Not Your Average 7 Year Old

So I came across a story some time ago and I'm just now getting to writing about it.

So here is this little girl,



Autumn Ashante. She lives in upstate NY...not far from where Im from actually. She is home schooled. Cutting a spoken word album and travels around doing her pieces for various audiences. At 5 this was her list of performances:

1. BET’S “RAP IT UP”
2. Next Door Cafe'
3. Stamford Center For the Arts (wake up)
4. Yerwood Center, Stamford, Connecticut
5. African American Center (Mt. Vernon NY)
6. Abbott House
7. Jenny Clarkson-St. Christopher's
7a. Children's village
8. BMI Industry Party
9. Jamming for Jesus (Brooklyn, NY)
10. Ms Euphoria's (Connecticut)
11. Jimmy's Uptown
12. Green burgh Poetry Festival
13. Caroline’s on Broadway: Youngest person in it’s history to appear
15. African Street Festival
16. Acoustic Cafe' (Connecticut)
17. Poets Alley
18. Helen's Promise
19. Poets Corner
20. King Portrait Studio Poetry Night
21. Stivers: (Formally The Sugar Shack)
22. Steve Harvey’s Big Time
23. Windows over Harlem
24. Summer Festival 2003 (outdoor poetry concert Green burgh, NY)
25. Word stock (Brooklyn, NY)
26. Russell Simmons Phat Farm Fashion Show
27. A tribute to Marcus Garvey
28. Amiri Barakas’ Annual Family Cookout (Dwight West)
29. Rush Art Gallery at the Nyorican Poets Café
30. Million Youth March Sept 2003
31. The Ancestor House (The Camille Yarbrough Show)
32. Harlem Health & Arts Festival 2003
33. 2003 Urbanworld Film Festival
34. WBAI Radio w/ Bro Gary Byrd
35. Tribute to George Washington Carver/H.H & A Festival w/Bro Gary Byrd
36. Rites of Ancestral Return: Reinterment Ceremony in Foley Square
37. F.A.X fashion & Arts Xchange (Fight Against Breast Cancer)
38. Safe Horizon’s “In Our Own Words” Apollo Theater
39. Parigi Group LTD: Puma Corporate Gala
40. From the Mouths of Babes: Autums' Feature Showcase
41. Annual Black History Gala. Stamford Ctr for the Arts
42. American Legacy Magazine Showcase: Westchester Cty Center
43. NY African Burial Ground Project 10th Annual Kwanzaa Celebration
44. Praise Day For Pedro Pietri: Tribute Fundraiser: The Bowery Poetry Club
45. Wall Street Project: Rainbow Push @ New York Sheraton Hotel
46. Afrikan Poetry Theater: Danny Simmons Book Signing
47. Black History Gala: The Sweet Back Beat @ Stamford Ctr for the Arts
48. Rush Art Gallery Poetry Showcase @ The Rush Art
49. Broadway – DIVAS Simply Singing: Staring - SHERYL-LEE RALPH
50. Swearing-In Ceremony of Council Member: Yvette D. Clarke
51. Friends of Mikell's Gala Salute@SymphonySpace
52. F.A.X Fashion and Art Xchange: Tribute to Geoffrey Holder & Carmen De lavallade
53. The Sugar Bar w/ Nick and Valerie Simpson
54. Poetry Speaks: The New York Chapter of the Recording Academy: Tishman Auditorium
55. American Legacy: Youth Tour, King Plaza Mall
56. Seton Hall University: The 35th Anniversary Celebration "The Legacy of Dr. King in the 21st Century."
57. Flowtime At the Apollo: SpokenWord @ the Apollo Theater
58. Amateur Night @ the Apollo
59. QBR Wheatley Book Awards: Harlem Book Fair: Shomburg Ceter for Research
60. AEC: Artist Empowerment Coalition @ Martin Luther King High School
61. Welcoming The Freedom Schooner Amistad
62. American Cancer Society: Relay for life “Survivors Reception”
63. The 2004 NYSAVE Harlem Gala: Voices United in Song @ Shomburg Center for Research
64. Downtown Stamford Outdoor Spoken word Festival
65. Sankofa Film Festival: Medgar Evers College 2x’s
66. Grammy In The Schools: Pace University
67. The stay on time program W/Dr. Bob Lee and WBLS
68. 30th Anniversary of Harlem Week: Harlem New York
69. Underground Music Awards: Spoken Word Artist of the Year 2004
I'm sitting here trying to imagine a little kid on the mic at Nuyorican, another spot she's bless'd.(Ummmm baby grrrl done waaaaay more gigs than my @$$ and I got at lease 10 years on her!) BUT DAAAAAANG!

Now mind you not only does this young lady spit in English but she also spits in fluent Swahili AND Arabic! I *ish you not! *blinkin' hard* Okay like that isn't enough for a 7 year old she has even been honored by the city of NY at some point or another. And I thought Sistah Souljah was a mouthful.

To top it all off Autumn is raised by her single father Batin Ashante, holding it down. See what good comes of "present and interactive/proactive" fathers.

Anywhoo as the story goes, Autumn was invited to perform public middle & high schools Peekskill NY (even closer to my childhood stomping grounds) for black history month. I suppose thats where it all got crunk!

...and so it goes.

White Nationalism Put U In Bondage
~Autumn Ashante

White nationalism is what put you in bondage
Pirate and vampires like Columbus, Morgan, and Darwin
Drank the blood of the sheep, trampled all over them with
Steel, tricks and deceit.
Nothing has changed take a look in our streets
The mis-education of she and Hegro — leaves you on your knee2grow
Black lands taken from your hands, by vampires with no remorse
They took the gold, the wisdom and all of the storytellers
They took the black women, with the black man weak
Made to watch as they changed the paradigm
Of our village
They killed the blind, they killed the lazy, they went
So far as to kill the unborn baby
Yeah White nationalism is what put you in bondage
Pirates and vampires like Columbus, Morgan, and Darwin
They drank the blood of the sheep, trampled all over them with
Steel laden feet, throw in the tricks alcohol and deceit.
Nothing has changed take a look at our streets.

"HEGROW"??? OKAY?!

Then Autumn asked that black students rise and told white students to remain seated as she recited this pledge created by the Black Panther Party:

Black Child's Pledge

I pledge allegiance to my Black People.
I pledge to develop my mind and body to the greatest extent possible.
I will learn all that I can in order to give my best to my People in their struggle for liberation.
I will keep myself physically fit, building a strong body free from drugs and other substances which weaken me and make me less capable of protecting myself, my family and my Black brothers and sisters.
I will unselfishly share my knowledge and understanding with them in order to bring about change more quickly.
I will discipline myself to direct my energies thoughtfully and constructively rather than wasting them in idle hatred.
I will train myself never to hurt or allow others to harm my Black brothers and sisters for I recognize that we need every Black Man, Woman, and Child to be physically, mentally and psychologically strong.
These principles I pledge to practice daily and to teach them to others in order to unite my People.

AWWWWWWWWSOOKIESOOKIE!!! Now you know I'm ready to stand up and start catching the holy ghost as I type this post. But I'll settle for a little of my opinion.

So the issue is that both students and parents complained about the performance. So much whoo-riding occurred that it made local news in Peekskill and here in the NY POST ARTICLE(<---click that) and it went on until a taped apology was sent by, I presume school officials, to the students and parents. She was then "unofficially" banned. LMFAO...um aint she home schooled and WHO asked her to come to their school??????? Lawdhavmersay.

Now, because I spent the years of 6-13 of my life in Poughkeepsie, NY, I have something to say about the environment I remember (however much it may have changed in upstate NY). A young black girl of her intelligence and savvy is a threat. Not only in upstate NY, but anywhere USA. Okay, maybe not Brooklyn, NY. I experienced an intense amount of bigotry/racism/separatism from not only fellow students a but many personel of my elementary/middle school administration. So much so that my mother became quite familiar with the superintendent of the schools in our city because of some of the problems I had in the upstate educational system, unjustified problems. SO WITHOUT GETTING INTO MY OWN SOB STORIES ANDSPARING YOU THE VIOLINS...WHAT I'M SAYING IS...I'M SOOOOOO NOT SURPRISED by the reactions by, not only the students, parents, district officials but the press as well. I have come across blogs with titles and comments that, to me, just reflect ignorance and racism that is being tossed in front of her name, of which she herself is speaking on oddly enough, however unedited and raw. The bias I encountered as a kid definately inspired me to pack my bags and go live with my grandma in NYC so I guess I can say the circumstance and response is believable.

Now, as I got into this story and learned about her education and home life, the role her father plays takes the forefront in my thinking on this little girl. When I heard and read some of her pieces I was absolutely shocked by her eloquence and actually took a minute or two to question wether she herself had written such. It sorta hard to stump me for I have an ultra bright 9 year old. Despite my candid and frank education about African American history I've never heard my daughter formulate such things to the degree Autumn has. Now, I have heard my daughter make some amazing metaphors about slavery and civil unrest and what not but not to the extreme nor degree as this young lady. When I thought about it I also felt that I've also given my daughter many other multi-cultural experiences and exposed her to the positive things in all races. Mind you I can be an angry black radical prejudice woman, as those who know me are familiar with. Even my tempered BLA revolutionary mother could tell you how hostile, however educated my sensitivity to my blackness and what that means in American society, can get. I too get my ultra biased days and I'm sure my daughter has absorbed a lot of that. So, I sit and still wonder what this young girl has as experience (outside of this very circumstance) that would inspire her to deliver such potent words. I'm a poet and all that I write comes from something that I've experienced...at lease most of it does. So, where is it really coming from. It's a bit grown to my sences and almost regurgitated.

But in all fairness, regardless (even if her daddy wrote her stuff) this young lady is phenomenal in my book. I've listened to and watched her spit and she has a command that I don't see in some grown folks that bum-rush the local open mic's let alone young kids. I've listened to her in an interview and she is wonderfully well spoken and shockingly eloquent in explaining herself, her actions and words. I think just for that, in a day where more kids know the lyrics to "Laffy Taffy" or a 50 cent rhyme than can memorize and recite anything of substance or importance, she is quite a breath of fresh air and reflects a hope for the minds of today's children I have often been in fear for. Even her father is a wonderful example for young black fathers and what productive hands-on time can create in a young mind. OUTSTANDING, all the way around. The positive far outweighs the negatives.

I hope she gets enough space to spread her wings and fly and in the meantime doesn't forget she is a child...and be one. Is it really that serious?


Now forgive me, but ain't white nationalism what got Bush in office? Is it what has us in Iraq? Is it what Al Qaeda really hates about U.S. Bush in office isn't bondage? Iraq isn't bondage? Who's really the sheep?


chewonthat. ¶ >3:09 AM .::.