting as a youth and that was cool, but it was not sufficient. I like experiencing nature, but I needed to develop my skills to really feel at peace in forest. Live learn teach. That is the motto that I walk with daily. The larger structural and cultural issues need to be addressed, but that was not my focus. For me all change starts with what I can do with me first, so I decided that the fastest road to getting myself out into the natural world more often would be learning some skills to improve my own understanding and confidence. That is what brought me to Trackers. 

This is not man versus nature. The notion that humans must subdue the world around them in order to thrive is simply wrong headed. Now this does not mean that nature can't be brutal in the way operates, but it is not unfair. If you learn the rules and respect them you will thrive. Thriving not surviving was goal number one. Surviving is hitting the bare minimums. Just making it. It is painful, stressful, and really not much fun. I think going in with a plan to survive is one of the notions pushing folks away from camping and enjoying the outdoors. Roughing it is equated with being in a state of angst and teetering on exposure. That is the lie of the prevailing narrative as it concerns the outdoors. The idea that by camping one is connecting with a less advanced state and thus it should be wet, cold, and discomfort. As if those that came before us spent all their days waiting on the arrival of canned goods and ultralight ponchos. Finding what you need to be at peace and in comfort in the forest is just a different application of our intelligence. No need to rank it. Developing your skills is apart of developing your confidence. One feeds the other. Losing that belief will open you up to seeing the outdoors in a new light.

Fire. You need to stay warm and dry. In the Pacific Northwest you are more likely to die of exposure in the rain and wet than freeze to death or get eaten by some wild beast. How do you start one? What tools do you need? What materials do you need? What steps should you take? I got a coal. I learned to prepare materials. Even if you have blow torch, trying to start a fire with the wrong materials is a fools errand. The best move is preparing what you need before you venture out in the forest. I will continue to practice bow drill, but I will mix in some other methods. I have been working on a tinder bag for my forest kit. 

Shelter. Humans don’t come with shells, scales, or thick fur. Building cover is vital. Modern tents are amazing, ultra light, warm weather, cold weather, hanging from mountainsides and what not. That is all cool, but the basics of how to make something that will keep you warm, keep you dry, and allow you to rest. I learned this year that getting a good night’s rest was a valuable resource in the forest. I waterproofed a canvas tarp to make a cover from the elements that were not derived from a petroleum byproduct. Boiled linseed oil, mineral spirits, and beeswax it works. Pine boughs made the most comfortable bed I have ever had in the outdoors. If you stay under your blankets I promise the coyotes will not snoop. I will have to keep trying the things we learned. I will be experimenting where I can and seeing what works for me. Shelter building is really fun. If you liked building forts as a kid then shelter building is for you. You don't have to go all canvas and what not. Use what you have and have fun with it. 

Clothing. I started the year trying to find the right gear to get through a weekend comfortably. I wrestled with my developing vision of what I really would like to do out in the forest. I have some interest in through hiking, but it is not my goal. I think I am more interested in becoming highly familiar with afew areas. Returning multiple times, sheltering, building camps and learning the place on a deeper level. The base layers really matter. Some nice wool makes it much easier to chill out in a damp camp after a day of projects and such. Having a couple pair to switch out for sleeping is really nice too. Synthetics have their place, but some days all the plastic rustling starts to get to me. I will keep searching for nice wool and other natural fiber gear. I tried some old Swiss Army wool pants. They were not crafted with my dimensions in mind. I am going to have to make some gear too. Check the youtube, some real nice reworking of wool blankets and such. I turned some wool blanket remnants into a nice multipurpose tool. Scarf, breach cloth, bed roll wrap it’s amazing. I need my official Rajee in the forest look book. Changing socks is really important, have extra socks. Trying to sleep with cold feet is not the business, although some folks like a little chill on the toes. Find you comfort zone and be creative.

Food. You have to eat. Procuring our own food for the end of the program trip was on of the task we were assigned during the year. We prepared lamb, turkey, acorn, dock seed, and dried fruit. Now I don’t think it is practical for all of my camping trips to forage, jerky, and dry all of the food that I am going to eat. It would make it really hard for me to go out to camp very often, but it did get me thinking. Preparing food, so that it can be stored at room temperature and not kill you is really important. Humans would have never made if we did not learn how to preserve our food. I could have prepared more. I had time and enough tools, that I could have dried more fruit and prepped more salmon jerky. The batch that I mad is pretty tasty. We gathered miner’s lettuce and mushrooms during our trip. I tried in vain to catch a fish. It would have been nice to roast on on the coals. It was not to be.   

Tools. Tools, their creation and use is essential to getting your forest on. Or your beach, canyon, prairie what have you. We did almost all of our projects with one human created tool and whatever wood we could find in the forest. A knife, that is it. We used a nice thick stick to make a digger-bopper. As the name would lead you to believe a digger-bopper is a stick that you use to dig in ground and to bop (hammer) your knife edge, wood wedges, stones, or bone implements. With a good knife and digger-bopper you can do a great deal of work. Yes a hatchet or axe would make some tasks easier, but these two tools will get the job done if that is all you have. In addition to a digger-bopper we made, tent stakes, wedges, wooden cutlery, backpack frames, our bow drill kits, and much more. 

We used fire to bowls and plates, as we needed to prepare our own mess kits. I made a great bowl from a piece of cedar. It is a little tight for some food types, but it makes mean soup/stew/rice delivery system. I made spoon later. You need a mini coal to help got that little bowl on the end of your spoon into shape. With sand paper and patience I worked both to a smooth surface. I sealed my mess kit with a few coats of mineral oil. I will keep making things to eat with here forward. It is a great way to craft a bit while sitting around the fire. 

I made a knife. It was an awesome experience. It needs a little work, but it ended up good enough to the job. I will not try to dispense much wisdom on this experience as I have too much to learn to teach much at this time. I will say, give it a try. I can’t wait to make my next one. I also created a  nice sheath from a piece of sheep hide. 

All in all the Trackers Wilderness Survival Immersion wasgreat learning experience for me. I am excited to keep building by skills and building community with those interested in adding on. Thank you to Sarah, Jamey, and Scott for leading us through the year. Get out doors, peace.

Self Determination - Kujichagulia

Peace

Self determination is one of the most important concepts you will need to learn youngster. If you are going to grow up and be a high level human being or at least a half-decent human being self determination will be one of the most useful tools in your bag. 

What is it? Why is it important? These are good questions, I may or may not answer them to your liking in the following lines, why? Because giving you all the answers does not help anyone.  Proper guidance is a mix of answers, questions, examples, directions, and blank stares.  I am here to set you on the path, not build the house for you.  You have to have the self determination to build your own place with the bricks, boards, and tools shared with you.

This is askyouroldhead.com not Itakeordersfromtheoldhead.com, learn something.

Awe wait don’t tell me you are leaving. 

You pulling the rip cord, because I tell you, you have something to learn, but I didn’t give you all the information?  I didn’t show you where to find it in the book?  I didn’t give you clear instructions?  There are somethings you can learn in any book, but will not find in the text.  Dig me?  You tell a man your hungry, he gives you a stick and points you towards the river, get the message. 

Without learning to see the world within the design of your own mind you will not see the best part.  You can use some guides and tools, we all do, but you have to walk it yourself. You have to question your assumptions, beliefs, and experiences.  You have to challenge you elders, your peers, and the world around you show and prove that what they are selling you is not a hot plate of manure.  You have to risk embarrassment, shame, and rejection to get to a place of confidence and clarity. You may have to skip some holidays, break some hearts, and occasionally be the asshole. 

In the end I hope you will find your path and be better people.  Get after it. 

Peace